Suspects' Holding Cell

[etcircenses]

The vans drive for what seems like an hour before they come to a stop, and Peacekeepers blindfold and forcefully drag even the most cooperative suspects into a building.

The suspects are all held in one cell, a large, metal room with a thick door and a single ledge that serves as a bench. Bright fluorescent lights beam from overhead. There are no windows and no clocks, no sign of where they might be.

The Peacekeepers take off the blindfolds, though without much care for whether they come off all the way or chafe or stay slung around the suspects' necks. The suspects' hands are left cuffed behind their backs, and even the most ingenious of them won't be able to pick the lock on their restraints, but they're otherwise left to roam freely through the space.

Suspects are removed, one at a time, at unpredictable intervals, by Peacekeepers armed with tasers. Some take three hours to return, while others are back within only a minute. Each of them comes back having been clearly roughed up and pressed for information that they may or may not hold; some are bleeding or sporting the beginnings of black eyes.

They'll be sleeping here tonight.

Comments

[hiccup1puberty0]

"Sounds like a plan to me. It'd be like dragon racing where I come from, only with people instead of sheep, and instead of harmlessly dropping them into nets to win points, they thoroughly maim them instead," he said, a smile in his voice.

"Sport of champions."

[pythianjudgment]

Terezi laughs a little. It's weak and a little forced because of that, but it's a laugh none the less. Sport of champions indeed.

"You... race dragons? Where you're from?" That's probably a safer topic to talk about than feeding Peacekeepers to imaginary dragons. They might not like that, imaginary or not.

[hiccup1puberty0]

"Oh yeah. Well, I don't anymore, personally, but that was because my dragon and I won so many games it would've been kinda tasteless to keep racing."

Very true and yes, he was bragging.

"Toothless still wanted to because he's never not been a fan of rubbing it the other dragons' faces how fast he is, but I figure it was best to let everyone else have their turn. But yeah, that's kind of our island's big sport. You know, you launch the sheep and let 'em go crazy."

Racing didn't just consist of laps, there were things to be done during those laps. Things that involved sheep.

"The dragons love it. They all love showing off."

[pythianjudgment]

Terezi nods along a little bit as hiccup explains his dragon racing sport. It sounds... fun. As fun as something can sound given their particular situation. The sheep thing might be a little weird, but at least it adds some flavor to the race.

"I bet they do. Sounds exciting," she says, the smile still faintly on her lips. She's still a little absorbed in her thoughts, but she finally lifts her head and that smile might be a little stronger. "Bet my dragon could beat your dragon."

[hiccup1puberty0]

"Oh ho, really? You actually think that? Okay."

She didn't need to see the daring look because all the daring was in his voice.

"See, now we both have to survive this to someday hopefully get out of this world and get our dragons again just so I have the chance to kick your butt."

[pythianjudgment]

Hiccup gets a bit of a grin at his response to her challenge. Of course she thinks that. What dragon rider doesn't think of their dragon as the best and fastest? Not any dragon rider worth their salt.

But when he talks about how they have to get out of this world and get their dragons, her grin fades again. She shakes her head. "My dragon is already here," she says, her attention turning towards the ground again. "They brought her here with a bunch of others that the tributes knew. Family and friends, that sort of thing. They're all being kept hostage in District Five now... Or so we've heard. We can't exactly wander over there to check."

[hiccup1puberty0]

The thought of that was so abjectly terrifying that he sucked in a little breath. Would they do that to him, too, someday? Bring in Toothless then lock him away somewhere so that he spent every day in fear of what would happen to his dragon?

"Well. Hostage means 'alive.'" For now. "We don't know what's going to happen next and that's pretty terrifying. But we also don't know what's going to happen next and that always means there's a chance that something might go right, too."

They could pull in the wrong person, someone that can take them down. They could have already pulled in the wrong person or people and those people might finally take them down. The rebels could finally rebel and get those hostages in District Five out safe.

Just as many good things could happen as the bad things and that was the thought that Hiccup was holding onto.

[pythianjudgment]

If Terezi has to admit it, she's not one hundred percent sold on this optimism shtick. There are still a lot of things that could go wrong, and nothing says that they can't happen. It is entirely possible for things to go either way on that front.

One would think that losing her dragon once would make it easier to bear the second time. If anything, it feels almost harder.

"I guess," she answers, but even that makes her want to cringe. It sounds so pathetic, she almost wants to roll over and hide her face. Instead, she tries again to sound a little more certain. "We'll just have to keep hoping then."

She pauses, taking a moment to congratulate herself on not sounding like a wishy-washy wriggler. "...And when we get out of here--when we all get out of here, then I can meet your dragon, and you can meet mine. And she will probably love both of you because I have discovered that she is not very discriminate about her affection or her curiosity."