I hope you all enjoyed the fanfiction. This has been a long journey. I had a lot of plans that didn't end up getting into the story either because I didn't properly set it up or it conflicts with what was already established.
One version I had planned was Sebastian would be too loyal to ever betray Octavio but Kevin would be persuaded to help Callie escape. Sebastian was supposed to suffer a career ending injury when he saved Callie from the car bomb in Octopolis but he would refuse to stop serving in the Octarian military and would be given a suit of power armor. I scrapped that idea because the closer I got to the ending the more I realized I didn't prepare for Kevin's change of heart. Also having Sebastian suffer so horribly was something I opted out of at the last minute.
A second version would have Sebastian be the one who helps Callie escape. In this ending. Although he chose to help Callie regain her freedom. He still chose to remain at the palace as he still wouldn't abandon the Octarian army no matter what happened.
Another possible ending would be an interrogation scene where Kevin tries to learn about Captain Cuttlefish and Agent 3 through Marie. Marie doesn't know which would lead to Callie getting tortured. By the end of it he would try to shoot her and say accidents happen if people asked why he killed Callie. However, before he could kill her. Sebastian would jump in to the rescue and would kill Kevin. Then it would end with everyone leaving together.
By the time I got to the end. I realized I had made Kevin so disliked that keeping him alive would not be good. Not only that I needed Callie to be the one that dealt the killing blow. He had physically beaten Callie whenever she didn't have any weapons to defend herself with but now that she had her roller. She had a chance at winning. It didn't feel right if Sebastian was the one who killed him which was also one of Kevin's planned deaths.
In all the originally planned instances Agent 8 was supposed to have some kind of connection with either Sebastian or Kevin.
The Powder Gang / Liberation Army is in a weird spot for me as a writer. They were originally based off the Powder Gangers from Fallout New Vegas. I mostly included them to add another faction. Explain why the Octarians couldn't just sweep aside Marie and Agent 4. This became more of an unfired Chekhov's gun as the story progressed. That's all I saw them as in the end. A Chekhov's gun that had to be fired. Which is also where I got the name for their unofficial leader. Their inclusion may be my biggest regret in this whole story.
Eventually I couldn't just leave the Powder Gang unresolved. I had to develop them more so I gave them an ideology to fight for. In this case it's their version of freedom and democracy. I wanted there to be some implications that their idea of freedom isn't what irl people would consider freedom. This decision was partly inspired by my time playing Victoria 2. I got attacked by Jacobin Rebels during my Absolute Monarchy play through and I got extremely frustrated. Like seriously, nobody has to even pay taxes in my empire and you're rebelling against me? Ungrateful much?
I also had to make sure people didn't root for them which was the whole point of Callie's torture scene. If they hurt Callie personally people would want to see them burn.
Originally I had planned to make the Powder Gang subplot a lot longer. I wanted to go into detail about Chekhov's backstory. He had plans to take down not only the Octarians but also the Inklings in order to make way for his republic.
His wives also had a lot of planned backstory. Some of them were staying out of their own free will while others were kept there against their will. There was a whole power struggle dynamic inspired by muslim harems as the wives compete for the position of first wife. At one point. One of them would try to murder Callie. Seeing her as a random girl who just swooped in and took the spot of first wife. Callie was going to try and persuade them into helping her escape in order to eliminate herself as a rival.
There were a lot of implications of sexual assault and the idea that Callie might get raped made me too uncomfortable to continue on. The story was never meant to get that dark. Eventually I just said to myself. I'm not doing it. So I decided to put that idea away for a future possibly darker and more serious story. Most likely something unrelated to Splatoon.
The final inspiration for the Powder Gang was a real assassin order in history called the Hashashin. They scared a lot of rulers in history when they would leave daggers next to sultans. Showing they were not safe and could be killed in their sleep. The Powder Gang pulled the same trick on Callie with their threatening note.
When I began writing. I noticed the Inkling and Octarian dynamic in the official canon is very much like the Shogun vs the Imperials during Japan's Meiji Restoration. Sort of like the idea that modern Japan would face an enemy from an old time in their history. Their past coming back to haunt them. Only this time, the Shogunate has the technological advantage. As a result, I wanted to model the Octarians after the Ashikaga and later Tokugawa Shogunate. The Inklings on the other hand were modeled after Imperial Japan and modern Japan. That's one of the reasons why they were a colonial empire. Obviously technological differences mean not everything can be copied so I had to make some changes to accommodate. I'm pretty happy with this decision and the results. In my opinion it gives the Octarians this other worldly vibe. Though I didn't get a chance to develop the Inklings.
Agent 4 was designed to be a bit of a mystery. I mentioned he was a colonist. When I was looking up known locations in the universe of Splatoon. I noticed there was New Sardine. That implies there is a place called Sardine. Similar to how there is York and New York. So Agent 4 is from across the ocean. I wanted that to mean something in order to make the world feel larger. So I included some level of discrimination and stereotyping against colonists. Something along the lines of they aren't pure or they are different from us. Callie and Marie are from Calamari County which isn't a colony so they were exempt from the stereotypes Agent 4 is associated with. I still liked this inclusion to Agent 4 because the world of Splatoon feels really small. Though it could just be the fact that Nintendo region most information about the lore to Japan.
A final note about Agent 4. I am actually a splatling main in Splatoon 2 so that's why I made him a splatling main. Plus it's different from the established characters.
I chose to tell this story purely from Callie's perspective because I had plans to also write a version of these events solely from Marie's perspective. They were supposed to both be read for the full picture.
If you have any questions feel free to ask in a comment.
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Princess Callie
FanfictionTwo years ago Callie and Marie did their last splatfest. Although Marie was the winner, the two cousins did not hold a grudge. Despite that, they began to drift apart as they both began developing solo careers. One day Marie was able to get a three...
