bakerstreet | The Helpful Hostage Meme

THE HELPFUL HOSTAGE (maybe) (hopefully) MEME!

Running from a wrongful accusation of murder? Wounded by your archenemy and looking for a place to hide? Need a pilot to go after those drug lords escaping across the border? Don't have time to go through the official channels? Find a hostage! And make them help you.

In this meme, one person desperately needs help. And, in order to get it, they grab another character. Off the street, out of their car, from a restaurant.

PROMPTS: (optional)
1 - MEDICAL ATTENTION.. You're bleeding, in pain and desperate, and you need medical attention. Right now. What will you do? Break into a private practice after hours? Find a darkened house or apartment with a convenient bathroom?
2 - SHELTER. The cops are after you. The temperature is dropping below -20. You're out in the middle of nowhere and you're starving. You don't have any options left - except for this.
3 - TRANSPORTATION. You need to get out of town. Fast. Can't buy a car, can't rent a car, can't take a bus - how do you leave?
4 - PROFESSIONAL SKILLS. You need a doctor. A lawyer. A pilot. A spy. And you know just the one. And you're going to get their help whether they want it or not.
5 - A HOSTAGE. You need a body to threaten. Maybe it's the President's daughter; maybe it's just someone off the street. Either way, it's leverage you're after. Maybe you'll turn them loose once you get to the border.
6 - FINISH THE CRIME. Get the manager who can open the bank vault. Or whatever else you need to commit your act of murder, sabotage and/or thievery.
7 - IT WAS AN ACCIDENT???? Fuck.
8 - CHOOSE YOUR OWN.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[It's not that she knows exactly what they're here for, though she has a rough idea. She was just brought along for her engineering background and computer knowledge. But that's par the course, she feels, for being what she is: Someone who is constantly on the sidelines of everything. Garou, Kindred, mages, you name it - she gets but a peek into their world, but the are quite happy to call upon her in need, it seems. Well, not vampires these days, but there was a time.

Which is luckily over.

Point being, she's here, she has a rough idea of what is going on, and she has a job to do. none of her sister's (well, strictly speaking cousin's) pack have any professional knowledge about this topic, and thus she gets to talk to the person whom they kidnapped for his access and professional knowledge, apparently.

She just hopes they got the right guy, it would be awkward if he's just some security who was in the wrong spot at the wrong time.

He's been handcuffed with someone's scarf but otherwise looks well enough - the pack somehow seem to have acquired a few guns along the way, she assumes he was threatened with those to comply. She can't tell now - Ilka and Louise are still hanging out in the background after they shoved the man into the control room they told Kaisa to wait in, speaking amongst each other quietly, but right now they aren't showing anything threatening. Which means nothing. They're Garou, they're threatening enough all by themselves.]

So I am told you know your way around this place.

[ Malak is a designer. Because of that, he has access to almost every phrase of the process -- from concept to actualization. And there are certain people who are very willing to pay quite a lot for things like -- bullets with cores of wood, bullets with coatings of silver. Blades with silver that won't bend or go dull. He would think that all of this is myth and superstition, except for how very specific and practical the requirements often are. It... leaves him unsure, at least. But there's a lot of need-to-know-only here, which Malak follows, because of the stunningly good pay and the amount of legal help they've given him free of cost.

Malak is valued by the company for his marriage of practical with beautiful. What he designs is lovely in simplicity but has little details that the clients, apparently, go absolutely nuts over. The little carvings, the inlaid designs. The customization.

But, despite the secrecy, he does have access to the whole plant, except for some of the offices upstairs.

Right now, Malak is regretting that access deeply. And he's regretting leaving so late.

His heart won't stop beating fast. It's getting to the point where the muscles in his chest feel a little tired from it, where the initial rush of adrenaline is fading to a sour taste in his mouth and a swooping, sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. Active shooter training amounted to all of a thirty-minute video and a handful of instructions from a lecturer; from that, all Malak remembers is remain calm, do what the criminals ask, hide. They say not to be a hero.

He isn't cut out for heroics anyway.

He lifts his head at the question. The scarf tied around his wrists is secured well, a knot just outside of where his fingers can reach, and he's discreetly tried. Tied up by a scarf, of all things. Jesus christ. At least it stops his hands from shaking, which they would, from the combination of too-much-adrenaline and not-enough-adrenaline.

He nods, once. He would speak, but he feels like the words would be dry and sticky in his throat. ]

[She's rather glad that he's not looking for heroics. The Garou around her might be used to mayhem and murder, they probably are from what she hears, but she is most decidedly not. As much as she's seen her fair share of traumatic violence, it's very far from normalcy for her.

And since, from what she understands, they haven't shown anything but their homid forms to him, she wants to believe that he will get out of this alive. he doesn't look like a bad person. Just caught up in the wrong things. But then, looks can be deceiving and such... still. Let her pretend that things will be fine while she's here, it'll help her dealing with the situation.]

Then I will request that you lead me to the data centre or control room, whichever holds the main controls for this place's security system.

[They already know the answer to that, at least to 95% - it's a question that is designed to see if he's going to actually cooperate or will just try to lead them into a trap.]

[ He lifts his chin, still trembling a hint, but determined. There is strength in him, the kind that shows fear, that bends with the wind, but that survives. Willow-strength. Malak was made to survive.

He swallows. There is always the temptation to lie, but something in him senses that this might be a test, or that he should establish trust early on before trying anything "clever." Since clever ideas usually turn out to be anything but. ]

There -- there are two. The control room on the second floor and the secure station behind the gate on the ground floor has backups.

[ He knows because sometimes the security team drills from that location instead. ]

Which one?

Control room.

[She turns around to the two younger people in the background.] Could one of you tell C to go to the secure station and turn on his phone? In case I need a second pair of hands and eyes.

[She hopes that at least one of them will stay with her, but is also fairly sure that that is the case - nobody has any interest in her getting hurt, kidnapped or die. Right? Right.

And then she looks back at Malak.] Let's go?

The Helpful Hostage Meme

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sorry for the long wait, I somehow thought I'd already responded to this

well as you can see I am super fast and on the ball so idk

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