Daisy Hughes (cyberblonde) wrote in invol_rpg, @ 2013-04-19 08:59:00 |
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Entry tags: | ! log, daisy hughes, jodi duncan |
WHO: Daisy Hughes & Jodi Duncan
WHAT: Daisy's 3 days in solitary.
WHEN: Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday
WHERE: Solitary City.
WARNINGS: None.
STATUS: Complete.
They'd very nearly had to carry her away from the crowd, kicking and screaming. She couldn't remember the last time that she'd screamed like this. Daisy had made eye contact with Carter for an instant; she'd seen Hunter turn his head, lunging desperately toward the sound of her voice. She'd seen the guards and she'd made mental swipes at their weapons, the only thing she could think to do. It worked, but there were too many of them. More guards rushed forward, tasers drawn -- "No!" They'd yanked her back. Daisy's struggling got her nowhere, and the screams tore at her throat. "We're going to be getting into a car. Can you handle that?" Daisy stared at the woman angrily. She wasn't crying, at least -- she was too furious to cry. "Where are my friends?" "They're going to be spending some time in solitary to cool off. Just like you." A cold bolt of dread shot through Daisy's center. She hadn't even considered the possibility. This couldn't be happening. They wouldn't. "You can't do that to me," she gasped, still feeling the shockwaves reverberating throughout her body. "Sure we can. So are you going to cooperate in the car?" "No..." Daisy felt herself growing desperate and her breath quickened in her lungs. "You can't, I -- I'm sorry, I wasn't trying to do anything, I just -- I wanted to do something. I just wanted... you can't lock me up again, please, I can't..." "I need you to get into the car now, Daisy. And if you use your powers, we'll add more time to your sentence." Daisy started to cry. It was different this time. It wasn't dark, for one. Quieter. And there was no one for Daisy to comfort. And then there was the ceiling, so far above her head. The tiny camera that she could hardly see and could not feel. Once again, there was nothing here for her powers to reach. It was silence, emptiness. When the tears dried up, she laid on the bed and tried to think about other people. She thought about Hunter the most, knowing how poorly he handled solitary. She tried to imagine him in his own cell, but it broke her heart. Carter, too -- although she imagined that Carter was mostly angry. That he was somewhere nearby, stewing in hatred. Had he punched a wall, screamed at the guards? And then her thoughts drifted further. She closed her eyes and searched through her memories. She remembered the boys who'd shared her dismal cell. Jack, Kieran, Damien. Were they worried about her? What about Jodi, did she manage to get away? And strangely, most of all, Daisy found herself remembering those she'd lost. The faces of their dead peers. They'd been locked up and then they'd died. People could die, they did die, and Daisy didn't know how to stop it. They were all on a fast moving train, headed toward destruction. The wheels were spinning forward. Had she been too busy looking out the window, all of this time? Had they all really mistaken comfort for safety? Alyosha's smile wouldn't leave her mind. He'd warned her about the dangers of her first protest. It seemed like so long ago. Would he have done the same, if he'd lived to see what had become of them all? Stuck in that cold dark room last December, Daisy hadn't prayed for him. She hadn't known that he was in a room just like her own, she couldn't have known, but still, the guilt flooded her senses. That she had worried about some of her friends more than others. That somewhere around the time that she had given Jack a New Year's kiss on the cheek, the Polish boy who'd once cuddled her had been taking his last breath. She tried to sleep. Daisy felt like she was drowning. Jodi was afraid. Over the last four months, she had come close to something like trusting IVI, feeling comfortable there. She didn't -- and probably never would -- trust the staff completely, but it had felt like the closest thing to a safe haven there was in the world. Something had broken in her, and now, she looked at the guard leading her to Daisy's cell with wary suspicion. He was expressionless as the door opened, and she stepped inside. She tried to imagine spending two whole days in this tiny cell, with its bed and its toilet and its stark walls. Jodi, easily distracted and restless by nature, probably would have lost her mind by now. She glanced upward, and saw that the ceiling rose forty or fifty feet. To keep her from interfering with electronics, probably. They were prepared for this. The IVF wouldn't have to go to those lengths to keep her contained, she thought. She heard the sound of Daisy's breathing, and the steady drip of water from the sink's leaking faucet, and knew she wouldn't have one of those sounds in solitary. "I only have a few minutes," she said as a greeting. "How are you doing?" Daisy was sitting on the bed, legs crossed beneath her and back against the wall. She hadn't gotten up when the door opened. She didn't want to give any IVI guard the satisfaction. Her thoughts had grown angrier as the time had passed, and Daisy had almost managed to forget about the fact that she might get a visitor. At the sight of Jodi, though, her eyes widened. "Okay." The word sounded scratchy and tired -- Daisy hadn't been using her voice for much but to yell or cry. She shifted her legs out from beneath her, unsure whether she should go to Jodi, or if her friend would come to her. Daisy studied her face, her clothes, her shoes, eager to get the details of human contact imprinted in her mind. "Are you alright?" "Yeah, I'm fine," Jodi lied. If they had time, she would've told her the truth -- that she was scared, sad, and angry, that the room was lonely without her, and that she had no idea what anyone should be doing about any of this. She wasn't sure what she should be doing. Did she give Daisy a hug, or...? She remembered how Carter had shied away from contact when Daisy visited him in solitary, and didn't know if that was a Carter thing, or a solitary thing. She settled for sitting down on the bed, smoothing a wrinkle out of the knee of her jeans. "Everything's kind of crazy on the outside. People are upset you -- collective you and singular you -- are here. But..." The words came out fast. If Jodi were in solitary, she'd want news. "Whatever you want to talk about, we'll talk about it." Daisy could tell that Jodi felt awkward, or that maybe she was upset with Daisy (or didn't want to upset Daisy?), but in the end, she decided she didn't care. She'd visited both Mal and Carter in solitary. She knew that the 2 minutes were over before they'd even begun. She moved in next to her roommate and brought her head to Jodi's shoulder. Her arm wrapped around Jodi's arm, almost if she were the one comforting her. It felt strangely like the time they'd reunited after the rescue, when Daisy had fallen asleep, wrapped up next to her in a bed with crisp, clean linens. "How long has it been? Do you know when they're going to let me out?" Daisy had intended for the question to sound braver than it did. Instead, her voice wavered with a lapse in confidence. "It's been two days. The administration hasn't said anything, but... two days is standard, right? So hopefully, it will be soon." Unless they've all just completely lost their minds. It seemed like they lost their minds. Jodi didn't say that out loud, though, because she didn't want to worry Daisy. She didn't share her worries that Daisy, who had organized the protest, might be held longer, either. She leaned her cheek against the other girl's head and pulled her knees up to her chest. Her hair didn't have that usual familiar Daisy smell. Of course it didn't -- IVI was hardly going to let her have her choice of soap. She wanted to tell Daisy that she missed her, but was afraid that would make her guilty. She settled for, "I love you." Daisy fought hard against the possibility of tears. All of Jodi's words were jumbled up together in her mind, good things and bad things too. Hearing two days out loud was almost surreal. She gripped Jodi's arm tighter and hoped that she was right, that they'd let her out soon. Hopefully. "Love you too," she said, while quickly adding on another question to follow. "Carter and Hunter, they took them too, right? Are they getting visitors too?" For a second, Jodi considered lying to Daisy and saying that neither Carter and Hunter were in solitary. She'd find out when she was released, of course, but it would save her the worry while she was here. But then she'd wonder why neither came to visit her, and even if she wasn't angry at Ethan for hypnotizing her during the protest, and how it had rankled to have someone assume she couldn't handle herself. "They're both in solitary, too. I think they'll both have visitors, yeah. Omar, for Carter, I think, and..." she wasn't sure about Hunter, with Vic in solitary too. Why hadn't she thought to ask and anticipated this question? "They'll both have visitors. They might even have two. But it had to be both at once, and I didn't know who else to bring." Daisy tried to smile. She half-succeeded -- not that it mattered, with her head still nuzzled up against the side of Jodi's neck -- and then it faltered, knowing that their time was likely almost up. "Thanks for coming. I'm okay, really." Daisy's voice gained an ounce of strength as she said the words. "I'm sorry all of this happened. I didn't mean for it to happen." Before she'd come, Jodi had focused on letting go of all her annoyance at Daisy for jumping into the fray. She'd stood alone in their room and said aloud all the things she knew would only upset Daisy to hear: did you think that you could stop Carter and Hunter from getting involved in this? You know what they're like. What the fuck were you thinking? Were you thinking at all? Why are you such an idiot where those two are concerned? At the apology, she felt a little temptation to say it all again, or that she didn't believe that Daisy was really okay. Instead, she said what she'd assured herself of many times, because it was rational: "It wasn't your fault. People think something weird happened, with someone's power or something. I'll tell you about it when you get out. That'll be soon." She wanted to make a promise that they'd do something to get everyone out of solitary, but the door swung open again and the guard reentered. "I'll see you, in our room, okay?" Daisy didn't want to let go of Jodi's arm. Not yet, not so soon. She pulled her closer for a hug. She gripped her tightly, selfishly, because she knew that it was the last warmth she might feel for God knows how long. She tried not to let her hands shake. "Tell everyone I looked fine, okay?" Daisy's voice finally broke with the words, knowing that she probably looked far from fine, in these ill-fitting clothes and hair that hadn't been brushed. She was crying, but there was nothing she could do about that. At least Jodi wouldn't have to watch for very long. "This isn't right," Daisy said loud enough for the guard to hear as he escorted Jodi to the door. "We're not prisoners." The last word came out in almost a yell as the door slammed closed. We're not prisoners. The words seemed to echo in her mind. They weren't true. Looking around at the tiny room with its eerily high ceilings, the room that had carefully been picked just for her, Daisy could finally see: that's exactly what she was. |