Ryan Nathaniel Pierce (insheepsclothes) wrote in rrinitiative, @ 2012-09-01 00:38:00 |
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Entry tags: | day three, mazie, mazie and ryan, ryan |
Feed the birds
Characters: Ryan, Mazie
Setting: Courtyard, early afternoon
Ryan sat on a bench out in the courtyard, slouched and sprawl-kneed. He looked utterly relaxed, though inside he still buzzed. Buzzed from Susanna, buzzed from the options he had before him in this place. He should make sure to talk to at least one of the women again today. Wren and Becka both intrigued him greatly, if for completely different reasons.
No reason not to have options, after all, he thought as he crumbled another biscuit he’d taken from the kitchen and tossed the crumbs to a few enterprising sparrows and a pigeon. He didn’t particularly care for birds, but bird-watching was always a good excuse for people-watching, and bird-feeding was a good excuse for being in a park where someone he was interested in also was.
Besides, animal lovers weren’t dangerous, right?
It was a soothing and innocuous practice, though, and he wanted to watch these people more, meet a few more of them. And the sun was warm on his skin. It wasn’t freedom, but it was more than he’d had in a long time.
Aside from the bath that Autumn had managed to get her into, Mazie had spent her whole morning in the cafeteria trying hard to get into the Space Invaders game that Autumn had requested. For her. She’d been unable to get into it the way that she wanted to and as much as she wanted to keep working, there were things in her room she needed to get or check. Her computer, for one, and a bit of cloth she’d ripped off the clothes she had when she arrived here that she’d use to tie her hair back from her face.
She headed through the courtyard in her pajamas, barefooted, to get to the set of stairs opposite where she was and head up to her room. Usually she wouldn’t stop, but the sight of someone tossing something onto the ground and a flurry of feathers launching for it. Stopping, she tilted her head and realized it was someone she hadn’t met, feeding birds she didn’t necessarily see as a help here. The last thing she wanted was to get crapped on by some birds while she was making her way across the courtyard. “Is that really necessary?” She called, watching the birds then back over at him.
Ryan looked up at her. He’d seen her, of course. He was using this as an excuse to people watch, after all, but he didn’t necessarily want the entire world to realize that. She was an odd bird, for not even Wren had looked quite like that when coming out of her room. “They’re only sparrows and one pigeon,” he said, shrugging a shoulder. “They were already here anyway. I’d actually like to see what all is in this area, actually. I’ve always enjoyed bird watching.” Good excuse to be many places in this world. “Besides, they’re pretty, aren’t they? Sparrows can be quite charming.”
Mazie took a few more steps closer to him, tucking her hands into her pockets as she watched him. Her hair was low and over her shoulder, still damp from the bath since it always took her hair a bit too long to properly dry, not that she really cared. “Pretty or not, we don’t really need them here. They’re all fine and dandy until they figure out that you’re gonna keep feeding them, which means they’re gonna bring all their sparrow and pigeon friends over here for the free buffet, make homes in our trees, and start squawking at five in the morning. Will they still be charming then?”
Ryan surreptitiously looked her over. He was still relaxed, sprawled on the bench easily. She was pretty, though she seemed confrontational. That could be interesting or not, depending. "Well, I dare say they're already making homes in our trees and squawking at five in the morning, we just haven't noticed yet." His lips quirked faintly into a smile. "Not that five in the morning is a time for anyone to be up if they don't have to be." He certainly didn't like to be, though occasionally he'd done so for work, or for ... other things.
“I don’t want to start hearing them at five in the morning and feeding them isn’t really helping that, right?” She asked. “The more you feed them, the more of them are going to show up and the more likely it is that you’re gonna wake up at five am to squawking birds. I mean, it’s possible I’ll be up at that point anyway but who wants to hear a hoard of birds ever?” She studied him for a moment then looked back up at his eyes. “What’s your name?”
Well, wasn't she the prickly one, he thought, eyebrows raising faintly at her attitude. Made him want to take her down a peg or two, but the urge didn't show on his face at all. He looked curious and faintly taken aback. "You're going to hear them if I feed them or not," he countered. "Unless you want to burn down the trees and kill the grass, and I really wouldn't recommend it." He wouldn't be the only one to protest that, he thought. "I'm Ryan. Who are you?" he asked, sitting forward in a somewhat friendly manner.
Well, maybe he had a point there. She would hear them whether he fed them or not. “I’m really just trying to keep this from turning into a rerun of ‘Birds’.” Looking back his way, she tucked her hands back into her pocket, thumbs out. “Mazie,” She answered, thinking back through the journals she’d commented on. “You like southern food. And you ride horses, right?” At least that was what she’d picked up from his questionnaire.
"Ah, the Birds. That was a scary premise," he conceded. If a bit absurd, but for its time it hadn't been a half bad movie. "Pleasure to meet you, Mazie," he said, his drawl tinging his speech. "Yes, that's me. Southern food and my sister's ranch in Texas," he explained. "I'm
not sure if I've caught yours or not, everything seems to have happened so fast I'm still processing and getting to know everyone." And he'd know some of them even better sooner rather than later, he hoped.
She nodded, listening to him talk about Southern food and Texas and thinking that maybe this was something that she could latch onto and use. Maybe she should take a page out of Autumn's book and try to find something in these people that she could like too. "Never been too close to horses myself, but I lived on Southern food at home. Don't worry about not having seen my questionnaire or whatever they're called. Not as many people spend as much time on a computer as a hacker does."
"My grammy had the ranch before my sister, so we were around there a lot," he said. While he didn't particularly care for most animals, he hadn't actually fucked with the horses, in part because his grammy was one of the few people who could put the fear of God into him, and she
loved those stupid animals more than she did people. "Ah, another Southern gal," he said with a warm smile. He mentally ahhhed at her description, thinking he'd at least read that one, though he couldn't remember if he'd commented or not. "Hacker, huh?" he asked with curiosity, though inwardly he was wary. A hacker could potentially find his real records, eventually, and he decidedly did not want that.
“West Virginia, born and raised,” She said, smiling back at Ryan a little. This conversation seemed to be going more smoothly than it had at the beginning, where she was positive she wasn’t going to like Ryan because he’d been trying to get these birds to stay. At least now she could say she was trying to be nice...ish. “Hacker, that’s me. They published by handle so you might know me as Lore, but otherwise I’m just Mazie. I collected some money from people who didn’t deserve it and gave it to those who did. And on the way, found out some secrets about certain government employees, so here I am. What are you in for?”
"Robin Hood of the internet, huh," he said, eyebrows raising a little. "I think I've heard of you." He didn't recall much, though. He kept an eye on some current events but not others. "Secrets always are the currency, I'm surprised you couldn't use them to get off," he said with some insight. "They claim I embezzled a lot of money, but I didn't," he said easily. "If I had, I might have been able to keep myself out of jail."
“Well, secrets are great when those who you uncovered them from don’t think they’re better than everyone else...and everyone else believes them. When they do, they can pretty much put you anywhere they want. But I lucked out and got here for whatever reason, where there’s a computer in my own room again and it’s fantastic. Good way for me to keep tabs on those who might have put me in jail the first time.” Once she was able to get an internet connection, which she still hadn’t been able to do yet. “You might be in the same boat as me, if you had. Stealing money from the ‘wrong’ people, who can just put you away for whatever they want. But you say you didn’t do it and they still put you in here? What evidence have they got against you?”
"That is why you get proof," Ryan said. He had done enough snooping in his time to know a good secret when he ewe one. He hadn't just had his word on his neighbors' activities, he had taken pictures when he could. It was nice not only for.. some purposes, but in case he needed it. His eyebrows raised. "So you can monitor them from here?" He asked, thinking that if she could, he was going to have to take care of her before she found out his secret and told on him. "Well someone stole the money, I was just a good scapegoat, I assume. I had no reason to take it." He was reasonably well off, after all, and the company would have gone to him. That's the story he was sticking to.
“Not yet,” Mazie said, crossing her arms over her chest as she rocked back on her heels. “Soon though, hopefully, I can figure out a way to do that. There’s a lot of people here who don’t seem to need to be here and I’ve got some researching to do on who put them here in the first place.” Shrugging, Mazie looked back his way. His story wasn’t too farfetched but Mazie wasn’t really jumping at the change to figure out who framed this guy. Not yet anyway. “Guess people can be in the wrong place at the wrong time,” She said after a moment. “Sucks that it happened to you.”
"Good luck with that," he said. Though in reality he wished her the opposite. He was not jonesing for contact with the outside world unless it meant him getting out of here free and clear. "Thank you, though prison hasn't been too hard on me, and now there's this place, so I have a chance of having a life again. I don't need anything beyond just getting out," he said, and it was mostly truth. There were enough women he could handle that aspect all right for now. "What happened to you was worse by far, being shanghaied after doing so much good for others.”
“It’s not like I wasn’t doing some good for myself too and I got lazy with the cleanup of my tracks. But those people didn’t deserve that money. It belonged rightfully to so many other people who they’d swindled it from in the first place.” Shaking her head, Mazie looked back at him. “Well, once we’re out, we’re out with new identities so maybe it’ll work out in your favor after all?”
"True," he conceded to her, knowing how laziness could get one. It had been complacency with him. He had trusted his girlfriend wouldn't do anything, and she had. "But you did give a lot of it away, so that's good." Though he probably would've kept it. "I think it will. Hoping, anyway, and besides, in here doesn't seem that bad so far." It actually didn't so that was nice.
“Yeah, I gave a lot of it away. And you’re right, it doesn’t seem so bad in here,” She agreed, tucking her hands back into her pockets. “Well, Ryan, I’ve got a hair band in my room with my name on it,” She said, not mentioning that she would be coming back to work on the Space Invaders game anyway. “See you around, Ryan,” She said, giving him a cordial smile before she started off towards the stairwell.
"Y'have a good day now, y'hear?" he said in a friendly manner, giving her a nod and a charming smile as she turned to walk away. He would keep an eye on her, he thought. Keep tabs on her progress with the internet. "I'll see you around." He leaned back, crumbling the remainder of his last biscuit up to toss to the birds, watching her head to her room unobtrusively as he did so.