torchwoodteaboy | [RL WITH SULU]

Sulu shook his head. "It's an understandable issue. Honestly, even with the size of the Enterprise's crew, we wouldn't be able to do something like that properly, either. It's something that would required a dedicated taskforce."

It was kind of a shame, though; this sort of situation wouldn't work in his universe, at all, but here it was the only real option. And, as terrible as it was to think, at least Janet didn't know well enough that she was getting the short end of the stick. He offered Ianto a smile. "From what I know of 21st century entertainment, you probably would be worse off if you let her learn from television programming, so waiting to see if you can get someone that would actually be able to help is probably your best bet."

Ianto smiled slightly back at Sulu, appreciating his attempt to lighten the mood and the fact that he hadn't called Ianto out on being a downer. Ianto generally did feel bad for the creatures down in the cells, but there wasn't a lot that Torcwood could do for them. "Perhaps you're right." He pushed himself off from the wall where he'd been leaning, trying to shake himself of the mood.

"So, that's Janet. She's pretty intelligent, actually, for the things we have down here. Want to meet a Hoix? They'll give you a pretty good opinion of Weevils, comparatively."

"Well," Sulu grinned, winking, "I'm from the future, so of course I'm right." He laughed and waved a hand. "Sure thing. I'm pretty interested in the kinds of aliens you get, especially after seeing her," he gestured to Janet, "Since she's not exactly like most of the species I've seen before."

"Oi," Ianto said, "don't get cocky with me, sir. I'm going to have to start calling you Captain if you go too far."

Ianto led Sulu down the hall a bit, and around the corner to another row of identical cells. Only this time, instead of Janet staring out at them, the as yet unnamed Hoix in an obviously bigger cell. As soon as they approached it, the Hoix lunged at the sturdy plexiglass door, roaring and baring its teeth at them menacingly. "And this," Ianto said, "would be a Hoix."

Edited 2010-03-21 08:53 (UTC)

"Last I checked, the only person who's sat in any sort of captain's chair here is you," Sulu pointed out as they walked, grinning.

Of course, the violent greeting put Sulu pretty immediately on edge, and he was much quicker to keep a safer distance from the thing that obviously kind of wanted to eat him. "Well," he said, after giving the Hoix a once over, "That's more or less what I was expecting. Except for the teeth. Those are a little bigger."

Ianto had grinned at the captain's chair comment. He was still a little surprised that he'd even been allowed to do it, but he wasn't questioning Sulu's judgment, more like praising it.

Ianto stepped closer to Sulu, feeling his tension. If he were Jack, he'd probably have a hand on the other man's shoulder or something to put him at ease, but Ianto wasn't really that much of a physical person. "The glass is pretty much as sturdy as anything see-through can be, but yeah. Staying back might be a wise decision. Hoix aren't known for their intelligence. They just live to eat, and they don't really even care what it is or if its digestible for them or not. We've found a couple here and there that had died from literally biting off more than they could chew."

"That's... intense, to say the least." Sulu, realizing that he was being far too tense in what was supposedly a secure situation - then again, how safe could the 21st century really be? - relaxed his shoulders and crossed his arms. "You don't know much about the origins of Weevils, but - what about these guys? Or do they share more in common than just a sour disposition?"

Ianto sighed. "Nope, don't really know a lot about this one either. Probably know even less about them then we do about the Weevils. See, the Weevils seem to have a community going on underneath the streets of Cardiff, but the Hoix are more solitary creatures. My guess is that they probably just ended up here through the Rift, because really, if there were more of them, we'd know about it. They're not very sneaky about these things."

He shrugged. "We don't know a lot about most of the things we encounter, really. Unless we've got something on record that's the same or similar, and unless Jack doesn't already have some previous knowledge of it, it's an unknown. You'd be surprised how many devices we have really no idea whether we just don't know how to work them or whether they really are completely useless here. Same goes for aliens. It's the problem with getting whatever the Rift throws at us, rather than going out and exploring where it came from, like you do with the Enterprise."

Sulu nodded. "Yeah. I'm sorry I'm asking all these questions, too, I just sort of default to the usual questions we ask ourselves at Starfleet. You know, the who-what-where-how." Which was more of his policy on questioning, really, than a general Starfleet guide, but it was timeless. "It really is too bad you can't find out the origins of some of these things; it'd probably be really interesting. But, you're already ahead of where my universe was at at this point in time, so..." He shrugged. "At least you have that."

Ianto smiled a bit. "Well, yes, we do have that. It's not much, but we do have it. Y'know, I wonder how my universe will compare to yours in the time you come from, but I hesitate to ask Jack about things like that. I mean, I shouldn't really know anyway, no one else in this day and age has someone like Jack around to ask things like this, so. I don't know. I feel like if I knew, I'd want to experience it, but that's impossible, not without the TARDIS or a working Vortex Manipulator, so. Maybe I'm better off not knowing."

Ianto shook himself. "Sorry, that was a bit of a tangent there. It's just that, well, time travel is something I've been trying to come to terms with for a while now."

Sulu shook his head. "No apology necessary. Time travel is one of those things that... Well, it can mess with your head." He chewed on his lip briefly, distracted between watching the Hoix and contemplating just how messy time travel really was.

"I'm not sure what just knowing about it could do to someone, but personal experience dictates that nothing good really ever comes from it. Unless you don't try to change anything. Even then, it's messy. But it's probably better not knowing." He grinned at Ianto, "After all, it's no fun if you already know what's going to happen, right?"

"No, I guess it isn't," Ianto said, with a smile. "I mean, it's not like it's exactly a spoiler. I wouldn't ask anything about something in the near future that I might find out while I'm alive, but. Sometimes I wonder. And then again, it's not worth knowing something if it ruins the way I see the world now, so." He shakes his head. "I wonder how Jack does it, living knowing what's coming next. At least, historically speaking."

The Hoix growled at them from its cell. "Don't suppose you'd like to go down to the archives, then?" Ianto asked, cocking his head with a smile. "Our friend here's not going to get any more interesting, and I'd rather not be snarled at while trying to hold a conversation."

Sulu shook his head. "I don't know. Personally, the idea of seeing the future, near or distant, is honestly kind of worrying. But it's pretty obvious that how our universes handle time-travel is pretty different; when Nero did it, he seriously altered the course of events and triggered an alternate reality." Not that he thought he was very alternate at all. Actually, as far as he was concerned, he was the original.

He stepped out of Ianto's way, gesturing with a hand. "Fine by me. If I wanted to be growled at, I'd talk to a Klingon, anyway."

"C'mon, then, it's this way," Ianto said, moving to lead them back past Janet and to the stairs to go up and back to the hallway they'd come from. "I think time travel might be a lot more similar here than you'd think. I mean, changing things in the past changes whatever had happened in the future of this reality. It's like, changing something, you shut off that door and open another new one. The only downside to it all is if you create a paradox, apparently. 'Then you're really in deep shit,' as Jack would say."

"What's a Klingon, though?" Ianto asked, cocking his head to look at Sulu. "I don't think you've mentioned them before."

He followed Ianto, still kind of hung up on the idea of time travel. "That's true. If Nero hadn't destroyed the Kelvin, things might've not changed. I'm not sure, though." He shrugged, "The only example of what could have been that I really have is some television show people on the community linked to me."

Sulu waved a hand. "Klingons are one of the species that is in direct opposition to the Federation. They're a martial power in the galaxy, but we've come to a sort of understanding. Sort of being the key phrase there. They're the only thing we generally have to worry about when traveling."

"A television show?" Ianto asked, raising an eyebrow. "Now I've heard everything. That'd be some alternate version of yourself, existing only in fiction." He shook his head in what would be disbelief, except for with alternate realities he knows that anything is possible given the right circumstances.

"And these Klingons of yours, they like to growl at people, then?" Ianto asked. "That doesn't sound good, though, growling opposition to the government."

Sulu allowed himself a moment to vent. "The worst thing is, it's not even a good television show! Everything I've seen shows how dated it is. It's not even completely accurate to how the Federation or the Enterprise operates. And I am not that old looking, I don't care what universe we're talking about." He felt kind of silly, being riled up by something as pointless as an alternate universe representation of himself, but people kept pointing it out.

He made a face briefly before shaking his head. "Sorry, it's just a little irritating. And Klingons... well, they're not part of the Federation, for one, they have their own government. And it's not really growling, but they tend to get a little overzealous when it comes to fighting." he shrugged. "I'm a little biased against them, though. It's not fair to compare them to the Hoix."

Ianto tried very hard not to laugh at Sulu's venting. He wouldn't sure how he himself would react to hearing that in some other version of reality he was a character in a TV show, though, and he hoped that no one would ever point it out. Opinions on him as a character would be dreadful, he suspected, especially since if there was a Ianto there would always be a more handsome and heroic Jack type character somewhere in the vicinity.

"I was going to say," Ianto said, "I find it hard to find anything comparative to a Hoix being opposing to much of anything." They rounded another corner that would take them down another few hallways to get to the archives.

"Feels kind of strange, having someone coming willingly down to the archives with me," Ianto said, after a brief pause in the conversation. "Normally if I have anyone along, it's only done kicking and screaming."

Sulu laughed at that, shaking his head. "Is that so? Well, honestly, I'm too interested to see it to pass up an invitation. Besides, you let me show you my plants; it's the least I can do to return the favor, really." He smirked, "Though, can't you just threaten to stop making coffee for them if you need to show them something?"

Ianto smiled at him. "I could, yeah. Now you see the pull that the coffee has on everyone else, yeah? Deny someone their caffeine when they work at a job that doesn't keep regular hours and sometimes merits several 24 hour stints, and things get rather ugly rather fast. It's how I get them to respect me," he said with a smirk, "even though I am basically just a glorified janitor in this place, sometimes."

"Gives me leverage over Jack, even. Although I can't make it a habit of denying caffeine from him. He's stubborn and rather than giving in it just makes him impossible to deal with, which isn't so good in a crisis." He looked away, blushing. "Still, though. There are other things I can deny that man to prove a point."

Sulu snorted at that, looking thoroughly amused. "I'll bet. Better leverage than caffeine, right?" He laughed and added, "And the janitor thing seems a little overstated with you. You're an archivist and the guy who makes coffee. Plus, watering plants." He pointed at him with a smile, "That's not a janitorial duty, I'll have you know."

"Yes, well," Ianto said, smiling and blushing, "I suppose it does."

"I suppose you wouldn't call my job a janitor, then," Ianto said, as they approached the door to the archives hallway. "Problem is, I'm not sure what you would call it. I mean, I do archival, cleanup, coverup, coffee and takeout, feed the plants and pets, stock, repairs, help out in the field and man the tourist office. It's hard enough doing it all, let alone even describe what it all is that I do, you know?"

"Well, technically, I think the term for that is 'Jack of all trades,' but I'm pretty sure that'd offend your boss on some level." Or would it be boyfriend? Better to err on the side of caution, since he'd heard one term used for Jack and not the other. "You can always use the very broad title of 'management' or 'internal affairs officer', if you want to sound important."

Ianto shrugged. "Maybe. Jack just calls me 'general support'. I think its a fancy way for saying that without me, this whole place would fall to pieces," he said, turning to Sulu with a smile. "In any case, we're here." He'd stopped outside the door that the hallway ended in, which indicated it was going to be a pretty big area. "You should count yourself priveledged. It's not every day I show people around the archives, no matter how boring they might be. I don't even think Jack or Gwen've ever gotten a tour--they should understand it a lot more if they have."

He went over a list of things to say in his head, but basically they all boiled down to the same statement. "Yeah, so. Basically, no touching things unless I say you can, but you're free to ask questions if you'd like. Ready?"

That fact did make Sulu feel pretty good about things but, being the reserved sort of guy he was, he refrained from making any more egocentric statements. He was sure he'd hit the quota a while back, anyway. "Hands in my pockets," he said, grinning as he did just that, "Promise."

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