loligiary | Tea with the Queen

Tea with the Queen

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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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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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."

"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.

"Yes, please." Mary chewed her bottom lip. Oh, she knew why people did that now. She knew why no one wanted to hire her.

"Cause there are videos on youtube of me being...well, horrible." Mary sighed. It was best to get it out now. At least if she told Gen about it before she found it all maybe she could save this somehow.

"I wasn't a good person when I was younger." Not that her family had helped. "So now no one in the industry wants to work with me. And everyone employer looks me up and boom, no job. That and I'm a freak show." She had thought that's all it was. But no, now she knew the truth.

"I--I understand how that can be." The machine whirred as the milk heated up. "I mean, I could imagine!"

Could, but didn't need to.

Mary's face fell slightly. "So you did see that..." And had already made a judgement. "Well...I guess I'll just take my hot chocolate then. No hard feelings. I get it." She was a horrible person. No one would want to be around her. Not any more.

"I--wait, no!" Genevieve whirled, flecks of hot chocolate spitting from the cup. At the other end of the bar her coworker rolled her eyes at Tetch's usual tetchiness.

"I mean, no. That's not what I meant!" The hot chocolate was placed down with unsteady, panicking hands. "Not what I meant," she repeated, holding the cup where Mary was just a few inches too short to reach it.

Mary stopped and tensed slightly as Gen panicked. She didn't mean to make her freak out, but she was just a little hurt.

"I know I was a bad person, ok? I've spent a lot of time trying to think of a way to repent, but it's kind of hard when no one will even talk to you like a human being." Especially an adult one.

"There has only been one person in the last ten years who even bothered to hear my side of things and he...well, he's not able to any more."

The coworker, who wasn't sure what was going on but sensed an impending 'I want your manager', turned away and moved to ring up the order for the next customer. She wanted no part of this.

"No, but I--" Desperation makes her honest. Genevieve leans over the counter as best she can. "I mean I know what it's like," she murmured. "I've done that, I've been there, I didn't always work at a coffee shop. I'm so sorry." It had been her life for the last...it had been too long. Sometimes she still felt as if she had more to make up.

"You do?" Gen seemed like such a nice person, how could she understand this kind of thing? Mary suddenly felt very aware of her surroundings.

"I...I'm sorry, I shouldn't bug you like this at work." She felt so stupid now. Her cheeks flushed. "I just...we can talk about it later...I'm sorry. Maybe you could come over? I live right down the street." She'd make dinner....rather she'd order dinner for them.

"I just don't want you to get in trouble..."

Genevieve passed the hot chocolate over, feeling her ears burn with embarrassment. What a mess.

"If you could write down the address, I could," she says, as a fat man behind Mary taps his feet in annoyance.

Mary took teh hot chocolate. She had really made a scene. It was what she was good at. And poor Gen didn't deserve to have her life upset like this.

She quickly wrote down her address and her phone number.

"In case you just want to text me to forget it, and I promise, if you don't want to see me any more I'll get it..." She glanced behind her, trying not to be irritated that someone was impatient with her. The old her would have screamed at him to move his fat ass out of her light, but she wasn't that person any more.

For the most part.

Genevieve took it with a grateful nod, and then went back to her polite customer service voice for the next customer.

"You trying to date her or something?" asked her supervisor after Mary left.

"No! No, definitely not."

"Uh huh. Just less flirting when you're on the clock, okay?"

If she didn't have an appointment with Mary she'd have considered crawling into the latte machine and never coming out again.

After a disastrous attempt to cook, Mary ordered a pizza. She only hoped that Gen liked pizza.

The apartment was clean for the first time since she moved in and she felt a fraction of fear. If Gen didn't show up all this work would be for nothing. But she wouldn't blame her for not wanting to show up. She could only hope that her new friend wouldn't leave her without an explanation.

Gen buzzed the door at 8pm, and hoped that she wasn't calling too late. She'd tried to fingercomb her hair in the coffee shop bathroom and changed out of her work shirt into a slightly more attractive blue blouse, but to her own eyes she still looked very unprofessional and scruffy.

Mary had put on a clean dress, something pink and casual. She usually just sat around the house in a sweatshirt and leggings, but she didn't want to seem like the mental case she was.

"Hey." Mary answered the door, all smiles now. "Glad you came." She moved so that Gen could enter. "I ordered a pizza, hope that's ok."

"Certainly! Of course!"

'Speak in French when you can't think of the English for a thing--turn your toes out when you walk---And remember who you are!'

It would be nice if she actually spoke French, mind. Genevieve entered, tense with her hands in her pockets.

"Make yourself comfortable." Her hands shook a bit, her words halting at times as she tried to think of the next thing she should do as a good hostess.

"Did you want something to drink? I have ummm..." She didn't have much, she realized. "Water."

"Yes, definitely! I love water!"

Wow, Gen. Wow. She's just going to sit down on the couch so her legs don't run her right out of the building.

Mary had a little laugh at that. "Wow, you must really love staying hydrated!" At least, Mary was now safe in the knowledge that she was not the most awkward person here.

She got Gen a water and then sat down. "So, I'm sorry to have sort of...had a drama bomb at your work. I just...I knew that you had seen all that stuff online about me. Worried that you had actually. Like I said...I was not a good person, but I'm trying."

She wishes she hadn't opened that door. So direly, she wishes it. Genevieve hunches her shoulders up as if curling around the glass in her hands. "I was just...curious. I knew you'd had a show. I wanted to see what it was." She's near-whimpering. I'm so sorry, Mary. I ruined it. "And I--I know what it can be like. When you make a mistake, or hurt someone, and it follows you around forever."

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/runs in late with starbucks