Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

June recognized that it was a bad habit. If she were more honest with herself, she’d call it what it was: an addiction. But June was an expert at hiding the truth from herself, and so, it was just a bad habit to her. She knew she’d have to stop eventually, but for the time being, she had no desire to.

She clutched the stick of the lollipop like a lifeline, staring into its hypnotic swirl. She’d have licked it anyway, she knew this, but she also felt as if she needed an excuse. She couldn’t help it, she’d hypothetically say, the Juju made her do it with magic. She’d be a liar, but when wasn’t she?

She was done for the second the sickeningly sweet taste touched her tongue. She could feel her appearance shifting and changing within and around her, morphing her into someone different. The fabric of her outfit changed into a soft silk, her hair turning to a different color and texture, her own skin becoming lighter in color. Her face heated up, to the point where she knew her cheeks would be bright pink in color.

She let out a giggle, the world becoming dizzily saturated around her. She stumbled around her home, clinging onto the last shreds of her sobriety to not break something via flying. The floor tiles felt like a maze to her, one that made her giggle with thoughts of mirror mazes and carnival rides.

She hooked a hand around the edge of her bathroom’s doorway, steadying herself before she entered the room. She stood in front of the mirror, laughing to herself and swaying where she stood as she looked at her reflection.

Trickster Mode always made her look and feel like a completely different person. Since transitioning medically, however, she’d found that it affected her Trickster appearance as well. It gave her outfit an extra feminine flair; a frilly skirt instead of shorts, prominent eyelashes that stuck out cartoonishly, and if she took off her shirt, she’d find a frilly pink bra in place of her usual bland tank top.

It was odd to admit, but this habit of hers had started as a cheap way to escape dysphoria. She could stare herself down for hours, reveling in the fact that one of the most sexist creatures she knew of considered her to be enough of a girl to be sexualized. Sometimes she swore it made her breasts larger, caring not to check if the statement was true. She looked like some of the white-washed fanart she used to see back when she was young on the internet, too young to know of the word’s existence. And yet, the dizzying sight made her crave more.

She giggled and laughed at the way her eyelashes fluttered when she blinked, an effect she usually only got from wearing make-up. She sprinted out of the room, almost tripping over the rug just outside, and made her way to the kitchen. She threw open her cupboards, throwing anything that didn’t interest her onto the ground with reckless abandon, until she found a decently-sized bag full of candy, tucked away in a corner away from the prying eyes of guests, not that any came.

June ripped off wrappers like she was starving, leaving the floor even more of a mess as she poured a bag of Skittles into her mouth. Going Trickster Mode always left her with a sweet tooth, so she usually waited until after dinner to indulge in her habit, but she hadn’t felt like eating that night, so she had no choice but to give in to the bag of stale Halloween candy, left sitting for occasions such as this. The Fun Dip burned at her teeth, so she made an extra effort to lick it off. If she was sober and watching someone else do this, she’d feel sick just being a bystander.

The sugar high managed to make her vision even hazier, and she allowed herself to fly around the kitchen, knocking over whatever random bullshit she left out in the open, letting out a cackle at the sound of objects clattering on the ground.

The rest of the night always goes by in a dizzying daze, and every time she wakes up, it’s at least noon and she’s somehow in bed with a killer hangover and a looming sense of regret.

She tried to remember how her night had ended, but the strain only strengthened the headache she was battling. Wanting some relief, she stood up on shaky feet in hopes of getting some water, but quickly knew she’d made a mistake. Nausea shook June to her very core, the mix of being hungover and months-old cheap candy threatening to knock her over.

June rushed to the bathroom, and promptly threw up in the bathtub. Her nose scrunched up at the saccharine scent, and thoughts flashed through her head, urging her to go back to the Juju that caused this. If she was a Trickster, she wouldn’t have to worry about this. If she was a Trickster, anything she threw up would be sweet in her mouth, and surely come out as some kind of candy syrup. If she was a Trickster, she wouldn’t have to deal with this hangover. The thoughts brought another round of vomit into the tub.

Groggily, she turned to look at herself in the mirror behind her, and grimaced. She looked like a mess. Her thick black hair was messier than she’d ever let anyone see, her skin was flushed with sweat, and her usual eyebags looked heavier than usual. She was looking like her natural self again, and she couldn’t help but avert her eyes.

Feeling her headache come back swinging, June stood up with a grunt and made her way to the kitchen, or more accurately, the kitchen door, where she froze in disbelief and let out a loud groan.

The entire kitchen was trashed. Plates smashed, candy wrappers strewn about like confetti, whole containers thrown on the ground like they were nothing, and that was only the start of it. Her glass of water could wait. She had a lot of cleaning up to do.

Chapter Text

June was scooping the last of the candy wrappers into the trash when her doorbell rang. She made a startled noise that she wasn’t proud of and rushed to the main hallway.

“Just a minute!” June yelled out, hoping whoever was at the door could hear her, and rushed to the bathroom.

Avoiding as much eye contact with herself as possible, she threw a hairbrush through her hair as fast as she could, only succeeding in making it frizzy with static electricity. She turned on the sink and splashed handfuls of water in her face, and shook it off the best she could. She ran over to her bedroom – her house was only one floor, not counting the attic or basement – and threw off her stained, sweet-smelling shirt onto the uncaring floor.

While putting on deodorant, she considered changing into something nice, but couldn’t really think of anything that wasn’t discarded on the floor or in the washing machine in the basement. For simplicity’s sake, she changed into the top half of her God Tier uniform; there was no need to wear the pants, as the sweatpants she currently wore remained unstained and relatively clean. They were blue, too, which was a bonus.

Sliding on a pair of slippers – she usually didn’t wear them, but Dave insisted she wore those in the house instead of having shoes on all the time, saying something about tracking wind all over the good couch – June finally felt presentable enough and made her way to the door.

With a deep breath, she put her hand on the door handle and closed her eyes, trying to sway the aspect of breath in her favor to beat the nausea of the hangover. With another steadying breath, she unsuccessfully slicked back her staticy hair and opened the door.

“oh, hi rose! what are you doing here?” June asked with her best attempt at casualness. She could feel the glare Rose was giving off seep through her like a laser. She must’ve looked obvious; she was already regretting her decision to wear sweatpants with her God Tier outfit. She deduced that Rose could probably smell the sugar on her, somehow. Either way, Rose looked pissed.

“June,” Rose began. “May I come in?”

“oh, uhh, sure. just give me a second to tidy up?” June smiled in what she hoped looked polite and not like a frantic prey animal, but Rose just started walking in anyway. June stepped to the side, hands balling into nervous fists.

The house was already a mess, but the telltale reek of candy would tell Rose everything. That, and the huge lollipop stick badly hidden by the crack between her bed and the wall. Rose walked directly toward it, and then just stood there, staring at it. June knew her well enough to know that a storm was brewing.

Rose sighed, and when she turned around, her face had gone from pissed to irritated, with a level of concern.

“June.”

“um, yes?”

“Have you checked your phone this morning?”

June furrowed her eyebrows, trying to remember where her phone could be. She only woke up like, ten minutes ago, but Rose couldn’t know that.

“no…? did something happen?”

Rose held out her phone – which June realized she’d been gripping tightly the whole time – and showed June an open Pesterchum tab, dated from last night.

- - ectoBiologist [EB] began pestering tentacleTherapist [TT] at 02:16 - -

EB: ROSE!
EB: HI ROSE!
EB: RO SE ARE YOU AWAKE?
EB: ROOOOOOOOSE!!!!!!!!
EB: ROSE ROSE RO SE ROESE ROS E!!!!!!!
EB: !
TT: June?
TT: I assume this is June, anyway. Does somebody else have your phone right now?
EB: NOPE!
EB: THIS IS ME!
TT: Are you… drunk?
TT: Sorry, that was presumptuous. You’re typing a bit out of character, so to speak. Is something amiss?
EB: NEVER BETTER!!!!!!!!
EB: UI JUST WANTDE TO TEXT YOU AND SAY HIII!!!!
TT: Seriously June, is something wrong?
TT: You don’t normally act quite this…
EB: SWEET?
TT: Oh my god.
EB: ROOOOOSE I MISS YOU!
EB: I WAS TOO MUCH OF A WUSS TO SAY IT BUT YOU GUYS NEED TO COME OVER OMRE!
EB: MY HOUSE IS TOO BIG AND YOU GUYS ARE SOOO COOL!
TT: I’m coming over in the morning, and we’re going to talk about this, June.
TT: Assuming you’ll even remember this come morning.
EB: YAYAYAY!!
EB: I LOVE YOU ROSE!
TT: Good night, June.
EB: GOODNIGHT 1!1!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

- - tentacleTherapist [TT] ceased pestering ectoBiologist [EB] at 02:25 - -

EB: HAHA THAT WAS WAYYYY TOO MANY EXC;AAMANTOIN POITNS