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May. 22nd, 2008 10:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ladyoftimeNow, come over here and listen to your old Gran for a minute. You may think I spent my whole life sitting in this old house doing my knitting and cleaning up after your dad, but I’ve got news for you: I used to be quite the adventurer, back in the old days. You don’t believe me, but I’ve had more amazing experiences than you could dream of, and if you’ll sit still a minute, I’ll tell you one.
It was back when I was doing work with the Institute, hunting down legendary treasures with a crack squad of adventurers. You should’ve seen all the trouble we got ourselves into--
All right, Miss Smarty, you have me. Mostly, I did paper work: following trails of clues, solving ancient riddles, researching long-lost civilizations. No, I didn’t get into the field much, but neither would my team if it hadn’t been for me. If you’re quite done with your questions, I’d like to continue.
Thank you.
We’d just got wind of something amazing, a mythical ancient box filled with the mysteries of the universe. For the longest time, nobody had the faintest idea where it was hidden, but we received word it could be found in a recently-discovered set of catacombs deep in the Great Mountains, and you can bet we were on it in a thrice. The Institute even brought in a specialist, a Dr. Susan Jane Smith, to join the team. It wasn’t often then that you found a woman in the business those days. Maybe it was because of her I convinced the higher-ups to let me have a go in the field-
Yes, I stowed away. It wasn’t often I got a chance to see much more than dusty old tomes. It was Dr. Smith who found my hiding place in the aeromobile. I think she knew I was there all along, waiting to out me when we were too far off to do anything about getting me back.
The Mountains were terribly dangerous to travel through back then. All sorts of nasty wildlife and loud cries in the night just as you were about to fall asleep. It took us a month to find the catacombs; of course we couldn’t take the aeromobile through all those trees and dangerous rock croppings. We were all a little impatient by the time we reached the caverns, Dr. Smith the most.
She was the first one in, of course. The first cavern was filled with dead plants and spiders’ webs and it smelled worse than your socks. But that wasn’t the most of it, oh no: the entire set of catacombs was completely white. We thought it was painted somehow at first, but Dr. Smith took a sample-
How? Well... she licked the wall and told us it was completely natural. Yes, I asked her how she could tell, and she went into some sort of explanation about taste buds and morphic resonance, and I still don’t understand a word of it even now.
We thought the catacombs had been completely devoid of life before us, but we quickly learned we were wrong when we ran into our first trap. A section of the caves had been filled with billions of arrows, all ready and waiting for just the tiniest bit of pressure on the floor, and boom. Dead within seconds.
Oh, darling, I didn’t mean to scare you. Of course we were alright, Dr. Smith spotted it before anybody could take a step. We just hurled rocks at the ground until there weren’t any more arrows coming, and then traveled across in safety.
That was hardly the least of our problems, though. You see, the walls kept thinning and lowering until all but two of us were too big to fit through the passageway. Go on, guess who fit?
That’s right. Yours truly and Dr. Smith. From then on, it was the two of us against slippery ledges no bigger than your thumb and forefinger put together, nasty giant insects that wanted nothing more than to make us lunch, and weighted floors that would’ve tipped us into an endless abyss if it weren’t for our quick thinking and knowledge of weights. We got through somehow by the skin of our noses. And then They were waiting for us.
I remember, they had the same basic shape as us, but there was so much extra. Extra arms, legs, eyes- I can’t recall any of it in detail except that everything about them was completely black. Not even whites in their eyes. I just couldn’t look away from those dark, bottomless eyes. That’s when it all went blank.
Your old Gran’s memory isn’t what it used to be, of course, but I don’t think I’ve ever remembered what happened. The next thing I knew Dr. Smith was dragging me away from a pool of fire in the middle of what felt like an earthquake and telling me how utterly fantastic I was, completely marvelous, I’d won. I haven’t the faintest idea what she was going on about, of course, but that was all right because what she did next was enough to wipe my mind clear of any questions I had.
She brought me into the box. Oh, darling, you’ve never seen anything so big. She laid me across a set of seats and told me to lie still for a bit and gather my strength while she brought us home. I thought I must’ve fallen asleep, because when I came to again, the box had been brought to the front steps of the Institute and Dr. Smith had carried me out into the sunshine. The rest of the team was already sitting on the steps, looking dazed, not a one of them entirely certain how they’d got there.
Dr. Smith turned to the box like she was about to leave, and I gathered myself long enough to ask her if she was going to stay with the Institute. She smiled a little, like I’d told a joke, and said no, she had her own adventures to find. And then, she said, very casually, that maybe I could join her for a few, if I wanted.
“I’ve got my work,” I told her. She seemed disappointed, which was more than a bit flattering I can tell you, but then she broke out into this wide grin.
“I have a feeling about you,” she said. “You’re going to be magnificent.”
And then she kissed me. It wasn’t a kiss I could forget easily, curiously cold and warm all at once like no other kiss I’ve had before. “What was that for?” I asked.
“Thank you,” she said and disappeared into the blue box.
I’ll never understand how it happened, but it disappeared, right in front of my eyes. I thought I must have hit my head and hallucinated it, but I learned soon enough that there are strange, unexplainable things in the world, and I had better get used to it.
And I did. I was made a field agent, head of my own team. Our first job was investigating the sudden disappearance of the catacombs; they’d been blasted down to the ground, nothing left but rock and dust. We never came up with a solid explanation for it, but we had new jobs to occupy our time. And let me tell you, darling, what I’ve told you already was only the beginning.
Community:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
theatrical_muse
Prompt: 230 - Black and White
Word Count: 1240
Author's Note: In my head, the (younger version of!) narrator is played by Rachel Weisz ala The Mummy (nudge nudge wink winkgirl_doctor.
It was back when I was doing work with the Institute, hunting down legendary treasures with a crack squad of adventurers. You should’ve seen all the trouble we got ourselves into--
All right, Miss Smarty, you have me. Mostly, I did paper work: following trails of clues, solving ancient riddles, researching long-lost civilizations. No, I didn’t get into the field much, but neither would my team if it hadn’t been for me. If you’re quite done with your questions, I’d like to continue.
Thank you.
We’d just got wind of something amazing, a mythical ancient box filled with the mysteries of the universe. For the longest time, nobody had the faintest idea where it was hidden, but we received word it could be found in a recently-discovered set of catacombs deep in the Great Mountains, and you can bet we were on it in a thrice. The Institute even brought in a specialist, a Dr. Susan Jane Smith, to join the team. It wasn’t often then that you found a woman in the business those days. Maybe it was because of her I convinced the higher-ups to let me have a go in the field-
Yes, I stowed away. It wasn’t often I got a chance to see much more than dusty old tomes. It was Dr. Smith who found my hiding place in the aeromobile. I think she knew I was there all along, waiting to out me when we were too far off to do anything about getting me back.
The Mountains were terribly dangerous to travel through back then. All sorts of nasty wildlife and loud cries in the night just as you were about to fall asleep. It took us a month to find the catacombs; of course we couldn’t take the aeromobile through all those trees and dangerous rock croppings. We were all a little impatient by the time we reached the caverns, Dr. Smith the most.
She was the first one in, of course. The first cavern was filled with dead plants and spiders’ webs and it smelled worse than your socks. But that wasn’t the most of it, oh no: the entire set of catacombs was completely white. We thought it was painted somehow at first, but Dr. Smith took a sample-
How? Well... she licked the wall and told us it was completely natural. Yes, I asked her how she could tell, and she went into some sort of explanation about taste buds and morphic resonance, and I still don’t understand a word of it even now.
We thought the catacombs had been completely devoid of life before us, but we quickly learned we were wrong when we ran into our first trap. A section of the caves had been filled with billions of arrows, all ready and waiting for just the tiniest bit of pressure on the floor, and boom. Dead within seconds.
Oh, darling, I didn’t mean to scare you. Of course we were alright, Dr. Smith spotted it before anybody could take a step. We just hurled rocks at the ground until there weren’t any more arrows coming, and then traveled across in safety.
That was hardly the least of our problems, though. You see, the walls kept thinning and lowering until all but two of us were too big to fit through the passageway. Go on, guess who fit?
That’s right. Yours truly and Dr. Smith. From then on, it was the two of us against slippery ledges no bigger than your thumb and forefinger put together, nasty giant insects that wanted nothing more than to make us lunch, and weighted floors that would’ve tipped us into an endless abyss if it weren’t for our quick thinking and knowledge of weights. We got through somehow by the skin of our noses. And then They were waiting for us.
I remember, they had the same basic shape as us, but there was so much extra. Extra arms, legs, eyes- I can’t recall any of it in detail except that everything about them was completely black. Not even whites in their eyes. I just couldn’t look away from those dark, bottomless eyes. That’s when it all went blank.
Your old Gran’s memory isn’t what it used to be, of course, but I don’t think I’ve ever remembered what happened. The next thing I knew Dr. Smith was dragging me away from a pool of fire in the middle of what felt like an earthquake and telling me how utterly fantastic I was, completely marvelous, I’d won. I haven’t the faintest idea what she was going on about, of course, but that was all right because what she did next was enough to wipe my mind clear of any questions I had.
She brought me into the box. Oh, darling, you’ve never seen anything so big. She laid me across a set of seats and told me to lie still for a bit and gather my strength while she brought us home. I thought I must’ve fallen asleep, because when I came to again, the box had been brought to the front steps of the Institute and Dr. Smith had carried me out into the sunshine. The rest of the team was already sitting on the steps, looking dazed, not a one of them entirely certain how they’d got there.
Dr. Smith turned to the box like she was about to leave, and I gathered myself long enough to ask her if she was going to stay with the Institute. She smiled a little, like I’d told a joke, and said no, she had her own adventures to find. And then, she said, very casually, that maybe I could join her for a few, if I wanted.
“I’ve got my work,” I told her. She seemed disappointed, which was more than a bit flattering I can tell you, but then she broke out into this wide grin.
“I have a feeling about you,” she said. “You’re going to be magnificent.”
And then she kissed me. It wasn’t a kiss I could forget easily, curiously cold and warm all at once like no other kiss I’ve had before. “What was that for?” I asked.
“Thank you,” she said and disappeared into the blue box.
I’ll never understand how it happened, but it disappeared, right in front of my eyes. I thought I must have hit my head and hallucinated it, but I learned soon enough that there are strange, unexplainable things in the world, and I had better get used to it.
And I did. I was made a field agent, head of my own team. Our first job was investigating the sudden disappearance of the catacombs; they’d been blasted down to the ground, nothing left but rock and dust. We never came up with a solid explanation for it, but we had new jobs to occupy our time. And let me tell you, darling, what I’ve told you already was only the beginning.
Community:
theatrical_musePrompt: 230 - Black and White
Word Count: 1240
Author's Note: In my head, the (younger version of!) narrator is played by Rachel Weisz ala The Mummy (nudge nudge wink wink
girl_doctor. 
