fandomweekly | [#134] Search Pattern (Torchwood)

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[#134] Search Pattern (Torchwood)

Theme Prompt: #134 – Wasteland
Title: Search Pattern
Fandom: Torchwood.
Rating/Warnings: PG / None
Bonus: Yes
Word Count: 1000
Summary: Finding the things that fall through the Rift isn’t always an exact science.

Like every urban area, Cardiff had its fair share of derelict buildings and areas that could best be described as wasteland, patches of ground that had simply been left to their own devices, unofficial dumps where the rubbish gradually disappeared under weeds and brambles.

The large patch down by the Taff was once the site of three blocks of flats, but they’d been demolished several years earlier for health and safety reasons after part of a wall collapsed due to subsidence. Most of the building rubble had been cleared away, and the land had been put up for sale, but nobody was interested, which was hardly surprising. Building on ground that wasn’t especially stable was just asking for trouble.

Torchwood had more than a passing familiarity with all such areas of the city under their protection, mostly because the Rift seemed to take a perverse delight in dropping its gifts in the most ridiculous and least accessible spots it could find. If an item was particularly small, nine times out of ten it would arrive somewhere in a vast warehouse, or a demolition site, or on a beach. Tosh would always do her best to pinpoint the exact location of a Rift spike, but the readings she got were at times confusing and impossible to narrow down beyond a certain point thanks to a weird sort of echo effect.

This time, while she knew for a fact that something had come through, the best she could manage when Jack asked her the location was,

“Somewhere towards the northern end of that patch of wasteland by the Taff. You know, where the flats used to be.” She smiled sheepishly. “Sorry, I think the Rift’s playing hide and seek today.”

Jack shrugged. “Then we’d better get seeking. Grab your gear; maybe you’ll have better luck pinning it down once we get there.”

With such a large area to search, the entire team piled into the SUV, and as always, Jack drove like a maniac. In the front passenger seat, Ianto could be heard to mutter, “I think we just broke the speed of light. One of these days we’ll reach our destination before we’ve left the Hub.”

Screeching to a halt, Jack ignored his lover. “Okay, boys and girls, we’re here. Start looking!”

“What’re we lookin’ for?” Owen wanted to know.

Ianto rolled his eyes. “Something soaked in Rift energy. You’ve got a scanner; use it.”

Owen snorted in disgust. “Lot of help you are. How about it, Tosh, any clues?”

Torchwood’s tech expert was working busily at the SUV’s onboard computers, trying to narrow down the search area, but the readings were still annoyingly garbled. “Metallic, tech of some kind, I think. Bigger than your scanner.”

“Smaller than a breadbox?” Jack was grinning like they were playing some kind of game, maybe a scavenger hunt.

“Depends on the breadbox,” Tosh replied. “Not huge though, air displacement readings are too low for anything much more than a foot each way.”

“Suppose it’s only an inch wide but twelve feet long, wouldn’t that displace the same approximate amount of air?”

Grabbing Jack by the sleeve, Ianto tugged him away. “Come on, you; stop splitting hairs and start looking. We’ve got a lot of ground to cover, and it’ll be a lot easier to do in daylight.” The area was approximately the size of three rugby fields laid side-by-side, and there was no lighting. Once it got dark out, even Torchwood’s high-power flashlights wouldn’t be much help.

“We should spread out,” Gwen said. “It’ll be much quicker that way.”

Jack nodded. “Tosh, you stay here and keep trying to get a lock on our target.”

Tosh waved one hand to show she’d heard but didn’t take her eyes off her screens.

The rest of the team headed off in different directions, scanners at the ready. Looked like it was going to be a long afternoon.

Time passed slowly as the team scratched themselves on brambles, got tangled in ivy, and peered under old mattresses. Owen startled a sleeping fox and almost fell in a rusty old bathtub half full of greenish water. Jack disturbed an ant nest and fled, deciding if anything had come through the Rift anywhere near that, it was on its own. Gwen could be heard muttering over comms about discarded needles. Ianto kept quiet and found himself a stick to poke around with rather than using his hands. Safety first in all things.

After an hour or so, Tosh came over the comms to tell the team that Jack seemed to be closest to what they were looking for. Eyes glued to their scanners, the others converged on their leader, and halfway to him, Owen spoke.

“I’m pickin’ up something. It’s only faint, but it’s definitely Rift energy.”

The other three members of the team started moving towards Owen as he slowly advanced, swinging his scanner back and forth.

“I’m getting something now,” Ianto said.

“Same here,” Jack replied.

“I’m not.” Gwen sounded frustrated. She changed direction again and a minute later. “Hang on a minute… Yes, picking it up now.”

Moments later… “There you are!” Jack was grinning like he’d just caught Ianto in a game of Naked Hide and Seek.

“What is it?” Ianto moved closer as Jack crouched beside the object. It vaguely resembled a cross between a hubcap and a hat but was a peculiar matt bronze colour.

Jack studied it carefully as Ianto ran some scans. “Not sure, never seen anything quite like it.”

“Seems harmless, although that’s no guarantee.” Ianto crouched opposite Jack. “I’m not picking up any radiation, and it doesn’t seem to be a bomb or anything of that nature.”

Reaching out with both hands, Jack picked the object up for a closer look, tilting it one way and then the other.

Inside, several small beings clung to their seats. Millim turned to her mate, Gurgh.

“Now look at the mess we’re in! I told you earth was a terrible vacation spot!”

The End

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Thanks!

I do write angsty stuff on occasion, but my characters are so good at humorous situations, and I embrace the wackiness that a Rift through space and time can generate. Fluff and silliness are what I write the most, and my warped imagination helps a lot. I do feel a little sorry for the tiny aliens though ;)

I'm not that good at humorous stories but I try to get better. The last fandoms weren't exactly made for that kind of story but the current main fandom I write for does have a lot of humor and so far I have made myself chuckle a couple of times while working on my long-fic for said fandom.

And I have a silly little Alien/Human AU that is pure joy most of the time.

Usually I'm a writer for darker topics, even my AO3 doesn't shows it.

Everyone has their writing strengths. I can get pretty dark when I try, but my brain is fluffy ;)

Aliens are fun to write.

I like that we writers can do one extreme and the other as well if we try.
If one would see what I have published under my old and long outgrown penname... They would think that these are two different writers.

We are very versatile!

That's because you've grown as a writer and as a person. You're not the same person you were when you wrote your earlier stories.

Part of me sometimes misses younger writer me, mostly because I wouldn't overthink matters now and then. But then back then I would start a lot and finish next to nothing. Sure nowadays I'm not that much better but I tend to writer longer stories and stick to projects for weeks or months.
Oh and the worst was that back then I would jump from fandom to fandom and lose interest quickly. Nowadays I seldom get into new fandoms and like one of the fandoms I write for: I'm in that fandoms for years but never wrote anything for it until this year.
I prefer to have or or two main fandoms and some side-fandoms.

*laughs* I tend to end up in obscure or slightly dead fandoms.

Kudos for starting young! I didn't write when I was young, just made up stories in my head. I only started writing them down in my late 40s.

Both my main fandoms are past it, and one is so dead most of the time I'm the only one writing.

I guess it was somewhere in third or forth grade when I wrote my first own story. I even remember the plot and it is so childish it is actually adorable.
It is still sad that I have lost it due to switching from floppy discs to CD ROM.
Hands down: I can still remember the whole plot.
Then a few years later I would write my first fanfiction (sadly also lost ;__;)It was the only HP fanfiction I have ever attempted to write. I had just finished the forth book and was eagerly waiting for the fifth book (the forth book had just been released for a few weeks at this point) and I sat down and wanted to write a fifth book.

I had years where I've written here and there and then I also had years where I haven't written a single fictional word.
This is year is probably so far my second best writing year. I am having so much writing and sharing ideas. OMG I love the prompt for this week and just when I read the title I was like "No matter what follows. I already know which two characters I need to write".

Oh what is your main fandom?
I regret it a lot of times, that I am more of a writer than a reader, since there are a few fandoms where I am actually curious what fanfiction content is out there. I have fond memories of some older series I used to watch on TV with my mom, like "I dream of Jeannie" <- one day I will re-watch this series in OT for the first time. Well I say this to myself since years.

I think I still have some floppy discs somewhere, but they don't have any fanfic on them, probably just games. Changes in technology do mean things can get lost. It's very sad. Amazing you remember your first story!

I do have one I wrote when I was about 5 or 6, it was written in school, but a lot of it is just... 'and the prince rode on and on...'

When I started writing fanfic online, I was very slow, just writing an occasional story, but for the past 9 years or so I've been writing every day, and I've got much faster. I'm not sure what to write for the new prompt though.

My main fandoms are Torchwood (which you must have noticed) which was my original, and FAKE, a Japanese manga, which is the one hardly anyone else is writing these days. I got hooked on it after everyone else had already abandoned it. I keep dipping in and out of other fandoms though. I write quite a bit of Doctor Who, Buffy, and Stargate SG-1, and oddments in at least 20 other fandoms.

How about you?

As nice as new technology is, nothing can beat the old big computers with a tower. I had mine for so many years and it always worked fine. And nowadays laptops don't even have a place to insert a disc in it. I'm so glad I got a very old laptop a few years ago that still have a disc space so I still watch DVDs.

Oh yes. It was probably like this as well. Having old stuff is awesome.

Please, this reminds me of the times when I found out you can share your stories online. I would post whatever I had come up with. 300 word chapters and stuff like that. In the meantime I had my times when I deleted all my stuff (usually when I had a very low point and writer's block as well). And I have gotten more selective in what I upload and where.

Right now I am giving a different idea a try and it works fine. I just like to try out new topics / tropes and my current fandom is giving me endless ideas. The last time I had this with a fandom was around 2012/2013 with The Avengers.

I did. I have read FAKE many many years ago and loved it. I can't remember much of it, tho. This was the manga which had the boy with the lizard in, right? (Yes, I am too lazy to ask google).

A few fandoms where I write for occasionally from time to time for years are: Phantom of the Opera (since like 2008 or so I guess - usually more close to the Leroux book sprinkled with Key's "Phantom"), Les Misérables (book-verse), A Song Of Ice And Fire (with a few GOT elements), James Bond, Marvel (but only Loki/Tony)
Current main fandoms I write for: Transformers and RPF we now is a very bad idea to write but also so much fun. At least I haven't uploaded the very questionable content.

Oh and now and then I like to write in the Metro2033 setting and throw my favorite characters into Chernobyl (OMG radiation and nuclear accidents are a thing I know way too much about ... ) This interest is the reason why one of my brainchildren is a story from the POV of Radiation.

I've never had a desktop computer, just an endless succession of reconditioned laptops at first, each one a bit better than the previous one, until in 2008 I got my first brand new internet ready laptop. It was another two years before I started writing and posting fanfic. It annoys me as well that new laptops have nowhere to insert discs, and very little memory. I'm stuck with one because it was all I could get when my previous laptop became unusable. My friend is trying to figure out a way to get one of my old laptops working again, but no success so far. They all have things wrong with them.

Um, no, it's about two New York detectives, Dee and Ryo (See my icon). Although now I'm curious about a manga with a boy and a lizard...

I've written a short Torchwood / James Bond crossover, but that's the closest to any of your fandoms I can get *grins*

I wished I had the space to go back to desktop computer. But the downside was that I had to sit in front of in while writing when with laptop you can chill in bed and type whatever idea crosses your mind.

I'm so glad the old laptop I have is still functional, even it is a bit slow and tends to act wired now and then (aka. I decide to stop playing this DVD and just freeze so you have to take out my battery and insert it again.) <- OMG this could be straight out of a story.
I could go to a store and upgrade it to work faster but that is money I am currently not willing to spend since I only use it for watching movies once in a blue moon. Or when I really want to write something without internet distraction as it is still using Windows XP so it is unable to connect with the internet.

Damn, then I am mixing up stories. I was so sure they once met a boy with a lizard. I've read a lot of manga when I was younger but lost interest in them over the years since most series seemed to be endless.

Oh, do you have it uploaded on A03? That sounds like a fun read.
Believe me, I am toying with the idea of a James Bond crossover as well because in so many movies he has an Ashton Martin ... and I just love the messed up background story of human history the Transformers movies us.
Otherwise I have written a few more or less longer stories for James Bond. Funnily enough I only began writing (and shipping) after I have seen Skyfall but the movies are a fond memory of me growing up.

This reminds me that this was the first story where I've done detailed research for ... I searched for a buy-able house in London, downloaded the plan where you can see where which room is (including doors etc ...) [don't know the English word for it] and described it in many details in the story and I even looked up possible subway-routes from place A to place B and so on.

Nowadays it is a given that I spend a bit too much time with researching stuff. Same happened with the North Star prompt ... In reality it is a tad longer and not finished.

I still sit at my little computer desk with my laptop because I need to sit upright otherwise my back and neck act up.

That sounds like my old laptop, except that one also makes so much noise I can't use it for watching or listening to anything. I've had to take the battery out so many times when it's frozen up.

FAKE only has 7 volumes published in translated form, although there are a few side stories that are only available to read in translation online, and some that aren't translated at all. I love it, Dee and Ryo are such fun to write.

Yes, it is, but it's on my dreamwidth too. It's the sequel to a drabble I wrote. Easier for me to find them on there...

https://badly-knitted.dreamwidth.org/222674.html

https://badly-knitted.dreamwidth.org/816466.html

I'm not great at research, I hardly ever find out what I want to know.

My entry this week will be expanded before it gets posted to my journal. That happens with a lot of my fics.

Oh no this reminds me of my very first laptop. I had it for nearly ten years and the noises it had made in the end were so terrible 😂 I was always afraid that you hear it at night through the whole apartment. Back then I was still in school / job training and liver at my parents... Well and they never really liked me being a night owl.

By the time mine started sounding like a motorboat I was living alone, so I wasn't disturbing anyone, but the noise gets on my nerves and the computer is barely working. I had it for 9 years before it became unusable.

Oh dear that was worse than mine xD I couldn't work on mine for long as well, especially not writing. Which is oddly funny since I usually listen to music when I write and it is not what so many people recommend (lo-fi or whatever the name is for example). But sounds like a too loud computer or irritating noises from outside are freaking me out and make me lose concentration D:

Guess what. I recalled the name of the manga with the boy who has a lizard: it is Kaori Yuki's Boys next door. While I was logged in with my RP account I saw said character.

I can't listen to anything while writing, it's too distracting.

Oh, well done! I've never heard of that one.

I would be very uninspired if I wouldn't listen to anything.
I even have created a playlist for the current main project I'm working on. I should work a second one since in the meantime the story got considerably longer and I have so many more ideas which songs are fitting for it.
I know my taste in genres/languages is a very wild ride sometimes.
https://wickedlittletown.dreamwidth.org/tag/playlist

Creating playlists for ships / stories is so much fun but I sadly do that way too seldom. Music has always been a very important part of my life and I'm always glad when I let that influence my writings. (Like in the newest story I uploaded on AO3 ... I'm so glad the canon provided a good reason) .

Spoilers: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boy%27s_Next_Door
It's a neat read and I hope that one day I will go on a hunt for digital copies of some manga I used to read years ago and enjoyed a lot. Kaori Yuki has some awesome ones "Ludwig Revolution" is also a great read.

Edited (for to include a link D:) 2022-05-17 07:41 (UTC)

Music is very important to me too, but if I try to listen when writing I start typing what I'm listening to, or forget what I'm writing, or forget to write at all.

Well, I've heard of Metallica, but not any of the others. So many different kinds of music in the world!

The manga sounds intriguing, but I already have way too much to read.

Well that happens to me sometimes as well, that I can lost in what I am listen to. Especially when it is either one of my all time favorite songs or a song that just hits the emotions I'm feeling so well.

But sometimes silence is wonderful as well. Or rainy sounds like this one
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBGbt2CRDpA
I don't get sleepy from it, btw

And this is just a fragment of what I'm listen to and doesn't really show the variety of genres and languages. I always joke that I have everything from English to Turkish over Russian to Icelandic when it comes to languages and song-wise it goes from your cartoon/Disney song (Zulu Lion King rocks and always make me want to hunt down the whole OST) to musicals and then from classical stuff like Bach and Rachmanioff to well, Metallica, Slipknot J-Rock, obscure electronic music to pop music (especially Russian pop music), some song from 20'S to 50's and of course the whole bunch of fun that is all kinds of 80's music.

I may be a 90's child but I grew up listen to my mother's music and therefore I always say that music-wise the 80's are my years.

Yes, that is a topic I could talk about for hours xD

Don't remind me of all the books I have here that I haven't read. Should be close to 25 right now. But hey, I've picked up a new book on Saturday and finished it on Sunday. It was damn good book and it was wonderful to spent a lot of time reading.
I've picked it up because the cover looks great and the title was neat, then I read the summary I had to take it with me.
Finally a book which has a lot of likeable characters in it and where the female characters are awesome as well.

The rain sounds would probably send me to sleep, too soothing.

I like bits of a lot of music, my dad preferred classical, I grew up with 60s and 70s pop, but my mum liked Jim Reeves, Andy Williams, Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, and then we both got more and more into country music, which is still my preference although I enjoy other things at times.

I have several hundred I haven't got around to reading. I've always liked being surrounded by books. I'm only reading two at the moment, with a third OI'll get back to when I finish one of the two I'm reading, and a book of short stories that I'm partway through.

I use to listen to rain sounds a lot during summer when I have trouble calming down or falling asleep. The channel I linked has a nice variety of soothing sounds to listen to.

Frank Sinatra has a bunch of awesome songs as well as Dean Martin. I'm always eager to receive recommendations of any kind of music. Sometimes I have songs in my playlist just because I love the meaning of the lyrics.

A while ago I've discovered Darius Rucker (he has covered a Metallica song and I loved what he had made of the song so I checked out his other songs).
What a wonderful voice and his lyrics are amazing.

The cover = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGeUHCgoij0
One of my favorite songs from him = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LBCFyUw8gM

Wow that's a lot. Same here. I don't have much space and I have books laying everywhere. I know that the time comes again where I read more but I need to be in the mood to sit down and read. But better to have a lot of books to chose from than running out of reading material (even I don't mind re-reading a book for the millionth time)

Yes, I like Darius, he's got a great voice. For lyrics, I like great songwriters such as late Guy Clark. Like a Coat from the Cold is one of my favourites. Also a big fan of Waylon Jennings. Seems all my favourites have passed away.

I've got my bedroom walls covered in bookshelves that are crammed full. I read in bed every night, it helps me get to sleep.

I will check them out when I have a couple of days off.

My apartment is sadly so small thst I have to stack them everywhere where I have space left (in the cabinet or on the table) mostly because I have another hobby that requires a lot of space (figure collector here).

I am so uninspired for this weeks prompt :/
I might skip it. I have a scene thst would be fitting but it is already written and way too long

My parents, my older sister an I used to live in this house, but I don't know how because these days there's barely room enough for me and my stuff. All my records, CDs, DVDs, craft stuff... Possessions expand to fill the available space, that's my theory anyway.

I'm struggling this week too, mostly because I've written several pieces on the same theme for both my main fandoms, and I can't think of any more ideas. Maybe I should look at other fandoms.

I ask myself how k got to keep so much when I have lived with my parents and only had a room much smaller than my current apartment.
But yeah, I guess my brain is all "There is space. Fill it.. You can stack stuff as well"
Especially the last is true when it comes to my Funko collection since I'm an inbox collector when it comes to these.
Otherwise I have my other figures standing around... And to think I'll buy a super big one next month because I need him in my life.

I didn't wrote anything for this week which bugs me a lot but work was busy and the weather made my brain mushy.

It's very easy to fill whatever space you have. I'm living proof...

I only have three funko pops, and they're not in their boxes but the boxes and carefully stored. I have some action figures in their original packaging, but most of them ate living their lives in freedom.

I didn't either. I couldn't think of a single idea. The weather suddenly turning colder hasn't helped.

Yay. Then we are two. It is a talent not everyone has. I envy my mother who does always has spare space.

I have around 30 if I am not mistaken but I don't have them all on display. Hands down: most of them are right now somewhere I a closet since I gave my main cabinet-display a make over.

Oh please send cooler weather to me. I can't function when it is summer.

Let's hope that the next prompt will be a good one.

My mother was the opposite, worse at gathering stuff than I am. Every time I cleared some space she filled it again.

Poor Pops, shut away in the dark! I couldn't do that to mine, they'd be sad.

I wish I could! I don't do well in too much heat, but I let the fire go out and the weather has gone cooler and damp, which makes my house feel really cold. I'm bundled up like it's winter, just wishing for some warmer weather.

I hope the next prompt will be more inspiring. This week's was just something I've written so many times I couldn't think of any ideas I hadn't already written.

That was always me and my mom. She made everything tidy and I came back with more stuff.

For some it really hurts especially the bigger ones but currently I have Transformers on display and I keep buying new ones (isn't it kinda awful how I can spend over hundred of euros on a Figuren without feeling bad but debating on weather to eat out twice in a week off or not).

I should probably one day make a Pop-Post since I have gathered a few nice ones, from various fandoms.

Same here and the one scene I have in my current wip is too long and I couldn't come up with a shorter version of it. Now that it is extended I was all "screenshot the scene via phone and see what you can do in the two upcoming nights at work" but I doubt I can manage that since these two in that scene are so wonderful and have auch a great dynamic that I can't stay under 1K words.

Fandom is the priority *grins* Who needs to eat out?

I'd love to see what Pops you've got. I have both of the Doctor Who Captain Jack Harkness figures and a custom-made Ianto Jones that a friend got for me.

I was wondering whether to try writing a drabble, but I'm feeling very unmotivated because I'm so cold. I have other challenges to write for anyway.

Indeed
Fandom = life

And you have more from fandom than eating out.

Will do a post somewhere on Thursday when I come home from work and have a couple of days off. It has been along time since I have used the blog for something else than writing related posting.

Ohh custom made ones are neat. I always wanted to try to make my own but I am not really creative when it is not writing.

I have some more to write for as well and i want to sign up for this one rare pair exchange on here since there are at least three or four ships in the nominations that I ship as well and have written for in the past.

So true!

Most of my journal is writing, in several fandoms. I seldom seem to find time to post anything else. I have so much fanfic to post. I'll look forward to seeing your Pops!

I craft, but that's a different kind of creativity. Knitting, cross stitch, things like that.

So many challenges, so little time. I don't do exchanges though, it's too much pressure for me.

There was a tike when I had posted about so much random stuff like thoughts about shows/books, little attempts of reviews, real life bits, test results etc... But over time work took over and the contant switching between sites to be active killed this kind of blogging. But I went to go back to the diary / scrapbook kind of blogging since it was always a lot of fun.

And why have like three or four sites to be more or less actice when you can have one where it is also neatly organised. And this site is the only one that doesn't change unlike others (and there it is mostly for the worst and makes using them unfriendly)

Sometimes I do colorations but i seldom find the motivation for that after long days at work. Which is a shame since I have so many coloring books and outlines I want to print out and colorate D:

I used to post the odd real life thing, and some crafting things but that's all on my crafting community now. These days I'm posting 2 or 3 pieces of fanfic a day, and have been for years. I built up a massive backlog of unposted fics by taking part in a community that had regular challenges of trying to fill as many prompts as possible in a week. I ended up with over 600 fics waiting to be posted, and I was still writing more every week for other challenges, so now I'm just trying to get them all tidied up and posted.

I've got a load of colouring books too, but finding time for things like that is just impossible with everything else I've got to do.

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[#134] Search Pattern (Torchwood)

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