Author's Notes:

This started as a relatively short addition, but one discussion with my editor later and things rapidly escalated into the largest chapter this collection has seen. Thanks to Tired Old Man for helping this story strive to be as completely nuts as it deserves to be.

... Enjoy?

Adagio Dazzle sat on the center cushion of the Dazzlings’ large purple couch, her legs spread out and her arms resting on top of the couch back almost as if she was trying to occupy as much of the couch as humanly possible from a sitting position. Her only companion was a remote control which sat on the cushion to her left, a couple of orange throw pillows, and a massive round clock on the wall behind her that ticked away. The clock sported a golden frame with different sized bars that jutted out from the center like rays from a sun.

Adagio simply stared forward with a blank expression on her face, looking onwards at a large, flat TV as the sounds of a man and a woman arguing poured out from speakers that flanked the rectangular screen.

Despite the action onscreen, this would be considered a relatively quiet moment by the house’s standards. But as Aria Blaze stepped in between Adagio and the TV, said quiet moment had been doomed to a fate of brevity the moment she entered the room.

Adagio frowned heavily and moved her head to the left then the right, sighing as it became obvious that looking past Aria and ignoring her was not going to be an option if she wanted the full enjoyment of the program she was watching. With a chagrined look, she stared up into the face of Aria.

Oddly enough Aria’s face seemed drained of its resolve and usual grumpiness that came with her walking straight up to Adagio to talk about something. In fact, ‘confront’ might be a better word for how conversations with Aria normally go, but something was clearly different. Though Aria stared in Adagio’s general direction, her eyes were glassy and unfocused as if the Dazzling was somehow lost in thought. On top of this, she sported something of a pleading look as if she was going to ask Adagio for something rather than her usual method of demanding it.

Adagio’s forehead pulled forward as she scrutinized Aria’s look and wondered what she could possibly want. With one last sad look at the TV behind Aria, she looked up at her. “Alright Aria, out with it. What’s the matter?”

Despite the fact that she was standing right in front of her, Aria looked down at Adagio and focused her deep-purple amethyst eyes on her as if she had just noticed Adagio sitting in front of her. “Sonata’s in one of her… asking moods again…”

On top of her scrunched brow, Adagio’s eyelids dropped slightly. “So? Just tell her to look up that stuff online or have her see if any of her dumb kids programs will have answers for her.”

“No, she’s not asking like… Where rain comes from or like… how many bears you can fit into a mini-van or anything like that. She’s asking questions pertaining to us.”

Adagio threw back her head and groaned. “Not this again! I do not want to get the anatomically correct siren puppets out from the storage shed!”

“No, it’s not that,” Aria said in an even tone. “I mean… I could explain it better, but I really don’t want to think about it, so I wanted to ask you for the key to your liquor cabinet.”

Adagio paused for a moment. “… It can’t actually be that bad!”

“C’mon, Dagi! You know Sonata is more than capable of driving us both to drink!”

“Well sure, but… The store is not that far away…” Adagio pressed her back into the couch and waved her left hand dismissively as it rested on the couch’s back. “Just go get a couple 40s or something. I’m not letting you mooch off my top shelf stuff.”

Quite unexpectedly, Aria’s eyes widened and her lower lip quivered ever so slightly. “Please, Adagio! I can’t get this out of my head and I don’t wanna spend all that time walking and thinking about it.”

Adagio regarded Aria’s expression for a moment as a contemplative look came over her own face. She stared up at Aria’s practically begging expression, somewhat wondering if that look alone warranted mercy.

I mean… Aria could be remarkably lazy at times, not that Adagio was in much of a position to judge… But… would she really sacrifice her beloved pride to avoid walking to the store?

Before Adagio could properly think through an answer, the sound of approaching footsteps grabbed hold of Aria’s attention as her eyes shot to the right and she seemingly cringed with every muscle in her body. “Crud! She’s coming!” She looked at Adagio. “I’ll meet you in your room!”

“My room?!” Adagio cried. “But I haven’t—”

Before Adagio could finish, Aria bolted away and out of the living room. Adagio watched Aria flee quizzically before the space Aria occupied was quickly filled by Sonata.

Adagio turned and sighed as she took note of Sonata’s questioning expression. “What?!” Adagio snapped out.

“Do you ever think about how many bugs you eat?” Sonata asked.

Adagio felt confusion take hold of her features once more. “… What?”

“Do you ever think about how many bugs you eat?!” Sonata repeated with a bit more force.

Adagio’s brow tightened. “No, Sonata. I don’t know what you do with your time when you think no one is looking, but I don’t eat bugs.”

“See! That’s what Aria said, but I don’t mean like finding random bugs and just sticking them in your mouth.” Sonata pulled a face like she just put her tongue on something unpleasant. “Ew! That’d be icky!”

“Oh…” Adagio said as her expression softened into one of slight confusion. “Then what are you talking about?”

“Okay, well you know how foods typically allow a certain amount of bug parts in them just ‘cause like… bugs get everywhere?”

Adagio cringed, Aria’s demeanor suddenly making a bit more sense. “I did know that. That’s not something I really want to think about though, so why don’t you just—”

Sonata suddenly sat down on the couch next to Adagio, placing her hands in between her own thighs and putting her face right next to Adagio’s. “Well, like… I looked it up online and it turns out we all eat 1 to 2 pounds of bugs a year. Up to five fruit flies per glass of orange juice. Or like, all the aphids and tiny caterpillars that get picked up with lettuce! And like... we three have lived for a long, long time so… I think maybe over all that time we’ve all eaten more bugs than we actually weigh? I mean, back in the day there wasn’t even that government Fuda thing to make sure everyone wasn’t eating bugs.”

Adagio’s left eye began to twitch rapidly, but rather than address Sonata’s point directly, something else lingered in her mind. “Fuda?”

“You know! That food, drug thingy the guy who also invented teddy bears came up with!”

Adagio sighed and closed her eyes. “FDA… The thing you’re talking about is called the FDA.”

“Right! Fuda!” Sonata said. “Anyhow, if we’re eating over a pound of bugs every year now, just imagine how many bugs we ate way back when you could pretty much serve anyone anything when there was no one to monitor it!”

Adagio pressed her hands against the side of her head and stared at Sonata with a horrified expression.

Sonata continued, “Heck! Just think about how many ants we’ve accidently eaten! I mean… Ants are everywhere and they can get into everything! I’ve bet we’ve eaten hundreds… No, thousands of ants over the course of—”

Hands still on the side of her head, Adagio let out a tortured scream. “Ahhhhhhhh!” She suddenly stood up from the couch. “I don’t want to think about this!” she said as she retreated out of the living room.

Sonata stared down at the empty spot where Adagio sat as a cat-like grin spread across her face. She reached for the remote and then sprawled across the couch. “Ah… and now to enjoy some high quality hudu Teevee!”

Adagio made her way out of the living room, up the stairs, and into her room. True to her word, Aria was already waiting for her as she stared longingly at a closed wooden cabinet with keyholes on its doors.

Adagio just sighed as she reached into her cleavage and pulled out a set of keys. She thumbed through the keys briefly until she picked one in particular, stepped up to the cabinet, and stuck the key into one of the keyholes. “Alright, what’ll it be?” Adagio asked as she pulled out a glass and placed it on a wooden dresser next to the cabinet.

“Just… Something strong and maybe a little ‘out there’ so I can start thinking about anything other than what Sonata said.”

Adagio grabbed a bottle of clear liquid. “Mezcal is pretty strong and ‘different’,” she said as she pulled out the bottle, unscrewed the top, and poured a generous portion into the cup on her dresser.

“Really, Adagio?!”

Adagio paused and turned. “What? I’m trying to help!”

Aria rolled her eyes. “Well you have a funny way of showing it.”

“What?!” Adagio replied. “No seriously, what the heck is your deal?!”

Aria sighed and pointed at the bottle in Adagio’s hand.

Adagio glanced at it and finally took notice of the small scorpion marinating at the bottom of the now half-empty bottle of strong alcoholic liquid. “Oh, whoops…”

“You really didn’t think about that when you pulled the bottle out?!” Aria asked in disbelief.

“Look, I’m just as eager to put this whole sordid mess behind me as you are and—Ugh! This is so stupid!” Adagio cried.

Aria shrugged. “Hey, normally I’d think it's badass to have scorpion juice, but I’m tryin’ to get my mind off bugs.”

“Not that!” Adagio exclaimed. “Sonata probably did this on purpose to get us away from the TV and keep us out of the living room!” Adagio narrowed her eyes. “You know how every once in awhile she’ll come up with something halfway smart.”

Aria shrugged. “Well, she really hit it out of the park this time. Look, just like… hand me some absinthe or something, I really need something to clean my brain.”

“NO!” Adagio said as she extended an index finger. “I was comfortable and enjoying myself!” she exclaimed. “I say we fight fire with fire! If Sonata thinks she can out freak-out us, then we’ve got to remind her we’re both smarter than her and won’t be controlled so easily! If we let her get away with it this time, who knows how often she’ll pull this stuff?!”

Aria rubbed her chin thoughtfully for a moment. “Okay, well Sonata’s pretty hard to freak out or even gross out on account of her being just bat-guano crazy. I don’t think we’re going to just go online and find something that’ll get her to flee to the nearest Taco Hut and binge-eat until she can’t move.” Aria frowned. “Plus we always need to go get her at some point and wash all the sour cream and guacamole off of her and that’s not usually all that fun.”

“We don’t need the internet!” Adagio said.

Aria narrowed her eyes and angrily glared at Adagio before she took a step forward, grabbed Adagio’s shirt in her hand and pulled Adagio’s face close to hers. “Take that back right now!” Aria said in a threatening tone.

After a brief bout of concern, Adagio’s magenta eyes made a rotation around her optical sockets. “I just meant to get back at Sonata.”

“Oh… right,” Aria said as she let go of Adagio’s shirt. “Okay, so if we’re not looking anything up, then how do we get to her?”

Adagio gave Aria an annoyed look and tapped on Aria’s forehead a couple times. “Come on Aria! I know you’re an idiot, but think! Aside from tacos, what else does Sonata really care about?”

Sneering, Aria turned grabbing her right elbow with her left hand and then grasping her chin in her right hand. “Uh… Cartoons and puppet shows?”

“Exactly!” Adagio said. She clenched her right hand into a fist and brought it down into her left palm. “We shatter her stupid childlike notions and leave her a broken mental husk so I can go back to watching TV!”

Aria’s forehead knit. “Wait… What am I getting out of all this, exactly?”

Bottle still in hand, Adagio walked out of the room. “The joy of one-upping Sonata!”

Aria followed, “But I get that every time the topic of tying shoes comes up!” she said in a tone of mild protest as the two descended the stairs. She frowned slightly. “Also… I can’t help but feel this is a bad idea for some reason…”

Adagio shook her head. “There is nothing wrong with reminding Sonata she can’t outwit us!”

Aria scratched her head as Adagio and her walked into the living room. “That’s not the part—”

Lying on her side on the couch, Sonata crained her head up as the other two Dazzlings approached. “Hey, did you two know the average person spends a year and a half in the bathroom over their entire life?! I mean, with our lives, that’s got be like… 20 years or something just spent—”

Adagio frowned heavily then glanced at the TV. “Big Bird isn’t real!” she interrupted.

Sonata’s stopped mid-sentence her mouth hanging open. “Wh… What?”

Adagio nodded. “Yep! Big Bird is just a man in a suit.”

Sonata’s face began to turn a paler shade of blue. “You’re… you’re lying…” Sonata turned towards Aria, a pleading look on her face.

Aria cringed slightly. The borderline heartbroken look on Sonata’s face was something she probably could have gone the rest of her life without seeing… Still, Sonata did clearly have an agenda to get some quiet time with the TV with her earlier questions, so… “Uh, It’s true,” Aria said as her eyes darted away from Sonata and looked out at the TV. “And… and Elmo is fake, too! He just has someone’s arm inside him making it look like he’s moving and stuff.” Aria steeled herself and turned to give Sonata a serious look. “You don’t want to know where they stick the arm to get it inside him.”

Sonata looked between the two girls, a horrified expression on her face. “Na-no…” she whispered to herself. “Tell me you’re joking! TELL ME!” Sonata cried in a pleading tone as tears began to stream from her eyes. She looked back and forth between the two other Dazzlings in desperation, clearly hoping at least one of them would explain that this was just a cruel, tasteless attempt at humor at her expense.

Instead, Adagio smirked. “Sorry Sonata, it’s all true… Also, you know the Dolphin from Flipper?”

Sonata bit at her lower lip and nodded.

“DEAD!” Adagio said with a devilish grin. “Died in a car accident.”

Arai turned towards Adagio, an aghast expression on her face. “Dagi?! What the hell?!”

Sonata suddenly brought her hands up to the side of her head and let out a scream as she got up to her feet and ran out of the room.

Adagio turned to Aria. “What? Mission accomplished!” she said as she lowered the bottle of hard liquor on the floor, plopped down on the couch and reached for the remote. She pressed a few buttons and smiled as the colors from the TV flickered briefly.

Aria folded her arms across her chest. “A car accident?”

Adagio shrugged. “Okay, so I made that part up,” Adagio said as she put the remote back down. “But it’s not like dolphins are immortal… so the one from that old TV show has got to be dead by now…”

Arai shook her head. “Ugh… I can’t believe you got me to feel worse than I already…” She trailed off and perked up her ears as the sound of someone rummaging through silverware drawers could be heard.

Adagio likewise tilted her head and listened. “Huh…” Adagio muttered. “Guess she at least has the energy to make tacos for herself…”

Aria’s eyes widened. “That’s not what she’s doing… I think I finally remember something…”

Adagio turned and raised an eyebrow. “Remember? Remember what?”

Aria swallowed. “We… You and I tried this before…”

Adagio gave Aria a scrutinizing look as her eyes drifted upwards. “Wait… We… We did, didn’t we… Why did we forget?”

Aria swallowed and slowly moved closer to the living room exit. “I’m more concerned with what comes next.”

Adagio pursed her lips. “What does come next?”

Sonata suddenly stomped back into the living room, her eyes wide and devoid of joy and her expression empty as she looked over the other two girls silently. The rather dead look on her face was not at the top of the list of the other girls concerns however—concern #2 was the sharp chef’s knife in Sonata’s left hand and concern #1 was the butcher’s cleaver in her right.

“Oh…” Adagio uttered. “Right…”

Sonata let out a blood-curdling scream as Adagio lept from the couch as the chef’s knife was thrown, it’s blade piercing the soft fabric of the couch’s back before it stopped in place. Aria turned and ran for the stairs, Adagio hot on her heels. Tears once again poured from Sonata’s eyes as she gave chase and wildly swung the butcher's cleaver out in the direction of the girls. Panic gripped Adagio as the cleaver sliced into her long, curly locks, a grim reminder that unconsolable death was right behind her. Reaching the top of the stairs, Aria sprinted down the hall and made her way inside the open bedroom. Adagio herself slipped in right behind Aria as she slammed the door closed. Aria and Adagio suddenly turned and braced their backs against the door in case Sonata tried to force herself in.

‘CRUNCH!’

The top front tip of a meat clever pierced the center of the door, it’s point jutting out a few inches from the wood. Adagio and Aria stared at the piece of sharp metal between them with wide, frightened eyes.

Her back still pressed against the door, Adagio quickly reached for the knob and locked it.

Sonata retracted the cleaver from the door.

Adagio swallowed. “I really hope she’s not gearing up for a Shining reference…”

Seeing that her current location was no longer safe, Aria threw herself away from the door and sat down on Adagio’s large bed, the purple covers of which sat on top of it in an unmade mess. Adagio likewise tried to step away from the door, but grit her teeth as something prevented her from getting very far.

Adagio turned her head to see what was stopping her. She felt her heart pound in her chest as she took note of the fact that a sizeable chunk of her hair had been slammed in the door. “Aria!” Adagio cried as she tugged at her hair. “I’m stuck!”

“Well, what do you want me to do?!”

“Unstuck me?!” Adagio suggested.

“HOW?!” Aria shook her head. “Even if we open it for a moment we’d have to get it closed again! Besides! I don’t want to go anywhere near—”

Suddenly there was the eerie sound of metal sliding down wood followed by Adagio falling away from the door. She quickly put her hands in front of her as she fell to the ground, spun around to face the door and did a backwards crab shuffle until her back was against her bed next to Aria’s legs.

Aria glanced down at Adagio, reached her hand down, and pulled up a tuft of Adagio’s hair which ended abruptly in one straight, neat line. “I think Sonata ‘unstuck you’,”

Adagio glanced at her hair and put on a worried pout, but her and Aria’s eyes were soon returned to the door as they heard the sound of sorrowful moans which quickly grew quieter as heavy footsteps stomped away from the door.

Adagio let out a sigh of relief.

Aria shook her head. “THIS is why we don’t mess with Sonata’s perceptions of how cartoons and puppet shows work.”

Adagio rubbed the back of her head a few times, then brought her hand up in front of her. “Right, right…” she replied as she looked over her mercifully bloodless palm. “But if this has all happened before, why did it take us so long to remember? Heck, why was it such a shock to Sonata?”

Aria shrugged. “Maybe we all selectively blocked it out? I mean…. At this point, tonight hasn’t been fun for any of us.”

Adagio stroked her chin. “Maybe…”

Sonata’s sorrowful voice suddenly drifted up from downstairs. “Oh, bug juice! You taste as unhappy as I feel! But at least you make my insides all tingly!”

Adagio and Aria’s eyes shot open wide.

Aria turned towards Adagio. “Adagio! You left the stupid scorpion juice down there! Now Sonata’s going to be even more messed up!”

“I didn’t know she was going to go crazy!” Adagio exclaimed as got up to her feet. “Plus Sonata avoids any alcohol that doesn’t taste like candy! There was no way of telling she’d actually drink that stuff!”

Aria sighed. “Well, what now? I mean… Sonata gets pretty scary after just a couple of regular drinks. I’m not sure I want to find out what she’s like when she was scary before drinking.”

Adagio thought for a moment. “Well, she might drink so much so fast she just gets tired and passes out.”

Aria frowned. “Or she gets so sick or crazy we have to replace all the living room furniture again.” She shook her head. “Just like when Sonata tried inventing living room gymnastics…”

Adagio frowned. “Yeah… We really should maybe try convincing Sonata not so many activities really require knives or other sharp objects.” Adagio shook her head. “Given the current circumstances, maybe we should just hang here for a bit.” Adagio walked over to her open liquor cabinet. “Have a few or a lot of drinks until this whole thing blows over”—

“I thought that was the idea in the first”—

—“Maybe get a bit drunk, make-out a bit, see where the night takes us.”—

—“place… Wait, what?”

Adagio pulled out a dark green bottle, stared at it for a bit then looked up at Aria. “Hey Aria, ever wonder what Mezcal and Scotch taste like together?”

Aria got onto her feet and walked over to Adagio, staring down at the glass Adagio had poured herself before the two left on their ill-fated attempt to win the couch back from Sonata. “Considering I didn’t even know Mezcal was a thing, I’m gonna say ‘no’.”

Adagio added the scotch to the glass. “I’m hoping it tastes like ‘forgetfulness’.”