Ben, sweetie...

You know I love you, and you're a blast to write when you think you're hallucinating, but that really wasn't the scene I needed to write at this particular point in time. I need scenes with Janni and Alex hunting you down, or Ostheim being a scheming asshole.

*kicks Antubis* Come on, fuzzy-butt. There's no way we wrap this up in 16,000 words. Stop sticking filler in and give me Plot, dammit.

Ben, sweetie...

You know I love you, and you're a blast to write when you think you're hallucinating, but that really wasn't the scene I needed to write at this particular point in time. I need scenes with Janni and Alex hunting you down, or Ostheim being a scheming asshole.

*kicks Antubis* Come on, fuzzy-butt. There's no way we wrap this up in 16,000 words. Stop sticking filler in and give me Plot, dammit.

Hear that sound, flist?

That's the sound of my entire Plot, falling down around my ears.

Because Ben is a trained soldier. He's going to know about Stockholm Syndrome, and the classic interrogation technique of "Let's be friends." Especially at the start, Ange's whole thing of being nice to him is going to smack of that, and Ben is self-aware enough to be able to see that particular trap.

I guess the question is: Even if he can see himself sliding into the snare of Liking This Woman, would he avoid it--or even want to? How much distance can he keep and still hold the shreds of his sanity, without another single person in the place to talk to or have any human (in a manner of speaking) contact with? Because, other than Ange, he's pretty much completely isolated.

Also, keep in mind, this isn't an act with her. She genuinely likes him, and grows to love him as the story unfolds. She is, quite possibly, worse off emotionally than he is by the time he ends up back on the table.

Looking back on the thing, it is a process, I guess, of breaking down. He greets her with wary suspicion at first, and he doesn't break until he's in horrific pain (you know the 1-10 scale? He's at about a 14 by that point, because he knows what a 10 feels like and this is worse) and she says "please." Even after he's off the table, he's all "don't touch me and stop calling me puppy" until the unpleasant Surprise!Restraints come into play, and he realizes that he needs the contact to survive mentally intact.

And after that, it's pretty much downhill. Maybe I can just throw some lines in there about how he knows exactly what's happening with the Stockholm Syndrome, and he either doesn't care or thinks he needs it to keep his mind from snapping right in half.

I'LL DO THAT.

Hear that sound, flist?

That's the sound of my entire Plot, falling down around my ears.

Because Ben is a trained soldier. He's going to know about Stockholm Syndrome, and the classic interrogation technique of "Let's be friends." Especially at the start, Ange's whole thing of being nice to him is going to smack of that, and Ben is self-aware enough to be able to see that particular trap.

I guess the question is: Even if he can see himself sliding into the snare of Liking This Woman, would he avoid it--or even want to? How much distance can he keep and still hold the shreds of his sanity, without another single person in the place to talk to or have any human (in a manner of speaking) contact with? Because, other than Ange, he's pretty much completely isolated.

Also, keep in mind, this isn't an act with her. She genuinely likes him, and grows to love him as the story unfolds. She is, quite possibly, worse off emotionally than he is by the time he ends up back on the table.

Looking back on the thing, it is a process, I guess, of breaking down. He greets her with wary suspicion at first, and he doesn't break until he's in horrific pain (you know the 1-10 scale? He's at about a 14 by that point, because he knows what a 10 feels like and this is worse) and she says "please." Even after he's off the table, he's all "don't touch me and stop calling me puppy" until the unpleasant Surprise!Restraints come into play, and he realizes that he needs the contact to survive mentally intact.

And after that, it's pretty much downhill. Maybe I can just throw some lines in there about how he knows exactly what's happening with the Stockholm Syndrome, and he either doesn't care or thinks he needs it to keep his mind from snapping right in half.

I'LL DO THAT.