Dark City - #20 Colourless
Title: A Single Syringe (part 2)
Fandom: Dark City
Characters: General (John Murdoch / Daniel Schreber)
Prompt: #20 Colourless
Word Count: 678
Rating: PG
Summary: When he remembers Daniel saying goodbye, somehow it is entirely colourless.
Notes: A short Murdoch/Schreber series.
My Little Damn Table (39/100)
A Single Syringe - Part 2
There are layers and layers to the memories that Schreber has given John Murdoch - an entire lifetime of knowledge in a single syringe, just as the doctor had said. The top layers are the most important ones, of course. How to fight, how to work and reconfigure the machine, how to defeat the Strangers. Then how to create, which is what he does next - water and rock and sand, trees and little white houses. How to set the city on its gradual rotation toward the sun, to finally give them daylight.
Next John remembers Emma, with her long dark hair and full pouty lips, her pretty green eyes. Bright, colourful memories, full of life. And somehow, like it's been planned that way, he finds her standing on the end of the dock in the sunshine at Shell Beach, dress and hair swirling around her, teased by the wind. She isn't Emma any longer, of course, but perhaps that is a good thing. Anna smiles far more than Emma did, and seems to take a liking to him immediately. He takes her to lunch, and they spend the afternoon walking in Shell Beach, exploring the town, walking on the sand. He walks her home near evening, then starts up the road to the lighthouse, to where he knows his home is, smiling a little to himself.
As he walks, he starts thinking back, recalling deeper layers of memories, beyond his lessons, beyond Emma. Sitting side by side on the bank of the river with Schreber at night, listening to the doctor talk, his voice low and even without the troubled gasps of air that John had heard from him in real life. Speaking of his life with the Strangers, years of doing their experiments, their bidding. How he'd been watching John for a very long time as he slowly began to recognize the signs of his abilities, of his awakening, far before the Strangers ever did. Schreber apologizing for the night in the hotel room, how his imprint then should have contained all these memories - the lessons, the awakening - but that he hadn't been able to imprint him successfully.
"These are my memoirs," Schreber tells him in his memories, with a little sad smile. "I'll never be able to write them. But I'm telling them to you, because I want you to have this knowledge. To know what you saved the city from. To know what you've freed me from."
In the evening sun, John gives his head a little shake, trying to process the words in his memories, searching for more. He realizes that he's reached the house with the mailbox labelled "Murdoch", so familiar to him even though he's never been there, and climbs the porch steps. Then, as he reaches for the doorknob, he remembers again.
Schreber, standing with him at the door, still with that little sad smile. And even though Shell Beach is bright and vibrant compared to his life in the city, for some reason this memory is almost entirely colourless.
"John. I must apologize for my departure, but you don't need me anymore. I've given you all the tools you need to make the city your own, and to take care of the people here. I serve no purpose here - as part of the cause of all of this, I hope you can appreciate my need to remove myself from the situation. I'm just here to tell you thank you, for saving me from them. And to bid you farewell. Perhaps, if you have the time, would you go to my office and look after my rats?"
John realizes that he's been clenching the door handle to his house so hard that his hand hurts from the ridges in the metal knob digging into his skin. He looks back toward the city in a panic, mind going over the memory once more, and suddenly all the layers of memories about Emma fall away and seem flippant, trivial. Farewell?
Letting go of the knob, he quickly starts back into the city, hoping that his fears do not prove founded.
~~~~~
Next: [Part 3]
Fandom: Dark City
Characters: General (John Murdoch / Daniel Schreber)
Prompt: #20 Colourless
Word Count: 678
Rating: PG
Summary: When he remembers Daniel saying goodbye, somehow it is entirely colourless.
Notes: A short Murdoch/Schreber series.
My Little Damn Table (39/100)
A Single Syringe - Part 2
There are layers and layers to the memories that Schreber has given John Murdoch - an entire lifetime of knowledge in a single syringe, just as the doctor had said. The top layers are the most important ones, of course. How to fight, how to work and reconfigure the machine, how to defeat the Strangers. Then how to create, which is what he does next - water and rock and sand, trees and little white houses. How to set the city on its gradual rotation toward the sun, to finally give them daylight.
Next John remembers Emma, with her long dark hair and full pouty lips, her pretty green eyes. Bright, colourful memories, full of life. And somehow, like it's been planned that way, he finds her standing on the end of the dock in the sunshine at Shell Beach, dress and hair swirling around her, teased by the wind. She isn't Emma any longer, of course, but perhaps that is a good thing. Anna smiles far more than Emma did, and seems to take a liking to him immediately. He takes her to lunch, and they spend the afternoon walking in Shell Beach, exploring the town, walking on the sand. He walks her home near evening, then starts up the road to the lighthouse, to where he knows his home is, smiling a little to himself.
As he walks, he starts thinking back, recalling deeper layers of memories, beyond his lessons, beyond Emma. Sitting side by side on the bank of the river with Schreber at night, listening to the doctor talk, his voice low and even without the troubled gasps of air that John had heard from him in real life. Speaking of his life with the Strangers, years of doing their experiments, their bidding. How he'd been watching John for a very long time as he slowly began to recognize the signs of his abilities, of his awakening, far before the Strangers ever did. Schreber apologizing for the night in the hotel room, how his imprint then should have contained all these memories - the lessons, the awakening - but that he hadn't been able to imprint him successfully.
"These are my memoirs," Schreber tells him in his memories, with a little sad smile. "I'll never be able to write them. But I'm telling them to you, because I want you to have this knowledge. To know what you saved the city from. To know what you've freed me from."
In the evening sun, John gives his head a little shake, trying to process the words in his memories, searching for more. He realizes that he's reached the house with the mailbox labelled "Murdoch", so familiar to him even though he's never been there, and climbs the porch steps. Then, as he reaches for the doorknob, he remembers again.
Schreber, standing with him at the door, still with that little sad smile. And even though Shell Beach is bright and vibrant compared to his life in the city, for some reason this memory is almost entirely colourless.
"John. I must apologize for my departure, but you don't need me anymore. I've given you all the tools you need to make the city your own, and to take care of the people here. I serve no purpose here - as part of the cause of all of this, I hope you can appreciate my need to remove myself from the situation. I'm just here to tell you thank you, for saving me from them. And to bid you farewell. Perhaps, if you have the time, would you go to my office and look after my rats?"
John realizes that he's been clenching the door handle to his house so hard that his hand hurts from the ridges in the metal knob digging into his skin. He looks back toward the city in a panic, mind going over the memory once more, and suddenly all the layers of memories about Emma fall away and seem flippant, trivial. Farewell?
Letting go of the knob, he quickly starts back into the city, hoping that his fears do not prove founded.
~~~~~
Next: [Part 3]