Acht

Acht, better known by their stage name Dedf1sh, is a major character in the game series serving as an unseen cameo in Splatoon 2: Octo Expansion and the tritagonist of Splatoon 3: Side Order. Once an engineering trainee in the Octarian army, Acht decided to instead switch careers to become a DJ and musician, earning praise everywhere for their musical talent. However, they would still feel insecure about their skills and thus, upon entering the Deepsea Metro, would voluntarily become sanitised, ridding Acht of their personality and allowing them to focus solely on music.
Sometime afterwards, Acht would have their soul sucked into the Memverse after the AI Order went on a rampage and began stealing parts of people's souls from all around the world, hoping to bring about a stagnant and orderly world. While they managed to regain their memories and free will, they were forced to hide in an elevator after getting attacked by Jelletons and thus is relegated to a supportive role. 
==Appearance==
Acht is a tall Octoling with a feminine build, being only slightly shorter than Marina. They have pale green skin and long indigo tentacles with a red gradient at the tips, which is also present on their fingers though the tips of their digits are black. They always wear a white cap with a black bill and a jellyfish/octopus logo on it, with the Octoling musician Paul of SashiMori also appearing to have the same logo on his clothes. Acht also wears a black cuff bracelet with red dots forming a gradient on it on their right arm, as well as silver headphones that have two additional cup-shaped nodules above the temples.
In their album art from The Octo Expansion, Acht wore a black top that was loosely held up by a strap on their left shoulder. They also wore a pair of Octoling Shades, giving them the appearance of having blank red eyes. 
When they appear in-person in Side Order, it's revealed that Acht's top is a dress that is torn at the bottom with red stitches between two of its flaps on the left side of the dress. They have traded out their Octoling Shades for a pair of red mirrored shades and wear knee-high black leather boots. Their left arm is also bandaged with white bandages, which Acht explains is from a Jelleton attack. Their right ear also has two black stud piercings in addition to the ring piercings present. It's also revealed that Acht has an undercut underneath their larger tentacles with the katakana for their surname shaved into their head. When removing their shades via the game's files, it's revealed that Acht's eyes are now completely lime green and they have their eyebrows upturned in a "worried" expression similar to Marina's. They also lack the black sclerae of regular Sanitised Octarians, and have black eyelashes with three points.
Before their sanitisation, Acht's body coloration was essentially inverted, possessing pinkish skin instead of green and having maroon tentacles with an indigo gradient, though they retain the red gradient on their fingers. They had dark green eyes with yellow pupils and had two ring piercings on their right ear, three on their left ear and two black studs on the left as well. When not wearing the armour of the Octoling soldiers, Acht wore the same outfit they do today, sans the headphones. Like in their 2D appearances in Side Order, Acht styled one of their tentacles to cover their right eye. 
After the events of Side Order, Acht seems to have stopped wearing their shades, bracelet and cap, though they retain their outfit from the Memverse. As their left arm has recovered, they wear a small string bracelet and now wear grey laceless boots. 
==Personality==
Befitting of their previous status as a Sanitised Octoling, Acht tends to be rather level headed and cool, speaking in a rather emotionally distant manner. They tend to be rather lax and calm, patiently explaining mechanics of the game to others and overall, refraining from showing too much emotion, as well as quickly trying to defuse situations such as when Pearl mistakes them for a hostile entity. 
While seeming rather emotionless, Acht is actually rather fond of their friends as they are quick to forgive Marina for accidentally causing this mess, as well as frequently reminiscing on their time together. This causes a slight bit of tension between Pearl and Acht as the former occasionally mistakes Acht's fondness for Marina to be romantic interest, though it's shown that Acht purely sees her as their friend, even displaying some disgust at Pearl and Marina's overt displays of affection. 
Despite this, deep down Acht seemed to be rather insecure. In the past, despite all the praise they received for their music, they still felt that their music was lacking in one way or another, leading them to become sanitised so they could rid themself of all their worries and concerns. It's also they wear shades as they feel insecure about their appearance and want to look cooler. Even after being reverted to their former self, Acht still shows a lack of appreciation for themself, describing themself as "just another bystander", looking down upon their own skills and right before the fight against Order, noting that they wouldn't be much help against the AI. Fortunately, after assisting in the defeat of Order by helping dispel its control via mixing Marina and Pearl's song, Ebb and Flow, Acht seems to regain self confidence and even agrees to join the duo on their world tour after Order is defeated. Furthermore, new album art of Acht's new life shows that they're living quite happily and seem to enjoy making music again, additionally becoming confident enough to ditch their shades and cap, revealing their full face.
==Biography==
===Background===
Once a regular Octoling who lived in Octo Valley, Acht was a student at the engineering school for the Octarian military, learning how to create weapons of war. There they would meet a fellow student Marina, with the two being close friends, engaging in activities such as playing home-made rhythm games together. However, while Marina was a studious and diligent student, Acht was rather rebellious and a slacker, leading to them coming in conflict with their teachers. As such, while Acht was stuck with internal security jobs, Marina became a high-ranking soldier under DJ Octavio's personal command, though the tow remained good friends. However, after Marina defected following Agent 3's battle with DJ Octavio, Acht was left without a job and decided to continue their side hobby as a DJ in a shifty club located in the Deepsea Metro, away from the eyes of their superiors. Under the stage name Dedf1sh, Acht would become incredibly famous, receiving praise and recognition from critics and fans alike for their ability to integrate music of every genre into their songs, with their style being described as "mimetic".
Despite this acclaimed reception, Acht still felt dissatisfied with their work, feeling anxiety over their production process despite their hardworking nature. As such, sometime after Marina’s defection Acht would leave Octarian society along with droves of other Octolings, finding their way into Kamabo Corporation’s facilities. There, Acht would agree to be sanitised, erasing their personality and allowing them to mindlessly focus on producing music, making them a slave of Commander Tartar who would use their music throughout Kamabo Co.'s facilities.
===Splatoon 2:The Octo Expansion===
Dedf1sh is unseen in-person during the game, though their music is heard throughout the entirety of its events. After Tartar's defeat and death, they were released from their servitude and presumably wandered about the Deepsea Metro, still devoid of sentient thought or any recollection of who they once were.
===Splatoon 3:Side Order===
At some point, Marina would discover the exact details on the process of sanitisation and begin working to reverse it, creating a virtual space called the Memverse to restore the memories and personalities of those affected by the process. During Order’s takeover, Acht, along with the souls of many other innocents were sucked into the Sector of Order, with Marina also being kidnapped in an attempt by the malicious AI to gain a physical form. Upon entering the Memverse Acht, regaining their free will and memories, would hear Marina's cries of help from the Spire and attempt to rescue her. However, Acht is attacked by the Jelletons and be forced to seek refuge in the elevator, with the incident leaving a heavy wound on their arm which they bandaged. 
Later on, Acht encounters Agent 8 and Pearl (as a drone) when they arrive at the ground floor. Mistaking them for an enemy, Pearl orders Agent 8 to attack Acht but they quickly clarify that they mean no harm, revealing themself as an old friend of Marina's who tried to rescue her, only to get injured. Acht reveals that they've been anticipating the duo's arrival and passes Pearl a colour chip, which she inserts into a suddenly-manifesting palette, boosting her abilities. Acht explains that the chips can boost the duo's capabilities, and that with their power they can reach the tower and find Marina, who Acht assumes is involved in the recent events. Explaining that the elevator can only go up one floor at a time, Acht ferries 8 and Pearl between the different floors, explaining more game mechanics they learnt from dismantling the elevator console as they slowly make their way to the final 10th floor. On the way, Acht is pleased to hear that their friend Marina has become a successful musician, and decides to hasten their pace when Marina's voice, begging for help broadcasts on the sound system.
Upon reaching the 10th floor, Acht realises to their horror that Marina has been entangled inside a machine and is currently being brainwashed by a headset she's wearing. As Marina, denouncing 8 and Pearl as intruders, goes on the attack, the duo get to work destroying the portals holding her shield up before attacking the machine itself. Marina is ejected from the machine, coming to her senses as 8 tries and fails to catch her, causing the two to fall on each other. The machine vaporises into a black mass of glitches which calls itself Order, annoyed at the trio for interrupting the grayscaling process and thus, with a physical form and no more need to possess Marina, ejects the gang out of the tower before building it up 20 more floors.
As Agent 8 returns to their senses, Marina, having deactivated a program causing Pearl to be stuck as a drone, explains the situation to the group: she created the Memverse to restore Sanitised Octarians and Order to help run it, but it somehow infiltrated the programs of the simulation and began to suck the consciousnesses of other people into the Memverse, hoping to remove their personalities and create a world of perfect order, causing Acht to realise that Order is the reason they're trapped in the program. Marina quickly apologises for her role in this mess, to which Acht and Pearl assure her that she meant no harm and that whatever has happened thus far have all been Order's fault. Thus, the group embark on another trip up the tower to stop Order once and for all. 
As the group ascend the tower, Acht bonds with their old friend, reminiscing their time with Marina to Pearl though they remain cautious about optimism for their journey ahead. Arriving at the final floor, Marina decides to join the final battle against Order while Acht, remarking that they wouldn't be of much help, stays behind in the elevator to keep things in check. Order reveals itself, proclaiming that in the world it intends to create, all people will be satisfied and content, feeling no need to change and ridding the world of chaos. Marina rebukes it, stating that while chaos can bring instability and that she's often wished that things never changed, change can bring about beautiful things and she's willing to take this chance. Order is angered by its own creator rebuking it and thus, transforms into the humongous octopus Jelleton Overlorder, attacking Agent 8 and Pearl.
Engaging in a battle similar to their encounter against Marina, Agent 8 destroys Overlorder's shields repeatedly before attacking it. Unfortunately, the AI reveals that the program has already been executed and begins greyscaling the entire world, causing Marina to desperately try and shut down the program with Acht trying to help her, though seemingly to no avail. Fortunately, just as all seems lost, Agent 8 manages to will themself back up and it's revealed that Acht managed to press the right button in time, activating the backing tracks for a remix of one of Marina's songs: Spectrum Obligato. With the song's energy empowering Agent 8 once again, they manage to reinvigorate the trio with their determination. Marina summons a DJ turntable for Acht and, healing their wounds, the two get to work pumping on 8 and Pearl, with the song's mood even causing Overlorder's tentacles to start dancing along. Facing off the evil AI once and for all, Overlorder attempts to confiscate Agent 8's chips but they are soon broken free and, empowered by all the colour chips and the song's mood, 8 and Pearl land a final blow on Order, seemingly ending it once and for all.
As the smoke clears, the group notice that Order hasn't been killed but instead, reduced into an adorable, miniscule octopus-like creature. Now christened Smollusk, it vows vengeance on the group for interrupting its plans, though Pearl still invites it to join her world tour if it promises to behave. Just then, a shining golden light beams down and the elevator to the true world appears, which the four board, sending them back to Inkopolis. Later on, it's revealed that Acht joined Pearl and Marina on their world tour, even collaborating on a song with them.
During the post-game introduction, Agent 8 is greeted by Acht, Pearl and Marina who have gone back to the Order Sector in order to release the soul fragments still trapped within, which have manifested as palettes. Agent 8 must ascend the Spire once more using these palettes to release the soul fragments at the Control Room. Finding Smollusk there, they fight it once more as it seeks revenge, though over time it realises that its dream was flawed and turn over a new leaf, deciding to fulfil its role as Marina's assistant. With all this complete, Marina, Pearl and Acht leave the Memverse for good, though Agent 8 occasionally visits Smollusk to fight it, which it enjoys.
In the meantime, Acht finally escapes the Deepsea Metro and continues their work as a DJ and musician near Inkopolis with the help of Eight and Off the Hook, collecting unpaid royalties from their time under Tartar’s control to rent a temporary home. They are also available as an opponent in Tableturf that Agent 3 can battle, the latter which Acht remarks reminds them of Eight.
==Trivia==
*With their glowing red eyes in their Splatoon 2 album art, it's believed that Acht could've been inspired by Canadian DJ Isabelle Rezazadeh, aka. Rezz who dons LED-studded glasses that also produce a similar effect to Acht's Octoling Shades.
**Their stage name Dedf1sh is also likely a reference to another Canadian DJ Joel Thomas Zimmerman, whose stage name Deadmau5 also has a “dead” prefix, an animal suffix and numbers replacing certain letters.
*Acht serves as somewhat of a foil to Shiver: while both are famed Octoling musicians with indigo as their signature colours, Shiver tends to be boisterous and arrogant while Acht is more humble and reserved, with Shiver's background of coming from a powerful clan contrasting Acht's childhood as a regular trainee for the Octarian Army.
**Ironically, while Shiver was initially assumed to be non-binary and Acht was referred to by she/her pronouns, Shiver would be revealed to be female while Acht's gender was retconned to be non-binary.
*Thanks to Acht's gender being retconned from being female to non-binary, it's been joked that sanitisation somehow drained them of their gender in addition to their free will and personality.
*As Acht isn’t seen carrying a weapon, damaged or not at any point in the game, it’s possible that they attempted to fight the Jelletons with their bare hands, explaining their arm injury.
*While Acht doesn’t appear to sing in the song that they collaborated with Off the Hook in, #47 onward, the voice at around 2:24 sounds like a deeper version of Pearl’s voice, which does sound similar to Acht’s vocal effects implying that they do sing.
**However, Alice Peralta, Marina's VA would later confirm on Twitter that Acht does not sing at all in the song out of respect for their friends.
*In upcoming album art depicting Acht's new flat, it appears they like plants, possessing numerous potted plants around their apartment. As it's noted that one of the plants present, Monstera deliciosa, is a plant that is quite suitable for beginners, it's likely that Acht just picked up this hobby and is growing one as a starting plant.
==External Links==
*Acht on Inkipedia
*Acht on the Splatoon Wiki
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