bakerstreet | The Stockholm 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!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

He tries not to look at the folder but curiosity grabs the better of him about the time the words "streamlined suit" come into play. A quick sneaky peek and he suddenly feels incredibly, increasingly worried. Government wants arc reactors to power suits.

He's suddenly acutely aware of the reactor in his chest. The soft hum he can feel in his bones. The way it's connected to his body, the way he can actually feel it light up, feel it dim and pulse and react.. All the little subtle things. Deflect. Deflect somehow. Get the attention away. Don't flare up, don't flare up.. He focuses everything on keeping it as dim as possible.

Stark lets out a quiet sigh, rolling his eyes.

"Okay. For starters, arc reactor. It's called an arc reactor. Do you not read the papers? Or something? Because it's not like I've been hush-hush on any terminology here. Second, repulsors. Say it with me: repulsors. 'Palm blasting things' isn't even close. Third, do you even know how to make a 'streamlined suit'? Because I saw War Machine- which, by the way, just in case you forgot, mostly my tech -and it was huge and chunky and absolutely ridiculous. You don't just nail shit to a body shell and hope it works out for the best. Or are you not doing that whole pesky 'science' thing anymore?"

He can't help it- he has to look up, sneer, cock his head a little. "Seriously. Was it the math? It was the math, wasn't it. Look, you didn't have to turn to thuggery in despair or anything. I know how hard life can be, but math's easy to learn. You could probably just Google it if you got super desperate."

Justin has the overwhelming urge to interrupt him. He has every fiber in his being crying out to cut the bastard off. But it's very important to let Tony think he has some sort of control over the situation, that maybe Justin can be "reasoned" with and come to a conclusion that's favorable. That is: he can talk his way out of it. He has to let him hold onto the hope that Tony will find something that tugs at a few heartstrings or emotionally puts Justin into a mess of a man, that he'll give up out of frustration or just plain "coming around" to see things Tony's wait.

But it won't happen. He won't let it happen. Besides, Justin doesn't even have the keys to his shackles. He certainly doesn't have anything to cut them off with, either.

So it's very, very important to give Tony hope. It's also rather cruel, he knows, but he's just following orders. Isn't that what's said when a man who's done awful things is on trial? I was just following orders. I couldn't disobey.

There's not going to be a trial for Justin Hammer. Not in this life, and he hardly believes in any god.

"Yes. I know the terminology, Tony." He has to loosen up a little. He has to make him think that Tony's breaking down walls. Somehow. It's not like he's never called him Tony before. He just doesn't really use it to his face if he can help it. "I was, however, informed that there are just, really, just a wide variety of side effects that come with what you were knocked out with. Impaired memory, dizziness, nausea, general discombobulation...then again," he shrugs again, goes so far as to give a brief laugh, "I've seen you give extremely complicate speeches piss-your-pants drunk. I was just trying to make it easier on you, okay? I didn't mean to insult you."

And even as he talks about not insulting him, he picks up a pencil and taps it against the table, looking from that bastard's sneering face down to the topmost piece of paper.

"Shall we start? Or do you want me to play up some stereotypical villain shit? Tell you where Potts is, talk about Doctor Banner, mention we had to unplug JARVIS to keep him quiet?"

Oops?

"You do? I'm shocked."

He feels a lot of things, all at once, and they threaten to overwhelm him if he thinks about it for any amount of time. It's easier to swallow it all and be a little shit. Maybe he can get Hammer to leave. That would improve his current conditions by about 1000%.

Probably have cameras in the room, though. Or maybe not. Data has a bad habit of ferreting it's way into the light whenever Tony has something to do with it. He rolls his eyes as Hammer starts to do his cute little "scary guy" bit and looks away, glancing at the edges of the room. If there are cameras, they're not immediately obvious.

But now he's threatening Tony's family- JARVIS included -and it takes everything he has not to freak, not to lose it and look scared. He keeps his face as disinterested as he possibly can, though his eyes might be just the littlest bit angry.

"You know, I would- really, I would? -but I'm a little busy wondering what government you're working for, because last time I checked the American government wasn't real keen on how completely you screwed the pooch the last time you did business." Dick. "Are you the only act tonight, or do I get someone I can actually talk to after this?"

Justin's "cute little" routine isn't really meant to be scary. Potts is at a conference, the question about Doctor Banner is basic but morbid, and JARVIS' fate is entirely in Tony's hands. Short of completely destroying every Stark home the world over, Justin wouldn't know how to get rid of him, exactly; and even if he did, Tony could probably bring him back online. Or maybe he'd have to start over from scratch, and wouldn't that be a kick in the pants?

"I'm sorry, are you calling me a liar?"

Justin's lied before. He most definitely has, as Tony well knows. He didn't know what he was talking about his ass, but he hadn't backed down when faced with Iron Man and he certainly wasn't going to back down with faced with Tony Stark, Dick Extraordinaire, Rubber Of Failures In The Faces Of Others.

"Or have you lost your marbles? Yes, the American government. While what happened at the Stark Expo wasn't exactly something they appreciated, they still want those suits. You remember Senator Stern, don't you? The one who said 'fuck you' on national news television? Yeah, he really wants those suits. He wants them so much he helped me break Ivan Vanko out of prison several years ago. And you know what? Even after all that? They still want these suits. So, you know: surprise, it wasn't just me. The government you've been letting control that suit your friend the lieutenant colonel took? Pretty corrupt.

"Are you going to play twenty questions or are we going to get down to business? Let's be professional about this, how's that?"

"Yes. Yes I am."

Duh.

"Was I not being clear?" He cocks his head, fixing Hammer with a full-on pity look. "The answer? Is no. It's not happening. Not for you, not your buddies- not anyone, Senator or otherwise, who thinks they can scare me out of my tech." A quick shrug, and he looks away again.

"Usually I love a good professional with a nice set of chains, but I think I'll pass this time up, thanks. In a committed relationship now, really something special." Fuck you.

Justin hears his answer. He obviously does, because when Tony gives it to him, he leans back in his chair as though he knows he's going to be there for a while. He digests it—no no no no no fuck you asshole I hate your guts and also no—and lets Tony continue. The crack about chains doesn't bring a smile to his face, but it doesn't make him grimace, either; Justin's well aware of his reputation as playboy. It doesn't strike him as unusual in the least. Crass, definitely. But, hey. They're both men, right? They can get away with it.

He watches him for a while, bottom lip being rolled between his teeth as he thinks about the best way to work around this entirely expected situation. Grabbing up the pencil, he taps one end on the edge of the desk, lets it fall to the other side, tap, and the process starts all over again. Like a makeshift deer scarer, only without the intricacy and not a soothing sound of water to be found within earshot.

Tony is probably expecting him to say something. Do something. Get angry and pitch a fit, spill details of where each individual in Tony's life currently rests, break down into some sort of heart-to-heart to try and win him over.

But not yet. Not now, at any rate. Now he's just going to slide that pencil between his fingers and letting the tapping do the talking. His head still has to be a little fuzzy, he knows. It's not Chinese water torture by any stretch of the imagination, but Justin is quiet and still...except for that tapping that seems to be growing in volume with each passing hit of it against the desk.

The Stockholm Meme

desperation IS his strong suit

nah, that's versace

omfg you fucking fuck

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