Coroyakuza

Five| Ebb and Flow

Marina gazed at her reflection, she wasn't really sure how she felt about the skimpy outfit she was encouraged to wear, and the heavy makeup caking her face . "Are you sure you want me wearing this, Mr. Cuttlefish?" She turned to the old man, standing behind her. "It's Captain Cuttlefish. And, of course! Just style your tentacles a little bit and the crowd will think you look like a million bucks." Marina frowned. "What's wrong with my tentacles?" Cuttlefish shrugged, handing her a hair tie. "Nothing, but just do something with it. Makes us look a little more professional."
Huh, professional, of all things.
The octoling just nodded and pulled her tentacles into a ponytail.

"See? A million bucks!" Captain Cuttlefish said, nodding to Marina in the mirror. Marina grimaced at herself. It was all too much. The heavy stage makeup, the unnecessary amount of jewelry, oh and especially the outfit, it was just too much. She stared, and stared at the dozens of noticeably fake gold and silver bracelets adorning her arms, and the equally worthless hoop earrings hanging from her ears. She fixated on her outfit, suddenly feeling even more uncomfortable. The thin, tight fitting, white tube top she had reluctantly agreed to wear, felt suffocating. It was just too tight around her bust. And to top it off, the denim shorts she had been lended were tight and low cut, exposing more of her body than she was comfortable with. And unfortunately, she didn't have much of a choice in what she wore. Marina sighed, there was no use in dwelling on it. She put on a false smile, preparing herself to sing in front of the shitty bar. Why was she so nervous? Everyone was drunk anyways.

"You're up in 3." Captain Cuttlefish informed.

The octoling took a deep breath and began to hum the song she decided to sing. As she hummed she looked around backstage. The performer that was already on stage doing god knows what (magic? comedy? a college lecture?) finished up his little nonsense spiel and Marina mentally prepared herself, watching as he bowed and the makeshift tablecloth curtain closed, nobody clapped. She took a deep breath and went on the stage behind the curtain taking the other performer's place. He gave her a flashy smile, "Break a leg." Marina shyly smiled back, feeling nervous. She carefully made her way to the grand piano (really the only nice thing at the bar) at the edge of the stage, making sure not to trip on any cords or empty beer bottles. Very professional, she thought. She lowered the microphone on the stand next to the grand piano, and sat down.

"The next performer is a new face around here, one you've never seen before. Let's give a warm welcoming to Marina Ida!" Captain Cuttlefish announced as the curtain opened, revealing the aforementioned. She gave her award-winning smile that she practiced in the mirror. A low whistle was heard from the back, causing her to blush in embarrassment. She took a deep breath before placing her fingers on the keys. A pleasant melody filled the bar, as the audience stopped talking. Marina was playing an original that she had written when she was only a teen. She held the song near and dear, and often played it for Pearl. She had played it so much for her girlfriend that Pearl had even added her own rapping part, which went surprisingly well with Marina's voice. Ebb and Flow, she had named it.

The crowd watched, intrigued. Marina heard whispers among the crowd, and was only able to pick up a couple mentions of  the word "Octoling". She winced slightly, knowing that if they felt the need to say something about her race, it wasn't a good thing.
She looked down at her fingers dancing on the keys of the piano, and decided to close her eyes and tune the whispers out. She inhaled deeply and began to softly sing the words she knew by heart.

The bar went completely silent, everyone mesmerized by her heavenly vocalization. Her voice was breathy, but ever so pleasant and soft. Captain Cuttlefish watched from the backstage, amazed. The bar had never been this quiet and peaceful since the last performance from his granddaughters, years ago. He was expecting her to just plug in some instrumental pop song from her phone and mediocrely attempt a couple whistle notes, hence why he insisted the skimpy outfit, to make up for lack of talent and have the audience at least somewhat interested. But my cod, was he mistaken. Marina was talented, and he didn't understand why she was wasting said talent on drunken city Inklings.