Hoover

Toothpaste’s little brother and best friend!! (He/him)

Design:

• He is actually a baby Cohozuna, unbeknownst to him and basically everyone else. His lack of contact with Salmonid society means that he was never told the obvious signs and they were never pointed out (like his pointed snout or larger size).
• Unlike most salmonids, Hoover’s snout ends in an almost dragon-like point. This is due to him being a Cohozuna (and is a trait that my personal interpretation of cohozunas have. This is an actual design detail and not stylization.)
• He has an overall skeleton/halloween theme. There are bone/spine-like patterns on his body.
• His natural fin/"hair" color is just orange. The tips can be dyed with ink (similar to dying hair with hair dye) and can appear different depending on the situation. He often changes the dye color for events like splatfests, but usually prefers green.
  • Only the first 3 points of his fins are ever dyed usually.

• He is pretty bratty, and even more intense and energetic than Toothpaste is. Sometimes he will pick on people or goad them on just to get a reaction.
• He is a bit of a glutton.
• He and Toothpaste can often goad each other on to the point where they take their stunts too far. They often bounce off each other.
• He and Toothpaste both deeply care about each other, but are not very good at showing that in the traditional sense.

• He does have a Salmonid style name: “Restless Riptide Broken Free from the Fortress of Hoover”, but it is not “canon” to his story at this point in time.
• He was raised by an inkling and thus can speak and understand the inkling language. However, this also means that he cannot understand or speak the Salmonid language.
• Often goes off to do things on his own while Toothpaste is busy. He wants to be able to do more on his own despite Toothpaste’s objections.
• He enjoys fighting games. He spends a lot of his free time at arcades or at the apartment playing them.
• He also enjoys exploring the city. Sometimes he will hang around with other Splatsville smallfry, almost acting as their “leader”.
• Funnily enough, he is scared of the dark.

Backstory: (WIP, liable to be changed a little)

Hoover definitely did not have the standard Salmonid childhood, being accidentally hatched by a young inkling who had smuggled his egg from a Salmon Run. This inkling named Toothpaste was thoroughly unprepared to give him a particularly structured upbringing, so it was a very turbulent first few months. Not that he particularly noticed, being a newborn and all, remaining largely unaware of the inner and outer turmoil his birth had caused Toothpaste. She had made the decision to raise Hoover herself, treating him like a little brother as opposed to a child (she was still young herself). His existence was kept secret when the duo lived in Inkopolis, since Salmonid-Inkling interactions were considered illegal. Hoover doesn’t remember most of life in that city, since he and Toothpaste had made the move to Splatsville while he was still very young in order to escape being eventually found out.

Hoover has now spent a majority of his childhood in Splatsville, and is growing up fast. He has gained a thirst for independence and great curiosity, as many children do. Since Toothpaste is so often busy and cannot look after him constantly, he has free roam of the city most of the time. This however is not something Toothpaste approves of, urging him to stay close and not wander off.

Hoover’s curiosity doesn’t stop at just the world around him though, and he has become increasingly persistent about learning who he actually is and where he came from. He has asked Toothpaste about his origins before, but she has always dodged the question (or lied). He is aware of the Salmonids and knows that he is one, but largely feels a sense of dissonance with them. He was raised by an inkling in inkling society, so that is where he places his sense of belonging. Even though the Salmonids may look like him, it is hard for him to feel any further connection since he was not brought up into their culture. Hoover wishes he knew more about the other Salmonids, but doesn’t think he needs to in order to feel like he belongs per se. It’s almost as if he sees himself more as an inkfish than a salmonid deep down, and whether that will be a good or bad thing time will tell.

(Salmonids as a species as well as the setting of this story are from Splatoon by Nintendo)

(Hoover’s splashtag was made via this generator by @spaghettitron on Twitter!! The egg badge was drawn myself)