remain seated

[Deleted]

If Susan could pinpoint the moment where everything began to go wrong, she supposed it would have been the exact moment she chose to leave the comfort of her apartment. That was at exactly 1:39 PM on a Tuesday afternoon. It was now 6:48 PM, still that same Tuesday afternoon, and Susan Campbell was severely regretting her decision to do more than simply vegetate in her apartment. She had been, actually, for the past four hours. And while that was not a unique feeling for her, most of the time she regretted leaving her apartment she could turn around and head home. PLEASE REMAIN SEATED. WE APOLOGIZE FOR THIS INCONVENIENCE. The driver of the train - a human, or at least Susan had no reason to suspect otherwise - had repeated this phrase in the same dead, emotionless voice for the past four hours. It had been amusing at first, the way he’d just said the same thing over and over but now - now it straddled the line between unnerving and irritating. It was common for delays - Susan wasn’t born on this planet, or in this country, but she’d ridden public transport long enough to know that if a train was destined to get somewhere at 3, you’d ought to have your plans set for 3:45. There was normal, and then there was abnormal and as the man— PLEASE REMAIN SEATED— —repeated himself for possibly the two thousandth time, Susan categorized this as ‘abnormal’. It couldn’t be a time loop — the other passengers seemed just as annoyed and confused as she did, no symptoms of daze or consciousness being reset. And while her hold on Time was strenuous at best - the problem, she supposes, of both existing and not existing like a quantum philosophical question - even she would have noticed— WE APOLOGIZE FOR THIS INCONVENIENCE. Susan sighed, stood up, and slammed the door of her car shut as she peered down the hallway. She didn’t know what she was going to do, but a plan wasn’t necessary all the time. She could find a problem, she could fix it. She was just about to go to the next car when her hearts gave an out of synch pitter and it threw her for a loop for just a moment. And she could have rolled her eyes, because if the other girl was present, then Susan’s day was— PLEASE REMAIN SEATED— —about to get a thousand times more complicated. No sooner than she’d thought the thought itself than a car opened and out came her grandfather’s former companion. “Spades!” she called out, her annoyance at her current situation overriding her rivalry and conflicting emotions. “Any idea what the hell is going on?” WE APOLOGIZE FOR THIS INCONVENIENCE.

OUTFIT. | Ace McShane | Note: AYYY. Lemme know if I should change anything!

[Ace McShane]

PLEASE REMAIN SEATED. WE APOLOGIZE FOR THIS INCONVENIENCE.

Ace sighed, why was she not surprised if you wanted to get anywhere fast in this country a motorbike, which she had and was now kicking herself for not using, or and this was a bit of stretch it's just the level of annoyed Ace was currently at, walking. Leaning back against her seat Ace started at the ceiling.

PLEASE REMAIN SEATED—

Please stop talking.

WE APOLOGIZE FOR THIS INCONVENIENCE.

Reaching up she placed her hands on her face and let out a little groan; this was ridiculous even concerning the train system timetables. Running her hands down her face, she could almost feel the annoyance of the other commuters on the train. Softly "Some got a screwdriver so that I can dismantle that thing." That comment got her some weird looks which just caused Ace to roll her eyes and shrugged. "What?"

PLEASE REMAIN SEATED—

"Alright, Sod this." Getting up from her seat Ace excused herself as she walked through the rows. If it was something that could be fixed, she was willing to lend a hand if it would shut up the damned robotic voice.
Reaching for the knob that connected the next car to the one she was in, Aces world slowed down to a crawl, oh no. Of all the places not here, one of her hearts stopped for a moment before beating once, twice then racing back to normal speed. Taking a step back Ace looked at the door for a second and said softly, "Susan." Welp, at least she didn't think Susan would try anything with all these people around, she hopped.

Reaching down she turned the handle and pushed the door open and stepped through “Spades!” Yup there was that nickname again "Susan, you're looking well." She was pretty sure if anybody else had bothered to stick their head in there right now they'd run away screaming at the atmosphere that hung between the two women. “Any idea what the hell is going on?” she shook her head "I do not, I was heading up front to see if I could find out what was going on. You?"

PLEASE REMAIN SEATED. WE APOLOGIZE FOR THIS INCONVENIENCE.

[Deleted]

“I’d say the same to you, but lying is against my morals,” Susan replied sweetly, a charming smile on her lips. They had bigger concerns than their old rivalry, especially as Susan couldn’t quite remember why Ace had a penchant for crawling underneath her skin. The effect, she supposed, of her own ruined time stream. Harboring the emotions, but not the rationale. Susan stood on the tips of her toes to look past Ace’s shoulder into the room, just in case she was secretly harboring something to explain this in there. She pursed her lips, deciding that now wasn’t the time to point out that if Susan had had any idea what was going on, she certainly wouldn’t have wasted a valuable ten seconds chasing Ace down and asking. “No,” she said instead, though she couldn’t help elongating the vowel and raising her eyebrows in a obviously ‘really?’ expression. “Do you think someone jumped?” she asked, a wicked hint of amusement in her voice at thought. “You’d think that, ineffectual as the police system is, they’d at least have it handled after four hours.” That idea was probably out then. Susan opened the door that led to the other traincar, stepping up into it carefully. “Well, I suppose you could help me look for a way off this damned train. Or do you think,” she paused, turning to look at Ace mischievously, “do you think the conductor would be hard to get to? Between you and I, darling, I think we just might be able to drive a train.”

[Ace McShane]

Ace took a step closer to Susan “I’d say the same to you, but lying is against my morals,” “Oh, now we both know that’s a lie Susan dear.” She made the hair on the back of Aces neck stand up a little from time to time but there was something about her also that caught Aces attention, maybe it was the whole hearts thing, she didn’t know.

Ducking down a little so Susan could see over her shoulder Ace took the opportunity to look the woman over proper, just checking for any indication of concealed weapon that maybe would become hazardous to her health, later on down the road.

She frowned a little bit when she caught the tiniest bit of amusement in in Susan's voice when she asked if Ace thought someone jumped and tilted as if to say really, Susan? “No, even if someone had jumped by now your right the police system would have had it controlled, and they would have made a slightly somber announcement over the intercom system.” For the first time since she came through the door, Ace looked her eyes off Susan and leaned over to the window trying to see if she could see something.

Straightening up when she heard the click of the door, “Well, I suppose you could help me look for a way off this damned train. Or do you think,” “Well I can’t exactly let you do it all on your own now can I.” “do you think the conductor would be hard to get to? Between you and I, darling, I think we just might be able to drive a train.” Now with that Ace actually genuinely smiled “I don’t doubt it.” Walking over Ace placed her hand on the door to keep it open for Susan and extended her hand in front of her indicating for Susan to lead the way. “After you.”

[Deleted]

Susan’s lips quirked into the faintest trace of a smile as Ace called her morals into question. “I don’t know if you have room to condemn my moral code,” she said softly, mostly amused with a trace of annoyance. It was always the case with people that traveled with the Doctor too much — they often claimed to have a standard of higher behavior that they did not actually conform with. He wasn’t a perfect hero, and he did not make perfect heroes. But maybe the thought was all that counted for some people. She didn’t want to dwell on it, not when she was in a relatively decent mood. “So a jumper is out,” Susan agreed, moving away from Ace as the other woman looked through the windows. “You could leave me on my own,” pointed out Susan. She’d normally make a snide comment about everyone being content to leave her on her own, but despite their animosity, Ace had always been stubbornly determined to stick close when their paths crossed. Susan was almost convinced that it was because Ace simply didn’t trust her, but the other part of her doubted that Ace “simply” did anything. Besides, she’d extended the offer — she couldn’t take it back because Ace accepted. Susan decided not to pay much attention to Ace’s smile — it was far easier being grouchy and distant without that distraction. Susan stepped through to the other car, clasping her hands behind her back as she made her way through the corridor to the engineer’s cab. Of course it was locked. Susan rolled her eyes — of course it was. Too many nutters started making their way in and out of these things otherwise. As the announcement replayed again, Susan motioned towards the door. “Don’t suppose you’ve got anything to unlock it?”

[Ace McShane]

She was right; Ace didn't have any room to condemn Susan's moral code. “You could leave me on my own,” Ace shot Susan a look that simply stated not on your lives. Following after Susan, Ace stayed a good step or two behind her, wishing she had brought her blaster now, not that she figured she’d need it just that little bit of extra security would be helpful in case Susan and she needed it.

“Don’t suppose you’ve got anything to unlock it?” “Sadly no.” reaching forward Ace tried the knob herself again, not that she didn’t trust Susan it was just a double check, reaching up Ace rapped loudly on the door, no response.

Looking over to Susan Ace shrugged “You, didn’t see this.” Taking her foot Ace kicked the door with as much force as she could causing the door to fly open, breaking the lock “Mate, your door seems to be broken.”

[Deleted]

Susan very much did see that actually, and she raised a hand to her mouth so that Ace couldn’t see the entertained lift of her lips. She absolutely was not going to give the other woman the satisfaction of knowing that Susan was… she wasn’t sure if the feeling was ‘impressed’ or ‘amused’ by the startling display of strength. “Well,” she began haughtily, unable to get the charmed undercurrents from her voice, “I suppose there’s more than one way to gut a cat.” She brushed her way past the broken door and into the engineer’s room. The driver turned in his chair, the speaker piece still clutched tightly in his fingers. His eyes were glassy, and she snapped her fingers at him as he began repeating the same phrase again. She snatched the piece away from him, dropping it on the ground and smashing it underneath her foot. “Please remain seated,” he reiterated. “We apol—” She grabbed his hair and pulled him out of the seat, ignoring the light throb in her head. “Whatever it is, it’s something telepathic,” Susan sighed. She didn’t have the best track record for “reacting a manner that people didn’t find homicidal” when encountered with telepathic energy. There were three levers on the train — two black, one red, and a big yellow button reading ‘HORN’ with a lot of other buttons and valves that Susan couldn’t decipher. She crouched in front of the engineer, wincing as blood came away on her hands. She lifted his hair away from his hair, revealing a trickle of blood coming from his hair. “If we put him in front of the train and crush him, it’ll probably kill whatever’s in his ear,” Susan said helpfully, pulling up her flashlight app and peering inside his ear. Something pink and slimy burrowed deeper at the sudden presence of light. “Unless you’ve got another idea, but I’ve had just about enough of alien parasites to last me a lifetime or two.”

[Ace McShane]

“I suppose there’s more than one way to gut a cat.” Ace bowed a little as Susan brushed past and into the control room trying to hide her own small grin before following after Susan into the control room. Circling the room a little inspecting it some while listening to Susan.

“Please remain seated,” reaching up Ace pinched the bridge of her nose, the repetitiveness of the announcement was really starting to bring about a headache. “We apol—” she started to ask if Susan could pull the plug on the mic only to stop when Susan smashed the mic under her foot “Like you said, more than one way.” reaching up Ace swatted at a cable
Stopping Ace watched Susan with interest “Whatever it is, it’s something telepathic,” Ace wrinkled her brow a little, that would explain the headache then. Moving closer to Susan Ace watched as she shined the flash light in the guy's ear “We’re not putting him in front of the train, Susan.”

“Unless you’ve got another idea, but I’ve had just about enough of alien parasites to last me a lifetime or two.” Whipping her jacket off Ace started searching through her pockets “I might..” she could have sworn she had some kind of sonic tweezers or something in her pockets if they could just get a grip on the thing. Very nonchalantly while searching her pockets “If we make it out of this, she finally pulled the item out of her jacket "Have dinner with me?”

[Deleted]

“Do you really have to ruin all my fun?” Susan asked, rolling her eyes. Throwing him in front of a train would be far easier than removing the parasite and destroying it separately. The man was most likely already dead - at least brain damaged. Two birds, one stone, and no one would have to be any wiser. “Have it your way, though.” Susan reached across the man’s head and plugged his other ear with the collar of his shirt. If they made it out of this? Susan arched an eyebrow, about to comment about Ace’s utterly insulting lack of faith in her if she really thought an alien bug could defeat her. But Ace finished her sentence, producing a pair of tweezers, and Susan’s breath expelled in a long-suffering sigh. It’d be remiss of her to say she hadn’t contemplated asking the other woman out several times — particularly when Ace was shoving her around — but she hadn’t expected a dinner invitation. “Are you inviting me on a date, Spades?” she asked, a lot more smoothly than she felt to her credit, her lips curling into a smirk as she extended her hand for the tweezers.

[Ace McShane]

Ace had no doubt Susan could hand this situation, it was just an excuse to use the last bit of that sentence “Are you inviting me on a date, Spades?” Ace laid the tweezers in Susan's hand and moved around so she could hold the man's head for Susan, “Might be.” she met Susan's eyes for the briefest of moments.

Reaching into her jacket, Ace pulled out a mini mag light, turning it on she held it in her teeth and tried to position both the light and the guys head so they could extract the parasite.

It hit her that she should have said something about knowing Susan was a better person than just pushing someone in front of the train before she decided to hold the torch in her mouth but now, now it would probably just come out garbled.

[Deleted]

“Thanks,” Susan said, grateful as Ace held the man’s head. Her smile warmed at Ace’s answer, and she held Ace’s eye contact as long as she could. Once Ace looked away, Susan let herself grin for just a moment before making that nonsense leave her face. She hoped she didn’t look as pleased as she felt - she was absolutely not going to give Ace that sort of ammunition. It was bad enough that she’d caught feelings - Ace didn’t need to know the extent of it. “I might say yes, then,” she answered nonchalantly. She smiled appreciatively as Ace shined the flashlight into the man’s ear. She could just barely see the creature — it had burrowed itself deeper into the canal. For a moment, she debated on asking if she could at least cut the man’s head off if she couldn’t toss him in front of the train. But Ace would probably not go for that, even though Susan didn’t really understand why. It’s not like he’d survive the encounter. She dug her tweezers into his ears, pinning the creature down and ignoring the man’s howl of pain as she ruptured his ear drum. “Oh, so I guess he’s not dead yet,” she said thoughtfully, pulling the creature out. It reminded her almost comically of a magician pulling out multi-colored streamers from its mouth. The parasite’s body just kept coming from the man until finally the end of parasite dropped out. It was nearly a foot in length, and it’d resemble a tapeworm if not for the disgusting coat of electric blue slime covering it. She held it at arm’s length as it wriggled. “Next time, you’re on extraction duty,” Susan sighed, walking over to the man’s seat and pouring out what was left in his water bottle on him, lowering the creature into it and screwing the lid on tightly. “Any idea what the hell it is?”

[Ace McShane]

She couldn’t help but turn her head to the side a little as the man howled in pain. “Oh, so I guess he’s not dead yet,” “Hmm, thank goodness for that.” Ace gently situated the man in his chair, so he didn’t fall over as Susan went over and placed the creature in the water bottle. She couldn’t help but smirk a little to herself at the thought of next time “I’m sure you’ll hold me to that.”

“Any idea what the hell it is?” moving over Ace gently took the bottle from Susan and held the flash light up to it looking it over “Some kind of psychic worm, like you, said…as to which one.” Ace shook her head handing the bottle back to Susan “I couldn’t say.”

She went over and started to search through some items to try to see if she could find out any documentation on if the train had been carrying anything other than humans “Question is, where the hell did it come from.”

[Deleted]

“Thank goodness…?” Susan repeated, raising an eyebrow. That wasn’t quite how she’d meant it, and she was almost certain that Ace knew that. It’d be easier to deal with parasite if the man were dead — although, she supposed, that would change the classification to parasitoid. “Of course I will,” she assured Ace, shaking the bottle to make the worm squirm. “Shit’s nasty. I’m not doing it again.” She wouldn’t have even bothered this time if she could have avoided it and the inconvenience it’d brought her. Speaking of that inconvenience, Susan put the bottle down on the seat to rest against the engineer and turned back to the buttons and valves on the console. “Dunno,” Susan answered idly. “The Slinth, maybe? But this isn’t the right planet, and certainly not the right modus operandi. As far as I know, they feed off nightmares, and I don’t know about a symptom involving echolalia.” She pushed the ‘horn’ button experimentally, a grin appearing as the horn sounded. She glanced behind her to Ace. “I’ve always wanted to do that.” She pushed one of the levers that were down up, releasing another valve. The train lurched forward and Susan put her leg on the console to avoid crashing onto it. “Well, it’s not quite as user-friendly as a TARDIS,” she huffed, “but it gets the job done.”

[Ace McShane]

Pulling out her shades from her jacket pocket Ace placed them over her eyes and turned them on, reading the stats that scrolled across the lenses, she was listening to Susan talk, but something else had caught her attention as well.

“The Slinth, maybe? But this isn’t the right planet, and certainly not the right modus operandi. As far as I know, they feed off nightmares, and I don’t know about a symptom involving echolalia.”

"Weren't nightmares their primary food source?" Susan was right; Ace didn't remember hearing anything about them and echolalia either opening a cabinet Ace took a step back from it.

"Susan," she said with a hint of urgency in her voice "Have you ever read the book invasion of the body snatchers?"

There where jar after jar the wiggly little worms in glass bottles.