Rubber Inklings

[Polyedit2000]

Inklings, from the game Splatoon, are one of the sentient races of Earth's future.  They are humanoids that can become squids and can merge with their ink to move faster.  Combined with weapons that store and propel their ink, they were able to win against their evolutionary cousins the Octorians, though nowadays, they uses these weapons as a sport.

Far off the shores, however, there are some laboratories of the past that are overseen by AI.  Some AI seek to improve the current species while other AI plan to dispose or contain them.  As of the moment, Inklings are surprisingly fragile as opposing liquids and water can cause them to lose shape, so the idea is to acquire a few "volunteers" and mix their ink with latex.


The initial test resulted in the tested Inklings adopting an armless form with tentacles replacing their feet.  It seems that the latex solidified during their transition from squid to humanoid, so they were unable to shift fully to either forms.  Some of these test subjects might have been male; the most likely theory is that the squid form's bulging eyes and slim body provided the shape of the "body" during the transition.  While these altered Inklings are not useful until a cure can be found, the concept of latex alteration could be further modified.

In this test, the latex is not solidified until the stage where the inkling is close to assuming a humanoid form.  Machines quickly inject these rubbery Inklings with air to turn them into balls and plugging them to keep them immobilized.  However, this is not a perfect process; most of the subjects are solidified at the moment their bodies and minds are featureless so they remain inert.  Other samples, though, are solidified when their humanoid features take shape, so they are surprisingly mobile and aware even while inflated.