Wasp on the Porch

[Coco]

The flight back to Sac-town wasn't long, but if there was anything that could make you feel more like poorly disguised cattle than flying, Coco couldn't think of it. Packed into a tiny metal tube, brushing elbows with pit-stained lard tubs, getting bumped by the refreshment cart every time it came down the aisle...well, it had almost been enough to make her go looking for one of the emergency exits. Thankfully, though, the refreshment cart was stocked with alcohol, and the flight was short enough that, by the time the flying livestock container landed, Coco could still walk (even if she did have to use her cane).

A nap in a cab, a stop at a cafe for some caffeine, another cab ride around town, and Coco had finally picked up on the subtle clues that the Freehold had planted around. If she'd been a total stranger, it probably would have taken her several days, but as it was, even with the beginnings of a mild hangover, she was fairly certain that the Freehold had relocated to the Dragon's old amusement park. Which, well, seemed like a very fitting thing for the lost to do. Eternally frolicking on the grave of your enemies was, after all, something that her Court in particular was quite fond of.

Sadly, that wasn't a celebration that Coco felt she could take part in, though the part of her that didn't want to just get drunk again did feel happy for her old neighbors. In fact, by the time she pulled up to Funderland and saw the replica of Edna's old boarding house, there was a definite current of something equally wistful and hopeful swimming beneath the dull throbbing in her temples. She strode through the amusement part, wheeled suitcase trundling along behind her, cane purposefully swinging as she headed up onto the wooden porch of the new Boardinghouse.

A lighting fast rap rap rap sounded on the front door.

When it opened, the unfortunate host was greeted by the sight of a sprightly woman with brilliant red hair, a yellow and black dotted scarf, a beige camel hair coat, and bottle green velvet pants leaning against a silver topped cane. A pair of large Gucci sunglasses hid her eyes, though the wry quirk to her glossed lips spoke volumes and the subtle twitch of her black and yellow antennae seemed to speak volumes.

[Mhairi Ankaa]

There was a rapping tap on the door, reminiscent of when Edna's had been a Boarding House in truth and not just as an accessory to a separate purpose. A thrum of nastalgia runs through the Wisp as she moves though the House of safe Haunts adjusting and resetting scares as she went, still half convinced that the rapping heard was nothing more then a memory.

Her mind whirls and twirls trying to think of just who would be rapping at the door, but she draws a blank. No one knocked on Edna's door anymore.

With a carelessness she opens the door, still wearing the semi-professional outfit she'd been wearing all day, in blues and blacks and silvers. Her books, were here exception and her indulgence.

To the Lost her hair span galaxies, stars and planets twinkled a d dancer, her moonlit completion was ever glowing, just as the quicksilver upon her fingers ever dripping, the fell-fire of her eyes flickers hither and yon, but it was her mantle, that truly arrested attention, strong for anyone, save pinnacles of their Seasons, wilting mirror sharp leaves if lead hang about her shoulders like a stole, the scent of dead and dying leaves was subtle, yet cloying.

She was expecting Park staff, or perhaps a parent or elder sibling of a child who lost this or that.

Who she sees has her gaping. A distant part of her realizes that the Spring before her will surely quip about her open mouth, but Mhairi dosen't care.

Her heart stutters at the sight of the Wasp, familiar and foreign. There's a wet gasp that might be a sob that breaks free as Mhairi reaches forward and pulls the women into a hug.

"Coco!" Mhairi breathes against the beige jacket. "How? When? Why?" all asked when the wisp pulls away to look at the other women.

Fell-flame flicker wildly, but to Coco, who once and still knew how to read those eerie flames could tell there was a new darkness, a new pain.

[Coco]

Whatever stinging reply that had sat on the Wasp's tongue was lost amidst a sudden rush of limbs as the Queen of Fear pulled her into a fierce hug. Now it was the Wasp's turn to gape as she stared over the tangle of galaxies that were draped over the Whisp's shoulder, the warmth of the other woman's greeting was completely beyond anything she'd been expecting and a well of emotional rose so unexpectedly that Coco had to choke down her words before something entirely undignified escape instead. Or, at least she tried to, a hitch in her breathing quite apparent to the woman currently breathing into the spice scented cloth of her coat.

A surge of annoyance rose just as quickly, however, and Coco's lithe frame temporarily tensed as her instinct to lash out and sting the object of her discomfort passed through her. Of course, as soon as her faceted eyes met the burning green fire of the Monarch's gaze and glimpsed something so intimately familiar shining in their depths that she her hands rose of their own accord to return the hug instead.

"Well," Coco began, clearing her throat once to hide the emotion that hid there, "obviously I came by to see just how much you've grown, little Mhairi." A false smile played out across the Wasp's lips, and she reached up to fondly ruffle the Dread Queen's hair as if she was the most dreadfully annoying of Aunts.

"And just look at you! A mantle fit to toss a cow with! You didn't decide to make a meal out of the Dragon, did you?"

No matter how blithe and teasing the words might have been, however, the fell flames of the Leaden Mirror's Queen caught a glimpse of a brilliantly colored tattoo perched atop a wicked scar on the swordmistress' wrist as she drew her hair ruffling hand back away. It seemed that the Wasp hadn't escaped her own brush with the slings and arrows of fortune, either.

[Mhairi Ankaa]

It takes Coco a while to return the hug, but Mhairi remembers the Wasp in her highs and at her lows, so she had a feeling the surprise might halt the Spring's brain as she took stalk the Autumn who ambushed her.

"oh? Is that all?" Mhairi asks a teasing smirk to her lips. A laugh, "Come on, lets get you inside. I know it's different but it's still Edna's," the scar, catches Mhairi's flames but she dosen't say anything, time had passed and it seemed, hurt them both.

A hiccuped snort, "What?! No! Green took care of him." flippantly stated, and paired with suddenly sharp lines of a very wolfish grin.

There's a beat, "I, well. I just...well. I'm kinda the Queen." a little sheepishly, the confidance and bloodthirsty satisfaction of a moment ago lost under that announcement.

The wisp clears her throat, pulling Coco inside, or attempting to. "So. Uh. How were the cookies?" asking about the going away present she managed to sneak into the Wasp's belongings.

[Coco]

The Wasp didn't resist the cosmic Queen's pull and allowed herself to be guided behind the closed door of the reincarnated Edna's. She stripped off her sunglasses as the door shut behind her, blinking her facets as she took in the cobweb draped nest of faux-nightmares. A quip rose to mind, though Mhairi's revelation that it was the somber Mountain that had finally ended the Terror of the Freehold almost made the wasp's shining lips to gape open again.

"Really? It was Green?" The Wasps eyebrows crept towards he hairline, her antennae cocking in confusion. As much as she tried to imagine it, she just couldn't picture the mountain moving fast enough not to get roasted alive, and if he was able to kill the Dragon, then what did that make Coco? She'd never even tried to kill the dragon! Not that she'd ever been able to find the damn lizard, but still, she'd just skulked away, disappearing to hot sun and warm sand while the tyrant ran free.

"Well," Coco continued after a moment, shoving her seething self loathing back down beneath a veneer of cheer, "the dragon is dead, and now you're a Queen! I always knew that I my friendship was worthy of royalty, but you look positively majestic, Mhairi! Why, if I'd never met you before I might even accuse you of being a little too Gentile, now. You'll have to tell me your secrets. Shampoo, conditioner, nail care, the works..."

The Wasp's rambling abruptly cut off as she realized that she'd almost missed the Wisp's last question, and she froze.

Cookies?

What cookies?

Cheeks flushing as red as if she'd been standing beneath a chill Autumn wind, Coco let out a chagrined laugh.

"You see, Mhairi, I probably enjoyed them, but I honestly can't remember. I brought a bottle of Johnnie Walker as soon as I landed and I woke up the next day in my hotel with crumbs all over the bed. And my clothes. And I needed a shower. Honestly, it wasn't a great time," she confessed, eyes falling to the floor.

[Mhairi Ankaa]

"Yep. Green." Mhairi nods, moving the pair of them away from the kiddy frights. "Wore a Drudge's face and poisoned him. Left not to long after though. Uh..." Mhairi still missed her once-paladin, but the new might cheer the Wasp. "Morgan followed him. They've been gone for, uh...like a year ago. Or nearly."

A laugh, missing the realness of the fleeting emotion before it was hidden away. "Oh yes it certainly is!" Mhairi quips back, then flushes, "Uhhh, well the first part was taking a class to work on my stammer, then the rest...sorta happened. Hedge-uh-Fae magic. After I was Crowned, it kinda just happened. Hobs...they're scared if me. Most of the time. Other times they're spiteful beasts that I want to hit." Mhairi finales with a growl.

"Ah," and an understanding smile. "I've been favouring Smirnoff myself, but drunk, or not I don't think if you didn't like them you'd wake to them eaten. They'd be binned." the wisp draws her close again, "So. Umm. It's okay. Really."

[Coco]

As dense as Coco could be when it came to other's feelings, she felt a resonance as she listened to Mhairi, a resonance that brought to mind the echo of too many meals shared with empty chairs sitting across from her, and too many evenings with only the television for company.

"I'm so sorry, Mhair Mhair," Coco said softly, reaching out to take one of the Queen's hands in her own. "It hurts when they leave, especially when they leave without you. I know I shouldn't really talk, considering how long I've been gone, but, well, you are one of the reasons why I've come back."

The Wasp sighed then, feeling the thousands of miles she'd crossed suddenly coming to bear down on her, and her shoulders slumped.

"I've been traveling for a long time now, looking for what I never found here, in Sacramento, and I never have found it, no matter how far I was willing to go. Maybe I've been looking for the wrong things, or maybe I just don't deserve to find them, but even with everyone that happened here, I think this is as close as I'll ever come again to home."

[Mhairi Ankaa]

Mhairi blinks, fel-flames sputtering, motes wicking away and buring into nothing the farther away they get.

"...I thought I understood." she says after a moment. "Ive been here a long whole, people leave. I was even okay. Ish with Green and Morgan going away. But..." the wisp frowns, "I made a motley...pledge and everything. Ingrid and Sera are still around but, Land" she growls, "Just left. Snapped the bound and left us floundering. It-" her voice cracks and she tries and fails to smile.

"I'm glad you're back Coco." Mhairi says sincerity plain, "But I wish you found what you were looking for. You deserve it." Mhairi says as fiercely as fire.

[Coco]

It was so strange to be back here, in Sacramento. So strange to be holding a hand dripping mercury once again and to feel the drink ravaged ache inside her skull, while she did so. It was almost like she'd never left, as though all those months of her travels had been just a fantasy, a dream that passed in a blink as she sat huddled next to Mhairi on her couch. But, of course, the Crown on Mhairi's brow, the mantle of sharpened leaden leaves, and the scar on Coco's own wrist proved the lie to that thought.

"I don't think I do deserve it," Coco replied quietly, even as her thumb rubbed a hopefully comforting circle across the back of her friends hand, just as Mhairi had done for her, so long ago.

"I never called, like I promised. Or sent videos. And I think, when I left, that was when you needed a friend just as badly as I did. Besides, that not even the worst thing that I've done. A lot has happened. Is there somewhere we could go and sit and catch up? Otherwise, I might actually need my cane before too long."

Coco let go of Mhairi's hand, but the wry smile had returned as she met the Queen's fell flames.

[Mhairi Ankaa]

Mhairi feels mirrored echoes of long ago as the Wasp rubs circles across the back of her hand, "You do. You really really do." the Wisp looks up, a smirk across her lips, "And since its been a while I should let you know. I found my backbone. It's definitly steel, and I'm gonna be a stuborn bitch about this. You. Deserve. It. And. More. Cosima. Tascioni." she enunciates clearly, pausing between words and flicking a dripping finger against the other women's chest.

The wisp blinks, "Oh! Shit, yeah. Uhh. Upstairs. They're set up as escape rooms, I figured it would be a cool thing for a special event...and teach people to think about Escaping...I hope they never need it. But..." the fel-fires flicker as her brows furrow in a depressed resignation.

The wisp shakes her head, "Come on," said as she plays tour guide, knowing how eerie to would be to see Edna's like this. Even with it, child-appropriate scares in various states of ready and not.

"...and. I can't hold anything against you for not calling. I didn't pick up the phone either." an admission, a whisper, guilt crushing her with the realization that Coco probably needed her to make the first move to keep their contact alive. "I'm sorry I'm not a good friend."