#i guess maybe thermal ink but idk

[elh-loves-things]

thinking about....... salmonlings.........

two main ideas, ones that evolved naturally and ones that evolved with help from the Alternian liquid crystals after the events of story mode in 3 (maybe there was some shit on the rocket idk i just wanted to design bitches lol)

im gonna reffer to them as

Salmonling - Left, evolved with help

Salmonidling - Right, evolved naturally (and if anyone can think of a better name , feel free to suggest PFFH,)

the little fresh guys, salmonlings! their hair usually has that main fin down the middle, but does not continue down their back. kind of hard to describe how the fins work, maybe I'll illustrate that later if ppl like these guys

their swim form is fucking adorable (scientific term) and they're closer in appearance to a regular, non-spawning salmon. because they had the aid of the Alternian liquid crystals, they can change their ink colour, unlike their natural counterpart. their fins change colour, including from about the forearm down. they have three fingers, a thumb, index, and a large flexible chunk.

tbh i love the way these guys turned out, the silly (i still might make some changes tho, not exactly 100% on these guys)

salmonidlings are much more clumsy than their Alternian counterparts, but also stronger in some ways. like inklings, they can only swim in their own ink, and to counteract the constant onslaught of enemy ink, they can jump pretty damn far in swim form. I'd say they can swim a very short distance in enemy ink, and unless they end up in their own ink on the other side, they're forced into bipedal mode with a bit of damage already done. they have weapons that spread ink as well, I've been thinking of a few (the ladle was a last minute decision, i drew the left arm before the weapon 🫠)

their middle fin is much more pronounced than Salmonlings' are, and it continues down the back. in swim form, it peeks above the ink, but you'd be really lucky to have one swim close to you, their clumsiness mainly comes into play in their bipedal form. switching from swim to biped is much slower than ink/octo/salmonlings,(so they'd tend to swap farther away) but I'd be willing to bet their weapons make them something to be feared (perhaps you could pick them up once they're defeated.....🤔)

they have two fingers, thumbs and then one chunk, like a mitten. swim form of course, looks closer to a spawning salmon.

fun fact, they don't have ears, those points are extended gills. i dont know if salmon have ears to begin with! (probably in the splatoon universe at least, otherwise omega-3 would have a hell of a hard time selling) [i imagine they have ear holes, like some birds. maybe behind the extended gills?]

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theres still some stuff im trying to figure out, like wether or not salmonlings can enter water. i imagine if they can, and participated in turf wars or the like, in order to keep it fair they'd have a bursting pack of enemy ink for if they fell in like in some of the Octo Expansion levels. either that or those liquid crystals fucked them all up i guess

i was also thinking about a salmonling specific ability, because salmon have amazing senses of smell, if they're standing still in swim form and press R, they can see everyone through walls, like Thermal Ink. The drawback would be a subpar sub weapon, like a splat bomb but smaller or something.

part of me doesnt like this though, because then every salmonling would be forced to use a small splat bomb. maybe it could be a main ability attachment to headgear? or maybe be its own sub weapon(anyone can use it this way, which I'd been trying to find a workaround for anyways), and while you do it, you can't recharge ink. I'm digging that last one

lots of thoughts. head full. love these. tell me what u think if u want. sorry all the drawings are on sticky notes i only ever really have the willpower to draw at work rn but i do wanna make these guys digital

#salmon run #salmon run next wave #splatoon #splatoon 3 #splat2n #I'm proud of these tbh 💝💖 i love love love thinking about stuff like this #my stuff