bakerstreet | Stockholm Syndrome Meme

Stockholm Syndrome Meme

THE STOCKHOLM MEME

WARNING: Meme will contain TRIGGERS, including kidnapping, dubious consent, and general uncomfortable content. Please do not click if you don't want to see, and please respect your fellow role-players.

Stockholm Syndrome is a psychological phenomenon in which hostages express empathy and have positive feelings for their captors, sometimes to the point of defending them. These feelings are generally considered irrational in light of the danger or risk endured by the victims, who essentially mistake a lack of abuse from their captors for an act of kindness.

Stockholm syndrome can be seen as a form of traumatic bonding, which does not necessarily require a hostage scenario, but which describes "strong emotional ties that develop between two persons where one person intermittently harasses, beats, threatens, abuses, or intimidates the other."

HOW TO PLAY:
1) Comment with your character and their series in the subject line of the comment. Include any preferences you might have on type of scene/squicks/etc.
2) Comment around to start scenes! Use random.org if you get stuck for ideas.

PROMPTS:
1. KIDNAPPED. You've been taken, either for ransom money or just because you've pissed the wrong people off. Or maybe your kidnapper just wants company. Maybe they need someone to be their companion, to be their confidante, and they chose you.

2. CAPTURED. Maybe you were a soldier, fighting in a battle. Maybe a spy, or a political dissident. Either way, the military has caught up with you.

3. IN CUSTODY. It's a law enforcement agent that has you locked up. Maybe you're a criminal and you're in prison, or on house arrest so that agent can keep an eye on you. Maybe the agent doesn't have enough evidence, so they took matters into their own hands.

4. ASYLUM. This person isn't keeping you here against your will. It's for safety. Maybe you're in the Witness Protection Program. Maybe you sought asylum from your own country. Maybe your criminal life got a little too heated and you had to go underground somewhere.

5. HOSTAGE EXCHANGE. A war, between countries or gangs or even planets, and the two sides have decided to exchange important hostages as a gesture of trust. You're one of them. It might even involve arranged marriage -- a way to unite your two peoples. Hope you enjoy staying with your enemy.

6. HIRED. Someone's being paid to keep you. Maybe a new parent or guardian keeping you at home, or perhaps an evil uncle has had you tossed into a discreet asylum in order to claim your inheritance.

7. SLAVERY. Through birth or misfortune, you've become the property of another. But they're not such a bad master. You might even grow to love them, if enough time passes. If they treat you with the right combination of cruelty and kindness.

8. WILD CARD. For anything not covered by the other options!

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[ He nods, as though he expected that answer, and sighs. ]

You didn't used to protect thieves and murders.

[ But dwelling on the past is counterproductive. John is never going to go back to being that young agent, and Jedikiah wouldn't want him to, anyway. It's taken years, but John finally, finally knows everything he needs to in order to survive in a world that's fundamentally against him.

...except, apparently, how not to get caught. But Jedikiah can fix that. ]

Securing your release will take time.

[ Not an 'if'. A 'when'. ]

Murderers.

[ Softly, angrily. ]

The only murderer I protected was me.

I don't trust you. What's the catch? [ Does he have to get on his knees and beg? Let them tag him like a wild animal? Take the injection? ]

Miss Coburn's files say otherwise.

[ Jedikiah raises an eyebrow. He's not shocked at the lack of trust, not at all. But he was John's only option. ]

The catch? The catch is that you'll be a dead man.

[ A pause. ]

Officially, of course.

[ He works through it, slowly. Officially a dead man, meaning that Ultra would think so? Meaning that Jedikiah would be doing this for him, in particular?

He slides forward, to the edge of the bed, his eyes on Jedikiah. ]

What's the game? Or is it just an outpouring of paternal fondness? [ This last, dripping with sarcasm. But he is anxious and tense; he would rather them be just enemies, distant foes. Being this close, for so long, wears on him. Makes him want to go back to what he was.

At least he used to feel important. ]

I know that you like to think of me as the monster here, John. But you really shouldn't believe everything you see.

[ Roger's favorite line; Jedikiah wonders if John knows it. Not that it matters, any more - Roger is beyond helping anyone. He shakes his head, dismissing the thought. ]

If it was one of your friends in here instead of you, they'd already be occupying a body bag.

[ 'Paternal fondness' may not be something Jedikiah would ever admit to, but with himself, at least, he could be honest. John was never supposed to be anything more than another recruit: dangerous, to be sure, but replaceable.

Except when he wasn't. Whether John knew it or not, Jedikiah gave the boy everything he'd ever need to survive the world and everything in it - including Ultra. Including Jedikiah. ]

So I'm just special.

[ His voice comes out bitter, instead of calm, sarcastic like he intends it. His defenses are down; not like he would roll over like a puppy every time Jedekiah called him 'special', oh no. Not like it was the one thing he really wanted to hear. ]

[ The instinct here is for Jedikiah to clap a hand on John's shoulder, the back of his neck - habit, he supposes. Physical affection always sparked more reassurance than just words, and Jedikiah had never broken himself of the urge, even after John went rogue.

But he knows how it would be received now, so he contents himself with leaning forwards, brow furrowed. ]

You always were.

[ But not, perhaps, for the reasons John assumes. ]

[ He twitches like he can feel it, feel a touch. John lets so few people touch him. So few people even get into his space.

He's tempted, again, to say what he's thought privately since their meeting in the restaurant - So you know about Stephen, don't you. Know that Stephen is running both sides. Know that John is using him as ruthlessly as Jedikiah ever used John.

Turns out he did learn a few things after all.

But he doesn't say it. There's a chance that cover is intact. There's a chance Jedikiah pinned his hopes on Stephen, or let family get in the way of judgment. And if he did, it's a gap in Ultra's armor. ]

Give me terms.

You know I'm not taking the serum without a fight. You know I won't abandon them. And you know I'm not coming back.

[ Plenty of loopholes left in those three terms. ]

[ He knows. Of course he knows. Stephen isn't a particularly good liar, and his ability to pull a meeting with John out of thin air was confirmation enough for Jedikiah.

But that doesn't matter now, not really. He has other ways of keeping Stephen safe, ways that he can't extend to John anymore. Hypocritical, maybe, but then Jedikiah has never claimed to be a good person. Just a driven one. ]

Leave New York.

[ He leans forward, words crisp. ]

Take your band of rebels with you, I don't care. But if you stay here, and you're caught again? [ He shakes his head. ] There won't be anything or anyone that can save either of us.

[ If John's caught, if John's spotted after his 'death', they're both dead men. John, because his kill order came from people higher than Jedikiah, and Jed, because those people are just as willing to kill him as they were his brother. ]

[ The look on John's face is bleak, after that. That's - that would not be an easy choice. ]

And abandon all the breakouts that will show up here?

[ Because there are more than just a handful. And they mean more than John's life, for sure. ]

[ Easy, no. Necessary? Yes. ]

And save the ones you've already taken in.

[ Jedikiah shakes his head, sighing. ]

This isn't the only paranormal hotspot in the world, John.

[ Not the only, no, but certainly the biggest. Breakouts were, for some unknown reason, simply drawn to the city. ]

You're making this sound like you're the one who's trapped. You realize it's me in a cage, right?

[ He says this with anger, but there's fear, too - that Jedikiah will make John sympathetic to him, that Jedikiah will start to warp what John thinks again. ]

Believe it or not, I have someone I have to answer to as well, John, and he looks even less kindly on failure than I do.

[ And was considerably more powerful than Jedikiah, as well. ]

You don't want him taking an interest in you.

Please.

[ He hates himself for saying it. Hates himself for begging, for throwing himself on Jedikiah's mercy. God knows it never ends well. But he has no other option. ]

Please get me out of here. Get me back to them.

[ His fists are clenched, his dull nails are digging into his palm. ]

[ And just like that, Jedikiah is next to John, half kneeling, one hand on the back of the boy's - man's - neck. He doesn't know how it'll be received, if John will push him away even now, but he doesn't care. John needs him. ]

Easy, son. [ There's no condescension in his words, just old, gentle familiarity. ] I will.

I will.

[ Son. The word makes him shake; it makes him angry and desperately relieved. He remembers, suddenly and vividly, when Jedikiah's frame was broader and taller to John's eyes, when John was small and slender, when John believed that anything in the world could be solved by pushing hard enough.

He makes a little, desperate, shaky scoffing sound. He tries to scoff, anyway. ]

Why should I believe you?

[ Jedikiah doesn't move, just gently strokes the nape of John's neck. ]

You shouldn't. [ He shakes his head, slides his hand down to grip John's shoulder. When he speaks, his voice is urgent, earnest. ] But I want you safe, John. That's all I've ever wanted for you.

Bullshit.

[ Safe wouldn't have meant turning him into an agent. Safe wouldn't have meant learning how to kill.

Safe wasn't ever something John was going to be. Not in the clutches of the government - not in the hands of Ultra. ]

You know how Ultra operates, inside and out. You know how to fight and survive. And if it comes down to it, you know how to defend yourself.

[ He shakes his head. ]

You needed to be ready, and now you are. If there had been another way...

[ Life as an agent wasn't what John deserved, but it was the best Jedikiah could give him. ]

{ He touches the fabric of Jedikiah's shirt, pinches it between his fingers. Tactile sensation, in absence of being able to reach out with telepathy, telekinesis, anything. John doesn't want to make decisions for himself anymore. He is, suddenly, so very tired.

He remembers Jedikiah's shirt speckling with dark, water-droplets from above. Warmth. ]

You remember when I jumped off that bridge?

[ He doesn't know why he brings it up. Some vague but important sensation of anchoring. Of calm that he hadn't reached before and has only rarely reached since. ]

[ There's a murmured noise of assent, and Jed slides his hand from John's shoulder to his back, warm and solid and present. ]

When you came home soaking wet and in shock, yes.

[ It wasn't John's home. It's wasn't even Jedikiah's home, not really. But when John was there, it had been close enough, closer than it had ever been before.

He's not sure where John is going with this. ]

I did it again. Two - three weeks before - [ Before Ultra got him. He breathes out, feels the shift of lungs in his chest, the weight of Jed's hand on his back. ]

Wasn't as good.

Maybe I wasn't - scared enough.

Or you have more to lose now.

[ Cara. His band of rebels. Roger's faith in him. Things were less complicated when the only thing that John had to worry about was his next sparring match with Killian. ]

No.

Dying was never - part of it.

Then what?

[ He'd chalked John's first jump up to youthful rebellion and impulsiveness, a way of fighting back against the highly regimented turn his life had taken. Fixing that had been easy - more small freedoms, more of Jedikiah's influence and time. He thought it had helped.

Apparently he'd been wrong. ]

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Stockholm Syndrome Meme

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I have notifs now!! Sorry for being so slow, vacation and such.

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