A New Beginning REWRITTEN

C1 - The Start

                                                              A/N at the end!

                                                            Marina's POV

"Ugh!" I groaned, crumbling the blueprint and throwing it into the trash bin beside the desk I sat at. The paper landing in the trash bin made it swirl, 'why can't I just make something good!' I closed my eyes and threw my head onto the table.

"Why are you groaning Marina?" The voice filled the room as it came from a door behind me that had just opened.

"Cause I can't get this stupid blueprint right!" I replied and spun my chair to face towards the door to see my roommate entering our room. "How was training Jamie?" I asked the taller Octoling.

"Terrible, I keep messing up the programming of the flooders." Jamie sighed, taking off the extra armor and shoes she had on, along with her Octoshot. She stumbled a little bit as she struggled to take them off. She then walked up to me and leaned her hand on my shoulder, "Relax, dork. You should take a break. Every day you come back to the dorm and you stay up late working on your blueprints. I don't know why you'd want to work when you're in our dorm, this is like our only time off!" Jamie exclaimed, moving her hand off my shoulder.

"Maybe it's 'cause I'm a commander and I need to keep my place?" I retorted, picking my head up. "You know I'm working on our new version of the flooders, I never get a break," I claimed, looking up at the Octoling, her porcelain skin shining in the light.

Jamie is 18, one year older than me. She's also taller than me. Her tentacles are long and wavy, while her natural tentacle color is red. Mine are purple-blackish with teal tips, by the way. Anyway, she's been working in combat for the Octarian army for most of her life until two years ago when she decided she wanted to work in engineering. That's when we became roommates.

I've been working in engineering for half of my life, I started when I was 11, I'm 17 now. King Octavio said I was a natural in engineering. I quickly climbed up the ranks, and just recently I was the youngest to ever become a commander for our engineers. There is something that has dawned on me though, something I am shunned for; Music.

Every Octoling has to wear goggles at all times, we mustn't take them off. They keep our minds focused on the war between us and the Inklings and our training. They play music to stop us from our wandering thoughts. Of course, when I first heard the music that played in my ears I fell in love with its sweet sounds. I even asked King Octavio if I could help him with his music. He told me that music was never to be played by any Octoling but him. I still never understand why he said that but I never question him, I have to follow him with my life.

"You going to bed Marina?" Jamie asked, making a squeaking noise as she climbed the ladder to the top bed of the bunk bed we shared.

"Yeah, yeah, I guess so," I answered with half my attention, spinning my chair and getting up from it. "I really hope I'll get to help ya with the flooders tomorrow."

"We'll see, you are a commander after all," Jamie commented.

"Youngest one too! Can't believe I got promoted." I plopped down onto my bed. 'Even though I wasn't satisfied with my blueprints, I got promoted today, and now I'm the youngest commander!', good thoughts filled my head. I ended up turning off the light, "Goodnight Jamie."

"Goodnight Marina," Jamie replied.

I closed my eyes, slipping away into dreamland.

"Marina... Marina." I heard my name, calling for me through the darkness. "Hello?" I called out, "Anyone there?" I started walking, the only thing I could see was a faint figure in the distance. "I know someone's there," I called out again, my voice echoed in the darkness. I looked down at my hands and saw my dark brown skin and the darkness that was spread around me. As I looked back up I saw the figure closer, I still couldn't make out any details. Again, I called to the figure. No response. I started walking closer, the darkness swirling into a field on a mountain. The sky looked like nothing I'd ever seen before. 'This must be a real sky, not the fake skies they have here underground,' I thought.

I looked upon the windy field and saw two figures in the distance. I walked up to see myself sitting on the field laughing and smiling with my goggles thrown onto the ground next to me. I looked over at the second figure and saw an extremely short girl who had white hair with yellow at the tips of her bob cut hair. She wore black clothes with ripped pants and black boots, along with a black beanie that said 'Asshole' on the side of it. I looked closer at the girl and saw how her eyes connected, the way Inkling eyes connect..

'She must be an Inkling,' I thought, walking closer. 'Why am I talking to an Inkling? Isn't that dangerous? Aren't we at war?' I saw how happy both of us looked, it seemed like we were acting like friends. Friends? With an Inkling? Weird. I couldn't hear what we were talking about, but I did see something that was mine, my busted keyboard. 'No one wants to hear my music, why do I have that with me?' I looked around again and realized how this place looked even more unfamiliar. 'Is this the future?', I thought as I blinked the dream away.

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And were off! I'm so excited to write this story!