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trans_92011-10-07 11:36 pm
shes-intense.livejournal.com) wrote in trans_92011-10-07 11:36 pm
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Tethered [Closed]
Brenda knew in the back of the back of her mind that it hadn't always been like this.
Somewhere at the blackening edge of her conscious awareness she knew that there'd been a time when she'd been happy and content, a time when everything hadn't been so sterile, so cold, so rigorous and exhausting and infuriating...
She may have been too numb and defeated to act on it, but her inaction did nothing to quell her rage. It boiled up from the very core of her, building blistering pressure beneath her skin day by day as the pressure of merely existing pressed in to counter it. She often felt as if she spent every waking moment in this limbo of rebellion and resignation.
Ever so occasionally something took a crack at her careful balance, pitching her into utter despair or frustrated rage depending on the direction she was pushed. Being there to see Danny when he was brought in had left her mute for days, slow to task like moving through a fog until one too many harsh words brought her temper back to form.
Today it was the collar.
The thin strips of electrodes strapped across her calves and forearms were no heavier than a stick-on bandage. The skin grafts itched but the strapping didn't impede her too much. The collar was another story altogether. It sat like a yoke over her collarbones, at least a quarter of a pound of metal and wire, the little green diode at it's center glowing soft and steady as she went about her tasks. She was never unaware of it, constantly feeling it jangle against her neck, it's weight pressing into her skin.
She knew it's limits inside and out, memorized them rigorously for very clear personal benefit. Stay inside the invisible fence or you get a shock, like teaching a dog to stick close by jabbing them with a goddamn cattle prod...
He'd hollered for some thing or another which was what got her moving, dodging down an aisle of the lab storage to hunt up more of the power sources he'd be going through like candy, and then out of nowhere the orange warning light flickered on. She hadn't been watching for it and came up against the results of the red-light five seconds later when she slammed into the outer limits of her containment.
Fire shot through every limb and she crumpled to the floor mid-stride. She landed unprotected, cheekbone cracking off the tile, body skidding with her momentum, as her arms were busy convulsing uselessly everywhere BUT in front of her face. She screamed as she curled up on herself, a howl of pain, confusion and sheer fury. When the shock stopped she gasped for breath before cursing at the top of her lungs.
"Son of a BITCH!"
She struggled to take herself back the way she'd come, creeping across the floor between rounds of crippling muscle electrocution, taking three more strikes from the circuit before she made it back safely within the perimeter. Slumping against the shelving at the end of the row she let her body quiver as her muscles spasmed with little aftershocks. What the HELL? Had he moved after calling to her? No, he'd been glued to his workstation all day. He only could have...
A moment later when his glowering shadow fell over her she met his eyes with fire blazing in her own.
"You shortened my radius." she snarled, venom dripping from every word.
no subject
His eyes got that blank, glossy look once more.
"I have to get back to work. I'll build a means of tracking my subject. You will assist me."
no subject
There was a long moment of silence before the required "Yes sir" left her lips.