Stoic cuff^

-Olivia Koepp

I woke up in a white room- again- and went to shield my eyes from the brightness only to feel them being restrained by something.

I blinked repeatedly, my eyes adjusting. I looked down at my wrists. When my vision became accustomed to the light I saw restraints on my wrists and ankles. My eyes widened and I- like any normal person would do- struggled, and pulled, and yanked at the leather bindings.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you." Said a voice beside me. "They will come in and inject you with something to calm you down. And trust me, you do not want that."

I turned my head and saw Alysia in a bed next to me, also restrained. I felt a scream of frustration gurgle up my throat. I pulled upward against the restraints once more and went limp.

I heard another person moan and I heard more rattling like mine when I was struggling against my leather bindings.

"Oh look who finally decided to wake up." Droned Alysia, looking over next to her. "Welcome to the party Vivere."

"Wha-?" William said as he looked around- or I guess he looked around. I couldn't really see him from the other side of Alysia.

"What are we doing here?" He demanded, still struggling.

"Vivere! Just stop struggling! Or we will be here ten times longer than we should be." Alysia snapped at him.

"Why don't you just blast us outta here?" He asked, lifting up his head to look over at us.

"Because, stupid, they put the stupid bracelet on me to neutralize my element till I become 'agreeable.'" She said, doing little air quotes with her fingers.

I looked down at my wrists. "Why don't we have any on?" I asked.

"Because we don't have an infinitesimal idea as to what your element is and you are nowhere near to unlocking it till at least a week or two of training." Alysia said, laying completely and utterly still, nothing moving except her mouth.

A few minutes later a small group of people entered the room, the doctor, and six nurses, and Captain Bos, and Regila. I inwardly groaned.

We are in for it now. I thought dejectedly.

"Ah, good. You are all awake." Said the doctor in a superficial tone as he spread his hands wide and walked forward to William and began inspecting him.

I picked my head up to watch what the doctor was doing. He simply pulled out an otoscope.

"He's fine." The doctor said happily as he moved on to Alysia. He checked the bracelet, a thick silver band with a blue blinking light. "The Stoic is fully functional."

"You better take this cursed thing off of me and these worthless restrains off of me before I-" Alysia said, her voice getting louder and stronger and more confident with each word.

"I am going to stop you right there Alysia." Interjected Regila, holding up her hand as she walked forward.

Alysia glowered at her.

"Continue on to Celeste, check up on her." Regila said kindly to the doctor currently looking into Alysia's eyes, which certainly did not help with her mood.

"Yes, ma'am." He obliged, walking around the hospital bed and moved to me. He began checking up on me, it irritated me every time he would point that condemnable otoscope into my eye.

"You are treading in deep waters young lady." Said Regila walking forward and grasping the footboard of Alysia's hospital bed.

"I'm already in it, how much deeper could it get." She started pulling at the restrains with her arms.

Regila took a deep breath in and out before continuing on speaking. "What you did was understandable, considering you have never been to trusting of our beliefs." She began. "But you need to understand that what we do is for your own benefit. And every time you resist or try to escape, you- and whomever you have ensnared- will suffer your consequences, your decisions. Am I clear."

Alysia set her jaw and clenched. "I understand."

"Good." Regila said. "When you guys have been released, I want you all to report to my office immediately." She commanded.

"Yes ma'am." We said in unison.

"Excellent." She said turning. "Will, would you be sure to put the perimeter bracelets on all three of them before they leave this room?" She asked Captain Bos.

"Of course, Reg." he said folding his hands behind his back and lifting his bearded chin up.

Regila and the doctor and the nurses all left the room, leaving us alone with Captain Bos.

Captain Bos moved to the white cabinet on the wall behind him and took three thick bracelets with a red gem embedded into it and put one on each of us.

"There are perimeter cuffs, you will wear these always and if you ever attempt to take them off without the authoritative fingerprint recognition you will receive an electrical shock that will- at most- make your arm numb." He informed us opening them and clicking them on and pressing the red gem. The gem glowed a bright orange and then faded slightly after a couple seconds. "Which, by the way, is extremely uncomfortable."

"If you try to go somewhere you should not or try to do something you should not or even say something you should absolutely not know about then you will receive an unpleasant shock to your arm." He said clasping the final one onto William's wrist.

"Now I am going to release you.I don't think that your attempt to escape has officially gotten around the campus, but if it has. That is on you, you brought all of this upon yourselves." He said as he undid all of Williams restraints and then walked around Alysia's cot and undid my bindings.

Moving over to Alysia's he asked, "Now, if I undo these. You will not try anything rash correct?"

"And if I did would I 'shock' you?"

Captain Bos raised an eyebrow.

"Of course I won't."

Captain Bos consented and undid all of her bindings.

She sat up and swung her legs over the edge of the bed. "Now we go on to live a life of even more restraints and prisons." She droned and she stood up. "Follow me you two, we gotta report to Regila's office."

"After that, we receive our punishment and then go onto training." Alysia said.

"How do you know we are gonna go off to training after we talk with her?" I asked.

"Because it's everyday and inevitable unless you are sick." Alysia said as she sped up her pace and walked onward. 

Okay, this time wasn't a character look. But I felt like I had to show what I envisioned the stoic cuffs to look like of sorts. And don't forget, if you have any suggestions, theories, or ANYTHING. Let me know below!

- Olivia Koepp