watchpoint: confidential | {harper/ike}

watchpoint: confidential | {harper/ike} Jun 20, 2019 22:03:28 GMT -5

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Post by umber vivuus 12b 🥀 [dars] on Jun 20, 2019 22:03:28 GMT -5

In the hours since the others had gone to sleep, Harper had nearly dozed off more times than she could count. When the thought began to regularly cross her mind that they could all probably sleep at the same time and be fine, she forced herself onto her feet, tired eyelids forced open, even more tired legs forced into movement. Fayre and Elite had curled up on either side of her, neither touching her but both close enough to. She looked down at them, at the way Fayre's hair framed her face so neatly, at the way Elite's breathing hitched slightly every few breaths or so. Eos, much like Harper herself, was more comfortable alone. She slept several feet from them, facing away and only ever moving when her lungs were inhaling and exhaling air. She wondered if she would have been friends with them if she had ever gotten the opportunity.

There was a world where she and Fayre were going for a night swim right now, sand beneath their feet, salt in their hair. There was a world where she met Elite by hiring him as a tutor, and now every time they saw each other he was trying to summon up the courage to ask her to the school dance. There was a world where Eos was her coworker, who sometimes came over after work to play board games. Fayre had a habit of stealing food from Harper's plate, Elite made her laugh too easily, Eos went along with her lies without being asked.

She would have been friends with them, she decided, allowing a small smile to spill across her face.

Would have.

She climbed the fallen cubicles, forced to stand on the tips of her toes or even leap just to reach the next level on several occasions. Eventually, she was about twenty feet in the air, feet dangling off the edge as she watched. The air, somehow, was even more still here, and she could see further and better. Some of the caged critters above her stirred restlessly, some of the braver ones even peered in her direction. The lights from the floor glinted red or gold from their irises, annoyed with her for disturbing their slumber. She muttered to them a quiet apology before she noticed a certain pair of eyes staring back at her that looked different than the others. She rifled through her bag until she found a pair of night vision goggles. She slid them on and her breath caught for a short moment.

A human. A tribute.

Ike.

She was pleasantly surprised for several reasons. Namely, that he wasn't dead, that he didn't look injured at all, and that he'd managed to climb up this far without alerting her.

There was a moment when her hand grazed her gun and she considered it; she hadn't killed the boy from 11. If she let Ike go the Capitol might lose patience with her. But, if nothing else, Ike had been kind to her thus far. And his weapon didn't appear to be drawn. Truthfully, he could have kept going and remained undetected if he'd truly wanted to, Harper was sure. She was more than a monster for them; this would be a way for her to prove it.

"Hey," she whispered, but the words were lost in the staleness of the air. She held up a finger to him, a signal meaning something along the lines of I'll come to you.

She shimmied down and over, scaling the sides of the empty cages and cubicles until she was only a couple pods away from him she stopped.

"What's up, neighbor? Don't suppose you have a cup of sugar I could borrow?" she said, smirking at him.

watchpoint: confidential | {harper/ike} Jun 20, 2019 23:04:53 GMT -5

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Post by Kingston Cesaire D3A [Tom] on Jun 20, 2019 23:04:53 GMT -5

The lab is too quiet for him.

The cleanliness is a lot to take in compared to the rest of the arena. The glittering tiles on the ceiling or was that still the floor, either way, the tiles glittered against what lights there were. Loneliness fills his breath as he leans against the wall for support, the eyes of G.U.N.N.E were long gone, asleep, if he had to guess. Actually, could robots sleep? He didn't know, but he was going to assume that's what G.U.N.N.E was doing. Klein was probably watching him, all alone in this room of supplies and creatures terrifying. Worries of sleep seem to echo across his skin, but the fear of one of those creatures escaping set him on the edge of worry.

Death to a mutt would be worse than a tribute.

Tributes had the heart to make it quick.

Ike had been alone for such a long time in the lab, but fate decided to invite four more to his hiding place. Not that they noticed him, huddled up in a corner across the room from them. Ike knew who they were, District Four was easy to discern from the rest. A silence fills him as he almost dares to get up and run away, but instead he lays low with his breath softly hitting the air, ignoring the way they talk and walk. The games had started. Blue's dead body floating in the air reminded him, there were no friends in this place. Ike O'Nyle could die at any point.

Time passes in his tiny corner to himself, doodling with the stylus, drawing absolutely nothing. Deleting the pictures he draws and starting on a new one seems to pass time long enough where the others go to sleep. A calm sigh leaves his body before he calmly stares at them from across the room. Eos, Elite, Fayre, and Harper were across the room, all of which were strong in their own ways. Eyes glance to the glass nests where the robots sleep, focusing on the silent hum of electronics in the room. The light of his watch comes on and off with every message through general before finally, quieting to a silence.

All it takes is a glance back at the other group, before he knows he has been caught red handed in this room. The vibrant blue wouldn't hide him forever in these cubicles. Pack held close to his side, he stares for an obscene time before her voice comes through the air in a whisper, almost terrifying, but also friendlier than he had expected.

"Hey," A moment passes as he just watches, frozen among the white of the walls. Static ears crackling against his silence before she waves a finger, moving closer to him. The words that leave her lips makes him feel less on edge than before. "What's up, neighbor? Don't suppose you have a cup of sugar I could borrow?" The smirk she gives him fills him up with relief. Relief for his own life to be spared for now.

Sugar?

An odd request, even for a tribute, but who knew what she had or wanted. A moment passes as he looks through his bag, at the MRE, the firewood, the matches, and all the other things he had picked up in the lab and cargo hold. Nothing sweet to be found. Turning back to her, he shrugs and speaks in a whisper to her.

"Don't have any sugar for you, sorry Harper."

A smile pulls on his lips as he glances back over to the robots who are now more intently listening to them. Their glass nests resting gently in the wreckage as if they had eggs in the piles. Robot eggs don't sound as appetizing as he wish they did. A moment of staring before he sits up a little straighter and looks back to Harper's allies. She was not alone, unlike him. The edge of worry eats away at his stomach before he speaks again.

"I'm just here, avoiding you and your friends. I was here first, but I don't mind sharing."

A moment of awkward smiles.

"Just uh, mind the robots?"

Finger pointing towards G.U.N.N.E and the others in their glass nests.

"Dunno if they're friendly or not."