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There was a loud pop as the dash two went off. Harley had been in his office, narrating the vast nothing back at itself when it happened. He wondered what new effect the anomaly would conjure up this time, hoping for something non-harmful instead of another monster. But as he stood up to investigate, his foot slipped and he fell to the ground. Confused, he tried to reach for his chair to balance himself, but the moment he grabbed the chair and tried to stand up with it's help, the chair slid across the floor. At the time, he would've thought that maybe the floor was just slippery due to the dash two, but now?
Now he can confidently say that the ground had no friction whatsoever. And, unlike himself, some of the employees had confidence — maybe even joy — in their ice-skating abilities. Lancaster slid across the floor in his socks, using the walls and anything that was nailed down to maneuver through the hallways of Site-107. Lanc caught himself on the door to Harley's office, poking his head in to see Harley barely able to stand due to the icy ground.
"Hey Harley, did you—" Lancaster had to pause for a moment as Harley flailed around to try and look at the door clearly. "…You goood?" He asked with a pitiful attempt not to laugh.
"Peachy! Just fine, I have never been better!" Harley lied with gritted teeth as he gave up and sat on his desk. "Just perfect actually."
"Well, I'm- SO glad to hear that you're great.. because there is a mandatory meeting happening and y'know, I'd just hate for you to miss it."
"….You're serious?"
"Dead serious."
Harley pondered this for a second, clasping his hands together to think with his index fingers resting in the middle of his eyebrows, before he spoke.
"And if you told them I was dead?" "I am not doing that, unfortunately." "And if I killed you?" "You couldn't, you can barely stand."
Fuck. He was right.
Harley took a deep breath, before bracing himself as he tried to slide off of his desk. His feet slid out from under him, and he is face down on the ground. Perfect! Great.
"Do you want my help?" Lancaster offered, all too smug at the sight of the communications head on the ground. Harley garbled out some sounds that sounded affirmative, but that isn't enough to warrant Lancaster to not be a dick. Obviously.
"What's that?" Lancaster asked, putting a hand up to his ear to mock Harley. "I don't think I heard that, what did you say? Huh?" His helpful facade was not tricking anyone, even if the only person here to witness it was staring at the all too slick ground.
"Orion," Harley said in a tired tone, turning his head to be clearer as he spoke, "help me."
"Oh, of course! Why didn't you say so?" Lanc taunted, sliding over to the desk and looking down at Harley. He considered attempting to pick Harley up, but it seemed like a generally bad idea on a frictionless floor. So, Lancaster looked around and grabbed a dusty—potentially unused? —broom stick and began poking at Harley with it.
And as stupid of an idea that it was, it did eventually get Harley to the meeting with at least a little bit of his dignity. However, the meeting was actually NOT mandatory in the slightest, and more of a "if you can get here, do so" meeting. Harley was almost positive that if Lancaster hadn't pushed him across the floor like a hockey puck, he would not have had to attend. And as he glared across the table at Lanc, it became almost entirely clear that Lancaster knew that. Jackass.
After the meeting, Harley almost tried to stand back up before he remembered the current status of the floors and his inability to trek them and practically threw himself back into his chair. The chair, of course, quickly slid away from the table until it hit the wall with a loud thud. Lancaster had to put a hand over his mouth to avoid laughing at the exasperated sigh that came from Harley when the chair kept moving no matter what he'd do.
Once it became clear that this wild-card effect was going to affect the rest of the site until the next reset, people began to nail and screw things to the floor so that it would be easier to travel. Others slid around the floors like ice skaters, and some of the members of security began to host games of hockey to pass the time.
Harley felt confined, and even if he wasn't a raging claustrophobe, it still felt uncomfortable to not be able to have free range around the site as usual. So he radioed Lancaster, and after a conversation that was only slightly embarrassing, Lancaster agreed to teach him the art of gliding.
Harley felt extremely out of place as he stood on a spare shirt somebody had nailed down while Lancaster tried to help him with the motions of sliding. It was like he was in physical therapy again, just with significantly less pain in his kneecap.
"—keep your balance in your knees, have you ever been roller skating?" "Not since I was a kid. And even then, I never got away from that trainer." "Well, that's fine! We could grab like, a chair or something? Be right back."
Lancaster slid off to grab Harley a chair, and Harley stared at the ground. It looked no different from when it had friction, and if it wasn't for the fact that everything else still had friction, Harley would've probably assumed it had something to do with his shoes. Harley took a shaky step on the ground, cautious as his foot began sliding underneath him. He treated it like a skateboard, hopping slightly to get his other foot on the slippery ground. He was slowly gliding towards the wall, which frankly was amazing progress from like.. an hour ago, when he was on his face.
Harley attempted to go forward like he watched Lancaster do, one step at a time..
Except that didn't work because once Harley raised his foot he almost fell forward. He caught himself, almost falling backwards in the process, flailing about. To his dismay, he was accelerating quickly with almost every movement. Harley braced himself for the impact of a wall or a door or—
Lancaster reopened the door. "So, I couldn't find a chair that wasn't already-" Harley collided with him before he could finish speaking, causing them both to fall onto the ground. Harley landed a little bit above Lancaster's stomach, his head barely landing on Lanc's chest. Lancaster grabbed onto the door frame to stop the two from sliding very far, and after a moment of comprehension for why he was now on the ground, he slid Harley back to the nailed down shirt.
"Shit, sorry Lanc," Harley said, using the shirt as a carpet. "I didn't mean to— well, obviously I didn't but like. Are you okay?" He questioned, watching as Lancaster used the door frame to stand himself up.
Lancaster's face was a dull pink, flushed from his cheeks to his shoulders. The leftover warmth from Harley hadn't fully faded yet, and Lancaster was trying to savor it before it went away completely. He forgot that Harley had even spoke before he recognized the silence of Harley waiting for a response. "Uh, oh, yeah! I'm good, no worries. You know, a.. little fall never hurt anyone." He said, waving his hand in a way to say that he didn't care very much about it.
"I'd beg to differ about that fall thing, but good. No clue what I'd do if I had to call medical up here."
"Probably let me die on the floor."
"Nahh, not on the floor. Maybe under the rug or something, hide the body."
"That's how much our friendship means to you? Literally sweeping me under the rug?"
"Absolutely."
After a short break, and several playful arguments about different topics, Harley was ready to try again. He stood up, getting onto the ground as smoothly as he could. He slid to the wall and practically welcomed the collision with open arms. "You're getting it! Just bend your knees a little bit, it helps." Lanc advised, and even if Harley rolled his eyes at him, he did listen to his instructions.
Eventually, Harley was able to (sort of) maneuver himself on the ground. Though he strongly relied on the boards and books nailed to the ground to stabilize himself, he wasn't a sitting duck anymore.
Which was good. Harley felt no qualms about the fact that Lancaster didn't have to be as close to him anymore.
He was joyous, even.
Totally.
…and if his leg began to act up when he was near Lancaster, that was no one's business but his own.