Episode Thirty-Nine: Reverie

In which the girls - in which the girls - in which the girls - Featuring: who are these voices, again? Are we meant to recognize them? Are we meant to know their names? Where are we? What have we done?

Episode description: Moon and mirror. Flesh and bone. Reality and fiction. Then and now. Before and after. Is and is not. Journalist and florist. World and world.

Episode Overview
I swear to god, only this podcast could make a coffeeshop AU this goddamn weird.

Trigger Warnings

 * Unreality, injury, abuse mentions, gun mentions, distortion, screaming.

Episode Summary
This episode takes place in a universe different from the canonical one, where Anna is a journalist writing about urban legends and Mabel works in a flower shop. They meet after Anna knocks something over in Mabel's shop, and Anna calls Mabel to talk to her about a story Mabel promised her. They meet up in a coffee shop and Anna records the interview. Anna, after trying really, really hard not to flirt, asks Mabel about the house she grew up in, and Mabel talks a bit about archetypes in fairy tales. After briefly discussing their ancestors-- and Anna telling Mabel she looks "like an Aztec statue, a little bit," which is perhaps the wiki curator's favorite Anna Loves Mabel line-- the tape recorder fritzes out.

The tape recorder cuts back in to the two of them discussing ghosts; Mabel offers to show Anna the House. Anna is delighted (she even wore her trespassing boots!) and agrees to go, even though Mabel explains that she's not allowed on the property because she's been cut out of the family.

They talk for a while about all sorts of things, and then head off to the House, breaking in. When they get into the House, Sally yells Anna's name from upstairs, and Mabel freaks out, dragging Anna to the library. Anna asks if she's being punked, and Mabel promises she's not. Mabel apologizes for panicking when they get to the library, and Anna asks what Sally had done to her. Mabel laughs, saying that most people assume she'd been the one to do something. She asks Anna how she knows she was the wronged party, and Anna asks Mabel how she knew that she had injured her knee in an earlier conversation. They both agree each other is very familiar to them.

Mabel shows Anna Lily's journal and Anna tells Mabel about Jack, explaining that she always has to know everything, even when it would be safer not to. Anna reads the passage from Freeze that explains Lily's death, and then the House steals the journal back, Anna suddenly dealing with immense pain from strange singing inside of the house. Mabel tells her about a dream she has when the House is a black hole; Anna tells Mabel about a dream where she sees a woman (Luna Thorne) in a house of mirrors. Anna asks Mabel what she sees in "the heart of the collapsing star" and Mabel responds "This house. The kingdom beyond the firmament. I saw you. I saw you. I saw you."

Continuity
''' Please note that this section contains spoilers for later episodes of Mabel. Continue at your own risk. '''


 * This is the second flower-shop universe in Mabel, after the one in Rendering.

Trivia
'''Please note that this section contains spoilers for later episodes of Mabel. Continue at your own risk.'''


 * GAY PEOPLE DOING GAY THINGS IN A GAY WAY