*TW for highly toxic and abusive relationships*
The year is Mollusk Era 2011. This year, despite not being too long ago is not largely remembered by the inkfish public. This was a time while still popular, before Turf Wars really kicked off as a sport, before the Great Zapfish started disappearing every couple of years, before a large amount of weapons even existed, including but not limited to, the dualies, brellas, blaster, inkbrush, and slosher. There weren't even the Squid Sisters, they were only 13 at this time. In their place as the #1 in Inkopolis was no one, but the group, 'Contrasting Tones' a pop duo of a 15 year old Pearl and Sepia were getting there. While they do have a cult following, they aren't the biggest thing in Inkopolis. But today, they have a chance, today is the Shy-Ho Pop Contest, held by the famous music producer, Shy-Ho-Shy, and the winner will have her as their producer and they will become the biggest thing in Inkopolis.
An Inkling is sitting on a bed in a decently small apartment. She is wearing a sleeveless white dress with pink highlights and a pink neck tie. Her tentacles are white and pink in color and reach down to her knees. While looking completely different, almost unrecognizable from how she looks now, especially since she is lacking her signature crown, but this is a 15 year old Pearl. Pearl is strumming a pink and white guitar.
"Yo, Sepia, what song are we preforming for the contest?" Pearl asks the Cuttlefish sitting a chair across her. Sepia looks up from her phone and shrugs.
"I don't know, I will decide when we get there." and she goes right back to scrolling on her recently released phone. Sepia has tan skin, she is also wearing an outfit that looks very similar to Pearl's, being black and reddish brown instead of white and pink. Her tentacles are parted to the side and are the same reddish brown color as her dress highlights. Pearl puts the guitar on the bed and rises quickly to her feet.
"WHAT? Dude, we, no, I need to know what song we are playing so we can do our best! Do you want us to lose??" Pearl says absolutely befuddled at her partner's decision to spontaneous choose a song when they get there. Sepia puts her phone down and calmly rises from her seat and walks over to Pearl.
"Are you actually arguing with me right now? You shouldn't be questioning my choices, if it wasn't for me, you would still be shrieking mindlessly, destroying every speaker in the area." Sepia holds Pearl's head in her hand. "And relax, it's not like I am going to make a completely new song, you know how to play the songs we have already played at multiple venues, right?" Sepia looks into Pearl's eyes.
"Yeah..." Pearl responds meekly, looking away from Sepia. "Cod, why does she always do this when I disagree with her?" Pearl thinks to herself. Sepia smirks and lets go of Pearl. Sepia then sighs.
"Would it really make you feel better if you knew what we were playing?" Sepia asks, facing away from Pearl.
"Yeah..." Pearl responds as meekly as before, looking at the ground, it's like Sepia sucked the energy out of her.
"Alright. Hmmm, how about 'Hook, Line, and Sinker'?" Sepia says, and while Pearl couldn't see her face, she could tell she had a devious, devious smile.
"Come on! You know that song is so hard for me!" Pearl responded, finally getting her energy back. Sepia basically snaps into place to face Pearl.
"Are you actually complaining? After I decided to tell you the song we will be playing?" Sepia almost shouted.
"No..." Pearl responded meekly once again. Sepia smiles and kisses her on the forehead. Pearl blushes a bit.
"That's what I thought." Sepia then backs up. "Now chop chop, you know the song now, if you needed practice better do it now, the contest is in 4 hours." Sepia goes back to her chair and sits down. Pearl then sighs and sits back down on the bed and goes to strumming on the guitar, practicing 'Hook, Line and Sinker'.
*
It is now 5pm, Pearl and Sepia are standing in line, wait for their turn to get backstage and ready for the contest. With them in line are also bands that would soon become hits, even without Shy-Ho-Shy as their producer. Such bands include Chirpy Chips, at this time called ABXY, High Tide Era, even Wet Floor. Pearl stands behind Sepia, with her guitar in its case on her back. After a while of waiting, two Inklings walk up to them. They both look to be around 13, if they are competing, they are probably the youngest ones here. One has black and pink tentacles that reach down to the ground and the other has white and green tentacles that are styled in a sort of bowlcut with the bangs covering her eyes. They are both wearing sparkly kimonos.
"Hi!!" the black and pink inkling greets Pearl and Sepia. "Are you two also taking part in this competition?" She asks.
"Yeah we are, I am Pearl and this is Sepia, who are you two?" Pearl responds with a smile.
"I am Callie and this is my cousin Marie and we are the Calamari Cousins!" Callie responds excitedly, pumping her arms in the air while Marie just stands there, seemingly a bit embarrassed by her cousin.
"That's great! Me and Sepia are the Contrasting Tones, I can't wait to see what you tw-" Pearl is cut off by Sepia before she could continue.
"Yeah yeah, no one cares about you twerps, get to the back of the line like everyone else." Sepia said coldly, not even looking at them. Callie, Marie, and Pearl are all in shock from what Sepia said.
"Okay, yeah we will head to the back of line now, nice talking to you." Callie said quickly and left with Marie. Pearl glares at Sepia.
"The hell was that about? They were just having a conversation?" Pearl almost yelled.
"Pearl, they are our opponents, they don't deserve special treatment, no matter how cute they are." Sepia said, remaining calm and in a matter of the fact way. Pearl lets out a flabbergasted gasp.
"Sepia, having a conversation isn't giving them special treatment? And just because we are technically opponents doesn't mean we have to be rude, we might even work together in the future." Pearl retorted. Sepia sighs loudly, almost groans. She then turns to face Pearl.
"Why do you always have to be like this, Pearl?" Sepia crosses her arms.
"Like what?" Pearl asks with genuine confusion.
"Like a contrarian. Would it fucking kill you to just agree with me for once?" Sepia loses her cool for a moment. Pearl places her hand on Sepia's shoulder.
"Sep, we agree on a lot of things. We have similar tastes in music, we both don't like pulp in orange juice, we both love action movies, we just have disagreements sometimes. That's normal!" Pearl smiles at Sepia. Sepia only pulls away from Pearl.
"We only agree on small things that do not matter in the slightest. Every important thing you always disagree with me." Sepia said with a huff, now facing away from Pearl. Pearl groans.
"I am not disagreeing on purpose, I just happen to disagree, that's fine and normal! Am I not allowed to disagree?" Pearl responded. Sepia glares at Pearl.
"No, you shouldn't be allowed to!" Sepia pokes Pearl. "Without me, you would actually be NOTHING! You would just be another nepo-baby, another industry plant with no fucking talent, I am what made you who you are now and you shouldn't have the gall to dare disagree when I could end this partnership right, fucking, now!" Sepia shouted while repeatedly poking Pearl. The commotion has captured the attention of everyone around. Pearl slinks down. "Not again..." Pearl thinks to herself.
"Okay... I'm sorry..." Pearl looks at the ground, almost crying.
"Good." Sepia says coldly. She lifts Pearl's head up, wipes away her tears and kisses her on the forehead.
"Contrasting Tones. You're up next." The person in front of the door said as a music group left.
"Great, don't fuck this up now, Pearl." Sepia said and walks through the door. Pearl walk onto a stage with the only light being the backstage lights and the spot light. Across from them is a pale skinned inkling wearing a black dress and black and yellow tentacles styled into a blunt bob haircut. This was none other than Shy-Ho-Shy.
"'Contrasting Tones'," Shy says, reading a list, "You then must be Pearl and Sepia?" she asks.
"Yes, we are." Sepia answers for both of them. "You have our song, right? I did email to you earlier today."
"'Hook_Line_and_Sinker.mp3' right?" Shy confirmed. Sepia and Pearl nodded. "Do you two need any more preparations?" Shy asks.
"Nope." Sepia responds, answering for Pearl.
"Alright, let's get started." Shy said. Pearl then takes out the guitar from its case and Sepia places the microphone in between her and Pearl, Pearl plugs the guitar into the nearby amp. They give Shy a thumbs up and she starts the mp3 file. Pearl and Sepia start playing pretty much flawlessly. Sepia's spoken word singing and Pearl's shredding impressing Shy. At the bridge is when Pearl and Sepia join together for vocals and it goes fine for a while but then, Pearl hits that high note perfectly. Too perfectly. She hits the note so loud that she shrieks and it blows out the amp. Pearl looks at Sepia, who is both shocked and absolutely fucking pissed. "Fuck." is all Pearl could think seeing Sepia, she then looks over at Shy and to Pearl's horror, painted on Shy's face is a grimace. "Double fuck."
"Do you two think we can meet up another time? I do like what I saw and this was clearly an accident." Shy said, reassuring the girls. Sepia takes a deep breath and answers.
"Nope, we will get going." Sepia bows, "Thank you for your time." She then storms off stage and Pearl follows.
"Alright, I will email you two my decision in three business days!" Shy yells so the duo can hear her. Sepia storms away from the doors and Pearl meekly follows.
"Okay, yeah, that went badly but hey! We don't need Shy-Ho-Shy, we can find another producer, or hell we can make it on our own, be self pro-" Pearl gets cut off by a shaking Sepia.
"NO, YOU CAN MAKE IT WITHOUT HER OR EVEN A PRODUCER!" Sepia screamed, "YOU FUCKED UP MY ONLY CHANCE AT FAME!" Sepia continued.
"W-what does this mean for us?" Pearl asks meekly.
"IT MEANS WE ARE FUCKING THROUGH, HOUZUKI, CONTRASTING TONES IS NO MORE." Sepia gets closer to Pearl while Pearl tries to back up.
"A-at least we will still have each other, we don't need to be in the same group to be girlf-" Pearl is cut off by Sepia slapping her across the face, hard, knocking her to the ground.
"DON'T FUCKING IMPLY WE WILL STILL IN A RELATIONSHIP AFTER THIS, YOU FUCKED UP AND YOU KEEP FUCKING UP, PEARL! I AM NOT YOUR FUCKING MOTHER AND I AM TIRED OF PICKING UP YOUR FUCKING MESSES!" Sepia screamed at a now crying Pearl. "YOU WASTED ENOUGH OF MY TIME!" Pearl gets up, crying.
"S-Sepia..." Pearl croaks between sobs. Sepia slaps Pearl again, knocking her back to the ground.
"STOP THAT, WE ARE THROUGH." Sepia holds her arm up to strike Pearl again, but she puts it down. "Goodbye, Houzuki, never talk to me again." Sepia then walks away, leaving Pearl next to the the building, on the ground, sobbing.
*
Pearl, now heartbroken from losing her musical and romantic partner, goes to a place that she found to be a safe space for her during times like these, Mt. Nantai. Specifically a shrine on Mt. Nantai that her family visits often. Pearl kneels in front of of the bright red torii, on an area where not at the peak but it still looks out to the forest below. Pearl, feeling lost, just sobs, kneeling at the torii. Pearl is left with her thoughts for a while. While sobbing, Pearl feels something fuzzy rub up against her legs. She looks up from her knees and sees that what was rubbing up against her was a rotund white and black cat. Pearl wipes her tears and smiles.
"H-hey Judd." Pearl says, voice shaky from all the crying. Judd looks at her and sits on her lap. Pearl pets Judd and he starts purring. Pearl chuckles.
"Are you trying to cheer me up?" Pearl asks, Judd just meows. "Well, I guess it is working." Pearl chuckles again. She then sighs, "Y'know Judd, I already miss Sepia." Pearl looks up at the torii, "Sure she didn't really treat me that right but she did give me proper training and when she wasn't been all weird we made a great team." Judd just looks at Pearl and loudly meows.
"I know, I know but I just, maybe she was righ-" Judd loudly meows again to cut Pearl off. "Yeah no, you're right. I just still miss her y'know?" Pearl responds. Judd then gives his input of a meow.
"Yeah, yeah you are right, I can do what I want now." Pearl stands up and Judd sits up close. "I can do whatever I feel like! I can shriek as loudly as I want now!!" Pearl pumps her arms up in the air and Judd meows in agreement. Pearl then picks up Judd and hugs him.
"Thanks, I really needed that." Judd then meows, letting her know that he wants to be let down now. "I need to go back to my apartment now, I don't know if Sepia already picked up her stuff or not." Pearl starts to leave and turns back. "Thanks Judd, you really have a way with words." Judd then meows and Pearl leaves.
*
Pearl, after taking a train and bus back home, opens the front door and is greeted by Marina who tackle hugs Pearl when she enters.
"Hellooooo, Pearlie~" Greeted Marina while messing with Pearl's crown. "How was your visit with your old band?"
"Oh it was fine, we just caught up and stuff, nothing too interesting, we talked about collabs they planned on doing." Pearl answered.
"Oh that's great!" Marina responded. She then looks at Pearl's face who is kinda looking at the ground. "Is everything alright Pearlie?" Marina asked, worried.
"Oh, yeah, it's just that they mentioned they are collabing with someone I knew and, let's just say me and her didn't have the best relationship..." Pearl responded. Marina then hugs Pearl tighter.
"Oh, Pearlie. I am so sorry about that, is there anything I can do?" Marina asked. Pearl smiled and hugged back.
"This is more than enough, Rina~"