The Stockholm Meme

[socktacular]

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!

Comments

[placeintheworld]

I am. [His smile is genuine.] Although it's a lot of expense. I hope you know a lot about your friend. Jude.

[He sits, expensive suit] Do you know what year it is?

[denokandafaran]

[Kit frowned, shutting down a little. The last thing he remembers is Arden giving him that injection. So they could see what happened, if the creatures came for him.]

I don't know anyone name Jude. [Says the liar protecting the people he knows.]

1966.

[placeintheworld]

[He beams.] 2001.

Just so you know. 2001. [He slams a calendar against the glass.] and you're lying, but I'll let James and Ronnie try and get it from you.

...It's good though. I mean it means you were frozen in time. You died man.

[denokandafaran]

Bullshit. [Anyone can get a calendar printed up, right? It couldn't be that hard.] Why would it matter if I know her or not?

[placeintheworld]

[Lindsey's lips press together.] ever hear the expression "make a deal with a devil?"

[denokandafaran]

I never did anything like that.

[placeintheworld]

Not you. Her.

You're the last person to see her alive. we need to know everything that you can tell us about her Kit.

[denokandafaran]

The touched nun put you up to this? Some other way to fuck with her? The shock therapy wasn't enough?

[placeintheworld]

[Impassive] ...What will it take to convince you of the time difference.

My driver's license?

[He reaches into his pocket and pulls it out - 1974. He's almost 38 years old....but in 1974...]

[denokandafaran]

[It does make him falter a bit. In 1974, Lindsey would've been 8. But...people can get fake IDs. Right?]

Let me talk to Lana. On the phone, whatever. She says it's 2001, I'll believe it.

[placeintheworld]

[Lana. Lindsey makes a note.] ...Does it have to be today?

[denokandafaran]

[Kit makes a face.] You want me to talk about Judy Martin, it's gotta be today. Yeah.

[placeintheworld]

[Lindsey rises and nods.] I'll be back in a couple of hours then.

With a phone.

You want a magazine or something while you wait kid?

[He won't be back, one of his interns will. With a phone and Lana who will confirm in a nervous whisper just what Lindsey said. It's 2001. Jude has made a mistake, she's supposedly made a deal with the devil and given all they've seen isn't it prudent to let it go?

Lindsey for his part returns a few days later.]

...Mr. Walker? How are you feeling?

[denokandafaran]

[Kit doesn't understand why Lana would sound so nervous. Nervous, even in Briarcliff, wasn't exactly a word he'd used to describe Lana Winters. Strong. Brave. But nervous?

So something was wrong with this, and he couldn't figure out what. Two, three days passed while he waited. For someone to ask something he'd willingly answer, for another magazine. For food other than bread and water.]

...why?

[placeintheworld]

...It's a lot to take in. Going from the seventies to 2001.

[he shrugs]

I was hoping you'd have information. Ronnie said you weren't feeling talkatiVe.

[denokandafaran]

Maybe Ronnie just isn't asking anything I know the answer to.

[placeintheworld]

We can put you back in the ground just as easily as we raised you. That's John's response.

I'm trying to hold him off, I think you do know about Jude.

[denokandafaran]

In the ground or in a glass cage, those are my choices? [Kit laughs, harshly. Jesus.

She was a nun. What else is there to say?

[placeintheworld]

You and she were friends man.

Throw me a bone here? I'm sure you've gathered how weird things work around here.

[denokandafaran]

She was a nun. They gas-lit her, fried her brain and threw away the key. If we were friends, anything she said to me was nonsense.