You and Me + P.V.Z.
Who: Rusty and Mazie When: Afternoon Where: Rusty's room
Mazie had her very first purchase from the new store held safely in the palm of her hand as she walked to Rusty’s room. The flash drive contained something pretty awesome and Mazie was excited to get it to Rusty. Plus this was good, constructive, and most importantly safe computer-related stuff she could be doing right now. Knocking on his door in a weird mix-up of knocks, Mazie waited and turned the drive over in her hand.
Rusty got the door open possibly too quickly. He'd been pacing around his room with a nervous energy, waiting for Mazie to show. So, it was possible he was slightly weird when he opened up the door, literally seeming to bounce on the balls of his feet. "hi!" he said, the grin he gave her was huge, and he looked as unkempt as usual, hair a little more bedhead than styled, his clothes wrinkled. "Come in to casa del...moi? I'm mixing languages there I think."
His enthusiasm had Mazie smiling, but it was kind of hard not to smile around Rusty. At least for her anyway. The disheveled appearance that might have been noticed by someone else didn't even register on Mazie's radar considering she often left the room in a similar state of unkemptness.
She shrugged as she walked by him, smile still there. "I wouldn't really know. I know English and Hillbilly, but not much else." Once inside, she opened her hand to show him the thumb drive. "I have something very special on this thumb drive. You wanna guess what it is?"
"A code that will make our computers into Skynet?" Rusty suggested hopefully. Then he paused, and quirked a frown. "Er. I probably shouldn't be excited by that idea. I'd be dead in .2 seconds if I was at ground zero for Skynet becoming sentient. I'd only last up to .4 if I was a zillion miles away."
Mazie grinned again, shaking her head. "Not just yet, no Skynet yet." She said. "Though I hope I never write anything that could become self-aware." Heading over to his computer, she popped the flashdrive in and set to work. "Wanna guess again?"
"You cracked into the internet, and this'll give me the ability to too?" he asked, hoping there was something that would allow that at some point. "Porn? You unlocked that?" he continued. "Ummmm..."
"I wish I'd cracked the internet." She shook her head a little bit, watching his computer as the program began to install, but then glanced his way. "You think I'd show up with some generic porn for you, Rusty? What kind of a friend does that I'd have to know what kind of porn you're into before I brought you any porn."
She returned her gaze to his computer, grinning as the program continued to install. "Luckily, it's installing pretty quickly and….Ta-da! Come see," She said, grinning as the start-up screen of Plants Vs. Zombies sprung to life.
Rusty grinned at her, then looked over. And--Plants Vs. Zombies! He didn't think before he acted, he just abruptly hugged her tight, giving her a big squeeze and even a kiss on the cheek near her ear. "Oh Santa, who knew you were blonde, and still delivered toys on random weekdays in July!" he gushed, clearly overwhelmingly pleased. Creep alert. Jessy said in a bored tone. Which had him realizing he was clinging, and he jumped back like Mazie was an ungrounded electrical wire.
The reaction had Mazie laughing, grinning as she tried to hug him back with pinned arms. But then he jumped and she had to wonder what had changed. After a moment of studying, she gave him another smile and a shrug. "Hey, we gotta stick together, right? And, if I'm Santa, I'm using it as an excuse to get massive." Standing up, she motioned to his seat. "Sit down and show me your zombie-killin' skills?"
He smiled back, totally unable to not. He grinned, and bounced on his feet, and generally felt very much like a kid on christmas morning. "Oh my god, yes, Santa. Anything you say." he said, clearly giddy. He dropped down into the seat, looking up at her with a nearly child like enthusiasm--before he focused on the game and really started in like a man who's life depended on it.
There was just something about the way Rusty was that had Mazie feeling those warm, fuzzy, happy feelings again. It was pretty awesome to feel like she was doing good again, like she was making a difference by using technology again. She hadn't felt that way for a while and even without his, as small a gesture as it was, it felt nice. Standing next to him, she smiled as he played. "So, it sucks we can't play two-player, but this new telephone system on our computers would kind of make it seem like we were?"
"I would love the shit out of that." Rusty told her immediately. He also pointed toward his couch. "Move it on over?" he suggested. He didn't think it was that heavy. Or he could help, but he'd have to pause, and he was kind of eating up even a few seconds of this game. Cuz it rocked. And rolled. And was all kinds of sweet.
Not a bad idea. She headed for the couch and dragged it until it was beside his chair. Smiling, she plopped onto it. "I would love the shit out of that too," She said, watching as the little suns floated from the sky onto the screen. "Met Glitch…Jim…too. Gotta say, I never expected so many hackers to end up here. It's pretty kickass. We can get him a copy of this and it's almost be like a big LAN party up in here."
"Oh, he's awesome." Rusty said. "I already talked to him a little about things too, and told him to talk to you, so we should all be on the same page, and get together and get all of this going as soon as possible. Because with all of us? It should be done in no time at all. Which would just kick all kinds of ass, and be super great. Because I've been working on things too, but with all of us...dude."
This again. She shouldn't have been surprised. She had run to Rusty to tell him she planned on doing this just about as soon as she could, but feeling cautionary now was starting to suck. "Yeah, about that…He knows, you're right, but…maybe we should tap the brakes for a minute. I got some blowback on the idea from some V.I.P.s in here and I think I gotta figure out a better way to approach it." Looking back at him, she watched is face instead of the screen. "You've been doing some stuff too? Anything big?"
Rusty had to pause the game as he turned to look at her. "Wait, huh?" he asked. "Waht do you mean, 'blowback'?" He stared at her. "Noooo, Mazie, no." he said, shaking his head. "No brakes. We gotta do this! It's what we're built for! I mean, you, more than me, but definitely Glitch, and yeah. C'mon, it'll be fun, and who knows what we can do? We can't just, not. They gave us computers!"
Sighing, Mazie looked away from him for a minute. It was too hard not to cave when he said that, let alone when he paused the game to look up from her. "I know, Rusty, believe me…Not super thrilled about the idea myself." Running a hand through her hair, she took a moment just to not speak, to try and make her thoughts make sense. "We need to just…tap the brakes, figure out a real set plan. If we're doing this, it has to be done in a way that doesn't upset the rest of us," She said, motioning between her and him and then sort of all around the room. "We have to try and realize that some people think this would put us on the same level as Them."
Rusty was confused. Very confused. "...er...I didn't think 'They' were even going to know." he said. "It's not like we're going to run around and tell everyone, right? And we aren't on the same level as them. Though, I guess I view this differently?" he suggested, looking a little lost. "I was just...er...I guess...we were gonna do this, and we can, and who knows what we'll find out, right? But it isn't like we run the place or anything. We can't be like them, right?"
"That's what I thought," She said, shaking her head. "I thought we couldn't ever be like them, no matter what we do, and yet…I told a couple of people who I really trust, I wanted their opinions, and they both shut it down. I'm not saying we're not doing this, I'm just saying we need to set up a plan and really think it through. It can't just be something we do because we can. If that was it, we'd have already had it finalized and done. It has to be something we do that helps and our biggest challenge right now is going to be not isolating ourselves from the others just because they disapprove of this."
She needed something to do with her hands so she took to pulling her hair back into a messy, sloppy bun. "I feel like we'd be missing an opportunity if we don't do this. With the accusations of someone assaulting people flying around, with those carved hearts in the trees…Something has to get done. I just think we need to be more calculated about it."
Rusty was still confused. "...okay, what's the difference between what we were going to do in the first place and 'more calculated'?" he asked. "Not gettin it. Sorry, I want to understand, but I'm just not sure what you're saying." Dumbass. Jessy put in. She just doesn't want you involved. She met Mr. Awesome next door, and she wants him for her partner in crime. He's better than you. You don't even have a handle. They're what, Lore and Glitch? Who the fuck are you?
She took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and let it out. When she looked back at Rusty, the pretenses had fallen. "…I had a hard time trying to win over some people who are really close to me on this venture. They're not for it and I'm…a little freaked by how much I want them to be for it. I want them to not hate the idea of this or hate me for doing it. So…this is basically me saying that I want to take some time with you and really sit down and figure out how we can, I don't know, package this deal to make it more appealing to people who think that what we'd be doing is basically a creepier version of what They're already doing." Did that make any sense? She still wasn't sure. She'd felt jumbled ever since these concerns were aired. She'd gone back and forth on what to do and now it was trickling down into the one fundamental thing that made her feel like herself. And she was having a rough time with it still.
Rusty listened, but still wasn't sure what exactly to say. "So, you really wanted to do this, and you set other people up to help, and you want to kind of stop things because some people might be upset with you for it? You're changing the game because of other people's approval?" he checked, so he was sure. "I don't know that there is a way to say it different. Unless you just sit back, and watch us do it, because I'm on board here. I am. And I know he is too."
She hated that that was what it boiled down to. This would never have been an issue before. "I haven't had people in my life before like this, people whose opinions I give a shit about. I just don't want to fuck it up with them too." Sighing, she looked back up at Rusty. "I'm not trying to change the game, Rusty. I'm just trying to figure out a good middle-ground is between us doing what we think is right and not freaking out everyone else here. I wasn't thinking of telling a lot of people before but if both people I've asked here think it's creepy and makes us no better than Them."
"Not if people just don't know. If they don't know they can't be pissed about it." Rusty said. "And we aren't making people put other people in stocks. So, I still see a huge difference." he pointed out.
"I see the difference too, Rusty, but think about it. If we don't end up telling the others, does that make us the same as Them somehow?" Shrugging, Mazie looked back down at her hands. "I was thinking of going to the Governor and asking him if having this access in public spaces is something that might be helpful for the safety of everyone. I mean, I've not really met him before and I'd have to figure out how much I trust him before I do that, but if he agrees then maybe it would go from being less creepy for everyone else and more acceptable? I'm not ready to give up on making this happen but it would be nice not to be lumped in with Them when we do, don’t you think?"
"You're overthinking this." Rusty told her. "And I don't know that everyone else would even link it to 'them'. I don't know, Mazie. Just...I think you're overthinking, and making this kinda worse than it is. Or someone else is. Or other people, or whatever you want to call it. If you want to back off, you can. But..." he trailed off. But you aren't going to, are you, sport?
"I don't want to back off," Mazie said seriously, looking back at him. "This is something I've wanted to do for a while and now I want to even more, with someone threatening Autumn and me with nooses and some jackass terrorizing the women here…I think we need to." She exhaled again. "Just give me a day or two, tops, to get my shit together, ok? And then we can get back together, you and me and Glitch if we want, and hash out the details. Can you give me that?" Maybe this was good, maybe this would kickstart her ass out of this middle 'world' into action again.
Looking a little pained, Rusty sighed, then shrugged. "I guess..." he said, though it was clearly he wasn't overjoyed with it. Also, deep down, he knew he still wouldn't stop working on things. He wanted to crack this now. She'd gotten him on this path, and getting him off of it was going to take more than her having second thoughts.
"That wasn't very convincing." She looked back at him, tried to catch his eyes again. "Lay it on me, Rusty. I laid this crap on you, you can tell me how you feel about it. You can say I'm super lame for doing this, for having these concerns. In all honesty, I'm not thrilled I feel this way. I've never cared enough about someone to let their opinions matter in what I do and it's a totally new, really scary feeling to realize that I do."
"I think we started this, and we should go with it, and if people are a little twitchy, they don't have to know. As far as I knew, we hadn't been going to tell people things anyways. What we're doing is kinda...well. A hush-hush sort of thing, y'know? So I'm a little weirded out that you did go tell people. I get not wanting to piss people off, and stuff, but...you already have people doing this. I don't see a reason to stop, and I don't think Glitch would either." he told her.
"I didn't want to tell everyone. I just…I needed to tell a couple of people. And they already know so I can't really take that back now." Mazie took Rusty's opinion, though, and put it right in the place next to Autumn's and Adam's, because it was going to help her later when she was alone and feeling nervous again about doing this. After a minute she nodded. "No one else. I won't tell anyone else, especially not without getting with you and Glitch first. Cross my heart. So…tomorrow then? We'll all three of us get together tomorrow." Less time than she'd originally wanted to make this decision, but at some point it had to be made, didn't it? She wasn't doing anyone any good sitting around like a bump on a freakin' log.
Rusty nodded. "Sure." he said. "I mean, I'll be busy til then anyways." he said. "Cuz an awesome friend brought me this game..."
Mazie softened, felt her shoulders slack a little, and gave him a small smile. "I'm gonna get my shit together, Rus. I promise. And I'm gonna start after I watch a full level of P.V.Z. If that's cool with you."
"It is absolutely cool with me." Rusty said with a grin. Then he turned, to set about letting her do that, wanting to have the best playthrough ever if she was going to be watching.