Another Morning
Like many people in the world, Adagio would have very much preferred to not wake up. To instead enjoy the comfort and tranquillity of her dreams. At present she was experiencing a very good one, wherein she stood atop the whole world, basking in the adoration of all below, with her enemies crushed and unable to oppose her. She stood unchallenged, praised by everyone she looked upon. But alas, like all dreams, it eventually came to an end, and the first sliver of sunlight, creeping in through the window of their van, hit her eyelids, bringing her slumber to its inevitable end. Slowly, those eyes opened, wincing slightly at the first moment of light, before finally leading to her letting out her customary yawn of the morning. Rubbing the dust from her eyes, she looked to the mostly-curtain-covered windows, and could just about hear the sound of some sort of bird singing outside. Of course, the sound of anyone singing well didn't sit right with her these days, so she just grumbled as she slowly sat upright on the sofa that she used for her bed. Turning, she looked down to the floor, where Aria and Sonata still slept in their sleeping bags, and she frowned. "Well...once more into the fray."
It took all her willpower to pull off the sheets from herself, and as she repositioned herself, setting foot on the cheap carpet that adorned the floor of their van, she made sure the right strap of her nightie was back over her shoulder where it belonged. But, whatever train of thought she might have had was interrupted by, what else, the loud sound of snoring from Sonata. Adagio took a moment to find some amusement in the thought of what her apparently numerous fans might feel about her if they could see her in the morning, dishevelled and utterly unkempt, with her long hair flopped all over her face and blown over only by the aforementioned snoring. But as enjoyable as that moment was, Adagio soon got right back to business, stretching out her leg and nudging the side of Sonata's sleeping bag with her foot. Naturally, this led to no small amount of uncomfortable rousing on the part of the younger Siren. "Ugh...five more minutes, Dagi."
"Ten for me, if you please," Aria concurred.
But Adagio, always annoyed at not being obeyed, simply got up, strode over her sleeping companions, stepped right up to the window and threw back the curtains, letting in a torrent of sunlight that caused the two other girls to writhe and hiss as though they were vampires. "Oh, I'm sorry, did I wake you?" Adagio asked with her usual smirk.
Finally opening her eyes, which were looking rather bloodshot in these early morning hours, Aria shot her leader a death glare. "Every morning, Adagio. Every. Single. Morning."
Adagio knelt down to her, giving her a quick boop on the nose. "And it will be every morning to come, Aria."
The other girl turned from her, struggling to get out of her sleeping bag, and while Adagio moved over to the nearby counter to start boiling the kettle she busied herself with getting her hair tied up into her usual pigtails. "So, dare I ask today's plan?"
Adagio shrugged. "No performances today. But we need to go over some of our recordings. I think I heard some scratchiness in them last time." She nodded in the direction of the van's side door. "Oh and we'll need to top up the air in the tyres. I don't know about you but they were feeling a bit down yesterday."
Reaching over for her own day clothes, Aria scoffed. "Well don't look to me for that one. I did it last time."
Adagio frowned, not bothering to look at her while she prepped the tea. "Fine then. Sonata, you're up." But, after a few moments, when the stated girl did not answer, Adagio turned to look to the floor, only to discover, to her understandable surprise, that Sonata had gone right back to sleep. "Are you kidding me?!"
Aria chuckled. "Hey, when that girl sleeps, she really sleeps."
Well, Adagio wasn't about to stand for that, and so, after glancing around for a moment, she smiled mischievously as she reached out towards a cold glass of water that had been left on the side last night. And of course it wouldn't have taken a genius to figure out what she was going to do with it, and sure enough that icy liquid soon dripped down onto Sonata's face, causing her to wake up immediately and sit upright. "Argh! Alright! I'm up! I'm up!"
"Delightful. Now then..." Adagio set the glass to the side again. "The tyres, Sonata, if you don't mind."
Sonata, after wiping the water off her face, glowered to her elder before sighing and getting herself out of her own sleeping bag. "Even on a day off, our lives are just...ugh!"
The Siren leader watched her go, giving a brief shake of her head, before getting back to the task at hand. The tea had been brewing in its pot for a good enough time by now, and as she carefully poured it, she allowed herself a moment to enjoy the smell that now drifted up from the cups to her nose. "Ah. No morning is really a morning without one of these." After putting in the appropriate amount of sugar and milk in each cup, she took Aria's an handed it to her. "Here."
Aria, ever the grouch, simply gave a short nod before accepting it. Once she'd blown on it she took that first sip, and for just a moment looked as close to content as those in their position were capable of being. "Almost make it worth it. Almost."
Adagio nodded in agreement, then turned to reach out to the small radio they had on the side. Flicking the switch on it, she busied herself with the knobs, turning them right and left in an effort to get to the right station. "Come on, you!"
After a few seconds of pure static, the Siren smiled when she finally managed to get the thing working. There was some graininess to the sounds of course, as any would expect of an old radio like this, but the voices were nevertheless clear enough to be understood. "And to cover the hours ahead we can expect some mild showers in the middle part of the day, followed by general cloudiness and a slight chill. Though thankfully we're due for a warmer, sunnier time tomorrow."
Aria, having finally gotten herself dressed, looked out of the nearest window, to the predicted clouds gathering in the sky. "At least tomorrow will be better anyway."
Nobody said anything further as the radio continued. "But now, back to our top story, and reports continue to mount concerning the mysterious group of what onlookers say are 'superpowered teenage girls'. Who they are remains unknown, buy barely a week goes by without some incident that this heroic band steps in to avert. Citizens of Canterlot today threw a street party in honour of their efforts and we'll be speaking with the town Mayor later on to discuss the matter."
Aria had instantly known what was going to happen as soon as that news broadcasted itself, but even so it was a shock to see just how aggressively Adagio switched the radio off. She followed it up by just staring out of the window and silently fuming. Aria knew it was best to leave things alone, and she also knew that she would regret asking. But even so, she just couldn't help herself. "You, er...you doing okay there, Adagio?"
Through gritted teeth, her leader spoke with venom. "Oh, yes, of course. I'm just thrilled that the brats who caused us to lose our magic are enjoying the kind of love and fame we tried to get. I'm just skippy about being reduced to serving as a c-list performance on the road all the time instead of being the masters of this world like we should be! I'm just..." She trailed off, rubbing the bridge of her nose and keeping her eyes shut tight. A few deep and theoretically-calming breaths later, she finally spoke again, her voice utterly drained of its former fury. "I just...want to put that matter as far from my mind as possible, if you don't mind, Aria."
Understanding, Aria took this as her cue to give Adagio some space, at least for now. Instead, she walked past her and stepped right outside, frowning as she looked skywards to see, to her chagrin, that it did indeed look like they'd be having rain in the near future. Shaking her head to this, she glanced down to Sonata, ho had just taken their jack out of its case. "Any trouble?"
Sonata looked to her indignantly. "For your information, Aria, I am not some dunce who needs help with this. I've done it before, remember?"
Here, Aria actually looked a little amused. "Yeah...after being told that you had the thing upside down the whole time."
Sonata grimaced, turning her gaze to the flattening tyre. "We agreed never to mention that again."
"No, you just asked us not to. We never agreed to anything," Aria countered.
"Ugh! Just...could you let me get on with this?! I want it done so we can head off as soon as possible!" Sonata snapped.
Aria shrugged her shoulders. "What's the rush? We've got nowhere to be today."
"Well, it's better than sticking around. I swear I heard bears out here last night!" Sonata remarked.
"Sonata, there are no bears out in these parts. You're just hearing things."
"Oh yeah? Then what the heck was all that grumbling last night?"
"Heh, probably our stomachs. We weren't exactly eating heavy before we packed up for the night."
"Ugh, tell me about it. One take-out between the three of us? When's our next payday anyway?"
"Meh, probably when we perform next. At the end of the week, I think."
"Think it'll be a big crowd there?"
Aria leaned against the side of the van. "Maybe. Our audiences have been getting bigger with every song. Maybe we might actually rake in a good take this time."
Sonata smirked in a manner not unlike Adagio. "Maybe we'll get more if I'm the lead singer. Because I don't know about you, but I'm pretty sure I heard more people calling my name last time."
Aria glanced over her shoulder before looking back to her. "Careful not to let Adagio hear you. You know how she gets."
"I heard that!" the voice of their leader called from inside.
But, rather than look concerned, Aria instead smiled as Adagio finally emerged from the vehicle. "Ah, sounds like you're back to your old, pleasant self," she said sarcastically.
Now, Aria fully expected Adagio to take on a look of offense or indignation at being spoken to like that. What she had not expected however was for their foremost member to actually smile at the remark. "Indeed I am, Aria dear. And I assure you, it's going to take a lot more than some poorly-timed radio broadcast to bring me down forever." She patted her companion on the shoulder. "We've been beaten down, by our enemies, and by this whole world. But will that stop us? No, it will not."
Aria looked to the hand on her shoulder, then back to Adagio. "Are you...trying to do a motivational speech right now?"
"Just let me have this," Adagio answered swiftly. Her smile returned shortly afterwards. "We will not allow this wretched world to defeat us. For we are Sirens, and we will go on, come Hell or high water!"
Sonata gave a quick and enthusiastic clap, much to Adagio's delight, and soon after she spoke with hope in her voice. "So does that mean you'll help me with this chore?"
Adagio swept some of her hair aside. "Keep dreaming, Sonata."
The youngest Siren sighed deeply. "Well, worth a shot."