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“Pearlie, don’t you think we have enough pyrotechnics planned for the show as it is?”
“Hah! ‘Rina, you can NEVER have too many pyrotechnics!”
A familiar tall Octoling walked through the streets of Inkopolis, going over some plans for an upcoming show for Off the Hook. Standing beside her was a shorter Inkling girl with huge shades, an even-larger jacket and a familiar crown sitting on her head, though the people of Inkopolis knew that the two went everywhere together; at this point it was stranger to see them apart.
Marina lifted an eyebrow and glanced down at Pearl. “Why have you been so invested in these pyrotechnics, anyways?” She asked. “I mean, I know that you always want to put on a show but isn’t this a little excessive?”
Pearl smirked. “You kidding? After seeing the kind of light show Deep Cut makes with their performances I realized that we need to pull out all the stops if we wanna show those upstarts up.” She replied casually.
Marina sighed. “Pearlie, is this about the giant fireball at the festival?” She asked.
“Of COURSE it’s about the giant fireball! That little squid twerp made the biggest lightshow around and she did it by complete ACCIDENT!” Pearl said, her smirk suddenly turning into a scowl. “I ain’t gonna take that lying down!”
“Um…Frye got in major trouble for that, didn’t she?” Marina checked.
“I don’t care! No one outshines Off the Hook!”
Marina couldn’t help but chuckle as Pearl crossed her arms and gave a pout. “You’re cute when you get pouty, Pearlie.” She said, briefly kissing Pearl on the cheek and causing Pearl to blush (despite still pouting and scowling). “How about we put the show on the backburner for now? It’s still a month away.”
“We don’t wanna put things off till the last minute, though! The last time we put things off for too long we got a negative review by a big critic!”
“You…Don’t care about the critic opinions, either.” Marina blinked.
“Of course I don’t! But if we fall behind a trio of punks from the Splatlands because they put on a better light show than we do then you know I’m never going to forgive myself!”
Marina paused. “Oooookay. I think you need a little break from this planning, Pearlie.” She mentioned. “The last thing I want is you giving yourself an aneurysm.”
“I thought I told you I couldn’t understand those fancy words of yours, Marina.” Pearl whined. “It took me long enough to learn how to speak Octarian.”
Marina chuckled again. “Let’s just…Worry about the show tomorrow, okay? We have a lighter day tomorrow so we can work a little bit more on the planning after we’re done work.” She suggested. “Let’s just…Enjoy ourselves today, okay?”
Pearl sighed. “FIIIIIIINE…” She whined. “But tomorrow we’re both jumping into this planning headfirst.”
“That’s fine. We’ll be able to get the adjustments hammered out easily.” Marina nodded as she glanced around. “You feel like eating at an actual restaurant for dinner tonight, Pearlie?”
“What for? You getting sick of take-out?”
“I’m getting sick of watching our apartment fill up with half-full take-out containers.” Marina retorted flatly.
Pearl shrugged. “Eh, fine. Maybe a change of scenery will get some inspiration going.” She mentioned. “So, whaddya feel like tonight? You thinkin’ fancy? It’s been a while since I’ve gone to that high-end place downtown…”
“Pearlie, you don’t need to buy food at the most-expensive places just to impress me.” Marina smiled.
“I know, but what else am I going to spend the money on? You wouldn’t accept the speedboat I wanted to get you for your last birthday.” Pearl joked.
“Because I didn’t see the point because your family’s superyacht came with at least three of them.” Marina shook her head. “How about the buffet tonight? We haven’t gone there in a few date nights.”
“Ooooh! Yeah, that gives me a craving for their breadsticks!” Pearl said. “You think Eight would wanna come?”
“I think they’re still visiting at Captain Three’s place for the weekend, so…Yeah, they’re probably going to spend the weekend cuddling.”
“Heh. Like us?” Pearl smirked.
“P-Pearlie!”
The two continued to walk through the streets of Inkopolis, Marina content to put the plans for the next big concert away for now since Pearl had taken her mind off of it. The two walked by a few shops, doing a bit of window shopping (Pearl insisted that she could buy Marina whatever she wanted but Marina insisted Pearl save her money). The crowds were busy everywhere and keeping stores impossible to maneuver but Marina was able to convince Pearl to not buy anything as they continued their stroll. Soon, the two approached a large movie theater that appeared to me amassing a large crowd in front of it, gathering around one of the posters.
Pearl saw the crowd forming and lifted an eyebrow. “Huh. Weird. Is there a big movie releasing or something?” She asked aloud. “I hadn’t heard anything.”
“Me neither. I don’t think I’ve seen a crowd that big for a while now…” Marina mused. “Want to go over and see what it is everyone is interested in?”
Pearl gave a carefree shrug as the two walked over to the front of the theater, quickly finding themselves surrounded by inklings and octolings that were trying to take a look at the movie poster. A lot of the crowd broke away and had quickly rushed inside, likely to catch the next showing of the movie before it started. Pearl quickly realized that she was too short to see anything through the crowd and was unable to make out the movie poster. “Ugh…Do you see what the poster is, ‘Rina?” She asked, annoyed. “I can’t see anything.”
“This crowd’s so big I can’t really make it out, either…” Marina mused.
Managing to weave through the crowd, the two pop stars managed to get close enough to make out the details of the movie poster; it appeared to be a poster of a few creatures that looked like how humans apparently used to look, with a snow-based themed. Pearl finally got a good glimpse of the poster and cocked an eyebrow again in confusion.
“What the shell is that? Are those supposed to be humans or something?” Pearl asked aloud. “Why would we wanna watch a movie about humans?”
Marina’s eyes lit up. “Wait! I recognize this! I’ve heard all about it!” She said. “They finally translated it!”
Pearl blinked. “Wait, what?” She asked. “Translated WHAT, exactly?”
“You haven’t heard, Pearlie? Archeologists discovered a perfectly-preserved piece of human media and have spent the last year trying to translate it into Inkling!” Marina said brightly. “Apparently they think it’s a documentary of how humans used to live before they were all wiped out!”
“Whoa, no shot? That actually sounds pretty neat.” Pearl said. “It sounds like something you’d be interested in but I guess I can see why I hadn’t heard about it. So they just…Shadow-dropped it or something?”
“I guess. I didn’t realize they were this far along with translating it. It’s probably not perfect but it’s the first time we can get a glimpse at what humans could have been like!” Marina exclaimed. “Pearlie, do you want to go in and watch it before we go out to dinner?!”
Pearl gave another shrug. “Eh, sure. We’ve got some time to kill. I don’t normally like documentaries but if it’s about something new like humans then it could be interesting.” She mentioned. “Looks like the set showing’s going to be starting in the next few minutes. If we wanna see it, we’d better go in now.”
“Oh! Right! Come on, Pearlie! We need to get a good seat!” Marina said as she grabbed Pearl’s hand. “What’s the name of the film, again? We need to make sure we get the right tickets!”
“I don’t know. I think it was something like ‘FROZEN’…” Pearl replied as Marina led her into the theater. “Maybe it’s about how humans died in an ice age or something…”
(Two Hours Later…)
Pearl and Marina strode out of the movie theater, staring ahead in bewilderment. Crowds were still present outside of the theater but now that it was later on in the day things were starting to clear up.
Pearl blinked in confusion. “…What the frack did we just watch?” She asked flatly.
“I…Think it was a human-made documentary, remember?” Marina reminded, still staring off into space herself.
Pearl scratched her head. “I mean…WOW. I learned more about humans than I ever really wanted to from that.” She mentioned.
“Why were their eyes so BIG? Has anatomy reconstruction been wrong about them this whole time?” Marina asked.
“Forget the EYES, ‘Rina! Certain humans could control ICE! That’s a legitimate superpower!” Pearl said. “Like…Remember that Flight vs. Invisibility Splatfest we did and how fun we thought it’d be to have powers? Humans HAD THEM.”
“A-And they could just…Create life? Like, the ice princess just creates life out of snow?” Marina asked. “Could…Could you imagine how powerful humans would be if they existed today?”
“I know. It almost makes me glad they they’re extinct now.” Pearl sighed. “But…Here’s another thing I don’t get…”
“Like what? How many of these humans lived in castles? Where these castles are NOW? What are reindeer and how did humans domesticate them?” Marina asked.
“…Why did humans seem to have a need to break into song so often?” Pearl asked curiously. “Like, even for us that’s too much.”
“Yeah, I did think it was weird that they seemed to have a song for everything…” Marina admitted. “Like, was it really necessary for that weird snow-thing to sing about how much he liked summer just because he was asked?”
“What WAS that weird snow-thing, anyways? It sure didn’t look like a human and they still called it a snow-MAN for some reason.” Pearl reminded. “I mean…Did there use to be humans who looked like THAT as well?”
“That’s almost too scary to think of…”
Pearl and Marina wandered into a nearby park, suddenly feeling like they needed to sit down after seeing so many revelations about humans that neither of them had known before. As inklings and octolings roamed the walking trails and playgrounds of the park, Pearl and Marina found a bench and sat down.
“Still…I guess it was interesting to see. I wonder what this is going to do for the perception of humans in the future.” Pearl said. “Like, you know how there are groups trying to discover time travel so they can go back and see what humans were like?”
“Yeah, maybe this documentary will keep them from wanting to do that anymore…” Marina mused. “I wonder if Judd knows more than he lets on now.”
Pearl’s eyes widened. “You mean if he saw any of these superpowered, singing humans and talking piles of snow?” She checked. “I kinda think he would have said something by this point.”
“He barely says anything as it is.”
“Yeah, I guess so.” Pearl said before she caught a glimpse of a large rock set up as a decoration in one of the park’s gardens. “Wait, you know what else kinda scares me now? That rocks used to be ALIVE.”
“Oh, yeah! The thought of that is scary!” Marina said. “Even if only SOME of the rocks were living creatures back then, how many of the rocks today are actually just the cold, dead bodies of those poor troll things?!”
“That sounds metal as heck, to be honest.” Pearl admitted. “But, like, how many rocks back then were actually alive? Was it only a few or was it, like, half of the total?”
“And only certain humans seemed aware of them at all…” Marina mused as she looked around nervously. “Um…What if the rocks here are actually more of those troll things in disguise and are waiting for us to drop our guard?”
Pearl glanced at the large rock that had given her the thought in the first place, jumped off the bench she was sitting on, scurried over to the rock and got up close to it, pointing a finger at it threateningly. “I know your secrets now, rock monster.” She snapped. “You can hide behind that façade of yours all you want but the instant you drop that look, come to life and try to take over the world, we are gonna be prepared.”
Marina watched as Pearl came back to the bench. “Do you think that one heard you?” She asked.
“If it did, then it can report back to its superiors that we’ll be ready for the eventual stone monster invasion.” Pearl smirked as she sat back down.
“Well, hopefully you didn’t just start a potential war with the troll people.” Marina mused. “We may have to bring this up with Cuttlefish. He may need to expand his crew’s reach to include the possibility of trolls.”
“Hey, as long as we’re on top of it, I’m all for it.” Pearl nodded. “I wonder, though, about that human who had the ice powers way back then…”
“The princess? Yeah, it sounded like she was a good person. I wonder what happened to her.” Marina mused.
“I’m more-impressed that she used her powers for good. I’d get WAY too power-hungry with powers like that.” Pearl smirked.
Marina’s eyes widened. “P-Pearlie, are you saying you’d try to take over the world with powers?” She asked.
“I guess we’ll never know, Marina.” Pearl teased with a smirk. Marina pouted as Pearl chuckled. “But…I guess there are ways I’d use powers like that that don’t end with me conquering the world.”
“Like what?”
“Oh, I dunno. Maybe making the park here look like an romantic icy wonderland during the night?” Pearl quizzed, her smirk getting bigger as she talked. “I could put a few ice sculptures of a certain gorgeous octoling around the park as decorations. I could turn the pathways into long ice rinks to skate under frozen trees and falling snow…”
Marina blushed heavily. “A-Are you doing this on purpose, Pearlie?” She asked. “You know how I get when you start acting romantic…”
“What can I say? We’ve known each other so long I know exactly which buttons to press.” Pearl gave a wink. Marian blushed heavier in response. “Speaking of, are you getting hungry yet, Marina? It’s not too late to turn the plan to go to the buffet into a candlelight dinner at Proxie’s.”
“I-I’m fine with the buffet, really. I know you want to spoil me but we can save the fancy dinner for our anniversary.” Marina stammered. “But yeah, I think I’m ready to go have something to eat.”
“You know I can afford to pay for Proxie’s for the two of us.” Pearl admitted.
“I know, but sometimes I don’t feel like eating fancy. I don’t need you breaking the bank over me every week.” Marina shrugged.
“Eh, whatever you want.” Pearl admitted as she pushed herself off the bench she was sitting on.
The two started making their way out of the park they were in and eventually back out into the main streets of Inkopolis to continue on their way to the restaurant, deciding to stop thinking about what humans were like before they were wiped out for now.
“All things aside, I did find that weird documentary interesting.” Pearl mentioned. “It was neat to take a look and see what humans lived like back then.”
“I know. It was…A little cheesy, I guess. Makes me glad that we’ve learned to move past that. I’m glad we don’t sing about everyday life, at any point. That may have put me off music entirely.” Marina admitted. “Still, I’m looking forward to the next documentary they’re translating.”
“Wait. They found another one?” Pearl asked.
“Yeah. It wasn’t in as good quality as this one was when they found it but it’s something they’ve been managing to translate well enough so far.” Marina nodded. “It sounds like it’s set in a different country as well so maybe that’ll give us more of a chance to learn about another group of humans!”
“Huh. That could be interesting. What’s this one called?”
“The translators say it’s called ‘MOANA’ or something. They don’t know the meaning of the word; they think it’s a word that humans used.”
“Maybe we’ll learn more about their language, then.”
“Oh! I never thought about that! That could be amazing!”
With that, the two went on with their day, heading off to a restaurant for dinner. The strange documentary they had just watched may have given the two of them more questions than answers but it also seemed to have peaked their interest in wanting to find out more another time…