#bepping

They are a CREATED lifeform

There's tons of them

the first time you get on the train when cq introduces himself, captain cuttlefish seems surprised to see a sea cucumber talking... and there are also a ton of sea cucumbers hanging around in test chambers just stuck on signs and stuff, and it's kinda unclear if they're like... sapient.

my idea is that, in the early development of sanitization as a process, tartar used sea cucumbers as it's first test subjects. there are a ton of them just sitting around deepsea metro, and they were just a lot easier to work with than most other options. since it was a very early version of sanitization, they ended up a little bit different than the sanitized octolings that we see in test chambers. while sanitized octolings are basically soulless husks that tartar directly controls, cq cumbers are more so.. trainable. they're still linked into the sort of Sanitation Hivemind, but they function with a bit more individuality. this flexibility made them helpful enough to keep around. some of the older cqs are around 80 years old... waow!

anyways all of the cq cumbers sort of function in their own like,.,. sub-hivemind? basically they are all the same guy. every cq cumber is cq cumber. they aren't like mind-linked or anything but they're generally going to have the same thoughts and the same opinions and it's going to be hard to tell one individual apart from the rest.

(iso padre has only counted about 4-5/80 something individual cq's so far. he's not sure if it would be rude to ask how many of him there are.)

cq's are more of their own individuals than sanitized octolings, but they have been sort of trained since their creation to align with tartar's beliefs and ideas on things. they totally know what's going to happen to agent 8 once they collect the 4 thangs. of course, it's an honor to be allowed to ascend to the promised land.

oughhhhh i have a ton more thoughts about them that i don't have the energy to get into right now. but umm,... i like them and iso padre together a lot,.,, like the idea of him sort of making them feel conflicted with their purpose and *gets shot*

in my mind at the end of octo expansion once tartar is blown to smithereens and that voice is gone from the back of their head, i like to think of them sort of coming to terms with exactly what they were complicit in and sort of having to adjust to society outside of the roles they were created for, because unlike all of tartars other victims, they don't really have anything to return to.

and iso padre has a big part in all of that in my head but i don't knowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww i'm getting scared and running away now. think about post octo expansion guilt ridden cq cumber

also think about iso padre and cq running inkopolis square hotlantis Nogami when i get my hands on youuuuu Bald Nogami Bald Nogami