why not?

The room was packed full of his fellow competitors, some seemingly well trained in the weapons they wielded, others looking as confused as he was. Osiris made his way over to an uninhabited station, approaching someone standing beside it, “Excuse me, but do you know how this works?”

@osirisantos

She planned to meet earlier with Osiris in the dining room of their penthouse suite. Since the Capitol was considered the most privileged, the tributes representing it got the best floor. 

Nevertheless, she was late. Dessert had already been served and she intentionally missed dinner in order to finish packing away all of her things. However, just as she walked in, she spotted Osiris sitting at the table alone as he continued eating away his dessert, probably still waiting on her.

Chardonnay came up from behind him and took a seat to his left, “Sorry,” she exclaimed, “I was unpacking all my stuff. I figured I might as well get it out of the way now since we have a busy week ahead of us.”

“Oh, um, don’t worry about it.” Truth be told, Osiris had forgotten about his meeting with the escort altogether. Though he instantly felt bad about it. Without any mentors for the Capitol, Chardonnay was probably the best chance he posed at getting out of the arena alive. “Yeah, you can say that again.” He agreed awkwardly. Thinking about his position only made him feel worse about it, but he knew he needed to face the music about his situation sooner rather than later.

“It’s no trouble,” Glitter replied while she shifted her daughter’s weight on her hip.  Then he told her his district and she nodded.  “Ah, so you aren’t too far from home.”  That had to be reassuring for him at least.  “I’m Glitter,” she introduced herself.  “Come with me and I’ll show you where the food is.”

“Nah, pretty close to what’s left of it, anyway.” He said instinctively, wincing when he realised that was probably oversharing. “Thank you, Glitter.” He said quickly, before realising he still had to introduce himself. “I’m Osiris.”

“I am,” she answered with a kind smile. “You’re the Capitol boy.” Ada didn’t phrase it as a question, knowing the faces of everyone destined to get between her or Jax winning the Games. None of them intimidated or frightened her, but the either or presented by there being only one winner did. “Have a snack, Osiris. Or better yet, tell me what the best stuff is. Since you’re the local.”

“That’s me, Osiris.” He introduced himself, extending a hand, hoping this would prompt the girl to further elaborate on who she was. He hadn’t had time to watch the reapings yet, or, more accurately, he didn’t have much interest in doing so. He figured anything he needed to know about his fellow tributes he would learn as he went along. “That, I can do. Where’d you get the strawberry from?” He asked.

KyAnne’s eyes were buried in an email from her and Trixanna’s lawyerwhen she ran into a hand. She startled and looked up. Brown eyes fell first on the boy and the. The peacekeeper behind him, subconsciously pulling at the sleeve of her sweater. It wasn’t like the T shaped scar on her wrist wasn’t common peacekeeper knowledge, but it still put her on edge. These games and the added security put her on edge.

“Uh… yea.” Murmuring when she realized she hadn’t answered him. “It’d be easier if I just showed you.” She offered, nodding down the hall to the elevators.

Originally posted by follow-voice

“Thank you, ma’am.” He nodded politely, following after the woman. He was pretty sure he recognised her as one of the Victors, but he couldn’t quite put a name to the face. 

“No problem,” he assured Osiris, smiling as he fell into step. The robot buzzed along behind them, a strange looming shadow.  “Good to meet you, I’m sorry about all of this. It can’t be easy, especially with your sidekick over there.”

“The tower’s got a weird layout, kind of, but you’ll notice soon that there’s more than one of everything,” Cyprian explained as they walked toward the cafeteria. “More than one food place, more than one coffee booth, more than one bar. So once you find one of something, then stick with it. And of course, everything you need is in your District’s suite, too. It took me some time to get used to it, but thankfully I had my fiance to show me around.” 

“Yeah.” He laughed listlessly, “Had kind of resigned myself to prison forever, wasn’t really expecting this curve ball.” On the one hand, he guessed he should be happy he was given a chance to live outside of the prison walls, on the other, he was more than likely going to die. Odd, how that went, that the Games were almost becoming the lesser of two evils. “Ah, he’s not too bad. Hasn’t given me too much attitude yet.”

“That’s... confusing.” He admitted, why they needed so much of everything here was beyond him, surely if just annoyed people rather than helping him. Of course, criticising the layout of the Tower was the least of his problems right now. “Your fiance? Do they work here, too?” Osiris had never really kept up much with the Games, especially not with the behind-the-scenes stuff. 

“No, not the robots, duh,” she retorted, annoyed that she hadn’t really realized they were robots. Technology was definitely not her strong suit and letting that slip made her very uncomfortable. “I heard someone asking them to get them food so I followed,” Skye lied, hoping it would cover up her glaring error. “Now, do you want some food or not?” She started down the hallway waving at him to join her, but not looking back to see if he did. 

“Oh, right. Fair enough.” He nodded, shifting his weight from foot to foot. “Wouldn’t get too close, though. They’re meant to be pretty aggressive.” Why he was giving advice to another tribute, he wasn’t too sure. Though he remained skeptical they would even attack the tributes, they were probably here more to ensure they didn’t stage a coup, or try and escape. If a tribute was injured before the Games, would they still send them in? He couldn’t recall a time in recent history when that had happened. “Um, sure.” He replied, hurrying to catch up to the girl who had already started walking down the hallway.

‘‘Hey, asshole, where can this guy get a pizza from?’‘ Jax spoke louder, but the robotic peacekeeper didn’t even flinch. Of course he didn’t. Robots didn’t flinch generally. ‘’I think he might not like you very much,’’ he spoke further to the boy, as if it were a secret. 

“Somehow, I don’t think he likes anyone very much.” He sighed. This was probably going to hinder his ability to do much of anything leading up to the Games. The robot might not even let him go near weapons during training, though he hoped against hope that wouldn’t be the case, even as he simultaneously accepted it as a certainty. “You a tribute, too?”

“You’d think they’d give us a tour or something, maybe hand us a complimentary fruit beverage and a lei on the way in. But no, we’re left to wander these halls without so much a map to guide us. If I wasn’t already pissed at the government for making us fight to death in the first place, this would probably put them on my shit list.” He stopped in his tracks for a moment, looking at the peacekeeper behind him. “Is this thing recording me? Am I gonna get put on a treason watch list? Ah, to hell with it, I’ll be dead in a few weeks anyway, gotta live a little, right? I’m Rowan, from 10,” he said, as he started walking again.

“Even just a juice box and some crackers. I don’t think I’ve had a juice box since I was, like, eight.” A tour would have been helpful, but he sort of figured the complete lack of guidance was to throw the tributes off, to intimidate them by the sheer size of the building and their utter inability to navigate their way through it. “If it is-” He started, glancing back at the machine that had been following him for hours now. “I don’t think they could possibly punish us any more than they are currently.” He noted sombrely. “Osiris, from the Capitol.”

She nodded at his assessment. “The Stone Oakland of robots for sure.” She started to reach out for him and then retracted her hands. Her detention center had been filled with petty criminals with debts or money laundering charges forcing them behind bars. Riots were held over the lack of game coverage, and glitter withdrawal, not violence. The most badass thing she’d done was demand that mystery meat tuesday’s be struck from the menu. But she couldn’t speak to Osiris or his imprisonment. “Does this hardened criminal still hug?”

“Mmm.” Osiris hummed in mock agreement. The android looked nothing like Stone Oakland, then again, nobody really did. Truthfully, his stint in prison was anything but exciting. He mostly kept to himself, speaking only when spoken to. He kept his head down and his wits about him. Capitol prisons were nothing compared to some of the stories he’d heard about centres in the Districts, but he still didn’t want to take any risks. “Only occasionally.” He laughed, extending his arms to invite Juno in for a hug. Truth be told, he could probably use is right about now.

Trixanna was worried sick, but for once it wasn’t about the tributes she would inevitably be sending to their deaths. It was for her child at home. Val had come down with a nasty case of the flu and had spent the last week and a half before winter vacation home sick from school. It was the sickest her daughter had been in her almost six years of life. She was tapping furiously away at her phone, replying to a text message from her daughter’s nanny when an arm was extended in front of her. She paused, hitting send and looked up, quirking a brow. 

Her eyes flickered to the white robot and back to the young man. He must be a tribute, though for which district she didn’t know. “Yea, I can actually show you there.” She offered, trying her best to ignore the peacekeeper. She didn’t like them when they were human, she really didn’t like them now that they were inhuman. 

“Thanks, ma’am. You’re much more helpful than this guy here.” He laughed listlessly, eyeing the peacekeeper. In the back of his mind, he knew it wasn’t there to hurt him. Then they’d be down a tribute, and that was the last thing the Gamemakers, or anyone involved, really, wanted. It didn’t make the giant metal man following him around everywhere any less intimidating, though. “I’m Osiris, by the way.”

With Tetra on her hip, Glitter could at least focus on her infant rather than the fact she had to be in the same building as Hunter Twill.  The eight month old on her hip was playing with her mother’s hair when Glitter heard someone call out to her.  She stopped, looking over at him while she expertly removed her necklace from her daughter’s mouth with her free hand.

She glanced from the boy to the peacekeeper, her eyebrow arching slightly.  She didn’t know what the Gamemakers were thinking with this.  How were they supposed to effectively train tributes with their peacekeeper guardians?  “I do,” she told him as she stepped towards him, shooting a glare in the direction of the peacekeeper.  It honestly felt like the Gamemakers did this to increase security specifically so she wouldn’t murder Hunter, or the Gamemakers themselves.

“I need to feed her anyway, so I can show you where it is.”  She paused, having not watched the other reapings yet.  “Which district?”

“Thank you, ma’am. Got to make the most of the decent food here while I can.” Osiris said with a slight nod. Manners, his mothers had taught him, were the most important part of how he had to present himself. It sent out a good impression, and, right now, he needed people to think highly of him, if he had any hope of making it out of that arena alive. He recognised the woman as one of the Victors, she could be helpful when it came to training, though he doubted any of the mentors would sacrifice time with their own tributes to aid him. “Capitol.”

At first, Bravo had been a little apprehensive of spending time in a Tower that was also housing twenty-six criminals for the time being. But after a stern conversation with himself in the mirror, he forced himself to remember that a rule-breaker wasn’t necessarily a bad person. It wouldn’t be right of him to decide preemptively to be afraid.

This boy seemed to reinforce that decision, and Bravo was immediately taken with how polite he was. “I actually do, as a matter of fact,” he confirmed with a smile. “Do you want to go together? I’m Bravo, by the way.”

“Thank you. I haven’t eaten anything half decent in weeks. One of the only perks of being here.” He chuckled, though even to his own ears it sounded a little forced. Right now, he’d take being in prison over the gnawing anxiety in his gut, the fear of his impending death in the coming weeks. “I’m Osiris, the Capitol tribute.” He said, extending a hand.

Charity couldn’t seem to get enough of the Tower as she found something new around every corner. Around the most recent turn, she ran into a handsome young man who seemed to be looking for food. Until he mentioned it, she hadn’t realized just how hungry she also was. “I honestly have no clue, but I do think I might be a little more helpful than your friend,” she responded, eyeing the robot warily before turning a smile toward the boy. “Are you a trainer?”

“Probably, he’s been pretty rude so far, won’t respond to a thing I say.” He chuckled lightly, shaking his head. “I wish. Tribute, Capitol. Name’s Osiris.” He introduced himself, extending a hand. The girl looked around the same age as he was, and he assumed she was a tribute. Not someone he wanted to grow close to.

Ada nibbled on a strawberry happily. It was the sweetest thing she’d eaten since the chocolate dessert served at her family’s table the night she and Jax tried to rob Clover’s home. “There’s a buffet table on every floor,” she informed him matter-of-factly. “I don’t know if there’s an actual cafeteria we can go to.”

“Really? Must’ve missed that.” Osiris frowned, not entirely sure how he’d walked past a table of food on the way down here. “You a tribute too?”

‘‘Don’t know the Tower,’‘ Jax shrugged innocently, looking bummed not knowing how to help. The sight of the peacekeeper, and then a dozen others all over the corridor, sent shivers down his spine, but he decided to act casually despite that. ‘’But, dude, it’s really fucked up you’re not telling him food recommendations. We’ll starve and it’s not even the HG’s yet,’’ he smirked a little, but had no idea how to help other than the pointless dialogue with the robot.

“Right, of course you wouldn’t.” Osiris nodded, mentally berating himself for assuming the other tribute -- or, at least, what he assumed was a fellow tribute -- would know the Tower any better than he did himself. He chuckled a little to himself as the boy addressed the robot, “I thought he’d lighten up once I took him around the Tower, y’know, to see the sights and all. Guess he’s stubborn.”

Everything was so pristine and organized in the Tower, it almost made Skye sick. It felt like an extension of her mother’s office; everything in its place. The only difference was here she was in the right place, even though she still felt like a fish out of water. She was a part of this clock and she absolutely hated it. 

Skye was lucky enough not to have to be followed around by a Peacekeeper every minute of every day, but she felt the presence of them like annoying mosquitoes. She wanted to distract herself for a little bit, hoping to find some food or a place where she could maybe take out her anger on some vases. 

Skye had been following what looked like some Peacekeepers on their way to their break, hopefully to somewhere with food. They were talking loudly about how boring this particular gig was. Skye rolled her eyes and wanted to smack their heads together and give them something interesting to talk about. As she followed them, a boy decided to talk to her. 

She rolled her eyes - Skye figured she might do that a lot here - as the boy tried to make a joke and failed. “I don’t know if you can tell, but I am definitely not someone who knows this tower,” she replied, gesturing to her lack of Capitol style. “But, if you want something to eat, you can tag along I guess. She lowered her voice to whisper and continued, “I was following these bozos and I think they are going to go get something to eat.” 

“Right.” He nodded, rocking back on his heels. He wasn’t quite sure why he’d assumed that any of the other tributes would have more of an idea where anything was than he did. This girl certainly looked like a tribute, maybe a year or two younger than he was. She also didn’t seem like someone whose bad side he wanted to get on, so he went along with what she was saying, following her line of sight. “I didn’t know those things ate.” He grimaced, before glancing back at his own robocop, on the very likely chance his conversations were being listened into or something, “No offence.”