(Untitled)

[askwhatsreal]

[oom: Sometime after this, Annie tries to escape. She opens a door.]

There is a girl huddled on the floor, bound hand and foot in iron chains. She is barefoot, wearing a purple hospital shift and bruises up and down her body. Most noticeably, three tight rings mottle her upper arms in blue and green (the color of her eyes, if you care to make the

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[ohholyknight]

There's a tall man in his late fifties sitting by the bar, salt and pepper hair and a cane propped against his stool, but built like a linebacker.

He gets up hastily as she falls to the floor, grabbing his stick and hobbling over as fast as he can.

"Lord, child. What did they do to you?"

[askwhatsreal]

Annie scrambles back at the sound of the voice, but doesn't get too far before she hits the solid cold door.

Obviously he's a hallucination. (the capitol prefers drugs to guns)

He's not something out of the Capitol, though - his hair isn't dyed, nor his body.

That doesn't mean he won't hurt her.

She looks at him with the eyes of a hunted deer, face-to-face with the hunter.

[ohholyknight]

He extends his hands, palms up and empty, to show her, and speaks in an even, soothing tone.

"You're safe here. Is this your first time?"

[askwhatsreal]

She looks him over.

(He doesn't have the carnal viciousness of most Capitol creations, but that's no reason to relax. This is a new kind of nightmare.)

"Hardly," she says, into her hair.

"And not likely to be the last."

[ohholyknight]

"I'm not sure you're where you think", he says carefully. "This is Milliways. No one will hurt you here. Would you like me to find something to get those chains off?"

[askwhatsreal]

She wipes away the tears dripping off her jaw, hands clasped.

Her eyes are steady (for once).

"Truthfully," she says, "I'd like nothing more."

[ohholyknight]

"Then I will." He smiles. "It might have to be a hacksaw, but I promise it won't touch anything but the metal."

[askwhatsreal]

"I promise." How many times has she heard that one before?

She rubs at her wrists - they're chafing, and turning an attractive shade of violet (to match the hospital gown).

"Like the anemone," she murmurs abstractly. Her namesake.

[ohholyknight]

"The anemone?" he asks curiously, looking at her over his shoulder as he steps over to Bar to fetch what he needs.

[askwhatsreal]

"The sea anemone," she clarifies.

"It sits at the bottom of the ocean like a tiny fuchsia flower in bloom."

She lilts this, as if she's said it a hundred, a thousand times before.

[ohholyknight]

"They're very pretty", Michael agrees. "I'm sorry, I never asked your name."

[askwhatsreal]

"They generally call me 'the crazy one,'" she says, with solemn eyes.

"But my real name is Annie."

[ohholyknight]

"You don't seem crazy to me", he says with a frown. "Hurt, but not crazy. I'm Michael."

[askwhatsreal]

Laughter bubbles up - she can't help it. The laugh doesn't sound particularly happy.

"Never heard that one before."

[ohholyknight]

"Well, Annie", he says kindly, "maybe you've just been talking to the wrong people."

He limps back over to her, a small object in the hand not holding his stick.

"Bar gave me this, it looks like it might be your key. I don't suppose you know if these chains have any explosives in them?"

[askwhatsreal]

Annie considers this. "Wouldn't put it past them."

She looks down at her bare feet.

"The Capitol doesn't like to let go of prisoners."

She laughs, almost merry. "But I think I'm valuable enough that they'd rather kill me in their own time, in their own way, than let me get blown to bits."