"That was awesome, Marina!"
"Huh?" Marina looked up. She had just gotten dressed and come out of the bathroom.
"Your singing! Marina, your voice is amazing!"
"WHAT?! Y-you…you heard that?!"
Of COURSE she did, you idiot! She thought to herself. Why did you sing? WHY did you sing? Whywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhy—?
"Dude. You were singing, and this is basically a one-room apartment. Of course I heard it! But that's not the point! Marina, please don't be upset…"
"Ugh, this is so embarrassing…" Marina said, looking down at her feet.
"It's not embarrassing at all! I sing in the shower all the time! And you're lucky I was here to record it!"
Marina's heart plummeted. "You what?"
"Oh…you don't like that I did that? I'm sorry, I just—"
"Eloise, you—you know how I am! Are you serious? The ONE time I decide to actually sing, I get recorded?!"
"Look, I can always delete it!" she said. "Don't worry, the world isn't being torn apart."
"Wait—what did you even record it on?" Marina asked. "I thought you didn't have a phone."
"Well, you're right, I didn't…but while I was stealthily running off with the new awesome pair of headphones, I found an electronics store and took the liberty of treating myself to one!"
"How much was that? How much did it cost?" Marina asked quickly.
"Umm…I don't know. Like 500 tokens?"
"500 tokens!" Marina exclaimed. She couldn't believe it: Eloise, the person she lived with and was perfectly understanding of their financial situation had just spent 500 tokens. "Do you know how long that's going to take us to make up for?!"
"Look, I'm sorry! I thought you would be happy, okay? It's not just for me, it's for us. You know we'd need one eventually."
"Eventually, yes. That was our agreement. Not now," she said, sighing. "What's their return policy?" she asked hopefully. Very, very few Octarian stores offered the return option—this stemmed from the fact that many Octarian stores were what other nations would call "shady"—but she still had to ask.
"Sorry. We're stuck with it. I promise, though—you'll be glad we have it as time passes."
Marina nodded reluctantly. "Sure."
Suddenly there was the sound of fast, urgent knocking on the door. Eloise rushed over to open the door, and upon swinging it open was greeted with the face of Riptide.
"HI! Hi, guys! Okay, so I know we just met and all, but something REALLLLLY awesome just happened to me."
Oh, no. Him again. I'm going to do something wrong, just you wait.
Eloise stared at him suspiciously. "Umm…okay. Congratulations?"
"No, I mean, it includes you guys! If you want…I mean, I know it sounds super weird and I totally get it if you turn down the offer, but…okay, so I kinda-sorta heard your conversation when you first arrived here—you know, about how the place wasn't bad and stuff—and your other conversations made it clear that you're…ummm…not in the best financial state—"
Marina felt like she should've taken offense at such an intrusive comment, but in actuality, she was fine with it.
"I mean, you know the walls are very thin, as you know—I'm not a stalker or anything, heh—so I heard this stuff, and GUESS WHAT HAPPENED?! I WON! I FREAKING WON!"
"Won what?" Eloise asked.
"THE COMPETITION! THE-THE MUSIC THING!" He said excitedly. He noticed their blank, clueless expressions. "HOLY CARP, you guys, do you live under a rock?! It's this big competition where you have to choose a song and make a cover of it—but the cover is only you for the first round, so you have to record yourself playing the different parts of the song and combine it into a video. And I WON! THEY CHOSE ME! I'M THE ZOANTHUS CITY WINNER!"
Marina's heart was fluttering. She felt so proud, for some reason.
"Good job, but…this concerns us how?" Eloise asked impatiently.
"Well, I'm moving on to the second collection of rounds, and it's centered at Octopany."
Eloise nodded for him to continue. "Okay…and…?"
"And I need two people who have never played an instrument to join my team. For the second part, the challenge is to do another cover, but with a minimum of twelve instruments instead of four, and two non-musically-experienced people need to participate. So not only do you need to create a good cover; you need to teach other people how to play instruments."
"Wait. We, umm… I don't want to be rude, but…we just met you. Are you sure you…want us?" Marina asked.
Stupid, stupid, stupid mouth! You're SUGGESTING YOU DON'T WANT TO GO!
"Yes! I actually don't know any other people who don't play instruments," he said. "Wait, that was dumb. I'm not actually sure: you don't play instruments, do you?"
"Nope," Eloise answered quickly; Marina guessed Eloise did this to keep Marina from mentioning her newfound singing talent, just in case voice counted.
"Great! Okay. So. Feel like quitting your jobs?"
Marina's heart dropped. "What?"
"I mean…if you're going to help me…you'd need to at least put a hold on your job for a few weeks, and possibly longer, if we advance. Also, we'd all be roommates."
This was a lot of information to juggle at once. This—what should she call him…?—acquaintance had burst through the door and was now inviting them to live with him for a few weeks in a far-away city to be his teammates in a music competition.
…What?!
This was their second day in the apartment, and already they might move?
Octopany was a beautiful city, though…the center of the Octarian Nation's wealth and commerce…
"What do you think?" Eloise asked Marina with a big smile on her face.
"I mean—it's just—I don't want to—"
"Come on! Where's your sense of adventure? We literally just got released into the world. Now's the time to do stuff before we get old!"
It sounded exciting…adventurous…but that wasn't her style, was it? Marina had always liked a simplistic, routine-oriented lifestyle. She didn't like all this jumping around.
But who knows? This may be a door to an amazing life.
What if she stayed? What would happen?
She'd continue working in the failing craft store. As the economy worsened, especially in the lower-ranked cities, the amount of money people were willing to spend on arts and crafts decreased.
Knowing her social skills, she would never get promoted to manager. So she would keep the same job for who knows how many years? And poor Eloise, though she masked it, had always sought an exciting life.
Just do it. Say yes, Marina told herself. Who knows how long it'll be before another opportunity like this arises? And that's considering there'll be another one at all!
But…what happens when the competition is over?
…Cross that bridge when you get to it, Marina.
"Okay. I'll do it."
"YES!" Eloise shouted. "Good-BYE, YOU TRASH-BIN BUILDING! INKLINGS should be the only one using this place!"
"When do we leave?" Marina asked. She only needed a few more days, just to organize herself before the move.
"Today!" he exclaimed.
"WOOOO!" Eloise screamed. "This is going to be AMAZING."
"Today?!" Marina repeated. "Wow…umm…okay. Okay. How are we getting there?"
"Boat—trains haven't been running, as of yesterday. The boat leaves at 5:00 PM, so be there: Cirrinia Port. You know where that is, right?"
"We'll figure it out," Eloise answered quickly.
Marina sighed internally. Oh, Eloise…
She admired her optimistic view on life, but sometimes it was a good idea to plan ahead for the future.
"Okay, perfect! I'll be there!" he said, walking out the door and closing it behind him.
And that was it.
In less than five minutes, Marina's whole life course had switched paths.
