[RL WITH SULU]

[torchwoodteaboy]

Ianto sat at his desk in the tourist office, idly flipping through a magazine that he'd read about fifty times already that day. Needless to say, things were particularly slow. Gwen had been given the day off to go spend time with Rhys, and Jack was god knows where, so Ianto'd sent a quick phone call out to Sulu, to see if the man was interested in taking him up on his offer of a tour of Torchwood, and was currently waiting for his response.

Comments

[parked]

Using his extensive skills at life, Sulu had managed to procure a mysterious hop to Ianto's world. After taking full advantage of the fact that his civilian wear was actually clean and useful for once, he used said hop to get to the entrance of the tourist office.

Pausing for a second to admire the fact that he was both in the 21st century and in Europe, Sulu put a lid on his history nerding and headed inside, a passive grin on his face. (Secretly, there was the nagging, "Is that seriously fossil fuel I'm smelling in the air?" thought, but he shoved that back down too.)

[torchwoodteaboy]

Ianto raised his head from staring blankly at yet another picture of open green pastures and rolling green hills of Wales. "Sorry, we're--" he started, before recognizing the familiar face.

"Whoa, hallo there," he said, setting the magazine aside (back exactly where it was supposed to go) and standing up, coming around the desk. "This is a new look there. How often do these clothes get to see the light of day, then?" he asked, smiling and indicating Sulu's clothes.

[parked]

"You can't be closed if you're sitting in plain sight," Sulu said, grinning and shoving his hands into his pockets. "I couldn't exactly come down in my uniform, you know. It's not exactly in style right now - at least, from what I've heard." He found himself a little distracted by the new surroundings, unconsciously making way too many notes about a tourist office. "And the last time I got to wear a pair of jeans was before our contract started, so..." He laughed, "A while. How have you been?"

[torchwoodteaboy]

"I suppose," Ianto concluded, smirking at him. "Jeans is a good look for you. Not that the uniform isn't, but this is nice. Different." He shrugged. "Not that I should talk, really." Ianto glanced down at his own clothes--yet another black suit, this time with a fuchsia shirt and matching fuchsia and black tie.

"Well, welcome to the tourist office, then," Ianto said, motioning around. He stood beside the desk, on which sat various brochures and a really very outdated computer, to fit in with the rest of the shabby decour. There really was nothing about the place to suggest it was the front for a secret organization, which was the point of it, he supposed. To the side of the desk, there was a wooden-bead curtain separating the main area from a little cubby place that contained yet another desk and several small filing cabinets. "It's...a bit shit, actually, but luckily it's not my only job."

[parked]

"Suits are always fashionable," Sulu pointed out, still looking at everything like it wasn't just a shabby cover for a secret organization. It wasn't streamlined or entirely online like the Academy, which still kept its roots but this was... he thought "quaint" for a moment but that was kind of condescending.

"Honestly, I'm kind of amazed. Shit or not," he smirked. "But I don't think you want me to turn into the tourist here, trust me." ...Even now, he was already planning on taking a few of those brochures on his way out. "And just so I can get the lamest question out of the way first - what year was that thing made in?" He nodded at the computer - well, he supposed it was a computer. Theoretically.

[torchwoodteaboy]

Ianto laughed when he followed Sulu's nod to the machine. "Honestly? I think it's a '98. Er, 1998, that is. The actual system is hooked up to the main frame downstairs, but."

He shrugged. "If the thing looked like the ones we have downstairs, we probably would get a lot more questions about it, so. This is just easier. It does add to the whole Retro feel of the place, in any case," he said, motioning to the bead curtain. "Whatever sort of feel that might be. I think it's mostly a 'Go away, we're pretty crap, you can find somewhere better to get your information' type of thing." There was no hint as to how one might get downstairs, though. Ianto enjoyed that sort of "secret agent" bit to the tourist office, the secret entrance.

[parked]

"No, no, that makes - sense, it's just. Wow." It was a box. He had a feeling that the gawking over outdated technology (even by Ianto's standards) wasn't the greatest thing he could be doing, so he bit his lip to keep from questioning it, looking back to Ianto in mild embarrassment. "And you were thinking you were bad. But, yeah, I can sort of see it. The 'go away' vibe, I mean. And by the way? Beaded curtains never go out of style." He grinned. "But I think you should lead me away from the vacation pamphlets before my curiosity gets the better of me."

[torchwoodteaboy]

Ianto raised an eyebrow, smirking. "If you were to go vacationing in the 21st century, I doubt that you'd really want to do it in Wales. There's nothing much here but grass and sheep, and unless you're lacking in those..." He shrugs. "At any rate, I would be happy to continue the tour."

Ianto went back behind the desk and pressed a fairly hidden button in the wood. The door that Sulu had entered through shut and locked itself, and the concrete wall behind him swung open to reveal a concrete brick passage-way lit only here and there by small, fairly cobwebby lights up near the ceiling. One end of said passageway was just a wall, while the other end had a door. "Welcome to Torchwood," Ianto said, feeling fairly secret agent about the hidden passageway. "Shall we?"

[parked]

"I've lived in a city my whole life," Sulu laughed, "The only sheep I ever saw were in petting zoos."

When the wall opened up, revealing an honest-to-God secret passageway, Sulu's eyebrows rose and he stared for a minute, taking a few steps forward before grinning and looking at Ianto. "Oh, yeah. You're definitely secret agent material." He had a feeling that he was seriously going to be putting Ianto's gawking to shame today.

[torchwoodteaboy]

Ianto chuckled at that. It was hard to believe that anyone ever had to go to a petting zoo to see sheep, but then again, he'd never been to America, let alone to 23rd century America, so he really didn't know.

At the secret agent comment, he smirked, quirking an eyebrow. He was completely fine with being able to show off this time around--so much of his job sucked that to be able to be proud of it felt really rather nice. "I'm always happy to not disappoint," he said. He moved to the passageway. "Well, if you'll just come this way, then, we can go down into the Hub." He led Sulu down the hall, hitting a button on the wall next to the door, which slid open to reveal a lift that fit in with the whole "out of date, sewer-chic" that the place had going on. And yes, the lift really would take ages to get to the bottom this time.

[parked]

Sulu followed dutifully, though he looked a bit apprehensive about the lift. It was one thing when the outdated look belonged to bead curtains and ancient computers, but something that was actually expected to transport you safely who knew how many floors?

Oh, what the hell. "If this thing kills us, I'm going to be pretty upset."

[torchwoodteaboy]

Ianto smiled at Sulu politely as he ushered him into the lift, and pushed the button for the main floor of the Hub. "Don't worry too much," he said, trying to be reassuring, as the doors slid shut behind them. "I get the thing inspected at least once a month. It's my life that's on the line too, y'know. We just don't have enough people to be able to stay here and watch all the workers replace it and keep track of the Rift monitor as well, should something go wrong."

The lift got brighter and darker as they passed various illuminations in the lift passageway as the machine started its way down. "If it ever breaks down, I suppose we could always use the stairs, though, but they're a right pain to climb up. This thing is more flash, anyway."

[parked]

"That's if it breaks down without you on it." He laughed, reassured by the fact that it was at least maintained well. He shoved his hands back in his pockets, watching the lights. "So, how far down does it go, exactly? The way I've been imagining Torchwood as pretty expansive, which, going by the stability of the buildings on the surface, you're probably not just under the street..."

[torchwoodteaboy]

Ianto smiled and shook his head. "Nope, not just under the street." He leaned against the wall of the lift. "Torchwood Three, that this place, was created to the be outpost for Torchwood to manage this Rift we have here. Originally, all of them were up and running at the same time, and, well, it was the late 19th, early 20th centuries. The train was all the rage. So they created a train tunnel system to connect all of the Torchwood branches together, to transport back and forth as necessary."

He shrugged. "Naturally they had to put the tunneling systems pretty far below ground, so as to not raise suspicions, but yeah. At least in theory, we have a tunnel connecting us from here to London, so yeah. It's a pretty big place."

[parked]

Sulu whistled. "That's definitely big. Especially if it was started when trains were the most reliable source of transportation. But..." He frowned, trying to recall something, before shrugging. If he didn't remember, it was something he needed explained again. "I understand that you monitor the Rift here in Cardiff, right? Does that mean that the other centers were near other rifts, or... what did they do?"

[torchwoodteaboy]

"Not rifts, exactly, no," Ianto said. "The original Torchwood was set up by Queen Victoria in Scotland at a place called Torchwood Manor, hence the name of the organization. Basically, she established it so that there would be some sort of line of defense against aliens and everything weird and unable to be explained. Torchwood Manor was actually housing one of the biggest pieces of alien technology that they had at the time. Since then, the Manor has been largely just a museum, but."

"There was Torchwood One," Ianto continued on, "which was the biggest, a skyscraper because there was a temporal phenomenon that was rather high above the ground that they needed to get to and study. Then there's Torchwood Two, which is in Glasgow because they wanted to keep one in Scotland, but not very active, so there's only one man working there at the moment. Torchwood Three is here, Torchwood Four has gone missing and there's no real record we have on it, and Torchwood Five was in India because they wanted a branch in the British colonies there, but it shut down in 1924," Ianto concluded, only after doing so realizing he'd been rambling.

"I'm the archivist," he said, to explain it all. "I know everything."

[parked]

Sulu followed along easily enough, used to listening to people lecturing after four years at the Academy. The idea of any country being that prepared for alien contact at such an early stage was amazing to him; other than a few out-there groups, he knew that his Earth hadn't considered contact seriously until it had actually happened.

"It's good that you know. The whole history is really pretty interesting for me. In my universe, there weren't any government funded attempts to prepare for any sort of alien contact until 2063. To want to be that prepared, this early, is kind of bizarre." He paused; "bizarre" probably hadn't been his best word choice. "In a good way, I mean."

[torchwoodteaboy]

"Well," Ianto said, "it's not like the general public knows about the existence of aliens, surprisingly. For the amount of times they've tried to invade, the general public has been skeptic enough to believe every lie we've fed them to convince them otherwise. Everything from gas leaks to hoaxes to chemicals in the water causing mass hallucinations; we just have to think up a possible explanation besides aliens, and they're all for it."

The lift clunked to the bottom and the side opposite to the one they'd entered opened horizontally, revealing a shorter white-tiled hallway, once again sparsely lit, with a giant copper cog door at the opposite end. To their left, the entrance to the staircase could be seen, but Ianto himself didn't fancy going up or down 10 floors worth of stairs if he could help it. There was only a small window in the cog door, so it was hard to see what the rest of the place looked through it. Ianto approached the door, pausing at the buttons on the side. "Ready?"

[parked]

"Understandably." Sulu knew that the only reason humans hadn't had a hostile reaction to alien contact was because the aliens in question were Vulcans; the way Ianto painted the situation, the aliens involved here were the opposite of logical, rational, peaceful beings.

He followed Ianto out of the lift, keeping a respectable distance otherwise. The door was pretty intimidating, which seemed surprising considering the secrecy of the operation. "Ready when you are."

[torchwoodteaboy]

Ianto nodded, hitting a code on the buttons on the wall. The cog door opened with the flashing of a yellow light and the sound of a siren, and the metal cage door beyond it swung open as well. Ianto stepped forward, leading Sulu into the main area of the Hub. "Welcome to Torchwood Three, Mr. Sulu," he said, sweeping an arm to indicate the whole area of the Hub. "It's no Enterprise, but we have our own version of flash, here."

Upon first stepping into the Hub main level, the first thing to notice would be the giant water fountain running through the center of it all. To the left of where they were standing were several computer work stations, while straight ahead the armory and hothouse could be seen, each on separate levels. The ceiling was ground level, meaning the place was absolutely massive in terms of big, open space.

((Sorry that took me bloody forever to do. I went through all the series for reference pictures--hopefully I have all I need for now. xP;; *is a bit obsessive*))

[parked]

"Oh, wow." Sulu had plenty of 21st century "secret lair" references in his memory, from all sorts of classic vids, but they didn't have anything on this. He took a few steps past Ianto, craning his neck to look up towards the ceiling before dragging them down over the fountain, the catwalks and greenhouse and everything within eyesight before finally looking back at Ianto.

"This is definitely awesome," he grinned, clearly impressed.

[torchwoodteaboy]

Ianto grinned back, proud that he'd impressed someone who worked on a spaceship with his underground home away from home. "It is, isn't it? Not as bright as your ship, and it definitely doesn't have the great view, but it makes up for it in other things. Sort of."

He rocked on his feet, eager to be able to show off for a while. There were a list of things that Sulu might be interested in seeing, but he didn't really know where to begin, exactly. The whole place was pretty massive, and chocked full of various gadgets and trinkets here and there. Then again, maybe showing off the main area of the Hub would work for starters.

He led Sulu up to the base of the fountain. "This," he said, touching the metal of the structure, "is the Rift Manipulator. On this exact place, there is a rift in space and time that pretty much does whatever it damned well pleases. This thing is why we have our jobs at Torchwood Three in the first place."

[parked]

Sulu looked at the fountain, halfway expecting the Rift that Ianto talked about so much to open up just because there was a Starfleet officer around - or, you know, because Ianto was giving a tour. (For him, that made perfect sense.)

"Does it open up inside Torchwood itself? That would be kind of convenient." Less hassle, really, if you don't have to find the thing first. Still, he had a feeling that wasn't the case. "Any reason for the waterworks?"

[torchwoodteaboy]

"'Open up inside Torchwood itself'? Not really, no. It kind of stretches out across the whole city, but this spot is the center of it all. It pretty much spits things wherever it thinks is convenient, and takes things in the same sort of random, unpredictable pattern." He shrugs. "As for the fountain bit, well, I suppose they had to find some way to disguise it, and just having a giant obelisk sticking out of the ground in the middle of Raold Dahl Plass is a bit unsubtle, even for us."

He motions around. "Anywhere you'd like to see first? Myfanwy's eating at the moment, so we'd best leave her for last, but otherwise," he shrugs, "anything you'd like to see is pretty much available for viewing."

[parked]

"Good point. Really wouldn't want to disturb her," Sulu said, looking away from the fountain after a moment to check out what else he could see from there position.

"Well - come on, you saw my botany lab. If you really want me to turn into a kid in a candy store, just show me some plants." He grinned, completely unashamed of being ridiculously nerdy at this point in time. "Or, if you want to risk dragging me into your archives - honestly, you're the guide." He shrugged. "I'm interested in all of it, really."