Simon (hottohandle) wrote in commandhq, @ 2018-06-01 17:10:00 |
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This place was mental, with a capital M, especially with everything that Simon had gotten the download on from a pretty brunette who had been more than happy to share everything with Simon the moment he’d flashed her his pearly whites and big blues. He was still sore from the whole being left behind by his dad but that sting had been somewhat soothed by the existence of both his mother and sister in the same facility. Simon did however feel bad about Henry especially as Henry had only really gotten involved because Simon had asked him to. Simon was lucky, to have friends like Henry. Figuring he needed to catch up with him in person and not just over the network Simon had trailed to his room where he paused, shoulder propped against the wall, knuckles now rapping on his door a couple times. --- There really wasn’t a whole lot to do on the base. Henry’s days, so far, had been full of hours in the gym followed by hours in the leisure room, practically hooked up to a gaming system. Sure, these were all things that Henry enjoyed a great deal, but Henry had a feeling that things were going to get old—and fast. In his room alone, Henry had opted to continue the workout regimen he’d been utilizing in the gym. He was wearing a muscle shirt and a pair of shorts as he performed some burpees—which were more difficult to do without music or spectator encouragement. But at least it kept him from getting too bored. Upon hearing the knock at his door, he finished his set and then walked over to see who was on the other side. He beamed when he saw Simon. “Hey, man,” he laughed, stepping out of the way so Simon could walk inside, “Come on in. There’s absolutely nothing to do, but at least the company will be stellar.” --- Simon arched an eyebrow when it became clear that Henry was being very Henry in that he was working out like a lot. He enjoyed a good work out as much as anyone but he got bored of it after a while and found he needed other things to keep his mind occupied. “Stellar company is always better than no company,” Simon replied with a grin as he breezed into Henry’s room. He very much made himself comfortable and at home because Henry was basically like a brother to him so his room was Henry’s and Henry’s was his by extension. The bracelet on his wrist beeped quietly every so often, reminding that Simon that his powers were on lockdown. “How you doing?” --- It wasn’t surprising or a source of annoyance for Henry that Simon made himself at home almost immediately. Even in his childhood, Henry Hughes had a mi casa es tu casa sort of thing going on, and after a couple of years of people warmly opening their doors to him? It just felt natural. Besides, if anyone was ever welcome here, it was Simon. Henry approached the nightstand table and lifted his bottle of water and took several swigs from it. “Oh, you know—,” Henry shrugged at Simon’s question. He was still breathing hard. “Managing. Wishing that this place had more going on, but for a Super-prison-and-training joint, I guess I shouldn’t complain about the amenities.” He leaned against the nightstand and tossed the water to Simon. “What about you? How’s the fam? I can’t believe Baby Fitch ended up here.” --- Simon tracked Henry’s movements and snorted quietly. “One of these days you’re going to exercise too hard and burst a blood vessel or something.” He caught the water as it was tossed to him and helped himself to a swig, head tipping back to swallow the water back before he capped it off. “Mom’s better now that I no longer look like somebody’s personal punching bag,” Simon muttered as he’d seen a healer in the infirmary who had sorted him right out to the point where he was certain she had also fixed a broken cheekbone from where he’d gotten hit in the face with a Lacrosse stick. “And Baby Fitch or Summer as I call her was super pissed at me to begin with, thought I’d abandoned her, but we’re good.” “But we’re lucky, to end up in the same facility as them.” --- Henry laughed and shrugged. “What can I say, bro? I just like to be active!” That was very true, and it was part of what made being trapped in these walls so aggravating. Once upon a time, he might have relished in being forced to stay cooped up to do little else than work out and play video games; the collar and leash around his neck made the reality of that situation much, much less of a fantasy come to life. “I just need to, you know, figure out other ways to stay active. The gym is already getting a little old.” He winced at the reminder at what Simon had looked like when they arrived. It hadn’t been pretty. Henry nodded—and smirked at the reminder of what, exactly, Baby Fitch preferred to be called—and crossed his arms over his chest. “Yeah,” he agreed. “You guys lucked out. Do you think they did that on purpose? Or was it just a happy accident?” --- “Well,” Simon drawled as he helped himself to another swig of water before he capped the bottle and tossed it back over to Henry. “As you so astutely pointed out earlier this place isn’t exactly lacking in attractive ladies, pretty sure you can find somebody or a couple of somebodies willing to help you keep active.” He spun on the chair and then slowed it as he came back around to face Henry. “My money? Happy accident.” --- Henry caught the water bottle and smiled broadly when Simon mentioned the large population of attractive women that lived on the base. His expression was a little smug, but hardly malicious. “My friend, that’s the idea,” he laughed. “I guess I just need to mingle a little more first. How does the Regiment not have its own Tinder thing by now? All the tech geeks around here, you think someone would be on that.” As Simon spun in the chair, Henry squatted down on the floor before just flopping onto his backside to get comfortable. Well, as comfortable as one could get on the floor. He took another swig from the bottle and then tossed it onto the nightstand. “Well, that’s a pretty damn lucky happy accident. All three of you in one place? Shit. I hear they move people around a lot, though.” --- “Guess so,” Simon said with a smirk. “And I have no idea, man. Maybe you should suggest it? Give their R&D department something of merit to spend their time on than I dunno identifying new ways of controlling us.” He tapped his bracelet to illustrate his point. He had tried not to think about the possibility that any day now his mom, sister, Henry or even he could be transferred out without a second thought on the part of the Regiment. Honestly it didn’t bear thinking about. “Way to depress me, jackass,” Simon muttered as he tossed a pen in Henry’s direction. --- When Simon tapped his bracelet, Henry’s hand instinctively shot to the back of his neck, where the Regiment had embedded their little tracker-and-sedative device. Or… whatever it did beyond tracking. Henry still wasn’t too sure on the science of the whole thing. “I’ll pitch it,” he nodded. “Seems like a worthwhile project to keep them busy and us entertained.” He caught the pen that Simon had pelted at him with relative ease. Although he laughed congenially, he had to admit – it really was a depressing thought. Henry wasn’t super tight with Simon’s family, but Simon was his best friend, and he enjoyed teasing Baby Fitch far too much to see her go. “Sorry,” he shook his head. “I don’t like to think about it either. Seems like that would be too cruel, though—even for them.” Although, Halley was still out there somewhere. So who knew what was too cruel for this place? --- “Lemme know how you get on,” Simon said with a smirk as he took to drumming his fingers against the bottom of the chair to a rhythmic beat. “Might make this place a whole lot more exciting aside from the random crazy that seems to happen.” He got to his feet and walked over to where Henry was, ruffling his friend’s hair playfully and ducking out of any retaliation as he knew how far Henry’s reach was. You didn’t get to best friends without learning shit about each other. “I mean how would you survive without me anyhow?” He asked, shooting Henry a toothy grin. -- Again, Henry laughed warmly—and loudly. “I’ll keep you in the loop. If it starts making money, I’ll demand we get royalties or whatever they’re called.” It would certainly be quite the way to earn an extra buck or two in this place… not that they could do much when it came to spending it. Having his short-cut hair ruffled still made Henry grunt as he tried to swat at Simon who had already deftly moved out of his reach. “Look not cool—it takes a really long time to make it look like I didn’t do anything to it, okay?” He was mostly joking. “Ugh, good question,” he said with a scoff. “It’s very possible I wouldn’t survive, lets be real.” Henry got up to his feet and glanced in the nearby mirror as he tried to flatten out his hair. “You wanna go do something? They’ve got video games in the leisure room.” --- “Royalties,” Simon confirmed with a nod of his head. Henry had gotten that right first time but he felt it important to let him know that he was right. A lot of people just thought he was a meat-head but he was also a really good friend and a stand up guy and as selfish as it was he was glad that Henry was in this hellhole right along with him. He snorted quietly as Henry fussed with the hair that Simon took great pleasure in messing up as he knew how much work it took to make it look like nothing had been done to it. Idly he picked up what looked like a coin and fiddled with it, turning to look over at Henry. “Yeah, let’s do that.” The coin was placed down and Simon headed towards the door. --- A small release of breath blew out from between Henry’s lips, mostly out of relief, when Simon confirmed he’d gotten the word right. “Right, royalties,” he repeated, his smile growing. “We’ll hopefully get that.” Although the privilege to be able to just chat privately with girls on the base and find out—with ease—who was available would have been worth the whole thing alone, even without the money. He beamed at Simon. “Cool,” he clapped his hand on Simon’s shoulder and opened the door. “They have an N64 in there now. Maybe we’ll be able to start a rousing Mario Kart tournament.” As they left the room, Henry flicked off the light, and shut the door. |