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 Posted: Thu Jun 23, 2016 7:24 pm
He’d been out of the loop too long, on a level he new and understood that. He’d needed the time away for more than one reason. The run in with the were-wolverines had left him in the Hospital for a time, even with Autumn’s magic. After that they had more or less gotten moved into the new place, and..well. He’d hid, from almost everything but work and books. Chewing the edge of his thumb had escalated to chewing his fingernails- he needed to find something better to hold on to so it felt less like everything has, or was slipping through his fingers. He organized his old notes, a new bigger notebook, and fresh clean lined papers. He wrote down the things he knew, up to, and including what parts he knew of how things had gone in the Library after the Job fair. He left a blank page and a half to fill in if he could get answers. But it felt, solid in his hands. He worked at his lip, worrying it with his teeth and tapped the pen on the paper. Answers, answers helped… He gathered his things and moved to the common area to see if Autumn was up for answering a few questions. He knew part of her story, but not all. “Hey… Autumn?” He said holding the notebook to his chest. “I’m trying to um, I’m back trying to record things that have happened with people in Other Ashdown. Do you mind if I just like… interviewed you?”
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Posted: Fri Jun 24, 2016 6:14 pm
"God, Zac, how dare you. Asking me to answer questions." Autumn theatrically rolled her eyes, looking up to stare at him pointedly. Clearly, she was entertained. She offered him a gentle smile, closing her laptop and giving him her full attention. Much as she was keen to spend her day off looking at jewelry she couldn't afford and browsing for new makeup tips, this was important to Zac. And she wasn't going to ignore that.
"Want me to make us some tea, and you can start the questions?" She didn't wait for his response, instead going to the open kitchen and at least starting herself a pot. Regardless of if Zac wanted any or not, Autumn was damn sure getting a cup. She couldn't function in the day to day, even on her days off, without caffeine in her blood. Sweet, sweet caffeine. Honestly, she had no idea how people survived without it.
Their loss.
"So fire away, babe! I'm listening."
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Posted: Fri Jun 24, 2016 6:30 pm
“God yes… tea would be, tea would be AMAZING.” He said with an enthused nod. He found himself a comfortable seat, which meant something of a sprawl with one knee hooked over a chair arm and the notebook resting on it. “B…Basically, I’m just trying to, to do a better log of people’s experiences in the…Other Ashdown. I had a log sort of started before but, I know I’m missing things people have experienced and I thought if we sort of wrote things down maybe eventually we might notice something we hadn’t before. I mean, we might not…there might still be stuff I don’t know… or people can’t say for reasons but, we might get closer.” He waved his hand trying to encompass the whole of the things he was trying to explain. He knew she’d understand. He knew she got the whole of it but sometimes he just could not stop running his mouth. “… I am shutting up I really am, um I mean other than questions.” He added and then sighed. “Um… OK!... so um, what was the first experience you had with Ashdown and…how did you get there?”
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Posted: Fri Jun 24, 2016 7:43 pm
"That's a good idea," Autumn agreed, nodding along gently. Her focus was on the tea, pouring the water gently over the leaves. Only... at the question of how she had gotten there, Autumn SCOWLED.
"Have I really not told you this story?! Holy s**t. Okay. So here's how it goes," Autumn started, brow furrowed angrily at the tea, as it was the nearest thing. "I wake up, lazy day, and I've got an email that my bath bombs from Lush are at my apartment's mail center. I'm like, great! Great way to destress after a hard week of job hunting. Step out the door, and BOOM. There I ******** am, grey and dreary as can be Other Ashdown."
She pursed her lips.
"Then I met up with Chris, and we found the group, and... met Pax. And I think you know it from there." Autumn looked up to Zac, just the faintest twitch in her eye.
"Next question?"
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Posted: Fri Jun 24, 2016 7:57 pm
“… I think we mostly started talking –after-you scared the loving crud out of me when you talked to Pax that first time.” He gave a nervous chuckle. “… Sorry… I know that was maybe sort of partly my fault, I’ll find a way to make it up to you with the bath bombs?” He gave a nervous grin and jotted down the circumstances and the rough date and time. “Umm… Second time?” He said glancing back up at her. “Sorry…if that was with me, but I mean, I feel like I must have missed some you know? If you want to tell me about um, I know Pax uh, visited you?” He arched his eyebrows cautiously. “… I’m probably going to say Sorry a lot, I swear if I could gain a lick of confidence, then people wouldn’t know what to do with me. Imagine me trying to be bossy?”
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Posted: Fri Jun 24, 2016 8:19 pm
"How different do you think life would be if I hadn't?" Autumn asked, thinking aloud to herself and Zac both. She would've never had a mentor... never become a healer. What would she be, then? What a strange, strange thought it was. Would Zac or Jeremiah or... any of them be in her life?
What would her first impression of Alexis REALLY have been?
"Second time... s**t, no, I went a couple of times before I went you. It's how I found Rosalinde, you know?" Autumn smiled a bit, remembering back. The nursing cat in Other Ashdown was now a permanent fixture, and all the kittens were with her friends. It was crazy.
"I think, sometimes you go when you NEED to go. You know? Like. There's something you're meant to face, or something you're meant to see. Or maybe I'm just being super reflective, who knows!"
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Posted: Fri Jun 24, 2016 8:32 pm
“Man, trying to imagine you on some different path in life.” He shook his head, scratched down some notes and paused again. The idea was just too strange. “… I wonder if …Ok this is going to sound so bad but, I wonder if Ashdown, like both sides of the town, would have…let you be different?” Sometimes, sometimes I feel like no matter what we do things still go… badly. Like finding that painting that is… me. But then again… Maybe it’s just a question of the choices we make on the way through, you know?” “Sorry…that was a bit of a tangent.” He admitted with a wince, but the fact of getting her cat though. That was interesting. “… Did anything-particular lead up to you going and finding her? I mean… She’s so, she’s so unique, and her kittens, man.” He shook his head in wonder. He took a breath and let it out… jotting idly what she’d told him. Notes with surprising organization because it wasn’t the first time he’d put together something like this, it was just the first time he’d heard some of these stories. “… If we need to, if we need to see things, what do you think we were supposed to see with those Were…creatures?” He furrowed his brow and looked at her worried.
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Posted: Sun Jun 26, 2016 7:38 pm
"That's not a weird tangent, you know? I've thought about that," Autumn admitted, looking down and kicking the floor with her foot. "It's a lot of my insecurity in relationships. Am. Am I dating people because fate is making me, and it's just supposed to happen? Or do I have any say in who I am, and who my friends are?"
Autumn looked back to Zac, a frown on her face. Were they just forced together by fate? Had they always been friends, in every timeline? Or was this different? It was... overwhelming. And not in the best way.
"And I mean, kind of? I'd been thinking about how sad I was to live alone... and then bam. Rosalinde. Her kittens gave me three really good friends, you know?" At this, she smiled again. "And then I moved in with you, and I'm double less lonely!"
As she brought over the tea, Autumn mulled over the question. She handed Zac his cup, and sat down.
"I think there's Moonwalkers who help us... and then ones who hurt us. So we're all susceptible to the gardener, in some way. We can be strong and help with what we're given, or we can be dangerous." She shrugged.
"My two cents, anyway."
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Posted: Sun Jun 26, 2016 8:08 pm
He took the cup of tea gratefully, bowing his head over the cup to take a deep breath of the fragrant brew. “… I think, I think all Ashdown needed you. I mean, yeah that might sound weird but… I really think we did. I think we needed most of the people who have, have appeared, but I think you, I don’t know maybe I needed you.” He shrugged. “Like…the way I needed Mogget, and he just sorta, hopped onto my shoulders and took over.” He gave a small laugh. “He may not grow flowers but…he’s remarkable.” “… Moonwalkers, you mean the um… the Were’s?” Yeah… I don’t, I feel like we can’t blame them for what they did anyhow. I mean, I wish there was a way to have fixed them, to do right by them. I just don’t have any useful skills that would…ugh.” He shook his head and then sipped the tea, closing his eyes and savoring the flavor of it. “mmmm… I um… I’m glad neither of us became an um, wolverine though.” He gave a nervous flicker of a smile. “…. Did I warn you about the pinching? I pinch people now, with my mind. It’s life… facebook pokes but maybe more irritating.”
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Posted: Tue Jun 28, 2016 4:47 pm
"I'm still... upset, I guess, about Michael. And everything that happened." For, supposedly, being a 'hero' and healing people, she had failed there. If she'd been conscious longer, done something different... maybe he'd still be here. Maybe she could've changed something. Fixed something. Maybe Heliodora and Pax wouldn't be on this path to their downfalls.
"I've actually been healing too much, turns out. With all the weres and s**t." She segued, looking down with a frown. Some power. If she couldn't even make that big of a different... ugh. But then, the stupid ******** joke of being wolverines. Christ.
"Would we have like, metal spines? And look like Hugh Jackman? I'm not sure I could rock the sideburns."
...And Zac was pinching now? She leveled him with a serious look.
"I will refuse to heal you like, ever, if you use that on me. Okay? Like I will let your scrawny little a** bleed out on the sidewalk somewhere, you little s**t." But she was grinning, despite herself.
"And hey, uh. If you hear like... anything about people's powers wearing them out, when you're making your little scrapbook, lemme know? Cause yeah. Trying to figure that s**t out."
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Posted: Tue Jun 28, 2016 5:24 pm
“Too much?” He tipped his head curious. “… What do you mean? What’s happening that you say that?” Was their anxiety in his voice when he asked that? Yes, yes-there bloody well was. What if it was eating at -her- life when she did this? Her threats about the pinch though, he had to grin. “Is that a promise?” He grinned. “I wouldn’t have to worry about you hurting yourself, even briefly with one little pinch?” He winked. “But…yeah, yeah I’ll absolutely ask around. I’m sure we can find something.” He was worried, really worried about her, about all his friends.
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Posted: Fri Jul 01, 2016 4:37 pm
"I'm just tired, that's all. Pax said I'm over-exerting myself. Like I'm working out too hard, you know? Only... magically." That's the way she'd taken it, anyway. APPARENTLY, she'd been doing more magic than other people. That was not something Autumn had seen coming, but... whatever.
She SCOWLED angrily at the promise of pinching.
"I have thrown you to the ground before, you little s**t. I will GLADLY do it again if you ******** facebook pinch me in real life. That is a promise AND a threat. You'd better take it seriously," She teased, genuinely glad that she and Zac could talk about the serious s**t and still joke around together. She took a sip of her tea, relishing the taste.
He was a damn good roommate.
"Don't drive yourself crazy, okay? I promise, I'm alright. Really."
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Posted: Fri Jul 01, 2016 5:37 pm
He gave a small laugh into the rim of his cup. “Yes mam, or…Mistress, or whatever you prefer.” He grinned expecting a good punch in the arm. “Besides, maybe I’m already crazy, maybe we all are, look at this mad house we live in. I mean, aren’t… mass dementias a thing? Imagine that? It all turns out later that there is an um, like a drug in the town water.” He chuckled softly. “… if it turns out there is we could give it any number of names. Heliodora, Sunny, OAD….” He shook his head marveling. “… I’d almost like it if that were true…” He let out a breath and touched the tip of one finger to the tea, wincing and pulling it back out before sucking the tea off his finger and then taking a sip. “Did you ever… have you…” he started to ask something and then shook his head. “Yeah… I need more sleep.” He grumbled.
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Posted: Tue Jul 26, 2016 2:29 pm
She did, in fact, punch Zac in the arm. Not too hard- the kid was practically made of glass- but a good slug between friends. Her smile was easy and lopsided, at ease with her unexpected bff and roommate.
"If this IS a drug, I want my money back. Worst drug trip ever," Autumn bemoaned, shaking her head. It was, also, the ONLY drug trip she'd ever been on if it was... but that wasn't really the point. The whole thing was too real to involve mind-altering substances. Or maybe it wasn't? They were called mind-altering for a reason.
Autumn was gonna be ******** pissed if she was on drugs without realizing it, though.
"Have I ever what?" She returned, sobering just a bit at the question. Typically, when Zac talked himself out of saying something, it was serious or bad. Sometimes both. Autumn set her tea down and folded her arms, leveling him with a look.
"Tell me or I'm gonna carry your scrawny a** to bed and make sure you ACTUALLY sleep. I'll sit on you if I have to." She was probably gonna do that anyway, but Zac didn't need to know that.
"You know you can tell me anything, baby."
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Posted: Tue Jul 26, 2016 2:59 pm
He took a breath and let it out, a deep weighty affair of a sigh. “I don’t know.” He murmured. “It’s hard to articulate, I’ve just felt like, “ He waved his hand sketching a vague shape in the air, or perhaps it was just him trying to capture words. Fingers closed on nothing and then drew back to the teacup. “I think it’s just the way things have been going, but I just feel like, like I’m going through the motions sometimes.” He said softly. “I can sit here and tell myself it’s because I am tired, or because I don’t feel like I’m making progress but, I guess, sometimes none of it feels real. I don’t know if I want it to feel real, but I want something to.” He shook his head and stared into the tea, dipping a finger into the hot beverage for a moment, testing the temperature or just an impulse.
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