Forced proximity taken to a new extreme

[supermeme]

the mutual captivity dependency meme

No matter how hard you fought, how subtly or overtly you rebelled, or how many times you tried to escape, you ended up at this point all the same: you're a prisoner. Perhaps you're just a regular, run of the mill captive, perhaps a hostage, a science experience, a weapon to be used, yet, no matter what, you're not free.

But you're also not alone.

There's someone else confined along with you, who you met through your mutual imprisonment. The only thing you two may have in common is that you're both trapped here - and that's enough. The two of you grow close (it seems you're closer to them than you've ever been to anyone, but that could just be the situation); soon, something begins to start between you, tiny and delicate. You can't speak to what that something is, not in a place like this, but you know you want it to last. They are another reason to keep going.

Captivity, of course, has a way of stripping everything from you, including reasons to live. Surely, it is only a matter of time before this small - and still somehow world encompassing - comfort is taken from you...

...no. Not this time. They've taken all you have, right down to your freedom, and it stops now. You won't let the person who's become most precious to you in this hell be stolen away.

No matter what.

HOW TO PLAY

• Comment with your character and preferences. Are you open to AUs and assumed CR? What are your limits? Given the subject of the meme, there's likely to be triggering material here. Do you prefer very dark fare or a light at the end of the tunnel scenario?
• There's one prompt that could be smut, but feel free to play it in others if you're open to it. However, I'm going to be posting this as a smut meme on TLH later this week.
• Reply to others. RNG.

PROMPTS

1. Prisoner of War: Who's side were you on? Or were you just an innocent civilian caught in the mire?


2. Hostage: Take heart. You're worth more alive than dead.


3. Scientific Experiment: What an interesting specimen you are. You will have to be tested.


4. False Charges: One or both of you are here because of lies told against you; eventually, though, you may begin to believe that your worth is truly that low.


5. Do the Dirty Work: Your powers are useful, maybe even enough to use you as an unwilling assassin.


6. For Different Reasons: You're imprisoned for different reasons, and you still draw close. After all, does it matter when you're both stuck?


7. Most Unforgivable Sin: One of you is a prisoner in the most basic of senses: hostage, slave, what have you. The other? Well, it's much more complicated. The other is a person forced against their will to be a lover, spouse, or sex slave of those in charge. What if that other does find someone they actually love? It could cost you both your heads.


8. Equalized: Maybe you were in different social strata before, but now, you're both common dirt.


9. Should Be in Charge: One of you has a higher ranking in the system. Will you use your power to manipulate them or to skew things in their favor.


10. Beneficial: You both have something the other wants. It's a mutually beneficial set-up, and that's all it needs to be. At least, that's how it starts.


11. Love at First Sight: You never thought you'd see someone like them here, and maybe it's because you've been cut off for some long, but you're feeling so smitten, even if that's usually not you.


12. Needy: You're not cut out for this. Almost immediately, you reach out for anyone who can offer to take you under their wing.


13. Won't Fall: To you, it's all to keep yourself sane. You won't actually fall in love, not in a million years.


14. Traumatized: It's hard to care for someone so broken, someone who's seen such terrible things, but you do it anyway.


15. Brainwashed: Before you met them, you never doubted your masters. But now...


16. Flower of Hell: Such a beautiful ray of light should not belong here in this darkness. Cruelty will snuff if out. You don't want that to happen.


17. Kindness: They showed you an unprecedented act of charity and selflessness. You feel drawn to them.


18. Tend to Wounds: It's easy to get hurt while captive. At least you don't have to wait for your wardens to fix you up. You have someone kind or dedicated enough to tend to you and you alone.


19. Anything to Protect You: They can't protect themselves, so you'll do it for them in any way you can.


20. Using Them: Really, you don't care for them. You just want their protection and their help. At least, that's what you keep thinking.


21. Burned Before: You had another prisoner before that you loved, and they were sent away or killed. You want let down your guard again.


22. Human Contact: You've been deprived for so long, you crave any attention.


23. Can't Touch: You're in cells, kept apart. You can never touch.


24. Barely See You: There kept away from you and everyone else for most of the day, but you still have feelings for them.


25. Separate: They're to be taken away, perhaps even to another outpost. What will you do?


26. Frustration: How long has it been since you've been with someone? You may take any opportunity to get some privacy.


27. Have Hope: You don't want your partner to lose faith, so despite your own beliefs, you'll stay positive.


28. Promises: You keep telling them things, swearing that you'll follow through and you'll both be okay. Inside, a part of you may fear it's all hollow words.


29. Escape: You're going to leave, but not without them.


30. Punishment: For your crimes, both of you will be punished. How much will your affections mean then?


31. Forced to Torture: Not only does your closest person have to be tortured, but you're the one who has to do it.


32. All a Sham: The truth is out. They were only playing you. In fact, they may


33. Turncoats: Your captors have pitted you against each other.


34. Fight: You may argue or even come to blows, yet soon enough, you'll be wanting to forgive and forget because there's no one else to look out for you.


35. Jealousy: They're all you have here, so you're not inclined to share.


36. Taken by Another: Someone else captured here with you all saw what you had and decided they would steal away your significant other.


37. Know How to Break You: Your tormenters know they can't hurt you with torture, but if they hurt the one you care for? That's another story.


38. Death: There's no need for prisoners who won't keep on the straight and narrow. You've pushed the envelope too many times, and now, execution is the easiest option for your captors.


39. Finally Free: The two of you have finally made it out alive. Suddenly, in the light of day, things seem different. Was all of this, all of these feelings...were they true or out of some desperate need?


40. WILDCARD

Comments

Nerevarine | Elder Scrolls

[velothi]

[virulentus]

[ Wesker was prepared for torture. He anticipated all the usual tactics: interrogation, intimidation, threats, violence. He can win any contest of wills, outlast his enemies until they make a fatal mistake. A facile little game, really. Beneath him.

Except the questions never come. There is no interrogation, only a long succession of tests and experiments that all blend together into a bleary haze of agony. How long has it been? Five days? A week? His inability to keep track of time is nearly as disturbing as the realization that strikes him quite at random: while he lies strapped to an examination table, trying not to bite through his tongue, it occurs to him that he isn't a prisoner at all. He is an asset.

As they half-lead, half-drag him back to his cell, he catches a brief glimpse of his reflection in one of the mirrored glass windows lining the hallway. His own appearance shocks him. His hair, unwashed and crusty with dried blood from a cut on his scalp, falls messily into his face, which days of undernourishment and lack of sleep have rendered alarmingly pale. If not for the fever-bright glow of his eyes, he might have mistaken himself for a corpse.

The guards dump him unceremoniously onto the floor of his cramped concrete cell, then depart. He struggles to a sitting position, noting with a strange mix of relief and disappointment that his cellmate is still alive. ]

You look awful. Why haven't they killed you yet?

[velothi]

[ Because Ashu is cheating, of course.

Not to his worldview, however. If these n'wahs are too stupid to realize he's capable of healing magic, that is on them. Mephala and Boethiah call for his children to use all tools at their disposal.

But it can't be that simple, can it? Ashu, an assassin who's done similar acts for similar reasons (torture is permissible in his line of work), knows damn well they're being watched 24/7. Perhaps their captors are allowing him to heal himself, either to test Ashu's abilities, or some other reason. Magnanimity, it makes him sick, the taste of old blood grown thicker in his dried up mouth. They're neither being fed nor watered. ] Where's the fun in that?

[ Against better instincts, Ashu too is both annoyed and relieved his cellmate has returned. Annoyed, because the blessed silence is now over, desperate prayers to Azura now liable to be heard. Relieved, because he can heckle this Imperial some more, bring a much needed distraction from the drudgery of experimentation then neglect. He almost wishes to be cut up some more to inject some excitement into his morning...afternoon? Who knows in these windowless cells. ] You look like shit too. [ His fingers, dry and skinny from dehydration, glow off-gold. There's a gentle twinkle as the magic dances shaped as ribbons, healing some of Wesker's split lip. ] They don't want to kill us. We'd be dead already. No, I think you and I are special. Probably trying to see if we can even die. [ Between agonies he'd caught some curious words. ] Are you blessed by any chance? Or diseased, depending on your point of view?