Work Text:
Aria awoke to silence.
She scrambled to get a hold of her phone,
Monday was still Monday after all, and they certainly needed the money.
She couldn't tell what had woken her, but when she finally reached her phone, the alarm was still going.
Seemed to be some weird telepathic link or sth.
Odd.
She turned up the volume, she hated the recognizable violin with a burning passion, after all, how could one not when it was so overly joyous and famous for recognition alone.
That distaste would be a nice distraction from… well.
She gave an exasperated sigh when she remembered that her phone speakers were damaged.
Well, she'd just help herself to Sonatas Headphones later.
Cereal for breakfast, no radio cause the others were still asleep and Aria didn't feel like listening to the happy chatter of those Radio assholes.
She just wolfed down her meal in silence and left for work.
Out the flat, take the bus for the city, get off and walk the bit next to the river, across the bridge.
By the time she reached the hall, she was itching for sound.
The morning as a whole had been excruciatingly, suffocatingly quiet.
If she remembered correctly, Melanie had told her that they'd be cleaning the windows today.
The old woman had apparently taken a liking to Aria and Aria herself supposed that was alright, after all, two people openly hating each other was certain to be more of a bother than one silently dreading the other.
It appeared she was in luck, After getting in through the back door she could already hear voices and the shuffling around of equipment from the big hall.
Windows wouldn't be scheduled on a concert, had to be a rehearsal then.
Good enough, depending on who it was, maybe even… actually… good.
She went to check in with Melanie, gathered a cheerful greeting, a list of tasks and window cleaning supplies from the old lady and made her way to the main hall.
If they were playing right now, there was no way she wasn't doing the windows first.
When she entered, the hall held an anticipating silence.
She didn't look, kept her head down and made her way to the far wall with the huge windows towards the riverside.
If she wanted to keep the right to clean while they rehearsed, she had to be as unnoticeable as possible.
Still, the meaningful silence sent a shiver of anticipation down her back and she couldn't help a small grin.
maybe today wouldn't be so bad after all.
After about 5 minutes of anticipating silence the excitement had worn off a bit, screw the resolution of not looking, what was happening here?
With a frown, she turned her head to get a look at the stage
It was completely empty.
What the hell.
She had heard them set up, she had seen them in the corner of her eye.
But there was just very obviously not a single person there.
Were they playing a prank or something?
On a janitor employee?
Well that didn't make a whole lot of sense now, did it.
Her brow furrowed when she noticed that all the equipment was still right there.
The sheets were spread out, Instrument cases lying a bit to the right, all the stools set up for playing.
Maybe they had gone somewhere to discuss something or receive a motivational talk… of some sorts?
Odd.
That's what it was, it was simply completely, perfectly odd.
She ground her teeth as she turned her attention back to the windows, now that she'd started she couldn't very well just leave the supplies there.
~~~
There was colour.
There was noise.
So much noise, none of it making any sense, invading her ears, putting pressure on her eyes, no rules to when it would calm down for varying amounts of time, only to flare right back up without reason or warning.
She jerked awake, the dream instantly fading to just a hazy chaos of discomfort.
Sonata thougt that she ought to be taking calming rhythmic breaths.
This was what lead her to the realization that she was, in fact, not breathing at all.
And even weirder, there currently didn't seem to be any reason to change that.
She sat there baffled, her mouth open, feeling no need for oxygen at all, despite her lungs being at unmoving rest.
Sonata came to the conclusion that today would be a strange day and that it was time to make toast.
On most mornings, she'd hum a melody while getting a bowl, a knife and some jam.
She got a bit sad when she came to the conclusion that she probably wouldn't be able to do that now. She also realized that there seemed to be no melody wanting to be sung today anyways, so she supposed it was fine.
Thus, she jammed her sliced piece of toast in silence and got the spoon she always forgot at first.
She felt a lot better after that.
Despite everything, the world was still going and she was still eating breakfast.
Speaking of the world still going, now that she though about it, she'd promised Adagio to sing for that new band at Kinsy's, both to make money and "aid people in keeping their sense of hearing", Adagio's words, not hers.
Now that she thought about it,
She'd also promised that the band.
Well, not the exact same wording of course, but she was pretty sure that, whatever she had said, it had indicated she would be using her voice in a musical way and a place that wasn't just her mind.
This was a problem.
Ignore them?
But Kinsy's Bar was too nice a place to avoid.
Just try singing?
Well she could try now, see how bad it really was.
Maybe it wasn't that bad.
Alright, that was a solid plan, it'd be alright, what was one rainbow-colored spell against a lifetime of singing.
How did the first part go again?
She did remember they played…
something with fire and cars….
Sonata noted that it was a tad strange it took her this long, just to remember a song title.
Something commonly known.
She pulled out the phone and checked the site of the place.
It had just been "highway to hell".
This was fine, she'd always known her brain had a difficult time keeping up with the world.
The notes wouldn't come.
They just… did not.
high… way…. to…. hell.
Hadn't there been a rythm to them?
She was fairly certain that there had been.
She moved to play the song on her phone, glad that none of the others were here.
This would've confirmed their claims.
Hm, since when were the speakers broken?
There was no sound.
She got her headphones.
Still no sound.
It was the app then.
She tried a few others.
Nothing.
This.
This was strange.
Her hands were trembling when she took the keys and left the flat.
~~~
She was dreaming.
It was a nice dream.
There were… colours… patterns?
She was a pattern too.
She was twisting and twirling, entangling herself in the other shapes, lines, colours.
Then she awoke and the world was chaos.
Everything was wrong.
Reality had shifted on it's axis.
There was a gaping hole in the fabric of this world where there hadn't been one before.
Her imagination was twisting in it's attempts to understand, her mind circling the empty space.
Adagios thoughts felt as though someone had taken them and arbitrarily cut off bits and pieces.
They were incomplete, broken and had rough edges.
Over the feeling of metal scraping against metal, various thoughts became entangled, cracked and shattered against each other until there were none left.
A lonely tear made it's way across her fragmented cheek as Adagios world caved in around the realization of what had happened.
That music was no more.