applesaucedream | Stuck in the middle with you [CLOSED]

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Stuck in the middle with you [CLOSED]

When he comes to himself, Peter cannot see. He gasps into awareness, his own breath rasping loudly in his ears, and it takes him several moments of straining to understand that he is not blinded but blindfolded. His wrists are heavy when he reaches up to tear away the cloth tied over his eyes, and when one stops partway to his face, halted by tension, he realizes that he has been chained. Hurriedly, almost panicking, he yanks off the blindfold with the hand that can reach to find himself blinking in the dim light of a stone room.

On either side of him is a man in a similar predicament, one of Peter's wrists connected to one of the wrists of each by a chain about two feet long. Each man's other wrist is chained in turn to a bolt in the crumbling walls of either side of the cell, and each is similarly blindfolded -- or was. Peter recognizes both of them as he turns his head back and forth to stare at each in disbelief -- first Seth on his right and then on his left --

"Oh, come on!"

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"You do get around," says Peter to Daniel, gaze flicking up and down the other man's body. He hasn't forgotten how he and Daniel met, nor is he going to imitate Daniel's tact in refraining from bringing it up. "Or was it just that she got tired of you after all?"

No, he's not jealous. No, he's not taking lingering resentment out on Daniel. Why would anyone think that?

Seth gives Daniel a raised eyebrow at that. He's going to go ahead and assume the 'she' in question is Lucy. And the implication here is then that Peter thinks they've slept together, and Seth wonders suddenly if they have. He wouldn't have thought so, but then Johnny had, to Seth's surprise. One day he should try to get all this from Lucy's point of view, because he doesn't feel like getting so much of his information about her through Peter is very helpful for getting a fair idea of everything. Then again, it doesn't really concern him. (It's probably going to take Seth a while to realise the 'get around' comment might then also imply Daniel's relationship with him is of a similar nature.)

"Oh, would you just -" Daniel makes an odd spasmodic jerk of one arm that suggests that were he not currently chained, he'd be flapping his hands quite animatedly in furious exasperation.

"We are not sleeping together," he grinds out in the fuming, weary tone of someone who has spent far too much time worrying about this, former insistence on teamwork now quite forgotten. "We were never sleeping together. Would you quit assuming that everything Lucy does is some sort of personalized attack on your well-being?"

"Isn't it?!"

Peter knows as soon as the words leave his mouth that he's being ridiculous. He still fumes over it, glowering at Daniel like he can 'win' just by refusing to come off the offensive. He's starting to believe him, but Daniel is still the closest target, actual lover or no.

Seth feels strangely relieved at the confirmation that Daniel and Lucy hasn't slept together. He's not sure why, but he's going to pretend it's because, well, then Peter would never let it go, probably.

But then it doesn't look like he's going to let it go anyway, and Seth sighs loudly in exasperation.

"Hey, Peter," he says, with deliberate calm. "Remember how last time you picked a fight over Lucy with one of my friends, I put you through a wall? I am not afraid to do that again."

Daniel inwardly braces himself for the inevitable, the display of aggressive machismo that he has exactly zero time or patience for and silently curses the Rift, again, for its cruel, cruel sense of humor in deciding to put him and Peter in the same room and then physically chain them together.

Seth's declaration comes as a surprise - put through a wall? Is he speaking figuratively? - but Daniel recovers enough to try and smooth things over, the operative word being try.

"Look," he says, doing his very best not to sound as incensed as he is, "Lucy was literally the first person I met when I came through the Rift. What was I supposed to do? Whatever is, is going on with you two, you're gonna have to sort it out without - hauling in third parties indiscriminately."

Being put through a wall was surprisingly painless; it was the part where he tripped over Gabriel's bed immediately after that hurt. Still, the answer is no, he doesn't want a repeat performance (not that Seth's power is apparently working right now anyway). He edges a step away from Seth, then realizes he looks like an ass for doing so.

"And I was the first person she met," he says, though some of the fire's gone out of it now. He mutters, "And look how that turned out."

"Not completely indiscriminately," Seth answers, lifting up the dangling chain and wrapping it loosely around his arm so it doesn't keep flying about. "I still haven't been accused. Nor Gabe. Or have you accused him? At least he actually knows Lucy." Not that he wants Peter to accuse Gabe - or perhaps he does, because Gabe is one of the few who might be able to smack some sense into him.

Seth faintly realises he isn't actually helping the situation.

Peter sounds vaguely defeated enough for Daniel to sigh and dial back the frustration a bit. Whoever Gabe is, he's going to assume that Peter knows him well enough to not involve him in something so completely uncalled-for.

"I'm sorry, whatever happened, okay?" It's a hasty apology and he can't fully eliminate the undercurrent of exasperation still lurking beneath, but if they're going to make any progress in getting out of this place Peter's going to have to get over it, at least for now. "But you can stop getting mad at me for something I didn't actually do."

"Oh, fuck off, Seth," replies Peter. "Gabe asked for a threesome, alright? At least he's up front about it, and he takes no for a bloody answer."

Sorry, Seth, Peter has actually been getting along really well with Gabe lately. It might have something to do with Peter feeling bad about the whole not realizing Gabe was on the brink of suicide thing, and/or something to do with Gabe financing Peter's upcoming return to the stage. Seth, on the other hand...Peter could really take or leave Seth right now. Daniel, too, but 'take or leave' is an improvement from how Peter has previously felt about him, so points to Daniel for that.

"Can we just get out of here?" he asks petulantly, as if he hasn't been the one holding up Daniel's attempts to get them to work together and do just that. It's probably as close as they're going to get to an agreement from him to stop being an ass about the Lucy debacle.

Seth really should be more surprised than he is to hear Gabe had asked for a threesome. But no, that is actually not surprising at all, seeing as Gabe knows and likes both parties involved. It seems to be inevitable at that point.

"Yeah, he offered me one too," he answers, unbothered by being told to fuck off. "Not with Lucy," he adds hastily, because no, he'd rather not Peter assume that. He's definitely not gonna mention it was with Johnny. For several reasons.

As for the getting out, Seth steps a little closer to the wall, and tries to run his fingers through it. To his surprise, it actually works. "Huh," he comments, then tries to run his fingers through the dangling chains, but they remain as solid as ever to him.

For a long minute Daniel's mouth flaps soundlessly as he tries to work out the verbal turning point that took them from Lucy to threesomes. And then Seth goes ahead and drops a threesome reference without blinking, eliciting from Daniel a spectacular double-take.

"So, um." Yes, he is going to return to the original objective which was, at least until the recent bombshells of threesomes got dispensed into the discussion, to get out of this place. And hopefully someday get to a topic that's less...well. Private.

"Uh." Vocal chords are taking their time reorienting. That's...great. That's great. "I'm not getting a lot of this. Erm. Contextually."

And that is fine. Daniel can live his life just fine without an intimate understanding of Peter's or anyone else's sexual activities, polyamorous or no, and oh look at that Seth has provided a useful distraction in the form of hopefully finding them a way out. Daniel takes the subject change and pounces on it. Eagerly.

"Think you can de-localize it to extend to us?" Daniel asks curiously, then takes off at full tilt to take his mind off of - that. The prior conversation material. All of that. "Or, or do you think the chains block it radially too? Maybe they just nullify powers that directly affect them, I don't know, I haven't tried mine but I don't know how useful it would be, um."

Peter actually draws in a sharp breath when Seth starts up, not because he genuinely thinks Gabriel randomly offered Seth a go with him and Lucy (though anything's possible, isn't it?) but because at this point he half expects Seth is trying to wind him up. Then he lets it out again in a whoosh at the clarification, feeling just a little bit gratified that Seth seems afraid to make that kind of crack by accident.

He turns to stare at Daniel when gibberish starts pouring out of the man's mouth. "What?" he asks, though he'll likely parse it in a few moments if he puts the thought into it. Then, "Everyone else is doing it -- why don't you show us what you can do? Or can't do."

Afraid might be stretching it. But despite appearances, Seth does have a certain sympathy for him, since - with the backstory Seth has somehow been made aware of in mind - it's pretty obvious that most of Peter's animosity comes from a place of bitterness and hurt, not a lack of ability to care about people. After all, just how aggressive he gets when Lucy is involved is a pretty clear indication that he does care. And, well, Seth is fairly sure Gabe wouldn't be friends with him if he was just a shit person.

Meanwhile, he rather enjoys Daniel's reaction to the discussion of threesomes, though he lets him get away with the subject change. Especially since it's possibly a way out.

"Nothing that will help us get out of here," Seth answers Peter's question before Daniel can, giving him a look to say mind your own business. Then, to figure out the answer to Daniel's question, he grabs Peter's hand and sticks both their hands through the wall. Well, that's that answered.

"Woah!" Daniel jerks backwards when Seth just sticks Peter's hand through the wall without hesitation. And swallows hard. When he mentioned putting Peter through a wall, he might not have meant that in a figurative sense at all. Daniel doesn't know how he feels about that.

"Okay, so it doesn't impair powers, then." Yes, he's going to focus overly hard on the getting out thing and not so much the threesome thing, thanks. "Or at least not so much that it just - limits them. You can expand the field of effect to everything but these things, I guess."

He waves one of his manacled wrists demonstratively and starts inspecting his own chains with interest, noting the obvious keyhole. And wonders if, seeing as his powers have nothing to do with transportation or teleportation or anything remotely escape-oriented, if Daniel's powers might work after all.

"Either of you know anything about lock-picking?" he asks abruptly.

"Jesus!" Peter freezes, muscles tense. His first instinct is to jerk his hand back, but if he actually pulls it out of Seth's grip while it's through the wall he expects it won't be very nice.

"Not recently?" he ventures, more focused on grabbing Seth's arm with his free hand and slowly but insistently pulling both their hands back out of and away from the wall.

Seth doesn't make an effort to keep Peter there, pulling back almost as soon as he's tested, and letting go of Peter. Given Peter's teleporting stunt, he doesn't have too much sensitivity regarding his power and Peter, but he seems to have worried Daniel too, and he's less okay with that.

"Not even slightly," he answers, though he can guess where Daniel is going with it.

Not exactly a testimony of flying colors as to either of their skillsets, but Daniel doesn't have any other ideas.

"All right, well, I'll just have to see if I can..." he lapses off to shut his eyes in concentration. He can't start with anything too complicated. He's only just started to get a handle on this. Start with paperclips. Paperclips are easiest. Uncomplicated. Just visualize the shape of the metal, the utility, the base function -

His shoulders jump up to his ears in alarm as a small shower of paperclips cascades from the ceiling with no warning whatsoever, several bouncing off his shoulders and the top of his head but he can't help but grin, bizarrely both triumphant and contrite.

"I guess it does work then," Daniel says, a bit satisfied his theory about the chains is holding up. So far it seems they only cancel out the powers that directly affect them.

Peter gives a little start, then has to stare in disbelief as Daniel demonstrates his power. Should that be 'power' in air quotes? "Paperclips," he says, looking around at all the curly bits of metal lying on the floor. "You were right," he says to Seth.

He can sort of see where Daniel's going with this, though, and he stoops to pick a couple of them up. Unbending them, he gives the keyhole on one of his shackles a dubious look. "Most of the time I just hide a key on myself," he admits.

Seth blinks in surprise at the sudden shower of metal, centered around Daniel but some still hitting Seth, and creating a hefty little pile on the floor. Once the shower is over, he reaches up and picks a few of them out of his hair.

"Well, if we need to scale a wall or something, at least we have something to make a rope out of," he says reaching down to pick up a handful. Not the most comfortable rope, or the most practical considering it has to be assembled. He unbends on as well, and tries poking it into the lock experimentally, though it doesn't do much good. He has no idea what kind of lock is in these things, or how you open one.

"All right, so not the most practical application, I'll give you that," Daniel replies patiently. "Paperclips are easiest. And hey, if they help us get out then I'm not gonna complain."

Unfortunately, Daniel himself knows very little about lockpicking. Door consoles on foreign spaceships he has scant knowledge of; old fashioned key-in-the-lock scenarios he has not.

"I can try for scissors?" He shrugs helplessly, fully aware of how ridiculous it sounds. "Those are harder. And I've never been able to make them, so."

"You're both mental," Peter informs them even as he's bending a couple paperclips into what he thinks will be the right shapes. He has at least a little more idea than Seth as to the basic mechanics of lockpicking, but judging by the sort of aimless manner in which he prods the lock with a couple of quickly made picks, he's not going to show much more experience or finesse.

"We should just wake up," he points out, still working at it. "Or you could try for some pruning shears and take one for the team by cutting your hand off."

That was uncalled for and he knows it.

"Doubt they could make it through these," Seth answers, giving up on the lock-picking. The chains unfortunately seem a lot sturdier than the wall they were attached to.

"Hey," he responds sternly to Peter's not-so-helpful suggestion for Daniel. He can easily ignore these things when they're directed at him, but he doesn't want Peter trying to bully Daniel. ...And furthermore, pruning shears does definitely not fall under 'office supplies'.

"Mm, no thanks." Daniel dismisses the suggestion without taking his eyes off the keyhole, trying to get a better handle on how the internal mechanism works. "That's a brachial sever. I'd bleed out in minutes. Tried that once, didn't agree with me." The bleeding out, not the hand-lopping-off thereof, but Daniel doesn't bother to clarify. Anyway, Seth's being massively more helpful, what with his fending off of Peter's jibes and making actual, useful observations and suggestions.

He gives up on the keyhole and instead turns his attention to the door.

"Looks sturdy enough but maybe all three of us could weaken it enough to break it," he observes slowly. "Not a fix for the chain problem, but at least we'd be going somewhere."

Peter, on the other hand, does look up from the lock he's working on. "You tried cutting your hand off?!" he asks. He hadn't meant it, though he wonders now how animals chew their legs off in traps if they just bleed out afterward. Peter keeps that thought to himself as he pockets the paperclips, giving up for now on the prospect of lockpicking.

"Whatever gets us out of here," he mutters, dubious about their collective ability to do anything about a door.

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