The Universe's Mixer

Ianto slowly caressed the Retcon pill he'd always kept in his pocket for emergencies, carefully turning it around and rolling it between his fingertips. It had become more a token of small comfort than the convenient clean-up method it was intended for, and one of the only things he had brought with him from home.

Really, he ought to throw it away by now, and while he strode through one of the grassy areas, he absently wondered if the expiry date still held in a city's atmosphere which, for all he knew, was on the other side of the universe. That particular thought came to a trickling halt when he noticed a certain someone he'd seen around the city several times, and his hand holding the small pill slowed. Occasionally, he'd come close to talking to her, and had concluded that she lived, or at least worked around the same area. It was a logical guess, anyway.

Pacing over with his hands shoved into the confines of his smoothly-pressed pockets, he offered her a small smile. "Hi. Again."

With the absence of the Rift, and all the backwash and problems that accompanied it, Ianto had more time to spare. Although, ironically, there had turned out to be almost as much of the weird and wonderful mysteries here as back home, especially now there was no longer UNIT to rely on 'just in case'.

Tonight, he headed into the city by foot; he was in the mood for walking, so he did. Quickly, mind you. Spend enough time chasing after creatures in the wider world which scratched and fought and pushed for their moment to spring out under the cover of darkness, then no. Spending too much time outside at night was something to avoid, up there with small enclosed spaces and solitary Weevil hunts.

In one of the less busy streets, the sign of a bar called to him. Opening the doors, the soothing, crooning notes of Sinatra drifted through the dimly-lit room, and he permitted himself a private smile at that. He turned his eyes to the main bar, where rows of bottles were eagerly anticipating someone with a spare minute to indulge in them.

Having left the newspaper office to handle some minor chores was the best thing for Sidney. She felt like the walls were closing in and this was in spite of the fact she finally has a job where she is not the bait for a serial killer in a ghostface mask. But she was trying to recover, this job being the first step of several as she walked into the pizza joint for a much needed treat.

Anyone was free to notice the still somewhat haunted looking young woman rooting around her purse.

As Sidney slipped into the coffee shop near the paper she came to realize something, for once she was not the bait du jour of a killer. So at least for now she let down her guard and decided maybe it was finally time for another leap of faith, a leap back into dating. As she stood in line for the coffee she had slipped into her own little one, not having seen her phone pick that moment to tumble from her bag. So anyone nice was free to find that phone and meet its owner.

It hadn't taken long before Ianto had realised that charting the layout of a city that had a habit of moving was an exercise in futility, not to mention frustration. He was grateful of the opportunity to try, though. He'd never known a period of time when Torchwood was so quiet, and couldn't decide if that was something to approve of. In theory, of course, it was a good thing. He knew better than to wish for any brand of calamity, keeping in mind what Gwen had told him about zombies.

But he was so used to being poised on the brink of action, ready for that pivotal moment when he would once again be pushed to his limits - one he wasn't entirely sure he would feel again here - that to relax was out of the normal for him. He didn't pause to reflect what that meant for his state of being as he took a bite out of the sandwich he was snacking on.

Sat at a table in the smallest cafe-type establishment he had managed to find, on the table in front of him was a journal in which he'd finished composing all he knew about the city's locations, and felt quite productive, all things considered. It helped, if only for his peace of mind, to know the resources which were on hand... even if they weren't always guaranteed to be in exactly the same place.

With Sidney's luck in the romance end of things she wanted to forget the whole day even happened. But as she took a shortcut to check out the ships (they screamed movie set to her after all) in the park was when she felt something dig into her shoulder,"Your aim is so off!" she screamed at whoever shot her as she tried to dig the arrow from out of her shirt, seeing a little person out of the corner of her eye. But she was having no luck whatever so there she was, staggering around with blood coming from her shoulder and trying to see if anyone could help. "Just great" as she felt a wave of pure lust wash over her or was it the blood from her shoulder talking?

That was when she crashed into one of the ships, this was turning into a bad romantic comedy at every turn. She could even hear the usually bad montage music going off inside her head at the same time along with giggling.

Cupid has a sick sense of humor.

In Vietnam, Private Jameson observed that the officers never ate with the enlisted men. He asked around about why this was the custom, but there was no clear answer. Some said it was so the officers could talk tactics without interruption. Others said it was because their table was on top of a secret escape route so they could disappear if the camp was attacked. By the end of the war, Jameson was fairly certain he knew the real reason. It was simply to make them separate from the other soldiers, so the enlisted men couldn't see that the officers were just like them. If an officer were to eat with his subordinates, no amount of stars or stripes could regain the respect he would lose. The officers relied on the respect of their company as much as they did on their hardware and ammo.

Civilian J. Jonah Jameson later employed the same strategy in the workplace. He and the other editors ate lunch in a closed-off conference room, leaving the writers, copyeditors, artists, and clerks to their own devices. This was key to maintaining the respect of the general staff.

But today was Pizza Friday. The pizzas arrived in the break room, and it was first-come, first-served. This was the City Voice's great equalizer.

"Gangway! Lemme at that mushroom and olive!"

The City wasn't too up to speed on a lot of things that humans required in their daily lives. It liked order, and it liked rules. It also liked bending things around to fit whatever it wanted it to that particular day. But one thing that it was very sure of was that kids needed to go to school. In order for kids to go to school, they had to have teachers.

The concept of parent/teacher conferences was something that it had come across recently. It didn't quite grasp the idea that the parents were supposed to talk to the teachers and find out what their kids were doing, and if they were passing or having problems. It just thought that it was a time to get everyone in one room. Thus, it thought, it could be the same thing to have student/teacher conferences and accomplish the same thing.

It sent out a flier to all the school-aged kids that it had brought in as well as the adults he knew did teaching things within the City's walls. It hadn't previously realized how many of them it had collected, seeing the list of names, it became a little excited. Not to mention a little bit proud of itself. It was furthering the education of the youths!

There was absolutely no consideration to the fact that it was snowing very hard outside, and very few if any of these people had a vehicle. All it cared about was getting them all in the same room.

( OOC )

Sidney Prescott had been wandering this place for the last couple of hours as she tried to unravel what had brought her here. "Feels like a really bad movie come to life" she mused as she looked over the paper she had found near where she landed. She saw she would be going back to college as a theater major and would also be working as a desk clerk for whoever was in need of help. "Interesting" she muses,"But for now I have to find a place to stay and basically not get sick" that was when she let out a nasty sounding sneeze.

She was miserable, no doubt about that. Besides looking like she was coming down with something (since she has no clue about the zombie invastion) and being too skinny she was otherwise in one piece. But at the moment all she wanted was pretty simple: a friend and a safe place to stay while trying to find out what exactly was going on.

"Maybe this office has an answer, paper did say they need clerks" as Sidney went inside and well she was hoping for coffee.