Octopus Plushies
The Plushies are a group of sentient, intelligent, and cute plush octopi that are often seen in the company of Tomoe_Hotaru .
About The Octopi
There are currently a total of 10 octopus plushies in the group right now, all of whom make their home wherever Hotaru happens to be staying at the time. While they may seem a little strange to people the first time they meet, most soon learn to enjoy the company of the cephalopods as they are quite handy, helpful little guys to have around. They are currently employed at Leona's bar where they preform a variety of services, basically doing whatever job needs to be done at a given time. They are especially good cooks and enjoy making all different sorts of food. As much as they like cooking, they enjoy eating much more. They can often be seen skittering about their business while holding a juice box to sip from, or a bag of some type of snack. They are well known to have a particular fondness for croutons. As to where the food goes, and how they actually eat and drink is a complete mystery even to Hotaru who spends almost all her time around them. Like all octopi, they have the ability to change color and the texture of their 'skin' even though they're plushies they have this ability. They don't use it too often, however.
While the octopi may be very good listeners, they are completely unable to speak. As such, they often use white boards with dry erase markers to create little signs so others can know what they have to 'say'. With Hotaru and eachother, though, it seems they have the ability to wordlessly communicate. Not just 'speaking' to each other, but being able to share things like images, thoughts, feelings, just about anything they think of.
Since they are in fact plushies, they believe that it is part of the job description of a plushie to be huggable, and snuggly; sitting on a person's lap like a cat would, being pet and keeping a person company, or curling up with them for a nap, or just giving them an 8 tentacled hug should that be what they need.
Even though there are 10 of them in Yuriba, they are rarely seen all in one place. Usually just a few accompany Hotaru and the rest remain wherever they are going to be staying. Each of the octopi has his own plushie, these are of course proportional to the size of the octopi so they can be properly snuggled.
Biography
The plush octopus story begins with a chance meeting on a bridge between Hotaru and another woman. At that point in her life, Hotaru was painfully shy and tended to avoid just about all people. It was a very low point in the child's life, homeless and living in the park and not having any friends at all. While on the bridge in town, she happened by a woman who was holding an octopus plush, a mascot for one of the ramen houses that was around at the time. The woman saw the little girl was staring at the doll and so she gave her the TakeTako plush. Even though he was just a plushie, he became Hotaru's best and only friend. He would often be the only one the child spoke to for days at a time, and she often wished that he was alive.
One day while out looking around the town, with the octopus plushie she had begun calling Mr. Tako, she managed to get an inn room for a few days. It was during the first night there that Hotaru awoke from her sleep to hear strange noises in her room and a strange glow coming from the other side of the sofa. Flipping on the lights and looking over to the couch, she saw, in the glow of a portable TV, that the octopus plushie was happily munching from a bag of Cheetos. He waved up at her and smiled cutely, that being the first meeting between child and sentient octopus plushie.
It wasn't too long after Mr. Tako had became sentient that he introduced Hotaru to more octopi like him. A group of five came for a short visit then returned to where they were originally from. Not long after, the holidays were coming up and since by then Hotaru and Mr. Tako were working at Leona's they were going to help set up the Christmas party, to which all the plushies were invited. Thinking they could use more help, the octopus known as RO arrived earlier than the group to assist with the set up and planning. He liked it there so much that when it was time to go, he decided to stay for a little bit longer. He's yet to return home.
The next holiday season, 8 more octopi had come to the party at Leona's and had such a good time they too haven't returned and decided to make Yuriba their new home.
The Plushies
Mr. Tako is the first sentient octopus plushie in Yuriba, and a self described 'Safety Octopus'. Given initially as a gift to Hotaru of a regular plushie on the bridge in town, he soon became her best friend and then became self aware. Whatever caused it to happen, how the plushies work, or anything related is a complete and total mystery. However, they are strictly non agressive and are all very friendly, but they are also fiercely protective of Hotaru and should she be threatened, they would most definately do whatever they had to do to protect her. His plush is a goldfish named Mr. Fishie, Senior as the octopi also have a fish tank with a goldfish named Mr. Fishie Jr.
RO , named the Refrigerator Octopus by Hotaru, is the second long term cephalopod resident in Yuriba. This plushie got his name from the fact that he is often found lounging about in the fridge, much liking the cold temperatures inside. He is a very mischevious octopus and loves to make jokes, especially bad puns. RO also claims to be a 'Safety OCtopus' but just as in the case of Mr. Tako, it's not exactly clear what, if anything, it means, even Hotaru not really knowing what that title means. He often likes to wear various costumes and outfits, sometimes dressing up, rather convincingly, as a stuffed penguin or laying on someone's head and acting as an octopus hat. RO's plush is a black cat whom he has dubbed Mr. Kittie.
BO is named the Bartending Octopus. He, like the rest of the plushies besides RO and Mr. Tako, named himself. A rather diverse octopus, he is not only interested in bartending but also in the medical field. He claims to have a medical degree from a correspondance school under the name Bo D. Poplipnak, and with the help of the others, often creates and perfects his own type of medical devices. For those wondering, Polipnak is Hungarian for 'octopus' . He has a Tonberry plushie, complete with soft squishy knife, named Tom Berry.
JO named himself the Juice-loving Octopus. As his name suggests, he has a fondness for many different types of fruit juices, with a particular like of pineapple. He was the one who started the rest of the plushies' enjoyment of juice boxes, and is considered by the rest of the octopi to be the go to cephalopod for any juice related questions as he's a conosueir of the drink. As such, he handles the juice ordering and handling for Leona's bar. JO has a python plushie he calls Monty. In recent months, the plushie has been hired up by Elara to act as an assistant, room mate and constant companion who hangs out in the rucksack she tends to carry around.
Ping is a rather athletic sportsoctopus. He enjoys a lot of physical activities such as skating, swimming, and competative couch vaulting. He's currently trying to establish a couch vaulting league here in Yuriba. Ping also enjoys watching sports on TV, or listening to them on the radio and even enjoys sports video games. Cooking is another of Ping's interests, the octopos known for making very good burgers and grilled food. Ping has a squid plushie named Squid Pro Quo, but occasionally, especially when Halloween rolls around, he becomes The Karate Squid.
Tate is short for Tater, and this spud loving octopus definitely lives up to his name. He is often seen munching on chips, or french fries, even having a special recipie for the latter. The octopus also enjoys reading, and intellectual pursuits such as crosswords, sodouku, and like activities. He is also an excellent baker, making delicious 'Octopies' and other such pastries as well as making very tasty pizza. The octopus has a cute little fly plush, who wears a cape, and is called Supa Fly.
Cheeto obviously got his name, not to mention his normal choice of color from the snack. He is the most easily identifiable octopus since he is normally the same color pattern as a cheeto. Cheeto is often seen with his partner in crime named Reece; the two enjoy watching movies and surfing the intenet. They also spend a lot of time watching out for Diana's twin daughters, Isis and Iris. Of the two 'hatchlings', as the octopi call young children, Cheeto is usually around Isis. His plushie is, of course, the cheeto mascot, Chester Cheetah.
Reece is a fan of the peanutbutter cups, so much so that he decided to name himself after them. He's also the color of the peanutbutter cups, being a darker brown ontop but on the bottom part of himself, he's more of a tan color. He has many of the same interests as Cheeto, and the two are usually seen together as they watch over the twins. Reece put himself in charge of taking care of Iris. He's got a plush shark named Mack.
Fuzzy is the softest of all the octopus plushies, having a velvet-like feel to him. It's hard to tell exactly what he feels like, but he is very good for snuggling. Becky seems to have a particular fondess for snuggling with Fuzzy, the octopus sometimes being used as a pillow. He doesn't mind, though, and gets to catch up on his sleep at the same time. He has one of a set of cute little weevil plushies, which look like adorable little smiling worms. Fuzzy has the larger of the two, which is named Weevil Kinevil.
Cookie is an enigma of an octopus. While he got his name from his favorite treat, as did some of the other octopi, Cookie is very much different from the rest. First, he about a third the size of the other octopi, some of the plushies call him a pocket octopus, or a mini-octopus. Unlike the others, who use a dry erase board and markers to communicate, Cookie uses a small notepad and crayons, the latter he uses with his coloring books as well. It's easy to think of Cookie as a child, though he's a very smart octopus, but also very shy. He's usually riding around in Hotaru's chest pocket, or a special carrier constructed to fit around the girl's neck, basically a pouch on a string, where he is often seen looking out over the side at the world. Cookie has the second of the weevil set, the smaller plushie nicknamed Weevs, though Cookie says he's the 'Lesser of Two Weevils' since he's the smaller.