Taking on a New Life

by AmethystMare

Part Two

Author's Note:

After transforming into Adagio, the former man must learn to live as a woman and adjust to their new reality...

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Story © Amethyst Mare / Arian Mabe
Characters © respective owners

Taking on a New Life
Part Two

Written by Arian Mabe (Amethyst Mare)
Commissioned by Kittenrose232


Adagio frowned into the mirror, although it felt far too cliché to pause there for too long. That was the sort of thing that took place in low-budget movies and ones that were mocked for taking advantage of the clichés, though perhaps was more prevalent in novels where the author didn’t have much to do or say other than to describe, literally, how the character looked at the beginning. She had maybe been a little more on the cliché side when she’d been a man but, well, that side of life may have left her with more questions than even the full-length mirror in her bedroom, newly purchased, could answer.

No. She pulled away, in purple pyjamas that, for some reason, she had felt as if she’d “had” to buy. They weren’t the sort of thing that Knight, the man that she had been, would have picked up, not even for a lady-friend, but they had seemed right in the shop and money had changed hands even before she’d realised quite what she was doing.

She tried not to look too closely at her body, preparing to return to work for the first time since her transformation. It was strange at the same time as being a relief, though her old semi-professional wardrobe was woefully lacking. Frowning at her wardrobe, she cocked a hip and pursed her lips, though there was make-up too that needed to be applied, something to make her look more feminine than before and a fair side less like Knight.

Would people there see her as Adagio, a new employee, or would she slip into Knight’s place, having people wonder just how many changes had taken place. She winced but the spirit of the siren inside her rose up with a flicker of a serpent-like tongue, brushing over its lips. The siren was half horse and half fish, a hippocampus of sorts but not even in his life as a man had Knight ever come to see something quite like her. Adagio did not “see” the siren that had taken over her soul and her body in a way that was both painless and seamless but her mind’s eye still encapsulated her essence, the orange and gold of the potent demoness flowing through her in a way that could not be denied or pushed aside.

She shook herself off, dressing in a violet skirt that was too short for the office but would have to do. Heels stood out against it in a smart black and a purple blouse gave her a different shade to play with, though she went without jewellery that day, despite the prompting of the siren inside her. There may not have been any words but there were feelings, prompts, a sense of being “pushed” inside her. It was not as easy as she may have liked to ignore it and Adagio felt it was easier, in a way, to forget that there had been anything other. If she didn’t think about it, maybe it meant that she was not being controlled, that her life was still every last bit as it was supposed to be.

Heading to work on the train was as alright as it was ever going to be and she smiled, tossing her orange, curly hair back, tamed a little by some feminine hair gel that she would never have used before. There were a few more looks than Adagio was used to at play there but she cocked her hip for them and popped her hand on it, letting them look, letting them adore her. It was her right, after all, to take every last drop and scrap of adoration that she could from those around her, waiting until it was time for their true adoration to bring her back to full power.

Adagio shuddered. That wasn’t one of her thoughts, not at all. But she didn’t want to think about that as she stepped into the elevator with another hair toss, a smirk lingering on her lips that didn’t seem to want to fade away at all. It was there to stay, or so it seemed, even as one of her old work colleagues, Rickie, raced for the elevator, her hair all a mess and tousled.

“Heyyy!” She cried out, barely able to force out the words, arms flying. “Hold the door! I’m late!”

But that was not something that Adagio did for anyone, stepping fully inside the elevator and hitting the button for her floor without a second glance or look back at an old colleague who had actually helped her out time after time before. Rickie’s face was flushed but there was no way that even that was going to draw on any note of sympathy in Adagio’s heart, throbbing and pounding, the distance closing between them all too swiftly.

Adagio’s eyes flashed.

“Sorry! Too slow!”

“Hey, what are you –”

But the door slid closed in her face and Adagio laughed out loud, preening and fluffing up her hair in the mirror.

“Such a shame...”

Things, however, were not destined to go any better for her or others in the office, as diplomatic as her manager had decided to be with her. He scratched the back of his neck, a little flummoxed by everything but treating her well all the same, though Adagio was not about to notice that as she chewed gum, popping it between her teeth as she looked on with distinct disinterest.

“Now, this’ll be your new desk,” he said quietly, Mr Henson acting discreetly for her benefit. “I hope it’ll be suitable. We should be able to integrate you back into your old work slowly and please let either me or HR know what we can do to help you in the meantime if you are sure that this is the way that you’d like to go.”

Something inside Adagio pulled.

“What, you don’t think I’m good enough for my old job anymore?”

Heads turned where Mr Henson had been terribly careful in trying to ensure that no one was put out or alerted to what was going on with Adagio, though all he could do was hold his hands up and back off, sweating profusely.

“No, no, no, of course not, that was never the case...”

Adagio was on a roll, however, as she threw her hands up, making a scene, her body acting out without the control or consent of her mind. In one half of her, she still felt Knight, the man she had been, and the other half was all Adagio, with one half becoming more and more dominant with each passing day – hour, even.

“Noooo, that’s not it, is it?” She rolled her eyes dramatically, one foot up on a chair – how had that gotten there? “You think that now that I’m a woman I can’t do the job I used to? You think a change like this makes me incapable? Well, have I got news for you, bud!”

In but a single leap she was up on one of the desks, letting out a cackle as she spun in a circle, eyes glowing with the faintest hint of red. Later, those working in the office early that morning that bore witness to her debacle of a display would put it down to the lighting not being particularly kind to her.

“I’m more capable than I was before! Have you controlled an entire school – of course not! That would be too much for a puny man like you! You don’t even have any magic!”

She should have been walked into HR and fired straight off the bat for that outburst but, somehow, they managed to give her another chance, although she did not last the day. Work seemed oh so very boring while she knew what she was capable of, sitting at her desk with an arm slung over the back of her chair, entirely disinterested in what she was supposed to do. Adagio rolled her eyes when she was asked to make a round of coffee, the truth spreading that she was Knight, though she didn’t care about that. A short word here and a harsh word when she was assigned work was more than enough to put her on the short-list to leave the office building in spectacular style.

Dumped outside with a meagre box of belongings, Adagio frowned.

“Idiots...”

The box of her stuff wasn’t any use to her and she left it there, stalking down the street with a toss of her hair as the day wore into the late afternoon. A different kind of life bustled through the city at that time, the office workers filtering out for a side of evening relaxation, shop workers finishing shifts and hustling to make sure that they had everything they needed, chore lists never-ending in personal lives. Adagio scoffed. That wasn’t what she cared about. Didn’t they have servants or whatever to do that kind of stuff for them?

Well, she had the documents to get a new job, even though she rolled her eyes at the notion of needing to earn money. Wasn’t she above that? A supermarket was hiring but her slamming of a hand down on the counter didn’t seem to impress them as much as she would have wanted it to, the cashier rolling her eyes and dropping the bodged application in the bin near enough as soon as Adagio had filled it out. She scoffed. How rude! Well, she didn’t need them anyway.

Stalking into an administration office for a construction company and batting her eyes at who she thought was the CEO (hey, he was some big-wig in a meeting – who was she to know?) before she was ushered out in a ruffle of clothing. Why didn’t they want her? She stumbled over herself, her inexperience from being in the armed forces before and, well, not knowing how to job hunt as a siren-woman-thing tripping her up, shops turning her down with her snide smile and roll of her eyes even before she’d opened her mouth.

“No, sorry!”

“Not today!”

Another door closed on her heels and Adagio snarled under her breath, a rippling, writhing growl that clawed at her lips.

“Is no one looking for real talent in this god damned city? You – you hiring?”

She jabbed a finger a stranger on the street, a woman who hurried on by without a second glance. Just another crazy person, no one that she had to worry about, but Adagio was on a mission as she hunted, her resume sloppily retrieved and amended in a new frame of mind from her work computer while they had been trying to less than gently extricate her from her desk. That had not been the most graceful exit for her...

In her foul mood, she didn’t step out of the way of a man who was bustling down the street in a straight line, acting as if he knew exactly where he was going even if that included going straight through her.

“Watch it!”

His snap riled her up, fire seething through her, though a snap of her fingers and a snide word was all that she had in turn for him. The part of Adagio that was still Knight wondered at how she thought that that was any kind of response, for the guy who had been so rude and dismissive was already long gone, leaving only bystanders to stare and wonder at just what had possessed her.

But pausing there, at least, gave her a lead in the right direction, the flashing neon sign of the bar catching her attention as it flickered and buzzed, in need of a little electrical TLC but still very much functional. The “now hiring” sign on the door may have been small but there was nothing like a call from destiny like that if Adagio had been looking for it. And the name of the place... Well, even that made her laugh out loud, though there was a lack of humour in her tone as she cocked an eyebrow.

“The Siren’s Call bar, huh?”

She grinned, lips quirking up to show a flash of white teeth.

“Maybe you’ll do just fine...”

Knight had not been a social sort but Adagio was as she learned, swiftly, to pour drinks, how to mix, how to shake everything in just the right, a smile on her hips and a wiggle in her hips. It suited her more, slipping into the flow of it, although the old part of her still wanted to hide in a corner as the night wore on. It was not like Knight but it was like Adagio and that was all that mattered for a time in which she had to make ends meet and work out just what her life in that world was meant to be.

“Hey, hot stuff, what can I get ya?”

She flirted with the best of them, though it was all with the nuance and intention that she was deserving of their attention, not that she was the one set to give it to them. Her patrons stuttered and blushed, wrapped around her little finger, though some would have been as blatant as to say that they were under her spell. A spell of a siren, however, was a potent force indeed, far more than the liquor that they poured down their throats. She even was allowed to try some herself, watched by the bar manager, though they didn’t seem to mind her “snarkiness” and snide comments one bit.

“Keep it to customer service levels and you’ll do fine. Don’t let anyone take advantage of you – this isn’t a place where we give away shit for free.”

Can do!

Somewhere that allowed her personality to show through a little more was just the ticket for her as she laughed and let the energy of the bar lift her, her heart pounding in time with the increasing, driving music. Of course, it was a Friday night (she’d only been supposed to get settled at her old job that day, before that had gone bust) and she learned on the fly, even tossing a bottle from one hand to the other and putting on a little bit of a show.

“What, guys, you thought I’d drop that? None of that here!”

Sliding a drink down the bar to the patron who had ordered it, she flashed him a brilliant grin.

“There’s more where that came from. If you’d like me to stick around, talk to my boss. And say only real nice things about me, alright?”

She winked as if they were conspirators in a plot, leaving the man stuttering, his drink untouched. It didn’t matter to her though as the band stepped up on stage, drawing her attention a little more, though it was at least fair to say that anything that lingered on the ears would draw the attention of even a covert siren like her.

“What’ve they got to offer then?”

Frowning, she ignored the patron waving money at her, trying to get her attention, though her ignorance was deliberate. Yeah, yeah: they could wait. They could all wait until she was good and ready to serve them. A flip of her hand waved him off to another bartender while the twanging tones of the band thrummed through the bar, a trio of guys with one woman on vocals, a typical arrangement.

They weren’t any good – at least, not to Adagio. Knight had never been much of a singer but that was different to a siren, the music flowing through her, her lips parting, wanting to join in. But she was something different to them, different to human beings, the sort of creature that could control them all and leave them wondering just what had happened. Adagio smiled and rocked back on her heels, a hand pressed to her throat as if she could feel her vocal cords trembling even then, wanting to spill forth her sound into the world once more.

Had she done that before? A memory flickered up of a stage, many colours shooting across the twilight sky. Was that her memory or was it something else, the shadow of a dream that she should not have swallowed up for herself? She brushed it aside. It wasn’t important. What was important was getting up on that stage all over again, spreading her influence far and wide, letting them all see and adore her.

Adagio grinned. She could make that happen. She could most definitely make that happen.

“Say, boss,” she said with a smile, laying a hand on his arm, her best wink teasing on her eyelashes. “Do you take on new acts to play and perform here too?”

Her boss frowned, a little more distracted than her hand on his arm than she may have liked but that wasn’t something she was concerned about. Twisting people to her will came more and more naturally to her as she leaned over the bar, appearing wide-eyed and eager while, all the time, she was simpering and convoluting, entirely aware of what she was doing and the effect she had on him.

“I think I’d be great at it,” she said warmly, brushing the back of his hand with her fingertips. “You’ll have to listen to me sing sometime, I’ll really draw in a crowd. You up for it?”

She phrased it as if she was offering him something that he could not refuse and, of course, the expected answer was given. Adagio wouldn’t have settled for anything else.

Working at the bar was a revelation as the days and the weeks passed, Adagio making sure that her pipes were working just right and everything that she could have wanted was in place. If there was a way to feed and draw in more and more power over the course of time the bar was perfect for that, the sort of place where there were an ever-changing clientele and fresh display of patrons for her to utilise. She could take charge of the other bartenders too, commanding them in a way that just wouldn’t have gone down well at all at her last job, knowing the ropes or, at the very least, pretending to.

“You! Make sure table nine has appetisers.”

With a snap of her fingers, she flounced up to the stage, the quiet night the perfect time to do a sound check. Of course, Adagio performed alone and the tips were sure to be well worth it, her pay cheque still perhaps a little on the smaller side than she would have liked it to be for herself. She was used to, in the life of a siren, having whatever she needed whenever she needed it, taking up and dropping anything that took her pleasure as and when. Yet money was a changeable thing in the human world and Adagio, formerly Knight, hardly even knew what was in wait for the times if she did not find something to line her pockets with.

Do it.

Knight quailed. Adagio was dominant, pushing him on, pushing her on. The line between the man and the siren was thinner and fainter than ever, swelling within her heart even as notes of cruelty came out to play too. The others bent to her whim whether they wanted to or not, lies and manipulation running amok. She had them under her control, stepping back and out of her way, though Adagio, truly, did very little work at all in the bar.

“Ah-ah-ahhh,” she sang lightly, testing the microphone, wondering just how it would translate her voice across the bar. “Testing, testing... One, two, three...”

The last three words were sung as she stood halfway to the side of the stage, not quite in the centre but that was just her old self holding back. The man didn’t want to be there even as she pressed her legs together, a small part of her trying to be insignificant even as her siren side dominated. Yet the line blurred and they pushed back and forth, Adagio arguing with herself in her head about what she did and did not need to do.

This isn’t you.

Yes, it is.

It never was you.

It can be now.

Why are you in my head?

...

No answer was required in the tone of a smirk, Adagio groaning and rubbing her temples.

“Hey, you gonna sing anything up there or what?”

The patron scowled, leaning back in his chair so that it rocked onto two legs, a rougher sort that really should not have been leering at her one bit. And, just like that, the siren pulled Adagio back to her snarky reality, a raised eyebrow and chilling look simmering down any manner of sulkiness and entitlement that one, lone man may have had in his head.

“If you pipe down,” she whispered, her tone silken like the thread of a spider’s web, dangerous and beautiful at the same time, “maybe you’ll hear something worth coming back for.”

Of course, she would always be worth coming back for as her smirk touched her eyes in a red glow, shoving down the part of her that just wanted to skulk away, to pretend that she didn’t exist, that she didn’t want to get up on stage. A snap of her fingers had another bartender of a lower rank rushing up with a fresh drink for her, something to cool the tiniest bunch of nerves in her heart, even if it would only be temporary. Temporary relief was all the siren needed to take a scootch more control.

Her voice rang through, the backing track rising, though it was not as good as she would have liked in terms of acoustics. Yet Adagio’s voice was still not as she could have expected; to say the least of it all, Knight had not been all that much of a singer, emptying karaoke bars across his adolescent years. She flinched, eyes half-closed, losing herself in her music, heart beating more and more quickly as if even her own body struggled to keep up with it.

Head after head turned to her and she could not help but drink down their attention greedily, wanting more. The siren curled up within her like a dog before the hearth, watching and waiting for the opportune moment to act, but she had little to do or say when she was not needed in action. Words flowed from her lips from an old song that was still very much a hit, a party pleaser that had the patrons tapping their toes and drumming fingers upon the table, knowing the words even though it had not been heard in years. Adagio was not even sure whether she knew the words but they kept coming and coming, even as more patrons had to double-check themselves, sure that her eyes were glowing.

The show ended with a round of applause, the bar moderately filled and even the bartenders and manager joining in. And just like that it was the start of something new for Adagio, her smile wide and a gleam in her eyes, aching to press her hand to her throat for power that something in her urged was there, if not quite yet.

Word got out that she was the best singer in town (well, in many blocks of the city) and the money poured in, affording her the opportunity to dare with shorter skirts and tighter tops, pulling her hair back so that her shoulders were on show for her performances. Her attire only served to help with her bartending gig too, alternating between quailing and showing off her body, shifting her weight from foot to foot as much as she gave a little shoulder wiggle that drew attention straight down to other assets too.

Oh, there was sweetness in such manipulation that she could not help but lean into, hungry for the stage, hungry for the spotlight, feeling more and more fulfilled as her time went on. Sure, it was only a small gig but it would do her for a start until she could find herself on a big stage in the big world, spreading her voice to the masses and her control even further. Yet not even Adagio herself could have expected just how much she had changed, not only embodying the very essence of the siren’s spirit that possessed her but learning more, developing more.

She’d never known how to play cards but she learned then, flipping tricks and showing them sleights of hand unlike anything they had ever seen before. She wowed the patrons easily, a master of all trades and a jack of none, her smile flashing into a smirk at the drop of a hat. Adagio was more than she’d ever been and, more and more so, it was difficult to remember that she’d ever been anyone else, flourishing and thriving and singing her soul out as more and more returned, flocking to the bar to see and hear her perform first-hand.

“You’re doing great!” The bar owner said, though she didn’t bother to learn his name, as well as that may have been for her. “Do you want to do more shows, step up from your bartending gig? The tips will only get better.”

Smiling, she blushed, something softer in her reminding her of the way she was, the way she was without that voice inside her pushing her on, goading her to fresh spills of control.

“Oh, was I that good?”

Yet she could barely get the words out while appearing modestly abashed, something driving her to straighten her back and push her hair back behind her ears, boldly ensuring that her face was sharply on show at all times. Just what could Adagio possibly have to hide?

“I mean – of course, I was good! I was fantastic!”

Grinning widely, she dropped the owner a wink, even his smile faltering just a step. On the back foot, he couldn’t do anything but freeze as she leaned in, walking her fingers up his chest like a seductress, sending his heart aflutter even as she brushed the very tip of a single digit of his nose.

“And I’ll sing for you anytime,” she purred. “But we’re going to have to talk about my salary.”

“Er, yeah... Um, of course, of course, anything...”

She flounced to the bathroom as if she owned the place, expecting others to move out of the way for her. Cutting a path had never been easier as she got into the swing of her body, knowing just how to work her hips and jut her elbows, her gaze saying quite clearly that she expected people to move for her, to clear a path. They did so and a queue for the ladies bathroom was just not something that Adagio had to worry about, doing her business in more privacy than she had enjoyed as a man, which was, to say the least, a relief for her. She’d never quite liked the public aspect of male bathrooms, which were just strange. But maybe that was a part of the siren creeping in, a thought that she shrugged off as soon as it appeared as “not being all that important”.

There was, however, another bartender waiting to get in as she left, a friend of hers with dark skin and long, black hair that could not have been more different to Adagio’s wild curls, puffed up to add volume and height to her do.

“Sandra!” She said with a grin. “You getting some good tips in tonight?”

To her credit, Sandra laughed only faintly, shrugging as she tilted her hand back and forth, held horizontally.

“Not with you on stage, you know they’ve only got eyes on you,” she said, though her tone was light, not challenging in the slightest. “It’s the way it is but people know you’re here now, they know what they want to see.”

“Well, we’ll share the tip-pool, no sense in not sharing it, no?”

Smiling, Adagio patted her friend’s shoulder as she made her way back to the bar. She was genuine in her want to help out Sandra but there was a part of her that was more siren than human that would slip the biggest notes out of the tip jar before divvying it up between her and the rest of the bartenders, ensuring that, of course, she got the biggest cut as she believed was her due. It was hardly something that she would have done before, if she’d even been in the position where she’d have had tips to share, but taking control and taking her dues just acme more and more naturally to her.

The reviews came in and the owner was oh so very kind to her, so good to her, good enough to throw more shows her way, to put her on stage more and more. No more did she have the quiet nights to sing and dance, hypnotising the crowd, but times were changing as she stomped her foot and snapped her fingers, a bartender who looked up at her with eyes as wide as saucers handing her a drink without even Adagio having to say anything.

Looking down at her crowd, a red straw pushed between her lips, Adagio smiled, lightness flowing through her, lifting her, almost as if she had a pair of wings on her back to soar high above all else. It was where she belonged, of course, far above everyone else, looking down on them from her rightful place, everyone cursed, everyone under her control while they knew no different.

“Ahhh... You don’t get pipes like these without wetting them, my dears! That’s sooo much better! I know you’re here for a show, ladies and gentlemen, but have I got something in store for you!”

And it was right then and there that Adagio let go of everything that could have held her back, throwing her arms out wide as she sang and she sang. Even those that had been close to her stopped what they were doing, watching in awe, the siren-woman as light as air as her toes just barely touched the stage. The siren was right there with her, the two of them at least somewhat accepting her, her music holding them all spellbound, voice rising more powerfully than ever before.

They would never know who she really was, that she was bringing something new to her life and that of theirs, as much as the two of them would, in the end, have to find a way to work together, compromising between the soul of a human and the song of a siren. Even in her lyrics, Adagio beamed. The siren hissed, mentally turning her back on her human vessel. She could do it. The siren was not her ruler.

The future held so much in store for both of them!