Mirrored Parody

[Mhairi Ankaa]

Like an grim echoed mirror of yesteryear the Wisp imbibes, vodka her poison of choice. First in glasses mixed with pop, then as shots when the sugary, carbonated concoctions failed to achieve what she wished. Eventually the even the glassware disappears in favour of the expedient method.

Makeup runs even as tears steam and never fall, snot clogs and has her sniffling even harder.

She shakes and reaches for the very close to empty bottle, she misses and hits her cell instead.

She's babbling into the receiver before the call even connects. She's still babbling when the call disconnects.

"Coco Coco Coco. I. Uh. It's. I can't. I mean. I gotta but I don't wanna. But that makes me a bad bad person since I don't. I can't. But. Coco-"

[Coco]

When her bedazzled flip phone had started ringing, Coco had been confused. Who could possibly have her number? This was a burner phone after all, and only a few souls even knew that it existed, and one of those was in the same house as she was! Of course, when Coco checked and saw that it was, in fact, the same person she was sharing the house with, her blood pressure had skyrocketed and she'd flipped the little device open and tried to listen to the tear slurred words over the sound of blood pounding around her eardrum.

Swearing mildly under her breath, the Wasp flipped the phone shut (something you simply couldn't enjoy any longer with a "smart" phone) and slipped it back into the fuzzy pocket of her rainbow pajamas. She'd been getting changed, not for bed, but for getting high as fuck and lounging around on Mhairi's couch (thank god for legalization!) in the fuzziest damn outfit possible, and, well, she'd been taking her time. Just because she was wearing pajamas didn't mean she didn't want to look good, after all, and even though most onesies were pretty shapeless, Coco had picked out one that was just right.

Not that it mattered, though, because apparently there was a catastrophe happening downstairs, and with a sinking feeling, and a healthy sense of Deja Vu, Coco rushed back into the living room where she found Mhairi, half lying across the coffee table.

"Mhair mhair, no, what's wrong?" Coco soothed, crouching next to the inconsolable Autumn Queen and giving her a little back rub with one hand while she capped the liquor with the other.

[Mhairi Ankaa]

"Coco. I'm bad bad badbadbad-" she warbles into the dead cell pinned by her face as she slumps onto the coffee table.

The hand upon her back startles her. She bolts upright, the stuck phone peals from her skin to thunk onto the table. Mhairi blinks at it dumbly. Frowning as steam escapes the roaring eldritch flames of her eyes.

"Coco?" a question croaked out. With a strange look of wonder. "I'm a horrible person who's stupid and bad." the Wisp informs the Wasp gravely. The promptly bursts into steaming tears.

[Coco]

Coco sighed, and settled into a more comfortable position so that she could wrap the vodka soaked Wisp in an embrace and gently rocked her back and forth as she cried, saying soothing nonsense as she did so. Apparently, even the Queen of Terror was just as susceptible to the violent miasma of self-loathing that only the deepest of seas of liquor could bring on. Well, not the deepest, since Mhairi was evidently still conscious, but from her own experiences, Coco knew there really wasn't anything she could do at this point but take care of Mhairi until she was lucid again.

So, step one was some soothing hugs, step two was a trip to barf-bowl, and step three was research on alcoholism. Honestly, it seemed like a legitimate problem that was affecting their community, though who could blame them? Self-Medication was the all the rage, these days, and it wasn't like they could go and talk about their trauma at the hands of an interdimensional kidnapper, after all.

Of course, this was all easier said than done. The rocking, unfortunately, prompted the throwing up before Coco had expected, and now foul, alcohol stained vomit was soaking into her fuzzy pajamas, and Mhairi kept trying to fall down onto her knees while she was being led to a place where she could actually throw up, and for a moment, the Wasp was tempted to smack her for putting Coco through this, but what was the point?

This was just a waiting game. One that they'd probably just spend in the bathroom so Coco wouldn't have to worry about the Autumn Queen assassinating herself with her own puke.

Time skip?

[Mhairi Ankaa]

Aye! Timeskip!

Mhairi woke up aching. She could smell the puke on her and the vodka under that. "Oooohh!" she whines but regrets the sound immediately. She curls into a tight little ball and starts.

Why could she curl into a ball? Last she could remember was making a nice home near the coffee table because the floor was ever so inviting. And soft. It was also that.

...this was not that. Cracking an eye open Mhairi caught sight of the tiled bathroom floor. And the side of the toilet bowl.

Okay.

Least she made it to the bathroom. Probably no mess to clean up elsewhere...hopefully.

Her tongue is heavy in her mouth, the cracked eye becomes two as she eases herself up, leaning heavily against the wall.

She laughs as she sees the plush nest the wasp made in the tugs, then groans. Because that hurt.

Her tries to scrape the taste out of her mouth but can't. Giving up, but not moving, Mhairi whispers across the room.

"Please tell me I didn't try to eat the shampoo..."

[Cayce]

Wrong account :C

[Coco]

"No, I guarded it," Coco replied sleepily, stretching like a cat (a waspy cat?) in her nest of pillows and blankets inside the tub. Wow, she'd slept like shit. Part of it, of course, was that she set an alarm for every hour and half so that she could check on Mhairi and make sure that her friend literally wasn't going to die. Pinching for responsiveness, checking breathing, and making sure her skin wasn't going all gross and corpse-like. Because holy hell, Coco could not even imagine what would have happened if the Autumn Queen had died on her watch, let alone the fact that it was her friend.

"You scared me, Mhairi," Coco blurted out, brushing a strand of hair that probably needed some Shampoo out of her eyes, and then rolled out of the tub so that she was sitting across form Mhairi on the floor of the bathroom. She reached over with a foot and flushed the pukey toilet, but otherwise, her eyes were on the Autumn Queen, who somehow looked even paler than usual. Was it that here eyes were dimmer? That the constellations in her hair were less vivid, or was that just in her imagination?

"You scared me," Coco repeated. "What were you doing, chugging vodka like that? You're not Dev, Mhairi! You can't get fly, like a G6!"

[Mhairi Ankaa]

"I'm sorry." feeling every inch a rotten and not worth the effort Coco had gobe through. She scared her friend. "I'm sorry," wishing that Coco understood the depth that paltry words can't reach. "I didn't mean. I but I...it was shock. First. And joy. Then." she shakes her head, twisting and twining her quicksilver coated and ever dripping fingernails. "I'm sorry." she says again.

Pulling her legs to her chest.

"I love it here. I love the people. The Freehold I helped defend, rebuild. Lead. But." fires dim, less vivid. Smouldering when they should be raging. "You remember why I came here right? Why I joined Autumn even?" she asks instead of elaborating.

[Coco]

Coco rubbed the sleep out of her eyes as she thought about Mhairi's question. It had been so long since they'd last seen each other, so long since they'd actually shared anything about themselves, and a lot had happened since then, but despite that distance, something began to surface.

"I...yes, I think so," Coco replied, sleep-free eyes staring intently at the celestial fae across from her. "It was something to do with your mother, right? You were raised by her fetch, and you wanted to find a way to get your actual mother back. Is that right?"

Blood and thorn...To be raised by a fetch. Honestly, Coco wouldn't have been surprised to learn that her entire family were all made of snails and puppy dog tails, too, (they did actually like Coco fetch much better, after all), but Coco had at least had her grandmother. She couldn't imagine what life would have been like without her.

"Have you found something?" Coco asked again, leaning forward. "Do you need help?"

[Mhairi Ankaa]

Her head shoots up the fell-flames spark and sputter gaining vibrancy as the words take hold.

Had her mom been a Fetch the whole time? Mhairi had known after she got Back that her mom wasn't dead. Wasn't the debris rotting in her coffin. Mhairi'd assumed that her mom was Taken after her or before she'd Returned but...

"Yeah." she croaks. "My mom the fetch." tears always threaten to fall but even sputtering embers sear salted water away to steam.

"I.." need help. I don't want to go. but that makes me horrible. come with me. I need someone to hold my hand."Was making Circe's dress when I got a call. It's my mom. She's Lost. But alive...and. And I know where she is right now." Mhairi whispers in the echoing expanse of the white tiled room.