parker. (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
forsakenandforgot) wrote2012-09-16 06:03 pm
forsakenandforgot) wrote2012-09-16 06:03 pm
Entry tags:
fic] a thousand voices are haunting my sleep, there's no escaping this fight; they control it
[With some minor alterations to the way the world works/is that have changed in my head in the last year.]
She's been here for three years. She doesn't realize it, but that's how long Parker has been in the city. She doesn't even know she's Parker anymore. In the beginning she was no one, a lost soul like all of the other Intruders to roam the streets of the City. Then she was Ariel the hiding Intruder. Over time she became a Native, and the newest recruit to the Brigade. That's how the City works after all. You are who it wants you to be.
They gave her her a new identification; 18972. In time she forgot the name Ariel, and she was just a number. She marched the streets daily with the other soldiers, and she lived in barracks. She had no other life. She had never lived anywhere else; had never been anyone else.
She rose quickly with honor and respect. She did as she was told and she was good. She was one of the best. The main mission of the Brigade was to root out Intruders and deal with them appropriately. Once upon a time, when she was one herself, there were camps and jails for Intruders. Not anymore. As the Rift in the city started to act up more the numbers of Intruders rose, and that was unacceptable to President Kane. Now Intruders were killed on the spot. Anyone looking lost or out of place; shot. Anyone not following the patterns of the City; shot. There was to be no resistance, no uprising.
And Parker - 18972 - happened to be one of the best shots of all the newest recruits. Be it up close and personal or a sniper riffle, every time she fired she hit. Now, all this time later, she's almost always a sniper. She patrols from rooftops near the Rift, and the second she sees anyone fall in she aims. Should she see any Intruders lurking around the alleyways; she aims.
She doesn't think about the life she's taking. She doesn't think at all. The heaviness in her head from the darkness, holding her memories where it wants it, is so familiar to her that she doesn't feel it anymore. She doesn't fight it. The emptiness that once sat in her heart, the knowing that she was missing something, is gone. Or it's shadowed over. There is no doubt inside of her that this has always been her life, and that it always will be her life. There are no more flashes, no more teases. The City no longer wants to torture her. It wants to keep her. She's every bit a part of it as the rest, and she's a useful part.
Sometimes though she does have dreams. Dreams that make no sense to her, dreams that the fog lets in because she'll forget in the morning. In her dreams she has her hands around a man's neck. Tight. He can't have any air, he doesn't deserve any air. He's an Intruder and Intruders are illegal. Intruders have to die, and anyone caught with an Intruder dies. She's not going to be killed over this.
"Ariel! Ariel!" He gasps. His hands try to pry her from his neck, but she's stronger. She doesn't know what he's saying to her. She doesn't care. He's an Intruder and he has to die.
"It's...it's me."
Her eyes close and she adjusts her weight to put more pressure on his neck.
"G...Garret." He chokes out his final word, another that makes no sense to her. She waits. Holds on a little longer to make sure. Then she lets go of him and stands up, looking down at him with a mix of confusion and pity. Who did he think he was? Talking to her like she knew him. Like she was one of him.
When she wakes from these dreams she wakes up flexing her fingers. She wakes up with the slightest sense of the images she saw in her sleep, but they quickly fade. She gets up and goes about her day, not remembering the first person she killed in the City. The first person she had met. The only person that had been her friend there.
But she doesn't know it. The City doesn't let her. Now, she's a part of it. She's a part of it until the darkness destroys her, or until she gets out.
It has been three years since Parker fell into the City, but she's no longer Parker. She's 18972, and she's a killer.
•
There was once a story about a young man who fell into the City. He had abilities, strengths, and he was able to keep the darkness out of his mind. He was able to shift it, shape it, and master over it. Wherever he had come from was worse than the City, and he wanted to stay. On his own terms. So he used the darkness. Used it to rise in power and take over, to become president. To rule the City and everyone in it. Of course, anyone that may have told these stories are now long gone. Or maybe they never existed. Who's to know in a place that tells you what to know?
Today, no one would suggest for even a second that President Kane was once an Intruder. No one would even think it. The City won't let them.
She's been here for three years. She doesn't realize it, but that's how long Parker has been in the city. She doesn't even know she's Parker anymore. In the beginning she was no one, a lost soul like all of the other Intruders to roam the streets of the City. Then she was Ariel the hiding Intruder. Over time she became a Native, and the newest recruit to the Brigade. That's how the City works after all. You are who it wants you to be.
They gave her her a new identification; 18972. In time she forgot the name Ariel, and she was just a number. She marched the streets daily with the other soldiers, and she lived in barracks. She had no other life. She had never lived anywhere else; had never been anyone else.
She rose quickly with honor and respect. She did as she was told and she was good. She was one of the best. The main mission of the Brigade was to root out Intruders and deal with them appropriately. Once upon a time, when she was one herself, there were camps and jails for Intruders. Not anymore. As the Rift in the city started to act up more the numbers of Intruders rose, and that was unacceptable to President Kane. Now Intruders were killed on the spot. Anyone looking lost or out of place; shot. Anyone not following the patterns of the City; shot. There was to be no resistance, no uprising.
And Parker - 18972 - happened to be one of the best shots of all the newest recruits. Be it up close and personal or a sniper riffle, every time she fired she hit. Now, all this time later, she's almost always a sniper. She patrols from rooftops near the Rift, and the second she sees anyone fall in she aims. Should she see any Intruders lurking around the alleyways; she aims.
She doesn't think about the life she's taking. She doesn't think at all. The heaviness in her head from the darkness, holding her memories where it wants it, is so familiar to her that she doesn't feel it anymore. She doesn't fight it. The emptiness that once sat in her heart, the knowing that she was missing something, is gone. Or it's shadowed over. There is no doubt inside of her that this has always been her life, and that it always will be her life. There are no more flashes, no more teases. The City no longer wants to torture her. It wants to keep her. She's every bit a part of it as the rest, and she's a useful part.
Sometimes though she does have dreams. Dreams that make no sense to her, dreams that the fog lets in because she'll forget in the morning. In her dreams she has her hands around a man's neck. Tight. He can't have any air, he doesn't deserve any air. He's an Intruder and Intruders are illegal. Intruders have to die, and anyone caught with an Intruder dies. She's not going to be killed over this.
"Ariel! Ariel!" He gasps. His hands try to pry her from his neck, but she's stronger. She doesn't know what he's saying to her. She doesn't care. He's an Intruder and he has to die.
"It's...it's me."
Her eyes close and she adjusts her weight to put more pressure on his neck.
"G...Garret." He chokes out his final word, another that makes no sense to her. She waits. Holds on a little longer to make sure. Then she lets go of him and stands up, looking down at him with a mix of confusion and pity. Who did he think he was? Talking to her like she knew him. Like she was one of him.
When she wakes from these dreams she wakes up flexing her fingers. She wakes up with the slightest sense of the images she saw in her sleep, but they quickly fade. She gets up and goes about her day, not remembering the first person she killed in the City. The first person she had met. The only person that had been her friend there.
But she doesn't know it. The City doesn't let her. Now, she's a part of it. She's a part of it until the darkness destroys her, or until she gets out.
It has been three years since Parker fell into the City, but she's no longer Parker. She's 18972, and she's a killer.
•
There was once a story about a young man who fell into the City. He had abilities, strengths, and he was able to keep the darkness out of his mind. He was able to shift it, shape it, and master over it. Wherever he had come from was worse than the City, and he wanted to stay. On his own terms. So he used the darkness. Used it to rise in power and take over, to become president. To rule the City and everyone in it. Of course, anyone that may have told these stories are now long gone. Or maybe they never existed. Who's to know in a place that tells you what to know?
Today, no one would suggest for even a second that President Kane was once an Intruder. No one would even think it. The City won't let them.