"There was just something charming and special about having a jam session with someone you didn’t know. The only thing the two girls shared between each other was their obvious love for music and whether they realized it or not, that immediately made them have a bond."
I've Got Your Back
by CJ_Walker is a Splatoon 2-centric fanfic, hosted on Archive of Our Own. It presents an origin story for Pearl and Marina, with some deviation from the game's canon, as well as showing how they fell in love and grew to trust each other with their most closely-held secrets. It began on July 5th, 2018, and is ongoing to this day.
Tropes featured in I've Got Your Back include:
- Accent Interest: Marina has an unusual accent compared to Inklings. Pearl's never heard it before, but she finds it incredibly attractive.
- Accidental Misnaming: Pearl's dad keeps on calling Marina other names, like "Sabrina" and "Mariah".
- Achey Scars: Pearl's back is covered in these, which she does everything she can to keep anyone from seeing. They occasionally send waves of pain through her body but it's more acute when she's thinking about her scars, which reaches a fever pitch in Chapter 12.
- A-Cup Angst: Pearl's highly insecure about her lack of a bust, as it serves as a constant reminder that her body's still misshapen years after receiving a nasty scar across her back.
- Adaptational Backstory Change: In Splatoon 2's Octo Expansion, Pearl and Marina were said to have first met on Mount Nantai, with Marina fresh out of Octarian society and Pearl finding an out-of-the-way location to practice her singing. However, here, Pearl meets her first on the streets of Inkopolis, and Pearl was stated to have suffered a major-but-unspecified injury in the past that left her with a scar-torn back.
- Added Alliterative Appeal: Chapter 10 mentions that, as autumn comes, the leaves on trees would change their colors to "affable ambers, rakish reds, and blissful browns".
- Adopted to the House: After Pearl takes Marina to her apartment in Chapter 5 to patch up the gash on her chest, Marina then effectively moves in with her.
- Anachronism Stew: Downplayed, and in-universe at that. Chapter 10 mentions the Callie vs. Marie Splatfest which came at the end of Splatoon 1's update cycle, but in Chapter 3's Turf War flashback, Marina wielded the Squeezer, which wouldn't be added to Splatoon 2 until four months after its release.
- Arc Words: "I've got your back", or some variation thereof, is mentioned frequently throughout the story.
- Artistic License – Sports: In Chapter 7 when Pearl makes up a make-believe motorcycle race scenario to lift Marina's spirits, she briefly mentions a flag-man with a checkered flag at the ready to signal the beginning of the race. In actuality, the checkered flag marks the end of a race, while it's the green flag that signals its start.
- Bandage Wince: In Chapter 5, Marina cries out in pain when Pearl disinfects the gash on her chest with rubbing alcohol.
- Bilingual Bonus: Octarian speech is rendered in Yoruba.
- Bland-Name Product: "Glooga" is mentioned as a spoof of Google, as well as a reference to the Glooga Dualies.
- Bookends: Chapter 12 begins and ends with Pearl remembering a word of advice from her father, concerning Pearl secretly yearning to tell Marina all about her various insecurities, to have someone to share them with:"Talk to her, Pearl."
- Call-Forward: While the events of Splatoon 2 have yet to happen in-story, several references to it are made, such as the duo's Splatfest preferences:
- The description of Pearl's hoodie that Marina pilfers from her, being pink with yellow sleeves, matches how her hoodie appears in the Octo Expansion.
- Chapter 7's mention of individual bowls of salty popcorn for Pearl and sweet kettlecorn for Marina references the Salty vs. Sweet Splatfest, where Pearl would root for Salty and Marina would choose Sweet.
- Chapter 8:
- When Marina expresses bemusement that Pearl would be a bookworm, Pearl remarks that it was her parents' idea and that she much prefers a book's film adaptation, alluding to the Film vs. Book Splatfest, where Pearl would be on Film.
- 2's Sunken Scroll #1 appears as an old news article that Pearl unwittingly hung on to.
- Pearl's Cluster F-Bomb Metal Scream CD from the Octo Expansion, "#$@%* Dudes be #$@%* Sleepin'" briefly appears in the old box that Pearl rummages through.
- Chapter 10:
- Pearl and Marina wear the dresses featured in the promotional art◊ for 2's Salsa vs. Guac Splatfest, while dancing in the department store.
- Pearl notes how, despite preferring cake, she figures that Marina would like ice cream better, while the latter drags the former to an ice cream truck. This references the Cake vs. Ice Cream Splatfest, where Pearl would break for Cake and Marina would choose Ice Cream.
- Pearl and Marina wear the dresses featured in the promotional art
- Cargo Envy: In Chapter 10, Pearl briefly burns with envy upon seeing Marina kiss a sea bunny on the head at a pet store.
- Catapult Nightmare: In Chapter 14, Pearl shoots out of bed after a nightmare where Marina tells her that she's straight.
- Censor Suds: Invoked by Pearl in Chapter 7's Bathtub Scene, for a rare fanservice-free version of the trope, when she fills the tub with bath bombs to give Marina the security that she won't be seen naked even if Pearl's goggle-blindfold were to slip.
- Creator Cameo: The author's Inkling persona briefly appears in the latter half of Chapter 10, when they almost accidentally bean Pearl in the head with a Power Clam.
- Dark Fic: The story gives both Marina and Pearl Dark and Troubled Pasts. It also covers more mature topics than the fluffy source.
- Dedication: Chapter 1 begins thus:This fic is dedicated to my younger self, who kept going even in the darkest hour,
and to all the random street performers who've unknowingly impacted my life. - Deep Sleep: In Chapter 6, Marina slept like a rock for over twelve hours after the night she tore a gash across her chest. So much so, that for a moment, Pearl thought that she was dead.
- Disabled in the Adaptation: Pearl has a scar-torn back which occasionally sends flares of pain through her whole body.
- Eating the Eye Candy: In Chapter 9, Pearl recalls seeing Marina out on the balcony in the dead of night, doing push-ups to strengthen her enfeebled body. Mesmerized by the sight of Marina's toned, sweat-sleek body beneath the pale light of the moon, Pearl could only stand and watch on, completely transfixed.
- Expressive Ears: Pearl's ears twitch, droop, and move about at the slightest stimulation, as well as in response to her emotions. She's not very proud of them, but Marina's both fascinated and endeared by them.
- Expressive Hair: Marina's Tentacle Hair gently sways to and fro most of the time, and goes still when she's asleep and whips wildly about when she's having a nightmare.
- Eyes Always Averted: At the start of their relationship, Marina was so shy that she wouldn't look Pearl in the eyes.
- Fictional Counterpart: The fic references these a lot. Examples include Abercrombie and Fish, Hot Tropic, and The Big Thang Theory.
- Former Teen Rebel: Pearl is still rebellious, however as a teen she went through a grunge fashion stage. When asked, she calls it a "experimental" age.
- The Ghost:
- Fleeting mention is made of someone else who Marina knew in her past, who was responsible in whole or in part for her being reduced to a homeless drifter. She also scornfully compares Pearl to her in Chapter 5 when Pearl says that she's got to remove Marina's bra to get a good look at her wound, but precisely what this unknown person did to Marina to warrant such a comparison is left to the reader's imagination.
- Sporadic mention is made of Pearl's mother, who is implied to have had more of a hand in the incident that scarred her daughter's back, and who Pearl is more reluctant to repair her relationship with.
- Hurt/Comfort Fic: In spades. The whole story primarily revolves around Pearl and Marina working through their past traumas and growing to trust each other, with some more lighthearted moments sprinkled in.
- Instantly Proven Wrong: In Chapter 6, when Marina insists that she isn't hungry after waking up, her stomach growls the moment she finishes speaking.
- Intimate Healing: Downplayed in Chapter 5. Pearl has to remove Marina's bra in order to properly clean and bandage the gash across her chest, and thus insists on doing it topless, too, to lessen the embarrassment that Marina feels. However, what makes this instance of the trope unique is that it isn't played for any sexual tension at all, but instead to show how much Pearl wants Marina to trust her, that she's willing to be, in her words, "painfully uncomfortable, together".
- In the Hood: Early on, Marina always wore a large hoodie, to hide her Octoling traits.
- Large-Ham Announcer: Pearl gives an impression of one in Chapter 7 while leading Marina through a mock motorcycle race.
- Lethal Chef: Zig-zagged and downplayed. Pearl is mentioned to have botched both a dish of lasagna and a stack of pancakes, but is otherwise competent enough to prepare other simple food items for her and Marina, such as a bowl of tomato soup and a pair of grilled cheese sandwiches, and later, her mother's dumpling recipe.
- Literal-Minded: Marina notes to Pearl in Chapter 7 that Octarians aren't adept at using their imagination for the sheer fun of it, stating that "if we needed something done, we'd go out and, you know, actually do it".
- Love Hurts: Discussed in Chapter 11 by Pearl's father, where he says that her relationship with Marina isn't truly love until this is how she makes Pearl feel; a remark that leaves Pearl both baffled and offended.
- Minimalist Cast: Pearl and Marina are the two primary characters of the fic. Anyone else is either a Bit Character, The Ghost, or The Voice.
- Mundanger: In a setting where much of the danger comes from barbarian salmon, a genocidal AI, and a jingoistic DJ, among other threats, Marina sustains a life-threatening injury simply from tearing a gash on her chest on a jagged-ended handrail.
- Oh, My Gods!: "Cod" is used as an equivalent to "god", and Pearl occasionally invokes the name of the Great Zapfish to this end, too.
- Never Learned to Read: Initially, Marina was unable to read the Inkling language, but eventually got the hang of it.
- Please Wake Up: Subverted in Chapter 6, where Marina slept so deeply that Pearl was afraid that she had died in her sleep. Turns out, she really needed the rest after the events of the previous night.
- Rule of Symbolism: Any chapter primarily involving water, be it from a rainstorm, a bath, or a shower, is associated with Pearl and Marina confronting their hardships and strengthening their bond.
- Shout-Out Theme Naming: In Chapter 10, Marina names the sea bunnies at the pet store for various members of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.note
- Slash Fic: Pearl finds herself smitten by Marina from the start of their friendship.
- Spock Speak: Marina occasionally lapses into this, especially with slang, because Squiddish is her second language. For example she says that Pearl looks like "the freshest of shells" (referencing how Pearl calls things "shella fresh").
- Street Musician: Marina starts out as one with an acoustic guitar, whose music is like nothing that Pearl's heard before. Pearl joins her with her cajón.
- Totally Radical: Pearl's father incorrectly uses slang.
- Unnamed Parent: Pearl's parents aren't given names.
- Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Justified with Marina being an Octoling. She looks and sounds different than anyone Pearl has ever seen before, but Pearl doesn't readily identify her as an Octoling. This is because Octolings are all-but unknown amongst Inklings due to a century of segregation.
