Word Meanings
Mi tesoro: my treasure, Spanish, Italian)
Baobao: baby in Chinese 宝宝
Mist's Star Part II
Office life remained a drudge. Mist disliked her coworkers. She tortured them because their misery made her feel better.
Mist had one friend she told about her little pranks. Song's first question was, "Does tanking one person's chance of getting a promotion and having a starborn help you in any way?"
"I don't care about that," said Mist. She had just been so miserable. Watching Nyuki run around in a panic made her feel a fraction of a percent better.
The days were plain flat and gloomy, and Song had been getting concerned. The only coworker who Mist cared that she cared, Song dragged her to the launch of a hip new recreational mood spell shop.
Like that would help anything.
"Can't believe the lineups at these places," said Mist. They were lined up around the block from Soul Moods on Aquarius Street. "Can't believe I let you talk me into going to a mood spell reseller store. I invented the 'Lil Lift, not to mention the Purple Placidity and the Gentle Waking Snooze." Each ad she could see posted on the red brick wall inflamed her rage. "Constellation couldn't have gotten the Blue Moon Mood through to production without me. It wasn't passing safety protocols. And the Big Buzz was technically my idea in the first place. Not one of these, I'll add, has ever worked on me, and we have a direct supply at the office. So why am I here?"
She could still recall the first time one reversed on her. A spell she had developed herself, and she knew there shouldn't have been anything wrong with the spell.
She triggered what Doctor Azikaze labeled a six week minor depressive episode. It wasn't the spell that was wrong, it was her. Basically quitting her job and her life, she didn't get out of her room for weeks. A lair of blankets and blackout blinds she left only to force feed herself a meal and go to the bathroom, and she thought it was all over, no future for her.
Song leaned against red brick where they had been stopped for minutes because the line wasn't moving. "You have to try everything. Maybe we can isolate the problem. Maybe the direct source is what's interfering with your reuptake."
When their turn came at the front of the line, Song and Mist put their hands out for a pill — but, afraid of a potential episode trigger, Mist just hid hers under her tongue until she had a moment to spit it out. Waste of a thousand solidae. As Song had a nice trip, Mist only pretended. "I can't believe this, I feel so much better. It's amazing. I'll never need to feel blue again." Inside a voice mocked hers, what a chipper fake. Such a phony. You sound so stupid. What a shrill, annoying, way too upbeat . . . "Aaaaargh," Mist grumbled, trying to out shout the mean voice.
"Are you okay?" said Storm.
Maybe the residue of the partially dissolved pill had been enough to trigger an episode. Mist gulped and heaved. "I always feel awful when I take these."
"You've never done it in pill form, have you?" asked Song, who was cursed with optimism, spelled to be idealistic.
Mist shook her head. "Same damn thing. Nothing matters. Nothing's going to fix it." As the hours went by Song danced on top of the world, walked on sunshine, forgot all her troubles and brought joy to the barrio around her while Mist suffered and kind of wanted to murder her one friend.
So Asakaze's spell didn't work, and this hadn't either.
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Song's lover Bay came to the office for lunch twice a week. Relationship goals. What couple wanted to be around each other that much?
When Mist began to torture Bay and Song with alternating mood spells, it started off as an accident.
First thing one overcast morning, Song had looked a little glum, so Mist cast a mood enhancement spell to cheer her up. As a surprise. From her desk, without turning around, she stuck her gnomon under her arm and shot Song from behind where she had been lurching over her desk all gloomy.
Mist had spare time that morning to devote a few hours to a personal project: mood deflation spells. Certainly bylaws prevented the consumer sale of curses, but a bad mood spell could have its underground uses in warfare, corporate espionage, sabotage — who knew what uses Constellation would come up with for such a thing?
With Song singing to herself at her desk all morning, Mist had an unexpected breakthrough, perfecting the theorem and formulating a flawless spell, and she was deciding on whom to test it out when lunch time rolled around, and in came Bay and her box of warm panini from the Cloud Cafe, where she worked as a server. Like always she brought Storm lunch invented by Yue Nimbus, even though Constellation's chef magicians made equally transcendent cuisine.
Cut into small pieces, the panini were distributed around the office. "The salsiccia melts in your mouth," said Fable, and they lavished Bay with praise even though it wasn't her cooking and it wasn't on her dollar — Yue Nimbus the world famous chef magician didn't give away food for free, she wasn't a charity worker, and Song would be footing the bill because the waitress did not have two solidae to rub together.
So Mist started to test the bad mood spells — discreetly — on Song's novia Bay.
It sure did turn the serving witch's smile upside down.
Even better was the chemistry of the couple's mismatched affects. Sparks flew. Because Song wanted to dance with the love of her life, preferably up on her desk, and Bay wasn't having any of it. "Can you stop? I'm trying to chew," she said when Song took her arms, ignoring the pedazo of panini in one hand, and gyrated her hips.
And Bay couldn't stop yawning — out of nowhere she wanted to be alone, she wanted Song to leave her alone.
And Song wanted the opposite. She whined, "What's wrong, baby?" Within a minute Song sounded high as a kite as she repeated, "What's wrong! What's wrong! What's the matter, mi tesoro? What's the matter, baobao?" From across the office Mist could see she was being annoying as fuck, and it was driving Bay insane. By the time the panini was chewed and swallowed, Bay and Song were spitting fire.
"Can you please stop touching me."
"What's wrong with you today? Why are you so grumpy?"
"Nothing! I just need space."
"Why did you come to see me if you need space? What's wrong with you? Did I do something wrong?" It wasn't an apology, it was more like a dare, the correct answer would be "no," which Bay gave with a defensive twist away like a hormonal preteen.
It went on that way every time Bay visited for weeks, and Mist loved it. Snorting into her coffee she would hold in her laughter until she couldn't take it anymore and she had to run to the bathroom to throw up her giggle fits.
They fought because Song was maniacally happy and Bay felt mysteriously mad, bad, angry, snarky, irritable, bummed, and enraged, all at the same time.
Just as Mist's formulation intended.
Mist kept up the contradictory spells every time Bay came in. After a few weeks, Mist's enjoyment began to fade, and a new idea came to her. She could only cast the bad mood spell on Bay when she came into the office, just twice a week. The good mood spells sometimes pushed Song to infuriating, maniacal heights, but other times they would reharmonize the relationship when Song was happy and Bay was feeling fine.
But what if Mist put the bad mood spell on Song?
Mist is just one star in a Constellation. Bay is another. Stay tuned for Bay's Star Episode II, where the story continues! Thank you for reading, and if you liked it, please leave a star for me to help fulfil my dreams.
Much love,
EscritoraMia