Some time sitting comfortably in the third quarter of October was the infamous possum springs Harfest event, celebrating the harvest of something and just being a dumb knockoff of a halloween event where trick-or-treats are kinda just a bad idea to have in general. Though, it is the one time during the year where dressing up as somebody you're not is 100% socially acceptable. Impersonation of officer charges are more or less frequent, witches and zombies and music artists strewn across the streets with different faces and personalities. So, let's just say it's halloween. Though, there's this one person in Possum Springs, who goes by the name Mae Borowski, and they're kinda happy about the event still taking place. It's always kinda been unique to Possum Springs in the sense it's stupid. So it's always kinda been the "welcome home" event that nobody needed or asked for and it was always a little late or a little early for the welcome party. An unnecessary welcome party, because nobody is welcoming anybody. But it surely would be a big slap in the face if you were a new transfer.
Where were we? Mae?
Mae. Margaret Borowski, more precisely. Mae is a less than normal cat with a less than normal lifestyle and a less than expected education. Recently she had dropped out of college for reasons nobody frankly cares about, and frankly nobody cares about Mae enough to have asked in detail. Nobody except maybe the three other people she hangs out with, and even then they're all busy. It's about a year after some event that everybody would rather not get into, because you kinda had to be there. And from that event, Greggory Lee and Angus Delaney had moved away to a beachside town called Bright Harbor, in a neighborhood that wasn't exactly the best, but the poor naive soul figured he was prepared thoroughly with his spree of pity crimes with Mae. But nobody really could prepare anybody for somebody with a gun and the will to use it. Once, somewhere in Bright Harbor nobody knows, Angus kinda found himself and Gregg surrounded by two dudes with guns demanding everything they had. The details never were described, but Gregg ended up getting shot, and rushed to the hospital. Once they got there, a doctor went to attend to him, and Angus had to fill out the insurance and go into their financial details. But one thing with getting shot, it's not exactly a cheap thing to come back from. When Bright Harbor Emergency And Family Hospital found out that they were both not financially fit to be both gay and a bullet in your shoulder, they sent the both out without the help Gregg exactly needed, and soon afterwards he just didn't wake up from the nap he said he needed to take when they got there.
Angus, afterwards and unable to take the guilt he felt for whatever reason, had decided to come with Gregg into the vast unknown of the afterlife.
Now Mae, now Mae doesn't exactly know this, but what she does know is what she's going to go as for Harfest.
She's going to go as her own little vampire OC or something known as Bethany Dark'ness because she's edgy and totally hasn't read My Immortal to Bea as a joke before.
But she can't exactly get the goffik makeup down and won't exactly push through her bad wifi connection to pull up a tutorial when she can just walk her way over to Bea's place and ask her to help out.
... Yeah Mae's gonna go do that. Mae is smart. Smartowski.
About some time after walking through the square dressed in a black bathrobe and a red cape on the inside to look more like a vampire than her teeth already sold, she arrived at Beatrice's doorstep, and knocked on her apartment door. Her dad answered, of course, with his normal boring tone.
"... Hi Mae."
"Don't call me that."
"Okay."
"... Bea's in her room."
"Thanks."
And the exchange ended. Just like that. She jogged her way past and entered Beatrice's room, startling her for a second, before having Bea laugh a little bit.
"Mae-" She said, through a chuckle, "Do not tell me you're going as a vampire for Harfest."
Mae said she was going as a vampire to harfest.
".. And I suppose you want me to help you with your makeup?" Bea added, and Mae confirmed.
"... God damnit Mae." Bea mumbled, before taking Mae by the arm and having her retreat towards her bathroom.
Beatrice had a decent sized bathroom, with all the things a goth girl would need to survive basic hygiene camp. Toothpaste, a shower, a toilet, and a mirror hung up to the door that was about as tall as the door was, so it kinda covered your whole body. She took a stool she had lying around from the other room, plopped it down, and told Mae to sit down on it. She did just so, and Beatrice sortof fumbled around with her makeup kit.
"Totally gothic?" She asked, wondering if she should overdo it for the sake of a joke or kinda just casually goth. She figured Mae had an answer.
"Oh, totally gothic. Don't hold back a single detail."
Mae assured, before Bea took out a paintbrush type item and started to gently apply things Mae couldn't exactly identify to her face.
"Oh- Haha- That kinda tickles."
"Hold still, Maeday.."
Bea mumbled, placing an arm on Mae's shoulder to keep her steady. After some while of gentle appliance, Bea stepped aside to show her progress so far.
"Kinda screwed up - But it's because your face kinda clashes with the color and I had to make it darker for it to be noticeable." Indeed, Mae's eyes did accentuate now how dark her face fur was.
"Lashes or cheek next?"
"Cheek."
"Gotchu."
"... You really make this makeup look good."
"Oh, thanks."
"... You look really pretty when you're wearing it too."
"Haha- Good one Mae."
"I mean it."
"... Course ya' do."
Did Bea normally wear blush?
Because Bea was kinda blushing a little.
"Now, hold still for me-"
"Oh I'll hold still for you anytime, Bea..-"
"God damnit Mae.."
Done. Time for eyeliner and lashes and stuff.
Bea put her brushes and stuff into her bag once more, and started digging through the sides of the kit she had while Mae stood, looking at Beatrice's creation. She didn't exactly rock the makeup as easily as Beatrice did, but she had it.
And she sorta tried to tell her this?
"... You look really beautiful."
But couldn't quite put it into words.
"*Cough* Mae what the hell." Bea bumbled, crouching down to about Mae's level once more.
"You look super pretty in this makeup Bea..!"
"I always wear this."
"Exactly."
"... Oh-"
Beatrice sortof tensed up her arm after this, backing the eyeliner applier away from Mae's eye.
"Mae?"
"Bea?"
"You're an idiot."
".. I know."
"... But you're my idiot-"
"What?"
"N-Nothing."
"... Okay."
Beatrice moved onto the other eye to apply the inky add-ons to, with Mae sitting still and saying the occasional compliment.
"... Lipstick next?"
"Yep."
"Ok- And hey-"
"Yeah, Mae?"
"I love you."
"I do."
"Shut up."
"I do!"
"Shut! Up!"
Bea sorta hissed, making sure she didn't skip an eyelash, gently applying what Mae described as the "stringy thing to the thing with the eyeliner on it" to her prominent eyelashes until Mae looked like she just converted to gothic.
"Okay- Lipstick." Beatrice said to herself as she dug through the purse again to find any kind of red or black lipstick. She took the stick, twisted it a little to see if it worked, which it did, and kinda applied it to herself before she crouched infront of Mae, sortof stared at her nice new coat of eyeliner, and Mae at Bea's. Bea sortof looked away and applied the lipstick to herself while Mae watched, blushing a little, and sortof asked -
"What are you doing?"
"Applying lipstick."
"Why?"
"To apply lipstick."
"What do you m-"
And Bea jerked her lips towards Mae while the lipstick was on fresh, holding Mae in a hug, before letting go to observe how well their lips applied. It seems as though, they're a pretty perfect matchup. The lipstick, except for a couple spots, was set up pretty evenly and just needed a little bit of smoothing. Beatrice wasted no time kinda just blushing it off while Mae sat petrified with Bea's lipstick rubbing against her mouth.
"And.. Done. You look good."
Bea stepped aside and let Mae get a good look at herself. She could pass as a vampire. Bethany Dark'ness Timinthia Crow. Vampire OC.
".. Thanks Bea."
"No problem, Mae."
"... Wanna go to harfest with me?"
"Uh- I'm kinda.. Not really-"
"Too bad, you're going-"
"welp it seems as though I am being held against my will. Lead the way, Mae."
"That's Bethany Dark'ness-"
"NO."
"... Okay."
Cut to Mae being on the sidewalk, holding Bea's hand, sortof walking around the harfest 7:30PM setting. Everything was all spooky and horror based, but it was all half-assed. Not exactly optimal spook. She had passed by the Ol' Pickaxe and to the food donkey with a single pumpkin sticker on the windowseal some kid had put there, and then back. Mae wasn't exactly about to stand still and be left alone during a Harfest, for reasons nobody would particularly enjoy getting into. It's kinda like learning a complicated inside joke that someone tries to explain to you but never really does it right.
Mae remembers specifically it was about.. 8:47PM, when she had approached somebody wearing a "born and raised harbor rat!" T-Shirt. She asked a very simple question, and received a very simple answer.
"Hey- You're from bright harbor, right?"
"Yes."
Emphasis on "A" very simple question.
"Have you heard of two people? Greggory Lee and Angus Delaney?"
"I have, actually. It was in the newspaper."
"What'd they get in the newspaper for?"
"You don't know? Some fox kid got shot in an alley and his bear boyfriend lugged em' to a hospital, just to be sent away because they couldn't afford to-"
And Beatrice chimed in, violently tugging Mae's arm in the direction away from the bright harbor mouse, and approached him herself. She gave a stern look. Something that demanded answers but needn't ask a question. She did anyways.
"Afford to what?" She said, in the tone of "you're about to be dodging more than questions if you don't get to the point".
".. Get the uh.. The- The-"
"I'm fucking listening."
"The medicine- They needed- To- To recover from a-"
Beatrice gave an "ugh" noise and sortof took the random guy's hand, and twisted it until it hurt.
"I'm not fucking here for backstory you little shit- Are they or are they not okay?"
"They're de-!"
And Beatrice let go, and sortof covered the dude's mouth, and pushed him to the side. Mae had disappeared- And there was a trail of black pawprints on random lamp posts as the street wound and the Beatrice Santello Sixth Sense that somebody wasn't exactly in the most stable of conditions.
Beatrice glared at the dude for a second.
"Thanks for fucking something, I suppose."
She said, and bolted in the direction of Mae's house.
Candy wasted no time answering the door for Bea, since the church closes during Harfest.
"Oh thank god Beatrice- Maybe you could-"
Screaming.
".. Y'know."
"Holy shit okay- Thanks, -"
"Call me Candy."
"Thanks Candy."
And the exchange ended. The next encounter to start was with Beatrice stepping into Mae's room, the attic, to the look of something equivalent to a horrible mess. There were black stains everywhere, from all the makeup that was now running off, and Mae was just crying into a towel.
"Mae?"
Bea had mumbled in a gentle voice over the sobs and whines.
"Bea.. Bea it- It- It-"
Bea sat down next to Mae and wrapped an arm around her waist.
"Shhh- Shh I know.."
"I nev- I nev- I- I-"
"Shhh.."
"B-B-Bea-"
"Shh.. It's alright Mae. It's alright."
"They- They- C-Ca-"
"Shhh.."
And Candy came in, with a big plastic garbage bin that was completely cleaned out and empty and smelled more or less like painted plastic.
Beatrice just sortof placed it within flinching distance of Mae before she outright grabbed it and started to violently throw up into it. She couldn't stomach it.
Beatrice never really knew either of them as well as Mae did, but she.. It's hard to watch your friends in states like this. She just kinda held Mae really close as she threw up. Mae cried, and puked, and held onto Bea really close. They alternated in this cycle for a while, before Bea kinda like, smooched Mae's cheek.
"... I love you too, Mae."
"... W-What..?"
"I love you."
"... Wh.. Why-"
"Didn't you..? Kinda like..? Tell me you love me? When I was doing your makeup?"
"Oh- Uh- Oh- Um.. I guess- I did.."
"I love you too.."
"... Fuck.."
"I'm sorry."
"I-It's.. It's okay Bea."
".. Hey."
"What..?"
"... Any suggestions on what I can do to make you feel better?"
"... Snuggles."
"Done."
"Wha-"
And Beatrice held Mae close, rubbing her back and stomach, occasionally. They kinda fell asleep like this, cuddled up. And that's really about it. If you figured as much they would fuck as a coping method, you're hanging around with the wrong authors and reading the wrong books.