Meghan_84 - Fic - welcome to the new age
Title: welcome to the new age
Author: melpomenethemis
Giftee: meghan_84
Rating: T
Characters/Pairing: Parker/Eliot
Word Count: 2,534
Spoilers: (This is critical, as some areas have not gotten S5 legally yet.)
Warnings: (Please be sure to warn - some of the prompts being written are diametrically opposed to each other.) Small reference to a character death (less than one line).
Disclaimer: I do not own Leverage in any way, shape or form.
Summary: The world was ravaged, leaving behind survivors who do not remember their old selves. There are rules in this new society, but for Alice White, these rules could be broken with the right person.
Notes: Based on the prompt 'Post apocalyptic or dystopian society where Eliot and Parker are not supposed to be together but inevitably are.' Merry Christmas!
The world was never the same after NX-422 was discovered in 2003. It grew innocuously in a small Petri dish, close to the one which would have brought the world into a new era, a way to fight disease and save countless lives. Unfortunately for the world, this never happened for The scientist found this Petri dish first, and it consumed his attention. He had to find a cure for his tests showed that one micro-spore could take out an entire town in less than 24 hours.
He documented his findings, and brought them before the Institute of Scientific Advances. When his peers in the scientific community saw his discovery, their minds turned to safeguard the world, or at least their nation - a first line of defence and they made up their minds. They turned it into a weapon. When World War 3 started in 2007 they loaded up a bomb with it and sent it at their enemies. This single act devastated the world, as when they released this, they had no idea that the spores would mutate and spread, causing the deaths of 99.50% of the Earth's population.
It was seemingly random, the way that it hit, but it hit everyone in some way - elderly, children, adults, teenagers, babies - no social or economic group were spared. The survivors, traumatised from what they had seen were taken away, once they had been screened to endure they weren't influenced by the spores in any way. For some reason, those not exposed had a natural immunity, antibodies were developed naturally by these people so a plan was developed, to place these survivors in 'model cities' around the globe. They were given new lives, new identities and they had no idea what they had experienced, what they had left behind, who they had left behind. All they knew was that they had always lived in New Portland and they were happy with their lives. This gave the scientists who had survived time, time to develop a way to save themselves and future generations who did not have this immunity, they owed it to the world for they had stated what could have been the end of the world.
These people were placed in their closest town, based on their location when the outbreak occurred rather than nationality - it was a global world and the scientists honestly could not be bothered to figure out who belonged where - they would forget anyway and the scientists had to save the world. One town was set up per continent and the inhabitants where shipped there, knocked out by a myriad of different tranquillisers. Per continent, there were two people, still with their memories and unscarred from the brutality which had taken place (as the scientists and others had taken shelter in the emergency labs, a government project to ensure the continuity of civilisation based on keeping some of the finest minds of this age alive for as long as possible) who used to work in Human Resources to plan out the back-stories of the survivors, give them new identities, pasts, jobs, everything. They thrived on this and spent hours creating their perfect scenarios, like children with a dollhouse.
Each person had a purpose within their town, backstories written and relationships woven. These were then implanted into the minds of the slumbering survivors, through some of the secret government technology. The survivors remained in a form of sleep for one more week, before each person, around the world, opened their eyes to their new world.
Welcome to the new age.
***
Alice blew a piece of blonde hair out of her eyes, as it kept stubbornly falling in her eyes. Eventually her patience wore thin and she tucked it behind her headband. She sighed again as she reached up and placed the book on the shelf - that’s who she was, Alice White, bookkeeper. Daughter of Archie. Vegetarian. Book lover. Horse phobia. Utterly bored.
That’s what she was. Bored. All she wanted was to have an adventure, to climb to the top of the tallest building and just look out at the world. She wanted that freedom, but truthfully she knew she’d always be here, in this town, in this job. She felt a little bit like a bird with clipped wings.
Her mobile chimed, a Facebook message from her ‘intended’ - she’d been promised to one ‘Todd McSweeten’, a member of the town’s law enforcement agency. He was unbelievably sweet, always sending her funny pictures or haikus that he’d written, but all she could feel was that something was wrong. That was the thing about this town, everyone had always been there, and their futures had always been planned out for them. This wasn’t a strange fact - it’s always been that way, for as long as she could remember.
It seemed like the perfect world, but that wasn’t true - people weren’t happy. Look at Mister Papadokalis, the town’s lawyer - he and his wife, Maggie, were both miserable after the death of their son, but they still stayed together because of the silly rules of their town. Rules, rules, rules. That’s all things ever were, set in stone - never flexible, never broken, just rigid and enforced by the weird people who insisted on wearing white coats. They had needles too, Alice didn’t like needles.
One of the good things about this town was the emphasis on staying healthy - healthy body and healthy mind. Everyone participated in some form of sport or creative hobby, like Miss Catherine, their British school teacher who always put on the most interesting of plays every year. She and Alice had a very good relationship, kind of like a mother-daughter one as Alice’s mother passed away when she was very young, she couldn’t remember her at all. Miss Catherine was always dragging her into something, whether it was to go shopping or to help make some scenery. Alice, on the other hand, had a sport that she loved - she loved gymnastics. Flipping through the air, jumping from high heights, she couldn’t get enough of it, the feeling of absolute freedom.
Freedom that she couldn’t have. With that thought, she slammed the book that she was trying to look at down, who cares about these numbers, really? All Alice knew was that she had to get some fresh air. She grabbed a coat and marched out of the door, shivering slightly at the sharp breeze. As she wandered through the town, people said hello to her, nodded in greeting and she responded in a similar fashion.
She ended up going to the far side of town, close to the farming district and she took a left turn into the orchards. She kept walking, clearing her head of all thoughts other than putting one foot in front of the other. She chuckled to herself as she took that literally and started to watch the ground, if only to avoid breaking a limb by the uneven ground.
She saw a flash of something brown in her peripheral vision and her eyes darted back up. Darted up to find one of her worst nightmares - a horse. She had no idea why she disliked them so much, just that she was filled with fear every time she saw one. She saw it rear up and all she could do was close her eyes, the rest of her body staying completely still.
After a moment of nothing happening, she cautiously opened one of her eyes and found that the horse was, admittedly docile, but standing incredibly close to her, watching her with its beady eyes. She then noticed the person standing next to the horse, running his hand down the side of the horse, murmuring something to keep it calm.
He then stepped round the horse towards Alice, nodding his head to her.
“Don’t worry darlin’, he won’t hurt you,” he said reassuringly, and with that, Alice took a breath.
“I just really don’t like horses,” said Alice, squinting slightly at it, blinking in surprise when it seemed to squint right back.
“I can see that, here - give me a mo,” he said, taking the reins of the horse and tying him to a tree nearby, but far enough away so that Alice could feel like she could breathe.
“There’s something wrong with you,” he said teasingly to her.
“That’s why you like me Sparky,” she said, her eyes widening in surprise, where had that come from?
“Thank you, Mister...?” She said formally, it felt slightly strange not to know this person’s name, she thought she knew everyone in the town.
“Mackie, Brad Mackie,” he said, holding out his hand. When she put her hand in his, he lifted it up to his lips and kissed her knuckles. Alice blinked in surprise, a blush spreading across her cheeks.
“A pleasure to meet you, Miss..?” He said, meeting her eyes as he released her hand.
“Alice White,” Alice replied, “who is also late, very late. It was nice to meet you,” she said, she couldn’t do this - there were rules for a reason. She had her intended and he was a strange man that she knew nothing about.
“Wait, Miss White, would you be available to have a drink with me some time? I know this is slightly more forward but you only live once, right?” He said, an expression Alice couldn’t place was on his face, it looked a little bit like hope, maybe?
“I...I...sure, that would be nice Mister Mackie,” she said. He was right, you only live once and this was her life - she should decide how to live it. Besides, it wasn’t as though they were going to do anything other than talk, just a friendly acquaintance.
I’m waking up, I feel it in my bones.
***
Things seemed to develop from there, one innocent cup of coffee turned into a weekly cup, which turned into meeting up practically every day. They talked about a variety of things - their pasts, their aspirations, their ‘paths’ in life. Brad owned the hardware store in town, as well as training the town’s horses, promised to Tara Carlisle, the other attorney in the town.
Alice found that every time she met up with Brad, she had something to talk about or was completely entranced by what he talked about. This had never happened before, Alice had a notoriously short attention span and often missed subtleties in conversations, but with Brad, he phrased things in such a way that she got what he was talking about.
She was also getting a funny feeling in her chest, similar to butterflies, whenever she saw him. She had never been happier when she was with him, which was both fantastic and upsetting at the same time. After she’d met with Brad, she would always feel guilty - guilty for Todd, as he was lovely - they just didn’t click in that way.
She could tell that something was wrong, Brad was sitting across from her drinking a cup of orange juice and had a coffee ready for her. The wrong thing was that he was drinking juice rather than his customary black coffee. This meant that he’d already been awake for a long period of time and needed to clear his head with the sharp citric taste. Alice could read Brad like a book, unlike most other people.
She took a seat, and a sip of the coffee. He looked as though he were working up the courage to say something so she sat there patiently.
“I’m supposed to get married this summer,” he said. With that simple sentence, her world shattered.
“Congratulations,” she said, a fake smile made its way to her face as she tried to be happy for her friend. Brad just seemed to be pained by this remark.
“I don’t love her, I can’t love her. The feelings we have are platonic at best. She doesn’t change my world, Alice,” he said, his eyes piercing hers.
Alice opened her mouth to say something, when a pain went through her head. She flinched and placed her hands on her temples. Images flashed in front of her eyes, images of another life, images of people she didn’t know, images of travesties. The one defining factor of these images was a name ‘Parker’. Yes, Parker, she liked the sound of that. No first or last name, just Parker, free of obligations. As quickly as it came, the pain dissipated and she sat back up in her seat, meeting Eliot’s concerned eyes. No, not Eliot - Brad.
“I’m fine, just a headache - it’s practically gone now. If you don’t love her, then why are you marrying her, outside of the rules? You’re entitled to your own life,” she said.
He didn’t look convinced and suggested that they got some fresh air. As they walked through the orchard, they made no mention about their conversation before, or to Alice’s headache. Eliot then stopped. His expression seemed to become pinched and pained before mellowing back to an expressionless state.
“Parker,” he whispered.
“You found me, Eliot,” she replied.
With that recognition, their remembrance of their old lives, of Hardison, the team, the cons, the old world - they both turned to each other, with older eyes. They seemed to be drawn to one another, he dipped down and touched his lips to hers. Eliot remembered that Hardison was sweet on Parker, but that was a very long time ago, the team had only been together for less than a year before the calamity hit. They’d just pulled the job with the psychic if he remembered correctly.
His mind turned to the people in the town, Mister Papadokalis and Maggie were Nate and Maggie, Miss Charlotte was Sophie and Tara Carlisle was Tara Cole. For some reason, Agent McSweeten had the same name and he remembered seeing Sterling wandering around town. Hardison didn’t survive the first wave of the spores but Eliot remembered his brother with fond memories.
They both remembered, but they both had a duty - a duty to the person they were matched with. Those scientists would pay for what they did to them - taking away their memories and developing new backstories. They would work around the system, before either of the two had to fulfill their obligations. This knowledge would help them, for she loved to steal and he loved to hit. Neither of their matches could compare, Tara’s new personality completely ignored her Grifter side and, well, Agent McSweeten - is there anything more to say?
It would be a long and tricky path for both Eliot and Parker, but in the end - there is only one choice. After all, no one decides their destiny for them, but them. Let’s go steal a society.
It’s a revolution, I suppose.
Author: melpomenethemis
Giftee: meghan_84
Rating: T
Characters/Pairing: Parker/Eliot
Word Count: 2,534
Spoilers: (This is critical, as some areas have not gotten S5 legally yet.)
Warnings: (Please be sure to warn - some of the prompts being written are diametrically opposed to each other.) Small reference to a character death (less than one line).
Disclaimer: I do not own Leverage in any way, shape or form.
Summary: The world was ravaged, leaving behind survivors who do not remember their old selves. There are rules in this new society, but for Alice White, these rules could be broken with the right person.
Notes: Based on the prompt 'Post apocalyptic or dystopian society where Eliot and Parker are not supposed to be together but inevitably are.' Merry Christmas!
The world was never the same after NX-422 was discovered in 2003. It grew innocuously in a small Petri dish, close to the one which would have brought the world into a new era, a way to fight disease and save countless lives. Unfortunately for the world, this never happened for The scientist found this Petri dish first, and it consumed his attention. He had to find a cure for his tests showed that one micro-spore could take out an entire town in less than 24 hours.
He documented his findings, and brought them before the Institute of Scientific Advances. When his peers in the scientific community saw his discovery, their minds turned to safeguard the world, or at least their nation - a first line of defence and they made up their minds. They turned it into a weapon. When World War 3 started in 2007 they loaded up a bomb with it and sent it at their enemies. This single act devastated the world, as when they released this, they had no idea that the spores would mutate and spread, causing the deaths of 99.50% of the Earth's population.
It was seemingly random, the way that it hit, but it hit everyone in some way - elderly, children, adults, teenagers, babies - no social or economic group were spared. The survivors, traumatised from what they had seen were taken away, once they had been screened to endure they weren't influenced by the spores in any way. For some reason, those not exposed had a natural immunity, antibodies were developed naturally by these people so a plan was developed, to place these survivors in 'model cities' around the globe. They were given new lives, new identities and they had no idea what they had experienced, what they had left behind, who they had left behind. All they knew was that they had always lived in New Portland and they were happy with their lives. This gave the scientists who had survived time, time to develop a way to save themselves and future generations who did not have this immunity, they owed it to the world for they had stated what could have been the end of the world.
These people were placed in their closest town, based on their location when the outbreak occurred rather than nationality - it was a global world and the scientists honestly could not be bothered to figure out who belonged where - they would forget anyway and the scientists had to save the world. One town was set up per continent and the inhabitants where shipped there, knocked out by a myriad of different tranquillisers. Per continent, there were two people, still with their memories and unscarred from the brutality which had taken place (as the scientists and others had taken shelter in the emergency labs, a government project to ensure the continuity of civilisation based on keeping some of the finest minds of this age alive for as long as possible) who used to work in Human Resources to plan out the back-stories of the survivors, give them new identities, pasts, jobs, everything. They thrived on this and spent hours creating their perfect scenarios, like children with a dollhouse.
Each person had a purpose within their town, backstories written and relationships woven. These were then implanted into the minds of the slumbering survivors, through some of the secret government technology. The survivors remained in a form of sleep for one more week, before each person, around the world, opened their eyes to their new world.
Welcome to the new age.
***
Alice blew a piece of blonde hair out of her eyes, as it kept stubbornly falling in her eyes. Eventually her patience wore thin and she tucked it behind her headband. She sighed again as she reached up and placed the book on the shelf - that’s who she was, Alice White, bookkeeper. Daughter of Archie. Vegetarian. Book lover. Horse phobia. Utterly bored.
That’s what she was. Bored. All she wanted was to have an adventure, to climb to the top of the tallest building and just look out at the world. She wanted that freedom, but truthfully she knew she’d always be here, in this town, in this job. She felt a little bit like a bird with clipped wings.
Her mobile chimed, a Facebook message from her ‘intended’ - she’d been promised to one ‘Todd McSweeten’, a member of the town’s law enforcement agency. He was unbelievably sweet, always sending her funny pictures or haikus that he’d written, but all she could feel was that something was wrong. That was the thing about this town, everyone had always been there, and their futures had always been planned out for them. This wasn’t a strange fact - it’s always been that way, for as long as she could remember.
It seemed like the perfect world, but that wasn’t true - people weren’t happy. Look at Mister Papadokalis, the town’s lawyer - he and his wife, Maggie, were both miserable after the death of their son, but they still stayed together because of the silly rules of their town. Rules, rules, rules. That’s all things ever were, set in stone - never flexible, never broken, just rigid and enforced by the weird people who insisted on wearing white coats. They had needles too, Alice didn’t like needles.
One of the good things about this town was the emphasis on staying healthy - healthy body and healthy mind. Everyone participated in some form of sport or creative hobby, like Miss Catherine, their British school teacher who always put on the most interesting of plays every year. She and Alice had a very good relationship, kind of like a mother-daughter one as Alice’s mother passed away when she was very young, she couldn’t remember her at all. Miss Catherine was always dragging her into something, whether it was to go shopping or to help make some scenery. Alice, on the other hand, had a sport that she loved - she loved gymnastics. Flipping through the air, jumping from high heights, she couldn’t get enough of it, the feeling of absolute freedom.
Freedom that she couldn’t have. With that thought, she slammed the book that she was trying to look at down, who cares about these numbers, really? All Alice knew was that she had to get some fresh air. She grabbed a coat and marched out of the door, shivering slightly at the sharp breeze. As she wandered through the town, people said hello to her, nodded in greeting and she responded in a similar fashion.
She ended up going to the far side of town, close to the farming district and she took a left turn into the orchards. She kept walking, clearing her head of all thoughts other than putting one foot in front of the other. She chuckled to herself as she took that literally and started to watch the ground, if only to avoid breaking a limb by the uneven ground.
She saw a flash of something brown in her peripheral vision and her eyes darted back up. Darted up to find one of her worst nightmares - a horse. She had no idea why she disliked them so much, just that she was filled with fear every time she saw one. She saw it rear up and all she could do was close her eyes, the rest of her body staying completely still.
After a moment of nothing happening, she cautiously opened one of her eyes and found that the horse was, admittedly docile, but standing incredibly close to her, watching her with its beady eyes. She then noticed the person standing next to the horse, running his hand down the side of the horse, murmuring something to keep it calm.
He then stepped round the horse towards Alice, nodding his head to her.
“Don’t worry darlin’, he won’t hurt you,” he said reassuringly, and with that, Alice took a breath.
“I just really don’t like horses,” said Alice, squinting slightly at it, blinking in surprise when it seemed to squint right back.
“I can see that, here - give me a mo,” he said, taking the reins of the horse and tying him to a tree nearby, but far enough away so that Alice could feel like she could breathe.
“There’s something wrong with you,” he said teasingly to her.
“That’s why you like me Sparky,” she said, her eyes widening in surprise, where had that come from?
“Thank you, Mister...?” She said formally, it felt slightly strange not to know this person’s name, she thought she knew everyone in the town.
“Mackie, Brad Mackie,” he said, holding out his hand. When she put her hand in his, he lifted it up to his lips and kissed her knuckles. Alice blinked in surprise, a blush spreading across her cheeks.
“A pleasure to meet you, Miss..?” He said, meeting her eyes as he released her hand.
“Alice White,” Alice replied, “who is also late, very late. It was nice to meet you,” she said, she couldn’t do this - there were rules for a reason. She had her intended and he was a strange man that she knew nothing about.
“Wait, Miss White, would you be available to have a drink with me some time? I know this is slightly more forward but you only live once, right?” He said, an expression Alice couldn’t place was on his face, it looked a little bit like hope, maybe?
“I...I...sure, that would be nice Mister Mackie,” she said. He was right, you only live once and this was her life - she should decide how to live it. Besides, it wasn’t as though they were going to do anything other than talk, just a friendly acquaintance.
I’m waking up, I feel it in my bones.
***
Things seemed to develop from there, one innocent cup of coffee turned into a weekly cup, which turned into meeting up practically every day. They talked about a variety of things - their pasts, their aspirations, their ‘paths’ in life. Brad owned the hardware store in town, as well as training the town’s horses, promised to Tara Carlisle, the other attorney in the town.
Alice found that every time she met up with Brad, she had something to talk about or was completely entranced by what he talked about. This had never happened before, Alice had a notoriously short attention span and often missed subtleties in conversations, but with Brad, he phrased things in such a way that she got what he was talking about.
She was also getting a funny feeling in her chest, similar to butterflies, whenever she saw him. She had never been happier when she was with him, which was both fantastic and upsetting at the same time. After she’d met with Brad, she would always feel guilty - guilty for Todd, as he was lovely - they just didn’t click in that way.
She could tell that something was wrong, Brad was sitting across from her drinking a cup of orange juice and had a coffee ready for her. The wrong thing was that he was drinking juice rather than his customary black coffee. This meant that he’d already been awake for a long period of time and needed to clear his head with the sharp citric taste. Alice could read Brad like a book, unlike most other people.
She took a seat, and a sip of the coffee. He looked as though he were working up the courage to say something so she sat there patiently.
“I’m supposed to get married this summer,” he said. With that simple sentence, her world shattered.
“Congratulations,” she said, a fake smile made its way to her face as she tried to be happy for her friend. Brad just seemed to be pained by this remark.
“I don’t love her, I can’t love her. The feelings we have are platonic at best. She doesn’t change my world, Alice,” he said, his eyes piercing hers.
Alice opened her mouth to say something, when a pain went through her head. She flinched and placed her hands on her temples. Images flashed in front of her eyes, images of another life, images of people she didn’t know, images of travesties. The one defining factor of these images was a name ‘Parker’. Yes, Parker, she liked the sound of that. No first or last name, just Parker, free of obligations. As quickly as it came, the pain dissipated and she sat back up in her seat, meeting Eliot’s concerned eyes. No, not Eliot - Brad.
“I’m fine, just a headache - it’s practically gone now. If you don’t love her, then why are you marrying her, outside of the rules? You’re entitled to your own life,” she said.
He didn’t look convinced and suggested that they got some fresh air. As they walked through the orchard, they made no mention about their conversation before, or to Alice’s headache. Eliot then stopped. His expression seemed to become pinched and pained before mellowing back to an expressionless state.
“Parker,” he whispered.
“You found me, Eliot,” she replied.
With that recognition, their remembrance of their old lives, of Hardison, the team, the cons, the old world - they both turned to each other, with older eyes. They seemed to be drawn to one another, he dipped down and touched his lips to hers. Eliot remembered that Hardison was sweet on Parker, but that was a very long time ago, the team had only been together for less than a year before the calamity hit. They’d just pulled the job with the psychic if he remembered correctly.
His mind turned to the people in the town, Mister Papadokalis and Maggie were Nate and Maggie, Miss Charlotte was Sophie and Tara Carlisle was Tara Cole. For some reason, Agent McSweeten had the same name and he remembered seeing Sterling wandering around town. Hardison didn’t survive the first wave of the spores but Eliot remembered his brother with fond memories.
They both remembered, but they both had a duty - a duty to the person they were matched with. Those scientists would pay for what they did to them - taking away their memories and developing new backstories. They would work around the system, before either of the two had to fulfill their obligations. This knowledge would help them, for she loved to steal and he loved to hit. Neither of their matches could compare, Tara’s new personality completely ignored her Grifter side and, well, Agent McSweeten - is there anything more to say?
It would be a long and tricky path for both Eliot and Parker, but in the end - there is only one choice. After all, no one decides their destiny for them, but them. Let’s go steal a society.
It’s a revolution, I suppose.