[Nocturne's OC SideBlog]

To them, this was a treasure trove and it was a crime that it had been abandoned for so long, aside from serving as a battlefield in recent years. In was in the depths of this place that Vanta would stumble on the thing that would turn into their obsession...Though damaged, some of the innards were able to spring back to life, teeming with chaotic power, sparking and flickering, the sanitized ooze bubbling and glowing, much to Vanta's delight. Things would take a "dark" turn after Vanta took some of the ink, devoid of life, and attempted to tamper with it, channeling what power was around them and funnel it into the sample, twisting it into something new, something abhorrent.

The room filled with smoke as the machinery began to fail after being pushed beyond its limits, the sample now pulsing to the rhythm of a distorted beating heart. Vanta's cackling was soon cut short as a sudden spark caused the room to go dark, save for the growing and glowing blob in front of them that started to twitch and spasm rapidly. In an fantastical explosion of overwhelming power, something made itself clear, a vision of another world, similar to the one Vanta knew but...different, something about it felt empty. the colors, what little there were, had been muted, mostly hidden behind the various shades of black and white. Before losing consciousness all Vanta could do was smile and laugh, for them, this was something wonderful, a new world, a world full of untapped potential.

The memory of that night ignited a powerful drive within Vanta's hearts as their body was changed by the incident, holding on to some of the power they unleashed in that moment. It would come in handy when it came time to escape the prison ship they had been locked up in afterwards. Their whistling would go unnoticed amongst the blaring sirens, angry hollers, and sounds of the riots and fights between guards and other prisoners that masked Vanta's casual walk to the front of the ship.

Riza finds herself unable to sleep, once again Something stirs in the back of her mind, a menagerie of memories, visions, voices, and…something that she can’t quite describe, or maybe hesitates to…

She looks up to the stars and the full moon, the quiet twinkling lights offer her a moment of peace as she lets out an exhausted sigh

“Just…just a minute, only for a minute” Riza whispers to herself A cold gust rolls by, as if to answer her, as she feels her eyelids become heavy…

[SHATTER]

The sound of broken glass fills the silence Riza’s eyes widen as the stars begin to fade from the sky, one by one I’m the moment, the thunderous sound of her own heartbeat overtakes everything and a sharp pain envelopes her right hand, suddenly covered in small wounds

An low haze creeps in, bringing with it an image that haunts the former soldier… A familiar figure, dressed in octarian battle armor, and a gas mask with eerie cyan light glowing in the lenses and fog billowing from the vents

It slowly walks towards Riza, each step carries the echo of hundreds, even thousands, as its gaze is fixed on her…

Riza watches, with a cold sweat, as the haze rises and, one by one, an army of silhouettes appear, standing at attention, their eyes glow with that same haunting cyan glow

As the figure marches closer, memories flash through Riza’s mind Visions of battles fought in the underground The sounds of weapon fire and rallying cries from the forces standing against her The rush, the drive of putting her life on the line with each mission The unnerving sights of the many sanitized experiments The feeling of fighting for control when she was caught in Tartar’s trap The feeling of being watched ever since, by something she refuses to explain… Beneath that thing’s mask, the phantom that haunted her for years, the macabre culmination smiles

With each step closer, Riza’s heart beats faster The phantom mimic extends its hand, an offering for her to join it as she staggers to her feet, struggling to catch her breath

Mustering all the strength she can, Riza draws her charger, takes aim…and coughs as the ghost clenches its fist and pulls back, snatching the breath from her lungs

“Not…not yet” she weakly calls out as her vision begins to fade

“I…left..you behind” she whispers as she raises her weapon one more time

The phantom lunges forward, hand outstretched towards Riza’s face

“HEY!!”

A voice calls out, silencing all else Riza turns as she feels a hand clasp her shoulder

To her relief…she saw a familiar bandana, a skull bandana wrapped around Nocchan’s neck

“What’s happening? Who are you talkin’ too?”

Riza turns back and sees…nothing No ghosts, no haze…no army Just the crater, the wind, and the midnight sky… She looks down at her hand, wrapped in a bandage… She leans her charger against the wall as she takes a second to collect herself, though she can’t hide that she is visibly shaken

“N-nobody, it’s…”

Riza stops herself, glancing over at Nocchan, who she knows is quick to see through the lie

The bags under eyes, her bandaged hand, the sweat on her forehead, the cyan tint in her right eye…

“I couldn’t sleep…”

Riza can’t help but follow Nocchan’s eyes as she looks around the room, especially taking note of a shattered mirror, the pieces forming a trail to the steps where Riza had been sitting

Taking a deep breath, Nocchan gently puts her hard on Riza’s shoulder one more time as they both walk back to the outpost steps, Riza rests against the railings as Nocchan looks towards the horizon and the first signs of dawn

“Take it easy, I can handle things”

“I know you’re in here somewhere! Ya can’t hide foreeeeeveeerrrrrr~ I’ll find you eventually….”

Riza raises an eyebrow as the voice continues, occasionally chuckling mischievously, rustling in the rusted pile, until a hand bursts forth, holding a particularly shiny object with a few wires that are, remarkably, still intact

“Aaaaaand jackpot~!! Always follow your nose!!”

Chains proudly proclaims as she climbs out of the scrap heap, carrying her treasure, and a few other “choice cuts” under her arm before she adds it to their collective haul

Beneath her gas mask, Riza can’t help but smirk as Chains immediately begins to hop around, from mound to mound, picking from all sorts of objects from ages gone by that were left to sit in the sands

“Gotta hand it to you, watching you run around like that, you’ve actually made a little bit of a niche out here for yourself”

Chains perks up, after having found an oddly cozy resting place in the bucket of a raised excavator arm, a bright spark in her uncovered eye

“I kinda like it out here! Ya never know what you’re gonna find out here! Like me, I found a home! Sooome people may call it a ‘death trap’ and stuff, but it ain’t too bad~”

For a moment, she lays back, her eye watching the clouds go by as she casually kicks her legs over the side

Meanwhile, Riza digs out another piece of metal, her partially obscured reflection looks back at her before she adds it to the pile

“You made a home out of a death trap all by yourself?”

She says, with a slight joking tone of voice. As Chains raises a thumbs up towards the sun

“YEP! The shack, the obstacle course, my rides, all the good stuff, made it myself~ Not the trains though, I’m not sure who made those, kind of a shame to just leave those around, so I do what I can with those~”

A split second of bewilderment overcomes Riza as the masked inkling can’t help but laugh for a minute

“Hmm, never thought I’d say this but, I get it. Gotta learn to fend for yourself, for the most part”

Chains leans over the bucket’s edge, with a mischievous look on her face and an, overdramatic, villainous tone in her voice

“Ooooohohoho~ we’re not so different, you and I~”

Springing to her feet and jumping down from her newfound perch, Chains catches a glimpse of Riza’s eyes beneath her mask, for an instant…there was something forlorn in the way she looked back before she leaned up against the side of an old freight crate

“Wait, for real? For real real?? But I thought you and skull face were like a team, or somethin like that”

A cool breeze drifts by as Riza quietly removes her mask While she smiles, her expression seems to carry a slight hint of sadness

“A team, huh? That’s a funny way to put it. But, no, it wasn’t always like that. Before all this, kinda like you, I just took care of business myself”

She stares at her mask for a second or two, thinking back on her early days in Inkopolis and the Squidbeak Splatoon, and all the battles she’s fought through over the years. Chains speaks up after a brief pause

“Well, it ain’t like that now, right? With the way you two bicker, it’s like you’ve been buds for ages! Sooooo, maaaaaaybe you don’t have to do stuff on your own anymore? Not only that but, we’ve kinda already gone on a few missions haven’t we?”

Chains leans up against the crate wall, folding her arms and subtly trying to mimic Riza’s pose With a smirk on her face, she slightly leans over and closes her eyes

“Aaaand uuuuh, I dunno if you remember or not buuuut, you did say you wanted to tag along today~”

Trying her best to hold back from smiling, and maybe even laughing, Riza scoffs

“Someone has to make sure you don’t get hurt. I’ve watched you jump, almost head first, into six different scrap piles since we got here. I’m actually surprised you haven’t-“

She stops short, as she realizes Chains is now standing next to her, shoulder to shoulder, with a goofy, and toothy, grin on her face

“Soooooo you were worried about me and wanted to be there to help if I got in trouble~??”

Chains leans in close and whispers, in a playfully mocking tone

“I ain’t the sharpest bulb in the crayon box buuuuuut, golly, sure sounds like something [dramatic gasp] a friend would do~”

After a moment of silence and unblinking eye contact, Riza gently nudges Chains until she’s standing upright again

“Hmm, don’t push your luck too much”

Chains smiles as a faint sparkle glows in her eye, her voice still in that teasing tone

“You don’t gotta push your luck with…a friiiiieeeeend~”

Riza puts her mask back on to hide her “comically annoyed” expression as she starts walking back to the mound she was searching earlier

“Oookay, back to work with you, we got a job to do”

A breeze rolls by, carrying a jaunty whistle as Chains happily strolls, almost skipping, over to another scrap pile

“Ya got it, boss~”

Riza immediately perks up and looks over her shoulder, a strange shiver runs down her back

“Was that a nickname I just heard?”

A question that’s only met with the sound of metal being shifted and an oddly catchy tune

“Hmm…what have I gotten myself into this time?”

Despite her questioning, Riza can’t help but quietly chuckle to herself as she digs up another piece of reflective scrap. She can see her own masked face, and Chains, waving not too far away