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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'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.