Mazie | LORE (_lore_) wrote in rrinitiative, @ 2012-11-17 12:35:00 |
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Entry tags: | day eight, eric, eric and mazie, mazie |
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Who: Eric and Mazie
Where: Kitchen
When: Afternoon
After a surprisingly pleasant experience meeting Jeremy, Mazie had dove into her work on the game. She still wasn't finished, but she'd gotten to a stopping point when her stomach had growled too much for her to keep focusing. She was close enough to the kitchen for now that she figured she might as well take a break and grab some more nourishment before diving back into the game again.
She sure as hell wasn't cooking anything, though, so out came the bread, peanut butter, and jelly. She made herself two sandwiches, thinking she was less likely to actually eat dinner when she got into the real heavy-duty work on the wires and the extra food right now would be something she'd be happy to have eaten later that evening. Pouring a glass of milk, Mazie pulled herself up on the counter and took a big bite out of one sandwich, legs swinging through the air only to have her heels hit the counter and bounce off again in the process.
While prior to prison Eric might have thoroughly enjoyed this whole not having any kind of schedule or real direction thing, he had to wonder how long it would take before it got to him here. After talking with Reece, he'd gone wandering again, not at all surprised when he ended up back in the music room. Talking about teaching Reece had put the itch to play again, and he managed to blow through a couple hours. After that, he'd returned to his room for a little bit, checking through his clothes to see if he had anything to swim in later, and then dicking around on the computer for a bit. Eventually he realized that he was hungry again, which was another thing to get used to. There were no scheduled mealtimes here, no getting in line with a tray at a specific time to get a pathetic helping of tasteless crap. At least he'd managed to remember to eat so far, it wasn't really a guarantee without having someone tell him to go eat.
When he wandered into the kitchen, it was actually a decent hour for lunch, and he was in a pretty good mood all around. He gave the blonde sitting on the counter a smile as he went to the fridge. There had to be something he could reheat in there, right? Not really, he decided as he closed the door and gave the blonde a speculative look. "Y'know, I'm thinking you've got the right idea there. Sandwiches are always a good fail-safe," he commented as he went to grab a plate and make his own. They'd probably get old eventually, but for right now, sandwiches were practically a five star feast.
Mazie watched him, pleased that he didn’t ask her what she was eating like some people might have thought to do. It seemed stupid when they could obviously see her eating a sandwich. She looked at him again, realizing she hadn’t actually met him yet, and tilted her head. Maybe today was the day she could get by with being a little more social too, even try and be nice to another person here.
“I figured I’d give the Spaghetti-O’s a break. Probably shouldn’t eat them for every meal anyway.” She took another bite of her sandwich, chewed and swallowed before speaking again. “ ‘m Mazie. Who’re you?”
Eric stopped in the middle of opening the package of bread to look at her with jokingly wide eyes. “Wait a minute! You’re telling me there’s Spaghetti-O’s in there?” he asked with exaggerated excitement. He seemed to consider it for a minute before sighing and shaking his head just a bit. “Maybe I’ll break those out tomorrow,” he decided, continuing on with making his lunch. “Eric,” he introduced himself. “It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
“I’m telling you there were Spaghetti-O’s there. Now they’re all in my room.” Well, not all of them, but a lot. Looking back his way, Mazie watched him. “So, Eric, did you get paired up by The Man today to meet someone new?”
Gasping, Eric pressed a hand to his chest as if in shock. “You hoarded all the Spaghetti-O’s? And you brought them up. Such a tease,” he accused, but there was no real upset in his tone, and he was grinning at her. “In a way. I think they messed it up though, cause I’d already met him. How ‘bout you?” he asked
“Hey, it’s fair game. I know how to survive. I usually barely make it down to the kitchen, so I grab as many non-perishables as I can and store them in my room. I’d consider trading you a Spaghetti-O for something else, if you have anything to trade.” She wasn’t about to tell him that he could easily find some in the cabinet. Maybe she’d get something out of this, even if just another good person to know in this place. “Yeah, I met him today, first time. Surprised to see that The Administration is making mistakes...But maybe they just want you to think that it’s a mistake.”
Eric chuckled at that, shrugging at the offer. “I’d trade you something, if I had anything to trade, but I don’t. That’s all right. They have to restock stuff at some point, right?” he posed cheerfully. “Don’t even have any marketable skills, unless you wanna learn to play an instrument. They got the music room pretty well stocked.” But then trading lessons for spaghetti-o’s didn’t really seem like a fair trade. He wasn’t really that worried about getting some, though. “Maybe. We figured they probably just found us entertaining, and we’d only talked for a few minutes the one time before,” he admitted, shrugging. “So, who’d you meet?” he asked curiously.
“Not opposed to learning an instrument. What do you know?” She took another bite of her sandwich and then shrugged. “Maybe if I like you enough, I’ll gift you some of my Spaghetti-O’s. As for me, I met Jeremy. Tall dude, fedora, kinda classically handsome. Pretty cool dude. Who were you meeting?”
“Guitar, violin, bass, few others but probably not well enough to teach them,” he answered, shrugging one shoulder as if it was no big deal. And to him it really wasn’t. “Ahh, Jeremy,” he said, smile going a bit mischievous. He wasn’t really sure whether or not the guy had just been humoring him, but he’d liked that he hadn’t told him to shut up and go away. “Met up with Reece. Kinda brooding, hangs out in the courtyard smoking.” His lips twitched in amusement as he described Reece. He was glad, at least, that they seemed to have reach some kind of understanding.
"Impressive," She said in regards to his musical talents. "So if I were going to play an instrument, which one of those would be most…me?" She asked, looking back at him. "Judging just by my appearance, as we've only just met."
She grinned at little when he described Reece. "Sounds about right." She realized internally that she hadn't actually gotten to hang out with him and found it humorous to have a virtual relationship with someone while they were both confined to the same area. She might need to change that soon.
At the question, Eric paused what he was doing to look her over consideringly. “Hmm, just on looks alone? I could see you rocking out a fiddle - country rock style,” he finally answered, though he wasn’t completely confident in the answer. His eyebrows went up a little when she agreed with his assessment of Reece. “You know him, then?” he asked.
She grinned at that. “See, I was gonna say fiddle. It’s the coolest instrument of those three, don’t let anyone tell you it’s really guitar. Sure, that’s a backbone of any good band, but where I’m from, you gotta have a fiddle in the band. Think there’s a song about that too...” She shrugged. “I’d take lessons, if you’re offering them. Willing to trade you something too for them. I like this barter system thing.”
About Reece, she shrugged. “Not technically. It’s funny, we haven’t met in person yet but we seem to talk a lot over the journals here. Kinda cool, reminds me of home somewhat.”
Eric let out a little whoop of laughter when he’d pegged the right instrument for her. “Alabama,” he supplied when she mused about that being a song. “Yeah, I can try to teach you. Violin’s not the easiest, but I learned it a little later. I have a knack for string instruments, though. Can pick out some stuff on the piano, but I’m a lot better with others,” he admitted. “So, what do you have to barter with?” he asked curiously, because Spaghetti-O’s really weren’t going to cut it if he was going to teach her violin.
“Ah, yeah, I get that. Didn’t have a computer of my own until I was in college, and even then it was a piece of shit, but it’s kind of awesome to have one here. So, where are you from?” He wasn’t the best with pinpointing accents even before prison, but he thought hers seemed kind of southernish.
“Well, you’re looking at a pretty damn good hacker, if I do say so myself. I can teach you just about anything you’d want to know on a computer. That sounds real pretentious, saying that out loud...” She mused, taking another bite of her sandwich. She did smile though about his story of not having one. “Parents bought me one after years of begging for it for Christmas one year. Was the only Christmas gift I got for..many a year after that. But you learn to work with whatcha got. You’d be surprised with what you can do with a little knowledge and a crappy computer...and the internet.” She watched him for a moment and then smiled again. “West Virginia, born and raised. You?”
“Hacker, huh?” Eric replied, eyebrows raised a bit. He’d been lucky enough to figure out MySpace, so he could respect the skills she had to have developed to become an, in her own words, pretty damn good hacker. “That’s cool though, that they finally got it for you. And hell, if you’re that great with one, I don’t think I’d have even complained at not getting anything else for a while. Know what it’s like to come from a family that can’t afford shit.” He said it with a smile, though, because it just wasn’t something he saw a point in being angry at the world over. “Vermont, born and raised.”
“Definitely didn’t complain. Best gift I ever got and I knew exactly how much it cost them to get it, so I’m lucky they even got it for me.” She was having a hard time remembering her first computer without also remembering her parents and wondering how her father was. Instead of dwelling, she just looked back up at him and smiled again. “Vermont, huh. Cool, probably a lot colder than where I’m from..though I was near some mountains so I get cold spells too but just probably not as much as you did up there. So do I have the necessary skills to trade for fiddle lessons?”
Eric grinned in understanding, but didn’t comment further on the whole gift thing. The whole concept struck a bit too close to home, and he really didn’t want to start thinking about his own family. He chuckled when she went on about the cold, nodding slightly. “Yep, we got some cold up there. And hmmm...” He paused, pretending to consider her, dragging it out for a few beats before breaking out in a wide smile. “Yeah, sure. You teach me shit with the computer, and I’ll teach you how to play the fiddle. Can’t promise to be any good a teacher or student, but hell, it’s a way to pass the time, right?” And somehow he’d managed to agree to teach two people how to play instruments in one day. But he did still think it would be a good way to pass the time.
“I can’t promise I’ll be good at being a teacher or a student either, but hell, I’m willing to try,” She said with a smile. Plus that’d be pretty badass, learning how to play the fiddle. Maybe she’d even be passable at it, if she could convince herself to dedicate the time to practicing it that she had to working on her computer. “You play any video games, Eric?” She asked, hopping off the counter to go wash her plate.
“Looks like we’re in the same boat, then,” Eric said with a crooked grin. It was bound to be interesting, in any case. He wasn’t really sure what she might teach him to do with the computer, but there was no harm in learning a new skill, right? “Video games? Yeah, I guess. Been years, though. Been locked up six years and they didn’t exactly let us have Playstations in our cells,” he pointed out in a rather amused tone.
“It’s like riding a bike,” Mazie smiled at him as she put the dish in the drying rack and turned to look back his way. “You could probably pick them right back up again. What’d you like to play before prison?” Maybe she should ask why he was in here, but their conversation was light and it was almost nice to have a light conversation for once instead of one that was totally focused on damning The Man. Not that it might not go that way at some point but for now, this was nice.
“Probably!” Eric agreed with a smile. He picked up his sandwich and took a large bite from it, chewing as he thought on the question. “Still remember the early Mario. One of the few things my parents did splurge on when I was a kid.” And they’d made damn sure he and his siblings took care of that Nintendo. “Other than that? God, I couldn’t tell you. Don’t even remember what games were out back then.” Cause he’d been high almost the entire time he’d played games in college.
“Early Mario is great, one of the best game franchises out there. Who knew we’d all love a plumber as much as Mario?” She asked, smiling a little more. “I’m partial to the classics too. Space Invaders, Asteroids...really, a lot of space-themed things. We’ve got a Space Invaders game I’m working on making accessible to people. I’ll let you know when it’s running, if you want to give it a shot sometime.” He seemed nice enough that she could trust him around the game. They seemed to have that same respect for expensive objects.
“Hell yeah!” Eric agreed about Mario, laughing a bit. He kept on smiling as she listed off some games, nodding a bit. “Shit, yeah, I saw that in the cafeteria. That’s pretty kick ass, and yeah, it would be awesome to give it a go. What are you doing with it?” he asked, not really sure how she would be making it accessible, though he realized that he was probably missing something really obvious.
"I'm working with the wiring to make it free for all to play. Instead of having to put in quarters, you'd just press the start button and the game would start. It's taking a lot longer than I expected, though, because I don't want to screw it up and then have nothing to fix it with. So I'm working on it. Tomorrow I hope to have it up and running." She smiled his way again. "We’ll see if I can actually get it done by then though."
Eric’s eyebrows rose, surprised and impressed as she explained what she was doing. “Seems like a big undertaking. You were probably the type that took things apart just to figure out how to put them back together, huh?” he guessed with a crooked grin. The thought amused him.
"Can't learn how to fix it if you don't take it apart," Mazie said, shrugging a little. She grabbed a cup, filled it with water, and took a long sip of it before turning back to Eric with a smile again. "Don't tell me you didn't do the same with some of your stuff..."
There really was no arguing that logic, and Eric just shrugged a little as well. “Not really,” he replied honestly. “Never really was the handy type. But that’s cool that you were.” He definitely didn’t fault her for being like that, especially coming from a poor family. You either fix what got broke or you went without. His dad had been really good at fixing shit, he remembered, but he didn’t really want to think about his dad, so he pushed the thought away.
Mazie smiled again. "I'm about to head back. You're free to come hang out for a while if you want. It's probably boring if you aren't doing anything, but hey, who am I to say what's interesting or not?" She asked, finishing off her water before washing the cup and putting it in the drying rack as well.
Eric set his sandwich down to put everything else away, then grabbed his plate. “Yeah, sure, couldn’t hurt to hang out and watch. Give you someone to groan with if the thing gives you a hard time,” he pointed out with a little half-smirk as he headed to the cafeteria with Mazie.