Tea with the Queen

[welcomequeenalice]

Superheroing was great for the soul but didn't pay the bills. Genevieve subsidized her hobby and her rent payments through working the late shift at a coffee shop. Her coworkers were a relatively ordinary mix--some went out of their way to be kind and chatty, some had a chip on their shoulder, most regarded her with an apathy that was often a relief when she needed to be alone with her thoughts and the blender. The need to focus on each coffee-related task and complete it with practiced motions was soothing and kept her from wobbling in indecision. Some days were easier than others. Some days stress threatened to eat her alive.

The Queen helped with that, but you couldn't bring the Queen to work with you...and of course there was the problem of Jervis.

Genevieve heard the voice of a coffee order as she wiped down the spout of the latte machine. She turned and saw no one, and went back to work. Late night, must be hearing things. She was short, for any gender, and occasionally had to get up on a step stool to reach the spare beans and milk stored in the hidden cabinets behind the menu boards. Seeing particularly small people over the height of the counter was even more troublesome.

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[welcomequeenalice]

She'd really wanted to go, back when it had all gone wrong. Run back to the place brightly lit by childhood nostalgia, where no one knew her name or her face. But she'd been too depressed to move, and by the time she'd fought her way out of the pit she'd found things in Gotham to be attached to again.

"It's a nice city, I think." As they approach the cluster of trees huddled at the edge of the park Genevieve begins to talk about her hometown. The ivy-covered university buildings where her father worked, the river Cam winding under bridges and strewn with tourists trying desperately not to fall out of their punts, the cobblestones of the streets and sidewalks.

[not_a_doll]

"Gotham or Cambridge?" As Gen described her home town it was hard to believe that any one would want to leave that for this place.

"I've lived in Gotham all my life and I could never describe it the way you painted that picture. You must be a writer, right?" Those coffee shop folk always did something artsy, right?

[welcomequeenalice]

Now Genevieve gives her an honest, proper smile. "No, no, I'm hardly a writer. I just do a lot of reading." Though little of it is Serious Literature. She enjoys light things, childish things--things with happy endings where no one is sad for long or hurt in any meaningful way, which seem to never be the topics that are considered cultured literature for cultured folk.

[not_a_doll]

"Well, they do say the best writers are readers. But I don't know much about that." Mary smiled, a bit brighter. She was glad to see her new friend was feeling a bit more comfortable.

[welcomequeenalice]

Genevieve laughs. "What books do you, like then?" Please tell her that she wasn't blushing, please please please. They passed by the duck pond, where the sunset was glittering off the ripples in the water and throwing the trees into stark black silhouettes.

[not_a_doll]

Mary had a to think a minute. "Well, I don't read much. But when I do it's...well, you'll probably think it's stupid. But I read a lot of romance novels. And Shakespeare. I love Shakespeare." She giggled. "I sometimes even act out of the scenes." She blushed, she did that with most things she read. Including romance novels. "I guess that's sort of silly..."

[welcomequeenalice]

Genevieve shakes her head emphatically. "No, no, it makes sense! I've done that with books I like too." A lot. Compulsively. For therapy and occasionally justice. "It's fun. You want to pretend you're part of that world, just for a bit. Right?"

[not_a_doll]

Mary nodded. "Yeah...though sometimes I do it as a confidence boost. Playing someone else, you know? I used to be so confident when I was on tv..." She sighed. "But hey, I spoke to someone new today. That is an achievement."

[welcomequeenalice]

Genevieve makes a note to google up Mary Dahl when she gets home, possibly to later do a 'oh, NOW I remember, it's just been so long' as she pretended she'd indeed seen the show. Maybe Waylon would know something about it, he was far more into pop culture than she was.

"I like playacting from books because you'll know what will happen. Usually. You know it'll be all right in the end."

[not_a_doll]

"Sometimes. Though I do like my horribly dramatic endings..." Someone needed to have a spectacular death scene!

"I should have been born tall and beautiful, then I could work in soap operas and fulfill my calling." She joked. "But yeah, I get it. I enjoy my sappy endings too. Especially in movies."

[welcomequeenalice]

"I think you look nice." Genevieve studiously watches the ducks and holds her breath, trying to make the comment feel light and irrelevant. It's fine for a woman to compliment a woman, right? Just fine.

[not_a_doll]

Mary blushed slightly. "Well, thanks. You're not bad yourself." A little mannish, but who was Mary to judge? "I'm cute though." She knew she was adorable. People told her that all the time. Beautiful? Sexy? Never. She would never achieve that.

[welcomequeenalice]

Boy, aren't those ducks interesting. Genevieve rests her eyes upon them, until they start humping each other and she has to retreat to gazing at the gazebo on the other side of the pond.

"Sort of a...I mean, I'm not a writer. But pretty, definitely. I can see why you were a TV star." She tries not to speak of china dolls, small and perfect, because there's only some of that. There's a confidence and casual grace to Mary that Genevieve wishes she could maintain without a scepter.

[not_a_doll]

Mary laughed. "That's not why I was a TV star...and it wasn't because I could act either. I played..." God this was embarrassing. She used to be so proud of it, now it sort of made her sick. "I played a child. I played her for ten years."

[welcomequeenalice]

"Ten years?" Genevieve jerks her head away from the gazebo to stare down at her (and boy isn't that an odd feeling). "You started when you were little, you mean? That's quite a career!" She assumes Mary must have grown up with the show, keeping the title of 'child' while her character itself had started on middle school by the show's end.

[not_a_doll]

"Yup." Ten long years of play acting as a child. Sure, she had been around 8 when the show started, but she had turned 18 at its end.

"Just how old do you think I am, Gen?" This was always good for a laugh.

[welcomequeenalice]

"Um..." Panic mode time. There's no completely graceful way to answer a question about a woman's age. She looks Mary up and down, worries with her fingers, and has to spend a long time thinking about it. "Twenty-six?" she ventures. It's hard to tell, her features are still quite childlike even to Genevieve's eyes, but twenty-six seems a good guess when you want to avoid offending someone. If she's younger it might be a compliment. If she's older, even more so.

[not_a_doll]

"Don't worry, I won't be insulted either way." Mary said quickly as Genevieve panicked.

She smiled. "Hey, pretty close. I'm gonna be 30 next year."

[welcomequeenalice]

They find mutual literature loves to talk about, and the pair walk until they run out of park to walk in. It takes Genevieve an extra 45 minutes to get home on the bus and has no regrets.

Any specific attraction she might have to Mary is quickly stifled and sat on, but she's basking in the joy of having a new friend to talk to. Waylon's lovely but there's something very different about Mary, something she can relate to--that shared understanding of what it's like to be overlooked.

Pandora's needs had to be sated, unfortunately, and Genevieve found herself looking up 'Mary Dahl' on YouTube to get an idea of her acting talents. She expected cheesy humor. What she found was ghoulish.

Everyone else was used to seeing Baby Doll, and Mary Dahl acting the part of the mature adult was like watching a child playacting the part of her mother in gaudy costume jewelry and a dress several sizes too big. Goofy, impossible to take seriously. Genevieve had met Mary as a twenty-nine-year-old job hunter, and seeing that face on a tantrum-throwing baby with curled locks was unsettling. A child might show some aspects of the looks it might hold in later years, but the face was identical. And the dates on the show's airing...that couldn't be right, could it?

Slowly, reluctantly, she found herself drifting towards Wikipedia.

[not_a_doll]

It was nice to finally find someone to talk to. Woman to woman. Mary had never had a female friend. She had never had many friends to speak of. She couldn't even count the people who had starred with her on her show. They hadn't liked her in the end. And she couldn't really blame them.

But now, Mary was certain she'd found someone who really liked her. Not for Baby Doll, but actually her. But then a sort of dread set in as she made her way home. What if Gen went home and looked her up? What would that do to their budding friendship? She worried that the only reason Gen could even stand her was that she had no idea of her past. What would Gen find if she did google her?

So, when Mary got home she found herself looking online for anything that might disturb her new friend. Sadly, she was not disappointed.

Wikipedia had been edited and reedited. The fans seemed to disagree on why Mary had left the show. And there were quotes from her costars that was less than glowing. The wiki painted her as an ungrateful brat who didn't know how good she had it. The facts were there, and it did seem someone was trying to clean it up, but for the most part Mary could tell that this would be hard to explain, should her new friend bother with this level of investigation.

Youtube was worse. They had somehow obtained video of one of her tantrums. It was horrible and Mary had to turn it off half way through and put herself to bed.

She felt her friendship was doomed. No one would want to hang out with her after seeing all that.

[welcomequeenalice]

She'd seemed so stable. More together than Genevieve was, though she assumed herself to look far more nervous than she did. Genevieve found herself running over the conversation for any hint of cruelty or selfishness, wondering if she'd let herself be sucked into a diva's sphere by kind words. So easy to be overlooked, even more easy to be taken advantage of.

Such an odd disorder, though. To be always a child and never to grow up...well, she had that fantasy every once in a while. To be Alice, little Alice without responsibilities or concerns for the future. Alice did not pay taxes or get fired from work for being misled. But to be trapped as a child? That would warp one, wouldn't it?

Lastly, she pictured to herself how this same little sister of hers would, in the after-time, be herself a grown woman; and how she would keep, through all her riper years, the simple and loving heart of her childhood: and how she would gather about her other little children, and make their eyes bright and eager with many a strange tale, perhaps even with the dream of Wonderland of long ago: and how she would feel with all their simple sorrows, and find a pleasure in all their simple joys, remembering her own child-life, and the happy summer days.

She went out on patrol with Jabberwock, and broke a few leg bones of people who had it coming, and managed to feel moderately better about herself. Waylon noticed something off about her, something wilder and fiercer about the Queen than usual, but didn't press it. She'd talk when she needed it. Thursday afternoon Genevieve was back at the coffee shop to both lament and comfort herself with the thought that she might not see Mary again anyway. Mary knew where to find her but not the reverse. Perhaps she wouldn't come back again.

[not_a_doll]

Another interview down and Mary was back on the job search trail. She wondered if she should go back to the coffee shop. Would Gen want to see her? It could be that her imagination was running away with her, that she was only assuming that Gen would look her up online.

But then why wouldn't she? Mary had said she was famous, and that was the kind of thing a person went home and looked up.

The coffee shop was close to her apartment, and Mary couldn't help herself. If Gen didn't want to talk to her, well, then that would be ok. She wouldn't press her luck.

"Uhh, hey." Mary said, as she reached the counter. God, she sounded so weird. Stop sounding weird. There was nothing weird going on. Yet.

[welcomequeenalice]

She'd been waiting on that voice all day. Bracing for it, pining for it, and it still made her jump a little.

"Hi!" No fear no fear big smile. She stood on tip-toe to look at Mary over the high expanse of the counter. "How are you? The same as last time?"

Wait crud what did she have last time?

[not_a_doll]

Mary put on a smile, pushing down her feelings as Geni seemed just fine. Maybe she had worried for nothing.

"I think I might just go with a hot chocolate this time. It's been another rough one. I think people are laughing behind my back at these interviews."

[welcomequeenalice]

"Why would they do that? Oh, do you want whipped cream?" Making the drink was a good excuse to have her back to Mary. No, she didn't wonder, she knew and wished she hadn't.

Poor woman. Or perhaps she deserved it. Genevieve hoped not.