FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Taking on a New Life

Part Fourteen

---

Written by Arian Mabe (Amethyst Mare)

Commissioned by Kittenrose232

_ _

_ _

Adagio sat opposite the tattoo artist, the one that she had been working with for several weeks already. Pursing her lips, she took in the final draft (or close to it) looking at all the fine details, everything that would be inked on her body for many, many years to come.

Everything had to be perfect.

Inside her, the siren raised her head, eyes glinting with interest.

This will give us power, she said. Have the sharpness increased a little. More golden-orange hues. It will be more accurate and assist us more.

_ _

The siren still had some rather archaic ways of speaking that amused Adagio, but they were few and far between as they conversed more and more. It was as if, sometimes, the siren had spent time watching old films and was picking up her language choices from that, though most of the time she talked as if she was from the modern age and time.

The tattoo artist looked up at her, as burly and as gruff as he had been with her before, though he sat back, a softer look in his eyes.

“So, where are we adjusting it this time?"

She smiled. Ah, he knew her well, knew them well. There was always something to change, something to adjust, though she would have to set up the appointment for first stage lining very soon. That was going to be a difficult process, however, one that would ensure she was not able to move too much – like training at the dojo – though she was sure she could make it through the appointments, at least the early ones, without too much trouble.

And the accelerated healing, the siren reminded her. That will come into play. It will still look rough and…well…it is inking skin, but in the bonding of you and I, this will allow a little of my power, though I would not call it magic, to seep deeper into you.

_ _

Adagio frowned, though was careful not to let it affect how she looked at the tattoo artist too much. She had learned to school her expressions a little more over time, which helped her interactions some.

I'm sure I will understand it more in time, Adagio said inwardly, speaking with the siren inside her mind.

Yes, that is right. It's something you have to feel… But that sounds so much like being back in decrepit Equestria that I think we should move on from that now.

_ _

Leaving that conversation behind, Adagio traced her finger across the paper, a smile tugging at her lips.

“It's nearly there…but perhaps…"

She spoke with him a little more about the design, but they had been going along the same lines for a while, learning how each other worked. It had been a long time since Adagio had dug into a partnership with someone like that, where it felt as if they were business equals and no more than that, which was an interesting concept for her. She felt more set back from the scene, as if she was watching it happening while making decisions from a distance, a little more emotional detachment allowing her to get what she wanted.

And she didn't have to use any force at all. She didn't have to fight, she didn't have to use her powers, she didn't have to raise her voice and, even then, she didn't have to manipulate. She just got what she wanted and so did he.

Interesting…

_ _

The appointment to start the linework was set up, though he warned her about the pain from that.

“It will take two to three weeks for the lines to heal and they must be kept clean, covered to shower… We've gone over this already but there will be a sheet for you to see, to follow, to make sure it is as good as it can be."

She understood that, though she would miss her training for that time. He was surprised that she wanted to do so much of the linework – and, later, the colour too – in one session, though he would receive payment for the full session regardless of whether she completed the session or decided it was too much at once. It was of no matter to him, especially after all the warnings he'd given her.

Adagio, however, was set to surprise him…

*

However, there was one thing that she had to take care of before getting her tattoo, a fire lit inside her. She knew that it had to be sorted the moment she stopped outside “her" bar, lips twisting, anger roiling in the pit of her stomach, dark and hot and putrid.

Graffiti. It was splattered everywhere and Olivia was there trying to clean it off with some of the other staff members, the ones that had not quite been as important to Adagio. They hadn't been able to catch her attention the way Olivia had, always trying to do better, to be better, her little clone. Or not quite a clone – but the thought was there, the protégé that she wanted to see grow, nurturing her while they worked together.

The siren seethed.

They've come again.

_ _

Been and gone.

_ _

“Yeah," Olivia said through tight lips, as if she did not want to expend any more energy than she needed to in talking. “They've made a real goddamn mess of it this time, the fuckers."

Adagio raised an eyebrow.

“Unlike you to swear."

Olivia growled.

“Yeah, well, they're causing too much shit around here for me to just turn a blind eye too. I don't know why the manager doesn't do anything!"

Adagio grimaced. That was something she had been thinking about too. It was not as if it would be that hard, surely, to do something. They had police there, they had authorities. Hell, they had cameras – until they smashed them every time they came around. It was the gang they'd kicked out, the one that had attacked her and Aria when they'd been walking and talking, the one that they had beaten up to such a point that they could have ended their lives. It was not only their human sides, of course, that had held them back from that. The sirens were coming to see that there were other ways to handle problems.

Yet we must do something about this one.

_ _

Inside the bar, Adagio investigated, even if the manager of the bar would have said that it was not her place to do so – screw that. She'd done a million and one things after becoming Adagio, the combination of human and siren, though in the human image of the siren, but none of them had been holding back. She'd left that part of her behind and she demanded that something be done, hissing through her teeth as she jabbed her finger savagely behind the bar.

The manager frowned and tilted her chin up at her, though Adagio was a force to be reckoned with at the best of times. If she'd been manager, instead of her, maybe things would have been different, though Adagio still smouldered at the fact that she was passed over for the position at the head of the bar, only a step below the owner at that stage.

“Adagio, this is being handled…"

“Is it?" She challenged. “Because I don't see this happening. This place must remain safe for our patrons – or else what are we here for? People coming in and smashing things up isn't what any of us signed up for. Has the owner been informed, Mr Jeyson?"

That was where Adagio had her. The manager took a full step back that time, crossing her arms over her chest. Adagio hid her smirk, pressing the attack.

“I thought not. This is something serious – someone could get hurt." She didn't too much care about that, not really, but she was interested in protecting her bar, her space, the place that had become her home and her starting point in her new life. “A lawsuit on Mr Jeyson's hands… That's not going to go well."

The manager sighed, pressing her fingers to either side of the bridge of her nose.

“I'll speak to him, see what he wants to do."

Adagio nodded. That was all she was going to get for the time being. Best that she follow that one up the next day.

Yet things came to a head sooner than she honestly expected them to. While working that night, the gang sauntered in as if they owned the place and, like the coward she was, the manager scuttled off to the backroom as if there was something there that she had forgotten about.

Adagio scowled, wiping out a glass, setting it aside.

Game on, boys.

_ _

Inside, the siren writhed, raring to go.

“What do you think you're going to do to us, missy?"

She didn't know if the thick bloke, muscle and fat bulking him out with broad shoulders, was their supposed ringleader or not and, frankly, she didn't care either. All she wanted was the smug arsehole out of there – and the feeling was mutual with other patrons, the staff of the bar.

Spreading her hands out on the bar top, Adagio stared him down levelly.

“Get the fuck out of my bar."

The ice in her tone should have stopped him in his tracks, but he did nothing, looking her up and down as if he had not been beaten up by her not all that long ago. Adagio shook her head slowly, a curl of auburn hair coming forward across her face. She only wished she had Aria and Sonata there to help her, though it could not be helped that they were busy elsewhere that night.

Maybe together they could roust them all from the bar while still appearing human, not dipping too far into the powers of the sirens… The blend of human and siren was played out to a different extent in every one of them.

He laughed, rubbing his beard.

“Missy… You're a right little bitch, aren't you? You think you're top shit around here, but you ain't fucking nothing."

Her blood boiled, seeing red – she'd never actually known that that was a thing. Her heart pounded, the siren calming her, bringing her back to her dojo training, everything that she had already worked so hard to achieve. All so that her body would know what to do in the thick of it, when everything was happening so quickly that she had to move, not think, just act.

Some of her patrons got up and walked out. Adagio's hand tightened into a fist on top of the bar.

They jeered. They snickered that she couldn't do “fucking anything" to them. They said she was a little girl, that little girls should know their place.

“Unless you want to come back to my place," a man with his hair gelled up into cheap spikes, a nasty smirk about his lips, said. “Get you down on the floor… Wouldn't want you dirtying up my sofa though, fuck no…"

She was over the bar in a rage in the next heartbeat, the siren with her every step of the way. Right then and there, there was no telling which of them was manning the wheel, not speaking, only feeling, their bodies and minds the same. They didn't need to talk when they were so intimately one another, working together, a fist flying solidly into the jaw of the man who had dared think that he could take advantage of her.

Adagio would see to it that no one ever thought that they could take advantage of her, in that way or others, ever again. And that was why she had trained, for defence, though some might have said that her leaping over the bar made it so she attacked first. She didn't give a damn, however. It was self-defence when they were making threats like that.

“Hey!"

Her fists flew, sinking back onto one leg for a kick, seeing everything, the siren guiding her, letting her know when a blow was coming, a clumsy strike. All of them were untrained, bar Adagio, though it took her a moment to realise that Olivia was there with her, side by side, her hair half-pulled out of where it had been tied back at the nape of her neck.

“Olivia!"

She could not stop her startled cry, but it did not matter, not as they were forced on to defend themselves, the bar in chaos, though no one, later, would have dared say that it was Adagio that had started the fight, technically. They would all say that the men had struck first, yes, that they would have to be reported, that things had gone too far. And everyone would think of what a good job two “girls" had done in defending themselves, even though there was far more to Adagio than met the eye to most of the world.

But Olivia was more helpful than she could have expected, though she would not have expected her to launch herself into such a fight so whole-heartedly, as if there was no other option for her. She flipped tables and fought like a savage, though she didn't have the trained, practised moves that Adagio had focused on, during her time at the dojo. Yet she was helpful and took the edge off the fact that Adagio could not unleash her true power, what she had been building and growing with the siren

On your left!

_ _

The siren warned her in the nick of time as Adagio vaulted over a table, gaining a bit of distance and space, knocking a tray of glasses on the floor. Oh well – there was enough of a mess in there anyway. Her ears rang and she bared her teeth like a feral creature as she hurled herself back, slinging punches and kicks, though anticipating where six bodies – at any one time – were going to be was hardly the easiest thing for her at the best of times. With the pounding in her head and how her shoulder was starting to ache in a way that made her feel like she had been struck without realising it, she needed Olivia more than ever.

She needed that power, that lick of something that she had not yet had enough time to explore and which she sorely wanted to. It had to come, bit by bit, but it was something that the pendants would help with, glowing faintly but not enough to channel any kind of power or energy without being noticed by everyone.

When they got the gang alone next time…she vowed. They'd see to it that they didn't think that silly girls were waiting for them. They'd know their power, even if no one would believe it, though there was a part of Adagio that could hardly believe that they had come back to be beaten up again.

Olivia grasped a scrawny-looking lad by the neck of his jacket, punching him in the face, the sickening crunch of his nose breaking filling the air. That had their attention and Adagio launched herself off a tabletop, doing the only thing she could to get in the thick of it. Her body sailed, weightless for a moment, but she had to come down again with the siren soothing the aches and pains from her body, urging her on.

Quickly!

_ _

I'm going, I'm going!

_ _

Whereas she could not do anything to the gang that time to get them out and not to come back, she could take their legs out from under them, working with the siren to slide between them, as slippery as an eel. They fell, one by one, though she was faced with the bigger problem of them striving to grasp and latch onto her legs, throwing her off-balance. But none of them cared whether they managed to grab her or not – or so it seemed – with them latching onto comrades just as easily.

Her training kicked in, though the boss with the scruffy beard and little hair to speak off stood, shrugging his jacket on, rubbing blood from his lips.

“You've messed with the wrong bastards, girlie…"

She spat, eyes blazing.

“And just who the hell do you think I am? Get the hell out of my bar and don't show your faces here or anywhere you're going to cause trouble ever again! We don't need the likes of you around here…"

They turned, facing a larger group of burlier patrons – not that they were thickly built or anything, but that there was enough of them to act like a wall, a barrier to send the gang packing. Unless they wanted to show that they were holding weapons (Adagio sincerely hoped not), it was time for them to beat a hasty retreat, though Adagio was certain that it would not be long before they were back and causing trouble again.

Seeing the back of them, however, had her bending over and exhaling, her chest aching. The fight had taken more out of her than she'd anticipated, though it could not be helped, not in the aftermath. All Adagio could be glad of was the fact that her training had held up despite everything.

“They don't usually come by when they know you're around," Olivia grumbled, checking herself over. “Shoot… They ripped my shirt…"

Adagio turned, taking her by the shoulders, checking her as she had for herself.

“They've been around more than I realised, haven't they?"

Olivia sighed and nodded, for once not like Adagio in her prime, when she was out for blood, to show off her best, to poise and manipulate.

“Yeah… Yeah, boss said not to tell you yesterday. Obviously, I was going to say today, I thought you already knew about it. Damn, I thought they'd be doing something about it all, if I'm honest."

But they weren't and that meant that it was something that Adagio was going to have to take into her own hands.

Ask her about fighting, the siren urged her, bringing her back to the present moment, something that she had honestly missed. She was good! Better than I would have thought! Maybe she will be even more useful than we were expecting…

_ _

Yeah, you're right.

“You did well though," she said, re-directing the conversation while others came out, started cleaning up the bar, the manager not even asking either of them if they were okay. “You didn't look…quite like you had fighting experience though? Is that why you were actually at the dojo before?"

Olivia shook her head.

“I used to fight with my brothers all the time, I had a big family. Even my cousins got in on it. With them being so rough with me, I had to learn how to defend myself at some point, or I was just going to end up quiet in the corner forever. That's not me. Never liked getting hit though, so that's another reason I, you know, had to stop my brothers getting too rough with me."

Olivia smiled a little more genuinely, as if she was thinking back to a good time in her life. Adagio could not imagine that to be a good time, though she, even as Knight, had grown up as a single child. The siren did not comment.

“Yeah… Yeah, I was one of them after that and they were rougher with me again, I guess, but no more so than the other guys. Played soccer together, football, all that stuff. They knew I could hold my own after all that. Anyway, that's why I, kinda, can fight like that."

That was a fair enough answer, though Adagio made a mental note to get Olivia to look into some proper classes later. Maybe not at her dojo, for she rather liked having that as her personal space, all with Donnie there too, but she would do whatever was needed for Olivia. If she was going to be more useful and a little more useful at defending herself…she would just have to suck it up when it came to that.

I guess that's part of a compromise, the siren added, though even she sounded a little dubious. If worst comes to worst, she'll have to join the dojo if she's going to get into scraps like this. But we can't have her reputation as the face of the singing company be damaged either. She's got to defend herself more smoothly.

_ _

Adagio sighed, rubbing her face.

Yeah, you're right. Damn it, why does everything have to be so hard?

_ _

The siren was silent, but only for a moment.

Everything is difficult, no matter which world you're in. That's one thing I can tell you will never change.

_ _

Adagio raised an eyebrow at that, but there was no time for questions. Olivia pressed her lips together as the manager came out, the one that was good at running the books and the back of the house, but seemingly little more than that. She'd fallen so far from being on the front lines of the bar that they hardly even felt as if they interacted with her anymore, unless it was for something negative. Maybe it wasn't the job that Adagio would have wanted anyway, to be fair…not if that was where it would have gotten her, though she liked to think that she wouldn't have behaved like that anyway.

Maybe she would. Maybe she wouldn't. There was no way, honestly, to tell there.

“We have to make sure that, next time, they never come back," Olivia said, wincing as she caught a fresh mark on her arm. “Damn it, I'll have to put make-up over this bruise. Or not wear short sleeves, I dunno."

Adagio nodded, lips quirking up in a smirk that promised trouble.

We can do this, the siren said, standing with her. It's time that they learned not to mess with us. It's time that everyone here learned not to mess with us. We've been quiet for too long!

_ _

Some things were not to be set aside, not when Adagio had been letting them run by her, working on getting the condo with Donnie, seeing where that relationship was going to go, setting up her music business. She had a lot on her plate, but she could not possibly neglect the place that had given her the best start that she could have hoped for after transforming from Knight into Adagio.

She smiled more widely, yet there was no comfort in it.

“I have just the people in mind to help us out…"

The gang would not bother them for much longer.

*

_ _

After everything that had gone on down at the bar, Adagio took a day off. It was better to recover when she felt that she had some energy to, though she would have to teach herself that lesson time after time again. It was not something that the siren understood and they had talked a little about her life back in Equestria, how she had sought power with her sisters to such an extent that to be splayed out over the floor of the cave at the end of it all, drained of all energy.

That was not a point that either of them could force their bodies to when they were together, one and the same, sharing a body. They had to work together and that took the form of taking care of themselves too.

However, going out with Aria and Sonata was not always the best remedy for that, Aria as aloof as ever, though she always deferred to Adagio as the “boss". It was easier to get away with that term being thrown around when they were alone, though Adagio did wonder from time to time if she should be training them out of it. Yet they were their own people too and she couldn't force the issue, not without going against what she believed in.

“Hey, what do you think of this?"

Jewellery shopping, indulging in accessories that were not a thing, per se, in Equestria, was something that the siren enjoyed, however. As it was not Adagio's forte, she was happy to sit back and allow the siren to take the wheel, experimenting. Although it was a strange feeling to be behind her own eyes, seeing things happening and feeling her limbs moving, it was oddly relaxing too.

Adagio, with the siren in control, held up a necklace to her throat before a mirror, a large, crimson pendant in the centre that was nicely set off by her fiery, red hair. It did not hold a candle to the pendant of power that she had exchanged with Aria at Christmas, but it was something nice, something that helped them blend better as a normal part of the human world. That was ever more important, considering how Aria and Sonata did not always understand such norms, scoffing at some or most of what their human counterparts of the bodies that they had taken over had to say on it.

Adagio shivered. She was glad the siren had melded with her as she had. It was a better kind of relationship, one that had them moving forward together, step by step. Perhaps it was another note as to why they were the leader of the trio too.

Clothes too… Adagio had never really been clubbing before and the siren had thought it was something violent until Sonata and Aria, who had more experience in things like that, explained it to her. Dancing and music sounded more fun to the siren, though Adagio had to admit that it had not been her “thing" even back before the siren had come into her life.

Damn, there's a lot of reflection going on in you today, the siren commented, trying on a slick, red dress that came down to her thighs…and left a lot exposed along other parts of her body. You doing okay?

_ _

Adagio smiled inwardly.

Yeah, of course, just nice to relax a bit too, you know?

_ _

Sitting down in the food court, however, where they could grab a quick bite to eat was helpful to rest her sore feet, however, even if she would have preferred a nice restaurant or similar. Sometimes, when she needed a break, sitting down was more important than finding something that more perfectly suited her needs.

“Here!"

Sonata practically danced over in her medium heels with the pizza they'd order, though Adagio winced at the thought of tottering about in those things all day long. Sonata didn't seem to have any trouble though – she had always been a bit more agile.

“Finally!"

Aria grabbed a slice without paying attention to what was on it and Adagio did the same, her stomach growling. Sonata ran a pizzeria – it had to be good stuff. And how far wrong could anyone go with cheese and tomato, honestly? The smell if it made her mouth water, though she shifted her weight, taking a big bite.

Flavour exploded in her mouth, though not any kind of flavour that she would have wanted in her mouth, coughing, spitting out her mouthful as Sonata laughed and clapped her hands.

“Do you like it? I asked them for this especially!"

“What the hell?"

Looking rather “green around the gills", as the human expression went, Aria scowled and wiped her tongue with a napkin – not that that was going to help matters in any way, not really. Adagio's stomach churned and roiled and she closed her hand over her mouth, trying to stop herself from losing whatever it was that she'd eaten earlier out of her mouth too.

Actually, there was something in there that could have been nice…on its own?

_ _

The siren chimed in less than helpfully, Adagio trying to force her stomach to remain in place, though that seemed less and less likely. But she wasn't going to throw up in public – gross!

“What's wrong?" Sonata blinked, her face falling. “I asked for taco beef, mushrooms…and cod! You loved cod before!"

Ah – that was it! We should eat more of that… The siren tried to press, but Adagio quelled her, flinging up her hand.

No! Definitely no!

_ _

“That was so gross," Aria said, turning away. “I can't even look at that stuff… God, Sonata, don't put that in your pizzeria! You'll chase away customers! Bleargh, it's so…so…gross… It's stuck to my tongue, oh my god!"

That didn't sound like Aria, however, and the siren noticed it, raising her head curiously.

“It's just… It's too much! However could anyone like this… Well, you like it, but you're just weird, Sonata! And all this taco stuff…beef… Euch! I can't even get this down my throat!"

Her voice pitched up into a squeal, much unlike her coarse rasp, even Sonata taking a step back, surprised.

If that's all her…she should be enjoying the fish, at least. But that must mean that her counterpart, the human side, isn't locked down as tightly as Aria thinks.

_ _

Adagio cocked her head, though she was still trying to stop her stomach from leaping and grinding as if it was going to force its way back up through her mouth again.

Sonata rubbed the back of her neck, having the grace to appear at least a little abashed.

“Er, well, it has been an option on the menu, the fish…for a few months now. I did wonder why it wasn't selling. I mean, some humans like anchovies on their pizza… Why not this?"

Aria spread her fingers out, shaking her head.

“Okay, we'll explain it to you later… But, first, can we get some real food? Good god, girl!"

The indignance could have been Aria, but there was a touch of something more there, another voice mixed in with hers that seemed to be wound together. It was so close to Aria's voice that it could have been mistaken for her if one did not know her closely, but that was one thing that Adagio was going to have to file in her head to consider later.

But it was interesting…very interesting. Interesting enough to distract her from a bit of what was going on, but not all of it. For before she had her tattoo begun, the lines inked on her skin, she would have to take care of the gang first.

And yet more developments would change the course of their lives there, in the human world, forever.

It wouldn't be fun if it was boring.