Beneath The Bay

"We’re Beneath The Bay, and that’s where we’ll stay!"

Beneath The Bay is a fan-made Splatoon idol duo created by Birds Are Nice. They host the news and announce Splatfests in Inkopolis Harbor. The duo consists of Shima, a sea slug, and Hokka, a coho (silver) salmon.

Shima
Pronounced "She-maa" Shima is a 19-year-old Hareling, based on a Hypselodoris festiva. She is 5'3" (160 cm)  tall and has blue eyes, with mint-colored pupils in the shape of an inverted teardrop. Her idol markings consist of two small, vertical black ovals under her right eye, and her hair is long and simple, in 3 distinct sections - a short one on both sides and a long, wide one on the back of her head. Shima's hair color is blue, beginning in a darker shade, before lightening gradually to her true ink color near the tips. The sides end right above her shoulders, in a curvy rounded way, with a cream coloring, reminiscent of the skirt mantle of a sea slug. The back section, however, reaches waist-length, featuring her flowery-looking sea slug's gill before, again, ending in a cream color. Her hair, except for the hair on her scalp, has vertical yellow striations. She has rhinophores, the horn-like structures on her head which begin on her scalp, which are a light taupe with darker horizontal stripes. They extend gently upward before coming to a point. She always wears a diamond-shaped upper-ear piercing on her left ear and frequently accessorizes with either a decorative hairpin, headband, or neckwear.

Shima's default ink color is light blue, but her hair and piercing change colors to represent her Splatfest team’s current ink color.

Hokka
Pronounced "Hō-kah" Hokka is a 22-year-old Salmonling, based on the Coho (Silver) salmon. She is 6’0" (183 cm) tall and has orange eyes, with pupils in the shape of a diamond. Her idol markings consist of a small × and a vertical diamond below her left eye, and her hair is a shorter cut than Shima’s. She has a limp mohawk-styled cut, with two tendrils extending shoulder-length on each side, near her temples, framing her face. Her hair color is grey, fading at the tips to end in her current ink color. She has gill markings below her eyes, on each cheek, and also sports an eyebrow slit on her left eyebrow. Hokka's salmon tail is long, nearly as long as she is tall. She is always seen with two round upper-ear piercings on her left ear, and a diamond-shaped one in her right earlobe. She has two notches on the lower part of each ear, and often accessorizes with a bracelet, ring, or neckwear. In addition to her gill markings, she has two markings encircling her neck, two horizontal diamond-shaped markings above each wrist, and three on the outer sides of each thigh.

Hokka's default ink color is orange, but the orange portions of her hair, her piercings, and the orange webbing in her tail all change color to match her current Splatfest team's ink color.

Shima
Shima gives off an aura of elegance and discipline. However, she doesn’t do well under pressure since she is normally quiet, demure, and some would even say shy. Unable to trust people for most of her life, Shima often finds it difficult to open up to others, and usually stays reserved to herself. Despite her usual demeanor and her many fears, she has been able to rely on Hokka time and time again throughout her life. When she is with Hokka she often forgets her fears, and is willing to do anything with her because of the deep bond they have built over time. Occasionally, she likes to just sit back and admire Hokka’s beauty. Though, if anyone were to harm, bully, or disturb Hokka in any way, she would go absolutely ballistic.

Shima has loved puns ever since she was a kid, and she often enjoys any chance possible to throw as many as she can into any news broadcast they host. Unlike Hokka, Shima tends to plan things ahead of time, and usually doesn’t seem to go “off-script" too much. However, when Hokka pushes her too far, she may have an emotional outburst. When she gets fired up, people cower at her threats - and when she’s especially pissed, there are a lot of threats. She secretly loves the drama created behind the scenes during the Splatfests.

Hokka
Unlike Shima, Hokka performs well under pressure because of her outgoing, laidback nature. Hokka is fun-loving, but isn’t afraid to put the hammer down when there’s a problem that needs to get taken care of. As an extrovert she holds her own in a conversation fairly well, but is known to occasionally struggle when Shima isn’t around. She often thinks of Shima first, her career second, and everything else last. Due to Shima’s perceived innocence, Hokka is very protective of her and tends to stay out of drama. She sometimes gets overexcited easily, and would literally kill a man if they were to bring any sort of harm to Shima, which would be easy for her since she’s developed an uncanny ability to use her favorite weapon. While Hokka always keeps her goals in sight, she definitely doesn’t mind having some fun along the way.

Hokka is fairly easy-going as a Splatfest idol and news presenter. Even though she gets upset when she doesn’t win a fest, she tends to get more upset at Shima’s unstoppable onslaught of puns than at her own losses. However, when she gets taunted or antagonized for losing, Hokka is quick to lose her temper, occasionally swearing on-air, much to Shima’s (and their manager’s) dismay. She prefers to be straightforward with her emotions, but still enjoys a friendly back-and-forth banter.

History
Hokka grew up with her mother and father in Delta Spawn, a small, hidden town established by Salmonlings due to their sudden, humanoid evolution. Hokka had a mostly normal childhood with very supportive parents. When she was young, her days consisted of exploring and playing with the other Salmonling children, and occasionally she would play with Ghillie, an Inkling child that accidentally stumbled into their town. The two only interacted a few times when they were very young, but they still formed a friendship that Hokka would hold very dear to herself. Hokka's parents would always tell her that, "Music is the thing that binds us together with what we love". Due to this, she grew a small interest in music at a young age, but never did much with that interest besides watching her parents perform music at home, or watching the other Salmonlings at the festivals in their town. As she grew older, she decided she wanted to play the guitar, and her parents were very supportive of her decision to do so. After receiving a small guitar from her parents as a birthday gift, she spent most of her days playing music, and she became heavily interested, and invested, in perfecting her skills. She often would feel like she could become better than she currently was, which led to many sleepless, and loud, nights of playing the small guitar. Over time, her parents started to worry about her since she would rarely ever interact with many of the Salmonling children after receiving the small guitar. They would often ask if Hokka was lonely, to which she would always respond with shaking her head, and going back to playing her guitar. She truly was lonely, but she knew the future would be less lonely as long as she continued on the goals she established.

Shima grew up with her mother, father, and sister in Harushi, a small, bustling town that was never as hidden as Delta Spawn due to the fact the Harelings were proud of their species and their accomplishments. Shima never had the best home life as a child due to her parents always comparing her to her sister, and putting her down for anything she showed interest in. She would often hide from her parents, and would attempt to find happiness in the small things that she could. While exploring around outside of their town, Shima found an old, torn up concert poster. After finding the poster, Shima asked her sister about it, and the only information she got was that the poster was from a band with an idol. Shima, out of pure curiosity because of the fact she had never heard of an idol, decided to occasionally ask her mother about it, which led to Shima often being scolded with the fact that she would never have the chance to become an idol. Despite this, she decided she wanted to practice singing so she could prove her parents wrong. One day, her parents found out about this and heavily scolded her for it, telling her that her sister had more of a chance to become an idol than she did. Fed up with this constant routine, Shima decided she would run away from her family, and find a new home where people would accept her dreams, and most importantly, her.

Shortly after running away, Shima stumbled into Hokka at Delta Spawn. At first, Shima was terrified of Hokka since she had never seen a Salmonling before, but Hokka reassured her that she would be okay and wouldn't hurt her. After Shima felt safe, they started to conversate. They spent a few hours just talking together, and eventually, Shima told Hokka about her family, and how she couldn't go back to them. Hokka offered to take Shima to her home, and at first, she declined, but Hokka ended up convincing her to come with her. At first, Hokka's parents were reluctant with letting her newfound friend live with them, but after hearing Shima's situation, they allowed her to stay there for as long as she needed. Ever since that day, Shima and Hokka have had a very special bond. There was never a person they trusted more than each other, and Shima extremely enjoyed her newfound freedom with her new friend. Though, the thing that truly tied them together was music. After finding out they both had a common musical interest, they often practiced singing together. Eventually, Hokka introduced Shima to Ghillie. At first, Shima was hesitant to interact with the Inkling, but after getting to know Ghillie, Shima slowly opened up to her too. The three were almost inseparable, and they wanted to do everything with each other. Ghillie would often tell the duo about Inkopolis, and they promised to all go there together as soon as they could. After a few years of being together, Shima and Hokka finally decided they wanted to start a career in Inkopolis. Ghillie was excited by this idea, and almost immediately agreed to go with them to support them. Shortly after Shima's 18th birthday, the trio set off for Inkopolis. Shima and Hokka were a bit scared of what was yet to come, but they knew they would finally have the chance to start a musical career, and the thought of that heavily convinced them to keep going on.

After many, many boat trips, the trio arrived at Inkopolis Harbor, a newly built town solely established for the sudden humanoid evolutions of some species. Almost immediately after arriving, Shima and Hokka promised each other that they would never go separate paths, and would always be together no matter what happened in their potential futures. The two decided to form a small band named "Beneath The Bay". Weeks later, they started performing at small gigs. They didn't have the best instruments or idol costumes, but that never bothered them too much, or hindered them from continuing to do what they loved the most. A few months after they originally arrived at the Harbor, Inkopolis officials decided they wanted to involve more of their culture in the town. This led to the idea of establishing news broadcasts and Splatfest events hosted by an idol duo. However, the officials were unsure who would be good candidates to not only represent the new humanoid species, but also to be the first Inkopolis Harbor idols. Officials started to scout for talents, but were stumped because most of the talents they were finding were not of the new humanoid species. Eventually, one of the officials showed up at Shima and Hokka's small gig, and realized they would be good potential candidates. After their gig, the official handed them a card with a number on it, and the rest is history.

Trivia

 * Shima’s birthday is November 22nd.
 * Her birthday is on “Good Couples Day”


 * Hokka’s birthday is on July 7th.
 * Her birthday is on “Tanabata”


 * Shima’s weapon class of choice is Splatlings.
 * Her signature weapon is the Shimmering Bay Nautilus, a unique Nautilus variant created by Ghillie, Hokka’s childhood friend.
 * Hokka’s weapon class of choice is Rollers.
 * Her signature weapon is the Honorable Bay Dynamo, a one-of-a-kind Dynamo variant created by Ghillie, her childhood friend.
 * Hokka seems to dislike Grizzco.
 * Hokka, being of Salmonid origin, is susceptible to being enraged by Glowflies.
 * More to come!