"You realize that Octo Valley's energy crisis didn't go away when the Zapfish did, right? There are Octarians still scraping by down here — ourselves included. There's not enough power or hospitality to go around." "So what, are ya'll City of Ember-ing up in this beach?" "We're been taken hostage, Callie; please don't make it weird."
(Album cover, logo, and core concept by @aviivix. Thanks for the commission!)
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Composer Notes: All that blistering percussion is from Indian dappankuthu, (lit. “drum punch”) which has grown into the street-pop staple of Kollywood (not to be confused with Bollywood or Tollywood). Since the heavily-processed samples of Octoling Rendevous are so Indian-flavored to begin with, the collapse of the Octavian regime (along with Octo Valley civilization itself, quite literally) means these inspirations are free to finally "let loose," so to speak. (I'm a bit worried that the common interpretation will be that the Octolings this piece is about are "wild" due to all the foreign percussion. Really, they're just trying to get by in a world that has failed them.
the Culture Shock AU is wild, ya'll.)