Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Long before Order came, the jelletons were made to be staff in the Spire of Order. To aid any octolings in need of assistance.

But it wasn’t like that anymore, since Order came, their purpose had changed.

Defend it, defend the spire, at the cost of their artificial life. 

They came in many forms.

Quick and small. Medium and moderate. Slow but strong. Some fled while some targeted. Some whirled to follow while others drizzled from above. Some bounced while some gushed. And some spawn, those spawned targeted the enemy.

The jelletons weren’t programmed to feel emotions.

Yet one of them did, It stayed out of sight the best it could. Always fleeing from the Octolings they must defend the spire from. But It wasn’t a Panicking Alla Mambo.

They all spoke in chirps and growls, broken codes from time to time. The one who was feeling strange things always voiced their concerns for their broken programming. But the other chirped back that it was nonsense.

It never changed, It was always… It doesn’t know what emotion it was feeling…

Did their original creator intend on making them feel emotions? It doesn’t know. It might never know. It lives in… It flees when seeing the drone or the two Octolings. It doesn’t understand how the others can go in without a second thought.

This Marching Andante wants to know why It’s broken, it yearns to know. How does It know what yearning is? Why does it know that and not the feeling it feels when seeing its kind get killed?

It wishes to know…

It might have an answer…

But It knows it would be hard talking to the strongest of Its kind. 

It had never seen the Pinging Marciale, nor does It know how the dreaded Asynchronous Rondo sounds, do they even make noises?

It only knows their existence by others who have seen them. But they never told It what they looked like. 

It knew that they were three, what was the last one? Did they have an answer to their broken code? It wishes to know so much. It’s kind never understood this Marching Andante.

It stares up at the distant ceiling.

It had decided, It would travel up the tower the furthest it could in search of the third Jelleton Boss that Its kind didn’t speak of.

It just hoped that it wouldn’t take long… hope? What even was that?

Chapter Text

It had been climbing for an unknown amount of time. The Spire’s levels constantly shifted and were never the same floor selection twice in a row. The floors chosen were always decided by which colour chip the two Octolings would pick. So this Marching Andante always chose the levels that they didn’t pick so as to not encounter them.

It knew that the enemies could only fight three bosses per ascension. But Order was always the last boss. And the other two were always swapping between the Pinging Marcial, the Asynchronous Rondo, and the third one. So It might not even have a chance of encountering it!

At least that’s what It thought. But Jelletons didn’t really have thoughts. Neither did the inhabitants of the Order Sector, if there was any.

“Why need them?” Order had said once, through the mouth of an Octoling. “It would be much easier if everyone just did as they are told. Then nothing can break the stability my creators yearn for.”

At that time, It didn’t know what Order was talking about. It hadn’t been physically there when It took over. The Marching Andante and all of Its brethren got their new orders soon after that and never questioned Order’s reasoning.

But that wasn’t important, It wasn’t the real issue to It right now. It was still so far away from Its goal. It moved silently throughout one of those floors that the Octolings hadn’t picked. Did they have names? That wasn’t an important question for It.

A chirping sound told It that another of Its kind was around. It turned around and saw a Panicking Alla Mambo. Made sense, if the enemies had chosen this floor, they would’ve had to kill the two Panicking Alla Mambo on this Rising-Ground.Floor.

The other Jelletons that had originally chirped rolled closer to It.

“ Hey… whatcha doing here? ” It asked, staring at the traveling Jelleton.

“ Just trying to get some answers I guess… ” It slowly chirped back.

“ Answers to what? ”

“ Those odd feelings that I have whenever I see the enemies I guess.. ”

The other skeletal sea creature simply stared back.

“ Oh! Okay! ” It chirped back, clearly having no clue what It was really talking about. The odd mix of chirps and growls of broken coding gave Its odd voice a constant tremble to it. It knew that all Panicking Alla Mambo ‘spoke’ like that.

“ Do you happen to know of a third Jelleton Boss? One that isn’t on the Elusive-Bounder.Floor or the Layered-Rotator.Floor? ” It decided to ask, but It already knew what answer the other fish would have.

“ Nope! Terribly sorry! I would’ve told you if I knew! Hope you can find them though! ” It quickly chirped back, causing the Marching Andante to let out a sound that It couldn’t really describe.

This spooked the other Jelleton, who let out Its signature cry of alarm and quickly rolled away.

“ Guess that ends that conversation ” It spoke to Itself, watching the other fish roll away in a panic. It had never truly liked how they acted before Its coding got ‘broken’, but now the way this Panicking Alla Mambo had reacted oddly reminded It of Itself.

It pushed the thoughts away, trying to remove the never ending… that odd emotion again? Why did it bother It so much? Bother? Was that an emotion or just a figment of Its imagination.

Turning tail, It continued Its ascensions. Hoping It would find that boss quickly so that this odd nightmarish experience could be over.

Chapter Text

It swims once more, not in water but in Its own odd gelatinous ink like substance that covers Its skeletal body.

This Marching Andante had already traveled many floors, and It soon reached the tenth floor. It knew it would be a boss floor.

It hoped that It would be the floor where the mysterious boss would be. There It goes again with Its hopeful feelings…

The layout of said floor finally loaded in and It started moving a bit. A message in Its coding indicated which floor It was on.

Elusive-Bounder.Floor

It let out the odd noise again, this floor didn’t contain the boss It wanted to meet. But it still had a strong Jelleton in it so It had to attempt a conversation.

Approaching slowly, It saw a large ball shaped metallic object rolling around the stadium, humming odd sounds. It didn’t notice the Marching Andante at first, Its humming seemingly distracting It.

How did It know what humming is? The Marching Andante asks Itself.

While It thought about that, the Pinging Marcial finally noticed It. It stared at the other Jelleton for a few seconds before rolling over to It. 

“I don’t remember summoning you” It says, making the Marching Andante jump back at the sound of Its broken up voice. 

“Oh yeah no! Uh, I came here by myself… didn’t hear you sneak up on me…” It quickly chirps

“…How? ”

“Uh… I wasn’t paying attention?” It pathetically explains

“Ah okay, I get lost in thoughts often as well. Thoughts are funny, why do I get them? I was pretty sure it was only Parallel Canon who had those...” The Pinging Marcial starts, but is quickly interrupted as the Marching Andante notices It mention something.

“Wait? Parallel Canon? What’s that?” The Marching Andante looks up at the Boss Jelleton, interest peaked.

“Oh that’s right, I forgot how literally nobody mentions them. They are the third Boss Jelleton in the tower. Although calling them Jelletons can be a bit weird…” The Pinging Marcial trails off, which leaves time for the Marching Andante to speak up in an odd tone.

“Really? I’ve been trying to find It for a good while now! I was hoping that It could help me with my odd feelings!” It scampers around the Pinging Marcial, seemingly releasing the odd energy in Its voice by movement. “Do you know what floor It is on?”

“No, I don’t chat with them often, it’s mostly Asynchronous Rondo that does so. Yet It sometimes tell me that the main one doesn’t seem too keen to answer”  

“Main one?” What was It talking about? Wasn’t there only one Parallel Canon?

“Oh that’s right, you guys don’t know that Parallel Canon is made up of seven different weird Jelletons. The main one is the one who communicates with us, but she rarely does so.” The Pinging Marcial says.

What? What was a she ? It momentarily pauses, confused by the word, before shaking Its head.

“So, does the Asynchronous Rondo know what floor… uh… she resides on?” It tries, did they use the right word?

“Yeah, It knows what floor they reside on. Hope you are able to get to that screaming tower!” The ball chirps back.

“Was that supposed to be an insult?”

“Not really, but it’s quicker than saying Asynchronous Rondo that’s for sure!” The Pinging Marcial says as It begins to roll away, humming once more.

Shaking with an odd feeling, It quickly turned away to continue Its ascent. For the first time in a while, It felt closer to Its objective, and that made It both hopeful and… what was that odd emotion?

Chapter Text

It was swimming once more, but not without a purpose. It had to find two things now.

The Asynchronous Rondo, It knew next to nothing about It. The Pinging Marcial's only clue at a body type was a tower. But that didn’t give them enough of a good visual idea.

“I’ll probably know which one It is when I see It…” The Marching Andanted chirped to itself. Swimming forward on the floor they were currently on.

The other Jelleton It had to find was the Parallel Canon. Well, in plural, It had a hard time thinking of the Parallel Canon as multiple entities instead of one. For them, It had zero information. Their only hope for a clue of their whereabouts was with the Asynchronous Rondo.

A beeping sound made It stop, a red line of light was pointed at the Marching Andante before it abruptly disappeared.

“Oh! Thought you were one of those attacking climbers!” The voice spoke from high above the Marching Andante’s head.

Turning around, It saw a Towering Nobilmente standing there. It looked at It with Its only viable red eye.

“No, you’re all good.” It mumbled back, making the other Jelleton tipped Its head.

“Something on your mind?” It asked, It spoke as though It was sure It could help. Although the Marching Andante knew It wouldn’t be able to.

“Have you… do you by any chance know what the Asynchronous Rondo looks like?”

“Oh… no.” It shook Its head. “Sorry… though I could help.”

“No that’s alright, appreciate you trying to help me.” The Marching Andante said.

“Is there any particular reason why you would try to find It?” The Towering Nobilmente tipped Its head once more.

“Kinda, you won’t understand as it’s a me problem. I’m trying to find the Asynchronous Rondo in hopes It will give me the floor name for the Parallel Canon.” It quickly explained.

The other Jelleton simply nodded, not asking more questions.

“Ah okay, well stay safe.” The tall skeletal fish said as the Marching Andante said It’s goodbye and started to turn away.

“The Spire wasn't being climbed last time I checked.” It didn’t look back as It slowly swam away.

“Well it is right now. The Octolings are climbing it again right now.”

It froze, that feeling… It came back at full force. It could hear the plastic parts of Its body gently clacking against each other as it trembled.

“You good?” The Towering Noblimente awkwardly leaned down to get a closer look at It. Its long nose gently nudges the smaller Jelleton as though trying to help It somehow.

“Ye-yeah…” It lied.

“You don’t look good…”

“It’s fine I swear… but… thanks for like… caring I guess? No other Jelleton has done that before” It says that last part slowly. “They always say that it’s best to ignore those odd emotions and simply focus on our duty…”

“Oh, no problem.” The tall Jelleton answered, gently nudging the Marching Andante head as It stood back up.

“I’ll go now, maybe we’ll see each other again.” It looked back up at the other Jelleton.

“Maybe, but until then good luck.”

And with that, the Marching Andante swam away. Its journey would continue, but It would appreciate seeing this particular Towering Nobilmente again.

Chapter Text

It felt like It had been swimming forever. Not in the unbothered way that It used to. No, now that It knew that the Intruders were climbing the Spire once again, It felt that fresh wave of… that odd feeling of wanting to stay as far away as possible from them washed over It once more.

“Will they be on this level?” It often asked Itself when arriving to a level. The only trace of the Octolings presence had been some dried off pale blue ink that was already starting to disappear. 

It hadn’t found any other Jelleton since It’s interaction with that Towering Nobilmente. Not that It really minded.

Checking a line of coding, It found out that the next level was the twentieth. It felt a rush of that odd emotion It had felt when the Pinging Marcial had mentioned the Parallel Canon.

A dark atmosphere greeted It’s optics when It arrived on the level. A notification popped up.

Layered-Rotator.Floor

The Marching Andante let out an involuntary chirp of that odd feeling once again. It was at the floor where the dreaded Asynchronous Rondo resided.

In fact, It could already see It.

A tall structure made of several rotating layers of metal. Its database informed It that It seemed to be based on what was called a merry-go-around and a sushi conveyor belt. Not that the smaller Jelleton really knew what either of those were.

Slowly It approached the tower that always watched Its surroundings. The beam of light from the bottom layer hit the Marching Andante. The tower stopped moving the last row and the one on top of it, the six other layers kept on rotating.

“Hello?”  Chirped the smaller Jelleton.

The tower said nothing, instead It wrote something in Its coding and sent it to the other Jelleton’s database.

“Salutations.” It typed.

The Marching Andante took a bit of time to find what It really wanted to say.

“Okay so, I’m looking for someone, no wait, a couple of someones. I’m looking for the Parallel Canon’s” It finally says.

“Oh? Why’s that so?” The tower writes the question.

“I’ve been having some odd programming issues that make me feel emotions and feelings. And I wanted to see if they could help me.” 

A pause as the Asynchronous Rondo types.

“Mmmh, why do you think I could help?” 

“W-well! Pinging Marcial said that you knew what floor they reside on! So I hoped that if I found that floor accidentally then I would know that I hit the right one.” The small Jelleton says. For some reason, the looming presence of the screaming watchtower made It feel a similar feeling that It had felt when the Towering Nobilmente had told the Marching Andante that the Spire was being climbed right now.

That made It shiver once more.

“Oh, sure. They reside on the Intensifying-Harmony.Floor. They have the same duty as us, to defend the spire. But from what she has briefly told me, they ressemble a bit like the two Octolings that keep climbing.” The Boss Jelleton typed out.

“They look similar but different?”

“Sharper ears, smaller stature, that’s all the third one in command managed to tell me before he suddenly stopped talking.” 

“Why did uh… she stop talking?” The skeletal artificial fish asks, having a hard time with pronouns that weren’t It/Its or They/Them.

“I do not know.”

“Oh… well thanks for the information!” The Marching Andante says.

“No problem, small fish.” The tower types out one last time.

Before the Marching Andante began to swim away, It quickly informed the Asynchronous Rondo that the Octolings were climbing again. The tower took that information with seriousness.

Now the fish was alone once more. Thinking as much as an artificial intelligence could. It was on a good track now. It knew the name of the floor. Knew that there were three in command. And the risk of getting caught up on the same level as the intruders was low! 

If It could move Its mouth in any other way, It had a sensation that it would curl up around the edges.

Chapter Text

The floor was calm, no noise could be heard except for a low silent tune. The Marching Andante had decided to go back down, trying to find the Intensifying-Harmony.Floor.

It flicked Its tail, looking up at the distant ceiling. Lost in as much thought that a not real fish could think.

It was so lost, It didn’t see the portals pop out of the sewer like system. It was so lost, It didn’t hear the slight jingle of a cage carrying and Octoling made.

It only realized when the first Octoling hit the ground, and when the Jelletons started to spawn out of the portals.

That emotion… that feeling took over like a raging flood. The Marching Andante looks around frantically, hoping to find a hiding spot. It is at that moment that the second Octoling jumps down.

The first that fell was rather light skinned, its long pale red tentacles gleamed in the light as it brought up its Order Splatana. The pale pink drone hovered next to it, pointing its red light at one of the portals.

The second rushed forward, it was of a slightly darker skin, it huffed as it shot away some Jelletons with its Blaster.

Quickly, the Marching Andante turned away, trying to flee.

It could hear the cries, growls and chirps of Its fellow artificial defenders as they attacked and were attacked in return.

It risked a look back, then immediately turned away as It saw a fellow Marching Andante be skewered in the head by the first Octoling’s Splatana. Briefly impaling It before the Jelleton broke.

It couldn’t contain a small cry of that feeling as it saw the second turn the corner. A burst of the pale red ink announced that it had destroyed a portal.

It became frantic as it blasted ink in front of it. Some of it fell on the Marching Andante’s gelatinous coating, It let out a hiss of pain.

It tried to back away, but was pushed forward by a Battering Lento. The artificial fish was thrown in the air. It let out a cry that briefly made both Octolings and the drone look up.

It then painfully thudded on the ground, It stood there, dazed, as two other bursts of ink were visible.

Only one portal left.

The Marching Andante shook Its head as a shadow briefly fell over It.

Trembling, It looked up. The darker Octoling stood in front of It, its red eyes narrowed as it looked down at the shaking Jelleton.

“This is it…my death… I’ll have accomplished nothing… I’ll have been just a burden…” It thought.

The Octoling simply stared at the shaking fish, seemingly analyzing It very carefully. It slowly lifted its Blaster.

Until the paler Octoling ran past the one that was staring down at It, yelling.

“Boeing! Stop standing there like a disappointed mother! Wait fuck you’re trans… Like a disappointed father I mean!” Its voice had a slight high pitch to it.

The drone flew behind the first one, throwing splat bombs at some Jelletons, making them crumble into a mess of plastic skeletal pieces. 

‘Boeing’ looked up, it rolled its eyes and looked back down at the trembling fish.

“You’re weird, but I couldn't care less right now. I’m coming, Primrose!” It shouted, it threw a curling bomb and swam in the ink. Away from the Marching Andante.

Some crazed Jelletons pushed forwards, trying to attack ‘Primrose’ and ‘Boeing’.

It managed to swim out of the way at the last minute. Once the shaking Jelleton was in a corner, It stopped moving entirely.

Keeping Itself deathly silent as It tried Its best to not shake.

“Why did it spare me?” It asked Itself over and over again.

The Jelleton looked towards where the two Octolings had gone. It knew that It really needed to find Parallel Canon now… 

A final burst of ink made itself visible, and all Jelletons froze as a carrier appeared in front of Boeing and Primrose. They quickly hopped in it and it carried them back towards the elevator.

“…” It simply looked at the place where both of the cephalopods and the drone had gone. It said nothing, thought nothing.

The only sounds were those of Jelletons climbing back into the sewer-like system to wait until they had to go back and attack once more the Octolings. And the click clack click clack of the Marching Andante’s plastic skeleton.

Chapter Text

Why spare me? The fish asked itself once more, over and over again.

This question never left Its non-existent mind, it stuck to It like magnets on steel.

It had barely moved from Its corner since the Octoling, ‘Boeing’ spared It…

It finally occurred to the Marching Andante that ‘spare’ might not be the right word. It had most likely been incredibly lucky that the other Octoling, ‘Primrose’ had yelled at him to get a move on. But It was still comforted that It would get to live another day.

I should probably continue moving… It thought, proceeding to not move for the next twenty minutes.

The level was near completely quiet, safe for some distant machinery noises and the much more distant melody of a piano being played.

That caught Its attention. The sounds of the keys being pressed softly managed to get down to the level that the Jelleton was on. It had looked up, trying to identify where the melancholic melody came from. Its data base suggests a few levels up, a shot of hope came through It again.

Could it possibly be one of the Parallel Canons?

The Jelleton tilted Its head, listening to the music. It was soft and gentle, all the notes seemed to fit in together. Until an odd note was audible, the piano stopped being played before what sounded like a key smash happened. 

The Marching Andante swam forward without realizing it. It wanted to hear more of the piano. But the music instrument made no more noise.

It then simply stayed there, pondering what It should do until the fish came to a conclusion.

I should maybe go and check it out? Even that decision sounded a bit hesitant in Its totally real mind.

So, for hopefully the last time, the Marching Andante swam off, heading upwards. With luck, the Jelleton would end up on the Intensifying-Harmonie.Floor.

If It didn’t… well… It might just give up the whole adventure and have to come to terms that It’ll have to fulfill Its purpose of dying for the Spire’s protection.

Chapter Text

It swam, going from floor to floor, listening to the piano being played from time to time, but it would always end in a key smash.

The Marching Andante had managed to pinpoint the location of the sounds. It was just one level up and It would be there. So It kept moving, It saw other Jelletons through what would hopefully be It’s last ascent, but the Marching Andante didn’t bother communicating to them.

It was way too focused on getting to the level where the sound came from.

Finally after going through one last transposition pipe, It arrived on a level that was rather wide open. Looking around, the Jelleton could see assembly parts for some Marching Andante, Swarming Languendo, and some Battering Lento. But It paid no attention to that and swam forth.

A small ringing sound came from somewhere and in an instant, something resembling an Octoling landed on the middle ground of the Floor.

The Marching Andante yelped and backed away before realizing it wasn’t an enemy.

The being in front of It was gray and wore a mask with red eyes that hid their face. The tentacles weren’t slender like ‘Boeing’ and ‘Primrose’s, but rather big at the end. Despite this, they appeared to wear the same boots and tracksuit as them. Sharper ears and a smaller height.

They hummed. “Uh, didn’t expect to see a Jelleton here without us summoning it.” They mused. The Octoling lookalike leaned on their Order Roller. “So what are you here for, buddy?”

The Marching Andante didn’t speak up at first but finally managed to force out some words. “I’m uh… looking for the Parallel canon’s?”

“Oh? Well you came to the right place, I’m Bismuth, the second in command of the general squad of the Parallel canon’s or something like that.” Bismuth hopped down the elevated point and walked towards the Jelleton.

“Why were you looking for us?” He asked.

“Uh, I’m having some weird stuff like programming issue stuff that makes me feel emotions…” It explained.

“…”

“…”

“Is… that an actual issue or are you just messing with me?” Bismuth asked, cutting away the long moment of silence.

“Yeah, we aren’t programmed to feel emotions.” The Jelleton said.

“Oookaaaaaayyy… I don’t think there’s much we can do to be honest.” Bismuth said, messing with one of his tentacles. “Sorry?”

The Marching Andante paused, and looked down at the ground in defeat.

“You sure? This programming issue basically renders me useless! I can’t fight because I freeze up for no reason whenever I hear other Jelleton’s dying and fighting.” The fish added, hoping that Bismuth might be able to solve that.

“Buddy you’re just scared, ain’t much I can do about that.” The person shrugged.

“Wh-“ The Marching Andante started before Bismuth cut it off without realizing it.

“But if you’re so scared about fighting, then I guess I could bring you to our headquarters, if you can even call it that.” They offered.

It’s not like the Marching Andante had anything else to do so It simply said yes.

And with that, Bismuth quickly carried them to whatever place their headquarters were.

When they arrived, there were a lot of other Octoling lookalikes, staring at them, staring at It.

I hope we won’t need too much explaining…