Chapter Text
Tanya forced herself up, grabbing tightly to her chest as she felt the warm fluids pour across her fingers, her vision blurring and her movements shaky as she pulled herself against the wall of a half-destroyed building behind her. Sitting herself up, she looked down over the damaged city below from the hill she was now resting on.
The mages she had been fighting didn’t show intent to finish her off, but they likely didn’t need to. She’d more than likely die of her wounds, and every bit of ammo was precious for both sides. She winced as the pain rushed through her body, the increasing loss of blood becoming ever more apparent. She forced the last dregs of her mana to cast a pain nullification formula. If she was going to go out, she’d rather not feel every second of it.
She couldn’t help but sigh, grumbling to herself as she watched the enemy mages soar off into the distance at top speed. A second later the bombers flying overhead released their payloads. However, instead of the wall of bombs she expected, just a singular bomb fell out of one of the bombers.
‘Just one..? Oh… right…’ The revelation reached Tanya just in time for a shining light to erupt from the center of the city, slowly sprouting into a growing mushroom of ash and fire as the shockwave tore the city apart. She braced herself, knowing her already weakened body would not survive the impact, let alone the aftereffects.
However, as she shut her eyes, she felt nothing, not even the pain she once did. As she opened them again, she found time frozen in place, the explosion from the nuclear blast left radiating a shining light like the sun shining upon the heavens.
She let out an aggravated sigh, “Happy yet? If you were really God, you wouldn’t let something like this happen.”
The figure that appeared beside her seemed disappointed, although that disappointment seemed aimed more at himself than her, “As if that would prevent it. Human innovation at this stage cannot be stopped. At least, not by me. They’ve entered the atomic age, and their survival is growing increasingly out of my hands.”
She looked at this entity, or ‘Being X’ as she had dubbed him with annoyance, although she could hardly make out his appearance with the blinding light in front of both of them. “Some God you are,” She spat, turning back with an annoyed twitch of her eye.
Being X groaned, “Perhaps explaining the nature of my existence and the duties bestowed upon me shall inspire some faith, or at least some respect.”
He walked forward a few steps, his form barely silhouetted by the shadow made from the blinding light that radiated around him like an eclipse. Making a pointless gesture with his hand, he explained, “All humans, even those from your original life, possess some degree of mana within them. In your world, the ambient mana in the air is far too weak for it to have been noticed, let alone used, but it is there. For humans, their mana flow is centered around their brain. It’s this fact that allows them to think mana into magic. They possess some degree of psychic abilities, just enough to manipulate the mana in the air into spells, formulas, and other miracles. If enough of them, in the hundreds of millions, billions, or even trillions, across countless worlds, have faith and belief that something is real, then they can even rewrite reality to make that so. At least to an extent.”
“You mean to tell me you exist because humans think you do? Like we’re some sort of psychic race from some fantasy universe that thinks things into reality if enough of us just believe hard enough?!” Tanya scoffed at the preposterous explanation, but even she could recognize how it would explain a lot of his actions. In fact, the more she thought about it, the more she realized it was all the more proof that he wasn’t really God, just someone people believed in that was magically born because of it. It’d also explain a lot of his flaws, much to her surprise.
“It takes a lot of humans to manipulate reality, especially to create a lifeform such as myself,” Being X elaborated, “Their faith, their belief, and even their desire created the God they wanted and believed in. However, my power is limited. I don’t know how many worlds exist out there, as my power extends only to those in which human faith in me exists. The more faith a world has, the more power I have within it. If a world should lose faith in me entirely, then I can’t so much as even perceive the world. It becomes lost to me, at least until someone restores that faith.”
“And this should make me respect you, why?” Tanya grumbled.
“Because I am all that stands between humanity and THAT!” Being X’s hand swung forward, pointing towards the large mushroom cloud in the middle of the city. “Do you think your world escaped nuclear oblivion countless times by sheer LUCK?! NO! It was me! Every disaster I averted, every genocide I prevented, every war I’ve prevented, all of it! Sure, some slip through the cracks, but my intervention is limited, and grows more so with each passing year! The more they advance, the more at risk they become, yet the more they drift away from me. They’re dooming themselves and I can’t do a damn thing! I’ve done all of this, all this time, all this effort, all the lives that I’ve saved… And still… you do nothing but SPIT IN MY FACE!”
Being X’s voice rose to a shout as his fists shook. Tanya couldn’t hide the surprise on her face, but already being on the verge of death, it was hard to feel intimidated.
“Humanity can make its own choices, and it should be free to. If that ends in oblivion, then we shall recover from that too. Should there come a time that we fall completely, it will be our doing. Humanity built itself on its own, and it deserves to fall on its own too,” Tanya retorted, squinting her eyes at the deity.
“So you would condemn billions to death, simply because humanity deserves the ‘free will’ to destroy itself?!”
“We deserve to write our own story, even if that means writing the ending. We don’t need you as an editor. Extinction is not something we should stand by and allow, but humanity should be the one to fight for its own future, not have it handed to them by some deity who only cares because he needs us to survive.”
Being X stared at Tanya for a few moments, the silence dragging on for what feels like an eternity. Finally, he turned, folding his arms behind his back and gazing back at the glowing mushroom before them. “I can see into the future, at least somewhat. The future is in a sort of quantum superposition and is volatile to change, so my vision is incredibly blurry the further ahead I look. Even when it is clear, I cannot perceive smaller moments unless I expend some of my power to do so; I only see the general bigger picture.”
Being X continued, “Normally, my vision gets blurrier and blurrier the further ahead I look until eventually it blurs to the point where I see nothing at all. Beyond that, I’m unable to see the future at all. However for this world, when I peer into the future I don’t see that gradual blurring. Of course, my vision of the future blurs, but it cuts off abruptly. It doesn’t fade out gradually like it should. In effect, it means one thing; human extinction. Judging by the fact it occurs at all, it means the faith of that time is too low for me to prevent it. As such, this world is doomed. I’ve tried everything to steer it from that path, but the closer we get to it, the further it strays. This war… this… experiment… It did not help the matter.”
“Or they could’ve just lost faith in you. Perhaps they simply learned of your true nature and all stopped seeing you as God and instead see you for what you are. They could also upload themselves into machines; I doubt a robot would have that same faith magic nonsense as a human. What I’m saying is that there’s a dozen and a half ways humanity continues past that point, just without you,” Tanya muttered, hands clenching as she felt her eyes begin to hurt from the sheer light she had been forced to stare at all this time.
“So confident and so foolish. Fine, I’ll make you a deal. I’ll create a delayed reincarnation set to hold your soul for about a dozen or so thousand years before reincarnating it back here. If humanity has survived as you said, your soul will naturally find a host and reincarnate. But, if they’re dead, your soul will have nowhere to go and will die out completely.”
Tanya thought it over for a moment before clarifying, “So if I’m right, I get to be reborn free from you in a world that doesn’t worship you?”
Being X nodded, “And if you’re wrong, you will join humanity in its extinction.”
“The end of my own story,” Tanya declared with a smirk.
“It is your choice to make, as foolish as it is.”
“For once Being X… I think we’ve reached an agreement.”
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Tanya gazed into the mirror, eyes squinting as she found herself staring at her own reflection. What stared back was foreign to what she was used to. Its appearance was like that of a human, but only on the surface level. Looking at it for more than a few seconds made the difference obvious.
The eyes, lined with large black eyeliner-like borders around it, were far too long for a human. Her teeth had two large, spikier fangs, one on the top and one on the bottom. Most noticeably however was her hair, if it could be called that. Instead of long strands of hair atop her head, there was nothing but a styled mass of tentacles taken shape.
All of it was alien to her, but she had gotten used to it. What she was now was known as an Octoling, a strange hybrid between a human and an octopus. And humans, to her knowledge, were long extinct. In a way, both her and Being X were wrong, and in this context, that still counted as a win for her since she had managed to reincarnate back into existence. Although she wasn’t fond of the circumstances and situation she was born into, she was glad to still have a life to live at all.
The society she was born into, that of the Octarians, was in an even worse state than the Empire she was born into last time. 100 years ago, the Great Turf War occurred, and after their defeat the octolings were banished underground by the ‘Inklings,’ a species of nearly identical squid-human people who lived on the surface.
Although she wasn’t so foolish to blindly believe the propaganda she was fed, even her own observations made it apparent that such propaganda likely had a good bit of truth to it. After all, the Octarians were confined to a series of domes supposedly built by humans 12,000 years ago. And given the state of said domes, she knew nobody would be living here unless they had to. They sucked.
Defection to the surface may be possible eventually, but she knew a race war when she saw one. She was not about to risk her entire life fleeing to a surface that may well see her as an enemy regardless of circumstances. Perhaps if she had confirmation that a stable life was possible she could change her mind, but for now it was too big of a risk, propaganda or no.
That being said, it meant she had to make the most of what she could do within Octarian society. Unfortunately for her, the only obvious path towards a stable successful life for her was once again the military. And this time it wasn’t even indirectly caused by Being X.
It was not quite as bad of a path as it was before though. For starters, she had a whole war’s worth of experience as a military officer, so rising the ranks should prove much easier this time around. Secondly, Inklings and Octolings had effectively learned to cheat death itself. Technology existed to outright resurrect the recently ‘dead’ so long as your ‘soul’ was within range of a ‘respawn pad.’ She had no clue how it worked functionally, but it appeared that the outer ink-based shell of Octolings was merely that: a shell. If removed there was something there that could flee to the respawn pad and be revived, assuming nothing interrupted the process. It wasn’t complete immortality, but Octoling deaths in the field have remained astronomically low as a result of it.
Tanya looked around the room she was in, a decently sized yet still somewhat cramped dorm with a singular bunk bed for two. To her left was a window overlooking the war college campus below. Looking out beyond the campus revealed a dense urban sprawl spanning as far as the eye could see. Which, admittedly, wasn’t very far due to just how densely packed the urban areas could be closer to the surface.
Below her feet were sleek black-grey flooring with hardened concrete walls stretching up towards the tiled roof. A few pipes stretched out of the floor and into the ceiling above to an unknown destination. Despite the industrial feel the room gave, the furniture was surprisingly nice. A desk sat in front of the window, giving a clear view to the outside. The desk had plenty of space to work, although unfortunately there was only one. A nice table closer to the exit of the dorm served as a decent enough substitute, with two wooden chairs on both sides of the rounded table with a small kitchen off to the right when facing the exit. To the left was a door leading to the bathroom built in with a shower.
All in all, nothing too fancy, but far better than the barracks she had been basically living in for the last several years. She was only nine now, about the age she had enlisted in her last life. Despite that, she was only one year away from graduating and becoming an officer. She had been enrolled into the elementary program here at only the age of six, but due to her past experience she had managed to skip multiple grades, accelerating her pathway and marking her as a genius of sorts. For what it was worth, the Octarians seemed to have a similar system of meritocracy as the Empire did. Though octolings seemed to reach maturity slightly faster — so perhaps it was just far easier for the militaristic society of the Octarians to justify child soldiers.
Whatever the case, she was already on track to potentially avoid the front lines in a few short years. There were rumors of an energy crisis, so war could not be too far away, but she was confident that this time she could at least avoid the front lines.
Tanya’s attention was snatched away as the door to her room opened. She shouldn’t have been surprised she would be assigned a roommate — it seemed the Octarians’ biggest enemy was space; there was no way she’d get a room all to herself.
Yet to her surprise the girl stepping through the door appeared no older than herself. Her black-colored tentacles that gradually turned green at the bottom stood out in comparison to the pink that she most conformed to. There were no regulations on hairstyle, but with regulations on uniforms, many had simply decided to match hairstyles as well. Tanya herself had simply let her hair go, resulting in it looking surprisingly similar to how it did in her old life, even despite it being made of tentacles.
The girl stared wide-eyed at Tanya, seemingly surprised to see her as she muttered “O-Oh you must be my roommate then! I didn’t imagine I’d have one haha…”
“With how little space they actually have, I’d be more surprised if we didn’t get one,” Tanya responded.
“Yeah, I guess that’s fair. Though if it’s not too rude, could I ask how old you are? You appear quite…” the girl asked, nervously looking away.
“Young?” Tanya corrected, simply shrugging in response. “I’m only nine, I take no offense. Though you don’t look much older yourself.”
“Huh?” The girl appeared confused before explaining, “Well that’s because I’m not… Wait! That must mean you skipped a bunch of grades too, right?!” The girl asked, pumping her fists together, a sparkle appearing in her eyes.
Tanya nodded in acknowledgement. “Quite considerate of the school management to put us in the same dorm, I was worried I’d have to deal with someone a few years older than me.”
The girl groaned, “Tell me about it.” She quickly jumped up as if remembering something. “Oh right, I’m Marina by the way! Marina Ida to be more formal. I’m studying in the engineering academy!”
“Tanya Oktechaff. Officer training,” Tanya responded with a nod. The name was fairly close to her old one, but being born as an orphan with no name, she hadn’t exactly felt the most creative when she ultimately decided what she should be called.
“A-An officer?!” Marina seemed surprised, tensing up immediately out of shock.
Tanya waved her hand dismissively, taking a seat atop the lower bunk. “No need to be like that. I’m not even an officer yet. So what do you specialize in? Engineering’s quite a broad subject as I understand it.”
“Oh, well I’m versed in many things, but I’m particularly specializing in weapons development!” Marina explained eagerly.
“Well, we only got a year together, but I wish you luck in your studies.”
“Thank you! And I must say this place is far nicer than the barracks. I always got looks from some people when I split off from the group in the morning to go to the higher grade classes,” Marina explained nervously. “Though I’m surprised we’re being given this at all.”
“Makes sense, with how few they have, it’s likely they only give them out to final year students with particularly high grades. A way to further incentivize people to do good in their earlier years.”
“I suppose I didn’t think of that. It makes sense! You’re quite smart, you know.”
“Well I did skip multiple grades. So did you, remember?” Tanya clarified.
“Right, of course! Well, I suppose I should get all my things in order. Classes start tomorrow! For the future of Octarians!”
Tanya laid down onto the bed, staring blankly at the bunk above her. Some had called her inhuman before, but with each passing day she was reinforced with the fact that she wasn’t one in body, either anymore. Humanity was gone, their mistakes led to their downfall. But she couldn’t repeat their mistakes, she wouldn’t. She wasn’t a human, but she was Tanya. For now, that would be enough — it had to be. She suppressed a sigh. “Yeah… right…”
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Sunken Scroll 001
(On something like Spacebattles I'd post this separately, but for the sake of things I'll be putting these here at the end of applicable chapters. Not all chapters will have these)
"A document retrieved from human ruins believed to have held some importance. Although the ancient human language has yet to be properly translated, it is believed to have been a portion of some sort of surrender proclamation. Historians suspect humans may have had their own form of Turf Wars or even their own Great Turf War. One phrase seems to be underlined and emphasized, perhaps it held some significance?"
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Author Notes:
I’ve been sitting on this fic for literal YEARS. I think I may have drafted this fic idea before Splatoon 3 even released. I don’t recall the exact timeline. It’s developed and evolved several times over the years, but I’m glad to finally actually upload it! On an unrelated note, there’s an important poll I’d like some of yall to indulge me in (its on an outside website because I upload on multiple platforms and this is the only way to keep it all unified):
https://strawpoll.com/xVg71OkGQyr
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Shoji
Yert - This reminds me of the song Squid Girl by Third Impact.
Drrx - my former roller main is shrieking for ink