//------------------------------// // Chapter 3: Back and Forth // Story: Creeping Normality // by Eyeswirl the Weirded //------------------------------// Poofy stood alone in the center of a tall, dimly-lit, cylindrical room, spots of glittering, golden light showing in a ring along the top edges of the walls all around her. Slowly, those lights began to extend towards the ground in the form of thick, glowing, yellowish sludge. Poofy stood silently, a passive look on her face as the substance flowed down the walls and onto the floor, soon flooding the room. When the glowing ooze had reached her ankles, Poofy smiled, watching as a long, slender, feminine arm emerged from the mass of melted cheese. It was the same color as the fluid from which it came, with holes all through the arm in a manner resembling Swiss cheese as it continued to rise, a slim woman with similar holes throughout her arms and legs coming to a stop with her feet still submerged. She was naked, but nothing was showing that wouldn't be aired on network TV. Her piercing, orange eyes opened, looking at Poofy through golden strands of long, messy, cheesy hair as she sensually paced closer. Poofy responded in kind, stepping forward to greet her by gently seizing her hand and pulling it closer to raise the cheese-woman's arm to her mouth. The camera focused on the cheese-woman's simultaneously pained and blissful face as Poofy took a bite, then closed in on Poofy's cheese-smeared lips. "Chīzu ga daisuki." The scene faded out with an above shot of the two holding one another, surrounded by copies of the cheese-woman standing in a circle and slowly waving their arms in seemingly random directions. Eezy- Cheezy! %%% Staring at the screen with a completely blank expression, Adagio didn't even turn to look at Cuttin' Dry. "Why did you make me do that? "I don't really get it either, Poofy, but they told me this'll help sell the brand ovahseas." "...Alright, then." It was as she was heading back to her dressing room that she happened across the actress that had helped with that commercial; a woman with black, smooth, somewhat shiny skin and long, dark blue, slightly messy hair, one long strand perpetually hanging in front of her face. Easily as tall as Principal Celestia, she was clad only in a towel, another of which she was using to actively dry her hair with both hands as she walked. Noticing Adagio, she offered a sultry smile. "You were great in there, 'Poofy.' Ever think about going pro?" Knowing that this woman was an actress that had taken tons and tons of roles over the years (apparently with a talent for changing her look) and could make for a very valuable contact if she wanted to play at actual stardom, Adagio replied with a polite grin. "Thanks, but I'm just seeing where this takes me for now." Black hands gently cupped her face as Chrysalis let the towel she'd been holding rest over her head like a hood. "Mm, really?" Adagio immediately recognized the tinge of lust in her deep, green eyes, every bit as striking even without the contacts she'd worn on the set, as her smile grew sharkish. "Well, if you get your fill of cheese, maybe we can find something else that sates your appetite. I'd love to work with you again." She grinned wider as Adagio blinked twice, but she was the one surprised when Adagio gently seized her wrists to free herself, taking a step back. "Sorry if this is at all presumptuous, but I'm afraid I don't swing that way." Chrysalis's eyes widened. "...Really?" "Really." Holding her with a concentrated stare, Chrysalis slowly raised an eyebrow, her question coming in a low, sultry purr. "You're sure?" "Very." "Oh." Her seductive routine fading in an instant, the older actress offered an apologetic smile. "Well, I guess this is awkward, then. I really had you pegged as-" "I'm not." "But it's like you give off an aura that just says-" "Yes, I know," Adagio interrupted with a mild blush, "I get that sometimes, but I'm not into women. Incidentally," she said with a slight crook to her smile, "you might like a friend of mine. Purple girl, about my age, cute face when she's not scowling," her eyes flickered downward, "and not shy about her fondness for legs." Doing a little inspecting herself, Chrysalis smirked. "Does she have hips like yours?" Her cheeks coloring further, Adagio kept her smile. "No, but, she may join me in this business some day and if I get a chance, I'd be happy to introduce the two of you." She was startled by the speed with which her hand was seized and shaken. "I think we're going to be good friends, you and I..." Externally, Adagio smiled, but in the back of her mind, a quiet dread arose. What did I just agree to...? %%% "So, do we look better or worse now?" "Shut up, Sonata." The two trudged into their home in two of the tackiest, most brightly-colored outfits they'd ever worn (which, with Adagio in charge of their group's general aesthetic, was saying something! Seriously, would it kill her to throw a little black in somewhere?), every detail of the erratic skirts, uncomfortable shoes, crazy socks, and irrational flaps of geometry all coming together to form something that wasn't necessarily flattering, but showed skin in the right areas to draw attention without offending pearl-clutching grannies, made it hard to look away from them as soon as they were noticed. And that was before they were pelted with rotting fruit. Gonna get my own wandering fruit stand some day, bring it with me, find someone in this town doing a lousy job at something, and see how they like it. Aria casually scraped some rancid, congealing tomato off her shoulder and flung it at Sonata. "Egh! Hey!! What was that for?!" "I told you your plan was stupid!" She scowled a little harder when Sonata huffed, somehow having the pride to cross her arms and raise her chin in this situation. "Was not! Putting on something eye-catching and singing and dancing on a table worked great when Adagio did it! I mean, yea, she did the singy part a lot better, but our dancing was totally perfect, so we should have at least got partial credit!" "Just copying Adagio isn't gonna get us anywhere!" Scraping something green and mushy off her chest, she wrinkled her nose at the scent of it. "We've gotta come up with something on our own." "Oh, like your lesbian mommy plan was any better? I've still got bite-marks on my butt from when we tried again last week!" "Tch," Aria grumbled, gritting her teeth as she brushed her own hindquarters in painful recollection. They managed to sneak past the creepy dude in the front of the building, but the dogs were there waiting for them when they got to the producer guy's office. "How was I supposed to know those were just his pets? Let alone that they'd recognize us. Stupid dogs and their dog magic." Sonata glared. "And what was with tripping me?! I thought we were on the same side!!" Rolling her eyes, Aria looked away. "I didn't trip you," with the first kick, anyway, "you fell over your own stupid feet. By the way? Grabbing my ankle just helped the mutts catch both of us!" "You were supposed to help me up!" Or at least get bitten too, bitch! "Pfft, whatever. By the way? Next time we're walking, because paying the bus fare there and back isn't helping work off your fat ass." "Hmph," Sonata scoffed, even if sitting around the house and eating snacks all day had made her just a little heavier. "First, we wouldn't have been able to walk that far anyway, so spending a few bucks to get there is just the smart way to do it! Second, I didn't get fat, I got a lil' love-cushioning!" "...What." "Check it out," she said while turning around and sticking her rear out, "now I can tw-ERK!!" Sonata made an inelegant noise as the new boot-mark on her backside sent her face-first to the floor. Aria set off for the shower, brainstorming how they'd get their own fame and fortune now. This was made more difficult by having to practically wrestle Sonata for the right to use it before the hot water ran out, but their struggle lasted long enough to make it a moot point. When toweling off, Aria was a little surprised that they didn't slip, fall, and bust their heads open while standing in the wet bathtub like that, but they'd taken falls before and she was sure they'd have been fine anyway. Stupid Adagio and her safety warnings. Hell, she'd barely even felt any discomfort when the water started getting cold! And that, as her muscles continued to lightly ache with exertion, gave her an idea... %%% "Hey, you!" A large, muscular, blue man with a darker-blue crew-cut seized the camera in both hands, peering into it as though shaking it down. "You scared?! Scared of being a fat, wimpy loser?! WELL, DON'T BE!!" The screen was filled with an explosion, which cut to the speaker having lost his shirt while lifting a bench over his head. "Because with my help, you can eat whatever you want, any time you want, and still be-" he tossed the bench upwards to make a pose that better emphasized his bulging upper-body muscles before catching it again. "-RIPPED!!" The camera panned up to show Poofy sitting on the bench, her legs dangling over the side. Smiling for the camera, she winked. "Satisfaction guaranteed!" Another explosion. The muscular man was now doing effortless push-ups without breaking eye-contact with the camera. "I'm Iron Will, author of Extra-Large and In Charge, and my book can teach you everything you need to know to be a huge, powerful, machine no matter what you stuff your face with!" Dressed in a tank-top, yoga pants, tennis shoes, and a sweatband color-coordinated to look as much like her usual outfit as possible, Poofy cartwheeled over and hopped onto Will's back, not slowing his push-ups in the slightest as she stood between his shoulder blades and the Eezy-Cheezy logo hovered in the corner of the screen. "But for those of you who like life a little easier, Eezy-Cheezy does have healthy alternatives and a well-stocked salad bar. A balanced diet is important, so please consider your health if you decide to stop by." Her eyes widened with surprise as she was launched into the air by Will shooting himself up from the ground, quickly catching her in a princess-carry fashion, and looking straight at the camera as he held her against his hairy chest. "ORDER NOW!!" This part not having been in the script, Adagio offered the camera a shaky smile as she raised one hand to make a peace sign, praying her fierce blush wasn't visible under the studio-applied make-up. Eezy- Cheezy! %%% A short scene was included of Poofy struggling and straining as she slowly lifted an unseen object, looking very proud of herself when she succeeded. The camera panned out, revealing the object to be a small stack of Iron Will's books, Will himself standing by with an unamused stare on his face. She smiled up at him as if to say 'How was that?', earning her a head-pat. %%% "Thanks'a so much for helpin' us out, Cousin Will!" Arms crossed, Iron Will deftly nodded. "No problem. I've always liked the old family cooking, and hearing people whispering like scared little man-babies about how I'd 'gone soft' for eating a cheesecake or two was all I needed to get up and prove 'em all wrong." He flexed what Adagio guessed to be about 90% of the muscles in his upper body at once. "And boy, did I!!" Rarely did Adagio find herself on the receiving end of tantalizing displays, but even if he wasn't addressing her, she quietly appreciated that the bulging wall of man-muscle still hadn't put his shirt back on. She didn't even hear what Gouda said before she noticed both of them looking at her. "Um..." Poofy quickly raised one arm in a salute, stood on her opposite leg to strike a cutesy pose, said "Cheezy ciao!" without thinking, and ran off. This body will get bigger soon, right? Not confident about my chances until then. Watching the pillow on legs flee, Iron Will shrugged. Muscles like his intimidated people, it was just a fact of life. He turned to Gouda. "So, we still on for that game show in a couple months?" Gouda smiled. "I'll-a be sending lil' Poofy to rep-a-resent us at-a Eezy-Cheezy, for sure!" Iron flexed again. "Good talk!" When Gouda left, Iron marched over to the table with the copies of his books, noting that while one was missing, there was a small stack of bills and a donut in its place. He grinned and made a thumbs-up signal in no particular direction. "Hah, they're selling already!" %%% Standing next to Sonata and looking over their competition, Aria snickered. They had come to a big swimming pool halfway across the city for a contest, and while the prize money wouldn't exactly have them set for life, it'd be a score to keep them going for weeks and probably open the door for them to the swimming big leagues. Better still, the other competitors were just normal humans going up against her and Sonata, who had spent most of their early lives in the water, but half of them were scrawny little wimps that probably wouldn't even make it all the way across the pool in the racing segment. "This is it," Sonata giggled to herself as she giddily bobbed in place, "we can do this, we were born to do this! It's like, hippocampuses are good at two things; singing and swimming, and this is one of those!" "Hippocampi," Aria corrected, unable to stop grinning at Sonata's contagious excitement, "but yea. Losing the gems may have cost us our singing abilities somehow, but we had years of practice in the water, too." They'd even tested this one; hopped a few fences in the richest neighborhood they could find, snuck into someone's backyard pool, timed each other going from one side to the other, and found that they were both pretty damn quick. They'd have helped themselves to anything they could swipe from the house itself, but the risks of slipping and hurting themselves with wet feet on polished floors or getting caught and possibly arrested before their debut into the world of pro swimming (not that Sonata's idea of calling themselves The Backyard Bikini Bandits didn't strike a chord with Aria) had them agree on playing it safe this time. This was going to be cake! %%% "...So-" "Shut up." "But-" "Shut up." "We-" "Shut up!" "Itwasn'tyourfault!" "Shut-..." Aria turned to look at Sonata as though her head were on backwards. "Huh?" Still dripping with pool water and failure, the two walked in tandem towards the locker rooms, Sonata nodding affirmatively. "It's not your fault we didn't win. We were good and all, and I totally thought we had a shot too, but those girls must'a been practicing for this since like, before the contest was even a thing." Aria scowled a little. She should have known the one wearing goggles before she'd even gotten changed would be the sporty type, but she had no idea how good humans could be at swimming. While she and Sonata were naturals and beat a few of the other competitors, they just didn't measure up to the practiced professionals and/or freakishly good amateurs, not even having placed for any kind of prize by the end of the competition. Maybe they could train a little themselves, but catching up to the winners could take months, and even with all the money Adagio left them, they didn't have that long. Not if they didn't want to let her come back to find that she was still their only source of income. Rather than riling herself up by picturing the smug, told-you-so faces Adagio might make, she looked at Sonata with the most earnest, non-scowly face she could manage. "You... didn't do anything stupid today." She found herself smiling a little at Sonata's wide-eyed 'for realzies?' face. "Yes. Really." Sonata beamed with pride! ...Then she smiled sheepishly. "I was gonna pee in the pool when we lost, but I already went before we got started." Jaw clenched, Aria's eyes narrowed. "Don't. Ruin. The moment."