Fic: Something in the Wiring
This is a bit of an odd one, but it gets me a bingo, and it's apparently what happens when I realise I could get a bingo a different way if I could only think of something for "suicide attempt" and then enlist the help of Sapphire & Steel. But, um, yes...
Title: Something in the Wiring
Author: lost_spook
Rating: Teen
Word Count: 1358
Characters/Pairings: Silver, Steel, Sapphire
Notes/Warnings: Suicide, Elemental weirdness.
Summary: Trying to determine the source of the time break is always tricky & this one is causing Silver some problems - is it something in the wiring or merely the inconvenient dying man on the floor?
Written for the
hc_bingo square “suicide attempt”.
***
The man lying on the floor was bleeding, his blood soaking into the cream and green patterns of the rug. He gave a slight whimper at the pain, trying to put his hand to the bullet wound to stem the flow but it was a weak, futile gesture.
The other two figures in the room took very little notice, though the shorter of the two cast occasional disdainful glances at the injured man in between pacing the room. The third occupant of the room was, as far as anyone could tell, completely absorbed in studying the electrical fittings.
“Is that it?” said Steel. “The cause?”
Silver drew back from examining the socket and gave Steel a reproachful frown. “Well, yes. Partly. And no. Possibly.”
“Silver!”
The injured man gave another moan behind them, and this time they both paused to exchange an impatient glance.
“He’s still alive?” said Silver, in a whisper.
Steel shrugged. “Unfortunately.”
“Help,” the man said, hoarsely.
Silver followed the cable along from the plug. “It is in here, in the wiring, inside the walls, but that’s not the cause.”
“Explain.”
Silver felt it was too obvious to need explaining, so he shot Steel another look, but at the other’s glare, backed down and tried. “It’s external not internal. Something got into the electrics via one of these appliances, not vice versa. Though undoubtedly some sort of vice was involved.” He grinned, but Steel didn’t even seem to register that it was a joke. How unusual.
“Well, work out which one it was,” Steel said. “I need to find Sapphire.”
Silver managed to wedge himself half behind a small cabinet in pursuit of his quarry. “I’m sure you do,” he said, with a wicked glance at the other, but Steel had already gone.
His absence made Silver feel instantly uncomfortable. He didn’t like being alone with the injured human, caught between him and this nasty little infection in the wiring. Not that he couldn’t cope, of course, but he would feel so much happier if Sapphire and Steel were here and not elsewhere - probably both up in the attic by now.
It was all the human’s fault, if you wanted to look at it that way. (Steel would; Sapphire might not; Silver wasn’t sure it mattered.) But it was his misery, his fear, and his guilt that had been absorbed into the house and was now causing the electrics to give a good impression of the sort of haunting that humans liked to tell stories about. Whatever was feeding on that hadn’t wanted to give him up and it had created a paradox that Sapphire was fighting to keep at bay: switch the lights off, the man had succeeded in his suicide attempt; switch them on again, he’d failed. He ought to have succeeded; Sapphire had said she was sure of that.
“Help,” said the man again, and coughed up blood. Silver winced at the sight. “Don’t you - don’t you - can’t you -?”
Silver turned around to face him fully. “I’m afraid you’ve set off a reaction that could have disastrous effects if we don’t stop it. So please don’t distract me while I’m trying to find the focal point & put it all right again. I’m not sure that even I can. I believe it’s this lamp, but it’s complicated.”
“Help me end it,” the man finally managed to say.
Silver froze. “Oh,” he said. He called out telepathically: Sapphire? Steel? There was no sense that they were there, however - probably the disturbance in the wiring was dividing them. At least, he hoped very much that was all it was.
“It will do it, won’t it?” the man asked.
Silver crawled over towards him. “It might, but I’m here to see to your electrics, not - well.” A look of distaste crossed his face. It was the sort of thing Steel ought to deal with, or Sapphire. It wasn’t Silver’s kind of work, not at first hand like this. Technicians were called in for delicate work, not to engage in blunt and brutal actions that needed no expertise. It would be messy, not at all the sort of thing he enjoyed.
Silver sighed, because it would also very probably finish the job in hand more effectively than anything else he could do, and he didn’t much like worryingly dangerous things in the wiring, either. And what if Sapphire or Steel were in trouble, out of his reach? It would be up to him, then. Him and this unfortunate human.
“I remember,” said the man, his voice barely more than a whisper, but Silver was near enough now to hear every word. “I know when it was - when I hesitated. When I -”
Silver nodded. “Yes,” he said, softly. “I think it will work.” He thought about that, about Steel when Silver had arrived here, telling the man that he could at least have got such a simple action right, couldn’t he? Silver thought about guns, which were theoretically within his jurisdiction, though he had mixed feelings about them. They so rarely had the multiplicity of uses that other items did, and they caused such trouble, but at the same time the technology inevitably fascinated him.
He pressed the weapon into the man’s hand, and helped him hold it. It was new, Silver registered. It had been used very few times before. Six shots, double-action, composed of various materials, including stainless steel -
It’s what has to be done, yes, said Silver, making the unusual effort to reach the human in the only way left that he could still understand, speaking directly into his mind. And he kept his fingers over the man’s fingers, as he helped bring the original act to completion.
There was a shot that might as well have been an explosion.
*
When Sapphire and Steel came back downstairs, the house was dark. The electricity, having been switched off at the mains earlier, was now obeying the rules of physics, as it should. The lights were off, the man was dead, and Silver was sitting pressed against the wall, ostensibly still examining the lamp and its cable and plug.
“Oh, there you are,” said Silver, looking up. “What took you so long? You were needed down here.”
Steel ignored Silver’s words, crossing the room and staring down at the man through the gloom. “It was his choice?”
“It wouldn’t have worked otherwise, would it?” said Silver, with an edge to his voice. “I’m sure you thought of that. You just hadn’t got around to asking, I suppose.”
Steel shrugged. “If he’d done the job properly in the first place, we wouldn’t have had any of this trouble.”
“No,” said Sapphire, and shook her head. She stretched out a hand, and Silver reappeared beside her, in time to catch hold of it, tilting his head slightly as he awaited the rest of her answer. Steel watched them both, half curious, half irritated. “It would have been better if he had left the weapon in the desk. All the possibilities existed until he made that decision. And when he did pull it out, he saw too for that moment: all the possibilities. His mind became fragmented between them.”
Silver pulled away. A person can see too much, he agreed.
Sapphire kissed the side of his head. Your nice suit is spoiled.
“Oh,” said Silver, and glanced down at himself. “So it is.”
Steel crossed towards them, giving them a frown, but standing close. “There’s nothing in the wiring?”
“Nothing,” said Silver, inclining ever so slightly towards him.
Steel nodded. “So you were over-complicating things. As usual.”
“Well!” said Silver, as Steel marched on ahead, but Sapphire caught hold of Silver’s hand, and he could feel her amusement at them both tugging at his mind, pulling him back to his usual lightness.
They did what needed to be done, and anything else was irrelevant. That was true, though sometimes not entirely true; that was their freedom. Silver had done what needed to be done, but, impractically, he had left the stain on his suit. He’d deal with that after he’d left this place, but not before.
***
Crossposted from Dreamwidth -- Comments there:
Title: Something in the Wiring
Author: lost_spook
Rating: Teen
Word Count: 1358
Characters/Pairings: Silver, Steel, Sapphire
Notes/Warnings: Suicide, Elemental weirdness.
Summary: Trying to determine the source of the time break is always tricky & this one is causing Silver some problems - is it something in the wiring or merely the inconvenient dying man on the floor?
Written for the
hc_bingo square “suicide attempt”.
***
The man lying on the floor was bleeding, his blood soaking into the cream and green patterns of the rug. He gave a slight whimper at the pain, trying to put his hand to the bullet wound to stem the flow but it was a weak, futile gesture.
The other two figures in the room took very little notice, though the shorter of the two cast occasional disdainful glances at the injured man in between pacing the room. The third occupant of the room was, as far as anyone could tell, completely absorbed in studying the electrical fittings.
“Is that it?” said Steel. “The cause?”
Silver drew back from examining the socket and gave Steel a reproachful frown. “Well, yes. Partly. And no. Possibly.”
“Silver!”
The injured man gave another moan behind them, and this time they both paused to exchange an impatient glance.
“He’s still alive?” said Silver, in a whisper.
Steel shrugged. “Unfortunately.”
“Help,” the man said, hoarsely.
Silver followed the cable along from the plug. “It is in here, in the wiring, inside the walls, but that’s not the cause.”
“Explain.”
Silver felt it was too obvious to need explaining, so he shot Steel another look, but at the other’s glare, backed down and tried. “It’s external not internal. Something got into the electrics via one of these appliances, not vice versa. Though undoubtedly some sort of vice was involved.” He grinned, but Steel didn’t even seem to register that it was a joke. How unusual.
“Well, work out which one it was,” Steel said. “I need to find Sapphire.”
Silver managed to wedge himself half behind a small cabinet in pursuit of his quarry. “I’m sure you do,” he said, with a wicked glance at the other, but Steel had already gone.
His absence made Silver feel instantly uncomfortable. He didn’t like being alone with the injured human, caught between him and this nasty little infection in the wiring. Not that he couldn’t cope, of course, but he would feel so much happier if Sapphire and Steel were here and not elsewhere - probably both up in the attic by now.
It was all the human’s fault, if you wanted to look at it that way. (Steel would; Sapphire might not; Silver wasn’t sure it mattered.) But it was his misery, his fear, and his guilt that had been absorbed into the house and was now causing the electrics to give a good impression of the sort of haunting that humans liked to tell stories about. Whatever was feeding on that hadn’t wanted to give him up and it had created a paradox that Sapphire was fighting to keep at bay: switch the lights off, the man had succeeded in his suicide attempt; switch them on again, he’d failed. He ought to have succeeded; Sapphire had said she was sure of that.
“Help,” said the man again, and coughed up blood. Silver winced at the sight. “Don’t you - don’t you - can’t you -?”
Silver turned around to face him fully. “I’m afraid you’ve set off a reaction that could have disastrous effects if we don’t stop it. So please don’t distract me while I’m trying to find the focal point & put it all right again. I’m not sure that even I can. I believe it’s this lamp, but it’s complicated.”
“Help me end it,” the man finally managed to say.
Silver froze. “Oh,” he said. He called out telepathically: Sapphire? Steel? There was no sense that they were there, however - probably the disturbance in the wiring was dividing them. At least, he hoped very much that was all it was.
“It will do it, won’t it?” the man asked.
Silver crawled over towards him. “It might, but I’m here to see to your electrics, not - well.” A look of distaste crossed his face. It was the sort of thing Steel ought to deal with, or Sapphire. It wasn’t Silver’s kind of work, not at first hand like this. Technicians were called in for delicate work, not to engage in blunt and brutal actions that needed no expertise. It would be messy, not at all the sort of thing he enjoyed.
Silver sighed, because it would also very probably finish the job in hand more effectively than anything else he could do, and he didn’t much like worryingly dangerous things in the wiring, either. And what if Sapphire or Steel were in trouble, out of his reach? It would be up to him, then. Him and this unfortunate human.
“I remember,” said the man, his voice barely more than a whisper, but Silver was near enough now to hear every word. “I know when it was - when I hesitated. When I -”
Silver nodded. “Yes,” he said, softly. “I think it will work.” He thought about that, about Steel when Silver had arrived here, telling the man that he could at least have got such a simple action right, couldn’t he? Silver thought about guns, which were theoretically within his jurisdiction, though he had mixed feelings about them. They so rarely had the multiplicity of uses that other items did, and they caused such trouble, but at the same time the technology inevitably fascinated him.
He pressed the weapon into the man’s hand, and helped him hold it. It was new, Silver registered. It had been used very few times before. Six shots, double-action, composed of various materials, including stainless steel -
It’s what has to be done, yes, said Silver, making the unusual effort to reach the human in the only way left that he could still understand, speaking directly into his mind. And he kept his fingers over the man’s fingers, as he helped bring the original act to completion.
There was a shot that might as well have been an explosion.
*
When Sapphire and Steel came back downstairs, the house was dark. The electricity, having been switched off at the mains earlier, was now obeying the rules of physics, as it should. The lights were off, the man was dead, and Silver was sitting pressed against the wall, ostensibly still examining the lamp and its cable and plug.
“Oh, there you are,” said Silver, looking up. “What took you so long? You were needed down here.”
Steel ignored Silver’s words, crossing the room and staring down at the man through the gloom. “It was his choice?”
“It wouldn’t have worked otherwise, would it?” said Silver, with an edge to his voice. “I’m sure you thought of that. You just hadn’t got around to asking, I suppose.”
Steel shrugged. “If he’d done the job properly in the first place, we wouldn’t have had any of this trouble.”
“No,” said Sapphire, and shook her head. She stretched out a hand, and Silver reappeared beside her, in time to catch hold of it, tilting his head slightly as he awaited the rest of her answer. Steel watched them both, half curious, half irritated. “It would have been better if he had left the weapon in the desk. All the possibilities existed until he made that decision. And when he did pull it out, he saw too for that moment: all the possibilities. His mind became fragmented between them.”
Silver pulled away. A person can see too much, he agreed.
Sapphire kissed the side of his head. Your nice suit is spoiled.
“Oh,” said Silver, and glanced down at himself. “So it is.”
Steel crossed towards them, giving them a frown, but standing close. “There’s nothing in the wiring?”
“Nothing,” said Silver, inclining ever so slightly towards him.
Steel nodded. “So you were over-complicating things. As usual.”
“Well!” said Silver, as Steel marched on ahead, but Sapphire caught hold of Silver’s hand, and he could feel her amusement at them both tugging at his mind, pulling him back to his usual lightness.
They did what needed to be done, and anything else was irrelevant. That was true, though sometimes not entirely true; that was their freedom. Silver had done what needed to be done, but, impractically, he had left the stain on his suit. He’d deal with that after he’d left this place, but not before.
***
Crossposted from Dreamwidth -- Comments there: