Facade

Chapter Four: The Easy Way Out

Oliver Chadwick

"Rise and shine, you two!"

Oliver stirred, rising from the couch and noticing Syx, who had been up before him and was already staring straight at the doors. Oliver's lip jutted out, peeved at how his golden-rimmed glasses sat crooked on his nose. He quickly adjusted them before smoothing his clothes out. He took a step towards Syx, then hesitated, looking over his shoulder.

"We have all the time in the world, don't we?"

"We don't," Syx muttered, completely deadpan.

To prove his point, Oliver fell back onto the couch and sprawled out, smirking.

"Well, nothing bad could happen if we just stay here, right? Think about it. They'll give up eventually and just let us see River again—"

"If you want to find that out yourself, go right ahead."

Syx shuffled out into the hallway.

"I DIDN'T SAY TO LEAVE!"

Oliver scrambled to get up, tripping but luckily catching himself before he fell face-first into the hard tiled floor. He bent over, holding up a finger.

"W-Wait a moment."

Catching his breath, he stood upright again, flashing a smile at Syx— who turned right back around and continued walking.

"You're not much of a talker."

"Wow, you finally noticed." Although his back was facing him, Oliver could tell he was rolling his eyes. They reached their next room: in a similar vein to the previous room, the walls lacked color, the floors tile. In the middle of the room, a large screen hung from the ceiling, with a projector mounted to the ceiling as well. The lights around them dimmed, and the pair sat down in the two chairs available. The speakers chimed and the doors to the entrance of the room quietly shut.

"For this room, you two will be playing a simple game of 'Would You Rather,' with a slight twist. A prompt will appear on the screen, and you will have to state your answers out loud. In order to move on to the next question, you have to agree on a choice; or at the very least, explain why you chose the other choice in as much detail as you can."

"So we can just agree to everything and we'll pass this whole room. It'll be a cakewalk." Oliver quirked his eyebrow at Syx, flashing his signature smile at him once again. As per usual, Syx was unfazed by this.

"It's not that simple, Oliver. We can hear you, you know. You have to explain why you chose the same answer or the opposite answer before moving on completely."

"And why are we doing this in the first place?" Oliver huffed.

The speakers grew quiet. Oliver exchanged glances with Syx, both anticipating some twisted answer.

"Think of this as an icebreaker of sorts."

With that, they clicked off. The room was bathed in blue light as the first question popped on screen:

"Would you rather be a crazy dog person or a crazy cat person?"

"... Icebreaker?" Oliver parroted, looking to Syx again, who barely glanced over at him and was more fixated on the question.

"Like the ones you do when you're meeting coworkers for the first time at a job."

Oliver blankly stared at him. Syx sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"In order to get to know them better," he said, suddenly irritated.

"Oh, right. Right. I knew that." Oliver laughed. "Well, I'd rather be a crazy dog person. I already have a dog, so having more wouldn't be that bad."