Tide Stanford

## Relationships

* Chillwave
* Lunara

**Tide Stanford** is one of LastyGhost's fandom characters for *Splatoon*, as well as her symbolic Octoling in *Splatoon 3*.

## Description

*"No one knows where does this particular Octoling come from. Tide Stanford is fairly new to turf battling and he has yet to find a weapon that piques his interests. Thus, he is constantly changing them and changing clothes to see what he likes the most, though he already has an outfit he likes. The most interesting part is that he decided to call himself 'Spring Man' to sound fresher towards others. To be fair, I don't know if he knows someone else already sports that name, nor he knows what it means. But while he makes sure to be one of the freshest around Splatsville, it is going to be fine... hopefully."*

*"Months of getting along with Chillwave and Lunara were also months of practice and reconsideration for Tide. As Inklings and Octolings alike caught a glimpse of his real name, he thought that he would sound fresh with it as opposed to a nickname. Thus, he decided to stop telling others to call him 'Spring Man' and be accepted by his real name. Moving to Inkopolis was something he did not expect but found fruitful. Not to mention, he has met a veteran in flesh and ink, and wills to learn from her."*

## Character

### Physical appearance

Tide is an Octoling with a middling build, fair skin, cyan eyes, droopy ears, a pointy nose, middling, angled eyebrows, and his hair consists of curled tentacles. His default ink color is lavender, and the hair will change color depending on the team.

Regardless of outfit, Tide wears shorts above the knees.

#### Default outfit

As LastyGhost's symbolic Octoling, Tide's outfit differs each session, but normally he wears the following:

* **Invisifloats:** A pair of angled glasses with light gray armor and a strap that changes color with the ink color.
* **Choco Layered LS:** A light gray long-sleeve shirt with a brown t-shirt above it, featuring a white logo and an aqua green tag.
* **Shark Moccasins:** Moss green shoes with cream laces, yellow sub-soles, and murky green spiky soles.

#### Locker

Because he is LastyGhost's symbolic Octoling, Tide's locker changes as LastyGhost collects items and stickers. Most of the time, it features books, magazines, toys, and treats.

### Powers and abilities

* **Octopus morphosis:** Tide can shift between a humanoid and an octopus at will.

## Story

### 2022

Tide was one of the many Octolings that arrived fresh to Splatsville. The first thing he did was to venture Alterna and be one of the many to foil Mr. Grizz's plans, though in the end, Tide was not comfortable with attacking Octarians.

Feeling the need of attention, Tide gave himself the nickname 'Spring Man' with which he would battle and be referred to as by strangers. Before the Chill Season, Tide was not as active in turf battling for reasons he did not know. In one of his days off, he met Chillwave, dangerously spending the day near the beach to refresh herself.

*To be continued...*

## Relationships

### In *Splatoon*

* **Lunara Strogon** - *"We both have a lot to learn about ourselves."*
* **Chillwave** -  *"Isn't chilling at the shoreline dangerous for us!?"*
* **Inkistar** - *"The first thing I wanted to do in Inkopolis was to meet a turf war veteran... what happened?"*

### Beyond *Splatoon*

* **Lasty** - *"How do you know I am worthy of serving you, impish butterfly?"*
* **Earthstar** - *"We have a lot in common!"*
* **Sting Samuray** -  *"The stingrays that serve you look a lot like Big Man. But you're not a stingray yourself... how?"*
* **Justin Robinson** -  *"\*shudder\*"*

## Development

Tide was developed as a quick replacement to "Springy", which was LastyGhost's symbolic Octoling during the first month of *Splatoon 3*'s active time, upon receiving the suggestion of renaming herself 'Spring Man' in-game. In Early 2023, this 'Spring Man'-looking Octoling was given a proper name, and in March, the 'Spring Man' nickname was retired.

### Design

Tide's design is drawn from his default aspect in *Splatoon 3*.

## Trivia

* He is an indirect revival of Tide Poolford, one of LastyGhost's characters once designed for *CRiTORA*, even if by name.
* Despite being comfortable with any pronouns, Tide is often referred to with masculine ones.
* LastyGhost hosted an AMA (Ask Me Anything) of Tide at a Splatoon-related Subreddit and the questions asked revealed further details about him:
	+ He doesn't know who Spring Man is.
	+ He likes sugar cookies, making him confused as of why others don't like them: this references their reception.
	+ The reason his locker includes comic books and magazines is because it is what he relaxes with.
	+ He doesn't really spend time with other Octolings with similar styles unless it's during a Splatfest, but he is attempting to befriend two Octolings with "unusual tastes or aspects" (referring to Chillwave and Lunara)
* Tide's thoughts about Justin, just like the thoughts of LastyGhost's Splatoon fan characters that are Inklings or Octolings, allude to Justin being a frequent seafood consumer, thus hunting squids and octopi.