She wasn't exactly new. Autumn had been working at Maverick for a month already before he'd seen her go all deer whisperer in that parallel Ashdown. He'd shared the same air with the woman for close to fifteen shifts and they'd never had a substantial conversation. Well, today was his first day back at work this week, his first shift since the world had gone tits up, and he sure as s**t was going to start a conversation today.
It helped that Gloria and Christian were out sick and that Stanley didn't give a crap if he blew smoke right in their customers' faces, let alone chatted with other employees. He knew Gloria didn't care either—at least about the chatting, not the smoke—but Rabbit was always conscious of how he presented himself in front of his boss. He really didn't want to get fired, even if his back alley eight ball fortune had assured him he wouldn't.
He waited until it was nearly closing time before swiveling his chair to face the stylists instead of the front door.
"Hey."
Conversation started.
Moonstone BeDazzle
Posted: Wed Mar 30, 2016 2:32 pm
It was damn good Autumn hadn't missed any work with Other Ashdown s**t, considering how new she was to the salon. She'd simply laughed over the jokes about partying too hard that night, and offered up the explanation of binge watching House of Cards. That Kevin Spacey, man. If the devil ever took human form, she was pretty damn sure that was it. Gave her the heebie jeebies, and yet she couldn't stop watching that s**t.
Autumn cleaned up her last client for the day, brushing the hair off her neck and sending her on her merry way, when she heard a voice. She recognized Rabbit- they gave each other acknowledging head nods when they went by, and generally didn't hate each other's guts. All in all, it was a pretty healthy working relationship. But then the s**t with Otherworld happened, and Rabbit had been there, hadn't he?
"Hey yourself," She replied with a smile, turning her attention to focus fully on him. Autumn folded her arms in front of her, glad to be done with shitty tippers for the day.
"Yeah, right?" he said with a single wide-eyed nod, forcing himself to calm when he thought about how loony he probably looked. "I mean I'd heard about some disappearances and stuff, but I don't watch the news or go to Rider-Waite.. obviously... so..." He sat up straighter and leaned forward, his next words coming at a whisper. "That girl was thousands of years old." He was a little stuck on that. "And Pax and that bird? How did we even get there?"
His life had always been fairly average, as lives went. Nothing like this was supposed to happen to a person like him... ever.
Moonstone Dazzle
Posted: Fri Apr 01, 2016 2:29 pm
"Was she really? I thought... she was a high schooler," Autumn blinked, clearly having missed that little detail the last time she was there. Clearly, time passed differently in the Otherworld. She was gonna have to be really careful if she went back again, to not get thrown off in that magical timing s**t. Beyond the other magical s**t, time could get seriously spooky.
"Man, you know, I'm still trying to figure that one out. I get the old white guys- they were poking around in s**t. Same with Zac. But you and me?" Autumn frowned, and shrugged a bit.
"No offense, we're... pretty ******** normal. Why us? Beyond the fact you and I work here together, we don't have s**t in common with the rest of them. Hell, I just moved here a month or so ago."
"Well, she was, I think. Or is. But she said..." Or maybe she hadn't. Or maybe she'd been kidding. Hm. A girl willing to have her foot cut off probably had a pretty wacky sense of humor. Whatever. He supposed it didn't matter. Heliodora had made it quite clear that she was where she needed to be no matter how old she was, and he was unbelievably fine with that. Really.
"But anyway, yeah. I've got no idea. I only recognized one or two people who were there and I can't think of much we might have in common with them either. I moved to Ashdown a couple of years ago, but I think some of them have lived here forever." He paused for a breath, then asked, "Do you feel any different or anything?" He'd had that weird moment with the cigarette that he couldn't seem to forget, but that couldn't have been more than a coincidence. Eventually his subconscious would agree. "And is that picture still on your phone? If you don't mind me asking." Besides her impressive Paxtervention, taking a selfie with the deer had been one of the stranger things he'd seen that day, partly amusing (in hindsight) but mostly dangerous. The picture itself was also proof that it had all happened, though he wasn't in denial that it had anymore. He kind of just wanted to see it.
Moonstone Dazzle
Posted: Tue Apr 05, 2016 10:22 am
"Yeah, from what I could tell, the old gays were in this mess balls deep. Their not-son is a super sweet kid," Autumn replied, nodding to herself. She'd admittedly run the thought through her head several times, since their return. There was just... nothing. Zip, Zadda, Zilch. No racial connection, no time spent in Ashdown... they just grabbed whoever and dropped them off in the magical ******** mean... Sometimes I feel a little spark? But it's nothing like, life shattering." She'd also thrown herself entirely into work and pretending nothing had happened, so there was that. If anything peculiar had occurred, point blank, Autumn had probably straight up ignored it.
"Oh! I do, actually," Autumn cheerily responded, digging up her phone and grabbing the picture. Honestly? It was a damn cute photo. Her eyebrows were great, lips were great... Pax seemed a little bewildered but that was okay! They were there, and that was proof enough.
"It's actually going wild on Instagram right now. It's pretty funny, really."
He wished he had no idea who she was talking about, but he recalled those two old men all too readily, considering one of them had provoked the damn deer into flaming on. He still didn't know which one of the others was their not... son, but he stored away the fact that they had one, whatever it was, pressing his lips into a tight line when he realized what he was doing. He didn't want a damn mental dossier on these people. He just wanted to be left alone. Sort of. Maybe.
Rabbit was not invited to continue his train of thought when Autumn brought out her phone, and for that he was grateful. He leaned forward and looked at the picture, his momentarily dour countenance turning curious. There was Pax all right, but what drew his eye first was Autumn. Surely she hadn't looked that put together after the mystery wave and the mud and everything else? That was just... weird.
"You put it on Instagram?" he said with a grin. And here he'd been trying to hide the whole thing. He supposed all those flyers that had shown up made the denial that anything had happened a little pointless. "I wonder how Pax would feel about being internet famous."
Moonstone Dazzle
Posted: Sun Apr 10, 2016 6:33 pm
"You see my hair there? Damn right I put that thing on Instagram," Autumn beamed, rather pleased with the picture herself. If there was one thing Autumn could do, it was take ******** flawless selfies. Even in the most dire of situations, she was on fleek. Even if Pax had magically grabbed her through Osmosis or... magic-Osmosis, whatever, her hair had survived the worst of it. Which was good, considering she worked in a salon and styled people up for a living.
"You know, I think they'd like it. I know everyone was scared of Pax, but they were pretty cool. Really just as scared as we were," she said, more to herself than to Rabbit. But then, she really hadn't seen him in the thick of what was going on. Maybe a rundown would put him in a better place to handle all the Harry Potter s**t going down.
"To be honest?" And why not? He was a bad liar to begin with and there had been enough people there to potentially call him on his behavior someday. "I was ready to s**t myself. I don't know about you, but before that moment I hadn't ever even been within five feet of a regular deer, let alone one that talked or spewed fire. I'm sure she's... they're fine and everything... they seemed to have a thing about telling the truth and that's good, but I was a little freaked out."
He might have been iffy on lying, but omitting the truth was usually all right in most situations, so he stopped there, failing to mention his brief one-sided tiff with Heliodora. She was fine where she was with her stump and her 32,000 birthdays.
"I mostly just watched. It was a lot to see and I didn't want what went on with Alexis to happen to me. You though... you were on it. Ashdown ambassador to the other side." He seemed to hear himself then, and he glanced around to make sure Stanley remained occupied elsewhere. "If I ever go back, I'll try channeling your calm for sure." It would be difficult, considering how terri-pissed he'd surely be, but he would definitely try. Better to pose for a couple of selfies than get a limb hacked off and like it.
Moonstone Dazzle
Posted: Wed Apr 20, 2016 10:12 am
"If I hadn't thought it was a dream, I wouldn't have done any of that s**t," she laughed quietly, shaking her head. The world was just a little bit (re: a lot of bit) different now that Autumn knew magic was real and a thing. That, and she was basically unable to escape from it. Really, she just hoped they'd get wands or some s**t to save their own asses. Or a way to defend themselves, or something. Optimistic as she was, Autumn had the feeling that not everything in Other Ashdown would be talked down or so easily appeased as Pax.
"Out of curiosity, how long have you lived here? With no offense, I kind of... didn't register that we existed together, you know? I was just trying to get money, make a living."
"None taken 'cause... same." Rabbit snorted. "I usually keep my head down at work. People like to fire me." He continued to grin, obviously not all that bothered by his statement when his boss was kind and happy with his work. "I don't talk to a lot of people for very long other than my sister and my sister's doctors. And Borr." And p***k, but he wasn't about to mention his full length, one sided conversations with his cat. "I've been in Ashdown for about three and a half years now and at Maverick about... four months? Maybe five?"
He was aware enough to know approximately when she'd first shown up to work, but beyond that he knew nothing about her. "Did you get into town around when you started here?" He didn't think she was a local, but it was possible.
Moonstone Dazzle
guess who is the worst IT'S ME and i know you're busy with skoo, so take all the time and good luck <3
Posted: Fri Apr 29, 2016 8:43 pm
"Man, I would be dead in the water if I got fired. I do NOT make enough money at my other job to just stay afloat there." Much as she loved Eve and saw the woman as her mother, Autumn couldn't ask for more hours or more money. It wasn't within Eve's ability, and it was something Autumn respected. And she'd be dead in the water before she asked anybody for help with her rent. So... she pulled extra shifts at the salon. Saw private clients here and there. It wasn't a big deal or anything.
"Well, you better get used to talking to me. Cause you can bet I'm gonna need someone with a decent sense of style to b***h at through all of this." She quirked a smile at Rabbit, cause hey. They were both in the beauty business. You had to have SOME sense about how to make yourself look to survive in this kind of field.
"I did, yeah. I'm here on my own, working here and the tea place. Eve is kind of my mom." With the most serious face in the world, Autumn added.
He hardly considered his sense of style anything to praise, but he supposed it was occasionally better than some. Rabbit snorted.
"Obviously," he said, grinning. He wasn't well acquainted with the people at Equinox—he wasn't well acquainted with anybody—but he'd passed by there often enough to know that unless their relations were distant, Autumn had no blood ties with the owner.
"I will. Get used to talking, I mean." He could talk a lot. It was quite possible she didn't know what she was getting into.
"Not now, you won't."
Stanley popped his head out of the back room near the sinks, cell phone pressed to his ear. "I've got places to be. Pack up and get going." It wasn't mean, just abrasive, as Stanley tended to be without Gloria to temper him.
Rabbit gave Autumn a look that clearly read, okay then, and reached to lift his coat off of the back of his chair. "Not now we won't," he repeated. "Tomorrow, though..." He nodded shallowly, smile still on his face. "Maybe I'll even stop by the tea place sometime."
Moonstone Dazzle
and then meta inspired me to necro/wrap this up this fo' realsies apologies for abrupt <3 closure is calling me
