Creeping Normality

by Eyeswirl the Weirded

Chapter 8: Private Thoughts

"Then, it was all essentially a misunderstanding?"

Sitting in the hot tub in her hotel room (with Felt standing fully clothed by the door after having declined to join her) with her eyes on the horizon offered by the high window, Adagio giggled. "Yes! He wanted to repay me for the act that I was trying to use to repay him!" She shook her head a little. "Perhaps the worst part is that all of this could have been avoided if we'd just been open and honest with one another from the start." Looking over her shoulder, she gave Felt an apologetic smile. "Sorry I made you go through the trouble of testing that last bag for nothing."

As usual, there was little physical reaction. "It was not difficult. Truth be told, I am uncertain as to whether or not my methods were sufficient in determining the composition of the Swiss cake rolls."

"So that's what those things were called," Adagio muttered to herself.

"I first researched common date-rape drugs and other possible substances, found that you showed no symptoms since the previous delivered meal, procured another set of cake rolls from a local shop (they were not completely identical, which may mean that Mr. Sandwich made the ones he gave you himself), dissected one from each set, analyzed the color, texture, and scent, looked at samples of both under a microscope-"

"Where did you get a microscope?"

"I know a guy."

"...Alright then."

"In all my testing, I could not find anything out of the ordinary about Mr. Sandwich's gift. I even took the bag to a canine unit training facility, where the dogs did not react to it in the slightest." In response to her employer's very slow blink, she raised an index finger in a matter-of-fact manner. "I do not know what the most reliable methods of testing for drugs are, but we were able to proceed with the maximum possible level of confidence that Mr. Sandwich was not drugging you, merely dishonest when delivering free snacks."

Chuckling, Adagio nodded. "Apart from that, he's a good person. I don't even need to worry about things getting awkward, minor concern though that seems now, because he's not interested in women, meaning I don't have to worry about him pursuing me!"

One of Felt's eyebrows rose just enough to be perceptible in good lighting. "Had that been bothering you? You stated just a moment ago that he was a good person and your interactions with Miss Chrysalis indicate that you are interested only in the opposite sex."

Shrugging her shoulders, Adagio turned around to fully face Felt, leaning on the rim of the hot tub with her chin on her folded arms. "Yes, but, well..." She chuckled, a simpering smile on her face. "Feel free to sugarcoat it a little, but do I seem like a good person?"

There was a long, anxiety-stirring pause as Adagio waited for her stoic maid to tear into her not unlike Aria and Sonata had so many times, but the reply came as calmly and evenly as usual.

"I could not say so in those exact terms, because while you carry a faintly malevolent aura and, in my personal experience, have proven underhanded and calculating, you do not necessarily seem like a bad person either."

Adagio frowned. "I've done some terrible things, Felt Feather. Perhaps nothing I could be convicted for now, but terrible things all the same. Most recently, my first instinct was to scheme against Mr. Sandwich rather than confront him directly, and I tend not to fight fair when given half a chance."

Granted, knowing that they were up against the kind of power she'd seen from the diner window that night, there wasn't really much incentive, or possibility, to fight 'fair.' Much less when that same power ended up hitting them anyway through nothing short of a miracle or two. But still!

Felt tilted her head to one side. "If I may speak frankly, Madam?" She waited for Adagio to nod before actually doing so. "Don't make me laugh."

Blinking in surprise, Adagio noted that if nothing else, Felt's perfectly straight face implied that laughter would not be an issue.

"I have worked for bad people before, Madam, and while I may not know all of your history, what I have seen does not remotely compare to the levels of greed, sleaze, and narcissism I have had to put up with and even cater to while employed by some of the wealthiest individuals in this part of the world. I bring this up because I believe it is not impossible that you may one day find a kind young man, not unlike Mr. Sandwich, with which to settle down. There may be many out there much kinder than you, but the same goes for countless people, and though, yes, I suppose I find my gratification in life through enabling such behavior, selfishness is extremely common, whereas sainthood is not."

Briefly at a loss for words, Adagio idly twirled a lock of damp, curly hair around a finger while studying the hotel decor. "You mean to say that while I'm not a very nice person, the awareness that there are worse people in the world and that people in general all have their dark sides is a... selling point of mine?"

"Perhaps not a 'selling point,' but not a detraction, and any man wholeheartedly in search of a pure and perfect maiden will be searching for a very long time. That in mind," Adagio wasn't looking at her, but the tiny curve of her lips carried into her tone, "I was hoping that you might consider extending my service, because even if I have only served under you for about a month now, I find myself with a balanced workload while never being asked to do anything criminal or demeaning, and-" there was a faint gleam in her eyes, "-what little questionable behavior you've asked me to partake in -the business with the rolls has been the peak, and even that had a substantial reason behind it- keeps things interesting, and it is very gratifying to work for someone that makes the most of my abilities."

Adagio snorted, amused, "Maybe we can renew your contract when the time comes. However, I probably won't be staying in this area for life, are you alright with moving somewhere less-"

"Yes."

The quickness of the reply and Felt's unwavering stare (though she was kind of always like that) caught Adagio off-guard, leaving them in silence for a moment.

Maybe she has some personal reasons for not being attached to this place. Come to think of it, perhaps she got here by following an employer from somewhere and couldn't, or wouldn't, go back? I probably shouldn't pry.

"Well," Adagio said with a little smile, "I'm still looking at houses elsewhere, but-"

She was interrupted yet again, this time by a knock at the door. Adagio got out of the tub and grabbed a towel, Felt waiting until she was adequately covered before opening it with her permission.

"Hey, 'Dagi-O! I came to deliver Sorry For Being Kind Of Shady goodies without pretense this time!" Taking stock of the wet, towel-clad girl in front of him, he frowned and looked away. "Ooh, sorry, didn't know you were in the middle of a bath."

Stepping close enough to take the bag, she giggled. "It's fine, I'm only wearing a towel because I was in the hot tub and..." Setting the bag on a nearby dresser, she shrugged. "Well, suppose I don't really need this now, do I?"

She stripped the towel off and flung it onto a chair, drawing a rare blush from Felt Feather.

"Er, M-Madam, you-"

"It's fine," she giggled, enjoying the feeling of freedom, "Mr. Sandwich here doesn't even like girls."

It was when she turned to look at him that she noticed Cheese Sandwich's face, beet red and sharply turned away, the bulge of muscles in his neck saying it was taking considerable effort to do so.

He coughed. "Er, I-I'm not, uh, interested in having a woman f-for a life partner, but have you seen your hips?"

Her eyes widening to the size of saucers as her pupils shrunk to pinpricks, Adagio froze in embarrassment, flushing even hotter when she heard a wolf-whistle.

"Well now," chuckled Chrysalis, leaning in the doorway with a bright, beaming smile on her face, "I'd hoped you would take our bare skin talk at the pool to heart! Feels good, doesn't it?"

Adagio didn't respond with more than crouching down and trying to cover herself with her own hair, mostly succeeding despite it being wet.

Still flushed, Cheese loosed an awkward chuckle as he scratched the back of his head. "I ran into her on the way here, she asked where I was headed, I told her, and she asked to tag along, and I kinda thought, 'the more the merrier!', so-"

He was cut off by Felt gently, but firmly grabbing him by the arm to drag him to the door and push him and Chrysalis out into the hall. The latter's complaints were ignored as she shut and locked the door on them, turning back to look at her mortified employer, who remained all but curled into a ball as she attempted to cover her luminous face with both hands. Felt paced over, bent down, and kept her voice soft and gentle.

"Chocolate or vanilla?"

She listened for a moment and was sure she heard a murmured "Chocolate, please."

Felt nodded, and heading off to procure a milkshake.

As I suspected; she prefers chocolate when stressed.

%%%

Dark carpets and bright lights were the first things they noticed as they stepped into the casino. The theme of the place was apparently 'Japanese,' which meant it was saturated with imagery of dragons, ancient weaponry, huge, Japanese-style writing on things, paper walls and doors, unintentionally spooky-looking geishas, and those rooftops made up of a bunch of curved plates sitting atop most of the slot machines.

Some relatively sexy outfits and a little makeup were enough to convince those at the door that Aria and Sonata were perfectly old enough to come in here, which had been Aria's main problem with this plan. Trailing closely behind it was the fact that the plan was to come in, gamble for a few hours, and walk out millionaires through Sonata Dusk's skill in that field. Even though she had come home bare-ass naked in the middle of the night last time.

While reminding her of that had been fun, Sonata had managed to get her way by reminding Aria that they were running out of time, money, and ideas, so here they were two towns over at a casino in which Sonata hadn't been publicly humiliated. She'd insisted it was a feng-shui thing (Aria hadn't had time to Google whether or not that was the right word), that going somewhere she'd already had bad luck would just be more bad luck, but Aria was content not to be seen with a big, naked loser.

Aria didn't say a word as Sonata traded good money (just everything they had left) for chips at the front desk, and not just because coming here at all was a full, unspoken admission that she didn't have any better ideas. The only person who would have backed her up in arguing against this plan was off making people fat with dumb commercials and cholesterol, but Aria could already feel the smug satisfaction of getting up to her level through the means she'd specifically told them to avoid.

Was it just to spite her? Maybe a little, but Sonata sounded really, really confident when she proposed this, so Aria would do her best to be nothing but supportive as the dealer gave Sonata her cards. It was for the same reason that Aria bit her tongue when Sonata lost the first few hands, but Sonata had spent the whole trip over swearing up and down that she knew what she was doing, that she knew how to use her innocent face to get people off-guard and just had really bad luck last time.

Aria being here meant that she could at least stop Sonata from betting her clothes if everything went south this time, too.

Despite not doing so well for the first forty-five minutes of card games, Sonata still looked pretty confident. About half an hour later, she had earned enough to be back where she started, which was when she picked up steam. An hour later, she had triple that amount, rarely losing hands at all. By the end of the third hour, Aria wasn't sure how much money the mountain of chips amounted to, but she bet it was more than Adagio'd be getting paid in a year. Watching the other players sweat and grimace at their cards, Aria chuckled.

"This is goin' pretty good."

Sonata grinned brightly over her shoulder. "Toldja I knew what I was doing!"

Still smiling, Aria playfully smacked Sonata on the back of the head, but before she could say anything about getting cocky, she saw the cards fall out of the fringe of Sonata's hair. From the way the rest of the table went dead silent, they all saw it too.

Smiling sheepishly, Sonata giggled. "Uh, 'ah-choo'?"

Everyone stood up, which was when Aria and Sonata bolted. The two barely made it out the door with security hot on their heels, sprinting down the street with none of their ill-gotten winnings as they shouted at each other.

"I thought you knew what you were doing!!"

"I did; nobody noticed last time!!"

"And you still lost?!"

"Oh, shut up!!"

%%%

That night, after having had to show some leg to get someone to drive them home and feed them, Aria lay awake in bed, mindlessly thumbing random apps on her phone in the vain hope that any of them could take her mind off of her constant stream of failures since Adagio left. They didn't even keep her from realizing that the record technically started that very same day, when she refused to just go with her at no cost to anything but her pride, which might just have been the single stupidest thing she'd ever done.

What about signing on with Adagio in the first place? That just went great all around, didn't it?

Well, yea, until she refused to flatten that stupid wizard. Wouldn't even let us do it, no matter what he threw at us.

It had made so much sense, back when they first got together. There was the three of them, their new, super-powered magic, and the whole world ahead of them. Hell, even after they got banished, things weren't that bad, because the daily scrounging for negative energy only took a few hours and they could pretty much do whatever with the rest of the day. Making money was a lot easier, and even if Aria never quite agreed with Adagio's "they pay insanely close attention to where money goes in this world" explanation as to why they couldn't just live in their own palace, they were comfortable.

Now she and Sonata couldn't pay the electric bill, had to discreetly charge their phones elsewhere to get by (flashlight apps were helpful, Aria had learned), and nearly every meal was literally fast food. Not that it was making Sonata any fatter, at least.

Her thumb stopped on the Phone app, which made her jaw clench for just a moment. Try as she might not to be, she was overwhelmingly aware that this predicament, facing poverty while Adagio was out walking red carpets and rolling around in big piles of money, was entirely her own stupid fault.

It was only a matter of time (granted, this was in weeks, months, maybe even years) before Sonata figured that out too, which meant they'd argue again, Sonata would blame her for everything in the exact same way she did to Adagio right after the Battle, and either Aria would become the new Worst in their group, she'd have to bust her ass to support the two of them because everything was her fault, or she'd be on her own. Maybe she could convince Sonata that she'd be screwed if they split up, but there was no doubt in her mind that Sonata would go crying to Adagio about how bad life under Aria was, probably say she beat her or something, too, and shamelessly cozy up to the closest source of a safe, easy life she could get. Which would still leave Aria alone if she didn't do the same thing. The thought of it burned her eyes and brought a sour, sickly feeling to her mouth as she glared at the phone.

Aria Blaze had two settings for dealing with this kind of stress; Rage and Tears, and she wasn't about to cry now. Tapping the phone app, she sat up, raring to tell Adagio off once and for all as she waited through the ringing noises. Maybe she could make sure she never even came back to find just how badly they had messed up the house.

Despite it being close to one in the morning, Adagio picked up, almost audibly shaking herself awake as she softly answered. "Hello?"

In a blink, Aria was distantly shocked to find all of her anger ebbing away, leaving her voice a decidedly unintimidating whisper. "Uh... hi?"

"Aria?" She could hear the hesitant grin in Adagio's voice, as though she were testing the waters. "You haven't called me since I left... Or answered my calls. E-everything alright? If I was just calling at bad times, you could have texted me ideal hours or someth-"

"It's not that," Aria again surprised herself by giggling, "just..."

Her mind blanked, but she couldn't have told the truth if she wanted to, so she changed the subject.

"How've ya been? Everything okay in TV Land?" She immediately winced at the hint of suppressed disappointment in Adagio's tone.

"Oh, yes, things are, er, fine... Champagne, caviar, et cetera. We're not physically old enough for champagne and I don't really like caviar, but it's around here somewhere if I did. What have you two been up to? Have either of you found work?"

Feeling herself sweat now, Aria spat out the lie before she could get her thoughts together. "Well, sorta, just, things didn't really work out for long anywhere and-"

"You haven't found jobs since I left?"

Rage bubbled up again with indignance at its back, but Aria kept a lid on both. "Not really, and things have-"

There was a special kind of dread that could come from hearing a tone as flat as the one Adagio used. "You're calling to ask for money."

Remembering her actual reason and sensing death, Aria opened her mouth to let loose everything she'd originally planned to say, only to be cut off by a suddenly worried Adagio.

"Wait, if you haven't been able to find lasting work, did you run out?! I left what I did with the assumption that you'd both be looking for jobs, but-"

Smelling opportunity, Aria jumped on it like Sonata on a plate of shrimp. "Well, we kinda needed a car for one job..."

"Oh! I didn't even account for- H-how much did-"

"And it turned out to be a dud," Aria added, smiling as her narrative came together, "broke down on the side of the road within a week, so we were out a job and a ride. But hey, at least we'd gotten it cheap!"

"Oh, sea spray!! Do you two have anything left?"

For a second, Aria thought about spinning a tale about how the house had been broken into and ransacked while they were out looking for work (which would explain the mess she and Sonata never cleaned from when they were desperately searching for more money stashes), but wasn't sure whether she wanted to save that one for when Adagio got back or not. "Some, but like... You know how the Rainbooms fuckin' own this town? At least as far as everyone unconditionally believing them over us because heroes can do no wrong? Ever?"

"Oh, dear."

"Yea. Getting work hasn't been easy, same as before you left, and moving would cost us a bundle, so-"

"I get it, I can set you two up with an account and mail you a card first thing in the morn-ooh, wait, maybe if I call someone now, I could-"

"Account? Wait, you finally knuckled down and-"

"Yes," Adagio admitted with a quiet sigh, an audible smile coming through the phone, "I found out that I couldn't exactly get away with stuffing all the money I accumulated into little hidey-holes when out on the road and such, so... Credit cards are handy, so long as you're careful, but for the record? I still don't like them."

Aria snorted in earnest amusement. "I'll bet. How much longer is the tour?"

"A couple weeks, but I'll be on the way home by the end of this week, and the card should reach you much sooner."

She knew she could ask exactly how much Adagio was giving them, but it felt safer not to. "Okay. So, see you when you get home?"

"Yes, I'll... see you!"

Beep!

"Heh," Aria muttered to herself as the call ended, flopping back down on her bed, "she sounded so happy."

"...Oh, hey there, Guilt! Yea, I knew you were coming, but I didn't save a seat for you, so you'll just have to stand on my head."

%%%

"Hello aaaaaand welcome, to Tinseltown Rhombuses!!"

Even knowing that some of it was for her, the cheering of the audience was essentially white noise to Adagio as she, in the shoes of Poofy, sat in a little booth set in a wall of little booths, all facing the same direction and some stacked on top of each other to form some kind of giant game board, each booth framed in a brightly-colored rhombus. While perplexed that they hadn't gone with 'Tinseltown Diamonds,' which equally befit the shapes while casting a brighter, more glamorous image, the specifics of the game meant very little to her.

"First up," announced the host, some permanently-smiling man in a tasteful suit after introducing the two contestants, "we have the coin-toss!"

A digital, impossibly shiny coin rendered in high definition was flipped on a big screen to decide which contestant would go first; a middle-aged-looking woman as indistinct as any member of the audience.

"Contestant #1, who is said to have turned everything they touched into gold?"

The contestant, in line with the rules of the game, had to ask someone in one of the booths, and with a smile, selected Poofy in one of the top corners.

Smiling brightly, Poofy immediately twisted the question into a sales pitch. "Our cooks at Eezy-Cheezy!"

As anticipated, this won laughs from the audience, contestants, host, and her fellow celebrity guests in other booths, which she waited through before answering in earnest.

"King Midas."

The contestant accepted her answer, 'scoring' Poofy's rhombus, and ending Poofy's part in the game. There were plenty of other guests, Iron Will, Sapphire Shores, and some Adagio didn't recognize among them, but the only one that got her attention was Chrysalis, sitting in the booth next to hers.

"Not bad," she said away from her microphone, "gave a funny answer and no doubt pleased the corporate overlords."

Adagio smiled a little. "Thanks. Try to keep your answer clean, would you?"

The older(?) woman chuckled, a sharkish smile on her lips as she eyed the young man filling in as Contestant #2 today. "But of course..."

She probably could have gotten a laugh in listening to Chrysalis and other celebrity guests' answers, but her thoughts were more occupied with events just a few days prior. Felt Feather had provided drinks to go with the sugar cookies Cheese had brought her, which certainly helped her calm down after her mortifying mistake with the towel.

Felt really had proven indispensable to her recently, and not just for fetching refreshments. The woman seemed to be defined by her work, not happy unless she was doing something for someone. This was in stark contrast to Aria and Sonata, who would (often begrudgingly, in the former's case) follow orders exclusively for the benefits of success, which wasn't unreasonable, just... different. Felt was very different from those two.

Different from most people, in fact. While Adagio could see the benefits of such dedication, she recognized another difference in that most people (more like Aria and Sonata) worked specifically towards an end, not for the work itself, and being so absorbed in working toward one's goals that one never actually got to taste the fruits of their labor was self-defeating. She didn't want to become that kind of person herself. She had certainly seen enough of this world to conclude that people did that all the time; committing more and more hours to their jobs while feeling fewer and fewer benefits, all in the hope that it would pay off later. That "later" might be pushed back years, even decades, to the point that all the work accomplished might even feel like a waste, but there had to be a balance between the Felt Feathers and the Q. Chrysalises of the world, and the closest link she could find was that-

"Speak up, Maggot," boomed Drill Sergeant Spitfire from one of the middle-row rhombuses, her face presented on the big screen on which the coin had been flipped, "you're on national air!"

Contestant #2, who had apparently dawdled in selecting which rhombus he wanted to attempt to claim, straightened up, stuttering out his choice of Spitfire's rhombus.

After Spitfire barked out an answer to a question Adagio didn't hear, she noted the tiny hint of a satisfied smirk on the officer's lips as the contestant went with her answer.

The closest link, she thought, was that Chrysalis and Felt Feather enjoyed their work, in both the journey and the destination, the end goal and the steps to get there, and it seemed to her that the problem lay in working far past one's tolerance for their labor. It seemed like a safe bet that Chrysalis could be pushed to take enough roles and act out enough scenes that she would inevitably burn out, and surely there was only so much Felt Feather could be tasked with before wearing down, but how many people had the option of working just enough to be satisfied?

She couldn't say, but she could keep her own limits in mind when going about her own occupation, and making time to reap the benefits of it all when she could. It was something she hadn't really done so much when they had the gems; always hoarding as much power as possible for the biggest possible payoff, only to have it all taken away when her long-awaited opportunity came. Nor before the Eezy-Cheezy's first commercial, months in which she eventually lost track of just how long she'd spent hiding in the back room by herself when she had the chance, hours of-

It didn't matter now. The tour would bring them back to Canterlot as part of a 'humble beginnings' thing at the original location, and then it would be over. She'd probably still be making commercials here and there, be asked to make appearances as Poofy, but she'd be free to finally buy her house and live, and after months on the road, it would be good to see Aria and Sonata again.

%%%

"Lemonade! Get'cher cold, sweet, yellow lemonade!"

Aria chuckled as Sonata's contagious enthusiasm got to her. A lemonade stand was about as far from glamorous work as they could get, but their humble, wooden storefront just outside their house, a pitcher, cooler full of ice cubes, basket of appropriated lemons, and a few other supplies were enough to make them about sixteen dollars so far.

Giggling as their most recent customer walked off with a plastic cup of refreshment, Sonata sat down beside her. "I know we're not using it right now, but man, it's great to have electricity again!"

Still smiling, Aria rolled her eyes. "We only went without for like a week."

"Yea, but that week totally sucked! We should'a asked for money way sooner!"

"And we'll get it," nodded Aria, skimming over the implied failure on her part, "but right now, we gotta have something that looks good for when Adagio gets back."

Sonata looked up at their sign, particularly the post they'd needed four nails to keep in place. "This looks good?"

"It looks like we're trying, something we can point to to say we did all we could to find work and all that. You remember the plan, right?"

Smiling playfully, Sonata lightly shoved her. "You don't have to check every five minutes."

Aria returned the gesture in full. "Humor me."

"Hehe! Okay, okay, we wait until she gets home, say we got robbed like a week before, tell her how we tried so hard to get by when the whole world was against us, and she'll pick us up, bring us to her mansion (I hope she picks that one with the big pool and the balcony on the third floor, the one we saw when we were practicing for the swim thing? Yea, you remember), and we live the good life from then on?"

"She probably won't let us be total freeloaders, so we'll have to come up with something when we get there, but yea."

Not wanting to be a leech stuck to someone bigger than she could ever be was part of it too, but part she'd learned to quit bringing up around Sonata Shameless Parasite Dusk. Adagio would probably hook them up with her new Hollywood friends and they could find high-paying stuff with their pretty faces alone, so she was sure that part would work out. Unless Adagio wanted to get some petty revenge by forcing them into something less glamorous, maybe even hard labor for the first several months, however long she was stuck doing the waitress thing while they shared their thoughts on her outfit, but if they still got to live in her big, fancy house with all the luxuries it offered, even that would be bearable.

Whatever happened, Aria knew she'd need to get hold of some good money if things ever went sour with Adagio again, either by swiping some valuables Adagio had lying around (rich people decorated their houses with priceless crud, something she hoped was just a universal fact) or getting in with some of Adagio's big, billionaire buddies. Billionaire buddies that didn't necessarily like her that much and wouldn't sell Aria out to her in a blink if it came to that.

It was cold, but she knew she had to make room for herself before she could think about helping Sonata do the same, because while she wasn't about to say it out loud, the biggest danger to this plan was still Sonata saying/doing something really stupid and blowing it for both of them. Maybe she'd reach out once she had her own feet on solid ground, and maybe Sonata would have sold Aria out by then, completely abandoned her dignity, and sucked up to Adagio for all she was worth, in which case it wouldn't matter anyway.

Author's Note:

I always find it a little funny when Aria is presented as the voice of reason among the sirens, or when she's treated as the ignored, level-headed one when in canon, she's closer to the opposite. In Rainbow Rocks, Aria makes no suggestions and offers no solutions for any of the sirens' problems, does nothing to show a decent capacity for problem-solving, just complains about everything when not lashing out at Sonata for petty reasons. She doesn't seem particularly bright, and her sudden clarity in a lot of fanfics is as out-of-nowhere as Sonata's sudden righteousness when the latter is presented as 'the good one,' regardless of her actual behavior in the movie or even the fic itself, in some cases.

Comments

[Moproblems Moharmoney]

Yeah, Sonata may be goofy but she's nasty in her own way.