Madman

Aurelio didn’t flinch or jump when Cipher grabbed his hand, instead he kept smiling. “What kind of pit we talking about? Anything exciting?” Placing his hands on his hips. “Hey, a little trial and error never hurt, and sometimes it can be really fun. A lot of fun.” Aurelio had heard rumors, and if they were true then getting what he wanted was either going to be easy or hard, still he enjoyed a good challenge. 

“Depends.” Cipher grinned, observing the young man. He hadn’t seen him before, but then again, he never paid attention to people the Capitol wasn’t requesting to do something to. “How accepting of you! And so.. empty. All those empty promises to bear.” He spoke, his smile suddenly dropping, eyes glued on the man. His moods jumped, or so he made people believe, and it worked better than torture.

Grinning, Aurelio knew this was the head gamemaker someone who he wanted to be on the good side of, and get to know better. He could get a lot out of him, and make a lot because of that. “Well, I guess I’m looking for any directions you’re giving.” Winking at him, he ran a hand up the gamemaker’s arm. “You have to know all the fun spots around here, handsome.” 

The grin on Cipher’s face remained as he grabbed the young man’s hand, dragging it off his arm like it was something disgusting. “Who knew someone like you would be looking for directions to the pit!” He spoke in amusement as he let go of Aurelio’s hand. “Trial and error is more fun than pointing it out.”

Furrowing his eyebrows even more when he smiled. “Fuck off.” Putting a hand to the guys shoulder, he shoved him a little. “Take a step back, you freak, before I show you why someone like you shouldn’t piss someone like me off.” This guy was unnerving and Midas wanted to kick his ass but he couldn’t not without the robotic Peacekeepers getting involved.

“Past experiences? Who the fuck are you? I don’t know who you are, and I don’t give a fuck if I make you upset jackass.”  After his run in with the Head Gamemaker, Midas was especially jumpy around guys at the moment, and this one was starting to irritate him. 

He smiled, but the smile was different than the typical grin that was plastered over Cipher’s face. Instead, he watched the boy, intently, as he began to freak out, more and more coming back to the man. “You should. You really should. You wouldn’t want to upset someone like me.” He smiled again.

“That’s what I can’t figure out,” Pegasus answered as he began to circle the man. Like the way your brain searches for an answer, hitting you with it the exact moment you remember, it became so obvious who he was speaking with. “Cipher, sir?” He didn’t know what else to say in his shock.

He raised a brow, standing still, letting the man examine him. Odd dread sunk into him as Pegasus recognized him; it was real, then. It had to be. If people began recognizing him, then it couldn’t be just in his head anymore. The President was punishing him in ways that would work only for him. “How many times have I told you not to call me sir?” He questioned him, and a smile on his face was different; gentler.

There he went again. Lysander took a deep breath and nodded malleably, refusing to take it to heart and truly listen to the aimless insults. “Oxymoronic,” he smiled bitterly without saying anything else. There was no point and he wasn’t the one for fights and insults. Who and what he was he knew and showed too well, having nothing to prove.

He shook his head slightly, “I was checking on my sister,” he replied, indicating his head to his sister just behind Cipher. 

“How sweet of you.” Cipher raised a brow, looking back behind him and spotting the woman he was talking about. “pretty.”

Frowning at the guy, he didn’t like the way he said that, it sent a chill up Midas, and Midas never got chills. “Yeah and what makes you so sure, buddy? You don’t even know who the hell I am.” 

“Past experience.” It was still all behind a fog, hidden deep in there, but Cipher could recall bits and pieces. Enough to mess with the man even when he was dutifully playing the human part. “You’re going to make me all upset.”

She wasn’t aware she’d been staring, shaking her head to jolt her out of it. “I’m so sorry.” she replied softly, “I hadn’t realised.”

He narrowed his eyes, just the slightest, as he observed the woman. She was one of the many who couldn’t recognize him, and he felt relieved. If he couldn’t be recognized, then maybe he didn’t exist at all. “Careful. You might stare at the wrong people.”

He had caught sight of the man as he walked in and, until the moment he was caught staring, had forgotten the man could see him too. “Sorry sir, you just look like someone I know.” Pegasus continued to stare, moving his eyes up and down the man. “I just can’t put my finger on it.”

“Then don’t.” He smiled, an almost human smile if you asked anyone else. “Who do you think I look like?”