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fandomweekly2019-04-21 09:23 pm
alobear) wrote in fandomweekly2019-04-21 09:23 pm
[012] They Won't Let You Speak Out (Original)
Title: They Won't Let You Speak Out
Fandom: Original
Rating/Warnings: None
Bonus: Yes
Word Count: 984
Summary: Abelard knows the artisans' secret and wants to reveal it to the world. But they're not just going to let him do that.
“Hello and welcome to the Morning Report. I’m your host, Rebecca Oyinlola, and do we have an exciting show for you today! Exciting and mysterious, I have to say. So mysterious in fact that even I don’t know what it’s about!” She gave a laugh. “With me here is Abelard Abernathy from Gadg-E-Tech and I have it on good authority that he has some news that’s really going to rock your world.” She turned back to face Abelard again. “So Abelard, why don’t you tell us-“
Rebecca stopped speaking abruptly as all the lights went out, plunging the studio into almost total darkness. Even though it was morning, very little natural light came in through the windows as they were tightly shuttered, presumably to make the lighting on the recordings consistent. Abelard pulled out his Smart-E-Fact and switched on the torch function as other people around him did the same. Soon there were patches of blue light springing up all over the studio. Rebecca stood up.
“What just happened?” she called out. “Was there a mana surge or something?”
Brian and Jen walked up to the stage to join Abelard, looking apprehensive.
A harried-looking man followed, crossing to Rebecca’s side of the desk. “I don’t know,” he said in answer to her question. “We’ve lost mana flow to the entire building.” He looked down at his Smart-E-Fact then he pressed a finger to his ear and his eyes lost focus as if he was listening intently to something. “What the-“ he said, then stopped.
“What?” Rebecca demanded. “What is it?”
The man looked at her in alarm. “I’m getting reports that there are armed men in the building and they’re heading up to this level.”
Abelard felt his heart lurch. All his visions of being locked in a dungeon or shoved off a building came flooding back to him and they didn’t seem nearly as ridiculous as they had before. There were actually men with guns coming to apprehend him. He realised he hadn’t considered what the reaction of the artisans would be to him revealing their lies. He wondered if he had led Brian and Jen to their deaths and felt sick.
Rebecca rounded on Abelard. “What the hell are you involved in?”
“At this point it’s probably better if you don’t know. Is there another way out of here?”
Rebecca shook her head. “The Lev-E-Facts won’t work without mana and there’s only one staircase. They’ll likely have people covering the exits downstairs and they’ll search the whole building if they really want to get to you.”
They all looked around frantically, presumably like Abelard hoping that a way of escape would suddenly make itself known to them. Abelard wondered if they might be able to hide somewhere but quickly dismissed that notion.
Then one of the windows exploded inwards, showering the floor with bits of glass and splinters of wood from the shutter. Daylight streamed in, then was obscured by a large shape hovering outside the window. Abelard squinted at it, trying to make out what it was and gaped as he identified a small Float-E-Fact with Terry at the controls. The door to the side compartment was open and Terry was manoeuvring the Float-E-Fact so that it lined up with the ruined window. Its propellers whirred and Abelard could see part of the gas-filled balloon rising up above it. Abelard was stunned, his brain refusing to make sense of what his eyes were seeing. Of all the things to appear outside the window, Terry flying a Float-E-Fact was the last one Abelard would have expected.
“Climb aboard,” Terry called, his voice amplified by the Float-E-Fact’s comm system. “We do not have much time.”
The simple instruction broke through the haze clouding Abelard’s mind and he didn’t need to be told twice. Given the choice between facing armed men in the stairwell and climbing out of a hole in the side of a building onto a floating Float-E-Fact flown by a rogue Brain-E, he was going to side with Terry every time. He ushered Brian and Jen before him, then followed suit and they all crammed into the vessel’s main compartment, watching the building get further away as Terry piloted them into the sky.
Terry used part of his focus to fly the Float-E-Fact, while part was monitoring the mana network for signs of pursuit and another part listened to the humans.
“What the hell is going on?” Brian demanded and Terry identified an edge of hysteria in his voice. “Why are we in a Float-E-Fact? Why did we just have to climb out of a window? What happened back there at the Viz-E-Station? Why is there a Brain-E flying the Float-E-Fact? And how did it even know we were in trouble? Or want to help us in the first place? I mean, what the actual f-?”
“Brian!” Jen shouted over his rising panic. “Get a grip!”
Brian took a deep breath, visibly calming himself though Terry could see he was still trembling.
“Thanks, I needed that. It’s not every day you get rescued from hostile gunmen by an animate and apparently clairvoyant artefact flying a presumably stolen Float-E-Fact!”
Jen crossed the small cabin to sit down next to him and squeezed his arm.
“I know. We’re all a bit shaken up. But it’s going to be fine.” She looked up at Abelard. “Isn’t it?”
Abelard didn’t answer her question. Instead he looked at Brian. “What makes you think the Float-E-Fact is stolen?”
Brian stared at him. Terry reflected that this exchange was proving to be a masterclass in interpreting human emotions.
“This is the situation we’re in.” Brian spread his hands to encompass their surroundings. “And that’s the question you want to ask?”
Abelard shrugged. “It was just what came to mind.”
Brian managed a slight smile. “Your mind is a very strange place.”
Abelard grinned back. “Yes, yes it is.”
Fandom: Original
Rating/Warnings: None
Bonus: Yes
Word Count: 984
Summary: Abelard knows the artisans' secret and wants to reveal it to the world. But they're not just going to let him do that.
“Hello and welcome to the Morning Report. I’m your host, Rebecca Oyinlola, and do we have an exciting show for you today! Exciting and mysterious, I have to say. So mysterious in fact that even I don’t know what it’s about!” She gave a laugh. “With me here is Abelard Abernathy from Gadg-E-Tech and I have it on good authority that he has some news that’s really going to rock your world.” She turned back to face Abelard again. “So Abelard, why don’t you tell us-“
Rebecca stopped speaking abruptly as all the lights went out, plunging the studio into almost total darkness. Even though it was morning, very little natural light came in through the windows as they were tightly shuttered, presumably to make the lighting on the recordings consistent. Abelard pulled out his Smart-E-Fact and switched on the torch function as other people around him did the same. Soon there were patches of blue light springing up all over the studio. Rebecca stood up.
“What just happened?” she called out. “Was there a mana surge or something?”
Brian and Jen walked up to the stage to join Abelard, looking apprehensive.
A harried-looking man followed, crossing to Rebecca’s side of the desk. “I don’t know,” he said in answer to her question. “We’ve lost mana flow to the entire building.” He looked down at his Smart-E-Fact then he pressed a finger to his ear and his eyes lost focus as if he was listening intently to something. “What the-“ he said, then stopped.
“What?” Rebecca demanded. “What is it?”
The man looked at her in alarm. “I’m getting reports that there are armed men in the building and they’re heading up to this level.”
Abelard felt his heart lurch. All his visions of being locked in a dungeon or shoved off a building came flooding back to him and they didn’t seem nearly as ridiculous as they had before. There were actually men with guns coming to apprehend him. He realised he hadn’t considered what the reaction of the artisans would be to him revealing their lies. He wondered if he had led Brian and Jen to their deaths and felt sick.
Rebecca rounded on Abelard. “What the hell are you involved in?”
“At this point it’s probably better if you don’t know. Is there another way out of here?”
Rebecca shook her head. “The Lev-E-Facts won’t work without mana and there’s only one staircase. They’ll likely have people covering the exits downstairs and they’ll search the whole building if they really want to get to you.”
They all looked around frantically, presumably like Abelard hoping that a way of escape would suddenly make itself known to them. Abelard wondered if they might be able to hide somewhere but quickly dismissed that notion.
Then one of the windows exploded inwards, showering the floor with bits of glass and splinters of wood from the shutter. Daylight streamed in, then was obscured by a large shape hovering outside the window. Abelard squinted at it, trying to make out what it was and gaped as he identified a small Float-E-Fact with Terry at the controls. The door to the side compartment was open and Terry was manoeuvring the Float-E-Fact so that it lined up with the ruined window. Its propellers whirred and Abelard could see part of the gas-filled balloon rising up above it. Abelard was stunned, his brain refusing to make sense of what his eyes were seeing. Of all the things to appear outside the window, Terry flying a Float-E-Fact was the last one Abelard would have expected.
“Climb aboard,” Terry called, his voice amplified by the Float-E-Fact’s comm system. “We do not have much time.”
The simple instruction broke through the haze clouding Abelard’s mind and he didn’t need to be told twice. Given the choice between facing armed men in the stairwell and climbing out of a hole in the side of a building onto a floating Float-E-Fact flown by a rogue Brain-E, he was going to side with Terry every time. He ushered Brian and Jen before him, then followed suit and they all crammed into the vessel’s main compartment, watching the building get further away as Terry piloted them into the sky.
Terry used part of his focus to fly the Float-E-Fact, while part was monitoring the mana network for signs of pursuit and another part listened to the humans.
“What the hell is going on?” Brian demanded and Terry identified an edge of hysteria in his voice. “Why are we in a Float-E-Fact? Why did we just have to climb out of a window? What happened back there at the Viz-E-Station? Why is there a Brain-E flying the Float-E-Fact? And how did it even know we were in trouble? Or want to help us in the first place? I mean, what the actual f-?”
“Brian!” Jen shouted over his rising panic. “Get a grip!”
Brian took a deep breath, visibly calming himself though Terry could see he was still trembling.
“Thanks, I needed that. It’s not every day you get rescued from hostile gunmen by an animate and apparently clairvoyant artefact flying a presumably stolen Float-E-Fact!”
Jen crossed the small cabin to sit down next to him and squeezed his arm.
“I know. We’re all a bit shaken up. But it’s going to be fine.” She looked up at Abelard. “Isn’t it?”
Abelard didn’t answer her question. Instead he looked at Brian. “What makes you think the Float-E-Fact is stolen?”
Brian stared at him. Terry reflected that this exchange was proving to be a masterclass in interpreting human emotions.
“This is the situation we’re in.” Brian spread his hands to encompass their surroundings. “And that’s the question you want to ask?”
Abelard shrugged. “It was just what came to mind.”
Brian managed a slight smile. “Your mind is a very strange place.”
Abelard grinned back. “Yes, yes it is.”
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You've got me wanting to read more, which is always a good sign of a job well done.
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