[closed] should've heard them knocked-out jailbirds sing

[wrackful]

CHARACTERS: Bellamy, Murphy, Ilde, The Darkling and a special appearance from Y.
WHERE: Gamma Block Jail.
WHEN: DAY :050 - DAY :052
SUMMARY: Bellamy and Murphy spend two days in jail before Ilde and The Darkling bust them out.
WARNINGS: Violence.

Comments

JAIL | BELLAMY & MURPHY

[wrackful]

spitballin' this.

[deployed]

[ The medical department of the jail isn't inherently awful, though Bellamy had taken his relocation to it extremely poorly. It'd been half about the way they'd pried him away from Murphy and half about the sickening familiarity of it. A cool voice stating Harvest had pinged through his mind, and he'd struggled but in the end it had been no use. He's too ill to be formidable. His skin is slick with fever-sweat, and he's vomited up everything in his body. The room spins if he tries to sit up.

Not that he can sit up. There are cuffs keeping him in place. Bellamy can't do anything but reach out mentally, grasping for any sense of familiarity. He finds Murphy, curling wordlessly into the contact between them. It's just pressure and worry; Bellamy's fear is smothered behind the urge to be sure Murphy's alright, wherever he is. ]

[wrackful]

[The anaesthetic had worn off partway through processing, leaving Murphy with nothing but the cold clarity of the situation. Of how much they'd screwed up. Stray thoughts on what they should've done differently milled in his head, pushed away before they really took root. There wasn't any point going over it. It was done. There was the present to think about, like Bellamy next to him on the train, suddenly inexplicably sick and only seeming to get worse. Murphy wasn't the only one that noticed, the guards hauling Bellamy away at the other end of the rail, one finally answering Murphy's repeated demands to know where they were taking him with the short, simple, "Medical."

He hadn't been able to reach Bellamy for a while after that. Murphy told himself it was because they'd drugged him, not anything worse. Tried not to think about how he couldn't reach anyone, his mind abruptly his own for the first time since he'd woken up on the station. He should have enjoyed it, been relieved. Instead it felt too small, claustrophobic.

When Bellamy's consciousness fades back in, filling that silence, it's hard not to clutch close at the curls of contact pressing in against him. He grounds himself in his surroundings, sat leant back against the wall on the cot he's taken, watching his new cellmates, keeping himself from echoing worry back down the line.]

( So, they figured out what's wrong with you yet? )

[He doesn't know if Bellamy's going to be able to answer properly. He feels like fever, disoriented and unfocused. But that's why asking if he's alright would be a stupid question, and Murphy doesn't want to veer to the other option, feed the seed of paranoia in his gut that they'd done this to Bellamy in the first place.]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkKGmoXJE5w

[deployed]

[ His brood is far away. Bellamy can barely brush the surface of their minds. He'd caught at Shiro and the Darkling, felt Clint stirring, but Rey and Bruce are out of his grasp, and as for the rest of the Nest, it's as if they were never linked. The only person that comes through clearly is Murphy, breaking through the rise of memories from Mount Weather.

He wouldn't lie still. Reality had blurred when they'd dragged him, head heavy and wrists shackled. Sedating him had been a kindness, but he hadn't been able to circumvent the panicky attempt to fight against the cuffs when he'd awakened. No one's screaming, but Bellamy still remembers being contained in a room where people had, and it keeps rising up, swamping him like a dream he can't shake. Murphy's attention turns towards him, and Bellamy grabs at him like a lifeline. Murphy might be able to keep some distance, but Bellamy has no such restraint like this, too fever-sick and groggy to hold himself at arm's length.

It still takes him a long moment to process the question. The answer comes slowly; Bellamy's thoughts keep drifting as he prioritizes the bond between them over a coherent response. ]

( It's happened before. It's my fault. )

[ He doesn't remember that Murphy wasn't there the first time he'd used his ability and spent ages sleeping after the Darkling had put him to bed. ]

( Where are you? )

[wrackful]

[Bellamy's answer is slow, but it comes. It feels like he's drifting, struggling against the sickness, and Murphy has the brief thought that maybe it would've been better for Bellamy if they'd kept him drugged. Murphy can't do anything from here. All he can do is hold onto the connection between them, try to keep it steady for him.

A sensation of warmth starts to ring his hands.]

( A cell. )

[He doesn't elaborate. A cell is a cell is a cell. Though Bellamy hadn't been an inmate before they were dropped to Earth, so maybe he didn't share that perception.]

( What do you mean, it's your fault? )

D52 | TO XYZ: ! URGENT

[erbier]

I have names for you. And a task. Bring any equipment you might need, we don't have much time. We will wait for you in front of our last meeting place.

[ Ilde and the Darkling will be waiting for her in front of Daylight. ]

[onemind]

Uh what kind of job

[That doesn't mean she isn't coming, just that specifics would help for this 'equipment' idea. You people and your secrecy.]

[erbier]

[ She is trying not to say incriminating stuff on the interwebs, okay!!! ]

Some of our friends have been arrested, and we don't have time to wait for their release.

[onemind]

Wow, good job.

I'll meet you in fifteen.

[erbier]

[ Well, to be fair, Ilde isn't entirely impressed with them either, but she can't chastise them about their follies until she has rescued them. She relays to her shadowy friend that the hacker is on her way. And when Y does appear, ]

I assume you would like your information, before we imperil you?

RESCUE

[erbier]

Y will effectively have Ilde and The Darkling help her jump a Public Security droid. She'll access the android's basic systems and do a quick hackjob to modify its programming. The android will then arrest all three of them, process them and accompany them on the train into the jail. They'll be able to take any belongings that they can conceal in their regulation jumpsuits, but all other personal belongings should be left behind somewhere safe - hopefully you don't like the clothes you're wearing right now, but you're probably not getting them back. WHOOPS. Enjoy your jail jumpsuits, everyone.

touches

[onemind]

[The interior of the bullet train leading to the underground containment facility is well lit, but not exactly pristine. Maybe it had been sleek at one point, but those days have been lost to near-continuous use, to the scrape of feet and the battery of unruly detainees. If there's any surface of the car's interior that's shiny, it's because it's been worn into it. Spoilers: this thing isn't getting the maintenance time it needs.]

Well isn't this nice?

[The car is empty save for Y, the two hosts, and their arresting droid unit as the train races away from their processing station and toward the holding facility. It shouldn't be long now. The trip only takes three minutes.]

That color's great on you two, by the way.

[Sarcasm? Sarcasm.]

[erbier]

[ Ilde is tying her hair up with a filthy strip of fabric she has somehow kept a hold since she awoke with it in her hair on the Station. She glances at Y as she speaks, her mouth twitching slightly. They weren't going to refuse her coming if she said it was necessary, she knows neither she nor the Darkling have the skills necessary, and that if they cannot reach Bellamy and Murphy now, they won't be able to reach out to Angel or Pidge to get back out later.

She was needed, but... ]

I would like you to stay behind me at all times when we arrive. That will be best for your safety.

[onemind]

[A dubious look flashes across Y's face. She gives Ilde - all slim and narrow, shorter than she is and no kind of cover at all - a dubious once over, then shrugs. If she smiles, it's only to flash her teeth.]

Sure, why not.

[erbier]

[ She sees the look Y gives her, but does not correct whatever assumptions she makes. It is Ilde herself Y needs protecting from, it will be easier for her to keep her symbiote's ability off of the other woman if she knows where she is, if she doesn't mingle with potential targets. ]

Good.

[ A simple answer, and she glances at the Darkling, ]

Bellamy is yours, you will have the easiest time tracking him.

MENTAL LINK

[erbier]

( Bellamy. John. )

[ A brush, a hand reaching. ]

( How are you faring? )

[deployed]

[ Surprise floods the link in response, followed by a sensation not unlike fingers linking. ]

( We're alive. )

[ But not in a good position. Obviously. ]

( Where are you? )

[erbier]

( We have entered the prison. We are disguised as prisoners, for now. )

[wrackful]

[For two days, all Murphy's had in his head is himself and Bellamy. It makes the sense and voice of anyone else strange again, almost disorientating. He's quiet with it for a moment while Bellamy responds, though it still lingers to him as he reaches back.

There are other curls of surprise in his mind, too. He hadn't expected Ilde, doesn't know what thread of connection would have brought her here, risking this. Did she know Bellamy? Or was this like some totally unbalanced return the favour for the Darkling had helping steal that party food.]

( What's the plan? )

[For now holds promise, but he doesn't get his hopes up. However this place works might mean they're waiting another two days, just with more company.]

[erbier]

[ Ilde's inner voice is very calm. She is not anxious for them. She is not fearful of being down here, cut off from the rest of the host. But neither is she confident. Emotion is elsewhere, drowned somewhere, left behind and now she is here. This is her iron-willed determination that they have lost enough hosts to this planet. She meets their reaching, but it lacks a warmth that was there before. ]

( The hacker Y controls exit and entry for us. She is in our company, and if I cannot find a safe place for her to wait, she will have to remain with us. We will endeavor to come to you quietly, but we don't have much time. If we are found out the Darkling and I can cover our escape. )

[ And it will be unpleasant. ]

( What observations do you have to add to this? )

SPOOKY SCENE SET

[erbier]

[ The door to the jail cell opens as the guards move in to break apart the fight the boys have started. Ilde is just out of sight, flattened against the wall with her eyes closed, presence suppressed so that she would truly need to move to draw attention in the face of the distraction right now. Her right arm is outstretched, fingertips linked with the Darkling's where he and Y and the droid wait around a corner.

She closes her eyes more firmly, face wrinkling, spots flashing in the darkness of her eyelids as she increases the pressure inside of her mind. She has only created such a vast illusion once, when the Darkling and Nate had startled her into shock. It hadn't been on purpose, and it had taxed her a great deal, but she is certain with his hand in hers -- feeding her power, she feels like a serpent swallowing egg after egg from the nest of some magic creature, growing and growing, filled with poison -- that she can do it again. She feels around in her own mind for the sensation. It was not a pleasant it, it was like straining a muscle, dislocating a joint, pinching a nerve; the pain of mistreating the body.

She finds it with a jerk, biting her lip to stop herself from making any sound for the way that it hurts. She opens her eyes and stares up into the ugly overhead lights as her symbiote begins to fumigate the hallway, her sickness crawling. Her face goes pale, eyes dilating as the fever of it begins to prickle up her throat, sweat beading on her brow.

She thinks of the dungeon she had known so well. The one she had been forced to walk through in order to reach the garden beneath the palace. The desperate, skeletal hands that would reach for her as she passed, the screaming from the mad, the screaming from those unlucky enough to have the Godking's attention in that moment. The darkness begins to spread up the walls, the damp smell of rot and decaying bodies. The hallways no longer seem so bright and safe, instead turning claustrophobic, caked in dirt and blood, strangled with lichen. All flesh falls away from all forms, tattered and desiccated on skeletons with empty eye sockets. Some hang limp from the walls where their hands were chained, others lie in puddles of bones on the floors of their cells.

Ilde tightens her grip on the Darkling's hand and pulls him with her as she moves closer to peak at if Murphy and Bellamy are handling this. The panic, the visions, the strident ringing headache that comes with the screaming of her symbiote. ]

( This way. Move. Run. Go. )

[ In this ugly illusion, her disembodied voice is more ghostly than anything else, she hopes they can manage to move their feet so she can send them ahead with Y, and get them out of range of her symbiote. She turns to the Darkling then, a nod, that the boys are at least out of the cell, that his piece of this terror can be initiated.

The shadows should be more interesting than the corpses, more dangerous at that with their fierce claws, their unnerving chittering, their ways of crawling up and down the walls, disappearing into the darkness of this underground place, their eyes everywhere.

Ilde pushes at the boys again: ]

( Go. Move. Run. )

cues up the dancing skeleton

[deployed]

[ When Ilde had warned them, Bellamy had told her they'd handle the effects of her powers. There hadn't been another option. They needed to get out at all costs. Whatever Ilde created, they'd have to withstand it, keep their heads, and get the hell out of this prison. In circumstances where it was take action or perish, Bellamy's typically managed to survive.

That being said, he's never faced anything like this. Ilde's ripped nightmares from imagination and set them loose. Bellamy feels like he's drowning, choking on terror as his heartbeat accelerates. He's grabbed hold of Murpy's hand, as much to anchor himself as it is to keep Murphy from being swept away in the chaos. The chorus of screams from the inmates are deafening.

Bellamy's thoughts are a low, continuous reminder: This isn't real, it's not real, it's not— ]

( Don't let go. )

[ A single, deliberately projected thought strung between all four of them as Bellamy sets his jaw. There's sweat prickling at the nape of his neck as he shoves his way towards the disembodied voice. He can feel the Darkling like a beacon. Bellamy has always balked at giving himself entirely over to their bond, but he lets it pull at him, guide his steps as he and Murphy rush through the open door and down the hallway. ]

[wrackful]

[Fear. That's what Ilde had called it, describing her symbiote's ability on the roof the day he'd first arrived. Murphy hadn't really taken it in then, thinking it was just some extension of the emotional bleed the links gave them, pushed outwards. Now he's seen what Bellamy can do, and the two pieces click together. Too late.

It seeps in so slowly that he doesn't notice the change. One second he and Bellamy are taking down one of the guards, a half-formed plan between them to take the man's uniform, the next--

He thinks he's back in Polis. The basement cell, the smell of dirt and blood and too many bodies. The screams from the people on the crosses outside. The sense of recognition lasts only a heartbeat before the horrors pile higher, pressure coming down on the edges of his mind, threatening to crush it.

But then there's Bellamy's hand grabbing his, Ilde's voice breaking through, and he knows fear. Not like this, sheer terror trying to wind its way into him, but enough to use it. To let it push him forward, follow Bellamy's grip on his hand out of the cell, running into more nightmare, an endless stretch of it until, between one footfall and the next, it's gone.

Murphy collapses against the wall, gulping air, mind reeling again at the sudden normalcy of the jail around him. Of the droid and woman next to him.]

Who are you? [He's asking, blurted, and then thinks better of it.] Wait, I don't care.

[They don't have time for questions. They need to get out.]

HI FRIENDS

[unsea]

[ Among Ilde's illusions, there are things that are real.

Something multi-faceted, with limbs that should not move in such a terrible way, crawls down the length of the cell block. Herding and harrying the errant prisoner, the guard crying and clawing at her eyes. Broad shoulders, vast wings, and an insectoid-canid-human mouth that snarls in silence. Even among Ilde's illusions, the summoning is an abrupt, too-solid thing. The Darkling, clutching her hand and reaching his mind out to Bellamy, calling to him - demanding he come now, to their side, pauses in his urging to run the back of his hand across his nose.

His wrist comes away wet with his blood, a pain in his temple suddenly too sharp and too sudden.

( Push it aside. Call to Bellamy. )

Ilde's go-ahead means that the second half of their monstrous diversion is unleashed. Blood, bright and noticeable, streaks down his face as he drags creatures from unreality itself into existence. Looking upon them, they truly, honestly, are things that should be incapable of standing among the world as it was known. Chittering, climbing things. A trio of them, darting and jolting among non-allies. The Darkling's nose bleeds, and again, he swipes at it. The symbiote pulses like a heartbeat, a warning to reach no further. And the knowledge that his power has been limited - that he's been HOBBLED is infuriating. ]

Wonderful to see you. Let's leave.

[ His greeting is curt, derisive, as Bellamy and Murphy reach them.

( However, he hums, pleased, once he knows Bellamy is back at his side. ) ]

[erbier]

[ As requested, Y remains at Saffron's back, watching her hold hands with the guy whose name she never got. There is a protective bubble around Y, the concentration of a guardian who has deemed her innocent and wants her spared from what is happening. For all her awareness of what isn't happening to her, she still isn't entirely sure what the hell is going on. Saffron's cryptic warning on the tram down here seems to have been more important than it was given credit, although it's too late to be crying over that now.

Whatever happens in the next hallway, a pair of boys come running around the corner. The jail birds are wide-eyed and sweaty, guards shouting behind them but not following. The itch to go take a peek is strong, but she doesn't want to get stuck down here any more than anyone else. Still doesn't stop her from giving the boys a sharp smile, ]

Charmers. I'm here to save the day.

[ Her eyes dart, to where the other pair are following behind more slowly, covering their tracks with who knows what. But then her eyes widen when she gets a glimpse of the shadow. Even her wildest suppositions about these freaks suddenly turned in a new direction. ]

You kids do like your secrets, don't you. [ That wicked razor of a smile, poker face unmoved. ] Follow me.

[ The droid falls into pace with them as their supposed chaperone. ]