Event: Consolidation Theory, Part Four and Five

[snowblindmods]

Characters: red-marked characters and their new friends
Location: ???
Date: Morning 354, Morning and Day 355
Summary: A quiet morning and a confusing morning, or maybe they're both, or maybe they're neither.
Warnings: gore, psychological horror, warn for specifics in the subject lines

Part Four OOC Post
Part Five OOC Post

Comments

A - CW's throughout thread; also parasites and delusions

[thewarningafter]

Flynn?

[Stephen's voice is a croak, but for as bad as he feels right now the crumpled figure he can just barely see in one of the cells down the way looks infinitely worse.

It's quieter today, and Stephen is surprised to find that he remembers at least the first part of yesterday. After the injections, though...something that feels like a bad dream, spiders under his skin, and then -- nothing at all. Nothing to explain any of this.]

Flynn, what -- what did they do --

[cahooted]

[There's another upset sniffle coming from behind his hand and he shakes his head.]

S-stop it, stop, leave them alone, w-what are you doing...

[thewarningafter]

Flynn, please--it's not, no one's doing anything. It's over, Flynn. Look at me, Flynn, it's over for now.

[cahooted]

[It's over.

Flynn wants to believe that so bad that he clings to that but he knows he's still down here, down where the cells are, where the others are. He rubs at his eyes again, trying to pull himself together.]

'm fine. I'm fine. Not that bad, it's not that bad.

[thewarningafter]

Okay.

[There's no real comfort he can offer. They're still trapped down here -- Flynn among them now -- and he feels even further from knowing why or for how much longer than he did yesterday.]

Okay, it's -- just stay with me, alright? Do you know where you are?

[cahooted]

Downstairs.

[The sniffles gradually lessen.]

T-they took me downstairs. I'm fine. The others, they hurt the others. I-I need to go see if they're okay.

[thewarningafter]

[They. Does Flynn remember something Stephen doesn't?]

Who? Who took you downstairs? We just -- yesterday, the rest of us, we just woke up here. Who did this? Who did they hurt?

[cahooted]

The s-static.

[He shivers at the memory, drawing his knees in closer to his body. It's not the first time he's being kidnapped but this is-- different.

Still, trying to keep his mind focused, trying to vocalize things, seems to help.

That is, until he finally brings himself to look up and spots Stephen in his cell, the red lines, and he freezes all over again, eyes growing wide. He'd been so focused on his voice that he forgot Stephen is one of them.]

[thewarningafter]

[The static. Like the figures that took them away one by one, that Stephen couldn't even look at for dizziness and pain but they kept touching him--]

The static came in here, too, they took us out and--

Flynn...?

[cahooted]

Was it you? You were there, weren't you, you were all there. Why did you do that?

[His voice is picking up rapidly, his breath hitching.]

Why did you do that!?

[thewarningafter]

[Why. Not what, why, and Stephen's stomach lurches as the memory comes to him, unbidden, of the converts' desperate apologies, his own inability to look America in the eye even though he knew, he knew it had never been the country's choice.]

Oh...oh, gods. No, no, I don't--what did we do, Flynn? What did we do to you?

[A cruel question, but it spills from him with impossible urgency.]

[cahooted]

[Flynn shakes his head, scrambling to get to his feet, swaying dangerously.]

You attacked us. [His voice is panicky, incredulous, as if he's just figuring this out himself.] You attacked-- everybody!

[thewarningafter]

[Stephen's brow furrows tighter, his face the picture of confusion and horror.]

The drugs they gave us...Flynn, I don't remember. I don't remember anything that happened since yesterday.

[cahooted]

You don't remember?

[The words register on some level but he's too upset, too agitated to connect with them rationally, his voice shrill with growing hysteria.]

How could you not remember that? How could you not remember that?!