[ FINISHED / CLOSED ]

[impavid]

Who: John Sheppard (impavid) & Ianto Jones (torchwoodteaboy), & intro-log people
What: A collection of ROOMMATES chatter & INTRO LOG OVERFLOWS
When: Through April, after the intro log & during intro log overflows
Where: Olympia Starter Housing, various
Warning(s): N/A at the offset

The room is small, and the privacy is a little lacking, but John's travelled in enough rural and underdeveloped places that he's just glad of having walls and a bathroom. He scans the space vaguely, trying to weigh up if there's any difference between the beds before stepping through to nose into the other rooms. One bathroom, one kitchen, one central space and two nooks with beds. It's definitely not the worst space he's been in.

Ducking under a beam he begins to undo his tactical vest, shrugs it off and unzips the waterproof jacket underneath to reveal a plain black t-shirt.

"So. It's not exactly homey, yet, but it's dry and has running water by the looks of it. I think I'd call that a win." John himself doesn't need much more than that. "If you have a preference pick a bed now."

They look the same to John. He supposes the choice is really how close you want to be to the front door.

Comments

[torchwoodteaboy]

Ianto steps forward to take a closer look at the device the other man is holding out towards him, but he honestly can make head nor tail of the writing himself. He shakes his head at it. "If Tosh were here, she'd probably make it out for you in no time," he says. "She wrote a program, it could translate just about anything given enough in the sample."

He moves to stick his hands in his pockets. "Toshiko works with our technology, Jack is our leader, Owen is our medic, Gwen -- well, she was former police so I suppose she specializes in investigation. Dealing with people as well as solving the puzzle. And I..." How to even describe his role at Torchwood. I clean up your shit and that's the way you like it: no questions asked.

"I suppose that I do everything else," he allows.

[impavid]

"Well I can read some of it, but I'm not really as fluent as I'd like. See, we've uploaded maps to these things before -- so when it scans you can see how many walls there are between you and whatever it is you're avoiding. I was thinking, if I could get a map of this place I could upload it."

The screen changes and scrolls through some more runic writing.

"Well, yes," he says as if in response to that. "I need something to upload -- and I'm not exactly sure how to get that in the right format. But! It's a good idea. In principle."

He rests the device on his leg and shoots Ianto a mock-curious look.

"Do you have any maps of this planet in ancient-friendly formats?"

[torchwoodteaboy]

Ianto is lost for a moment in the other man's train of thought because just for a moment there he had thought...

"I'm sorry," he replies, holding up a hand to suggest they pause whatever conversation John might be trying to have with him, "are you... Idea? Is there something I'm missing here?" Because he's pretty sure that John is having a one-sided conversation with his PDA, and he knows it's been a long day for both of them but.

What the hell is an ancient-friendly format anyway?

[impavid]

John just looks at Ianto, as if he's the one who isn't following properly.

"Uploading a map," he specifies. "It's a good idea! Then we can navigate with it!"

What part of all this could possibly be confusing?

[torchwoodteaboy]

Ianto's expression does nothing to change as he stares at the other man. Yes, he's aware that he'd asked him about a map. He supposes it has something to do with his PDA and what it does, maybe it is a map of sorts. A GPS but for people? But he's more concerned with the fact that John had skipped a section in the conversation and he's expecting Ianto to keep up with him as though there were something wrong with him, when John was the one talking to his PDA.

"There are maps in the packs," Ianto answers, eyeing the other man suspiciously. "But I don't know how you'd be able to translate it from one format to the other. Unless that device has a scanning function...?"

[impavid]

"Not that kind of scanning," he confirms. "But maybe if I had a laptop. Or one of the jumpers."

Then he could try and hook everything up, in some unholy mess of cables. To what end? He has no idea. He'll work that out if he even gets that far.

"For now I guess we're just... in the void."

He flips it back out of the screen full of symbols, and it resolves to... dots. Two dots in the middle close together, and an array of moving dots at varying distances around them. People next door, people walking by. Without walls, it really is just a void... of dots.

[torchwoodteaboy]

Ianto moves closer to peer at what there is visible on the screen. Just a bunch of dots, moving around in -- well, yes the void, he supposes is an accurate description of it.

"I don't suppose that has any way of differentiating between the different dots, to find a person in the crowd?" he wonders aloud.

It would probably be the only useful function, with no map capabilities available, at the moment. Otherwise, what's the point of it. Though in truth, even with the map function, what's the point of it in general, he has to wonder. Technological eyes and ears? What do the dots even represent? If a mouse or whatever alien equivalent should happen into their little abode, would it appear as another dot as well?

[impavid]

John shuffles along on the narrow bed, making space if Ianto wants to sit down and see better.

"Yeah, I did that once. I can --" and he gestures at one of the dots vaguely, which changes to a different blue. "Tag you a different colour so I can find you if we get split up. It's pretty cool, can pick up energy readings too. Like radiation, power sources. That kind of thing."

He squints thoughtfully, then looks up and frowns at the wall opposite.

"I'm not exactly sure what they use for power here, come to think of it."

[torchwoodteaboy]

John moves to make space on the bed and Ianto glances down for a few moments before stepping forward to take a seat beside him. The different blue is helpful at least. While it may be an invasion of privacy of sorts, he'd much rather be spotted when needed than be lost when not.

"How does it differentiate between the lot of them?" Ianto asks. "What is it even reading, exactly?" Humans? Heartbeats? Heat signs? He wishes he understood more about the technology but it's all so, well, alien. What he wouldn't give for more of the Torchwood tech here to fall back on himself.

[impavid]

"Good question," he responds. Then, after a slight pause: "I have no idea."

He really doesn't. It just sort of... works. Somehow. John isn't exactly an expert in the whys, he just thinks stuff and it happens. He holds it out to Ianto to toy with, all the same. Not that it why respond to anything for him, but he can look at it if he's curious.

[torchwoodteaboy]

Ianto glances aside at the other man, raising his eyebrows at the suggestion he has no idea what his tech is even doing, before he smiles slightly and shakes his head. Reaching forward to take the device from John and studies it for a few moments, tapping on the differently colored blue dot but of course it doesn't do anything different for him when he touches it.

"Torchwood Three was built on a rift in time and space that ran through the center of Cardiff Bay," Ianto says, after a moment's silent study. "It was our job to monitor what came in and out of the Rift, and deal with it. Collect it." He gestures with the PDA or whatever it is that John might call it. "We got a lot of tech not unlike this, and it was our job to figure out what it was supposed to do. Whether it might be of use to us. Or archive it, if it wasn't."

He moves to hand the device back to the other man. "I'm afraid this one might have wound up in the archives, especially if it's not willing to cooperate for anyone but you."

[impavid]

"It just likes me better," John insists, because that's a funnier answer than explaining the truth. Still, he accepts it back and the menus scroll vaguely in front of him as he glances down at it.

"How much stuff did you have? In your archives."

Since 'a lot' is a pretty vague term. 'A lot' can be relative to how big your team is, how much space you have, etc. Was any of it Ancient? He supposes Ianto wouldn't necessarily know, but John can't help but feel curious. Maybe he'd even recognise a description of something.

[torchwoodteaboy]

Ianto watches the menus scroll for the other man, wishing he understood what exactly they said or how it worked. The question gives him pause and he sits back on the bed slightly as he contemplates his answer -- hopefully he's allowed to make himself comfortable, though John asking him questions about himself would imply a yes.

"Torchwood Cardiff was in operation since 1885," he says, after a moment. "They've been collecting things ever since, really, though their cataloging system changed a few times over the years and really there were a few people at certain times that should have left well enough alone. We probably have..." He winces. "Had, I suppose. Had about 3000 items. Give or take." He lifts a shoulder to shrug. "If we had more staff I might have done better but." But there were only five of them, and then Jack had pissed off to god knows where and left them with their head cut off, as it were.

[impavid]

Three thousand.

"That's a lot more than I expected," he admits, and sets the scanner down on the edge of the bed. "Guess you might have had some stuff like this and not even known. How long ago did you join?"

Torchwood, that is. Presumably he didn't join in 1885, but was it a year ago? A month? The teaboy comment suggested something maybe more recent, but then again it might be an old memory. Like Holland.