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.

Comments

[not_a_doll]

"Yeah...sadly." She had tried to make amends, but nothing ever seemed to work out the way she hoped it would.

Mary glanced at Gen. "You? I can't imagine that. Maybe unknowingly, but I don't imagine you would hurt someone on purpose."

[welcomequeenalice]

Genevieve swallowed hard. "No, I. I did. It's why I lost my job." Lost everything, and felt she'd deserved it. But why'd she'd let the conversation even go this way?

[not_a_doll]

Mary bit her lip. "Sorry...that, sounds horrible." Mary hadn't lost her job because of her rudeness...well, no, that's not true. She kind of had. She had stepped on a lot of toes and that's why she didn't get to go back. "I know how that feels...obviously." Duh, that's why they were talking about it!

[welcomequeenalice]

"But I don't think...I've had to work hard at it, you know, it is hard...I don't think you should have to carry that around your hole life." Words were so hard, why were words so stupidly hard?

[not_a_doll]

"Don't I know it." Mary looked at her sad glass of water. "At least there are times when the load lightens a little, right?"

[welcomequeenalice]

"It does, you know. At the right time, or in the right company." Genevieve drew in a deep breath, trying to inhale and exhale her away away from that mindset, as if it could make one float. Enough of that. Enough of her being horrid today. Please.

"Do you like to go out anywhere? With friends?"

[not_a_doll]

Mary glanced at a stuffed animal sitting on the sofa next to her, throwing a pillow over it and turning back to Gen with a nervous smile. "Friends...yeah..." She glanced at the pillow again. Friends... "Umm...not particularly. I prefer to stay in. Watch movies. Do that sort of thing. My friends don't get out much."

[welcomequeenalice]

"No, that makes sense. I stay inside a lot too. We watch a lot of movies. Or sports." She giggles. Surrounded by stuffed animals, and her with her china-cabinet and teacup house, and she knows enough about professional wrestling to have opinions on who was going to win this season. "My friend really likes them. So we watch."

[not_a_doll]

"We?" It seemed Gen had a friend. A friend who liked sports. Now, Mary didn't like to assume things about any one or anything. Any one could like sports, regardless of sex, BUT! She smirked a bit.

"Sport, heh? I can't say I've ever watched much. My dad used to bet on football and baseball, and it always seemed so boring to me." At least Mary was feeling a bit better.

"I watch far too many movies. Mostly musicals and dramas."

[welcomequeenalice]

"Oh, I love musicals!" And that took them back down the rabbit hole with shared love of fiction, that special place you can always escape to because nothing from the outside world can get to you there.

"I haven't really been to any in a while," she says with a smile, once they've gotten done fangirling about 'Into the Woods'. "There was a lovely children's play I saw about a year and a half ago, a charity benefit. I happened to stop in--really needed to see it that day." Or she'd have gone somewhere far worse.

[not_a_doll]

Mary smiled brightly. "Really?" She felt like anyone she told that to usually thought she was silly.

"I love live theater, but most of the time I just end up at home curled up on the couch watching the movie ones." And singing along.

"Sometimes a little theater can change everything, I know the feeling." Of course, her's hadn't ended so well.

[welcomequeenalice]

"You know, it really can." And it got Mary the biggest authentic smile she'd seen off Genevieve since she showed up. The play had changed her life. The play had gotten her the dress, which had gotten her Alice, which had gotten her the Queen, which had gotten her everything that made life worth living.

She wished she could tell Mary about it but, well. Secret identity as superhero, trans, and crazy.

[not_a_doll]

Mary marveled at the change in Gen's expression. It was amazing. Theater really did open so very many doors.

"I still take some acting classes, free ones, obviously. Mostly workshops with other actors. But it's just not the same as actually doing it." Mary sighed a bit. "Ahh well, someday I'll find my path."

[welcomequeenalice]

"Be sure to let me now when you do, I'd love to see it." Gen's smile is disrupted by a tinkling set of bells from her pocket. Text alert. She almost doesn't want to look, to let it be someone else's problem for once, but...

Genevieve pulls out her phone and her face falls. Mission time. Blast.

[not_a_doll]

Mary laughed. "If I ever get another director to hire me, I'll let you know..." The phone noise almost didn't catch Mary's attention, until Gen pulled it out.

"Important?"

[welcomequeenalice]

Genevieve looked up at her with deeply apologetic eyes. "I'm sorry, I have to go. A friend needs me." Damn, why now? Usually missions invigorated her, but usually she had nothing more appealing to do with her time.

[not_a_doll]

Mary nodded. She was terribly disappointed, but she kind of figured that Gen would find something 'better' to do at this point. At least she'd been able to apologize.

"Don't worry. It's not a big deal. Umm, I hope you're friend's ok?" She felt this was a bit of a brush off, but she was going to try one more time.

"Maybe I could bring some pizza by your place later? I mean, you still gotta eat, right?"

[welcomequeenalice]

Gen was texting back as she went for her jacket, looking from phone to Mary to back down again in a panic. "The trial cannot begin until all until all the jurymen are back in their proper places--um, I mean. I don't know when I'll be back. But!"

She seized on the pizza as a ray of hope. "I'll call you! Later! We can have pizza then!"

[not_a_doll]

Mary raised her eyebrows as it seemed that her new friend slipped into some kind of verse? Was it a quote? Was she supposed to get it?

"Oh...ok." Her shoulders fell slightly.

"Sure. ok. Sorry. I'll see you around then..."

[welcomequeenalice]

"I'm really, really sorry!" she practically shouted as she tore out the door. Damn damn blast, why now?

"Off with their head, off with their head," she muttered as she pounded down the sidewalk. Cypher was there to pick her up two blocks down, and wasn't sure why the Queen was already in a full-on shouting mood even before she rolled into the back seat to change.

"Come join with the red queen, the white queen, and me," was the only grumbling response he got to a concern about a bad day on the job. Let's just do this.

[not_a_doll]

Wow, Mary stood there, unsure of what to do. Something was wrong. Had she done something wrong? No, this was definitely on Gen's end.

An emergency, Mary decided, that's all. Gen had to have an emergency. Maybe her friend was in trouble. Yes, it had nothing to do with her or the rocky start to their friendship.