Emus, Demons & Etc. (Part 1)
“I dunno, it just…doesn’t feel right,” Justice said as she examined her left elbow.
“I’m sure you’re fine, Justice,” Lucy Beel replied dismissively as she looked over a spreadsheet on her computer.
“Yeeeah, I’m not so sure about that,” The demon-girl then said as she poked at her angular joint. “I accidentally wandered through some poison oak the other day, and with the way my elbow’s feeling now I’m really worried that it might have given me a rash or something from it.”
“And how exactly would you have gotten a rash on your elbow from walking through poison oak?” The Devil inquired as she stopped working for a second and looked up at her companion.
“’Cause it kept trying to feel me up and I had to keep swatting it away,” Justice answered as she ceased her poking. “Freakin’ pervy plants.”
Rather than allow herself to get dragged into yet another nonsensical conversation with her former High Prosecutor, Lucy simply and silently went back to examining her spreadsheet.
“Be honest with me, Lucy,” The blind demon said right before shoving her elbow right in her boss’ face. “Does it look like I’m breaking out or anything?”
“For Hell’s sake, Justice, get your elbow out of my face!” Lucy shouted as she tried to forcibly remove Justice’s arm from in front of her.
Justice and Lucy tussled mildly for a while as the demon-girl insisted that Lucy examine her elbow for rash and the Devil insisted that Justice cease invading her personal space, causing each of them to become quite disheveled.
For the first minute or so of Lucy and Justice’s skirmish, it appeared as though the two of them would be forever locked within it. Both of them remained strongly adamant in their position and gave no indication that they were going to concede to the other. Thankfully though, when they each heard the sound of footsteps begin to echo throughout the cavernous office they began to cease their struggling.
“Hope I’m not interrupting anything,” Aria Blaze said in her usual tsundere fashion as she approached the two women whilst carrying a small black case in her hand.
“Don’t worry, you’re not,” Lucy tempestuously replied as she hastily fixed her appearance.
“Hey, Aria, do me a favor, will ya?” Justice said as she leaned over Lucy’s desk - much to the Devil’s annoyance - and presented her elbow to the Dazzling. “Can you look at my elbow and tell me if it looks like it’s got a rash or something on it?”
Naturally, Aria was confused as to why it was Justice was asking her to examine her elbow for a rash, as evidenced by the eyebrow she quickly furrowed. Despite this vexation though, she decided to oblige the girl’s request for a favor and started to examine her elbow once she was close enough to Lucy’s desk.
“Hmmm,” She uttered after a few seconds. “You definitely got something there, but I don’t think it’s a rash. I’d say it’s more of a scrape.”
“A scrape, huh?” Justice said as she retracted her elbow. “Phew, that’s a relief. After what happened the last time some foliage got too frisky with me I was really hoping that I didn’t have a rash.”
Aria’s brow furrowed even higher after hearing Justice’s statement of alleviation. So much so that the Dazzling felt the need to turn her attention over to Lucy and share her quizzical expression with the woman in the hopes that she’d help shed some light on the instant that Justice had just referenced.
“Don’t ask, I beg you,” Lucy softly pleaded with Aria, clearly picking up on what she was putting down.
Choosing to trust Lucy, Aria didn’t press her curiosity any further. Instead, she simply decided to get back to the business at hand she had with the woman and placed the case she was holding down on her desk.
“Okay, well, here’s your item,” The Dazzling told her employer as she did so.
“Ah, excellent,” Lucy replied as she spun the case around, opened it, and examined the contents within.
During the time that Lucy inspected the item she’d just been given, seconds passed by as if they were minutes for Aria. The Dazzling wasn’t sure if this was because she was in a hurry to get home or because she just didn’t like being in the club owner’s commodious and gaudy-looking office for very long – or both – but whatever the reason she soon found herself rapidly tapping one of her feet as she impatiently waited for Lucy to pay her for her latest pick-up.
“Yes, yes. This appears to be the genuine article,” Lucy eventually said with satisfaction as she removed the item from the case, revealing it to be a slightly rusted flintlock pistol. “Such a beautiful piece, don’t you think? Constructed in 19th century Russia, never been fired, and it was once owned by renowned author Anton Chekhov.”
If it hadn’t been for the fact that Lucy was staring almost directly at her, Aria would have rolled her eyes derisively at the woman. Between Gregori Rasputin’s cross that she and Justice had picked up together on her first day as Lucy’s courier, Danila Antsiferov’s compass that she’d picked up – alone – not long after that, and now Anton Chekhov’s gun, she felt that the club owner had a strong fondness for Russian artifacts. One that very nearly bordered on the obsessive.
“Yeah, yeah, that gun’s really something,” The Dazzling replied ardently as she ceased her foot-tapping. “Now can I get paid? I’ve got a thing with my sisters I need to get going for.”
“But of course,” Lucy answered as she put the pistol down, rummaged through one of her desk drawers for a few seconds, and eventually withdrew a stack of bills that she handed to her courier.
“Thanks,” Aria said to Lucy as she took the money from the woman.
“Oh, no, thank you,” Lucy lauded back. “And just so you know, there’s another item I’m expecting to be ready for pick-up late next week if you’re interested in more work.”
“Cool,” Aria replied as she quickly counted her money. “Just give me a call when it’s ready and I’ll take care of it.”
“Wonderful,” The club owner said genially, right before dawning an astonished expression that indicated she’d just remembered something important. “Oh, and one other small thing. A band I’d scheduled to play here tomorrow abruptly cancelled on me this morning, and I was wondering if you and your sisters could help me out of a jam and possibly fill in for them. It would just be for the one night, I assure you.”
“Nope,” The Dazzling very bluntly replied as she continued to count the bills in her hand.
The incredibly candid – and arguably rude - response from the Dazzling didn’t sit well with the Devil, as evidenced by the look of mild glower that briefly crossed her face. A look that, fortunately for her, went unnoticed by Aria.
“T-That’s all right,” The woman said as she quickly regained her affable demeanor. “I understand that you girls probably already have other plans for tomorrow night. I just figured I’d ask in case you were free and wanted to earn a few extra bucks.”
“Uh-huh,” The Dazzling uttered as she finished counting her money and placed her payment in her pocket. “Anything else?”
“No, no. Nothing else,” Lucy replied, now sounding almost sickeningly genial.
“All right then. Later,” Aria then said as she turned around and headed for the elevator. “Good luck with your band issue.”
“Bye, Aria!” Justice called out to the girl as she left.
The Dazzling said nothing back but did raise her left hand up to signify that she’d heard the demon-girl’s amiable goodbye. Though immediately after doing so she remembered that Justice was blind and therefore unable to see her affable gesture.
“Bye, Justice!” She hollered back just before entering the antechamber linking Lucy’s office to the elevator and disappearing from the other women’s sight.
As soon as it was obvious that Aria had made her way through the narrow passageway and into the elevator, Lucy immediately dropped her congenial demeanor and once more dawned a displeasured expression as she aggressively sat further back in her chair.
“That girl still doesn’t trust me,” The woman irately said to no one in particular.
“What are you talking about? Aria trusts you,” Justice chimed in as she walked around Lucy’s desk and took a seat in one of the chairs in front of it. “She wouldn’t keep coming back here and doing pick-ups for you if she didn’t trust you.”
“Well then she doesn’t trust me enough!” Lucy heatedly shot back. “Not to the degree that I need to her to at least.”
“You mean to the degree that she’ll agree to perform here?” Justice half-asked, half-said.
“Precisely,” The Devil sternly replied.
Upon hearing her boss confirm her suspicions, Justice couldn’t help but give a small, internal sigh. Ever since she’d come back to working directly with Lucy nearly every conversation the two of them had engaged in had, at one point or another, veered towards the subject of getting the Dazzlings to perform at Chaus. And as far as the demon-girl was concerned, it was a subject that was getting somewhat old.
Though in truth, it wasn’t so much the fact that Lucy frequently brought up the Dazzlings performing at Chaus that irked Justice so, but rather the fact that her boss never expounded upon why it was that it mattered so much to her.
Each time Lucy had talked about getting the three siren sisters to perform at her club she’d never once provided an explanation as to the reason for its apparent importance. The most that she’d ever disclosed as to her motivation was that she needed the Dazzlings for her plans to come to fruition, and nothing more. Much to the chagrin of Justice and her curiosity. On more than one occasion the demon-girl had thought to ask her boss for more details as to her mysterious plans, but each time she’d concluded that doing so would have proved utterly futile. There was no way Lucy was going to divulge any information she deemed secretive to her, especially after she’d spilled the beans about the woman’s fear of the IRS to Sonata and Su-Z.
Despite knowing that Lucy wasn’t going to share any further info with her though, Justice’s curiosity about her boss’ intense interest in the Dazzlings continued to linger, even now. So much so that she once more felt tempted to ask about it. Thankfully though, there was another curiosity she had at the moment that she felt she could indulge instead.
“So, what’s the deal with the gun?” She inquired as she leaned forward onto Lucy’s desk and picked up the small firearm atop it. “It shoot magic bullets that never miss or something?”
“Oh, goodness no,” Lucy answered in an almost risible manner. “That thing is nothing more than a piece of junk.”
“Wait, seriously?” Justice replied incredulously.
“Seriously,” The Devil confirmed. “Frankly, I doubt it’s even actually Chekhov’s gun. I only bought the blasted thing so that I’d have something for Aria to pick up.”
Although it couldn’t be seen through her sunglasses, Justice rapidly blinked twice due to her newfound high-level of confusion.
“Um, okay,” The demon-girl then said, now sounding noticeably stupefied, as she put the gun down.
“I can tell you need me to explain a few things to you, Justice,” Lucy rather condescendingly told her companion. “See, the whole reason I hired Aria as my courier was so that I could get her and her sisters to finally perform here. I figured if I paid her large sums of money to pick up items for me I’d gain enough of her trust that she’d convince her siblings that I’m sufficiently honest and upright to work for.”
“But…you’re not honest and upright, Boss,” Justice interjected.
“Of course I’m not, but that’s beside the point,” Lucy replied. “I just need them to think that I’m honest and upright. And you’d think that a good way to do that would be by helping one of them when they’re having money troubles by giving them a high-paying job, but apparently not.”
At this point, Lucy got up from her seat and turned around to look at the various items on display against the back wall of her office.
“I just don’t get it,” The Devil then said sternly. “Why doesn’t Aria seem to trust me any more than she did before I hired her? What more do I have to do to convince her that I’m trustworthy? I gave her a job when she needed one, I offered her some genuinely sound advice on how to deal with Banyan Capital, I even bought about half-a-dozen things I don’t even need just so she’d be able to get paid for doing pick-ups, but still she acts as though -”
“Hold up. Hooold up,” Justice interrupted. “Did you just say you’ve bought about half-a-dozen things you don’t need solely for the purpose of being able to pay Aria to pick them up for you?”
“Yes, Justice, I did,” Lucy informed her companion. “Please try to keep up.”
Immediately after answering the demon-girl’s question, Lucy went right back to giving her periphrastic soliloquy. Though now the club owner’s words fell only on deaf ears, as Justice completely tuned the woman out whilst she retreated into her own mind to try and make sense of what she’d just learned.
From the day she’d been summoned from Hell by Sonata and Su-Z and reunited with Lucy after seven years, Justice had been aware of her boss’ desire to have the Dazzlings play at her club. However, it was only now upon hearing Lucy confess that she’d been giving Aria pick-up jobs solely for the purposes of paying her that she truly understood just how strong that desire was. And that newfound realization concerned her greatly. It wasn’t like Lucy to be so adamantly determined to see a single, solitary ambition come to fruition - especially an ambition that was clearly only a small part of a much larger goal – and the borderline obsessive level of that determination was raising some red flags for the demon-girl. Red flags that signaled back to a time when Lucy had been so overly strong-willed that it’d cost her dearly, as well as countless others.
The longer Justice thought about what Lucy had just told her, the more she felt that she had no other choice but to broach the subject of Lucy’s motivation for wanting the Dazzlings to play at Chaus with the woman once again. If there was even a one percent chance her boss was once again slipping into a state of obsession from which dire consequences could result, she needed to make every conceivable effort to make that determination and take action to pull her out of that obsessive state if necessary. And as soon as Lucy was finished with her palaver rambling she intended to make that effort.
“There has to be something I’m missing here. There has to be,” The Devil continued to monologue. “I just have to find out what that something is.”
Sensing that her boss was finally finished speaking, Justice removed herself from atop Lucy’s desk and assumed a more upright and naturally seated position.
“Listen, Boss,” The demon-girl started to say in an uncharacteristically solemn manner. “I know you don’t like sharing stuff with me ‘cause I’m not great at keeping secrets, but I think it’s time you told me why you’re so gung-hoe on having Aria and her sisters perform here.”
Unsurprisingly, Justice’s impetration appeared to catch Lucy off-guard, as evidenced by the fact that the woman didn’t offer an immediate response. Eventually though, Lucy turned around to face her companion and shot her a somewhat acetic look - which of course the blind girl couldn’t see – as she sat back down in her chair.
“Is that so?” The Devil addressed the demon-girl in a stern yet adroit tone of voice. “And why, exactly, should I do that, Justice?”
“’Cause I think you’re starting to let this thing consume you,” Justice confessed, making sure to sound as deferential as possible. “Getting the Dazzlings to perform at this club is practically all you ever talk about these days. I can’t even remember a single conversation we’ve had since reuniting where you didn’t eventually veer the subject towards them.”
Justice paused for a moment to allow Lucy to offer a rebuttal just in case the woman had one, but after about five silence-filled seconds passed she continued to voice her concerns.
“And on top of that, there’s this whole ‘I’m paying Aria to pick up stuff I don’t need’ thing now,” The demon-girl went on, now sounding noticeably less deferential. “I mean, I know we don’t typically care about money and I’m sure that it isn’t an issue for you or anything, but given how significant that stuff is up here it’s just kinda crazy how you keep throwing it away on things you don’t need just to have an excuse to pay Aria, you know?”
Once more, Justice took a moment’s pause in case there was anything Lucy wished to say. But just like before, the woman said nothing. Which, if the demon-girl was being completely honest with herself, was something that she found to be a little unnerving.
When she’d made the decision to express her worries to Lucy, Justice had more-or-less expected her boss to voice a dissenting statement or two to those apprehensions, given the woman’s penchant for being sensitive to criticism. But instead, Lucy had thus far remained completely silent, which Justice couldn’t help but fearfully feel meant that she was taking the time to prepare a real doozy of a comeback remark. One so powerful and pernicious that it would leave her reeling to the degree that she’d never want to question her boss ever again.
However, despite this fearful feeling Justice knew that there was no stopping now. She’d already started voicing her concerns, and now she needed to finish voicing them. No matter how potentially calamitous the fallout from doing so might be.
“And no offense, Lucy, but frankly seeing you act like this kinda reminds me of…of…” The demon-girl said as she struggled to complete her thought.
“Of…?” Lucy interjected.
“…of back when you were obsessing over Xekáno,” Justice tentatively finished her sentence.
Immediately upon hearing Justice utter the word ‘Xekáno’, Lucy’s appearance changed in a number of small but not unnoticeable ways. A brief twitch came over each of the fingers on her right hand, both of her eyes dilated, and a cold sweat began to form on her forehead to name a few of the more apparent alterations. Despite all of the changes being subtle in appearance, though, they were very much misleading indicators as to the woman’s current state of mind.
Internally, the Devil was filled with nothing short of trepidation and alarm.
In that moment, Lucy was immensely grateful that Justice was blind. The last thing she wanted right now was for her blabbermouth of a companion to become even slightly aware of what it was she was truly up to, and if the demon-girl had been able to see how simply hearing ‘Xekáno’ had affected her she would’ve undoubtedly gained at least some awareness of what she was scheming. Thankfully though, with Justice being unable to pick up on the physical signs of her present mode of being she still had a chance at keeping the girl in the dark. A chance that, first and foremost, depended on her ability to calm herself down and reply to Justice’s concerns in a natural and ordinary-seeming way.
“I see,” The Devil said in a very measured manner. “Well, I have to say, Justice, that’s quite the harsh criticism. But as much as I hate to admit it, you might be right.”
“I…might?” Justice asked bewilderedly.
“Yes, you might,” Lucy confirmed as she assumed a more relaxed position in her chair. “Hearing you say all that just now has really opened my eyes to how I’ve been acting lately. And though I wish I could deny it, everything you said was completely accurate; I’ve been fixating too much on getting the Dazzlings to perform here and allowing that fixation to cloud my better judgement.”
Justice wanted to say something in response to Lucy’s confession but found herself unable to on account of how flabbergasted she was that her boss was even admitting to her being right.
“And thank you for bringing up Xekáno,” The Devil continued. “I know that wasn’t an easy thing for you to do, but I’m glad that you did because you were right about that too; I was starting to act like I had back then. And after how all that ended the last thing I want is to put any of us through a similar ordeal again.”
“Um, okay. Cool,” Justice replied, still sounding a bit bewildered. “I’m…glad to hear that.”
Sensing that her companion’s concerns were beginning to be placated, Lucy briefly dawned a small, mischievous smile before swiftly returning to her compunctious state and resting her head within her left hand.
“I think the frustration of this whole thing has just been getting to me recently,” She said exhaustedly. “I mean, I’ve been trying to get the Dazzlings to play at my club for so long now, and it just doesn’t seem like I’ve been able to make any progress in getting them closer to saying ‘yes’.”
“Hey, I get it, Boss,” Justice sympathetically responded. “But I wouldn’t worry too much about it. I’m sure you’ve made at least some progress.”
“Nice of you to say, Justice, but it certainly doesn’t appear that way,” The Devil somewhat defeatedly said back. “Especially not after earlier when Aria was so quick to turn down my request for her and her sister to perform here tomorrow night.”
“Oh, well I wouldn’t let that get you down,” Justice replied in her usual vivacious manner. “I’m pretty sure Aria only did that because she was feeling real anxious to get out of here and to that meeting she has with her sisters about hiring a new part-time farmhand.”
“Perhaps,” Lucy conceded. “But even still, she was awfully -”
The Devil stopped herself midsentence when she came to a mind-boggling realization: Justice knew what the meeting Aria had mentioned was about. When the Dazzling had made reference to a meeting with her sisters before leaving she hadn’t said anything about what that meeting was in regards to, but somehow Justice was aware that it was about hiring a new person to work on their emu farm. And as a growing desire to find out how her companion came about this knowledge began to overtake her she dropped her whole enervated act and sat up more properly in her seat.
“How do you know what Aria’s meeting with her sisters is about?” She asked the demon-girl in an almost demanding fashion.
“She told me,” Justice answered as though she were stating the obvious. “We got to talking downstairs while she was waiting for you to give her the info for today’s pick-up and she mentioned it.”
Initially, Lucy found herself livid by this. How in the nine circles of Hell was it that Aria apparently trusted Justice more than her? She’d benevolently bestowed upon the Dazzling a job, and by contrast Justice had injected her with a lethal dose of black mamba venom. True, the only reason Justice had done so was because she’d instructed her to, but ultimately it was still the demon-girl who’d pulled the metaphorical trigger. So why did Aria feel comfortable enough around Justice to share the details of her plans with her? It made absolutely no sense to the Devil.
However, Lucy’s feelings of agitation were swiftly replaced by feelings of jubilation when she fully realized that Aria did, to a degree, trust Justice. Whatever reason or reasons the Dazzling had for trusting the demon-girl over her were of little-to-no consequence. The only thing of any importance was that she did trust Justice, and since Justice was practically wrapped around her finger that meant she had at least a small means of influencing the pig-tailed girl, so long as she played her cards right. And much like earlier, the Devil felt that the card she needed to play at this particular moment was that of subtlety.
“Hmm. All right then,” She said as casually as possible in order to avoid letting her feelings of exultation show. “But you know, Justice, all this talk of money has reminded me of something I wanted to ask you.”
“Oh, okay. What’s that?” The demon-girl inquired.
“How much am I paying you right now?” Lucy then asked.
“Paying me?” Justice answered, sounding noticeably bewildered for about the third time today. “Um, you’re not paying me at all, Lucy. I’m pretty sure you’ve never paid me for anything. Like, ever.”
“That’s what I thought,” Lucy replied. “I’ve never paid you before because you’ve never done anything for me outside of Hell. But we’re not in Hell anymore, now are we, Justice?”
“Nope,” Justice simply said.
“And since we’re no longer in Hell I feel that you need to start earning some money so that you can start pulling your weight around here,” The Devil continued. “After all, those apple pies you love so much aren’t free.”
“Makes sense,” Justice replied, remembering how she herself had pointed out earlier how significant money was up on Earth. “So, does this mean you’re going to start paying me, Boss?”
“Oh goodness no,” Lucy answered in an almost amused fashion. “I can’t pay you officially because you don’t exist on paper up here and I can’t pay you under the table either since I had to get rid of all of my cooked books – thank you, Su-Z.”
Just then, the Devil folded her hands and rested her arms on her desk as she leaned forward ever-so-slightly.
“No, I’m afraid you’re going to have to earn some money elsewhere, Justice,” She concluded in a manner that would give one the impression she was laying the demon-girl off.
“Damn. But whatever, it is what it is I guess,” Justice accepted with a surprising amount of ataraxia as she got up from her seat. “You got any ideas where I can make some money at least?”
“I might have one idea,” Lucy devilishly replied.
“Where the hell are you, Aria?!” Adagio Dazzle’s voice shouted through the speaker system in Aria’s car. “Because in case you forgot, we had a household meeting scheduled for today!”
“Chill, Adagio, I didn’t forget,” Aria instructed her older sister as she drove. “I’m in the car and headed home now.”
“Well when you left this morning you said you’d be home an hour ago!” The elder Dazzling heatedly reminded her sibling.
“Sorry, work went longer than I’d thought it would today,” The pig-tailed girl apologized, though not that remorsefully. “Look, I just left the city limits, so I shouldn’t be much longer.”
Surprisingly, the middle Dazzling didn’t receive another heated response from her older sister after saying this.
“Adagio?” Aria said to make sure her call hadn’t been disconnected.
“I’ve got another call coming through,” Adagio eventually spoke up. “Just…come straight home so we can get our meeting started already.”
Immediately after Adagio finished speaking, the call ended and Aria gave a quick eyeroll.
“Yeah, I said I’m on my way home,” The younger Dazzling said, feeling slightly miffed that her sister had felt the need to tell her to come straight home when she’d made it clear that she already was.
Despite her phone call with Adagio being rather unpleasant, Aria was glad that her older sibling had called her. The conversation had served as a good distraction from the thoughts and questions she typically found herself preoccupied with after finishing a pick-up job for Lucy, namely whether or not continuing to work for the woman was the right thing to do. Though now that Adagio had hung up and she was left with no sufficient diversion, she quickly found those thoughts and questions rushing to the forefront of her mind.
“There’s nothing wrong with working for Lucy,” The Dazzling said aloud. “There’s nothing wrong with working for her.”
As per usual, Aria began debating with herself by stating - either aloud or mentally - that there was nothing erroneous or misguided with doing pick-ups for Lucy. But also as per usual, making this statement alone wasn’t nearly enough to convince her that the words composing it were true.
“She may be the Devil, but it’s not like I’m doing anything bad by picking stuff up for her,” She continued to deliberate vocally. “I’m not breaking any laws or hurting anyone or anything. And it’s not like I’m helping her do anything wrong either.”
Knowing full-well where her mind was going to take her next, Aria beat herself to the punch by saying that she wasn’t aiding or abetting any wrongdoing on Lucy’s part through working for her. However, the benefit of this foresight was short lived, as soon her psyche took her to a place she hadn’t yet gone before.
“S-She’s just collecting a bunch of old junk like all rich people,” The Dazzling went on, now sounding a tad shaken. “I mean, yeah, that first piece of junk I picked up for her was magical, and some of the other junk I’ve picked up for her might have been magical too. But it’s not like she’s doing anything bad with any of it. All she’s doing with that stuff is putting it on display in her office so she can show her rich friends that she’s richer than they are, that’s all.”
So far as Aria could tell, this was true. Each and every item that she’d picked up for Lucy since becoming her courier had been placed in a prominent location within the club owner’s office, suggesting strongly that she wasn’t doing anything with them other than using them to showcase her wealth. Even the item she’d picked up that she knew for a fact was magical – Rasputin’s cross – had simply been set ornately upon a pedestal along the back wall of the woman’s office for all who sat in front of her desk to see.
Though of course, the Dazzling had no way of knowing for certain that Lucy wasn’t doing dubious deeds with any of the items she’d picked up for her when she wasn’t around. For all she knew, the woman was using Rasputin’s cross to make herself near invincible and bully her board of directors or using the heavy-ass black cauldron she’d picked up after that to conjure voodoo spells and curse her enemies. But then again, it wasn’t as though she had any proof that Lucy was doing any of these things – or even any legitimate reason to believe them to be remotely true.
“Fuck!” Aria uttered in frustration as her demurral regarding working for Lucy started to go up and down like a rollercoaster running at light speed.
Despite having this debate with herself nearly every time she finished doing a pick-up job for Lucy, the Dazzling had yet to come even close to a definitive conclusion as to whether or not working for the woman was all right or not. From the standpoint of making sure that her family had enough money to live and not lose their emu farm, it was undoubtedly the right thing. Working as Lucy’s courier was proving to be very financially lucrative. But from the standpoint of moral philosophy, it was still incredibly unclear if she was at all in the wrong. And that uncertainty only caused her frustration to grow.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck!” She reiterated as she slammed her right hand on the steering wheel multiple times.
Sadly, this was also per usual for the pig-tailed girl as she journeyed home from Chaus. Just about every time she’d debated with herself like this her frustration at not being able to arrive at a clear answer to her ethical conundrum had resulted in her feeling the need to hit something. The idea that she might be slipping back into villainous acts didn’t sit well with her in the slightest. Her life and the lives of her sisters had changed for the better since embracing the magic of friendship, and she didn’t want to jeopardize all that she now had by working for a potential villain. But at the same time, she didn’t want to jeopardize all that she now had by going bankrupt either. Even with Banyan Capital’s assistance, money was still a big concern within her household, and she knew she had to do her part to help make it less of a concern.
But was the cost of obtaining financial stability worth the potential risk of once more winding up on the wrong end of the moral spectrum?
“You’re fine. It’s all fine,” Aria told herself to try and calm herself down. “You don’t have any reason to believe that Lucy’s doing anything wrong with the stuff you’ve been picking up for her. And if it turns out that she is doing anything wrong, you stop working for her and do whatever you have to to make things right.”
This type of asseveration routinely followed the Dazzling’s mini outburst. It was never enough to give her the answers she so desperately desired, but it was at least enough for her to rationalize her decision to continue working for Lucy – for better or for worse.
Almost as soon as Aria finished making her pronouncement, she pulled into the driveway of Dazzling Farms and parked the car up near the house. Before getting out and heading inside, though, she took a few seconds to take a couple of deep breaths and recompose herself. The last thing she wanted right now was to walk into the house looking noticeably distressed and be bombarded with questions from her sisters and housemates about what was wrong.
So with every bit of mental energy she could muster, the middle Dazzling suppressed her agitated disposition and assumed her usual indifferent demeanor.
“Let’s get this over with,” She said in a very tsundere fashion as she got out of the car and headed for the house.
Within a matter of moments, Aria reached the porch, opened the front door, and stepped inside without delay. However, as soon as she took a single step through the threshold she found herself needing to come to an abrupt stop, as Adagio was standing only a mere seven feet or so away from the entrance with her back turned towards it.
“Yes…yes, if you could that would be great,” The older Dazzling said into her phone, seemingly unaware that her younger sibling had nearly run into her.
Under more normal circumstances, Aria would likely have made some sort of crass remark to her sister over her having chosen such a poor place to stand. But given how she’d been feeling only a couple of minutes ago she instead just gave Adagio a derisive eyeroll before dropping the car keys in the nearby key bowl, sidestepping her older sister, and heading into the living room for their meeting.
Upon walking into the living room, the middle Dazzling noticed that Sonata, Kiwi, and Su-Z were already there and seated throughout as they all awaited the start of the meeting. Sonata and Kiwi were both seated next to each other on the couch and apparently engaged in conversation whilst Su-Z was located in one of the single-person chairs and petting Princess Thunder Guts, who was seated atop her lap. Because of this, there were only two seats remaining within the room that she could occupy; the far end of the couch and the other single-person chair located almost right to the far end of the couch.
Without even really thinking about it, Aria made the decision to sit in the single-person chair so that she could avoid sitting on the couch – and next to Kiwi.
“No way. Seriously?” Sonata said to Kiwi as Aria made her way over towards her chosen seat.
“Seriously,” Kiwi replied. “The reason Countess Coloratura does so much yoga is because has a major sweet tooth.”
“Especially for custard pudding,” Su-Z chimed in. “I swear, back when Kiwi and I were popstars I saw her eat just about a whole bowl of that stuff at a party once.”
“Oh my gosh, that’s too funny!” Sonata chortled.
Kiwi and Su-Z joined in Sonata’s merriment by offering up a few chuckles of their own, but as soon as Aria walked past all three of them Kiwi immediately ceased her mirth-making and turned her head away so as not to face the itinerant Dazzling. The action seemed to go unnoticed by Sonata and Su-Z, who continued to cackle gleefully, but it most definitely didn’t escape Aria’s notice.
Ever since Aria had gone back to working for Lucy after her first pick-up for the woman, Kiwi had become noticeably more distant from her – and the Dazzling knew it. The PostCrush girl rarely ever engaged her in conversation anymore, and whenever she would engage her first she’d often only receive short, closed-ended responses from her. Plus, there were a number of times similar to the one just now where the former popstar had made it a point of actively trying to avoid any interaction with her. None of this surprised Aria much though, given how Kiwi had reacted to the tale of her first pick-up for Lucy, but she did have to admit that it did hurt her a tad.
Ever since Kiwi and Su-Z had moved onto the emu farm with her and her sisters, Aria had felt that she and Kiwi had developed a special bond b’twixt them. She wouldn’t go so far as to say that they were best friends, but she did believe that because of a handful of moments they’d shared - most notably the heart-to-heart talk in the van on Kiwi’s first day working the farm – that they’d become more than simply friends. So for Kiwi to now be acting so coldly was a bit disheartening for her, though it wasn’t nearly disheartening enough for her to say anything about it.
As far as Aria was concerned, if this was the way Kiwi wanted things to be between them from now on then that was fine by her. After all, what did it really matter if they had a special bond or not?
“Do you know anything personal about Sapphire Shores?” Sonata asked the two PostCrush girls just as Aria sat down.
“Sapphire Shores? Nah, I don’t know anything all that personal about her,” Su-Z answered before turning to face her best friend. “How about you, Kiwi?”
“Huh?” Kiwi replied dazedly as she brought her attention back to the conversation.
“Sapphire Shores; you know anything personal about her?” Su-Z clarified.
“Oh, um…n-no, not really,” The elder PostCrush girl replied awkwardly.
Su-Z and Sonata exchanged a quick look of confusion as to Kiwi’s sudden change in demeanor. But before either of them could ask the girl if something was wrong, Adagio walked into the room and clapped her hands together a couple of times.
“Okay, people, let’s get this meeting started,” The Dazzling leader commandingly said as she stood over the group of girls. “Since we’re getting started later than expected and I have to get going to Smith’s Grove soon we’ll keep things nice and short.”
Aria couldn’t help but shoot Adagio a derisive glare after she’d commented about how their meeting was getting started later than expected, feeling that her older sister was taking a passive-aggressive shot at her by doing so.
“As you all know, we’re looking at bringing on a new part-time farmhand,” The eldest Dazzling continued, seemingly oblivious to her younger sibling’s glower. “We’re doing more business now than we ever have before thanks to Su-Z’s sister getting us that Banyan agreement, and because of that we need to start thinking more about things like operational planning and efficiency. Which means we need to make sure we have enough people working on the farm to ensure we can meet our demand.”
“If I may,” Kiwi respectfully cut in. “I don’t think we necessarily need any extra people working on the farm. Su-Z and I have been more than able to keep up with all the new responsibilities we’ve been given since business started booming.”
“Yeah, we haven’t had any problems with our new tasks at all,” Su-Z concurred.
“I know, and we’re grateful for all the extra work you’ve both been putting in lately,” Adagio replied as she addressed Kiwi’s concern. “But with the way our business is growing it’s only a matter of time until things become too much for the two of you to handle alone. We’re going to need a third person eventually, and with that in mind it’d be best to bring that person on sooner rather than later so they can get as much training as possible before things get too busy.”
After a few seconds of contemplating Adagio’s logic, both of the PostCrush girls nodded in agreement.
“Why don’t one of us just go back to working on the farm instead?” Sonata chimed in. “I mean, I’d be okay with quitting my job at the candy store if need be.”
Knowing their sister as well as they did, Aria and Adagio both knew that Sonata’s generous offer to quit her job at Cybil’s Retro Candy Store was most likely not as generous as she was making it out to be. If they had to put money on Sonata’s true motivation for her proposition that money would’ve been put on her simply not wanting to work at the sweets shop anymore, and not on her having an actual desire to help fill the part-time farmhand position.
“Unfortunately, that’s not a viable option right now, Sonata,” Adagio replied. “Our business may have picked up significantly, but we’ve still got a ways to go before we’re financially sound. We just can’t afford to lose even a single source of income for the time being.”
A subtle yet noticeable look of disappointment crossed Sonata’s face as soon as Adagio turned her offer down, confirming to the other two Dazzlings that they’d have won their fictional bet. Though neither of them took any joy in Sonata’s discontent, as the two of them weren’t exactly thrilled by their continuing need to accrue money from outside the farm either.
“Trust me, I’ve given this whole thing a lot of consideration,” Adagio continued to address the group. “And like all of you I wish there were a more in-house solution here too, especially given how difficult it’s been trying to even find someone willing to work here part-time. But this is the best way to ensure that we keep Dazzling Farms moving in the right direction.”
Collective nods and soft ‘yeah’s were given in response to the eldest Dazzling’s remarks. But despite these actions of agreement, the four other girls in the room each still had their own private concerns, specifically how they were going to find someone who was willing to work part-time on the farm. After all, Adagio hadn’t been wrong when she’d mentioned how difficult it was trying to find a part-time farmhand.
In the time since Adagio had placed ads in the Canterlot Chronicle and on the internet for a part-time farmhand not a single person had expressed an interest in filling the position. Plus, none of the friends they’d talked to directly about the job wanted to fill it either. Or rather, none of the friends they’d talked to were able to fill it, due to all of them being students at CHS and stuck at school during the day. But regardless, the lack of any genuine prospects for their job opening was very discouraging to the PostCrush girls and two youngest Dazzlings, and all four of them couldn’t help but wonder what Adagio’s back-up plan was should such a prospect never present themself – if she even had a back-up plan.
“The good news though is that the phone call I just had was with someone who was inquiring about the job,” Adagio then said, immediately garnering her the full attention of everyone else in the room.
“For real?!” Su-Z inquired optimistically.
“For real,” Adagio answered, now sounding somewhat optimistic herself. “They said they heard about it from a friend of theirs and that they can be over later today for an interview.”
“We’re interviewing this person so soon?” Aria chimed in almost accusatorially. “You don’t think doing that makes us look kinda desperate?”
“We are desperate,” The eldest Dazzling sternly reminded her sister. “And we’re not interviewing them, Aria; you are.”
“What?! Just me?!” The pig-tail girl replied indignantly as she vehemently got up from her chair. “The hell, Adagio?! I thought you said we were going to handle the interview process together!”
“That was the plan, yes,” Adagio replied rather calmly, but with the subtlest hint of irritation evident within her voice. “But since you were so late getting home and I need to get going to Smith’s Grove for my visit with Violet you’re on your own for this part.”
The look on Aria’s face made it clear to all who gazed upon it that the middle Dazzling desperately wanted to offer some rebuttal that would hopefully get her older sibling to honor her promise. But soon enough, that look morphed into one that gave the impression that the girl wasn’t going to give any such counterstatement – or was simply unable to come up with any such counterstatement.
“Um, we could help you if you want, Aria,” Sonata tentatively spoke up before turning her attention to Kiwi and Su-Z. “Right, girls?”
Kiwi and Su-Z each gave Aria an affirming nod in response to Sonata’s inquiry, though Kiwi with noticeably less enthusiasm than Su-Z.
“Fine, whatever,” Aria grumbled as she practically threw herself back into her seat.
“All right then,” Adagio then said as she looked over at the clock mounted above the TV. “I’m heading out to Smith’s Grove now so I don’t miss visiting hours, so meeting adjourned I guess.”
And with that, the Dazzling leader promptly turned around and exited the living room.
“Wait a minute,” Kiwi called out to the girl just as she reached the front door. “You’re not going to tell us anything about this person we’re supposed to interview, Adagio? Like maybe what their name is.”
“They didn’t tell me their name, and I didn’t think to ask for it,” Adagio confessed as she took the car keys out of the bowl Aria had dropped them in earlier. “But I can tell you that they’re a girl and that she’s the tomboy type. I swear, with the way she kept using words like ‘cool’ and ‘awesome’ in just about every sentence it felt like I was talking to Rainbow Dash.”
A noticeable smile immediately crossed Sonata’s face after Adagio mentioned that the person that they’d be interviewing was similar in temperament to her girlfriend. While conversely, the same information caused a small scowl to cross Aria’s already glower-looking face. The thought of having to deal with yet another tomboy was one that the middle Dazzling didn’t exactly love. She didn’t have anything against tomboys, mind you, but given how often she found herself interacting with Rainbow Dash and/or Justice on an almost daily basis she felt that two tomboys in her life was already more than enough.
“Okay, I’m leaving,” Adagio said as she headed out the door. “Call me if anything comes up.”
“Tell Violet I said hi!” Sonata called out to her sibling as she left.
“Will do!” Adagio vociferated back right before the door closed behind her.
With the Dazzling leader gone, the four girls remaining in the house all silently looked at one another for a few seconds, as if wordlessly asking each other what it was they should do now. Eventually though, the silence came to an abrupt end when Princess Thunder Guts suddenly leaped down from atop Su-Z’s lap and started barking, earning her the attention of everyone in the room.
“Huh? What is it, little girl?” Su-Z asked her dog as the petite pooch ran over to the front door and began pawing at it.
“Does she want to go out?” Sonata inquired.
“I think she’d just use the doggie door if that’s what she wanted,” Kiwi remarked.
Su-Z got up from her seat to see why it was her pet had unexpectedly began palpating the front door, but after taking only a couple of steps a quick series of knocks coming from the other side of the door caused her to stop dead in her tracks – and caused Princess Thunder Guts to cease her frantic pawing.
“You think that’s the girl we’re supposed to interview?” She asked the other girls in the room.
“It can’t be,” Kiwi answered. “Adagio only got off the phone with her a few minutes ago.”
“Maybe she was already on her way over when she called,” Sonata chimed in.
Unbeknownst to one another, Kiwi and Aria had the same thought in response to Sonata’s remark: why would the girl who was interested in the farmhand job already have been on her way to the interview before knowing she’d been granted one?
“Well, whoever it is, I’ve got it,” Aria said as she got up and made her way over to the front door.
As the middle Dazzling ventured through the living room to answer the door, she took a moment to calm down and recompose herself just in case the person at the door really was the girl that was interested in the farmhand job. Despite how unlikely it was that this was the case, she didn’t want to take the risk of scaring a potential worker off by projecting her current bitter feelings towards Adagio onto them.
“Come here, Princess,” Su-Z called out to her dog in an attempt to get her out of the way of the door, though to no avail.
For reasons unknown, Princess Thunder Guts ignored her owner’s command and continued to stand in front of the door and up at it, making it all but impossible for Aria to open the thing without bonking the miniature mutt once she reached it. Wanting to avoid such a bonking from occurring, Su-Z hastily ran over to the door to pick up her pet and get her out of the Dazzling’s way. But before she could get there, Aria beat her to the punch and removed Princess Thunder Guts from her path by picking her up herself, eliciting a small yet happy-sounding yip from the petite pooch.
“Yeah, yeah,” The pig-tailed girl said to the petite pooch as she secured her with one arm and reached for the door with the other. “Just don’t go barking at the person on the other side of the door when I open it, okay?”
Princess Thunder Guts gave another small, happy-sounding yip in response.
“Okay,” Aria then said as she opened the door.
Despite not having reached the front door quickly enough to remove her pet from in front of it, Su-Z had managed to make it far enough that she was able to see who was at the door when Aria opened it. And when she did see who was at the door she was grateful that the Dazzling had been the one who’d picked up Princess Thunder Guts instead of her, because if she had been the one holding her pet in that moment she feared that she would’ve dropped her due to shock.
“Justice?!” The PostCrush girl and Aria both said in a very pell-mell manner as they stared at the demon-girl standing just outside the house.
“Justice?!” Sonata and Kiwi shouted simultaneously as they both swiftly got up from their seats.
“Yo, how’s it goin’?” Justice greeted everyone. “I’m here about the part-time farmhand job.”
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Is there really not a tag for Kiwi Lollipop and/or Supernova Zap?
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you can request the administrators to create the #PostCrush #Kiwi Lollipop #Supernova Zap through
You had it coming Lucy.
Still seems a little ridiculous imo.
But also odd and a little bit suspicious.
Guess that's her way at getting back at her.
Not surprised it be her.