InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "Get with the program!"

Ianto Jones (readystopwatch) wrote in marinanova,
@ 2016-05-02 13:54:00

Entry tags:

ianto jones, jack harkness, martha jones, sam winchester, spike

Day 374 | Action | Open
[The Hub]

[It's a boring dream by Torchwood standards, an interesting one of your work doesn't consist of a top secret science fiction bunker, complete with mysterious alien gadgets lying everywhere, incomprehensible computer programs running on most of the screens and a pteranodon nesting high up near the roof and occasionally squawking to herself.

As for Ianto he's not doing anything as exciting as his surroundings. He's just cleaning up at the end of the day, throwing away empty pizza boxes ordered under the name of Torchwood, washing coffee mugs, dusting off keyboards, putting away discarded firearms. Maybe he's dreaming about this because he organizes thing even in his sleep. Or maybe he just missed his old routine.]

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chipswiththat
2016-05-03 06:37 am UTC (link)

[ Isn't this familiar.

He doesn't know the place he's found himself in, but he knows the basic concept well enough. Row of cells, glass wall, the prickly feeling of being watched. Something moving in the cell next to his and if someone tells him not to eat the drugged up blood pack they'll inevitably drop from the ceiling any moment now he'll flip out from sheer deja vu.

Spike paces, nails raking over his scalp in search for an incision scar the size of a microchip, knowing fully well he won't find one. There wasn't one last time. ]

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readystopwatch
2016-05-03 11:39 am UTC (link)

[There's the sound of footsteps on the stairs and then Ianto comes into view, holding a metal dog bowl. Feeding Janet the weevil is on his list of chores, along with more normal things like dusting and filing stray papers. He stops short when he catches sight of Spike, then quickly sets the bowl down and hurries over to fiddle with the controls on the cell door.]

You're not supposed to be in there. Sorry.

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	chipswiththat 2016-05-03 12:36 pm UTC (link)
	[ He tenses when he hears the footsteps, continues to be tense even as Ianto opens up the door. The mythical Torchwood, he guesses. A place he hasn't given too much thought up until now but the parallels to the Initiative have put him clean on edge. ] You sure about that? (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	readystopwatch 2016-05-03 01:03 pm UTC (link)
	Positive. [He finishes with the door and stands aside to let Spike exit, looking guilty.] I think this is a dream. [As if that excuses it. It doesn't.] (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	chipswiththat 2016-05-03 01:36 pm UTC (link)
	[ He's not relaxing even as he leaves the cell, shoulders squared and jaw set like a caged animal looking for a way out. Which, all things considered, is exactly what he is. ] Your dream, then. This is Torchwood? (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	readystopwatch 2016-05-03 01:50 pm UTC (link)
	Part of it. The cells. [He looks just as tense and awkward. This isn't how he wanted Spike to see the Hub, not that he wanted him to see it at all. Janet the weevil growls and snarls in the next cell.] (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	chipswiththat 2016-05-03 01:52 pm UTC (link)
	[ Maybe it'll get better when they get out of here and he can start to undo the association with the Initiative. No military uniforms or white lab coats, far as he can see. That helps. ] Co-worker of yours? [ He turns his attention to the weevil, almost feeling a kind of kinship here. ] (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	readystopwatch 2016-05-03 02:09 pm UTC (link)
	A weevil. They live in the sewers. [He pauses, looking torn, then picks up the food bowl again and pulls a canister of weevil spray out of his pocket.] Let me feed her and we can get out of here. It's better upstairs. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	chipswiththat 2016-05-03 02:33 pm UTC (link)
	[ He's lived in the sewers. There's something about this whole setup that rubs him the wrong way, or perhaps puts him in his rightful place. What does he think he's doing? Does he really believe he can get away with this? ] Alright. This is your dream, you do what you need to. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

readystopwatch
2016-05-03 02:39 pm UTC (link)

[None of this is sitting so well with him, either. He wouldn't have picked this as the way to introduce Spike to what they do here. At least this isn't a dream about London. That would have been much closer to the Initative. This is just bad timing and he doesn't want to say that he's nothing like this weevil. It seems like the wrong move. So he just grimly opens the door, brandishing the spray bbw doesn't have to use it, Janet backs off at the sight of it and he sets the bowl down before closing the door again.]

Come on, let's get out of here. The rest of it isn't quite so bad.

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chipswiththat
2016-05-03 02:54 pm UTC (link)

[ That would've been a really terrible move, because he's exactly like that weevil. Even more so in game face and he can feel it lurk under the surface, not breaking out but very much wanting to. It's a threatening situation and maybe he still has some luggage to unpack from being bagged and chipped. ]

RIght. Lead the way. [ In a gesture that actually surprises him, Spike reaches out to nab Ianto's hand. Don't turn on him. ]

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	readystopwatch 2016-05-03 03:13 pm UTC (link)
	[Ianto clings to that hand just as tightly, keeping close enough for their shoulders to brush against each other as they walk, leaving the cells behind and heading into the dark hallway and stairs that lead up to the main Hub. Very quietly, he says,] Don't hate me for this place. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	chipswiththat 2016-05-03 03:22 pm UTC (link)
	[ The dark doesn't bother him. Rather the opposite — he finds himself loosening up with every step they take away from the cells. Still tense, still working out how to think about this, but he's not ready to bolt. ] You let me out. That didn't happen last time. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	readystopwatch 2016-05-03 03:55 pm UTC (link)
	If this were real, if I didn't know you, I wouldn't have. [It makes him feel guilty just to admit it but Spike's always been honest with him no matter how bad it is. He deserves the same in return.] If you were a threat we would have kept you there until we figured out what to do with you. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	chipswiththat 2016-05-03 05:00 pm UTC (link)
	[ He appreciates the honesty. Anything else would've been a lie, he knows that much. It's still a pretty sharp reminder that he's not like them. He's a threat. ] I've been in a place like this before. Bagged and tagged, like a bloody animal. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

readystopwatch
2016-05-03 05:26 pm UTC (link)

[This just keeps getting worse.] That's what we do with the weevils. We don't usually lock them up like that. Sometimes they come above ground and attack people. When they do we intercept them, subdue them, tag them so we can monitor if they come back up and release them somewhere away from anyone they could hurt.

We would have tried to send you home if you fell through the Rift, as long as you weren't likely to hurt more people there. [But this is Torchwood so in all likelihood he would have escaped somehow, had a big messy confrontation and gotten shot. They're unfortunately predictable like that.]

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chipswiththat
2016-05-03 06:23 pm UTC (link)

[ His grip on Ianto's hand tightens, not because he needs the reassurance but rather because he can't quite keep the anger from taking over. This is just more of the same, the self-righteous cheating assholes that call themselves heroes and then dooms their victims to slow starvation. Dabbling with things you don't understand. If this is better, then what was Torchwood London like? ]

And if I was? What then?

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readystopwatch
2016-05-03 06:40 pm UTC (link)

[He can feel the anger shaking through Spike's whole body through that contact as they step up into the main Hub. He pauses a moment, gives him time to take it all in. As large as the place is it's obvious this isn't a big operation. There are only two other people working here now and neither of them are here at the moment.

Once he's sure Spike has had time to get a good look at his new surroundings he turns, taking his other hand so he's holding both of them and facing him, looking serious and sad but, most importantly, honest.]

Then we'd try to find some sort of solution. Send you somewhere else, get in touch with your world to let them make the call, cryogenically freeze you until we can figure out a better option. Unless you're actively planning on destroying the world or attacking us. Then we'd fight back. We don't do that unless we have to, and we don't like doing it. I don't, anyway.

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	chipswiththat 2016-05-03 07:07 pm UTC (link)
	But you wouldn't kill me. [ That's the point to all this. For all their regulating and monitoring and chipping and whatever else they got in their little heads is the better, more humane option, it keeps coming back to this. Would you kill him? Or just torture him for the rest of his measly little life? ] (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	readystopwatch 2016-05-03 07:13 pm UTC (link)
	If you attacked us, or attacked a civilian in front of us? Yes, we would. [Grim, serious, but still honest. Spike has it in his head that he's such an idealistic hero, but if there's ever a time to realize that's not the case is now.] That's usually what ends up happening. These things don't often have happy endings. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

chipswiththat
2016-05-03 07:34 pm UTC (link)

[ Here's a thing about Spike: he hates idealistic heroes. They're the biggest liars out there, most of all to themselves. He may be a filthy murderer and he may cheat, lie and steal to get his way but he doesn't lie to himself. He doesn't play foul the way Angelus does, the way the Initiative did, the Defence Force. Some things are sacred. Death is one of them.

So maybe it'll come as a surprise when he finally relaxes, not fully but enough to be noticeable, enough to lean in and steal a kiss. Good. That's all he needed to know. ]

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readystopwatch
2016-05-03 07:55 pm UTC (link)

[It does surprise him, because no one ever reacts that way. Gwen is always the idealist, trying to find some solution where no one gets hurt. And Jack is the opposite, so convinced he has to always make the hard choice to the point where sometimes he can't see any other option. Ianto is somewhere in the middle, always hoping things will work out but rarely expecting them to.

He kisses him back, hardly the first time he's done that sort of thing here.]

We don't exist to be cruel, or to hurt anyone. We just do what we have to in order to protect people.

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	chipswiththat 2016-05-03 08:14 pm UTC (link)
	At least be honest about it. [ And that's all he has to say on that. Any more lingering and he'll overthink it and that's no good. There's still tension in his shoulders, an uneasiness that won't go away. A change of subject might be a good idea. ] Show me, then. Give me the grand tour. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	readystopwatch 2016-05-03 08:26 pm UTC (link)
	Honesty has never been my strong point. [Which makes the fact that he used it here so much more important. He lets go of one hand but keeps a hold of the other as he steps back glancing around.] This is about it, really. Autopsy room is down there, we've got the greenhouse and conference room up the stairs. Jack's office, too. Pick what you want to see first. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	chipswiththat 2016-05-03 08:38 pm UTC (link)
	This is your dream. [ And none of that sounds all too exciting, except perhaps... ] You think Jack will make an appearance anytime soon? (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)