Someone
Who: Autumn and Mazie When: late evening/night Where: Autumn's room
Mazie was ready for this day to come to an end. She was ready to curl up in the safest place she knew in this experimental area. She stopped off at her room to grab her laptop, her pillow, and a pair of pajamas before trudging down to Autumn's room and knocking on the door. "Jellybean," She called through the door, thinking it was fitting in a way because she didn't think she'd ever get to say it.
Autumn had had a chill day. She'd gone to the music room, walked around the farm, sat out in the rain for a while, and she'd just gotten out of the bath. She smiled at the call of 'Jellybean', and she ducked her head out of the bathroom to smile at Mazie. "Why helloooooooo." she drew out the word.
Mazie couldn't help but smile. Autumn was there, looking adorable as ever, and seemed in good spirits which was really comforting. Setting her stuff down by Autumn's desk, Mazie sat down backwards in the chair, arms on the backrest as she looked Autumn's way. "How was your day?"
"Okay. Kinda blah, I guess. The stuff with Caroline is still bothering me, but I took some me-time, and that helped." she said, starting to get her pjs on. "How was your day, my sweet?" she asked, going to drop a peck on Mazie's forehead.
All this sweetness was so nice, but it was making everything that had happened today harder to want to bring up. Closing her eyes against the kiss, she sighed a little. "It was…a rough day, actually. Long day, really glad to be here right now." She wanted so desperately to pull Autumn to the bed and just curl up beside her, but instead she just sat there and pressed her chin into her arms on the backrest.
Autumn gave a concerned little look, pausing in what she was doing. "Okay, give me two seconds, then you're telling me everything." she said, hopping back into the bathroom to get a quick brush through her hair. She put it up, then got her pjs in order, then came back out. "Okay, I am all yours, what's going on?"
Where did she start? Maybe with the most important part, the Adam part. He was still concerning her and she wasn't sure where to even begin so she ran a hand through her hair and leaned back a little. "So…I ran into a lot of people today. Much more social today than I was..well, ever, basically. And some weird stuff happened but the most concerning part is that..Have you met Adam yet? He lives beside me. He's a good guy, real good guy, and I'd consider him a friend. And he is just…running up against some real tough shit. I don't know how to help him."
Autumn frowned, watching Mazie's eyes as she spoke. "I don't think I've met him officially." she said. "What's he going through?" she asked. She hated feeling helpless herself, hated feeling like there was nothing she could do. So she sympathized with Mazie on that score.
There was some part of this that Mazie couldn't tell Autumn. She didn't feel right about sharing something so private, something that wasn't her place to tell, so she kept that inside instead of letting it out like she would have normally with Autumn. "He's…not doing so well on some fronts here. He's kinda into this girl, Becka, but I don't think they're on the same page. I mean, they've only known each other for less than a week and they already don't seem to be finding common ground. I think he might be…afraid of something, though it's hard to pick out what." Looking back at Autumn, Mazie frowned a little. "Did you ever do any work with people who were just…scared?"
Autumn didn't answer immediately, noting the pauses in Mazie's story, how she was seeming careful in her wording. "You're being delicate." she noted. "I have worked with people who had...issues. I'm assuming you're asking me about certain kinds of issues, yes? As in either physicality or intimacy?"
Mazie gave Autumn a little smile, but it wasn't actually happy. "You caught me. I'm not saying some things because they really aren't my place to say them. I would tell you, but I just don't feel right doing it. Those things are up to him to share. And you know how much I love sharing information so you gotta know I really mean it when I say I would tell you, I just can't." Looking back down at her hands, Mazie shrugged. "I'm not sure which one he might be having issues with more. Maybe it's a mix of both. I'm so horrible at this kind of stuff that all I really saw was my friend needing some help and me not really knowing what to do about it. I just don't want to see him walk around this place and be scared..."
Nodding, Autumn reached out to take Mazie's hands. "Do you want me to talk to him?" she asked. "I'm happy to. Honestly. I have worked with people before who've had all kinds of different issues, and so let's just say I know how to be delicate myself. If you think I can help, then I'd jump at the chance to give it a shot."
That helped, having Autumn to hold onto, and after a moment Mazie nodded. "Yeah, I think you could help him. You know how to talk about this, what questions to ask..all I could do was pour him a drink and sit by him. So if you don't mind, I think maybe it'd be good for him to know that there's someone here he can talk to that might understand him better than me or just the random people he may have met here. I know it's not a lot to go off of, but I just think you could help him."
"Then I'll message him tomorrow." Autumn said. "Set up a meeting. Don't worry. I'm good at what I do, okay?" she said with a light, encouraging little smile. "I'll take good care of him. Hopefully, we can work on things. I usually have good results."
"I'm not worried," Mazie said seriously. "I believe it, that you're good at what you do. You've gotta be the best there is. Can't imagine a better person to talk to him. I'm just scared of him thinking he has no one here to turn to, so thank you. I really appreciate it." She let out a slow breath and then squeezed Autumn's hand, nudging her head towards the couch. "Let's get comfortable? I can tell you about the rest of my day if you want? I'm so close to getting into that Space Invaders game." Plus if she got them comfortable, she could lean in close and almost whisper what Jae had told her to Autumn as well and no cameras could pick up on it.
Autumn tugged Mazie's hand up to her lips and kissed her knuckles. "Well, you're welcome, don't mention it. I'm all for helping where I can." she promised. Then she hopped up, and went over to the couch, pulling Mazie with her. She got down and put her back against the arm of the sofa, wanting to be the one to hold Mazie this evening. She patted the space in front of her. "Get comfy."
How the hell did she managed to get this lucky? This was like heaven and Mazie's plan had been to come into this place and treat it like she always did: approach this initiative with a lone wolf attitude. But right now she had Autumn and she couldn't imagine not being here, nestled safely inside of Autumn's arms. She shifted a little, getting comfortable so that she could press her head to Autumn's shoulder and she would be able to hide her lips behind Autumn's hair if need-be. "Some other stuff happened today. Got approached by a woman, Jae..She's pretty badass. She wants to try and get control of the cameras in this place," Mazie said, voice low and lips hidden as best she could. "With it, she wants to see what they are seeing, see if there really are some extra dangerous people in here. I told her I'd help."
Autumn blinked, and her stomach twisted with anxiety. She couldn't help it. It sounded a whole lot like poking the bee's nest. But she didn't say that. She just hugged her a little closer. "Do you need anything from me?" she asked quietly, stroking her fingertips back and forth along the edge of Mazie's shoulder.
Mazie pressed her head back into Autumn's shoulder again. "Just this. Just you and me, that's all I need." She took a moment, keeping her voice low when she did speak again. She knew they'd not seen eye to eye on this kind of stuff after the stocks incident but that didn't mean that Mazie wanted to keep it from Autumn. Mazie didn't want to keep anything from Autumn if she could help it. "I'm not doing this to freak you out. I hope you know that. I just think…if something went so wrong that someone would try to escape and end up dying in the process, I think we deserve to know what's going on here. And what if there are people here that are trying to do some harm to other people. What if there's someone here who would want to do some harm to you? If I had access to the cameras, I have a better chance at stopping it."
"Mazie, I don't think everything you do has anything to do with me. It'd be pretty self centered for me to think that you were doing something to freak me out. I know you aren't. You're being you. And I understand what you're saying. Just...be careful. That's all I ask." she said lightly. "I don't want you to wind up gone one day, or hurt, or anything else. I want you right here."
"I think I could get by pretty happily with only doing stuff for you," Mazie said, trying to lighten the mood a little with a grin Autumn's way. It lasted a moment before she got back to the seriousness of their topic. "I don't want to be anywhere else. This is my favorite place in the world right now. And I promise I'll be careful, as careful as I can be." Taking a moment, Mazie just watched Autumn then reached up to stroke back a strand of hair. "I got pretty damn lucky here, having you care about me enough to want me to be careful."
Autumn smirked a little at Mazie's first comment, then settled in to listen more. She watched her eyes, just giving herself a moment to appreciate the circumstances. She was happy there. Her life wasn't where she wanted it to be but she wouldn't trade having met Mazie. She really liked her, really wanted to be around her as much as she could. She'd never been good at relationships, but Mazie made her want to try to be. So with that, she leaned in, to brush a kiss over Mazie's lips.
And Mazie was not going to keep jabbering when Autumn wanted to kiss her. She instead leaned up to pull herself closer to Autumn, shifting a little to make the kiss easier. Wrapping an arm around Autumn's neck, Mazie kept going with the kiss, even venturing a little more intensely into it than she had before. She would never understand how she'd managed to find Autumn, someone who cared enough about her to even want to do this, to be here with her, but she was not complaining.