Who Wants to Live Forever?, by FoME
“I’m going to need to see some ID, Miss.”
Intellectually, Adagio Dazzle knew she should savor this sort of thing, given the wrinkles and gray hairs waiting for her scant decades in the future. But she’d been putting up with a slow infantilization for decades as it was, what with society continually expanding the scope of childhood. She was in no mood to put up with it now. Especially not today of all days.
“Miss—”
“I heard you the first time.” Sadly, a quick tune to enflame the wage slave’s scorn at pointless protocols wasn’t an option anymore, so Adagio had to play along. As if actually having to pay for things wasn’t insulting enough. Especially wine. She grudgingly pulled the relevant piece of plastic out of her purse.
Adagio watched the cashier deal with the unfamiliar sensation of thinking for a few mildly entertaining moments. Then he looked at her with something resembling pity, and she had to keep herself from throwing the first physical punch. “Miss, if you’re going to use a fake ID, at least put a number on the birthdate.”
That got him a flat look. “I hatched in the oceans of another world, twisting my siblings into tearing each other apart so I could claim the right to live. I wasn’t exactly looking at the calendar at the time. Hence ‘indeterminate.’”
The cashier didn’t answer. The concept may have been too complicated for him, or he was simply entranced by Adagio’s picture on her ID. Though furrowed brows didn’t usually go with enthrallment. “We also don’t recognize… ‘Beautiful Assistant Permits’ here.”
Adagio sighed. “Mr. Discord insists I’m several years and published papers away from a full mad scientist’s license.”
It took her a moment to recognize the look that engendered. Sympathy had been a rarity over the years. “Oh, you work for Mr. Discord.” Finally, the cashier began scanning her purchase. “You can just say that next time.”
Only after spotting the security camera—one that the earth aspect bagging the wine had more influence over than Adagio did—did she hold herself back from any response beyond a “Duly noted.”
“Hey, everything okay?” said Lemon Zest. “You not eating isn’t a red flag so much as a matador in the color guard.”
Sonata looked up from picking at her taco salad and shrugged. “It’s… well, it isn’t really a siren holiday. We didn’t have those back home. But I guess anything we came up with here counts.”
“Like the anniversary of the day you came here?” Sunny Flare said from next to her not-my-girlfriend. (They were still several months away from their official first date.)
Sonata shook her head. “Not something we really want to celebrate. And it’s not like we were looking at a calendar back then. But it is a sad anniversary.”
Both girls made interested human sounds. It was enough to get Sonata through the pain of the next sentence:
“Red Mercury died today.”
Sunny screwed up her face. “The singer from Princess?”
Lemon just nodded. “Yeah, that tracks.”
“It does?”
“If he’d lived to see magic, he’d have been a siren aspect.”
Sonata nodded. “He basically already was one.”
Sunny leaned back, crossing her arms. “Really?”
“To be fair-eon, Flareon—”
“Never call me by the name of a Capsumon again.”
Lemon stuck out her tongue at her. “I promise nothing. But some of the tracks are borderline supernatural. You start singing Bohaymian Rhapsody and people will join in.”
Sonata nodded. “Adagio spent a week listening to it, trying to figure out how he’d enchanted it. Aria had to break the record after she started talking about summoning the demons in the lyrics to get answers out of them.”
“Understandable,” said Sunny.
Lemon took a moment to answer, a rare frown on her face. “An unforgivable crime against vinyl,” she eventually allowed, “but for good reasons.”
“We met him once in the 80s.” Sonata smiled at the memory. “In all the time we’ve spent on this world, he was the only person all three of us liked.”
“Really wish I could have toured with you girls.” Lemon paused for a moment, thinking. “You know, barring the constant emotional abuse.”
“Wouldn’t be that different from Crystal Prep.”
“Principal Cadence is working on it.”
Sunny quirked an eyebrow. “How did you put it once? ‘Inertia is a harsh mistress,’ something like that.”
“Along those lines, yeah. But we’re not in class right now. This is a safe space for sincere emotional expression.” Lemon raised her soda. “To Red. May he be cycling with bottom-heavy girls in the hereafter.”
The other met the toast as best they could with paper cups. “To Red.”
One of the few things the sirens agreed on when Mr Discord designed their bedrooms, aside from having individual bedrooms in the first place, was high-quality sound systems. Indeed, all three had brought up speaker fidelity and soundproofing before such minor matters as a bed or a closet.
As such, opening Aria’s door meant getting hit with an almost palpable blast of sound.
I want it all.
I want it all.
I want it all.
And I want it now.
Mr. Discord’s lips curled into a fond smile. “Ah, this takes me back. Luna used to sulk to this exact song.”
Aria briefly glared at him before her head rolled back into the embrace of her beanbag chair. “Get out of my room.”
“The nostalgia just keeps on coming. I don’t suppose you’re hiding any star-speckled teddy bears in here?”
That got her to look up more firmly, snarling and baring her shark-like teeth.
Mr. Discord sighed, his expression drooping to something more empathetic. “For the record, I provided the tapes she sulked to, as I have with a much younger niece. The world lost a great artist with his passing. I suppose being a siren means you feel the loss that much more keenly.”
Aria’s gaze darted away. “Out of all the sucky humans in the world, he sucked the least.”
“High praise. Adagio’s downstairs, working her way through a bottle of Chardoneigh. It doesn’t do anything for me anymore, but I’m providing moral support, ambiance, and detox should it prove necessary. You’re welcome to join us.”
Aria curled up, turning away from him. “Eh.”
“Fair enough.” Mr. Discord left, closing the door behind him.
After a few more minutes and the album moving onto Invisible Man, Aria groaned, forced herself out of the chair, and made her way downstairs. No one said anything, but they did clink glasses.
The first sung "Mama..." came minutes later.
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Yeah, that's not surprising. I personally dislike the song due to having to sing it several years in a row in choir with people I despised, but, it is, objectively a good song.
Ha!
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One scene for each of them! Nice!
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Poignant! Nice mix of humor and call-backs along with it!
Weird Al's version is the one I like best.
Funny story, the version from Jojo's is even more powerful, by a wide margin. Bohemian Rhapsody, the Stand, is arguably the most insane one in the entire series. It brings every fictional character to ever exist in story or artwork into the real world at the same time. The only way they were able to defeat it is when someone drew up a character whose power was to undo Bohemian Rhapsody's.
"she'd putting" -> "she'd been putting up"?
Anyhow, thanks for another short.
He was one of the true greats. Jerry Garcia was also one of them, I discovered the Official Music Video for the Dead's Touch of Grey recently and haven't been able to stop listening to it about thinking about it.
11759764
Also, it doesn't appear to have an actual user. That rules out the usual way of dealing with Stands.
Oh, Queen. You know, There are No Ponies in Equestria has a similar statement about that song. Never got it myself. I've only heard the song once, and it wasn't anything special. I mean, it wasn't bad, but I just don't get why so many people like it. I can't even prove they do, only that people who bring it up think everyone likes it.