#not all of them obviously. Mans doesn’t regret making the Metal Virus and makes that very clear to Sonic. | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

flying-guinea-pig · 7 years ago

Text

Season Finale 5/7

AO3 link

The previous chapters.

Chapter 5: The Lower Levels

She hadn’t expected this assignment to be so… well, boring.

Boring was good. Boring was safe. But a small part of Elisabeth wished Alcor had been here to liven things up. At least then she’d have someone to snark with.

Bad idea. She still wasn’t sure about Alcors motivations. That sudden generosity of his was suspicious as hell, and she was too clever to fall for that. It was a good thing he wasn’t here, and her deal kept him from annoying her until she specifically summoned him. If only the same could be said about his little electronic spawn…

[So I’ve been looking at that data,] the Alcor Virus said. [And these guys sound a lot less like cultists and a lot more like scientists. This is all calculations and stuff. I’m still figuring out what they were trying to do, exactly, but it’s way more complicated than anything human could come up with. Must have had help.]

‘From their demon, obviously,’ she typed. ‘Did you find any info on it?’

[Not yet.]

“I can’t believe it,” the camera guy said. “This phone - especially designed and spelled to have reception anywhere on Earth - is barely working anymore. But yours doesn’t seem to have any problems at all. Who are you messaging anyway?”

“Does it matter?” She wished Tenney would hurry up. How much time did a man need in the bathroom anyway?

She was just impatient. Eager to get on with this show. Not worried, of course. It’s not like standing around in this gloomy corridor made her feel exposed or anything. That would be silly. She knew who was responsible for those ‘haunted lights and computers’ and it wasn’t a murderous ghost at all.

Had it been this quiet, a moment ago? Sure, they had been distracted by exploring, but no matter where you were in these living quarters, the faraway roar of the ocean and the faint creaks of metal were always in the background.

Not here, though. Not now. She could only hear her own breaths and those of Steve and April, and the quiet hum of the electronics they carried on their person.

The overhead lights flickered out. In the darkness, something made a high-pitched wailing noise.

"Well, this is definitely a haunting," Steve said, his face illuminated only by the glow of his camera screen.

Did something touch her neck? Elisabeth turned around, heart pounding, but of course there was nothing there.

Something clammy grabbed her arm. She swallowed her scream, realising it was just April.

“Sorry,” April whispered, her terrified fingers gripping hard enough to bruise.

Ghosts. Give her a demon any day - at least you knew what they wanted, even if it was to screw you over as much as possible before devouring your soul. Ghosts could have all kinds of motivations, ranging from helpful to kill-everything-that-breathes.

She glanced at the screen on her wrist. Her camera recorded blackness, of course, but the night-vision mode could make out the lines of the corridor and the dark doorways lining it.

"Relax,” Steve said. “I've seen a lot of hauntings. When there are knives flying at you, that's when you start to worry."

She made a face. "How about we don't give the ghost ideas?"

"You're not scared, are you? Ghosts are creepy, but usually not malevolent. Just confused. They don't realise they're dead."

"Usually," she muttered. How comforting. The soft cries in the background made the hairs on her neck stand straight up, but oh, no worries, it usually wasn't malevolent.

̇ͅl̇̇ͅͅė̇ͅͅȧ̇ͅͅv̇ͅėͅ

April’s nails were digging into Elisabeth’s arm. “… did you hear that?”

This… wasn’t the Alcor Virus playing around, was it?

̤̤̇̈̇̈ͅͅÿ̤̤̇̇̈ͅͅö̤̤̇̇̈ͅͅṳ̤̈̇̇̈ͅͅ ̤̤̈̇̇̈ͅͅm̤̤̈̇̇̈ͅͅṳ̤̈̇̇̈ͅͅs̤̤̈̇̇̈ͅͅẗ̤̤̇̇̈ͅͅ ̤̤̈̇̇̈ͅͅ ̤̤̈̇̇̈ͅͅL̤̤̈̇̇̈ͅͅË̤̤̇̇̈ͅͅÄ̤̤̇̇̈ͅͅV̤̈̇ͅË̤̇ͅ ̣̤̬͚̇̈̌͋͘ͅN͚̬̤̣̣̤̬͚͋̌̈̇̇̈̌͋͘͘ͅͅO͚̬̤̣͋̌̈̇͘ͅW͚̬̤̣͋̌̈̇͘ͅ

The voice seemed to come from everywhere – echoing from the metal walls, bounding back on itself in a fading loop of leave now… now… now…

Light, sudden and blinding.

Elisabeth had never been this happy to see someone come back from the bathroom. Tenney stood in the open doorway, a hand raised, holding something that glittered like the brightest star –

The darkness shuddered and faded.

“You will find peace,” Tenney said, with a solemn nod at what turned out to be a mirror. He tucked it away before Elisabeth catch more than a glimpse of the rolling darkness inhabiting the silver frame.

“You can let go of me now,” Steve said. He nodded at her hand, which was holding him in a grip not unlike April’s.

“… right,” she said. Stupid traiterous hand.

“That was the scariest moment in my life,” April said, also letting go. “Thank you so much, John. For a moment there, I really thought she’d do something to us…”

Tenney’s smile was smug. “All in a day’s work, my dear.”

---

Francesca and Flint were waiting for them at the staircase.

Steve usually trusted Tenney's sixth sense in these things, but seeing the look on Francesca’s face made him really regret that little ritual Tenney had performed.

“Where is Katya?”

“We don’t know,” Francesca said. “We went through a haunted spot, up in the fifth level. It was nothing I couldn’t handle, but when the ghosts dissipated Katya was gone. We hoped she’d just been turned around in the confusion and she’d meet us down here.”

“We tried calling her, but the phones stopped working a while ago,” Flint added. “Is your connection with Monifa still active? Maybe she can use the live footage from Katya’s cam to help us track her down.”

Steve checked his camera again to make sure, but no luck. “My connection is gone too. I have no way to reach Monifa.” Wait a minute… “Adams? Your phone still works. Let me use it for a moment.”

For some reason Adams glared at the screen before handing her phone over.

Steve dialed Monifa and held his breath in anticipation.

“The number you are trying to reach is currently unavailable,” a pleasant if slightly robotic woman’s voice said. “Please try again –“

“And? Does it work?”

“No. The number is unavailable.” He handed the phone back to Adams. “Maybe Katya misunderstood, and she’s waiting on the seventh level itself?”

“Maybe…”

"She’ll be fine. This isn’t the first time someone got lost during a haunting, she knows what to do,” Tenney said, with a smile. “I’m sure she is waiting for us down there. The important thing now is the cameras keep working.”

Francesca raised an eyebrow. "You're in a good mood."

"Of course. Cutting off the phones, white noise, now a missing person - all signs of a strong haunting. That is what we're here for, is it not? Now, let us go and find the little lost lamb before something traumatising befalls her."

Steve took up his assigned spot at Adams' back as they descended the stairs and reached the seventh level. Adams had taken out her phone again. She was frowning at it, apparently so distracted that her walking speed suffered. They trailed behind the rest of the group.

"Something interesting on there?" Steve asked, when Adams had slowed down so much she was almost standing still. She looked up and put away her phone, a guilty look flashing over her face for a second. Steve nodded towards the end of the corridor, where Flint was impatiently holding open the large metal door for them. "We should hurry. Unless you want to split up again."

"I'd rather not," Adams said. Her eyes flicked down towards the pocket she had just stashed her phone into. "What would you say if I told you there was something weird going on here?"

"I'd say, hey, wasn't it dark underneath that rock you were living under?" He shrugged. "It's a strong haunting. Weirdness is the norm."

She glared again. This one was pretty easy to rile up, wasn't she? He was starting to have fun with this. "I'm not talking about ghosts."

That... was slightly more worrying. "You're not saying the demon is still around, are you?"

"No," she said. Frowned, touched the assorted demonology gear she was wearing on her belt. "I don't know. There's something."

"Well, if we come across that 'something', how badly do we need to worry?"

"There aren't knives flying at us," she quipped. "According to your theory, that means everything is fine, right?"

Steve made a face as he followed her down the corrider. The lights flickered.

"There's just one thing..." Adams said, trailing off.

"What?" he prompted.

Her eyes were shadowed. "Demons rarely bother with knives."

On cue, as if the universe had some intuition for dramatics, an inky and thick darkness rose from the floor and spread as mist through the corridor between them and the door.

A woman screamed. The sound came from all directions at once, deafening and echoing and full of pain.

At least Tenney would be happy. This wasn't a category one anymore.

"Let's catch up with the others," Steve said, and took Adams' arm to pull her with him when she seemed frozen to the floor.

"There's a woman," she breathed, throwing glances behind them as he guided her through the dark.

"I know."

"She has no face."

"Yep, that happens."

"It's a faceless woman."

"It's a ghost."

"She's holding something - oh god. Oh god."

"Don't freak out now. You deal with demons, for crying out loud."

"She's holding a severed head and it looks just like me.”

“Illusions. Trying to frighten you,” Steve said. “Keep moving.”

“It’s working!” He could hear Adams breathe, near hysteria but then suddenly more measured. "Right. Show no fear. This is nothing. I've seen much worse."

"That's the spirit. Don't slow down though."

"It's just a ghost. A restless soul. I deal with things that eat those for breakfast. This is fine. I am fine."

"Yes, but can you be fine and speed up?"

"Why? We're not going anywhere."

That... was unfortunately true, Steve realised. The doorway was now only a faint outline in the distance, Flint nowhere to be seen, the walls of the corridor replaced by writhing darkness.

The ghostly screams had stopped. The corridor was silent as the grave.

Steve regretted that turn of phrase immediately.

"I never knew ghosts could manipulate space like that," Adams said, and although her voice seemed thoughtful he could hear the tremor underneath the forced calm. "Interesting. Well, mister 'I've-seen-a-lot-of-hauntings', what do we do now?"

"Tenney and Francesca are the experts," he said. The spirit in the distance was standing still. Motionless. "I only know the basics."

"Let's hear it."

What would Tenney do in a case like this? He'd seen his boss work hundreds of times! Why the hell was he panicking, this was just his job, there was no reason to panic at all...

The ghost cocked her head. Even without a face, he could feel her gaze zero in on them.

She started to move.

Adams had moved too, but not to run. For some reason she'd taken one of the spray bottles from her belt and she was hurriedly spraying the contents in a line in front of them, from one wall of moving shadows to the other one. Then she vigorously applied the herbal spray on herself, and on him.

"What are you doing?" Steve asked. It smelled of rosemary and who knows what other herbs. Was this a demon thing? "Are you flavouring yourself? What, you think ghosts don't like italian food? This junk may work on demons but not on - hey!"

She'd quit spraying them both and unscrewed the top of the bottle before throwing it at the spirit, which had moved a lot closer now. The liquid puddled on the floor, its scent strong enough that Steve halfway expected his nose hairs to burn off. No way was that just a herbal spray. What did she put it that stuff?

Finished with her weird ritual, Adams took his arm and now it was her turn to pull him along, towards the door that still seemed so horribly far away.

"Do- your- thing," she said, between gasps for air as they ran. "I don't- know- how long- it'll stall- her!"

Basic exorcisms. Would basic work? This wasn't a category one! He knew the chant, of course, but he wasn't like Tenney, he didn't have the gift, would it even work if the ghost hadn't been bound in silver first? Damn it, where was his boss when you needed him? And damn that rule about not stealing Tenney's spotlight, they should all carry a silver mirror for exactly these kinds of circumstances, why did Tenney have to take all sorts of odd precautions and neglect this?

Well, usually they didn't get split up like this, not in strongly haunted places, but still...

"Are you going to do something or what!" Adams screamed, next to his ear, her eyes wild, things moving in the shadows flanking them where the walls used to be, skeletal arms of utter darkness reaching out...

Ding!

"DAMN IT, VIRUS, NOT NOW!"

Right, right, the chant, he knew this...

"Ex-exodus demonus," he started. Yes, he knew this. Confidence. Strenght of will. Like Tenney did it. He could do this. "Spookus scarus ainafraidus no ghostus, bumpus goosus shamalaaan!"

The world around them seemed to shimmer. The arms faded into normal walls. The faceless head rippled and a slit ripped across its dead skin where a mouth should have been. It screamed, high and really fucking creepy, before the swirling shadows swallowed the woman and dripped away.

The door to the other corridor was right in front of their noses. They wasted no time running through it. Steve slammed it closed behind him - as if that could stop a ghost, ha! - but it did make him feel a bit better.

"That's the worst latin I've ever heard," Adams said, gulping air and leaning heavily on the wall. "I wouldn't even call it Latin. It's gibberish."

"It's an ancient chant to banish ghosts," Steve said, slightly defensive.

"Whatever. Did it work?"

"We're alive, aren't we?"

She had the gall to glare at him. He glared back. He had just saved both their lives, she could at least pretend to be grateful.

“Where are the others?”

“No clue,” Steve said. He tried to keep the worry from his voice. Tenney wouldn’t leave him behind, not voluntarily. “We need to stay focused. They can’t be far – maybe we can hear them.”

The bodies should be around here somewhere. The broken police drones as well – this was where they malfunctioned and died. This level had been bad news even before Tenney’s little foray into forbidden magic…

“I don’t hear anything,” Adams said. “It’s dead quiet.”

The beam of her flashlight revealed some bumps on the floor in the right corridor. They threw odd, sharp-edged shadows.

"Dead quiet is the right word for it," he said, as his eyes made sense of the bumps. The shadows seemed to shiver. He took a deep, slow breath. "Left. We're taking the left corridor."

"Good call," she said, as the shadows trooped together and became stretched-out faces, mouths wide and gaping.

"Maybe run?" Steve offered.

“Let’s.”

They didn’t get far. The left corridor came to an abrupt end. There weren’t any doors, only an open hatch in the floor.

Her flashlight was reflected by a metal ladder, reaching into the deep.

"I think we've found where everyone ran off to,” Elisabeth said.

---

The ladder seemed endless, a large tube into the dark.

The shadows above them were only just shadows, now. They'd left those... things behind. She hoped.

What an impractical way down. Why not a staircase, like in the upper levels? She couldn’t imagine having to climb down every day. It made no sense. The cult had no reason to hide their rooms – they lived on a damned oil rig in the middle of nowhere. Who’d bother them here?

Her eyes caught the lines and squiggles on the walls and she stared. They seemed to move in the shivering glow of their flashlights.

Binding circles. So many of them – she kept spotting more and more as they descended, layered into eachother, symbols of containment and containment and containment in a dazzling show of both skill and paranoia.

Layering circles was an art, really. The most she’d gotten was five – after a certain amount, the magic of one circle interfered with the others until the whole thing either exploded or malfunctioned in another, more spectacular way. She’d never seen anything like this. She hadn’t thought it possible.

If only she had her hands free, to take notes.

At the bottom of the ladder was a round, featureless room. The binding circles ended at the top of the single door, so their energies wouldn’t be disrupted by the door opening or closing. Pretty ingenious, actually.

The door itself was metal, to no one’s surprise, and embossed with a single flattened X.

Ding! her phone said.

Fine! She might as well look what that annoying thing had to add. It would only keep on nagging anyway.

[I've got a bad feeling about this.] The Alcor Virus looked worried, insofar as a bunch of pixels on a small screen could have an expression. The lines of text came quickly, one after another. [I can't reach the rest of me.]

[I can't go anywhere!]

[You should call Dad.]

"Not a chance," she said. Nice try, but no. Adding a demon to the mix was obviously not going to help. They were dealing with ghosts here.

[You don't understand! Something is really wrong here! I can't reach -]

She stopped reading and slipped her phone back into her pocket.

Ding!

Silence.

---

#transcendence au #elisabeth adams #fic: season finale #the alcor virus #al-v #steve the camera guy #ghosts #a bit of creepiness

34 notes · View notes

shadowsprodpresent · 6 years ago

Text

Monthly Self Rec, October to December Edition (2018)

“Read a thousand books, and your words will flow like a river.” - Lisa See.

The idea came from @lastbluetardis. I've seen a lot of people doing this lately and I thought that it was a pretty good idea for authors.

OCTOBER

¤¤¤

► Ghost of you - Human!Nine/Rose Tyler, Human!Tenth Doctor/Jack Harkness

► First volume of the Ghost of you story.

► AU verse, Mature, WIP.

► CHAPTER 11 || CHAPTER 12 || CHAPTER 13 || CHAPTER 14.

Twenty-seventh day of September 2017. Day 1741 since the infection. Maxence Spitz video log. Still no remarkable results in our researches for a cure to the noctiuagus virus that had spread across the world five years ago. On the 20th of this month, we received twenty new subjects to another variant of the cure. Only five of them are currently being used. Subjects J and K had been inoculated with the virus with the virus yesterday at 8pm. L and M were the sane patients. L was left in K’s cage and J’s in M’s. Subject J died thirteen hours after it got infected and subject M was infected only two hours after it got in contact with J. Subject K is clearly infected but it’s struggling hard against the virus. L doesn’t show any symptom so far. Our patient zero still doesn’t show any symptom though the virus is in his system as the last blood test revealed. Subjects A, E and F have died in the night after days of struggle. The virus is getting more violent and contagious with the time passing and we don’t know how it spreads from one person to another.

► Total of words: 2,295 + 4,097 + 3,694 + 759 = 10,815.

¤¤¤

► 31 days of Whumptober - Ninth Doctor/Rose Tyler, Jack Harkness, Thirteenth Doctor.

► 31 days of whump.

► DW verse, Mature.

► Chapter 1 || Chapter 2 || Chapter 3 || Chapter 4 || Chapter 5 || Chapter 6 || Chapter 7 || Chapter 8 || Chapter 9 || Chapter 10 || Chapter 11 || Chapter 12 || Chapter 13 || Chapter 14 || Chapter 15 || Chapter 16 || Chapter 17 || Chapter 18 || Chapter 19 || Chapter 20 || Chapter 21 || Chapter 22 || Chapter 23 || Chapter 24 || Chapter 25 || Chapter 26 || Chapter 27 || Chapter 28 || Chapter 29 || Chapter 30 || Chapter 31.

“Run!” His cry echoed in the night. This was supposed to be a quiet night. He had taken her to this club Jack had recommended them. For once, the Doctor had made an effort and followed them – he remembered all too well how Rose’s nights out with Jack ended. After all, he could do with a break too. They had been running all over time and space since the Captain came on board and it was nice to have a small break to breathe. Plus, roleplays were kinda fun. This planet was a replica of the famous American Far West with all its cowboys and Native Americans that were called indigenous at that time. The cowboys look suited Jack and Rose very well. As for him, he wasn’t sure about these clothes he was wearing. He was rather uncomfortable in these pants and shirt with a blue scarf around his neck and this Stetson on his head.

► Total of words: 794 + 747 + 875 + 901 + 662 + 681 + 860 + 778 + 804 (7,102) + 698 + 646 + 724 + 647 + 763 + 558 + 683 + 775 + 720 + 570 (13,886) + 503 + 691 + 606 + 847 + 757 + 705 + 807 + 680 + 692 + 591 + 738 + 572 = 22,075.

¤¤¤

► Year Zero or how I have found myself crowd surfing

► Third article for Shattered Thoughts.

► "Year Zero".

Obviously, my “real” musical education had to start soon or later. In other words, I’ve been initiated to the metal music and I absolutely love it. My little favourites are Powerwolf and Nightwish. I’ve seen Powerwolf live once and never regretted it like you’ll be able to read later in this article. I never went to the Hellfest but I’ve done another festival, a smallest one.

► Total of words: 3,068.

¤¤¤

► Total of words: 35,958.

NOVEMBER

► Ghost of you - Human!Nine/Rose Tyler, Human!Tenth Doctor/Jack Harkness

► First volume of the Ghost of you story.

► AU verse, Mature, WIP.

► CHAPTER 14 || CHAPTER 15.

► Total of words: 3,017 + 3,968 = 6,985.

¤¤¤

► (Un)broken humans - Maxence Spitz, Rose Peters, Olivia Baxter

► First volume of the (Un)broken humans story.

► AU verse, Mature, WIP.

► CHAPTER 10 (Not posted yet) || CHAPTER 11 (Not posted yet) || CHAPTER 12 (Not posted yet) || CHAPTER 13 (Not posted yet) || CHAPTER 14 (Not posted yet) || CHAPTER 15 (Not posted yet) || CHAPTER 16 (Not posted yet) || CHAPTER 17 (Not posted yet).

He was just an homeless man who was trying to disappear from the society and all its rules and people. However, nothing was ever the way you wanted it to be. One day, he was arrested by the police and brought to Rose Peters, a young woman working as an art therapist. A young woman who immediately had a certain effect on him. But would it be enough to bring him back from the Hell he had fallen into over the years?

► Total of words: 7,207 + 6,323 + 6,745 + 5,141 + 7,168 + 4,662 + 6,364 + 5,680 + 2,094 = 51,384.

¤¤¤

► 5euros.com or how I'm trying to build my own business

► Fourth article for Shattered Thoughts.

► "5euros.com".

I’ve gotten my literature degree earlier this year and am now fully entitled for some important tasks in the French language and my English level is excellent for translations. My dream job is to be a proof-reader in a publishing house but it means going to Paris and I absolutely don’t wanna move to this city that I particularly hated. So I’ve found out about this website called 5euros.com where you post little adverts and people buy your microservices when they need you. And this is the whole reason of this post today.

► Total of words: 2,470.

¤¤¤

► Total of words: 60,839.

DECEMBER

► Ghost of you - Human!Nine/Rose Tyler, Human!Tenth Doctor/Jack Harkness

► First volume of the Ghost of you story.

► AU verse, Mature, WIP.

► CHAPTER 16.

► Total of words: 2,739.

¤¤¤

► Our last winter - Human!Nine/Rose Tyler.

► Prequelle of the Our last winter story.

► AU verse, Mature.

This thought was what made him move from the bed. He sat on the edge and glanced at the alarm clock. A bit over nine. For someone who always got up around 5 in the morning, this was oversleeping. He scratched his head and got up slowly. He walked to the bathroom, stretching his tall body on the way. The smell was getting stronger as he was getting closer to the kitchen and his stomach growled loudly to blame him for the lazy pace he had adopted this morning. His body was demanding food and it wasn’t coming. His mind was all on his next move. He washed his hands, rinsed his face. He needed a good shaving. Maybe Rose would do it for him. He knew she liked shaving him. It was relaxing her, she said once. Her hands were so soft and gentle on his face when she was doing so.

► Total of words: 1,815 + 1,717 + 1,403 + 1,474 + 1,381 + 1,552 + 1,453 + 1,462 + 1,347 (13,604) + 1,346 + 1,252 + 1,778 + 1,515 + 1,252 + 1,666 + 1,688 + 1,440 + 1,757 + 1,804 + 1,535 + 1,628 + 1,494 + 1,402 + 1,535 + 1,563 + 1,588 + 1,511 + 1,455 + 1,574 + 1,640 + 1,502 = 79 794.

¤¤¤

► Heart of stone -Ninth Doctor/Rose Tyler, Tenth Doctor

► Submission for the dwsecretsanta.

► DW verse, Mature.

► Heart of stones.

Well, I have to admit that this is a new one on my long list, thought the Doctor to himself as his body was helplessly hanging head down and slightly rocking. It was rather uncomfortable too and he felt really stupid for falling into such a simple trap. One foot in a barely hidden snare and he was hung like some piece of meat in a butchery. It was almost laughable. Almost. But the Doctor was in no mood to laugh at the moment. He needed to find a way to get out of this situation before someone could see him. It would be humiliating to be caught hanging that way. It would be complicated without sonic screwdriver. He just remembered that he had left it in his jacket, a jacket he had lent to Rose because she was cold. He swore under his breath: he had told her to wait outside while he was exploring the surroundings and making sure her young human ass was safe.

► Total of words: 4,836.

¤¤¤

► 2018 or the end of a once in a lifetime year

► Fifth article for Shattered Thoughts.

► "2018".

As the clock is slowly ticking away the end of 2018, I though that it was time to do a small recap of the most memorable moments of this year before turning the page and starting a new one. 2018 has been full of surprises and laughs and tears and heart attacks. It was full of ups and downs but the ups are the most important since they wouldn’t exist without the downs. So, before midnight hits, here’s a recap of my year in six points.

► Total of words: 1,156.

¤¤¤

► Total of words: 88,525.

¤¤¤

► Total of words: 185,322.

#monthly self rec

0 notes