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31_days2011-08-22 12:02 am
rataplani.livejournal.com) wrote in 31_days2011-08-22 12:02 am
[August 21] [Assassin's Creed] What Little Remains
Title: What Little Remains
Day/Theme: August 21 - two solitudes come nearer, recognize and protect and comfort each other.
Series: Assassin's Creed
Characters: Rebecca, Shaun
Pairing: Rebecca/Shaun
Warnings: Spoilers up to Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood
Rating: G
A/N: This assumes that the Templars win and that a certain event mentioned in Brotherhood does not have as wide a range of destruction as stated.
The last thing that happened to Rebecca Crane went like this:
They are running, the two of them. Leaping over obstacles easily, the adrenaline pushing her body gloriously faster. There is danger all around, and it’s heading directly towards them in a familiar and deceptive pool of spreading light. If they can just get to the Temple ahead – then they should be safe. There’s something familiar about this, but she doesn’t have time to think. Shaun is lagging, not used to sprinting. She looks back in time to see him crash against a rock, bleeding all over the dust. She doesn’t think; she turns and runs right back, grabbing his body - thin from weeks of low supplies – and heading off again. She gets in ten steps before the light catches up to them and everything that is Rebecca Crane dies.
--------
Number 1981 knows what his first memory was. It was of waking up and knowing, without being told, that he was insignificant, someone whose only purpose was to work until he dropped. He knows that every day, and it echoes through his brain while he works in the field, his neat hair growing out scraggly and his skin burning in the sun. It is all necessary, it is all indisputable.
Even as he understands the fact of his existence, he knows that something is off about his life. Most of the other workers avoid him because he is Different, and will probably not live long. He speaks oddly, and things sometimes come out of his mouth that are didn’t mean to say; odd phrases that are too close to lies for comfort. He’s not supposed to be even a little bit Different. Anyone who is completely Different would be dead.
Today, he is staring at another worker; a woman. That he knows her gender is a worry, as no one notices gender unless they have been ordered to breed. She is staring at a wrecked device in one of the buildings where rations are given. A computer, his mind supplies, but he is more interested in the way she is looking at it. She looks almost reverent, loving in a way that no one is unless they are thinking of the Rulers, which she clearly isn’t. He finds himself standing beside her, chewing on his bread. For the first time, he notices that it is stale.
Hearing him curse at his discovery, the woman turns to look at him. A brand on her neck reveals her to be Number 1803, and something is wrong with her face. Her cheeks are red and puffed up, and something wet is dripping down, falling quietly from her chin. Without thought, his food is dropped and they are holding each other, sobbing.
He knows her, in that moment, knows her in a way even deeper than he knows himself. He knows that something went wrong, though he cannot describe it. He knows that they are standing in a library, surrounded by the bones of a broken world. He knows that they used to be people, they used to be friends, they used to be Shaun and Rebecca. He knows that they're not those people anymore. He doesn't know how to fix this.
Day/Theme: August 21 - two solitudes come nearer, recognize and protect and comfort each other.
Series: Assassin's Creed
Characters: Rebecca, Shaun
Pairing: Rebecca/Shaun
Warnings: Spoilers up to Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood
Rating: G
A/N: This assumes that the Templars win and that a certain event mentioned in Brotherhood does not have as wide a range of destruction as stated.
The last thing that happened to Rebecca Crane went like this:
They are running, the two of them. Leaping over obstacles easily, the adrenaline pushing her body gloriously faster. There is danger all around, and it’s heading directly towards them in a familiar and deceptive pool of spreading light. If they can just get to the Temple ahead – then they should be safe. There’s something familiar about this, but she doesn’t have time to think. Shaun is lagging, not used to sprinting. She looks back in time to see him crash against a rock, bleeding all over the dust. She doesn’t think; she turns and runs right back, grabbing his body - thin from weeks of low supplies – and heading off again. She gets in ten steps before the light catches up to them and everything that is Rebecca Crane dies.
Number 1981 knows what his first memory was. It was of waking up and knowing, without being told, that he was insignificant, someone whose only purpose was to work until he dropped. He knows that every day, and it echoes through his brain while he works in the field, his neat hair growing out scraggly and his skin burning in the sun. It is all necessary, it is all indisputable.
Even as he understands the fact of his existence, he knows that something is off about his life. Most of the other workers avoid him because he is Different, and will probably not live long. He speaks oddly, and things sometimes come out of his mouth that are didn’t mean to say; odd phrases that are too close to lies for comfort. He’s not supposed to be even a little bit Different. Anyone who is completely Different would be dead.
Today, he is staring at another worker; a woman. That he knows her gender is a worry, as no one notices gender unless they have been ordered to breed. She is staring at a wrecked device in one of the buildings where rations are given. A computer, his mind supplies, but he is more interested in the way she is looking at it. She looks almost reverent, loving in a way that no one is unless they are thinking of the Rulers, which she clearly isn’t. He finds himself standing beside her, chewing on his bread. For the first time, he notices that it is stale.
Hearing him curse at his discovery, the woman turns to look at him. A brand on her neck reveals her to be Number 1803, and something is wrong with her face. Her cheeks are red and puffed up, and something wet is dripping down, falling quietly from her chin. Without thought, his food is dropped and they are holding each other, sobbing.
He knows her, in that moment, knows her in a way even deeper than he knows himself. He knows that something went wrong, though he cannot describe it. He knows that they are standing in a library, surrounded by the bones of a broken world. He knows that they used to be people, they used to be friends, they used to be Shaun and Rebecca. He knows that they're not those people anymore. He doesn't know how to fix this.