A SNAPSHOT is a moment you remember clearly, even after days, months, or years of time. (...) But these moments shape the person who has them.
Snapshots is a series of Splatoon fanfics written by EikaPrime
. The series consists of various vignettes covering the lives and inner thoughts of the series' idol characters — specifically the Squid Sisters and Off the Hook — spanning the events of the first game up until the end of Octo Expansion, and is split into four installments:
- Snapshots of an Unlived Life, focusing on Marina adjusting to life in Inkopolis and recovering from her traumatic past in the Octarian Army.
- Snapshots of an Unexamined Life, focusing on Pearl forming Off the Hook with Marina and her burgeoning feelings for her talented DJ partner.
- Snapshots of an Undivided Life, focusing on Marie struggling to balance fame, her responsibilities as part of the Squidbeak Splatoon, and her bond with her cousin.
- Snapshots of an Unplanned Life, focusing on Callie figuring out her identity apart from Marie and dealing with aftermath of Splatoon 2.
This fanfic contains examples of:
- Arc Words: Across Unlived Life, Marina keeps repeating to herself that what she is experiencing "isn't real".
- Clark Kenting: As in the games, Marina does nothing to disguise herself as an Inkling but nonetheless has everyone except the Squid Sisters fooled, helped by Inkopolis's total unfamiliarity with Octarians. When she learns the truth, Pearl kicks herself for not noticing the obvious physical differences.
- Contractual Purity: In-Universe, hosts of Inkopolis News are not allowed to enter romantic relationships because of the potential for messy drama. When Marie tells Off the Hook this right before the contract is signed, Marina is indifferent but Pearl is crushed.
- Gaslighting: How hypnogoggles and shades work, but replacing things in users mind. Callie loses all her confidence when she keeps being "corrected" about past events, and hypnoshades show her the false versions. Users, even those who have used them only relatively short time, are shown to have long term side-effect of questioning if anything they experience is real.
- A Glitch in the Matrix: How Marina starts to perceive the world after her hypnogoggles are broken. She sees both the false and real reality overlapping, realizing that what she has lived with is not real.
- Lotus-Eater Machine: The Hypno Goggles (and Shades) invoke this at their highest power, making it near-impossible for the victim to tell reality from the simulation meant to pacify them, even after they've taken them off. When confronting Marina about the shades in order to learn how long this side-effect lasts, Marie's horrified to learn that even after two years, the Octoling is still convinced that her life might be fake and could be undone at any moment.
- Mental Health Recovery Arc: Undivided and Unplanned both delve into Callie's recovery after her rescue. She never fully recovers. By the time the story ends, she still needs to regularly listen to Calamari Inkanation or eat familiar snacks in order to ground herself in reality.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Callie and Marie experience this when they are holding Marina at gun point, and instead of screaming or cursing them like an experienced covert ops soldier, she just asks them to "do it quickly" while crying. They're both stunned when she reacts with such raw fear, not realizing Octolings could even feel such emotion, and are struck with the realization that they may have harassed someone who legitimately just wanted to live peacefully on the surface.
- Oblivious to Love: Marina is quite blind to the fact that Pearl has a developed a crush on her.
- Perspective Flip: As part of all the fics taking place during the same time frame, the characters also end up interacting with each other at various points. As such, every fic has several moments that are retold from at least one other character's perspective. The food court scene in particular has all four characters present, meaning each fic has its own take on the event.
- Polyamory: Marie meets and starts dating a polyamorous Drown, who openly states that he is in open relationship with another inkling already, who themselves is also polyamorous.
- Pull the Thread: Zig-Zagged. When testing to see if their reality is being simulated or not, those who were under the effect of the shades will focus on doing things that they know wouldn't be part of the simulation, so they can know what they are experiencing is real. For Marina, it's a hike up a specific path and whenever or not a person she is walking with will balance on a specific log. For Callie, it's hearing the Calamari Inkantation and having food taste right.
- Secret Secret-Keeper:
- Callie and Marie serve as this for Marina being an Octoling, keeping the secret once they realize that she isn't a spy, but a military defector who just wants to live freely on the surface. Marie only reveals her knowledge, and the fact that she and Callie were the ones who assaulted her two years prior, when trying to figure out how to help her cousin heal from the effects of the hypno-shades.
- On a lighter note, Marie immediately picks up that Pearl has a crush on Marina, but never brings it up directly beyond alerting the duo about the romance clause in the Inkopolis News contract.
- Simultaneous Arcs: All four stories take place over the same three year time period. The author even has a timeline detailing how they all overlap.
- "Shut Up" Kiss: After Marina starts to doubt if what she is experiencing is real, Pearl kisses her to make her stop doubting.
- Street Musician: How Marina earns her living before meeting Pearl.
- Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Inklings, at least those not involved in New Squidbeak Platoon, consistently fail to recognize that Marina is an octoling, despite doing functionally nothing to hide the fact. In fact, Marina's first encounter with inklings is to get dragged to choosing a side in splatfest and then invited to feat, despite not speaking a single word of inkling. Pearl simply thinks Marina is someone who ran away from a cult.
