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fandomweekly2022-04-30 01:52 pm
badly_knitted) wrote in fandomweekly2022-04-30 01:52 pm
[#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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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.
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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)
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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.
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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
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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:
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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.