Captivity

[techno_mancy]

((OOC: And we're back on air. Continued off of this thread.Days start to bleed into each other. The only way she marks how they pass is by watching her room's rectangle of light go from one wall to another. That's the routine of her days, along with the arrival of meals, the occasional trip outside the cell to make sure her body hasn't decided

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[greatmaelstrom]

Jenna has been marginally busy with other affairs since the initial capture of Sera. The Karma Society does require perpetual maintenance and managing, after all. With the looming threat that is a dwindling food supply for Tuners, the ever-present debate of whether or not to expand Karma City's glass dome and the cost and manpower issues that presents...Being Chief Director has never been an easy job.

But then again, why throw herself so fully into her duties when they have such an important person under their custody? Was Jenna avoiding Sera for some reason? She'd like to think that wasn't the case; it'd be utter foolishness that someone like her was unnerved or intimidated by a shivering little girl

[techno_mancy]

The person on the other side can't seem to make up her mind on whether she's singing actual words or just a melody. Maybe it's just that her mind is so far away it isn't making any decisions, leaving her voice to wander.

But eventually, it does cut off. In the silence that follows, it's easy to hear Sera pace from one end of the room to the other. There isn't a lot of space to cover, though, and soon enough the footfalls stop.

On the other side of the door and wall, Sera sits down on the room's bunk. There's a moment of just breathing, and then she starts humming again. Whether she's aware of it or not doesn't really matter; there's just nothing else for her to do.

[greatmaelstrom]

That pause makes Jenna look towards the door, perhaps startled by the tune simply ending like that, waiting to see if it'll continue. Sera might not be the only one who was a little lost in the song.

When it resumes as a soft humming, that's when Jenna seems to snap out of whatever reverie she had briefly fallen into. She straightens up from where she had taken to leaning against the wall and moves towards the door, hastily punching in the series of numbers and swiping the keycard.

When the door opens, Jenna doesn't hesitate on entering. And when her eyes fall on the girl seated on the bed, the usual coldness is somehow different; a little more distant...

"Seraphita, do you know where you learned that song?"

[techno_mancy]

That humming trails off when she hears locks pop out and the door hiss open. Sera looks over with a tired look, deciding that the meals must be coming in early today.

That weary look only lasts until she realizes who it is that's standing in the door. Any lethargy she has evaporates, and it turns out that Sera does have some energy left in her; more then enough to flinch away from where Jenna is standing.

She tries to say something in response to Jenna's question, but no words come out. In the end, she has to settle for shaking her head.

[greatmaelstrom]

The displays of fear are observed impassively, Jenna calmly folding her hands behind her back as Sera timidly shakes her head.

"No idea whatsoever? It just came to you one day, perhaps? Out of the ether of your thoughts, or appeared in a dream, as the clichés in these matters often go? Really, Seraphita, you must tell me. Where do you think your knowledge of that song you're so well-known for comes from?"

In this impromptu interrogation, Jenna seems to have overlooked her dropping the use of Sera's full name.

[techno_mancy]

"I...I don't like..." Sera forces herself to take a deep breath, and tries not to make her voice sound pleading when she speaks again. Her success is limited in the latter, though.

"Please don't call me that..." At least she could say that clearly. The knot in her throat isn't gone, but it is loosening.

"I don't remember where it came from...I just...Just kn-know it." There's a small, small part of her that's angry she's agreeing with Jenna's claims. It makes her frown, which helps keep her from shaking.

[greatmaelstrom]

"And why, I wonder, don't you like being addressed by your full name? That is your name, after all. Is it only because I'm the one saying it?"

Sera's not the only one who's going to be caught off-guard by this whole strange, seemingly unrelated string of questions. Jenna's going to be surprised with herself, though later and long after the fact.

"Sera, there is so little that you know. Your life has always been kept with such a small, narrow focus, blinders firmly in place. You, the one who has been in contact with God Himself, know so very little of what it is that really goes on in the world around you. Where you and all that you are really comes from."

[techno_mancy]

Sera shifts under Jenna's questions, everything about her posture reading uncomfortable. If she wasn't already at the corner of the bed, she'd try to move back further.

"I...I don't know why you know my name. That's why I..." Part of the truth, at least. And no one has ever used her full name, unless the situation was gravely serious.

"But, I just did as I was told...Everyone else did, so I..." It takes so much willpower to look up at Jenna instead of shrinking away from her. She can feel her eyes sting as she thinks back to what she used to do, and-

No. Don't think back to that. It's too painful, and she pulls away from those memories, almost like they were a hot stove that her hand was wavering over.

[greatmaelstrom]

There's something infuriating about seeing Sera cowering away from her, how it's a struggle to maintain eye contact, how her words stammer. Such a little weakling! She's like a shivering rabbit, a frightened bird. Small and scared. And to hear her speak of how she always did what she was told, childlike faith and innocence aside, that only makes it worse.

"You're always so pathetic, Seraphita. So scared, so reliant on others. There's no way you could get out of this place on your own? Have you even tried? Are you that deeply set into the thought that you are completely helpless?"

Jenna crosses the room quickly, grabbing hold of Sera's arm, tugging on it roughly. "Get up. I'm taking you elsewhere." That vagueness as to where she's going with the poor girl might come across as threatening.

[techno_mancy]

At the moment, Sera doesn't look like much other then a scared nine year old. She starts to curl in on herself under Jenna's words, wincing as she hears each statement. She shakes her head, and tries to murmur out something in response.

"I…I can't get out. I know that I can't…I'm not like my friends…" At the same time, being reminded that there's nothing she can do adds fuel to that little bit of resentment from earlier. Enough that when Jenna grabs her arm and pulls at her, Sera gets shocked into doing something unexpected.

She fights back.

Although in this case, it isn't 'fight' so much as 'struggle.' She yanks backwards, making her shoulder and arm both scream at her in protest as she tries to pull away.

[greatmaelstrom]

"Good to see you have some fight in you," Jenna says gruffly when the girl struggles against her. She does not relenting her tight grip on Sera's bicep. No, in fact, she squeezes harder, and after a flash of light, her entire arm is now clawed and covered in black armor plates.

"Now. Get. Up." And there's one hard yank, aiming to get Sera to topple off of the bed entirely.

[techno_mancy]

Sera gives a choking sob as Jenna tightens her grip; in the down time after going with the Embryon to help the Lokopala, she's gone back to not being used to pain, and not liking it.

The pressure on her arm makes her stop pulling...And when she stops seeing spots from the flash of light, Sera has just enough time to have her eyes go wide when she sees Jenna's new arm.

And then she's being yanked forward, and falling towards the floor.

[greatmaelstrom]

The second Sera is a crumpled heap on the floor, Jenna snarls quietly and starts to lead her towards the door. Just like when she pulled her out of the Junkyard, she remains uncaring if Sera is actually getting or keeping up.

Once out into the hallway, Jenna is moving at a quick pace down the corridors, Sera in tow. Keeping her arm in its monstrous Atma form, she's soon talking in a low, angered tone while still not looking back at her captive.

"I know your name, Seraphita, because I've always been here. I've always been watching you, even when you thought it was only Sheffield and O'Brien there to take care of and oversee you. I was the first person to know your name, and if you think I'm the one person who has no right to say it..."

Jenna is aware that she's getting angry, probably irrationally so, but she can't stop herself from what's been set in motion now. Some sort of dam has broken inside of her and she has no intention of repairing it just yet.

[techno_mancy]

Initially, Sera is pulled along, until they step outside of the cell. It only takes a few seconds of being dragged along the floor to convince her to get up, and walk. Although she can't seem to decide whether to follow meekly, or try and pull away.

Even though she has as much chance of breaking out of Jenna's hold as kicking down her cell door, she still finds herself squirming, and trying to pull back until she stumbles and has to follow again or fall over. The chief director is scaring her now, and more then usual.

"L-Let me go! I don't…I don't want…" Her words are starting to sound hysterical, maybe because she's still able to listen to what Jenna is actually saying. Her face has gone paler then usual, and now she can't stop staring at Jenna. "I don't understand…"

[greatmaelstrom]

"You will. In due time, you will."

They soon stand before the sleek, metal elevator and Jenna quickly punches the call button. When the door slide open, Sera is hustled inside and Jenna follows quickly, already shutting the door and pressing the desired floor number.

"But first, other matters must be attended to."

The elevator smoothly goes downward, ticking off the floor numbers on the digital panel above. 12, 11, 10, 9...

It's when they're deep in the sub-levels when there's a muted 'ding' and the doors slide open once more. And before them is a research facility of some sort, all stainless steel and sleek, sanitary white. There are charts, observation and containment cells, computers, and tables strewn with tools.

Jenna is soon leading Sera towards one of these tables, the devices on it all seeming to be hooked by wires and cables to a whirring computer streaming data at a headspinning rate.

[techno_mancy]

Sera spends the elevator ride down pressed against one of the walls, still trying to put as much distance between her and Jenna as possible. At this point she's so rattled that she flinches when the elevator chimes and the doors start to hiss open. When Jenna steps through, she actually starts placidly enough, although she still stays as far away as her arm lets her.

It only lasts until she sees what's inside the room Jenna's heading towards. And that brings back too many bad memories. She lurches back again, for all the good it does her.

"N-no! I-I wont go…" The fact that she's connecting the equipment with the wrong thing doesn't matter to her. She plants her feet, her only goal being to stay outside that room.