unhappy things
Characters: Mazie Jeremy and Autumn Setting: Afternoon, courtyard/autumn's room
Mazie had to get back to Autumn. She had to see her. She knew Jeremy was in tow and that was fine, he’d show them where the nooses were, where the heart was still carved, but first she had to see Autumn.
She hoped that Autumn was back in her room by now so that was where she went first, knocking on the door a little harsher than she expected to. “Autumn? Autumn, you in there? I gotta talk to you. Please open the door...”
Jeremy tagged along after Mazie, letting her lead the way to the other woman, taking a stance of not being quite involved, but facilitating where he needed to. That was his role in this, at least that was what he’d decided. He wanted to see this through, if only for his interest in Mazie. So when she knocked on Autumn’s door he leaned against the railing across from the door, giving Mazie her space.
Autumn wasn't actually in her room, though she heard her name and the pounding well enough. She was down in the courtyard, and she looked up to the second level there. "Down here." she called, seeing someone was with Mazie. "Should I come up or do you want to come down?"
Mazie looked back between the door and Jeremy for a minute before coming closer to peer down. "We'll come to you," She said, maybe a little louder than she needed to, and also motioned between herself and Jeremy then pointed down to Autumn. Turning to Jeremy, she nudged her head towards the stairwell. "She's downstairs. Let's go" She said obviously, starting towards the stairs and taking them faster than she ever had before.
Jeremy bit back a snappy comment, mostly because Mazie wasn’t in the mood for it. He followed after her, not going as quickly as Mazie was, but trailing a few steps behind her. He was still in his observing point with this, staying out until he was needed.
Autumn waited for them, staying by the tool shed. She was still uneasy about...well. Everything. She had felt slightly better about some things after talking to Brady, but nothing was actually resolved. And, in the case of the nooses, they very likely wouldn't be. Who the hell knew what was happening there. When they arrived, she nodded towards them both. "Hello," she greeted Jeremy. "I'm Autumn, you are?" she asked, offering her hand.
Being offered her hand had him arching one eyebrow, ever so slightly but he reached out to take her hand, shaking it lightly. “Jeremy. Charmed,” he said, giving her a smile that wasn’t too much, just enough to go with the words, giving them some meaning behind them.
"Autumn…He found something. Bad. Really bad. There's a tree with our names carved in it and there were…these nooses hanging from the tree." Mazie said, keeping her voice low out of habit. Sure, maybe there should have been a segue in there somewhere, but Mazie didn't necessarily feel like she had time for that right now. Not when there was a threat hanging over her and Autumn's heads.
Autumn noticed the arched brow thing, and was wondering what that was about. Then she turned her attention to Mazie. "Brady told me." she said, since she'd already been notified. She knew she should likely say more about it, but she didn't know what to say exactly. She glanced to Jeremy. "Do you have any other information? Observations?"
“Depends on what Brady said,” Jeremy said, not quite getting himself involved. “I knew Mazie would be upset, so I sought her out as soon as I could.” He also knew Mazie would want to see it, but he didn’t bring that up yet. “Seems a little ominous, but you’re not the only targets. Last night.”
"A little ominous? Seems like someone wants to have us hanged…That's more than a little ominous," She said, her tone a little more abrasive than before. Her nerves were getting the better of her here. Sighing, she ran a hand through her hair again, looking back at Autumn. "Do you want to go see it, the tree?"
"What Brady said is entirely separate from your personal observations." Autumn said to Jeremy, wondering why he was being evasive, with something this important. Who gave a damn what Brady had already told her? She was asking Jeremy now. What, was his story going to change, depending? When Mazie asked the question, Autumn thought about it, and in the end shook her head. "Not right now."
“I wouldn’t want to repeat him, that’s all,” Jeremy said, looking at both of them. “I don’t think of it as a threat. It’s indirect and vague. Just like the words painted on my door. It could have been anyone’s door. Brady said something about someone being against the two of you’s relationship, but I haven’t met anyone yet who would seem to care, unless there’s some sort of right wing nut floating around that I haven’t crossed paths with yet.” He waited a moment then moved onward. “I think it’s more effective as an intimidation, to give both of you a scare. And it begs the question, which I think is far more likely than who would want to hurt you, but who would want to scare you?”
Mazie listened, but it still didn't sit well with her. "But the words in the heart weren't just any words, Jeremy. They were our names. And if someone is out there trying to hurt Autumn or me , I need to know who the hell they are…" Sighing again, she looked back Autumn's way, wishing she'd just said yes and that they were all on a trip to the tree now. "And that's the thing, I don't know anyone who would want to hurt Autumn," She said, realizing that she apparently included Brady in that. "Not intentionally. And to scare her, even less…But I still haven't met everyone here."
“I haven’t met everyone here either.” Autumn said. “And I can’t think of anyone that would want to hurt or scare either of us. And as far as it being specific to, I don’t know, us both being girls, we’ve been fairly cozy since day one. I imagine it would have come out by now.”
“And do what Mazie?” Jeremy asked again, watching her, waiting to see what her reaction would be and wondering if she’d already forgotten their conversation about vengeance. “You’ve not seen anyone eying you? Looking shady or watching too closely? This might not be about you two being together, but rather someone smart enough to know that aspect of things makes you an easy target.”
The idea that the she and Autumn were not considered strong enough to take care of themselves sparked an instant anger in her. Glaring, she looked back at Jeremy. "Make sure that this crap doesn't happen again! I don't want us to have to walk around here wondering if someone's going to throw some nooses up and carve our names into the nearest tree or building or something. We shouldn't have to worry about that!" Taking a breath, she looked back over at Autumn, trying to place someone that might have done this. "No, no one. It's senseless."
Autumn instantly didn't like how Jeremy was talking to Mazie. She know he hadn't been here that long--she may not always be a social butterfly, she still went for walks, and all sorts of things. And this guy didn't get to snap at Mazie like he was her dad or something. "Okay." she said, holding her hands out. "First of all, you?" she said, addressing Jeremy. "Please don't talk to her like that. You aren't her father." she said. Then she looked to Mazie. "And you, please calm down. Getting snappy at one another isn't helpful, in any way. So, let's all calm down. Jeremy, thank you for your input. I appreciate it. We'll take it from here."
Jeremy let Mazie yell and just watched her, patient despite her attitude. “I’m still not sure how you want to to do that...” he prompted before looking back at Autumn. “I’m not trying to be her father, just looking out for her that’s all. I’d hate to see her get in the middle of something she’s not ready for. From what I’ve gathered, there are dangerous people here.” Which was something Jeremy was actually worried about for himself. He wasn’t any more capable of taking care of himself than either of them looked to be. It wasn’t an insult. Autumn was small and lithe and Mazie, while slightly broader, didn’t appear to be hardened enough for serious physical altercation. “If you don’t need me, then carry on, but I wanted Mazie to know. I knew she’d be concerned.” Concerned was not at all what Mazie was, she was more completely irate, but for the purposes of her calming down he toned down the word choice.
Mazie took a deep breath, trying not to let herself get back to a point where she seemed to be the only one pissed off about this, which in turn was just making her angrier. They both made good points but she was not ready to concede yet on her own stance. "So are we just supposed to...not do anything about this?" She didn't do well with the sort of lying-down-and-taking-it thing. Did she want to kick out Jeremy from the conversation? Not necessarily. Was she more concerned with how she and Autumn were doing with this situation piled ontop of what had happened earlier this morning? Probably.
"We'll talk about it." Autumn told Mazie. "But for right now, standing around and being upset isn't helping. We need a minute to deal, then figure out what we're doing from there." She looked to Jeremy. "I appreciate your concern. But no one is your responsibility, so please stop overstepping. If we want your help with that sort of thing, we will let you know. We are very aware of the fact that we're surrounded by dangerous people--we aren't stupid. We're in a co-ed prison, with no guards or even bars. So, yes. There's dangerous people around. There is nothing for that, unless we ask to be brought back to regular prison. This incident doesn't make our fellow residents more or less prominent--it's been that way since day one. So. If you feel like we're silly little things with no perspective, I'm happy to assure you that isn't the case. Again, thank you for your input, but we've got some things to discuss. Thank you for your time."
“You just don’t do anything rash,” Jeremy pointed out, but what Autumn said kept him from saying more. She didn’t want him involved with keeping Mazie in check, which he supposed was her role in things. “I’m sorry I gave the impression that I thought that, about you being silly. I was merely looking out for Mazie. I happen to like her and don’t want her rushing into something and getting hurt.” He smiled at Mazie, something less forced and more genuine before nodding and taking a step back. “Good luck. Let me know if you need any help,” he said, the comment directed at Mazie. He was definitely in favor of Mazie doing something but if he’d learned anything, the most effective way to do something was slowly and with a plan. Strength wasn’t need if there was a plan in place. He smiled again then started away, back towards the cafeteria.
Mazie looked between Jeremy and Autumn, frowning a little as she realized that now Jeremy was out of the conversation. Sighing, she watched him for a moment, gave him a small smile, something lesser than she would have given on a day when she wasn't concerned about so much else. "I'd still like to see the carving sometime," She said to Jeremy as he walked, not sure that stopping him would go over well with Autumn right now but not wanting to lose out on the contact she'd made. Jeremy was nice to her, even if he had sounded a little like her father earlier.
Watching him go, she looked back at Autumn, sighing a little as she moved to run her hands through her hair. "So…what now?"
"Back to the room." Autumn said, sighing. She wasn't overjoyed with anything at the moment. She started walking, thinking about how Jeremy had spoken to her, how familiar it seemed. And with Mazie's reaction to him leaving, the smile and talking about going to see carvings sometime...wasn't that a line? One she'd heard many times before? Now, normally she wasn't jealous, and at current she wasn't even sure if this qualified, but she did wonder. Jeremy's behavior there had her wondering, a whole lot. When had they met? How did you get to tones like that in a short time? Why hadn't Mazie mentioned him or his carvings before?
She kept her mouth shut on all of it, however, merely walking back toward the stairwell, so they could go upstairs.
Mazie watched Autumn, feeling just like she couldn't win today. What was she doing wrong, aside from everything? She didn't stop Jeremy from going because it felt like that was what Autumn wanted and now she felt like she was just doing it all wrong.
Following Autumn in silence, she started up the stairs and got to the second story, picking up her pace a little when she was closer to Autumn's room. Heading inside, she stood next to the door, waiting for Autumn to come in before closing it. "I never wanted something like this to happen…Autumn, someone is threatening you, us…"
Autumn drew in a breath, and let it out slowly. "Mazie..." she started, sitting down at the computer. "I know you never wanted anything like this to happen. No one would want that. And I realize the situation here." she added. "And right now, we need to calm down. We need to contact people, let them know it happened at all, so no one's forcing us to even consider sitting back and suffering in silence. Beyond that, we just be careful, don't go places alone, and keep the doors locked."
Mazie parked herself on the floor in between the table and bed, looking up at Autumn. "I don't like this feeling, Autumn. It scares me to feel this…I don't know, hopeless? Desperate? Backed into a corner or something…. And it scares me to think that I can't do anything to protect you from someone doing this shit again…"
"Well, right now, no one's done anything. Just done something stupid that we may not even have seen in ages. It's insubstantial, scare tactics. Am I scared? Yes. Am I going to let it run my life now? No. I can't. I refuse to." Plus, if Mazie was reacting like this, then she needed to be the strong one. She'd already taken up being the rational one, then she could just do both. Autumn's life revolved around filling the holes in people's lives. And she automatically took that track here.
Mazie took another deep breath, closed her eyes, and just sat for a moment. How Autumn was always so level-headed, Mazie wouldn't ever know, but she appreciated it now because it grounded her. Looking back up at Autumn, she bit her lip while she contemplated her next question. "So I know we're…walkin' on egg shells with this right now but…you still think getting access to, well…you know…is a bad idea? Even if it could stop some of this stuff from happening to us or anyone else…"
"How would it stop things?" Autumn asked, giving Mazie a chance to at least explain. Or try to.
"I would be able to monitor the actions and if something like this was starting, I would know from the first minute. I mean…putting up nooses and carving into a tree takes a while, so if I saw that, I could go and stop it. Or bring it up to the new cops we're gonna have patrolling the place. I could work together with them in order to try and keep this place safer so that no one has to deal with someone threatening them like this. I just feel like we're being left to our own devices here and there are some scary people in this place. If I have that control, I'd feel a little safer knowing that I could alert a problem when I saw it." Mazie watched Autumn, leaning back a little to prop herself up on her hands.
"There are forty-something bedrooms, or something like that. I know not all of them are occupied, but a hell of a lot of them are. There are public areas. I'm guessing not one magic angle that sees everything in such a big place. So, several views of public areas. There's stairwells. Elevators. The tunnel. You aren't omniscient. And even if you did have access? How are you going to watch every camera at every second? You aren't. And you'd drive yourself crazy trying to, or you'd spend every moment behind that monitor, playing Big Brother." Autumn told her, tone light, knowing Mazie wasn't going to like any of it.
"What if there was someone else who might be interested in helping? I know there's at least one other person here with skills like mine." She kept her tone softer too, lighter than the frantic craze she spoke with earlier, because she didn't want to be this way with Autumn. She wanted to go back to where they were happy and cuddled in bed together and not arguing about something bigger than both of them. "I'd focus primarily on the public spaces first. I wouldn't want someone staring at us in our room so I wouldn't want to stare at them unless I had to. I just…I don't think having surveillance would hurt. I know I could do this, I know I could make this happen, and it's just…really damn hard to sit here in the dark when I know that with some work, I could have more insight."
"So two people who can play Big Brother? And what, blind everyone else? And no, actually insight is intuitive." Autumn said, looking at Mazie. "What you're talking about is spying on everyone here, invading their privacy without even telling them. What you're talking about is becoming the shadow behind the camera, observing private moments, taking away even the separation of them not having their business known by people in here. At least with those watching us out there, no one has to have dinner with them. But what you're talking about..." she shook her head.
That was definitely not a side that Mazie had thought of and it stopped her argument in its tracks. Was she just…as bad as they were? She was stunned silent for a moment too long, maybe, and she ended up standing up and heading over to the bed to just flop down on it. "Would it change if I told the others, put it up to a vote or something? Just…asked them their opinions on it?"
"I think that would put you out there as the girl who wanted to spy on everyone, and definitely puts you out there as someone to watch." Autumn told her. "I don't have answers for you, Mazie. I just know that just because you can do something doesn't mean you should, and I see all of this and can't picture any outcome that isn't a disaster of one form or another. Now, I'm not going to tell you what to do. I'm never going to tell you what to do. But that's how I feel."
"How you feel is important to me, Autumn," Mazie said, pulling her legs up to sit cross-legged on the bed. "I've just…even in prison I was able to get some stuff done. Here, I just feel helpless. They're playing games with us, someone else here is playing games with us. I just…don't understand the point of security cameras if they're only being monitored by people who are so wishy-washy that none of us really know what their next move is going to be." She took in a deep breath, exhaled, and pulled her hair over her shoulder to twist around in her fingers while she thought this over. "I don't want to do something and end up losing you because of it," She said, finally getting down to the heart of the matter.
"I don't like everything they've done, but I don't know they're playing with us." Autumn said. "And you don't either. I think you have a default stance of mistrusting 'the man' or whoever...but I don't know, Mazie. Maybe we don't know everything. Yes, someone else is playing games with us. And that's fucked up and wrong, and I hate it. But I don't know that jumping to 'I'm going to watch everyone all the time' is the answer. And knowing what their next move is going to be was never part of the arrangement. Read the welcome letter. It doesn't say they were going to tell us everything all the time. So why are you pissed about that and throwing it in like it's evidence against people?" she asked.
Then she had to frown. "...why would one thing mean you would lose me?"
Mazie shook her head again, frowning a little. "Autumn, I've never done this before. I know I don't have the kind of…background information to really understand the compromise part of a relationship, but I don't want to make you angry or make you feel like I don't value your opinion enough to incorporate it into my own decision-making or whatever. I just…I feel like I need to do something. They're going to watch us, the privacy we have is kaput unless the power goes down again. As for knowing their next step, it kind of freaks me out that they threw a bunch of convicts together and don't seem to be showing us a solid, projected front on how they're even going to rehabilitate us. They used stocks and now they're assigning jobs where we have to vote on people to protect us, people we may or may not have even met yet. I'm just..this whole place is freaking me out right now and doing this, trying to get a handle on something like this, is my way of making sense here."
"Valuing someone's opinion is one thing. Just don't whatever they say is something else." Autumn said. "And if that's what you feel like you have to do, then do it. Just know that I don't feel the same way. But this isn't highschool. I'm not going to drop you the second you do something I don't like. I like you. This is...going to be challenging. But I'm not going to give up, just because it is." She paused for a long, long moment. "Would you? Hit the first hurdle, then give up?"
"What? No, no way," Mazie answered instantly. "Definitely not. I like you too much to do that, Autumn. I don't want to lose you, I've been freaked out all day thinking that I might end up doing something that just would be a giant dealbreaker." She watched her for a moment, took another breath, and let it out again, slowly. "So…what do we do now? How do we get back to how we felt yesterday?"
"There's no easy fix like that." Autumn said. "Things don't just...reset like that. We maybe take a night in our own rooms, and keep talking, and work at things."
Well that didn't sound like fun to Mazie, but if that was what they needed to do then maybe it would help. And maybe she could figure out what to make her this time that wasn't paper flowers. She didn't make anything, really, but maybe she'd be able to figure something out. It'd give her something to do, to keep her mind busy. "Ok," She agreed, though not exactly happily, and nodded. After sitting there, her eyes narrowed a little in confusion. "Do you mean, like…starting right now?"
Autumn thought about it, though she eventually nodded. "I think I need a little time, yes." she said. "I have a lot of things on my mind, I probably would do best with a little time to sort my thoughts out."
Yeah. This sucked. Big time. Nodding, Mazie stood up and awkwardly looked around the room. The marshmallows were still there, untouched, and Mazie had an itching to take them and just drown herself in fluff for the night, but she thought better of it and instead just walked up to Autumn. She needed time, but Mazie still leaned down and kissed her cheek. "I'll…have showered by the next time you see me," She promised, then started for the door.
Autumn smiled. It was a bit of a sad expression. "Okay." she said. "I'll see you soon, promise." She sort of wanted to reach for her, but she didn't want to be confusing, or make this harder.
Mazie nodded again, waiting a moment for a kiss or some sort of embrace that didn't come, and then opened the door to head out. Worst. Day. Ever.