Last night, during a match of Splatoon 2, everyone got fed up with our senseless land war. We all laid down our arms and came together for the one thing that matters most: having a kickass party.
Last evening, I streamed Splatoon 2 on my personal Twitch channel and leapt into a turf war match on Moray Towers. It’s a massive, multi-tiered monstrosity where it can be hard to keep track of the enemy. As my team captured territory with ease, something seemed amiss. The enemy was nowhere to be found until I used my Tenta Missiles ability to launch a series of paint bombs towards their spawn. The entire enemy team was gathered there, and I splatted two of them. Confused but eager for more domination, I proceeded to make my way up to their spawn.
As I got closer, I found myself repelled by a spattering of water balloons. I couldn’t get any closer. That’s when I realized: these squid-kids just wanted to be left alone. They didn’t press further into the map, but they remained fiercely protective of the space they had already established. Curious to see if we could communicate, I stayed in the same match lobby as them and waited for the next game.
This time, we were in the more open MakoMart. This meant I didn’t have to guess their position or figure out where their territorial lines ended. I swam up to their position and dipped in and out of the ink. This is often a means of taunting the enemy called “squidbagging,” but in this case it was meant to signal peaceful intent. It took a few moments, but one of the enemy squids returned the gesture. We bobbed up and down next to each other until another member of their team arrived.
Things grew into a proper party. A member of my team arrived and then one more of the opposing team showed up. We ran into trouble as the last player began to splash their inkbrush back and forth, but most of the match was spent jumping up and down, spinning in place, and having a good time.
It’s highly probable we live in Hell, but in the meantime, we can find pockets of fun and silliness in games. I don’t know if I’ll ever see those kindhearted squid-kids again, but I’ll always remember our raging awesome party in the MakoMart.