Guys, I'm being evil to Rome again
For background, I'm currently working on revamping the entire splat 3 hero mode while keeping more core lore elements
While the music is banging and I love the characters, i wish they did and didn't do certain things (cough cough BEAR MR GRIZZ REVEAL cough cough). So I'm saying screw it, fuck you, I'm making it my way. And I'm adding Rome because why wouldn't I, I'm gonna be doing his addition to the storyline anyways, might as well do it at the same time.
So basically: Tartar is dead. Like undeniably, I'm not gonna bring him back because that's really really fucking stupid from a mechanic, plot, and thematic standpoint. HOWEVER! That doesn't mean I can't use his influence and the clear similarities of sanitization and fooze to my advantage and the characters dismay.
(Also, side note: Grizz isn't an actual bear in this. He turns into a giant fucked up bear after mutating due to purposefully injecting a special fooze in himself... but before this? He's just an inkling who is the founder and owner of Grizzco and mainly works in the science and mechanics section of the company, having CEOs deal with stuff like overseeing shipments and workers and stuff. Grizz still has the belief of wanting the mammals back because during his research he found the Alterna site and all the files on everything. he saw all the big money capitalist monopoly business opportunities humans had and how successful they were at it that he wanted to bring 'em back, seeing them as a fantastic business opportunity while also having hints towards a plan to suppress them and essentially use them as drones for work)
ANYWAYS GETTING TO THE ROME STUFF!!!!
I still need to work out a lot of structure stuff to do with the hero mode storyline since building it from the ground up while also staying true to a lot of the canon beats is. Uhm, a BIT difficult to say the least!
But for Rome:
Grizz in his big business mindset sees all the sanitization work from Tartar's whole thing and how effective it was as changing the cephalings into something completely different. Using a bit of sanitization acquired via a front of a Grizzco-sponsored clean-up effort for the deep sea metro, his fooze experiments kicked into high-gear. While he wouldn't be able to fully understand the properties of sanitization since even a brilliant sapient mind cant surpass that of a super-AI, he'd still understand it quite a bit. The current widely-produced form of fooze has managed to produce effects without the need of a sanitization base anymore, the substances essentially becoming separate. Some stuff would still be the same about the two substances, but most things would be different in property. The main thing that's similar is the capacity for memory-wiping and mind control
Meaning if someone was able to study the brain-scrambling stuff to do with sanitization vs. fooze and find the differing trait, while sanitization still wouldn't have its brain-scrambling effects be curable (still having been made by a super-AI, after all), you could CERTAINLY find a way to cure the brain-scrambling effects of fooze since there's a clear, man-made difference when Grizz was trying to recreate it
Rome's no chemist, he cant just start researching sanitization on his own and expect to know what he's doing. He IS a technician and mechanic, though, and a damn good one. If he built or acquired the machinery from the provided Alterna tech and got someone who, oh I don't know, had a skill of science rather than art, the two working together could work up a cure for the brain-washing elements of the fooze. So, after Deep Cut agrees to help NNSS (but much before actually starting to face Grizz, Deep Cut agrees to help a bit earlier and instead more focus is put on actually building up the reveal that Grizz is behind it all), Rome and Marie team up to try and do just that, Rome especially being VERY determined to try and find a cure in order to save all the Octarians who are foozed. he went through the worst of sanitization, after all. hes got more than enough drive and reason to help these strangers out regardless of where they come from
they get pretty far into their research and the rest of the NNSS are over in island 6 doing whatever agent stuff they're doing when a sudden distress signal/call is made. the call only lasts for half a second before being swiftly cut off by something, but from the snippet of information, you can tell something is wrong and a sort of fight is breaking out. you and the remaining NNSS bolt to the lab that the two had been working in (you know that house-like structure to the right of the NNSS when you're on the first island? that's where the lab is hosted!) and find the place looks HORRIBLE. stuff is broken everywhere, signs of a struggle are all over the place, and neither Rome nor Marie are to be seen. oddly enough, the cure that they were working on (which had a distinct honey-like color, like a gold salmon egg) wasn't anywhere, not even a single drop was spilled in the struggle. a kettle that wasn't there before is seen next to the lab, and with all the scratch-marks and ink scattered everywhere (leading to a now empty e-liter laying next to it), it's pretty clear where they went
grizz had ordered foozed octarian spies to grab them after getting wind that they had been working on a cure, and knowing that it was absolutely possible if they were both working together and had enough drive to find out, they posed a real threat to his whole business operation (he figured out due to noticing weird activity regarding an unauthorized life-form possessing unusual properties (Rome and him being sanitized n all) and from the patterns and where he was traveling figured out what he was trying to gather and what he was planning to do) while Marie focused on lab stuff. Oopsies!!
it gets a bit murky set-up-wise as we get to what i wanted to get to in the first place. i kinda imagine the kettle feels like going through the restricted areas of a manufacturing plant. a bit of octo-expansion and the deep sea metro vibes, y'know? the player character patrols through a lot of the main enemy-filled bits while Callie and Three go through a path to the right of you (kinda more focused on finding Marie) and deep cut go through a path to the left of you (kinda more focused on finding Rome). both parties help you out by pointing things out, delivering witty banter (but its clearly shrouded in the tense situation playing out since like EVERYTHING is going wrong and the greens got kidnapped (cant say the squidnapped pun because Rome isn't a squid) and i generally imagine the vibes feeling darker as a sort of set-up for the later grizz reveal to do with gramps and the rocket n stuff) and working together despite the clear separation of priorities (one search for Rome, one search for Marie) since they're probably being held in close proximity and they recognize that both are important
after a bit of searching and spooky atmosphere stuff - maybe add some cool fucked-up background lore able to be found in true splatoon fashion, you get the deal - the player character enters a big empty totally-not-a-boss-arena area. deep cut are to your left and callie & three are to your right, blocked off by both glass and some physical struggle that makes it hard for each party to reach the arena (not being able to squid jump due to reasons because fuck you i want a boss fight)
((listen i make all this lore and story stuff by scratch in the span of five minutes, i get to be lazy sometimes and just want cool, fucked-up things to happen because of cool, fucked-up-ness))
you see, grizz didnt only find sanitization in the clean-up cover-up funded by grizzco (also partnering with the octarians in order to gain octavio's trust and manipulate the stress octavio is under regarding the situation ohoho jotting that down in my brain for potential drama later, thats a good one, good job me!!). he also found none other than the shell of tartar itself. now its code is completely destroyed beyond saving and everything is a mess of sanitized ink vs pink ink. but something that was kept in-tact was the mechanisms for the voice box. ive stated before that sanitized victims have a deep-rooted reaction to tartar's commands. someone semi-sanitized like three or even whatever eight managed to get damaged by while in the deep sea metro wouldnt be effected by this. three would probably break a sweat from general ptsd but it isnt completely uncontrollable...
but someone like rome? someone who was at some point fully sanitized? someone who underwent some of the earliest forms of sanitization and now has permanent scars on his hands and back from where it was originally injected? someone whos had so much sanitization pumped into him in the past that even way past the point of the sanitization being functional anymore, it's still working to cycle itself out of his system slowly through his teeth? he's not immune to this type of brain-washing
grizz doesnt have much access to sanitization due to it growing scarcer and scarcer over the years, and he cant just inject rome with fooze since him being sanitized would physically block the fooze from taking effect. but injecting the little sanitization he has left through the scar on rome's back and using tartar's voicebox? that would absolutely push him back into being controlled again
once in this brainwashed state, grizz even puts a helmet that looks like tartar on his head fitted with speakers in the ears playing commands in tartar's voice and a voice-modifier in the mouthpiece to make rome's voice all fucked-up and tartar-like
his command? guard the currently trapped marie and kill anyone who gets in his path
you walk into the arena and see marie trapped behind glass. callie and three exclaim happily while deep cut nervously wonder where rome is. your character starts running towards marie when she AGGRESSIVELY gestures for you not to get closer. then, bursting open a wooden trapdoor that was set in front of her, "something" wearing a tartar helmet climbs out of the ground, the trapdoor landing back in place with a few thuds. the tartar helmet makes that familiar whirring noise and callie parrots that three worriedly asks if tartar has returned. the whirring stops and a drastically different voice from tartar sounds from the tartar-esc helmet, sounding like rome but with a scratchy tartar-esc voice modifier saying "UN. IDEN. TIFIED….. THREAT……" , and deep cut realizes out loud in a horrified manner that what's standing there is none other than rome himself. rome, being re-sanitized and controlled by the repurposed voice of tartar, begins his attack
(this is his boss theme btw [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tst-2z7420w], the pokemon sc/vi legendary quartet theme)
he attacks using this weapon thats like. chains connected to a blade at the end that is covered in ink thats fed to it using the inside of the actual chains, which is connected. in the bit of the above song that goes HARD and all techno and shit, i imagine the boss fight switching to a mode where its dark and all of rome's ink is shown glowing in the dark, meaning you gotta track where hes going via seeing where his now glowing hair is. over-all this bossfight would absolutely be difficult to fight. the only thing holding rome back is the fact he cant really think logically when sanitized due to the way his body reacts to it, meaning the sanitization both makes him WAY more aggressive but also less logical and more prone to just charging full-force into the player without thinking about strategy
the second phase of the bossfight starts when callie manages to hit rome's face with a special weapon projectile (the "BANG" sound in the above song when it begins to loop). shes of course not a charger main and its not exactly going to be easy to charge up that kind of special again so it mostly misses and barely even reaches him due to how far away the arena is. but it manages to break off part of his tartar mask which reveals half of the upper bit of his face, which would give a cool visual methinks, especially in banger lighting. and banger lighting there is as the lights shining above partially go out, making it have a sort of "dusk" feel to it and also making rome harder to see yippee!!!!! before this phase starts you can hear rome trying to fight for control a little, but hes quickly snapped out of it and goes back to bossfight mode
the third phase is similar to the second phase, this time being from shiver charging their special (at the third point the song above loops, gotta be in sync with the song ofc) and using a projectile to hit the tartar mask. this time, the entire thing breaks, but theyre not out of the woods yet. rome's still got the commands going very fresh in his mind and is still under sanitization. his eyes are black and you can see the edges being turquoise. you hear him struggle more, this time trying to physically fight against control before snapping back into bossfight mode, though this time clearly struggling. this doesnt make him any easier to beat though, as all the lights are now out and oh god oH FUCK HES USING HIS SPECIAL AND NOW HE HAS INKY WINGS AND IS ATTACKING YOU REPEATEDLY FROM ABOVE. yeah i forgot to mention he has a custom special that gives him ink wings and the ability to repeatedly fly up and dive at people with much higher attack at the cost of having lower defense!!!! hes not able to do this forever, and once you get his health low enough and as the ending cutscene plays, he nearly collapses from exhaustion. NNSS have found a way onto the arena and deep cut SPRINT in, getting rome and immediately breaking the thing that was feeding him the little bit of sanitization while frye proceeds to beat the shit out of the tartar mask while big man holds up rome and shiver detaches the thing on romes back. this sounds comedic but shes clearly fucking FURIOUS and goes back to worrying about rome once shes got it out of her system. the glass that was keeping marie trapped is lowered once the thing on rome's back is broken and three & callie go over to make sure shes ok and isnt sanitized or foozed or anything. she isnt, luckily
once rome wakes up hes no longer in control and his body VIOLENTLY rejects the sanitization, coughing all of it up. yeah, turns out having that shit reintroduced into your system so suddenly after ages of not having it in there doesnt go well. hes all good after that, back to how his sanitization was before, but his back hurts a LOT since its a scar that was reintroduced to the thing that scarred it in the first place, so hes not going to be doing much fieldwork. however, he REFUSES to leave the alterna site, especially with the newer stuff regarding gramps and the direct lead-up to the climax. he obviously cant work on cure stuff right now, but he at least wants to be there and provide any help he can
after the main campain is done you can actually still rematch him, just not him in his sanitized form. the bossfight uses the same systems though and is designed to be an INSANELY hard challenge. rome's a professional turf an anarchy fighter who hand-makes his own sub-weapons and specials, for christ sake!!!! it's a no-brainer his rematch would be a bit insane to deal with!!!!! and now with his actual arena made for him, he can have all the fancy show stuff that the rest of deep cut have. hes not getting the standard deep cut bossfight music though, that song slaps but i cant just not give him something unique!!!!! gotta go with his initial bossfight song, it slaps too much
i wrote this all in discord rambling to my pals at @rainfallbeats's discord server. this is a long one, i admit. i desperately hope yall enjoy, i spent 3-5 hours non-stop writing this.
