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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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.

Seth also looks up and blinks at Daniel at that. He's not entirely sure whether Daniel means the hand-cutting or the bleeding out - though he has twice now had to deal with the threat of Daniel bleeding out in dreams, so, that bit he knows is true enough. Then again, with Daniel's apparent experience with dying, he might've actually managed to do it properly at some point. Seth does not enjoy that thought.

"I tried bleeding out," Daniel says, now running his hands thoughtfully over the door. "Several times. Didn't stick. Maybe if we try ramming it." The last sentence is directed primarily at the door, it having captured his full attention. "Not sure if we can get it open by sheer force but it's worth a shot, right?"

He can always try and go for a pair of scissors but he's never really succeeded in anything like that. It's always been pens, paperclips, post-its, other small miscellany.

For a second Peter misinterprets that as maybe bleeding out will stick if we try ramming it, which is both morbid and nonsensical. He has to stand pretty close to the door to let Daniel run his hands over it, and makes a little movement for the barred window that drags Seth's hand up. Sighing heavily to himself, he asks, "May I? There might be a latch we can just reach through the window."

Whoever built this place would have to be a piss-poor dungeon designer to make that possible, but you never know. Trouble is, there's no way Peter's getting either arm down through there when he's got someone chained to him on both sides.

Oh, for God's sake. Did they both forget what Seth's power is? He may not be extremely keen on dragging both of them through a dozen walls, since that seems like it would get very exhausting very quickly.

"How about I just..." he says, sticking his hand through the door close to where the handle is. He feels around for a bit on the other side, dragging Peter's hand a bit. The chains go through the door, but Peter's hand doesn't. It only takes a couple seconds for him to find a latch and push it open with a satisfying click, before pulling back his hand.

Or, okay then, they could do the logically sound thing and not shamelessly overthink their situation like Daniel so often tends to. He flashes Seth a grateful look, steps over the scattered collection of paperclips haloed at his feet, and gives the door a tentative shove. It feels wedged shut but there's no handle on this side, naturally, so pushing seems to be the only option.

He ends up having to brace his shoulder on it and throw his entire body weight at the thing, grateful he's at the end of their little chain link, but with a rusted squeal the door finally swings outward.

"Well," he pants, stepping back and almost folding his arms before realizing the movement would be impeded by the chains. "That's progress."

Having his arms hauled around by these two is going to get old really quickly. Peter is able to find fault in even the simplest of successes, though. "Why didn't you just pull us all through it, then?" he asks as though Seth's chosen method didn't just work in a matter of moments. "You keep saying how keen you are to put me through a wall again."

"Cos it's exhausting," Seth answers, as if that were obvious. Even magic powers take energy from somewhere. "And I'm not sure I could do it to two people at the same time, anyway." He could maybe bring Peter all the way through, then reach back and get Daniel through as well, but. Preferably that will be only a backup, because it's not something he's keen on doing a lot.

And good thing they have at least one person on this team with a certain amount of body weight and strength. He leans forward and looks out, but there's no one there. Then again, if there were, they might've been freaked out by the randomly appearing hand, or the loud noises of Daniel trying to smash open the door. "Shall we, then?"

"We're gonna have to move carefully," Daniel warns unnecessarily. Yeah, like they hadn't figured that out already, but then Peter had spent his first few minutes of dream consciousness waving his arms around haphazardly with little regard to the people chained to them, so maybe it bears mentioning after all.

The outside corridor looks, from here, to be exactly what one would expect to find in a dungeon of this size and nature - unremarkable, appropriately dismal stone brick walls, dimly lit, and, in their favor, completely empty.

Daniel typically isn't the one to take the lead in this type of situation - he wouldn't consider himself a leadership type of person by any means - but letting Petter leave first would be an exercise in painful bruising and perpetual physical space management, and he'd rather not Seth be the first one to face whatever it is that might potentially be down here with them. So, shooting the other two a meaningful look in warning, out the door he goes.

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