[CLOSED] 50/50 Fugitive

[yaint]

Edel knew that she did not have the same smarts as anyone else in her room. She knew that there were things that everyone except for her seemed to understand. But it was so satisfying when she had that little light-bulb moment mid-conversation. "Mountains!" she gasped suddenly in response. "Yeah, that makes sense. There's some good open space there for stretching your wings. Though I can't imagine food would be easy to find."


The mention of food brought about a low rumble from the girl's stomach. She cradled her belly beneath the blankets and stifled a laugh. Even between her snatches of sleep, her stomach found a way to complain. The roommates would have to get used to that, although judging by the little exclamation of 'Jesus on a boat' from Oscar, he was not quite so tolerant of the noise yet.


"Me..." Edel yawned and made some more noise by sweeping her arms up over her head. "I did all of my training in the forest. They say we've got good legs for jumping around trees, but the terrain is killer on your pads, I swear. Just an F-Y-I though - if they've got an actual satyr, with actual hooves, we're screwed. I can't compete with that, they'll be hopping all over the place, the little bastard."

 

[Yoki]

"Yeah," Lilyah nodded, "Sometimes it was, but there were always berries or something around, and people found animals too." She pulled her legs up onto the bed, crossing them over, "So we didn't starve, luckily. I have to say, being able to jump off edges and fly into the air is a lot more fun than expected, it was scary at first, but we all warmed up to it." 


As expected, Edel did do her training in the forest, it was the best environment for her after all. "Don't say that." They weren't screwed if the other team had an actual satyr, they could still do it, "It's just an inconvenience is all, I'm sure someone else could take them and you could focus on whatever else we need doing!" With a large smile, she looked over at Edel, they had to stay positive, "After all, imagine if we have water around and they don't have many ways to cross it." 


Everyone there could cross water, Vinn especially, but Edel could also swim, Lilyah could fly, and so could Oscar. If there was water around where they were meant to end they would be set. "Hey..." Suddenly, the girl looked down, pulling her legs up to her chest and wrapping her arms around them, "It's kind of off topic...but...I was just wondering... What else do you think there is?" She laid her head on her legs, pale pink eyes flickering upwards, "Like...this can't be the same for everyone everywhere...right? If all of this stuff is inside of these domes, and stuff, then...it might be elsewhere as well... Our world is awfully small." 

 

[yaint]

"Water," Edel suggested quietly. "There's a hell of a lot of water out there. Six... Sixty percent? Seventy? Nevermind. You smart people can do all the numbers. But apparently there's more water out there than land, from what I remember in class. How big do you think the planet is?"


There was another distracting grumbling noise, but this time it wasn't Edel's stomach. Oscar was refusing to look at the noise-makers behind him, but he still managed to mutter, "Five hundred and ten point one square kilometres."


"Wh-"


"That's surface area. Then it's twelve thousand, seven hundred and forty two kilometres in diameter."


There was a momentary silence. Edel finally sat up after having had her head on a pillow for the whole conversation, and as soon as she was up on her haunches her eyes seemed to glow with life. "Oh, well, there you have it. I didn't remember that."


Oscar snorted. "Hah. Surprising," he said, his voice laced with the heaviest kind of sarcasm, which made the girl wince.


"Makes me wonder how big one kilo is..."


There was a little shudder of the next duvet along. Oscar was straining himself to keep his mouth shut, but being correct was far too tempting for him. "The survival domes all have a diameter of three kilometres."


A low, hissing whistle filled the room. Edel could not conceal her amazement - she had almost definitely discovered this information before, but hearing it all put into perspective like this made it so much more thrilling. She suddenly felt incredibly small, even beside a homunculus.


"Can you maybe not?" Oscar asked.


Edel silenced her whistling. "Sorry. But whoa, that's pretty amazing. Isn't it, Lil, honey? How big do you think real Australia is? I bet that's a good place to stretch your wings - endless open space, lots of sunshine. Maybe we'll even see a kangaroo, a real life one, alive."

 

[Yoki]

"Yup." Although Lilyah had wanted to answer Edel, she didn't mind Oscar doing it, but after that he just kept going. It was cute to watch Edel get so amazed by the numbers that they'd been taught time and time again, she supposed that wasn't something that was as important in the other girl's curriculum. 


The comment about 'one kilo' made Lilyah laugh, she put a hand over her mouth, also trying to keep quiet about how Edel hadn't gotten the right idea yet. Maybe she could teach her a little more some day, that would be fun, whenever they had free time or Edel was up for it. She'd offer it, maybe the other would accept. 


"Three kilometers?" The girl parroted, that was one thing she hadn't remembered, "Hm, I'd forgotten about that." The talk of how big the world was compared to their little dome really emphasised her point about their world being small. She wanted to get out there and live, see things she'd never seen before, and she definitely wasn't alone. "You bet it's amazing." A wide smile crossed the female's face again, "I believe the area of Australia is somewhere around...seven million kilometres? I don't remember the exact number, just the rounded, pretty big right? You could run all day!" 


Kangaroos. That would be fun. "Imagine that..." She breathed, looking up at the ceiling, "I hope we do some day... Maybe we should just get out of here and go live out there." 


Just as she finished her sentence, there were drastic movement from the bed behind her. It seemed they'd finally woke Vinn up, if he hadn't been awake through their entire conversation, but...he didn't look like he was sticking around. He'd thrown off his cover and slipped off of the edge of his bed, golden eyes looking over the three sitting talking so early in the morning, that awfully cold, blank expression still on his face. Then he turned his head, pushing some of his dark hair out of his eyes and moving over to the bathroom without saying a word. 


The door was opened and then slammed shut, causing Lilyah to jump, before there was a clicking noise, signifying it being locked. 


"Well..." She shifted awkwardly, "Looks like everyone's awake..." 

 

[yaint]

For a little while, Edel was content to just sit and listen to Lilyah's contemplations. She played with the words on her tongue. "Camp Ellisay." It always felt odd to say its real name out loud, of course, so it was interesting to try and make it feel familiar. To everyone on the island, Camp Ellisay was just 'camp', or 'home'. Or, depending on how brave you were, you might have called it 'hell'. Whichever way it was said, the 'real world' always sounded so much more intriguing and frightening, both at the same time.


"Huh?" Lilyah was right. Everyone was awake, unless Vinn had an evil twin who had decided to slip out of bed and take shelter in the bathroom. "Oh, yeah. Gone for a midnight pee, you think?"


"That's none of your business," Oscar reminded her bitterly.


Edel blushed, but it was too dark to tell the change in colour. She just brushed it off, "Oh, I was just joking around. Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if he's just sick of our voices. Hard to tell with that guy, actually. You get him to talk to you yet, Lil?"

 

[Yoki]

"Nope." Lilyah sighed in response to Edel's question, Vinn hadn't spoken a word to her, "I tried again, multiple times, but he's just not interested. If I stay too long he gives me a death glare that practically screams 'go away'." Vinn being so unsociable seemed to disappoint her, she wanted them to bond and work together, but he was halting that process. "The only reason I know he's not mute is because he spoke earlier during king of the hill, but...that was it." 


It was strange to think he was even in their team, because Vinn kept so to himself, she hardly even noticed him when she was with the others... Maybe that was what he wanted... To just become invisible to everyone. "In fact...thinking about it..." She started mumbling, remembering earlier in the day, "I haven't really seen him speak to anyone...and like, the only person who's actually speaks to him, from what I've seen, is that Jason guy. You know, the cocky one on the blue team earlier. Even he doesn't get much of a reply." If someone like Jason, confident, straight forwards, and willing to literally force the boy to be around him, couldn't get a reply out of Vinn...then how were they ever meant to?


"This is tougher than I expected." She'd dealt with all kinds of people, confident, nervous, shy, introverted, extroverted, loud, obnoxious, arrogant, but not once had she had to deal with someone who just didn't seem to like people. How did you make friends with someone like that? Saying he wasn't slightly intimidating would be a lie, those piercing golden eyes made you want to stay far away. 

 

[yaint]

"Weird. I've seen other guys like him, but... Nah, actually, scratch that. I haven't. This guy's like a full-on hermit, more antisocial than shy." A moment of silence was spent with Edel straining her chest, trying not to make a strange sound in case it came out on the wrong end of the laughing-crying spectrum. In a way, the situation was funny, but she did not particularly feel like twisting the whole thing around into a dark comedy by laughing. Instead, she tried, "Maybe he just needs some time, would you think? Just keep trying and he'll come through."


"Not worth it," Oscar could not help but butt in again. He was trying to straighten out his left antenna by running his hands over it repeatedly, although it only seemed to achieve making the fluff stick to one side. Eventually he gave up, dropped his arms in annoyance and flopped down against a random spot on the duvet once more.


"What?" Edel asked.


"I said he's not worth it! Jeez." Oscar tutted and refused to look back. "If he wants to be a dick about it, let him. There's no point in wasting your goddamn time talking to some prick who thinks he's too high and mighty."

 

[Yoki]

"Okay, I'll try." Lilyah agreed, before Oscar spoke, saying Vinn wasn't worth it. That wasn't fair...sure, he might be a little more difficult than they would have liked, but saying he wasn't worth it made Lilyah frown a little. She was sure if they just gave him some time...maybe let him warm up, it was a confusing situation, they just had to wait. "It might not be like that," She started, in reply to Oscar's comment about Vinn thinking he was too high and mighty for the rest of them, "You don't know what's behind it... It could just be some issue you don't quite understand. I don't think we can judge him yet for it." 


Realising that she was speaking a little too loudly, Lilyah tried to lower her voice. The walls weren't sound proof, they needed to be careful about how they talked about the boy who was literally one door away from them. She wasn't one to talk behind people's backs, and she felt bad even now when she hadn't said anything mean...but they needed to discuss something. 


"I mean...he doesn't seem shy as such..." She was trying to think through this logically, "But...everyone who's anti-social is shy to some degree, right? So maybe he just needs a few more days or something and then he'll start to speak to us... He wouldn't think he's better than us, we're...we're all a team after all."

 

[yaint]

"Why does it even matter?" Oscar's tiny voice drawled on some more. He was completely lost from sight now, buried among his own bedding, but somehow his complaints managed to find their way to his roommates' ears. "Team or not, we're going in that dome tomorrow and if he wants to lone-wolf it and die then that's his problem, not ours."


"What?" Edel blurted, her eyes scrunching up in thought. She stared at Oscar's bed like she had misheard him, but she was not mistaken.


A rather aggressive sigh erupted from the bedding. "Nothing. Forget it. Just keep talking, it's fine. Not like you're disturbing anyone's sleep or anything."


"Honey, we were just-"


"Quit calling me that."


"-Okay, okay. Sorry. You can sleep now if you like, we'll shut up for the night. Right, Lilyah?"


Another grunt of disapproval came back to let Edel know that her suggestion was too little, too late. 


"Oscar?"


"What? Oh, that. No. Don't bother, I don't care. Whatever. You go on and talk about your crushes on Vinn, don't bother planning strategies or anything." Apart from a little muttering of 'idiot girls', Oscar fell silent shortly after his outburst. Edel didn't know where to look.

 

[Yoki]

Another boy who was hard to deal with...Oscar. Lilyah looked over to Edel, shrugging in a 'what can you do?' sort of way, then she smiled and turned to look at the pile of bedding that Oscar was hidden within. For someone so tiny, he had a massive attitude...and that was going to affect their teamwork just as much as Vinn's anti-social nature would. They could talk about Vinn, but would Oscar ever soften up too?


"Oscar," The girl started, "If you want to plan strategies then we can, but really everyone should be here for that. We're a team, don't forget that, no man left behind...right?" It wasn't like they were talking about something irrelevant, in fact, it was very relevant, considering what they had to do the next day. "Do you not want us to be able to work together?"


Her gaze kept going to the bathroom, wondering if Vinn would ever come out. Not for a second did she believe that he'd gone in there to actually use it, he was just sick of them or something...which...wasn't very good. There must be a way to get him out and get him talking. 


"Hey," Lilyah pushed herself off of her bed, stumbling as her feet hit the ground, "If you do want to talk strats, then I'll get Vinn out." 

 

[yaint]

The size of Oscar's brain did not impair his power of thought. He knew that he made the charts with Lilyah, he knew that he stood among the ranks of those engineered to be intelligent, but even he failed to comprehend the thinking behind these suggestions right now.


"Yeah," he began sharply, "You know what, Lilyah? I'd love it if we could all just buck up and work together but I am not wasting half my night trying to talk to a brick-fucking-wall. We can make this work without him."


Still lost, Edel glanced between Oscar and Lilyah. She had no idea what to do, who to listen to or which suggestion to take, but in seconds she too had rolled to her feet. Her uncombed fur stuck out in every angle as she hopped awkwardly to where the other girl was stood.


"Wait, I haven't tried talking to him yet. Think I could go and try? You don't have to get out of bed..."

 

[Yoki]

"Even if we can," Lilyah replied, "Why would we want to? We're stronger if we all work together, everyone else has four members, so should we." She kept her head held high, she wasn't giving up on this one. Eventually they'd all have to work together, so it was better they learned to before they were in a situation what forced them to. 


It was just then that Edel stood up and offered to try talking to Vinn instead. Whilst Lilyah was slightly hesitant, not wanting to make the other girl get up so late, she looked towards the door and remembered how she'd just been ignored every time she tried to get through to that boy. Someone fresh needed to take a go. 


"Okay," She nodded, smiling at the other girl, "Maybe he might talk to you." After that she sat back down, crossing her legs and looking towards the bathroom door in anticipation. 

 

[yaint]

For anyone else, getting up on one's feet would have been a bad idea. It would have set their mind alight, woken them up and kept them that way until the next morning. Edel didn't mind. Maybe it was part of her biology, but every soldier of the same cross she had ever worked with slept in snatches. A little midnight venture across the room was nothing to her.


"Okay, I'll have a go," she decided, much to Oscar's dismay. The little soldier responded to the announcement with a snort and huff of discontent, although at this point Edel was ready to accept any level of grumpiness as normal. With careful, quiet steps she trotted to the bathroom door and rapped softly on the wood three times. "Vinn? Honey, we're just going over some last-minute plans for tomorrow if you want to come join us. I really think you should, y'know, we need you on board with us."

 

[Yoki]

After Edel spoke the group was left waiting for around thirty seconds with no answer, then just when it didn't sound like Vinn was going to leave the bathroom there was a click from the door and the handle turned before the door opened up. Golden eyes stared up at the taller individual, blinking once or twice, but still the boy said nothing. He stared at Edel for a good twenty seconds before breaking eye contact and leaving the room, moving back towards his bed. Edel hadn't gotten him to speak to her, but at least he'd come out of the bathroom to listen. That was a strange. 


"Oh." Lilyah gave Vinn a friendly smile as he moved to sit on his bed, which was not returned, "Great, we're all here." She slapped her knees with her hands, looking around the room to gaze at each of her teammates. Somehow Edel had managed to make Vinn leave, but he was still silent, maybe he just didn't like the change and was uncomfortable... He'd warm up soon...surely. "Why don't we get started then?" 

 

[yaint]

With all of the silence, Vinn's sudden appearance was more than a little startling. Edel had to skip back a couple of steps to make room for the smaller individual, but even when she did that, the boy did not move.


'Go on then,' she was about to prompt after a good few seconds had passed. Those eyes were unnerving, after all, and she didn't know how long she could stare back at them. But luckily for her, the contact broke when Vinn finally unfroze. No speech, no acknowledgement... Either way, movement was a milestone so Edel just shrugged it off and padded back to her bed without a word.


"Piss off," Oscar muttered when he heard his roommate slink past his own bunk.


Edel cast the boy a sharp look. Either he wasn't looking or it was too dark to see, but there was no response but for a grunt which might have just been his discontent anyway. At least Lilyah was still talking, staying positive as true to her nature at first glance. "Yeah, let's," Edel agreed. "Anyone got any ideas? We've got to talk strats on survival as well as combat, if they're letting us in with as many supplies as they normally do."


A tiny rustling noise cut through the air again. His wings dragging on the sheets behind him, Oscar waded over to the edge of his bunk and sat down with his bare feet dangling over the edge. "Do you guys even know the rankings of priorities? You do, right?"


Not for the first time, Edel was thankful that it was too dark for anyone to see her cheeks turn red. "Yeah, I mean... I think I know them."


"So what are they?"


Edel swallowed. "Number one is water-"


"Christ's sake, no. That's number two," Oscar corrected with a waggle of his finger. "Are you serious?"


"Hey, hey, I was just guessing. But it looks like I don't remember... What's the rest?"


"Be quiet for a second and I'll tell you. It's shelter, water, fire, food. You don't look for water until there's a leaf over your head, and-"


If Oscar had carried on, his words had been muted out, for Edel had suddenly started chuckling uncontrollably.


"What?" the moth boy tutted.


"Nothing, nothing," lied Edel, one hand flapping in the air. "You just said 'leaf'. It's okay. Carry on."


Reluctantly, with a low and drawling voice aimed as far away from the girl as he could manage, Oscar continued. "You don't go looking for water until there's a roof over your head. If we want to get anywhere then we look for a cave or a dry hollow, you hear? Lilyah? We go in and we don't do shit until we set up base."

 

[Yoki]

"Yeah. Yeah, I know that." Lilyah replied, nodding her head once. Shouldn't couldn't deny that she too had had to stifle a laugh when Oscar said 'leaf' instead of room. It was funny, he was so tiny he could make anything his home, but...they weren't as small as him and so they wouldn't be able to make do with just leaves over top of them. 


Since no one else was speaking at that moment, she decided to continue, "So, once we've set up base, then it's water. We go searching for that first, priorities, we just need to make sure that we're well stocked up before we go out risking ourselves in god knows what environment, right?" She looked to Edel and Oscar, forgetting for a moment that Vinn was now involved in the conversation too, he was so quiet and he hadn't been a few minutes ago...they couldn't blame her for forgetting just once. "Once we have water sorted we co-" 


Before the girl finished a piece of paper was placed in front of her, she looked at it for a few seconds, before her eyes glided up the arm that held the paper down. That's when she saw Vinn staring down at her. The girl recoiled slightly out of surprise, but not enough for it to be that noticeable to anyone else but the boy in front of her. "Hey." She smiled, but the minute she started to speak to him the smaller individual's hand came off of the paper and he went back to sit on his bed with a sigh. 


It couldn't hurt to take a look right? She might as well... The girl hesitantly reached out and picked up the paper, eyebrows furrowing as she worked to read all of the notes that were scribbled down. "Wait...is this..." How long had Vinn been doing this for? They'd only got told that day that they were going into a dome, had he made this...just tonight? It had to have been before they went to bed... Honestly, she was shocked... Had he not taken a break? 


"Guys... You might want to take a look at this..." Her eyes darted back to the imp boy on the bed behind her for a moment, before she got up from her own bed and went to lay the piece of paper down on Oscar's, "Someone's already two steps ahead of us..." 

 

[yaint]

Two steps ahead sounded ridiculous, so much so that Oscar's initial reaction when the paper landed just inches away was to blow through his lips and snort, "What?" There was no question about it; out of everyone in this room, he had to be the only one with any level of common sense. A high IQ meant nothing if if couldn't be applied. If anything, they were two steps back... But for some reason, the little moth boy found himself scrambling to the edge of the paper to read.


Edel brought a little wind-up torch from her drawer to illuminate the writing. It was a tiny script squashed down against the lines, and if she looked carefully and took the time to skim, there were notes there on every biome the camp had access to.


"Damn!" the girl breathed, her bright yellow eyes widening and flashing with reflected light. She leaned in closer to inspect the words, but they weren't making much sense in her head. Reading too quickly did no good, but there was so much to take in.


Eventually, having had enough of Edel's gawping, Oscar reached up. "Give me that," he demanded. The torch dropped from Edel's grasp and nearly pinned the boy down against the bed, but he managed to dodge it and start rolling it to the edge. 


Notes.


Lines and lines of notes, as everyone had thought. What kind of work was this? Who the hell even wrote at this kind of speed? There was something wrong with that kid over there, Oscar just knew it... Without even reading it he could already tell what bullshit this writing was piling on.


"Mate, you can't just do that," he whined before shooting Vinn a sharp look. "We've got a thing going here, right? All of us, all - three of us or four, we don't just jump ahead and decide, 'Ooh, I'm smarter than everyone else so I decide what we do!' You don't just go on and make yourself the bloody leader. Who decided that, who made you king? Who decided you can have the right to go off making your own plans when you won't even talk to us? This is meant to be teamwork, not ruddy... Vinn-work."

 

[Yoki]

Of course Oscar's argumentative nature was only going to cause more problems, Lilyah knew that from the second the boy started to talk about how Vinn shouldn't have done all of the work on his own...but wasn't it a good thing he did something? It showed he was at least thinking about the task, still, whilst Lilyah saw the work as amazing, Oscar seemed to find something to complain about with it. 


"I never said anything about leadership." There was a sigh from Vinn as, finally, he replied to Oscar. It was the first thing he'd said out of mission, but it sounded bored and uninterested in Oscar's petty jealously. He had nothing to worry about after all, just because everyone wouldn't bend to that guy's every whim and follow him exactly didn't mean they were trying to take away what he saw as his. Vinn gave them resources, if anything Oscar should be happy about that, it was the first thing he'd actually contributed to the team since joining them...and he definitely wasn't going to want to help them if Oscar kept complaining. 


"Oscar." Lilyah started, "Why don't we just give it a chance? I mean...they're here... There's no point in discarding something that could be really helpful." She so badly wanted to keep peace between the two, but Oscar was getting riled up, and the way Vinn spoke in short, sharp sentences probably didn't help the cause. Whilst she wasn't sure what to do, she was trying...and that was all she could do. "We're going to be able to plan a whole lot better if we have a starting point, I don't think he wants to really be a leader...after all..." She looked to Vinn, "I don't think Vinn's too interested in talking to us much yet..." However, she was quick to add, "It's really good you're participating though Vinn! I'm glad!" 

 

[yaint]

"Yeah, yeah, congratulations for not being such a total stuck-up dick." Oscar's words started off loud and clear, but with an increasingly more aggressive tone he was eventually reduced to near-unintelligable mumbling which could have meant anything. "Arrogant little... Won't listen to anyone but himself."


"Honey, I don't think that's quite right," Edel tried cautiously. She crouched down and dared to perch on the edge of Oscar's bunk. Oscar, however, was not listening; he had taken off and flitted over to his bedside table, grabbed a pen about three times longer than himself and then dragged it over to start scribbling on the back. The ink bled through quite easily and obscured a couple of Vinn's tiny letters. 


'Survival,' he wrote in a slanted and messy script, trying to keep control over the pen despite the fact that it was far too heavy for him. More titles followed. 'Searching'. 'Combat'. At one point Edel tried to lift the pen away between her finger and thumb, but Oscar would not let go even when she suggested, "Why don't you talk this through first? Vinn can join in too."


"Fine," was the response she got after a few seconds of heavy silence. Oscar dropped the pen, sat up and refused to look at Vinn. "As part of a four-way democracy, I suggest we talk strengths and weaknesses first. We make an action plan after we know what we're good at. We do what Vinn tried writing down here and it's going to go downhill fast, 'cause we'll just be repeating ourselves over and over. I'll start us off. I'm a good problem solver, I'm pretty much silent, I don't need to eat much and I can fly."


"But not in rain," Edel added, for which she received a glare.


"No, I can't fly in rain," Oscar agreed reluctantly. "And I can't fight fist-to-fist. Is someone writing this down?"


Edel grabbed at the pen and started scrawling notes. 'Problems, stealth, fly. -Rain, -strength,' she scribbled. "Okay, me next, then?"


"Make it quick."


"I can..." The girl's tongue slipped out from between her teeth as she thought. She read her words slowly as she wrote notes for herself. "Alright. I'm quick on my feet, I've decent strength and the hearing's not too shabby. Though being quiet's not exactly my forte, and the old brain needs polishing. What about you, Vinn?"


"I'll do Vinn's," said Oscar. "Since he clearly doesn't want to participate in the teamwork like everyone else it's only fair that he doesn't interrupt us here."


"Oscar, I'm sure he can speak for himself."


"Bullshit, the only thing coming out of his mouth is bullshit. You can add that to his weaknesses. And the fact he has no common sense. What can he actually do except breathe water? Wahay, we have a fish, great news. Yeah, that's really gonna be useful if we get thrown in a desert, isn't it? Christ... Okay, whatever. Lilyah, what are you good at?"

 

[Yoki]

"Um." Lilyah really didn't like the small arguments that were happening, and the way Oscar was insulting Vinn, he hadn't done anything wrong...but the guy seemed to want to hurt him. She shifted her legs awkwardly and looked down, what...was she good at? "I guess I can fly," She replied, "And I've been trained in combat, so I'm decent at that. I can think on my feet I guess." After that she stayed quiet for a minute, thinking she was done, but...she'd forgotten weaknesses. 


The girl shot her head up, followed by a sudden exclamation of 'oh!' as she realised she was expected to carry on. "Ah..." Weaknesses...what were her weaknesses... "I rely on my wings a lot to get around...so...I wouldn't say I'm all that fast at running, I can run, just not as fast as we'd probably like. I also need to work on being more observant." Pleased with her explanation, she nodded her head once and smiled to herself, pulling in her feet. Now...the only person they hadn't heard from was Vinn, but...Oscar didn't seem to want him to talk, which...wasn't exactly fair. 


"I think if we're going to be a team then it's only fair if you include Vinn, Oscar." She started, looking over to the boy, who was uninterested by this point. He had a piece of paper out on his bed and was laying on his stomach, scribbling away once more... Surely what Oscar had said would have hurt him...and...with someone having that attitude towards him, Lilyah could understand why he'd want to get on with his own thing and not be involved with them. He wasn't exactly being treated...fairly. "You said this was a democracy, right? Then I vote for Vinn to be included in the process, and I'm sure Edel will back that up." She looked to the other girl for confirmation, but having heard what she'd said moments ago, she thought that having her support wouldn't really be an issue. 


Vinn had looked up by that point, pen freezing against paper, he had an eyebrow raised, eyes looking as bored as eye. Really? They didn't need to include him, he didn't care whether they did, and he didn't care what Oscar had to say. He was just trying to be...generous for once, Jason had told him that that's what you did when you worked in a team, you shared. Honestly, he was better off working alone. There was no point in being involved with someone like Oscar, he was controlling and jealous, Vinn didn't want any part of it. 


So he ignored the current conversation, lowering his gaze once more to continue on with his work. Lilyah did not need to fight to get him involved. It wasn't in his interest to do so. 

 

[yaint]

"I'll back that," Edel added quickly to Lilyah's point. "Democracy's all for all, right? Is that what it means?"


Another eye-roll later, Oscar had slapped his hands down against the knees of his pyjama bottoms. It would have been a smooth gesture, had his fuzzy palm not become stuck on the cotton. He made a tiny 'rip' sound as he pulled his hand away from the article of clothing like Velcro, which made Edel snort with laughter again. "No, actually. You mean all for one. Every participant works for the outcome of their choice, and whichever option has the highest number of votes is acted upon."


"So that means Lilyah and I make two out of three votes. Vinn, honey, why don't you come speak up? We'll listen to you."


"I'm not listening," said Oscar.


"Yes you are, honey, all of us are listening."


Suddenly, there was a static silence in the room. Edel tried to exchange a glance with Lilyah, but Oscar caught her eye first. "Hey," he started, his high-pitched voice even squeakier than it normally was. "What are you guys even doing here, anyway? I never said you could sit on my bed!"


"Huh? Oscar, we-"


"Can you please get off? I'm done. Finished. I just want to get some goddamn sleep, so just... I dunno, go sit on Vinn's bunk if you love him so much. I'm done."

 

[Yoki]

Lilyah didn't know what to say to when Oscar started to throw what seemed to be a tantrum, of course, he was getting upset over Vinn...for...some reason. Did he seem the other boy as a threat or something? Because he certainly wasn't that, he wasn't a threat at all... Not from what Lilyah had seen. 


"Um." Quickly, the girl stood up, looking around at everyone, "How about...we all go to sleep?" She wanted to relieve the tension a little, "After all, we've got a big day tomorrow right? We might as well get some rest." In reality, she just didn't want to cause any more drama... This was stupid, it was silly, there was nothing to be upset over, but...Oscar just didn't want to include Vinn... Should they even try to be a team? Could they be a team? Would it really ever happen? She felt so awkward in this situation...


Vinn was already seemingly ahead of them, having ignored everyone and covered himself with a blanket. He didn't want any piece of their insolent drama. Oscar was being a baby, crying over something that wasn't even real. Why would he want to associate with that? There was no reason to get himself involved. 

 

[yaint]

Funnily enough, by this point Oscar had made himself uninvolved with the situation as well. Immature as his motives were, he stood by them relentlessly and refused to take the matter any further; shortly after announcing his giving in, he had crawled to the top of the bed, pulled the edge of the sheet over his tiny body and rested his head on the pillow made of bundled clothes. After that he refused to make another sound, excluding the false snores he whistled out through his lips.


"Ah... Yeah, that's a good idea, Lil." With a stretch, Edel finally gave Oscar his wish and kicked off the bed. They were all tired and sick with nerves; maybe staying up was not such a good idea after all. That was her own fault... But surely they would have better luck in the arena itself. "G'night, everyone. Dream of good things."

 

[Yoki]

"Good night." Lilyah was the last of the group to finally get into her bed, but she didn't know how well she'd sleep after all of this... Why did they have to argue? It wasn't hard to be a team, it wasn't hard to include everyone... She didn't want them to be dysfunctional, these tasks could put them through rough situations, they needed to be able to work together to get through it. But at this rate...she didn't really believe in them at all. 


The girl curled herself up under her blanket and closed her eyes, sighing, well...no matter what happened, she had no choice but to go through with that dome tomorrow. They were going to be thrown into some sort of environment they weren't used to and they definitely weren't really... Story of their lives. 

 

[yaint]

***


Some of them had been doing it every morning for eighteen years, but time never made it easier to hear the harsh, metallic trill of the morning alarm bell. Edel groaned as she rolled over in her bed, one large ear folded over against her rock-hard pillow. She was one of the lucky ones who didn't need as much sleep to function in the morning - if she was tired, then everyone else was exhausted. Oscar was apparently no different.


"No-o," he cried at the alarm. One chubby little arm threw a punch at the bedding, but eventually he strained and sat up. His skin had something of a grey tint to it, which made his white hair look dull. "Christ's sake... What time is it?"


"Six if I'm not mistaken," Edel sighed. She swung her legs over the edge, brushed the lint out of her fur and then stretched until she touched the floor. "So that means...We have how long again?"


Oscar inhaled through his teeth. Clearly the conflict from the previous night had not gone forgotten, but with their survival mission looming ever closer he was more willing to cooperate this morning. "We're supposed to meet up at seven. That means we have less than an hour to shower and dress, and apparently we aren't going to breakfast either."


"What!?"


"Hey," the little soldier growled, "It's not like it's my fault or anything. I'm hungry too. Just... Hurry up, get ready. We might get to see who our opponents are if we're quick enough."


"Alright, okay. Lilyah! I'm gonna go scrub down, you coming with or nah?"