torchwoodteaboy | [RL WITH SULU]

Ianto chuckled. "No, no, that's only as a punishment to others. Unless you plan on doing something to make me angry at you, you can get coffee just for being here."

He led him up the spiral staircase and across the short walkway to the hothouse. "Like I said, it's not much," he said, opening the door, "but it's definitely a bit more than a bunch of poppies." The hothouse was much like a laboratory of some sort, with a big illuminated work station in the middle of the room, what little plants they had in their own little contained atmospheres encased in glass jars over the pots.

Sulu was used to botany labs of all shapes and sizes, but this was definitely a new one. Small or not - that didn't really matter. He immediately wandered past the work station to look at the encased plantlife. He didn't think it'd be prudent to go tapping on the glass so instead he just leaned in, examining a few of them as best he could. "Are they contained because of possible toxicity or is this whole set-up to replicate homeworld environments?" Trust Sulu to leap right into it. "And the wiring? What's that for? I've never seen a layout like this."

There are some other, bigger plants out and standing in the open, not protected by glass, but the majority of the little ones had their own little domes. "Owen had set up a way to regulate when which plants needed what amounts of water. I think they might even have temperature regulators, so that they could be kept at their own homeworld environment as well." He shrugged. "Owen had a lot of free time on his hands in the last few months he was with us, this kind of became his pet project. I repair the apparatus if it needs fixing, and water the ones that are out here as per his instructions but..." He shrugged, moving a hand to brush what basically was a huge, palm-tree like fern. "I don't really know a lot about what's in here."

((Sorry, just checked the only other episode that has the hothouse in it, and it has bigger plants, because apparently, they change the layout later on in the season. Unfortunately, taking a screencap to show would largely be a screencap of Ianto and Jack, er, getting walked in on while they were "taking care of business," so it would be largely unhelpful in the long run.))

Edited 2010-03-16 07:15 (UTC)

"At the Academy, they made freshmen do all the caretaking," Sulu said, "Exactly because you really should know what you have in your greenhouse." He grinned at Ianto. "Well, that and it's gruntwork. This is a really good set-up, though, especially if you don't want to risk any aphrodisiacal pollen or allergic reactions or psychotic episodes from a toxic poison... Then again, that's how my universe works. You guys probably don't have all three."

Then again, you couldn't really apply the same kind of affection to a plant in a container, could you? But that was a weird sort of observation, so he kept it to himself.

((No problem! Sorry I'm not taking liberties with plants here, I honestly don't know if the hothouse is mostly alien or Earth plants or... you know. If any alien plantlife would actually be in the Trek universe. SO I'm mostly just rolling with it.))

"When Owen set his mind to anything, he did it fully. I mean, he designed this place, at any rate. Truthfully, I never really paid much attention to it before. It was his job to keep track of whatever sorts of plants he ended up keeping in here, and the rest of us just came in here when...we needed to relax." He used the term relax lightly, of course, because really, other than emergency hideout situations, the only other times he'd been in here not doing work was when he was, well, having sex with Jack, really.

"I'm sorry that I don't know more about these things," he said. "We really have no idea where they've come from, and Owen was the one doing the studies--he was the doctor. I just try to keep them alive. They seem to be doing alright, though. Only a couple have died in the year or so that I've had to take care of them."

((It's fine. We'll probably move on soon, because Ianto and I both don't have a very good grasp on plants. xD; No moving ones in here, so it's kind of boring in comparison to Audrey.))

"Don't be sorry. Plants are kind of a specific study, you know?" Sulu gave up on visually dissecting one of the smaller plants, turning back to Ianto. "You could probably do with some kind of fertilizer, but they should survive as is."

He frowned as he looked around again, sort of wondering what, exactly, had happened to Owen, but that wasn't polite conversation material. "I could probably find something for you in my lab, if you really want these guys to thrive."

((That'll be fine. I know that you have to water plants... and something about sunlight. So I know exactly where you are. And I apologize for the long wait for tags; this is new RP territory for me - that is, not knowing what the hell I'm talking about. XD))

Edited 2010-03-16 08:18 (UTC)

Ianto smiled. "So long as you told me how to use the stuff you gave me, that'd be fine. I don't exactly have a brown thumb, it it's not exactly green there, either. C'mon," he said, gesturing out of the room, "I could use a nice cup of coffee, and you haven't experienced one either, so we'll start on that before we start exploring the tunnels of the lower levels."

He led Sulu out and across the walkway, back down the stairs to his coffee corner, really. He'd kind of taken it over when it was revealed that no one else was capable of working the machine, and had been master of it ever since. "So," he said, starting the machine up to grind the beans, "how do you like your coffee?" He could guess, and usually he was right, but this time he thought he should ask first just to make sure.

((S'okay. Sorry this took a friggin' million years again--I was trying to get a picture of Ianto's magnificent coffee machine. Usually I just kind of gloss over the points, and people I'm talking to are familiar with TW, so they let it slide, but since you have no idea I'm trying extra hard in my world building description/pictures. 8D;; On the plus side, I now have a screencap tour of everywhere we've seen in the Hub, so. Yay!))

Sulu wasn't really a coffee person, but caffeine in any form was welcome, even when coming from a machine that intimidating. (Truth be told, it reminded him of ancient sci-fi vids from the 1950s.) He grinned. "At the risk of irritating you, I actually like my coffee as sweet as possible. The taste isn't exactly my favorite."

Ianto quirked an eyebrow. He'd figured that Sulu would say something like that--he looked the type--but he was also of the opinion that anyone who said that they didn't like the taste of coffee just hadn't had a properly brewed cup yet. He'd humor Sulu and put in a shot of sweet syrup, but definitely not make it as sweet as Sulu himself would probably normally make it.

Grabbing Owen's old mug from the rack, he set the coffee to brew, filling the mug up before adding a single shot of syrup. "No milk to further contaminate it?" he asked, smirking but otherwise handing over the bevarage Jack and the others often referred to as being "sweet nectar of the gods".

"I've gotten used to not having any creamer or anything," Sulu grinned, "The stuff we use on board isn't really... well. Good. For anything." Sulu accepted the mug with a brief "thanks" before deciding that it would probably be better to try it now than to wait. After all, he wasn't really a coffee fan and dragging out the inevitable lukewarm reaction wouldn't make it any better. Besides, hot was better than cold, right?

He took a tentative sip, then frowned and took another. "It's good." He sounded kind of confused. "Like, honestly really good."

Ianto, who'd been watching Sulu for a reaction, all but burst out laughing at the one he gave. "Don't look so surprised," he said, with a big grin. "There is a reason that they have to refer to me as coffee king if I've cut them off, it's not like you can find this kind of stuff just anywhere." He petted the machine. "I've modified this baby enough so that it's guaranteed to make the most perfect cup of coffee you've ever had every time it works. That is, if you know how to work it right." He took down his own mug and poured himself a mugful as well, taking a sip to make sure that, yes, indeed, it was as wonderful as ever. "I take it you're more of a tea kind of guy, then?"

Sulu nodded. "Yeah, pretty much. Coffee's usually too bitter for me, but this is pretty much amazing." He was definitely drinking the coffee like someone who wasn't adverse to the taste, that was for sure. "Was it just luck that you figured out how to use it? Or did you find a manual in a language only you can read?" He grinned.

Ianto smiles, pleased with himself for impressing someone who's pretty impressive himself. "Well, something like that. It's more like I had the patience to figure it out and then fix where it needed fixing. Plus, do a little of my own modifications, and voila, a gorgeous masterpiece of wonderful smell and taste."

Sulu lifted his mug briefly in appreciation. "You definitely know what you're doing. I sort of thought you were exaggerating a little when you said you made great coffee, but I've been proven wrong." Actually, he was pretty tempted now to offer Ianto space on the Enterprise in exchange for what could possibly be peace-treaty coffee.

"I'd offer to teach you how, but I don't really know myself, I just kind of worked it out. Plus, it wouldn't be that much of a success if I went around teaching everyone else to do it as well." He nursed his cup of coffee, all but crawling into the warm, dark liquid. "Once we're done with this, we can move onto the lower levels. It's just... a bit dusty down there, so it's better to finish first."

"I wouldn't want you to ruin your monopoly on coffee, don't worry." Sulu had enough restraint to refrain from gulping down the coffee he had left, but only just. The stuff was pretty damned delicious. "Is there anything I should know before we head down there, though? Other than 'don't touch anything,' obviously."

"Well," Ianto said, pausing to drink down the last of his cup. "I think we're going to go see Janet and the cells first, because they're on the way down to the archives. My advice would be try not to make a target of yourself for them, and don't stick your fingers through the air holes. They're liable to be eaten off. Other than that..." He shrugged. "You can touch things in the archive, just don't touch anything that I say you can't touch, and we should be fine. Sound good?"

"Sounds fine. I've built up an aversion towards putting my hands in the way of anything that might take them, anyway." He took the last few sips left in his mug, smiling easily. "And I'm used to following orders. So, I think we'll be okay." Probably!

"Yes, you would need your hands, what with being a pilot and all." Ianto smiled at Sulu, taking his empty mug from him and rinsing both mugs out before leaving them to sit in the sink. "Alright, it's this way," he said, leading the way across the opposite side of the Hub from the door, and around the corner to start down another flight of stairs.

"And as for following orders, well, that makes two of us," Ianto said as he walked. "I mean, I'm used to following them more than I'm used to issuing them out, but I think I can manage telling you when not to do something that might end up going bad." He smirked and gave Sulu a little wink.

"I'll make it easier for you and keep my hands in my pockets," Sulu said with a smirk, going so far as to actually shove his hands back in his pockets. "Now, what kind of doom are you leading me towards first, exactly?"

"You're going to meet Janet, the Weevil," Ianto said, as the went down the stairs and rounded the corner of a tunnel. "And probably...well, we don't have a name for it yet, but there's a Hoix a few cells down that would probably be pretty interesting to you as well. As for what a Weevil exactly is, well. You'll see when we get there, but basically, Weevils are big, mildly telepathic pitbull-like humanoids that can digest anything they run into. They generally live in the sewers and keep to themselves, but Janet here likes to attack people, so we keep her locked up. As for Hoix, well, they're kind of uglier versions of weevils, only their only goal in life it seems is to eat anything. Metal, plastic, you, you name it. I had to remove anything in the cell that might've gotten eaten off."

Sulu frowned in thought. Part of him wanted to ask about the capacity for reason, or the population count in the sewers, or any number of questions xenobiology classes had taught him to ask, but he kept them to himself for the time-being. "Any particular reason she likes to go after people? ...And how telepathic are we talking?"

Ianto shrugged. "We're not quite sure. She doesn't seem to have any other differences from other Weevils. Just every once and a while one goes rogue like this, and we have to make sure to take them off the streets. We try to house them here when we can, but most of the time they get a taste for flesh, they're too hard to bring in and we have to put them down. Janet's special, though. She's, well, cooperative. She'll just eat your face off if you get too close."

He led Sulu down another hallway to another staircase. "As for the telepathy, well. They can sense when another Weevil close by is suffering. They've got some sense of emotion from us as well. And, well. It's a bit of a long story, but for the end of things, Owen was sort of the walking dead, and they could recognize that. I think they even revered him. Got to his head, though, called himself 'King of the Weevils'." He stopped outside the door at the bottom of the stairs.

"This is it. You ready?" he asked.

"Sounds more cooperative than some people I've met," Sulu grinned. "And is there something about Torchwood that just makes people want to be monarchs?"

When they reached the door and Ianto asked him that forever worrying, bad-connotations-included question, Sulu just shrugged amicably. "I'm probably not, but that's never stopped me before."

Ianto chuckled. "I don't know. I guess when you spend enough time around Captain Jack Harkness, Himself, a bit of that ego starts to rub off on you as well."

Ianto pulled open the door to the cells and motioned Sulu in after him. The two entered a short, dark, slightly ill-kept hallway. Ianto led them to the first cell on the left, where, from inside the cells, Janet the Weevil crouched and stared out at them.

"Sulu," Ianto said, "meet Janet, our resident giant carnivorous pest. Well, second giant carnivorous pest."

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