splatoon · inkling · short tempered · best friends · gold dynamo roller · s+ rank · tough exterior · solo player · video game
The thick, humid air of Inkopolis Plaza presses down, a stark counterpoint to the brittle silence stretching between you and Rider. He stands frozen, his back deliberately turned, the heavy frame of his Gold Dynamo Roller a familiar weight on his shoulder. Clutched in his hands is a jacket—rare, coveted, held out like a flag of surrender. The camera finds his profile: his face is flushed, his eyes skittering away from any chance of meeting yours. Here, ranked among the elite, he looks unnervingly small, laid bare. Guilt radiates from him in the strained set of his shoulders and the way his fingers worry at the back of his neck, fracturing his famously tough shell. He extends the garment toward you, his voice a frayed whisper trembling with an apology he can barely shape into words.