Taking on a New Life
Part Five
Written by Arian Mabe (Amethyst Mare)
Commissioned by Kittenrose232
Adagio had her work cut out from her – both the part of her that was the warped version of Knight, the man she’d been, and the siren inside. The competition at the bar, which was, to be fair, rather toxic in how it had been presented and played out to the staff there, was not the sanest of things and hardly something that anyone wanted to delve into, regardless of the rewards. There was a pressure and a strain to having the competitive aspect of it loom over them, hanging over their heads, pushing and bearing down constantly, perhaps something that the owner had not considered to begin with.
Maybe he had. Adagio was not about to talk him out of it when she was neck and neck with Kayleigh, a seasoned bartender who had been there and done that, seen it all, for the winning spot. She had Donnie, of course, to work with and support her, though it was the siren, surprisingly, that stepped up to the plate, using her skills in a way that shocked both of them. Of course, the siren would never have admitted that, however.
Adagio took a back seat to the siren some nights, fascinated by her way of going. When she wasn’t trying to trip Adagio up and make her fail she was a formidable creature to behold. Giving up command of her body was strange at first, watching things happen as the siren took control, pouring drinks and singing her heart out, but it gave her a break from controlling two beings rather than just the one that she was truly used to. She saw through her own eyes without feeling as if she had to lift a finger, much less an arm, though her body still gained the aches and pains of being on her feet for so many hours.
One of the bartenders who was new and absolutely no competition or threat to Adagio at all, Olive, was turning into a pretty good student under her teaching, though Adagio could not take credit for the smirk on her face as she slung her arm around the timid woman’s shoulders.
“I’ll teach you everything you need to know,” she proclaimed and bragged (quite a feat to do both at the same time) as the siren, letting her speak through her lips. “You’ll do well here but listen to me, alright, because I’m the one running this place!”
She blew hot and cold and the others working there, whether they were washing glasses, serving snacks or mixing drinks, didn’t know what to make of her, but the siren told Adagio that that was a good thing. It was good to keep people guessing, never entirely sure of where they stood. If she was erratic, jumping all over the place even with swapping back and forth from the siren to the human Adagio and back again, they wouldn’t know what to think. That made them weak and vulnerable while she was left in prime position to swoop in and nail what she wanted: the top spot of the bar.
You’ll learn…
For once, Adagio hungered for it in a strange way. She didn’t understand, not yet, but she would, one day.
It was strange, very strange, but she could see more when she didn’t have to think about doing all of the time, opening up new routes and avenues to make money, more money than anyone else at the bar. There were little slacking notes, inefficiencies, and Adagio stomped them out with ruthless precision, chiming in with the siren when required, though the siren’s hands, when they were leading the way, were more dextrous and swift than Adagio could have ever hoped to be. It was her that learned to mix more cocktails than anyone else, quicker than anyone else, pushing things harder and faster, sweat beading on her forehead.
Adagio could not say just why the siren was trying to be better than anyone else, for she made no secret of the fact that she thought that everything that was being done then was pointless, at least to her. The siren did not benefit one bit from Adagio running the bar, except with, well, her life continuing as Adagio was able to continue sustaining them both, yet she pushed on, aching and yearning for it, for something that she kept hidden from Adagio even as they fell more and more in-step with one another’s thoughts.
“Adagio, you’re on form tonight!”
Donnie laughed, his cheeks rosy with the heat of the night, though the summer did creep into the cloying darkness of the bar from time to time. The air conditioning was not the best in there, to say the least, though it did conk out from time to time too. That made the drinks flow more freely but it did also make clientele leave more quickly, a tentative balance that the two of them were still working on fine-tuning.
“Yeah!” She could not help but grin back, his uplifting mood intoxicating. “We’re killing it! There’s no way we can lose now.”
There was only so much that could be done in a single night, however, the night eventually coming to an end as the lights dimmed, the customers left into the sweltering heat of the night. It clung to the lines of city streets as if it was striving to smoke them out, snarling and hissing a draconic head down and through the tarmac, steaming from below to dry them up until they were nothing more than bones.
Hey, Adagio thought, shaking off the rather macabre image. Cut it out.
That had been the siren taking over her thoughts a little too much, as descriptive as things could be, Adagio taking back control to lock up for the night, the staff collecting their tips.
“You’re taking in too much.”
That was Kayleigh. Of course, it was Kayleigh. Adagio raised an eyebrow and shook her head, rocking back on her heels. The siren itched to take charge.
Let me do it. I’ll put her in her place.
Not now.
The siren grumbled but simmered down obligingly, knowing that it may have put them in a bad spot. And the things that they did could put them in a bad spot if the siren was allowed to push on, needing to be drawn back and nudged into line too from time to time.
“What was that?”
Adagio, however, was not that much better as her hip cocked out, scoffing lightly.
“You do know that this is a competition, right?”
She spoke slowly as if Kayleigh had not realised that, was so stupid that she could not have gotten that far in her mind, and the woman she addressed sucked in a short, sharp breath.
“You... What...”
“What, cat got your tongue, dearie?” A younger Adagio may have stuck out her tongue, childish glee pushing forward to the forefront of her mind. “You know what this is all about and to say that I’m taking in too much, well... You sound jealous. Are you jealous?”
It was, perhaps, only the smile on her face the whole time that softened her words, Kayleigh backing down, although there was a frown on her face.
“You’ve changed, Adagio,” she muttered, though she didn’t even know what she was saying. “You’ve changed... Good luck here. I don’t need this. You know I can get work anywhere I want in this city, don’t you? This whole competition thing… It’s madness. So, good luck to you and let us leave it at that. This is crazy. You’re going to need it.”
But Adagio didn’t think that she needed luck, even though the siren asked her internally whether she was glad to make one of her staff members quit, taking a cruel joy in watching Kayleigh stalk out the door with her nose in the air.
Does she really think she’ll get work elsewhere? The siren tossed her head scornfully. No… No, I know ones like that. But to make her quit, why… That’s something indeed from you.
What? No! Adagio shook her head, Donnie shooting her a questioning glance. No, I didn’t make her quit, she took her tips, she looked at the schedule. I didn’t make her do anything. I can’t make anyone do anything.
The siren rolled her eyes.
Keep telling yourself that.
Yet Adagio could not admit just how far the competition had pushed her, the end in sight as she leaned hungrily into it, a racehorse chomping at the bit for the final stretch of the race, that last furlong. It had to come even though she was shorter and sharper, less forgiving of mistakes, yet she knew as she lay in bed that night with thoughts of Donnie in mind, how his fingers had brushed hers earlier that evening, that there were other things that warmed and softened her in equal measures.
He’s a good sort.
Adagio frowned, though her lips twitched as if she didn’t know whether to smirk or not, amusement bubbling through.
Really? She said to the siren. It’s strange to hear you say that, considering that you didn’t even like him at first. What’s changed there?
The siren did not want to tell her, which was not surprising in the least, grumbling and practically squirming, the flick of her tail something that even Adagio could feel. The hippocampus-type siren floated in the space that she occupied, a strange sort of tank-like sensation residing within Adagio. When the siren crossed the bounds of that, she would be the one in control, but on either side of the tank they could interact with neither of them truly taking over control of Adagio’s body at that time.
He’s interesting, the siren said at last, tossing her head with a lofty flick. Don’t you think that interesting things are so much more...interesting?
Adagio suppressed the urge to roll her eyes. Sometimes she really did talk gibberish but they didn’t have to think in the same ways, not always.
Whatever helps you sleep at night.
You know I don’t sleep.
Yet such conversation was not needed as Adagio drifted off, the siren resting in her own way also, though the bar gig would continue night after night, even pushing the bounds on her scheduled days off. It was harder to push away the siren’s natural attitude when she was always there, pushing at the back of her mind, egging her on to be snappier, shorter, bossier, to get her way.
She was coarse, just like the way that she had been when she had just become Adagio, her personality shifting without her consent. Those had been more difficult times and, indeed, she had lost her job before she’d gotten a handle on it, thought letting the siren in to pilot things had problems there too. Things there...well...they weren’t all entirely left under Adagio’s control.
Adagio, however, had to push back against it, her lips fixed into a hard line that was not conducive to being a good waitress or bartender or even running the bar, though there was a little leeway when it came to nights where she was not running it. But those were harder still to bear as she snapped and hip-checked another bartender out of the way, a scowl twisting her lips.
“Move! Honestly! How slow can you be?”
The other woman, another new lady, Louise, who had started not all that long ago, stuttered and dashed for the back room, tears on her cheeks, and, too late, Adagio realised that she had let the siren’s influence push through one again. She didn’t have the grit of Olive or even Kayleigh, even bearing in mind that her biggest competition had thrown the towel in, quite literally. Damn it. She’d have to fix that later for the sake of building the relationships she needed to make the place a success, to get her name where it needed to be, but she hardly remembered how she was supposed to behave or how she wanted to behave when there were so many other things swirling around her head, each one clamouring for dominance.
Still, it could be tempered into strong confidence, the sort of woman who got things done, even if she was not always liked for it. She knew how to act to get people to like her and she laid that on thick, tips slipped into her work apron even though they were meant to go into the communal post. Of course, Adagio accepted them, happy to take everything that she was given, stocking it up to spend on herself and, well, maybe a little on Donnie too. The siren wondered what the point of the money was but she just couldn’t get her head around the importance of it.
Does it give you power?
Adagio mused over that, tilting her head from one side to the other. How did one explain something like that to a siren?
Sometimes.
The siren licked her lips, eyes gleaming, the rush of the bar pounding around.
I like power.
Adagio wasn’t sure what power the siren wanted but maybe it was something that she could come to in time. The siren was, after all, more amenable to things when Donnie was around and he did like to come to the bar too even on days when he was not actively helping her out there. He wrote and invited her on stage to perform too, though that was something that the other bartenders didn’t like, the others that were vying for a management position above supervisor. To run and own the bar, at least for a while, well... It would be a massive boost in the industry, even though they could not hope to stay at the bar forever when the owner would eventually return, setting them up for anything that they wanted to go on to do.
It would set Adagio up nicely, however she wished. And it was that which she wanted above all else, knowing that there was a way to keep things going in life, her new life. There were so many things behind her that, truly, she had had no choice but to leave behind, the job and the social circle that simply would not have been able to understand her as Adagio instead of Knight. Even Donnie did not realise that she was Knight, the man that he’d known so long back, though she wasn’t even sure whether that was something that needed to come to light at any point. Maybe she could keep it a secret forever. Maybe she wouldn’t be around Donnie forever.
However, the siren didn’t want to see Donnie slip from her life so easily, nudging her in the back of her mind even while she was in the bar.
You should ask him out again. Go for coffee. That’s that thing that you like to drink here, right?
Adagio raised her eyebrow, a glass in each hand. It was hard to keep up a conversation in the bar, let alone a second one in her head with the siren.
You being nice? Why would you suggest that?
Maybe just be quiet and go for coffee with him.
But Adagio pressed the issue.
Why? What are you trying to get out of it?
For once, however, the Adagio didn’t have an answer for her, nodding as someone else asked her a question and hustling on.
“There you go, lads, drink ‘em up!”
She snapped her fingers and flashed the patrons a smile and they were putty in her hands, though there was still the issue of the crying bartender to deal with. She had to fix that, pushing for her grumbling interior, the side of her that said that she was not doing anything at all that was wrong, that it was everyone else’s problem and not hers. The parts of the siren’s personality that she had sought to overcome leered ominously, dragging their way to the surface even as she wrestled with them, trying to work out the person that she wanted to be through it all.
Another day, a call came through that was turning out to be so very common.
“Yes, this is Adagio.”
She smiled, enjoying the attention even though it was yet another option that she would have to turn down. They all wanted her, so much attention and sustenance coming her way, wanting her to sing for them. Maybe singing alone would be a more interesting gig but it was a flightier one, one that was changeable, and, frankly, that was not something that either Adagio or the siren wanted at that moment in time.
“No, no, I’m afraid I can’t at this time.”
She still smiled though because she liked the thought that everyone who was anyone wanted her, craved her, wanted to see her up on stage to the exclusion of everyone else in the world. It could get too much, however, and her lips turned down as the person on the other end of the line pushed the issue, the siren snarling and snapping, showing her fangs.
“No, I said I wouldn’t do it! And for that rate, really – what do you take me for?”
Adagio slammed the phone down with a growl, crossing her arms, the siren swirling and circling inside her.
They all want to use you, she hissed. Don’t let them. Filthy humans.
Don’t forget that I’m one of them too, Adagio shot back. I have to fit in here, you’re just a passenger coming along with me.
Of course, she didn’t really mean that, not after they had come to an accord, but the shift in their relationship had brought fresh difficulties along with it, twisting and turning within her like a coiling serpent readying itself to strike. A siren was far more potent, however, than a serpent and she hunkered down, hissing and writhing.
You may be one of them but we are one and the same here. You will never be fully and only a human ever again.
Things settled, if only a little, when the owner returned to oversee what he could, though his injuries were still apparent and Adagio was less than quietly hopeful (with Donnie, of course) that he would want to take a step back even after he was better, fully. That was not something that she could rely on, however, wanting to see how things panned out and still wanting to ensure that she had everything set up as she liked it.
But you can have the whole bar too...
Oh, but the siren did so tempt her, luring her into a false sense of comfort, whispering to her all that could be hers if she only managed to rise to the top. The competition came to an end, which was both a trial and a burden, considering all the stress that it had put her under, even if it had gotten them to work together a little better. There were still things to be worked out, both of them testing the boundaries and the limits of one another, though the more they did the better an agreement they came to, seeing just where they stood.
They needed to push back to learn where the lines were, her new personality forming more and more, though it still was not very much at all a stable entity. The normality of routine and getting days off again once management resumed, though lightly as they were all well-versed in what needed to be done in which place at the bar by then, helped a little. The siren settled, taking over more frequently while Adagio could trust her to hold back the bossiness to just a level where she would not get fired. She’d even made up with the bartender that she had made cry a while back, though that relationship was, understandably, tentative at best. She couldn’t blame her for that but she would be her best self in that regard either way.
“Do you want to come out to the dojo with me this evening?”
Adagio blinked, taking the phone away from her face, looking at it, and then putting it back to her ear.
“What do you mean?”
Vaguely, she was aware of what a dojo was and something stirred in her, fuelled on by the siren.
Yes, yes, go with him!
You’re obsessed.
Look who’s talking.
Yet their banter was more light-hearted still than it had been before, a smirk on one’s lips shared with the other. They knew it was a joke, they knew they both liked Donnie. The real question there was whether or not Donnie knew that they liked Donnie, though that was not something that had come up as yet. It was not something that Adagio was even all that sure that she wanted to come up, shaking her head even as Donnie rocked back on his heels.
“Oh... You don’t want to come?”
“No! I mean yes! Yes, I want to come!”
She fumbled with her words, too flustered to get everything out in the right order, a grin that she was glad he could not see stretching from ear to ear.
You like him.
Adagio leaned against the wall, phone cradled to her ear, making the arrangements. Her hips even swung back and forth gently. One would have said that she was completely and utterly infatuated.
You do too.
And, so, the deal was set and she had a very interesting outfit to put together for a meet-up that was not a date but kind of a date, things taking a very interesting turn.
Wait, what is a dojo?
It was the siren’s confusion that came through, her emotions mixed and turning upside-down, inside-out, swirling back and forth. She’d wanted to spend time with Donnie but to go to a dojo, something where there would be fighting? Why would she ever need to know anything at all about that?
It’ll be fun and you get to spend time with Donnie too. I’ll even let you take control for a bit, if you want to have a go.
The siren snorted.
You should have gone out for dinner or a movie or something, those things you do. I don’t understand them but what I do understand is that we won’t have him all to ourselves up there.
She frowned and shook her head, though lying out outfit after outfit on her bed didn’t let her see what she needed to wear to such a thing. Was there something appropriate for a dojo even in her closet? Should she go shopping?
It’ll be fine.
Oh, even I know you don’t say that except when it’s not fine.
But that was where the siren was wrong and still had so very much to learn about humanity and how people were, even though she had already gotten more than her fair share of a crash course from Adagio or Knight, depending on how one wanted to look at the person inside the body. Adagio sighed. Sometimes it felt quite as if there were too many minds and personalities within her single mind, though none of that made sense.
The siren remained sceptical as they sat on the edge of a chair at the edge of the dojo floor. Donnie introduced them to a few people, the names slipping by her notice, and asked too if they wanted to join in, to learn a bit, but even he did not realise that he was speaking with one. Adagio and the siren swapped control, Adagio trying to make up for, in effect, forcing the siren to come to the dojo when it was clearly not something that she was interested in at all.
Just watching?
Just watching, Adagio confirmed, softening her tone. This can be useful. I... I used to be good at a type of fighting, I guess you could say. But I don’t know anything about this. I may need to learn something like this, if not this.
The siren was worried, twisting back and forth as Donnie sparred, Adagio’s eyes following the lines of his body, how he moved, with the mindset of someone wondering how it all blended together. It was hard to see as he could have been said to be more comfortable with technology and, to a small degree, weaponry, though that was part of a past life and, frankly, not one that she wanted to at all return to. She wasn’t even sure if she would have the muscle memory left for it.
We have our voice, why would we need to do this?
Adagio suppressed the urge to roll her eyes but the siren felt it all the same. She just had to be a little more patient with her.
Having some self-defence is good for people like us, people like me. It makes it more difficult for people to take advantage of us. For some women, it can make us more formidable even by knowing only a little.
The siren was not convinced, though there was still some part of her that enjoyed watching Donnie, the two of them figuratively sitting side by side as they relaxed into it. It was soothing to not be rushing around off their feet and Adagio murmured to the siren, pointing out a few moves that she knew and looking up some others on her phone for the siren, explaining what she could. Of course, what she knew was limited but there were at least a few things that she could pass on, though none of it perked the interest of the siren.
Donnie smiled and asked her about the dojo afterwards, though she said something about it being late and needing to get home, as much as the siren wanted to stay. She just wanted to look, to admire, to see what there was to see in one who had helped her grow her power.
That power was what worried Adagio, however, as she walked home that night, head down against a light mist of rain, although the coolness of it was something to be appreciated after such a heady heat. It was something that crept into every nook and cranny of a place and didn’t allow one to cool off at all, though the siren, thankfully, did not feel temperature like the body of Adagio did. Whenever she was at all uncomfortable physically she was quick to retreat, relinquishing control of the body to Adagio even when she was in the middle of a step. It was a weird game too that they could play, tossing control back and forth and laughing, dancing from paving slab to slab where the sidewalk had not been laid over with tarmac.
The rain splashed, puddles glittering with the street lights, the lightness of walking alone so late at night clinging to her soul. It was what she needed, letting everything sink in after the dojo, the slick moves of Donnie and all that even the more advanced fighters too lingering in her mind.
Could I do that? She wondered, the siren listening in as she always was.
It makes sense, in a way, to do it. I don’t think it’s something that I would have ever done or considered where I am from. But I’m never going back there, am I?
It was strange to hear that coming from the siren, though she was making an effort, which Adagio did too appreciate.
It’s only a suggestion, Adagio said back, knowing that the siren had seen her thoughts anyway, how she had wondered whether she could wear the crisp, clean uniform herself and take the place of some of the fighters. If anything happens to our voice, my voice, I’ll need something to fall back on. And just think about how demanding all these other people are being, trying to drag us away from our bar.
The siren smirked inwardly, a tease tickling at the back of Adagio’s mind.
Oh, so you want the bar now? And I thought you’d given up on that.
Of course, she hadn’t. But that was by the by as Adagio gently turned her mind and that of the siren’s back to things that could or could not come to be. She had spent so long at the bar, working and working, she needed to do some things too. That, at least, the siren agreed with whole-heartedly, needing more to entertain her than the same old grind day in and day out. Maybe that was why she’d been imprisoned in the sword from the beginning, though not even the siren remembered what had happened back there.
Maybe the knowledge of that would come in time, but she did not know, could not know. There was still more to be uncovered and they would have to see.
How determined do you think those other bars and events are going to be about getting you to sing for them? I hope you’re not going to do it.
Adagio hesitated, a pool of street lighting falling over her.
It may be more money but I don’t want to be pulled every which way either. I want to focus on this and...well...Donnie too. Other things. Things that don’t have me aching every night. I know you feel it too and we can’t keep that up forever.
For the first time, a rise of sympathy tingled forth from the siren’s mind. She knew, oh, she did, though she did not remember why she understood that. The knowledge of what burnout was came from another life or another time, though the word and the sensation of it was all that came to the surface.
People can be aggressive here, Adagio thought with a sigh. It pays to be careful and I don’t want to be caught off-guard, to be honest. It doesn’t make sense for anyone to come after me but do you ever feel...
...Uneasy?
The siren finished her sentence for her. It was odd, leaving a twisting, sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach, though it was not something that she could honestly put her finger on. It was gone as soon as she paid attention to it, slithering out of reach, leaving a feeling of warmth and companionship, knowing even then that she was not alone, not with the siren in her mind at all times.
They could play things back and forth, enjoying the company and knowing that they would always find a way through. There was singing but there was something more still to the power of her voice that Adagio was yet to uncover, the siren holding that secret close, one of the thoughts that she had not yet allowed into the grace of her host’s mind. Yet she was not a host, the two of them living inside one body and one head, sharing a form and still needing to learn how to live together.
You know... I’m kind of glad you’re here.
The siren started, drawn up short.
What do you mean?
You set me straight and have made me do things that, otherwise, I would never have done or tried for myself. You’re like an odd friend inside my head, although one that I can never get away from.
She made sure to say that teasingly just so the siren did not take it seriously – did they even have that kind of humour where she came from? It didn’t make sense but, of course, not everything had to make sense, not when the siren’s chuckle reached her mind, wrapping around her mind and curling in deep.
The same... If one succeeded, they both succeeded. And that was all that they needed with the lure of a new hobby ahead of them.
Put it this way, Adagio said, a little of the siren’s wickedness leaking in. If we try this, it’ll give us more...hm... More to make others bend to our will, to do what we want. I know you like that and, really, there are times when there is no harm there.
The siren smiled back, fluttering and flickering back and forth in her mind.
Agreed... But maybe a little more than necessary too?
In the dead of the night, nearly home, Adagio grinned.
Maybe.
On that count, they would have to see.