| Date: 14 December 2007
Characters: Ianto Jones, Ianto Jones Location: outside Link to IJ: thread #6892 |
 He'd slept, he'd relaxed, and he'd bothered the hell out of the kitchen staff and still didn't have any answers. He wandered outside to watch the galaxy above their head, swirling and beautiful. Utterly alien.
He had his hands in the pockets of his suit, head tilted back, "Unbelievable." |
 "At times." Ianto brushed another stray blade of grass from his jacket, adding the dry-cleaning to his mental list of things to do when he returned home. "I am, though, rather doubting anything is impossible here, no matter how unbelievable." |
| "I didn't say impossible," Ianto said after a stunned moment, studying the other man. |
| Ianto tilted his head. "It does all seem rather impossible the first time, though, even when working for Torchwood." He looked over the other a moment. "You are working for Torchwood. Archivist?" |
| "Amongst other things. You?" |
| "Head Archivist, Torchwood Two. Glasgow, Emma Hartman's my immediate superior. Regular travel to London to Torchwood One, and the occasional trip to Torchwood Three in Cardiff." He paused, an amused expression crossing his face. "I don't let the others near my coffee machine, even though the intern apparently thinks making the coffee is her job." |
| Ianto nodded, keeping that information, "Do you like it?" |
| "Better than the alternative." Ianto shrugged. "Which Torchwood do you work at?" |
| "Three. It used to be One." |
| Ianto nodded. "Who ran Torchwood One?" |
| "Why? Who runs yours?" |
| Ianto gave a little half-smile before replying. "Yvonne Hartman." He knew she only ran the Tower's day-to-day activities, that she didn't make the major decisions. But then, neither did Jack or Emma in Cardiff and Glasgow, though he knew they had more freedom to make decisions than Yvonne did in London. |
| "Bit obsessed with the glory of the British Empire?" |
| "A bit. Yours?" |
| "Fatally," he said in a tone of agreement. |
| "That sounds unfortunate." Ianto gave him a brief sympathetic smile. "How did you end up working at Torchwood Three?" |
| "I missed Wales," he said blandly, lying, but with a straight face. He was good at lying. Maybe not good enough to lie to himself. "How'd you end up at Torchwood 2?" |
| "Promotion." That was only the smallest part of the transfer, but he didn't have any qualms about leaving the rest out when the other of himself was lying. It was in the small shift of his weight, and the absolute utter banality of tone that he used. At least, if he had the same tell-tales as Ianto did. Which statement would make Ianto's head hurt if he allowed it. |
| "Do you enjoy it?" He frowned.Had he asked that? |
| "As I said earlier. It's better than the alternative." There was an edge to Ianto's voice. He didn't want to talk about the rest of the reasons he was in Glasgow, or the alternative to being in charge of the archives. The choices other than running the archives had both been... unpleasent. And neither death nor a permanent case of amnesia had sounded particularly appealing then or now. |
| Ianto raised an eyebrow, "Where would you rather be?" |
| "On board the Guardian, where I can observe more of what I've been archiving. I've always wondered about field work." Ianto shrugged, keeping his discomfort from his expression enough to keep anyone else observing his mood, though he didn't doubt he'd be able to spot his own discomfort. |
| "On board the Guardian's not really field work, is it? It's a UNIT ship." |
| "Not in my reality. It's Torchwood's, built by Masterwork Creations. The Master isn't about to let his prototype ship be taken off by a organization not under his control." |
| "The Master? That's rather ...bad 80s kink pornography." |
| Ianto shrugged. "I would rather live than tell him that. He is, if nothing else, predictable when upset." He paused, an amused smirk on his face. "Kill the person who upset him, kill Jack, or destroy something. Or rant on his LJ about Microsoft again." |
| "...Someone who has a livejournal kills people?" |
| "Yes." Ianto gave his other self an odd look. "He runs Torchwood. You don't think a director would hesitate to kill, do you?" |
| "No, I've met Jack," he said seriously. |
| "Jack." Ianto's lips twitched, fighting a smirk. "Rather an interesting man, Jack Harkness. Doesn't stay dead, willing to shag just about anybody?" He didn't doubt that though they knew different Jacks, there would be more similarities than not. |
| "Willing maybe, doing it, maybe not." |
| "I didn't actually say he was." Ianto put his hands in his pockets, one hand idly wrapping around the knife there. He used it as a grounding point more than anything else, especially of late. "You and he?" |
| "He and I what?" Ianto asked, eyebrow arched and serene. Lying again. |
| "You know precisely what I am asking. Though I am surprised you sound just as bland as I imagine I do when I'm telling someone a lie. Not that I expect otherwise, but how is it that no one ever can tell?" It was a rhetorical question, as he had long ago come to the conclusion people believed him because they didn't want to think of the alternatives to him being correct and truthful. |
| "I swear I thought I was a terrible liar until I came to Torchwood," Ianto said simply. |
| "I'm certain you were. Torchwood teaches people how to lie far too well." Ianto gave the other him a wry smile. "And being an authority figure for the public means they rather believe what you say than the truth, even when it's staring them in the face." |
| "That and a healthy dose of retcon." |
| "When neccesary." Ianto ran a thumb over the handle of his knife for a moment. "If you don't mind, I think I could use a drink, and a chair. You?" He nodded down the street in the vague direction of the town center, and the possibility of a pub. |
| "With that segue how can I resist?" he asked dryly, but started heading that way." |
| "If I had Retcon with me, I would be more tempted to use it on myself from time to time, if I didn't think I'd forget where to find the door home." |
| "Why's that?" |
| "Let's just say there are times when I relax more than I intend while I am here." Ianto shifted uncomfortably, speeding up just a little. |
| Ianto raised an eyebrow, "Who'd you sleep with?"
Well, because. That's why he'd guilty move like that and how he'd say it. |
| Ianto looked over at his other self, raising an eyebrow. "Who do you think I had sex with?" It wasn't an answer, but he didn't feel like being particularly informative about this, not without something to drink, at least. He knew the pub had to be up here somewhere. |
| "I don't know you well enough to guess." |