#tw dehumanisation

[feel free to join as a hydra agent coming to make val's life worse, someone undercover trying to recuse her, or a secret third thing!!] [cw this one plays pretty heavily on val dehumanisation and kinda her relationship to her handler cause i saw whump prompts and now I feel like it :)]

It wasn't entirely unusual for an asset to be leant out to a non-Hydra client. Never someone Hydra hadn't thoroughly vetted, of course, to make sure their ideals and goals aligned, but still. Someone outside the organisation nonetheless.

Valerie stood next to her Handler, silent, still. She barely registered that the conversation was about her, laying out terms, rules. She knew it, in some distant way, but it didn't really register. She had no say in what happened to her, after all. She would return to Hydra - to her Handler - no matter the mission. She didn't need to listen. She didn't get a say. She It was only a tool for Hydra anyway.

Living weapon being kept in a bland, locked room whilst the team discuss plans and the possibility of a truce with their enemy, unable to know how it’s going or if their team is safe.

and after one of those acts, even if caretaker was so careful to not be excessively cruel, to not remind whumpee of a wretched time— whumpee leans against them, despondent and non-responsive. eyes glazed and vacant, completely unaware of the outside world.

but caretaker needs them here. they need them to— focus. shaking whumpee by the shoulders the moment they have privacy. gently tapping their cheeks, holding their jaw and looking into their eyes, pressing one of whumpee's hand to their chest, breathing deep and even. bringing whumpee back.

"please," they whisper the moment they are capable of coherency. "please don't make me do it again," they just want to sleep. go away. remain in their thoughts where it's all pleasant and—

a sharp tap against their cheek. "stay," caretaker commands. "it's not over yet." there is no room for an argument in their words. not like whumpee would be capable of one at the moment, anyways.

whumpee nods, then says out loud, "okay," at the sharp look from caretaker. it's not over yet.

One example that is very clear to me is that the alter might hold some form of dehumanisation trauma. They may feel so subhuman that they feel they should be referred to as no more than an “it”, an object not a human. Or them using those pronouns could be them reclaiming what was once used against them. Either way, there is the link to trauma there.