Work Text:
"What is this?” Rio examined the glass put on the table in front of her, tipping it towards her line of sight to peer at its translucent contents.
“It’s a drink, Rio.” Agatha said nonchalantly, a thin smile starting to appear at the corner of her mouth.
Rio blinked a few times before bringing it to her lips; the strong, acrid smell already singeing her nose. She breathed deeply before sipping the tiniest amount, letting the mystery liquid burn a slight tickle onto her tongue. A few moments passed before her reaction finally settled, and she recoiled at the taste before slamming the drink back onto the table.
“That’s fucking awful, Agatha. That’s probably the worst alcohol I’ve ever had, why did you give me this?” Rio seemed almost offended, looking up at Agatha’s figure standing over her with amusement.
“Finish the rest of it and I'm hoping you’ll understand why.” Agatha climbed onto the bench seated across from Rio, resting her elbows on the wooden surface of the table and meeting her gaze with a flash of mischief.
“You know alcohol does nothing to me, right?” Rio wasn’t lying to her, and Agatha knew this.
Since the beginning of Rio’s existence, she was never able to poison her body in the same way she saw humans doing time and time again. It was a seemingly bizarre concept to her: they’d ingest copious amounts of certain drinks and then get increasingly more incoherent as the hours progressed. Some of them would drink double or triple the amounts of others; dragging their limbs throughout space without synchronization and even stumbling or falling to the floor. She watched them profusely vomit the same liquids they ingested, humored that their stomachs and blood could no longer handle the elixirs they relied on so heavily to let loose.
Some would act so liberated and free after only a few mugfuls — no longer carrying anxious energy or a nervousness that was shrouded by a shyness that imprisoned them to lean against the walls of a crowded room. Timid characters all of a sudden could adopt a boisterous nature; singing and dancing with no opposition. Others became belligerent, letting anger shatter items against the floor or release hard words emitted as a scream from their mouths. It was fascinating how someone's entire demeanor could change with just one small potion.
Rio loved it all.
She loved watching humans figure out their toxicities together, but it was one indulgence she could never experience on her own. She was almost envious of their ability to release control, albeit temporarily; to adopt a new persona outside of the ones bound within their own skulls. Rio had watched every experience since the dawn of time, and only began to trial new human experiences herself once she met Agatha. However, replicating a similar phenomena to intoxication was providing immense difficulty. The two would end up trying plenty of different mixes and ingredients that Agatha would find in the woods or even as a sniped treasure from the backroom of a tavern's stock, and Agatha would wait with bated breath for any effects, but it was all unfortunately to no avail. Even to Rio, it was always entertaining to see her girlfriend come to her with a new idea for inebriation and she would give it a chance fully knowing that nothing would happen and the excitement would eventually die down.
“Consider this an experiment.” Agatha started, choosing her words carefully. “It’s something new, and I added a little charm to it to really amp up the effects this time."
“I’ll pretend like it’s not crazy to consume this willingly.” Rio continued to sip the rest of her drink, wincing before making even a minuscule dent. “Where did you even get this? It smells like something you'd use to fuel a lamp."
“Well, it’s something new to the market.” Her witch looked around cautiously. “It’s not quite approved, if you know what I mean.”
Rio chuckled softly, amusement filling her words: “You? Doing something against the law? Gasp” She faked an open-handed clutch to her chest. The obvious detail of Agatha actively practicing witchcraft was merely a sidenote to the rest of her daily antics.
“Who would have thought.” Agatha laughed and shrugged. “Folks around here have been calling it moonshine. Some of the dock boys by the water picked up several jars from a few southern travelers and even asked for tips on how to make it. Maybe they're useful after all.” She still looked apprehensively around the inhabitants of the tavern where they were drinking for the night.
Rio followed Agatha’s eyeline, taking in the drunk villagers that talked loudly around them. This local tavern became their regular spot for evenings out of the house, and they even started to befriend a few other women that they identified as fellow underground witches early on in their encounters. The wooden walls and scattered dust on the floor reeked of vinegar and beer, but Rio and Agatha took it as part of the charm and found themselves returning frequently to play table games and share stories around bowls of stew. A band of a few men drumming a beat and rambling a song emanated from the corner of the room, and Rio's concentration broke to catch Agatha landing her eyes on the drink resting between them.
“I’m going to get another drink for myself, and I want you to finish that before I’m back.” Agatha pointed to the moonshine, which had plenty of liquid still resting at the bottom of the glass. Rio chuffed before finishing it, slamming the vessel back onto table and fidgeting quietly in her seat.
As she waited in the spaces of time for Agatha to return, she started to contemplate what it would be like to actually feel drunk. It felt like such a vulnerable state of mind - one that was both exposing and weak in a way that portrayed a sense of embarrassment. Despite the obvious physical and mental downfalls, Rio also considered that it was a theoretical state where she could at least meet Agatha equally and not have to fabricate an alternate form of herself that was devoid of absolute divinity. In no other sense of Existence would Death ever need to surrender to the effects of poison. Yet despite these previously established metrics of law, the few sips of enchanted moonshine that Rio previously ingested were continuing to fester and she was starting to feel a little… delayed. Her movements had a second wave to them, as if her head was positioned on a spring and each rotation brought a recoil in the opposite direction. A few quick blinks didn’t solve the issue, and her palms were starting to get sweaty. A warmness was encroaching; her cheeks heating up like a spit roast and forehead releasing air into the emptiness around her. By the time Agatha came back with two drinks in her hand after what felt like ages, Rio was in a slight panic.
“Agatha.” She whispered, pulling the collar of the woman’s shirt towards her face with a balled fist. “Something is happening to me.”
Agatha smirked, meeting Rio’s gaze with an amused expression. “Something happening as in, do you feel like the drink is starting to hit?”
“I don’t know. How would I know? What is this?” Rio rambled as she released the shirt, leaning herself backwards with her hands resting on the end of the tabletop. Her eyeballs had a look of ferality to them, a glimmer of chaos and energy lurking beneath them as she felt the heavily distilled drink course through her veins with a tangible vibration.
“Well, tell me how you feel.” Agatha started to sip from the drink she picked up, watching her girlfriend put together her thoughts as she flashed a thin smile over the rim of her glass.
Atomically, it was as if a singular cell was battling a drop of liquor until the bevel of a sword ripped through the walls of the other, shattering moisture that was absorbed by the cloud of her aura, but Rio didn't have the ability to contextualize any of this in a way that would make sense outside of the all-knowing. “Uh, stupid.” She ended up deciding.
“Stupid? You feel stupid.” Agatha prompted politely, devoid of ridicule yet also slightly knowing what Rio meant.
“No, well. I don’t know. Warm. But also optimistic? Slightly not present here but in a good way.” Rio spoke quickly, unsure of how to process this newfound sensation. “I’m still on earth with you but not quite in the same way. My arms are buzzing." She almost couldn't decide what feeling to land on, as if several sensations were going on simultaneously.
Meanwhile, Agatha was thoroughly enjoying this, giggling to herself as her own tipsiness was starting to settle. It reminded her of when she showed Rio what an orgasm was like for the first time and Rio had to sit there afterward with a stunned look and inability to contextualize such a formality into words. “I think you’re drunk.” Agatha breathed out with a stumble, catching herself in a louder laugh this time.
“So what do we do now?” Rio asked cautiously, looking around nervously as if all eyes in the room could suddenly realize she was tipsy.
“You enjoy it.” Agatha said with almost a finality — as if it was the most logical thing in the world and it would be absurd to question it otherwise. Rio responded with a nod, taking each word in slowly before finishing with a dazzling beam of a grin.
"Can we dance?" She ended up asking the other witch, cocking her head in the direction of the band.
"Absolutely." Agatha held out a relaxed hand, ready to guide her immortal being of a girlfriend to experience another one of the most human ways it felt to be alive.