Mazie had made no attempt to get up and go back to her room in the middle of the night. Where else would she rather be than tucked safely in Autumn’s bed, wrapped in arms and covers? She’d slept flat on her stomach and hard as a brick and when she woke up, it was from a heavy slumber, the kind that lingered a little longer than necessary. Her voice was thick when she spoke, eyes still a little bleary as she moved her hands around out beside her to feel first if Autumn was in the bed. “...Autumn?”
Autumn had gotten up a little earlier, mostly because Mazie was sleeping very hard--and on her stomach. Being they only had a twin bed, that didn't leave overly much room for her. Sure, it was possible and she had slept part of the night there, but she'd had to lay on her side, and eventually she needed to move. So, she'd gotten up, taken a quiet shower, and was just pulling her shirt over her head to finish getting dressed when Mazie finally stirred. She smiled, walking over to her. "Hey, sleepyhead." she said warmly, voice full of affection.
"Mornin'."Mazie was able to take stock of her surroundings and realized in the process that she was definitely taking up as much of the bed as she possibly could. Feeling automatically guilty, she looked back up at Autumn, smiling a little as she shifted onto her side, pulling the blanket with her since her clothes were still somewhere else, forgotten from before. "We definitely need our beds together if I'm gonna be a mattress hog. Sorry."
Laughing lightly, Autumn just grinned. "You're lucky you're so hot." she teased, pinching Mazie's shoulder lightly, but she bent to place a little smooch where she'd pinched. "Don't worry about it. You certainly aren't the first person who decided the middle of the bed was the way to go." she added playfully. "I'm just happy you got good sleep!"
She made a face at the pinch but getting a kiss for it made it worth the discomfort. "Well you shoulda kicked me off. I feel bad that you probably had horrible sleep with me hogging' everything." She did lean closer to Autumn, though, and pressed a kiss to her cheek. She wanted to kiss her full on but she was positive she had morning breath and didn't want to subject Autumn to that. But she settled back down, forearm propping her head up slightly as she watched Autumn's face. "I like this, waking up like this."
"Oh, I wouldn't say 'horrible'." Autumn said, going to grab her brush from the bathroom, and she sat at the computer to run it through her hair. "I think it was just fine." she told her, believably. At Mazie's last comment, Autumn's features softened all the more. "Aww. That's so sweet." she said. "I do too. It was nice to wake up and just watch you sleeping for a little while. I know, very 'Twilight' of me, but still."
"Well, I get to watch you now," She said, pulling the blanket up a little more around her chest and fluffing the pillow until she was comfortably on her side just watching Autumn. "Just promise I won't have to start worryin' about you sparkling in the sun and we're all good." She stretched her legs out a little under the covers, wanting to have her fingers running through Autumn's hair instead of that brush. "Do we have power back yet? Because..this might be the first time I've ever said it but I think I could do with another powerless day, as long as it's with you."
"You've seen me in the sun!" Autumn told her, giggling. "Besides, if I was a vampire, I would have had the perfect opportunity to drain you dry last night, and yet I refrained. So, I think we're all safe." she said. "And yeah, the power's back on." she said. "Sadly. Can't say I minded the whole 'no cameras' thing."
"Wouldn’t that be a good way to go," Mazie asked, smiling a little as she shifted and sat up, pulling the blanket up around her. She looked back over at the computer near Autumn and sighed. "Did they say anything?" It was hard for her to keep the distaste out of her tone in even referring to them, especially in here. This place was nothing short of holy and even the thought of them prying in on her and Autumn made Mazie a little sick.
She pulled herself and the blanket out of bed and came over to Autumn's side, leaning against the desk to look back at her. Using the blanket as a shield, she kept her voice low. "I'm gonna get those cameras under control, sooner or later. Promise."
Autumn wasn't sure how to answer that. She liked the idea of there being no cameras in at least the bedrooms and the like, but...she was absolutely not sold on the idea whatsoever that cutting off the only people with authority and maybe stun guns or whatever else could be needed to stop a prison riot. That didn't seem great to her. She said nothing, instead finally clicking the blinking messages, so Mazie and she could read them.
That…was not good. Autumn wasn't saying anything and it had Mazie a little on edge. Had she said something wrong? She knew Autumn wasn't exceedingly happy with Mazie playing cat and mouse with the Administration here, but she'd thought this was a pretty good reason to get the cameras under control.
Still, she'd clicked something on the computer and Mazie felt compelled to read it, which she kind of hated initially. Stupid Administration, breaking up her morning with Autumn. The first message was strange enough and had her rolling her eyes, but the second one gave Mazie a surge of nausea. "…What the hell… They can't be serious…"
Autumn looked visibly unhappy then. "That...I can't like that." she said. "Do you think they would actually get rid of someone? Or are they just trying to see who's unpopular? That's awful. I really don't appreciate that kind of thing."
"What's next, are they gonna have us fight to the death, Gladiator-style? This is bullshit…" Shaking her head, Mazie wanted to look away, but instead she found herself scouring the words on the message, trying to find an out. She didn't want to participate in this shit but what if she didn't and they took Autumn away? "I hate this…I still feel like they're playing games with us. How are we supposed to be a community if we're voting people off the island already?"
"That's a bit of a leap..." Autumn said quietly. She looked at Mazie, and didn't say anything for a moment. "I don't know." she said finally. "But maybe there's a reason. I don't like it, I think it's...ill advised at best, but I don't pretend to hold a degree in...whatever you would need to even attempt putting together something like this. I'm unhappy, yes. But...I don't know. And it didn't say anyone would get 'voted off'. Just to choose."
"They don't say a lot of things around here and shit keeps happening," Mazie said quietly, looking back at her. "I don't even want to engage but what happens if I don't and they try to take you away or something? We don't know what they even want this information for other than to fuck with our heads and turn each other against us. I mean…" She kept her voice down again, leaning closer to Autumn's ear so she could try and hide what she would be saying next. "I'll be able to monitor who people choose but what good does it really do us, you know?"
Autumn was struck again with the fear she'd been trying to keep a lid on since their first disagreement. How Mazie saw the world, how she approached authority, it was clearly coloring her entire view of everything here too. And it was obviously getting darker and darker.
She had a lot she wanted to say, there, but she didn't want to get Mazie in trouble. She didn't want anyone to overhear either, and as such, she bit her tongue, literally. She merely looked at Mazie, not sold on...well. Anything.
Mazie watched Autumn and frowned, feeling a lot like she was letting her down. She'd been trying to be good, really she had, but she needed to get these cameras under her control, especially now with the Administration doing this crap. That and if she ever wanted any real, private alone time with Autumn again, the cameras needed to be hers. The look she gave Autumn was apologetic and half confused. What did she do now? "I won't," She offered. Just because she could didn't mean she had to, right? Maybe that would help? "I'm just…I'm scared of this, Autumn. I've been scared of this and stuff like this ever since the stocks."
"And so am I, but--" she started, but cut herself off again. But fucking baiting people and cracking into the system to become Big Brother yourself isn't going to help anything! How do you possibly think it will!? went through her mind, but she bit it back. "I think I need to go for a walk." she said, pushing her chair back to stand.
This was…not good. Very not good. She didn't want Autumn to go for a walk, she wanted Autumn to look at her like she had this morning. Her heart sank as she sat there, feeling foreign again for the first time in what seemed like ages. She wasn't good with people and here she was, being not good with the one person she wanted to be great for. But how did she tell her not to go if Autumn wanted to? "…Alone?" She ended up asking, hating that she felt like she already knew the answer.
Nodding, Autumn leaned closer, and gave Mazie a light kiss, knowing she was probably freaking out right now. She didn't want that, but at the same time, she needed to work her head out. She needed a little time to figure out how she felt. About everything, and what if anything she could or would do about it. "Don't worry, okay?" she murmured. "I won't be gone forever or anything."
The kiss registered really strangely in Mazie's head. Half of her was relieved that Autumn still wanted to kiss her, but the other half felt it knew the difference in the way Autumn kissed her before and right then and she wanted to get back to a place where the kisses were like the ones before. "…Do you want me to go?"
Autumn shook her head. "No. You can hang out here as long as you want. Mazie...you aren't unwelcome here, and you're never going to be, okay? I just need a little bit of time to clear my head." she said, knowing it was probably worrisome, but it also shouldn't have been an unreasonable request.
Somehow she felt they'd gone from talk of pushing their beds together into one room to maybe making a big step backward and she was positive it had to do with her. Maybe some time to clear her own head would be good too. So she nodded to Autumn and pushed off the table to stand up again. "Ok, I'll…uh…I'll see you later then. I think I'll probably end up back in my room. Shower, change of clothes, all that. I'll come by later?"
"Okay." Autumn said, genuinely. She headed to the door, and paused just outside of it. "I'll see you later." she said, as more of a promise to ease Mazie's mind than anything else. She'd make sure she saw her.
Mazie nodded at Autumn and only when she was out of the room did she start to really freak out. In a flurry, she grabbed her clothes from the night before and awkwardly put them on, her shirt twisted around herself somehow but Mazie didn't care enough to stop it. As an afterthought, at the door, Mazie went back and grabbed the sheet she'd been wrapped in and had discarded on the floor. She put it back on Autumn's bed, flattened it out a little, and then headed out the door and back to her room for now.