Real or Not Real? (Plum, Mumble)

[Andrina]

Andy didn't know where she was going or how she got here, everything was forgotten the instant after it was thought. All she knew was she was afraid and running. It was long lost to her what she was running from, but the feeling of nauseating panic prevailed and urged her to run on and on until her body burned and her lungs screamed for air that her strained gasps couldn't provide. Her heart threatened to burst as it struggled to keep up with her impossible pace. She'd begun to cry a good while back, hot tears turned cold instantly as she raced through the icy air, the wind wiping her hair harshly around her face. She was frantic, her mind all but lost completely since her stint as a fairy during the party. Her body couldn't handle any more curses before Loki had the bright idea to cast one over everyone at the dance. Her brain couldn't take it. While the spell lasted she was someone else, at least semi healthy, but once it had gone and she was left to cope, there was simply no way and so off she went into the dark night, caught up in a never end feeling of peril.

She couldn't be sure how long she'd been sprinting, of course, but the evening glow of windows soon graced her vision. She had enough instinct to head toward them, but, before she could get too far in their direction she plowed, full on, into some poor unsuspecting soul. She didn't even have the mind to apologize, but instead began to cry harder, clinging onto the unfortunate soul whom she's probably injured. She couldn't speak, her hysteria and recent run stealing all sounds but a few whimpers from her throat. So with her eyes she pleaded over and over repeating in her head help me help me help me.

[Deleted]

Plum was halfway across the room, returning to the cauldron in the corner when her memories returned and life righted itself. And she immediately paled and felt her stomach churn, because only moments ago she had killed someone. She froze in her spot because knowing that she had killed someone was washing over her, leaving her feeling completely wretched. It was the single worst thing she had ever done in her twenty-one years of life. It was the single most horrific thing that she never thought that she would ever find herself capable of doing.

She was going to be sick.

Plum bolted towards the door and out, away from her horrible deed, but the guilt and wretched feeling came with her. Those were things she couldn’t leave at the door. She whipped the witch hat from her head as she rushed into the cool night air. And then the urge to vomit was upon her and she couldn’t stop it. She couldn’t prevent it from happening. The entire contents of her stomach emptied itself into a bush and when she was finished, she wiped the back of her hand across her mouth. She had to get home. Oh heavens, she had to get home before anyone saw her like this. She couldn’t be seen like this. She shouldn’t be seen at all just in case that horrible Hellgut returned and she killed someone else in cold blood. Why was this happening to her?! What had she ever done to deserve this? Plum had tried so hard to be a good ruler and deserve praise. She had tried so hard to be what her people needed and now…now she was becoming horrible witches and killing people!

She might be sick again.

But no, her feet began to move on their own accord, heading towards her apartment. It had to have been magic, right? Fairies didn’t just turn into witches for no reason. But apparently witches killed people for no reason at all! Just because someone stuck up to her and tried to defend himself. She just killed him in cold blood! Just because she could! Where was her humanity?! Plum felt tears begin to prick at her eyes and then she felt them begin to roll down her cheeks and she couldn’t stop. She couldn’t stop crying because she had just killed a man for goodness sake! She had killed him. No, she had murdered him. Oh, this was so awful.

She hurried home. She just wanted to be at home where she could be sick and cry in peace. She felt like everything she knew about herself was falling apart. She was falling apart. What was the world coming to?

She was almost home now, though her vision was blurry from crying and she couldn’t see where exactly she was. She didn’t even see the other girl until it was too late and she had been run into full force and very nearly knocked off her feet. And the girl was clinging to her. “A-are you alright? I’m so sorry, I didn’t see you. I’m so sorry. Are you okay? Are you alright?” She reached up to wipe the tears from her eyes so that she could compose herself a little bit. She sniffed and tried to calm down. She needed to be calm and pull herself together. Pull herself together and everything would be just fine. And don’t forget to breathe.

[Mumble]

He was sitting in a classroom, alone in the dark room aside from one person at the front of the room, a person he couldn't quite see. Mumble was sitting in a desk, the only piece of furniture in the entire classroom.

"Have you learned?" He couldn't see who was at the front of the room, and the voice was distant, much farther away than it should have been.

"I don't want to learn this," he said, looking down at his hands.

"But you will learn," the person said, and took a step towards him. Mumble stumbled up out of the chair, backing away towards a door he somehow knew was at the back of the classroom.

"No," he choked, fumbling at the door handle until it came open. He burst out into the dark, empty hall, and he ran.

"Andy!" he shouted, nearly tripping over a bench at one of the bus stops he tore by. "Andy would you wait, I need to-"

He had never been so thankful for the fact that dancing had, for all the trouble it had caused in his life, given him the stamina it had. He didn't know how far he'd run, he just knew that as long as he could see her somewhere ahead in the distance, he had to keep following. There wasn't any telling what she might do to herself, what accidents might occur with her in this condition.

Footsteps behind him, faster and faster and gaining on him…

"Andy!"

Burning set into his calves as he pushed himself harder, willed himself to catch up with her. They rounded a corner, crossed some street or alley or something, he couldn't even tell anymore. And then suddenly, they stopped, and they weren't alone, Andy had either run into someone or they'd run into her, and…Was everyone crying?

He couldn't speak, he was too out of breath and wide-eyed, sweating and panting and he could only imagine what the other girl must think of him.

"I….she…I'm sorry, I just…breathe…are you…okay? Andy."

[Andrina]

Spiraling downhill faster than Jack and Jill put together, Andy was in full meltdown mode by the time Mumble had reached her and the poor soul she was assaulting. His presence only made it worse, his familiarity resulting in further intense emotion that her troubled mind couldn't understand. A screech rang out through the dark, winters air. She was terrified and pushed away from them both, allowing herself to collapse in the snow and huddle into a ball, whimpering. On top of everything, it was freezing out and Andy, dressing in her little fairy costume, wasn't exactly suited for the cold. She was trembling, though weather that was from the icy air or the mental breakdown was any ones guess. She gripped her halo hard enough that the plastic flowers dug into her hands and she was vaguely aware of the warm trickle of blood running down her palms, dripping onto her cheek and mingling with her tears.

go aawwwaaaayy she sobbed, though she wasn't talking to either of the people that stood over her, no she'd already forgotten they were there, she was speaking to the little boy that appeared behind her eyelids the moment she sealed them shut. The little boy with the kindest smile, but the cruelest words. Why couldn't he just leave her alone? Why couldn't she just take care of him? All she wanted was for him to be happy, why was he being so mean? You killed me you killed me you killed me you killed me he chanted in her mind, over and over, drawing defeated wails from her lips on several occasions. STOP IT STOP IT STOP IT! she demanded, curling up tighter.

[Deleted]

Plum was bewildered at best. She didn’t understand what was going on and this night had already been horrible enough as it was and now there was this on top of everything else that had happened. A girl had run into her and obviously someone who knew her had run after her. She needed to pull herself together and handle the situation.

She took a deep breath, looking from the girl to the boy. And then the girl pushed herself away and Plum watched her, concerned for her. It didn’t seem like the poor girl was all there, to put it politely. And Plum was at a loss for what to do. She looked back up at the boy. “Is she alright? Does she normally do this?”

Looking back at Andy, she suddenly noticed that blood was dripping down her arm. A wave of nausea hit her hard and fast. The last time she had seen blood spilled it had been because she had spilled it. But she couldn’t be sick here. Not now. Swallowing back the need to vomit she stepped over to Andy. “Here, let me see your hands,” she said gently, trying not to cause alarm. “You’re bleeding. Let’s get you nice and fixed up, okay?” She hoped the girl would let her stop the blood. There didn’t need to be any more blood spilled tonight.

[Mumble]

Does she normally do this? Mumble laughed. He actually laughed, but it wasn't his usual, slightly-too-high-pitched almost-squawk, it was a harsh, darker sound that echoed the brutal honesty of the answer.

"Does she- no. Well, hell, what d'you mean by normally? Because lately, I don't even know what normally really is. Normal has gone from…from like…you know what, nothing about us has ever been normal! I mean, we started out with me trying to promise her I wasn't interested in messing with her to her hating me for all the crimes men have ever committed against women, to…I don't know, me somehow cheating on her when we weren't really in a relationship only it just felt like cheating because whether I knew it or not I was already in love with her then, and then I forgot who I was or forgot who everybody else was and got lost in the jungle on that island we were on that one summer…and now just when I thought we had everything fixed and worked out, this happens and I just don't know how to deal with it anymore."

He stopped, mostly because he ran out of breath but also because he realised he was venting his and Andy's entire relationship to someone he didn't even know. And also, embarrassingly enough, he realised that the wetness on his face wasn't falling rain or snow, but tears he hadn't known were even coming out.

"If I could just…if I could undo all of this, she'd be fine if it wasn't for me, if I could just go back and…not do the things I've done and I don't know, not be such an idiot…"

He rubbed a hand over his forehead, frowning, as if he could rub the wrinkles out of his face with his fingertips, and he knew he should go to Andy, lying there in the snow but he couldn't think straight, couldn't keep track of the things he was meant to say or do…and she'd pushed him away, he didn't know why, but hell if he was going to make things worse than he already had.

[Andrina]

She jumped as the girl offered her help, startled by her presence. She opened her eyes and stared for a shocked moment, before slowly, protectively moving away from the Fairy. At the mention of blood she looked at her hands as if noticing them for the first time. She was feeling dizzier than ever, and utterly exhausted from her ordeal. She knew enough to try and focus on one thing, her mind may be a waste land, but Andy was an inherently smart girl. If she was given a brief moment of calm like this she clung to it as long as possible. She stared at her crimson hands, studying the patterns the dark liquid made on her palms when she tipped them side to side. If she could just shut off all her senses except for her sight she'd be okay, if she could just focus on her hands and block everything else out, she might be spared another painful round of nightmarish visions. But she was only human (mostly), no one could have such power over themselves and Mumble's words invaded her mind nonetheless.

Her heart quickened as she felt anxiety threatening to crush her again. Her breath grew sharp and she began to cry again, but there was something about his, something that kept her from spiraling into oblivion again. She recognized the sadness and the desperation and, above all, she recognized the fact that he was blaming himself. She could bring herself to figure why or for what, but she felt such pressure on her heart she thought maybe it might burst. Between her involuntary whimpers of despair, she managed to tip up her chin just enough to look at him and whisper hoarsely not your fault before her eyes lost focus and she fell back into her own, dark, world.

[Deleted]

As if things couldn’t get worse, they did. They always did in these kind of scenarios, didn’t they? As the boy stumbled out his broken story-no, their broken story, it made Plum want to weep even more. She just felt so fragile and their story only magnified the feeling. Everything was so fragile, like a glass ornament. When everything was perfect, the glass ornament was truly beautiful. But in one moment, everything could change and the glass ornament could fall and shatter, because it was fragile and so very breakable. Just like her life was at this very moment. Just like their love story was right now.

A single tear slid down her cheek but it went unnoticed as she pulled out her wand. “You can’t change the past,” she said, meaning to say it to the boy, but perhaps it was also for the sad girl in front of her too. Maybe she was saying it for herself as well. “But I can change this. I can change your story. It doesn’t have to be like this. No more sadness. No more tears. No more blaming yourself. I can fix it.”

Plum didn’t know how. She didn’t even know why she’d said all of that, but it felt right and as soon as she said it, she knew it was true. For once she could had let the magic guide her, instead of the other way around. But what broke her heart was the love that still managed to connect them. But it also gave her hope. “I can fix this.” She was determined when she looked back at the boy. She wasn’t going to tell him that she didn’t know what she was doing, but she did need to tell him one thing. “I don’t know how this will turn out for me. I may die. I may simply pass out. But whatever happens, you mustn’t interfere.” Then she turned back to the girl. “I’m so very sorry if this hurts. I really truly am.”

Then, closing her eyes, Plum made her wish and waved her wand.