Captivity Meme, anyone?

[gibken]

THE CAPTIVITY MEME

You've been captured -- or maybe you've been held captive for a while now. Whatever the case, you've lost your freedom, and there's a specific person responsible for that. You might be a prisoner, a mental patient, a kidnap victim, or someone's pet. Maybe you're there willingly, or maybe the choice has been taken away from you completely.

Both smut and non-smut scenarios are possible. If you don't want to play smut, please indicate so in the title line of your tag.

1. Leave a tag with your character. Be sure to include any limits on what you are willing to play, as this meme has the potential to be triggering.
2. Someone else tags in and uses RNG to generate a number between 1 and 9 (or pick your favorite). The second character is holding the first character captive now.
3. ???
4. Profit!



1. For their own good. Does this person really think they could make it on their own? It's a big, scary world out there, and you need to protect them from it, whether they like it or not.

2. For the good of society. Forget protecting this person -- it's your duty to protect the world from them! Maybe they committed a terrible crime, or maybe they were falsely condemned, but it's your job to keep them locked up where they can't do any more harm.

3. Because they're not well. How's your bedside manner? Whether you're Florence Nightingale or Mildred Ratched, you're in the position of ministering to the mentally ill. Maybe this person genuinely needs your help, or maybe you're just turning a blind eye to their true sanity.

4. For the money. Higher aims? What higher aims? This person is your meal ticket, and they're staying put until their loved ones pay up.

5. For their love. It might be a case of yandere, or it might be a consenting BDSM relationship. Whether it's by mutual agreement or by force, you're keeping them simply because you love them.

6. Because they're cute and fluffy. Who's a cutesy wutesy? They are! Yes, they are! This person is your pet now. Maybe they're a different species from you, or maybe you just don't care that you're both people. Maybe you're even an alien zookeeper looking after a new acquisition.

7. Because they're your property. Slave? Livestock? Who cares what they think - they're your property, and you decide their fate.

8. For the lulz. Hey, what's a little bondage between friends? You'll let them go, once you're done laughing and snapping photos... maybe.

9. Choose a scenario, or combine several.

Comments

[interpolate]

I keep Etienne's hand pressed to my cheek as I speak, half to myself, barely a mumbling whisper. "I'd kill myself if I thought I could."

[red_pleather]

"Contained and under suicide watch," I correct myself. Said watch had better mostly fall to me, because I'm our best chance of keeping him contained if he really decides he wants to get out.

"You'd really leave your brother?"

[interpolate]

I lift my head to look at him, then tilt it slowly to one side, considering his words. Without my computer, with my cables contained, there's a very small chance of escaping. If he's going to keep me watched perpetually, I won't have a chance to protect them from myself. Not that I could. I'm too machine at this point, I think, to self-terminate.

"I can't hurt him again, Hiromu. When he wakes up, he'll want me dead too."

do let him break free any time you want, of course; Hiromu will cope

[red_pleather]

"He'll understand," I say at once. Not with the bright fierceness I might once have used, but I am still just as definite. "I'll explain to him about Messiah. No matter how I feel, you two should be friends."

XD

[interpolate]

"He won't." I'm crying again, but I don't care. His hand still feels too cold.

"What if it happened again? What if it's you this time? What if you just freeze and you never start moving again?" Is that what I did... what Messiah used me to do to Ryuuji? Make his Weak Point function past the point of weakness and into the point of fatality?

I feel sick but I don't think I'm physically capable of the act.

Re: XD

[red_pleather]

I sigh, because while I do not trust him, he -- he does not trust himself, and I cannot help but feel myself rising to meet this.

"Then you, or someone else, would figure out a way to fix me," I say brusquely. Or possibly they wouldn't. Possibly they'd be too late. But we can't dwell on that possibility. "We must move forward, Emeric."

I go down on one knee next to his seat, a hand on the arm of his chair. My voice is very gentle. Like dealing with a spooked horse. "He will love you. Just give him time."

[interpolate]

"That's what I'm trying to do, Hiromu." Move forward.

I close my eyes when he crouches next to me, turning my face away and struggling not to break. "I hurt him. I've hurt him so much, when all I wanted was to save him. This is my fault. Hiromu, please..."

[red_pleather]

I hate this.

I touch his shoulder, now, gently inviting him to a hug if he wants it. Dammit. I know I shouldn't do this. I am too easily swayed, too easily convinced. Everyone's right about me.

But I'm not going to stop.

"It's not your fault. Messiah used you," I say roughly.

[interpolate]

"It will use me again, and again, until it's free. You have to understand-" I choke on the words and am suddenly crying, and it's pathetic and unbecoming and terrible, but there's nothing I can do but let my worry over my brother overwhelm me.

[red_pleather]

He's actually crying, now, not just tears in his eyes, but actual sobs.

I am furious with myself for moving to take him in my arms, and furious with myself for not doing it more quickly.

I am furious that my friends were killed, and that another is only barely a few inches away from the brink of death.

However.

I am not furious at Emeric. Not any more. I can't speak, though, because the words will not come out, but at least I can hold him while he cries. I'm not completely useless, after all.

[interpolate]

When the fog clears I realize Hiromu's holding me. I'm still clutching Etienne's hand, but it takes a second to realize that he's clutching it back.

His eyes are open.

I drop his hand and throw myself away from the bed, tumbling out of Hiromu's grip and huddling in the corner as far as I can get.

[red_pleather]

Emeric hurls himself away from me, and I frown, but then I see Etienne. My heart tries to burst out of my chest, and I near collapse to the floor next to the bed.

"W-Welcome back."

[interpolate]

I'm not sure what's going on. I don't remember... anything clearly. Hiromu's at the side of the bed, and I reach for him in a daze.

And someone else is in the room. Someone...

Enter?

No. I try to get out of bed and retreat to the opposite corner, but none of my limbs are responding properly.

[red_pleather]

I take his hand, trying not to clutch him too hard. He's weak. I don't want to hurt him.

He's awake.

He's awake.

"No, no, take it easy," I urge. "Emeric helped."

[interpolate]

"Emeric?" I spit. "You're still," My voice sounds weak. What happened to me? "You're still convinced about that?" I remember fighting. I remember fighting him, my brother. Like fighting with my own reflection. "He tried to kill me, Hiromu! Why is he in here!?"

[red_pleather]

"It wasn't him," I say, accepting it at last. "He was being controlled." Dammit, I knew it was him, and it *hurt* that he'd go *that* far... Except now, I know it wasn't.

I have to adapt to that.

I wipe my cheeks absently. Huh. I'm crying. I take Etienne's hand. He's going blurry. "I- I thought I was- we wete going to lose you, too."

[interpolate]

So, Hiromu's lost it. Great. I feel awful, I'm barely standing, my head hurts, my whole body hurts. The shell of my twin brother is huddled across the room, inexplicably terrified of being near me, and Hiromu is crying.

Well. I put my shaking arm around Hiromu's shoulders.

Then his words catch up with me.

"What do you mean, too?"

[red_pleather]

I lean into him for a moment, only, then realise what I'm doing. "You should lie down," I urge him, voice hoarse.

...

I inhale sharply.

[interpolate]

Enter isn't moving, but I still find it hard to believe that he is in any way helpful. I almost... Almost feel bad, feel guilty, feel like comforting him, when I see how he's huddled in the corner with his arms over his head, like he's hiding from something. Maybe from me. It's not like him. And he was holding my hand when I woke up.

"Hiromu." I say softly. I don't want to lie down. I don't want to get closer to Enter, and I don't want to show how weak I feel. "What happened?"

[red_pleather]

We've trained for this.

There are courses. Guidelines. Helpful pictures. Things to say and not to say when advising someone about their loved one's injury, or death.

First time I had to do it for real, I realised all of that was bullshit, and now I'm facing telling Etienne? Doubly so. Because none of that pat-though-well-meant wording will help, none of the eye contact, none of the judgement of how much a person needs to be helped versus how much they need to be alone. None of it will help.

I sigh. "We lost two people," I say quietly.

[interpolate]

Lost. He says it so simply like that. Quiet, obviously hurting. Lost.

Dead.

Gone.

Because of him.

"Who?" I need to know, but I'm not looking at Hiromu. I'm looking across the room. I'm looking at him, and knowing he's responsible.

[red_pleather]

"Morishita," I say softly, then I have to take a deep, shuddery breath before this one. "Ryuu-san."

[interpolate]

No.

I think I'm probably closer to Morishita than any of the others, by virtue of Takosawa insisting that I stay up to date on all the duties required of the Controllers, in case my Weak Point should ever degenerate to the point where I have to be stricken from Active Field Duty.

Was closer, I realize. I shake my head and turn away, but his next words bring me around, and tears spring to my eyes immediately.

"No." It comes out as a whimper, but grief is very suddenly overtaken by rage, and I peel away from Hiromu and throw myself across the room at Enter. "You bastard!"

up to you how successful his attempt is

[red_pleather]

He goes tense all over, and I have to close my eyes against the pain in his voice even as I'm moving to try to hug him.

Except he's not within reach any more.

*Shit*.

I hurl myself at Etienne. "No, get off him, it's not his fault!"

surprise character swap again, lololol why am I doing this to myself.

[interpolate]

I'd nearly managed to check out completely. While Etienne's deteriorating state was enough to distract Hiromu from me, I'd nearly managed to find all of the little locks and checks in place to keep me bound here. If I succeeded, it would have been as painless as sleep, but without me they might not be able to reverse it.

But instead, my brother is suddenly flying at me, his fist connecting with the side of my head, a strike that never would have landed had I been paying any kind of attention. Or maybe it would have. Maybe I would have let him. I'd let him kill me, if it wouldn't hurt him.

"Eti." I wince and look up at him as Hiromu tries to pull him back. "I'm sorry."