bakerstreet | the mutual captivity dependency (romance) meme

the mutual captivity dependency (romance) meme

the mutual captivity dependency (romance) 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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

Turncoats: Your captors have pitted you against each other.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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?

WILDCARD

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[M/M for shipping, looking to play out 3 or 15. OTA for gen]

[ooc: Comfortable with unseen overlords directing Matt's actions such as demons/Hell or looking for the other party to be the ones dictating what he does?]

[How about other party dictating what he does (15?). I'd like to play out assumed cr to start in the middle/avoid intros if that's cool.

Heads up I'll be slow posting.]

[M/M for shipping, looking to play out 3 or 15. OTA for gen. Medium-long prose preferred]

[Open to whatever, smut or not.]

((Can roll with anything. Drop me some prefs or PM me to discuss. I don't mind writing starters))

((Looking at your kink list, are you more for Coulson being in control or on the receiving end?))

((I can roll with both. I'm hoping to play him on the receiving end at the moment though.))

((I can go with that. Phil taken in a firefight and thrown in a cell? Tortured or questioned from time to time to be returned to his cellmate (who may or may not be on the payroll). Could let us wander through the sensory deprivation, control and so on themes. Maybe Phil has been shot up with truth serum or some sort of other substance to try and pull his mental barriers down for the enemy to get his secrets? What pings for you the most or ideas you'd like to play out?))

((OOC: All those sound awesome actually. Truth serum would be perfect since he'd hate it and it'd leave him room to open up to the cellmate too. I can start us off if you'd like?))

((If you're comfortable with it, go ahead. I'm good at matching with what you've got in mind especially with Coulson being the one down with it.))

There are no windows in the entire facility. And the only light in the small oppressing cell is a dim light bulb high up in the corner of of the room. Coulson has no idea how long he-- they have been here. His cellmate was introduced a while after he was brought in. Something about having a companion to keep him sane.

Coulson still isn't entirely sure this isn't part of their ploy but he's beyond caring by now. After the constant torture and interrogation they put him through, it's his companion that has kept him relatively sane. At the very least, he has someone to talk to. He's been beaten, bruised, cut, electrocuted, and drugged. It's nothing short of a miracle that he hasn't let spill anything important about SHIELD or its secrets.

He doesn't know when they come for him. Sometimes it feels like days, other times it feels like the sessions take place every hour.

Today, he's thrown back into the cell with his hands still cuffed behind his back. A bruise and a bad looking cut just above his left eye. He curls in on himself, shivering and muttering baseball statistics under his breath. He's almost certain they've given him a truth serum today and it's taken all of his willpower to resist.

"Easy, mate."

The Liverpool accent might be familiar, or so John hopes. They haven't mucked about too much with him, not after he opened a portal to Hell under those who tried to torture him. Frosted over windows with slowly freezing blood-smears had a way of convincing people of that, especially with the bubbling hole of magma left in place of the floor.

He suspects what they're up to, and there's no real way he can stop it so far as Constantine can see. They'll either kill Coulson or both of them in order to find these 'Inhuman' people. They've long since satisfied themselves that Constantine isn't one of them, using real magic versus a 'gift' or 'ability' as he's heard them called.

"Why the fuck won't you tell them something?" John asks as he picks the lock on the handcuffs and tries to make Coulson uncurl from his fetal position. A hand that's chilled with the cell's temperature touches lightly on Coulson's face to study the newest bruisings and cut.

John Constantine could hit them with a spell, a curse, something that would have them pissing blood before dying in agony. He knows it. But wouldn't that make him as bad as they are? On the wrong side of that thin line he walks?

"It's me, Coulson. It's John. Let me see and don't break my hand in the process. Come on. Show off those eyes that have the women quivering in their knickers for you."

He has no idea what they've done to his fellow prisoner today, but John does know they're getting desperate for results. He sees it in how they demand information, how they look at each other. Things are going south fast outside of this cell if Constantine guesses right.

"I'm here. Look at me."

"because I swore to protect them." Coulson answers, still shivering from the cold and the pain of fighting off the effects of the drug. He slowly unfurls from his fetal position, opting instead to lean into Constantine's touch, cold or not, he'd take this over the wrenches they've been beating him with.

He manages to laugh a little at the words and he finally looks up at his cell mate. There's desperation in his eyes and his next words are choked with relief as he gives in. "Is that how you talk to all the other girls or am I special?" he brings his badly bruised wrists to the front slowly, every inch of him obviously hurting. "think I'd recognize your voice anywhere by now. Did I tell you it's really good to see you? Cause it is. I don't know why they still keep me in here with you. Also if it's not obvious. Truth serum. Experimental stuff. They're getting desperate. Please do me a favor and tell me to shut up. " he's still worried he'd say something incriminating.

"You would swear something like that, wouldn't you? You listen to your Uncle John now and never go making a promise like that to anyone. It's impossible to keep. Put yourself in a world of misery that way."

That sardonic smile of his never lessens as John slowly tries to get Coulson flat to fully assess the damage. His voice never changes from that convincing magician's patter that would keep an audience entertained instead of watching for the trick. He's angry, no doubt about that, but he doesn't show it. Just a grand lark they're off on instead of being tortured.

"Just for you, Coulson. The guards don't seem charmed by my pretty words. I know why they keep me here. Think you do too. You like to protect things. They give you something to protect."

That isn't the whole story in John's mind, but he's not voicing those ideas until they need be. It could be that they're torturing Coulson in an attempt to get John himself to strike back at them with magic. Unlikely, but possible. They know he's not an 'Inhuman'.

"I'd tell you to shut up, mate, but if you're talking then I know you're still alive. Don't know much about truth serums, but I do know going to sleep while on most drugs is bad. Besides, you can't tell me what it is you think they want from us if I tell you to shut up, can you? Or where the worst of the pain is? Anything broken or just painted in that lovely shade of purple-black?"

A joke but Constantine is too aware of the story of the toll these beatings are starting to take on him.

Coulson is still tense even as he starts to loosen out, picking a position that's not quite lying on his side or his back. It's evident that the whipping he endured a while ago was still hurting.

"Depends on the person making it." He remarks with a hiss. He can appreciate the banter, it makes things feel normal. He looks up at John, exhaustion and annoyance coming in equal measure at the questions. "No, I can't. I feel like my head's been pounded in by a football player, which may not be too far from the truth. And if I'm being honest, which I am, everything hurts. Nothing's broken. Yet. They did say they'll break my fingers next time." He pauses to catch his breath. "Now will you stop asking me questions before the serum wears off?"

He really wouldn't be surprised if their cell is bugged and this is the exact reason why they threw him back in here before the effects have passed.