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[ ACTIVE / CLOSED ]
Who: John Sheppard, Ianto Jones & TJ!
What:Florida California Man introduces air-force medic to his roommate
When: Early in the month, when the new folk are waking up!
Where: Mess hall!
Warning(s): N/A
John had deferred the giant mech adventure for now -- since TJ was new and all, and it seemed like there was probably a lot of context and... general local information that might be beneficial to go over before plunging down in a time-frozen dystopia to tidy up after a dragon.
He's been evasive, which he feels a little bad about but overall he's not... quite sure he wants to open with 'oh, yeah, I was a branch of the US military which did space travel' right off the bat. It's meant to be classified, and sure he's... reasonably sure all that stuff no longer applies when Earth, New Lantea and probably all the other off-world bases have been eaten by the storm but --
But it's just such a long conversation, and people ask questions and he's tired and just wants to be normal for five minutes. So he's briefly mentioned Antarctica, Afghanistan, a vague summary of how he's flown in every continent and is currently idly going through 'my first adventure with the Natha' over a cup of tea and a plate of cheesy fries.
"So they finally beam us down to the planet," John is saying, "And this guy Voss is giving this twenty minute speech on how the Light of Thesa is a blessing or something and Thesa is a goddess who watches over them -- and I'm pretty sure the light is the teleport. But -- we're not meant to say, right? We've got to blend in. Pretend we're just local refugees even if we're all mismatched and weird. So --"
He pauses to take a sip of his drink, then something in his expression changes and he begins waving at someone behind TJ.
"Hey! There you are! TJ, this is Ianto Jones! Ianto, First Lieutenant Tamara Johansen -- Air Force. I was just giving her the delightful story of our first adventure out on the surface." Which was... definitely memorable, but John hasn't actually gone over all the more memorable bits and was probably planning to skip those. He glances back at TJ and flicks an idle smile. "Ianto's my roommate, he's in charge of telling me no. Ianto, sit!"
Apparently the 'no' part doesn't apply to things like diet choices. So Ianto should join them and eat more cheesy fries! They're in the middle of the table for a reason.
What:
When: Early in the month, when the new folk are waking up!
Where: Mess hall!
Warning(s): N/A
John had deferred the giant mech adventure for now -- since TJ was new and all, and it seemed like there was probably a lot of context and... general local information that might be beneficial to go over before plunging down in a time-frozen dystopia to tidy up after a dragon.
He's been evasive, which he feels a little bad about but overall he's not... quite sure he wants to open with 'oh, yeah, I was a branch of the US military which did space travel' right off the bat. It's meant to be classified, and sure he's... reasonably sure all that stuff no longer applies when Earth, New Lantea and probably all the other off-world bases have been eaten by the storm but --
But it's just such a long conversation, and people ask questions and he's tired and just wants to be normal for five minutes. So he's briefly mentioned Antarctica, Afghanistan, a vague summary of how he's flown in every continent and is currently idly going through 'my first adventure with the Natha' over a cup of tea and a plate of cheesy fries.
"So they finally beam us down to the planet," John is saying, "And this guy Voss is giving this twenty minute speech on how the Light of Thesa is a blessing or something and Thesa is a goddess who watches over them -- and I'm pretty sure the light is the teleport. But -- we're not meant to say, right? We've got to blend in. Pretend we're just local refugees even if we're all mismatched and weird. So --"
He pauses to take a sip of his drink, then something in his expression changes and he begins waving at someone behind TJ.
"Hey! There you are! TJ, this is Ianto Jones! Ianto, First Lieutenant Tamara Johansen -- Air Force. I was just giving her the delightful story of our first adventure out on the surface." Which was... definitely memorable, but John hasn't actually gone over all the more memorable bits and was probably planning to skip those. He glances back at TJ and flicks an idle smile. "Ianto's my roommate, he's in charge of telling me no. Ianto, sit!"
Apparently the 'no' part doesn't apply to things like diet choices. So Ianto should join them and eat more cheesy fries! They're in the middle of the table for a reason.
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John flips open the notebook at the back to the last blank page, begins sketching out two concentric circles.
"So, you know how in Cardiff you have your rift that things go in and out of. Well, the Ancients liked to build big things and that didn't just stop at big fancy ships. They built a network of devices that you could basically use to connect to each other with a wormhole, kinda like your rift only imagine you can direct it to spit you out somewhere specific every time you use it. So, we refer to these things as Stargates because the addressing system works with star constellations. You dial an address, it locks and opens a passage for you, then it closes behind you and you have to dial home when you want to head back."
He begins quickly drawing all the constellations around the circle, and nine lock points.
"But, how does addressing work? You don't need the gene to use these, just to know where you're going. Think of it like your zip code going into a GPS. There are six constellations you pick, then a seventh is the last one you plug in which says where you're coming from. It kinda finalises the address. It's spacially like a cube --"
He flips over another page and begins roughly drawing one, then drawing six dots and joining them in criss-crossing lines.
"Where all these lines cross is your destination, and then the seventh tells you the direction you're coming in."
John draws a seventh dot, then connects it through into the centre.
"But getting the order is important. Six symbols? You've got seven hundred and twenty possible permutations of the address, so random dialling doesn't get you far. It's better if you know where you're going. Especially since, what, there's thirty eight symbols on a Milky Way gate and one point of origin? That's nearly two billion possible address, divided by seven hundred and twenty is like -- over two and a half million plausible addresses. There's thirty six symbols on a Pegasus gate, and one is a point of origin, so that's like -- over one and a half million possible working addresses give or take."
He squints a second, calculating, then flips back to the gate picture.
"Anyway, the six plus point of origin rule keeps you within the same galaxy. If you want to jump further out, for example from the Milky Way to the Pegasus Galaxy where Atlantis is, you need an extra symbol to help it make the distance calculation before you put in the point of origin. Now, a nine symbol address is what TJ says they dialled. There are enough lock points on all the gates for that, but we've never had a nine symbol address before. So! If eight symbols adjusts to dial another galaxy, what's the ninth do? Another distance adjustment? A longer jump? We weren't part of that project, though I think I remember McKay complaining about it once, so honestly -- I don't know."
But maybe TJ can explain that better. He glances at Ianto to make sure his brain hasn't melted, then up at TJ curiously.
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He takes a long, slow sip of his coffee to give himself time to collect his thoughts.
"Our Rift is a naturally occurring, unpredictable phenomenon," he points out, just in case that hadn't been clear from the start. "We got ourselves into a lot of trouble when we went mucking about, trying to use it for our own purposes." He glances up at John. "But I've heard of other devices that do the same thing. Roughly. Jack had one, he. A vortex manipulator, he called it. I think it worked using the same idea, dialing in an address. Using numbers, though, on his wrist strap. I'm not quite sure, it didn't work anymore..."
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"Yeah, I mean. Colonel Sheppard's right." What can she add to that? "Dialing the ninth chevron required a lot of power, which is why they built Icarus where they did." Explosive planet. "They weren't sure they'd be able to dial it, even after the sequencing was put together. I don't know all details, but it took months and something about a code hidden in a video game-"
That's how Eli ended up with them, she knew that much.
When Ianto talks about the Rift, she gives him her own curious look. "So, do you guys just walk into it like." She points to the drawings John's made. "If you don't know where you're going or what's happening, how can you control it?"
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"Even dialling Pegasus required extra power," he adds, and mulls over the thought. A nine-chevron address, and something about a... code in a video game? The additional power requirement was probably huge, especially if they were using Icarus Base. Still -- the question to Ianto has John turning toward him -- closing his notebook and sliding it back to him with his pencil.
"That will now self-destruct in five seconds," he adds softly, and twitches a smile before leaning back with his tea to let Ianto take over.
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"Ehm," he says, trying to field TJ's question in the best way he can. "Well, technically we just monitor the Rift. It does a lot of spitting things out, from other places, other times." He glances at the pair of them warily. Technically, the rest of this is classified, even by Torchwood standards, but he doesn't really see the harm in sharing, considering. "And it sucks things up and sends them away." Sometimes it takes people. He's nearly said as much to John before, but he's not certain the other man's really understood what it meant before.
"Like I said, we can't really control it. We can't really even predict it. We just sort of..." He shrugs. "Deal with the fallout, I suppose." He glances aside at the pair of them. "The only time we tried to do anything specifically it sort of. Fractured time itself, a little. Which we fixed," he corrects quickly, "but I'm not sure it's really meant to be. Used. Not in the way that your gates are, anyway."
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Clearly, the things he's saying aren't supposed to be shared with just anyone, but if he's keeping the notebook with Colonel Sheppard's sketch, TJ figures it doesn't hurt if he talks about his day job from back home.
"So, when you say it sucks things up and sends them away, are you talking like... out of thin air?" She throws a glance at John to make sure he's following, too, before adding, "Because you said the one time you tried to do something specific you fractured time. What does that mean, exactly?"
It made sense that they weren't necessarily from the same place, but Earth was Earth and TJ was curious what this meant for Ianto and the people he knew.
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"If it helps," he adds, "I've broken lots of things in my time. McKay once destroyed a solar system. Uninhabited."
He takes a sip of his tea calmly, flashes Ianto a casual smile. So, you know, fracturing time a bit might sound bad but... on the SGC scale of things, probably not the worst thing that has happened.
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He meets John's eyes for a brief moment, hoping that whatever he's about to say won't reflect too terribly on him, in retrospect, before he continues to explain himself a little further.
"We opened the Rift to save some of the members of our team who had been -- kidnapped through time," he explains. "But it didn't really -- close after that. People started to fall through the Rift into our time. Through time. Romans. Soldiers from the Civil War -- the English one, that is. Carriers of the Bubonic Plague. There was an outbreak, and we. The only way we had to send them all back was to open it up again. And in doing that we released. I don't know. A demon, who had been imprisoned in the Rift. Abaddon, it was called. The Great Devourer. And in doing so." He presses his lips together. "A lot of people died before we could destroy it. Like I said. It's not really something that we'd ever want to chance repeating again..."
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Hearing Ianto discuss his past helps TJ truly understand that not everyone comes from the same place or time. Earth it may have been, but this was something else. Something she'd never heard of and, clearly, it was something that had affected Ianto's every day life, much like the SGC had affected her day to day decisions and John's-- well, the same.
She gives the man an encouraging smile and nods her head. "It sounds like it was a lot to handle a lot of the time." She doesn't want to give platitudes or sound patronizing.
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He looks back at Ianto and tries to press down on the urge to ask, twitches and presses his lips together. It's fine, he can --
No, unfortunately he can't.
"I'm sorry," he says finally, and he leans forward onto the table with a wince. "Did you say The Great Devourer?"
Was this version of Cardiff actually in Sunnydale, Ianto?
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He glances aside to TJ, as if to apologize in advance for this conversation -- and for John for that matter, he knew he was going to ask about this as soon as he saw that look on the other man's face -- before he turns back to the other man to respond.
"The Great Devourer. Son of the Great Beast," he continues. As if the rest of it weren't enough. "Cast out before time." He pauses a moment, before raising his eyebrows and explaining, "It's in the Bible, it's not like I'm just coming up with this stuff on my own."
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Thanks, John.
She lifts a shoulder in solidarity when Ianto looks at her, but the truth is... she's curious. "I've read the Bible and, not that I'd call it fiction, you know, necessarily." She doesn't want to offend in case either man is particularly religious. "I just. Wasn't sure that the things mentioned inside were still." Looking at John for help, she finishes lamely. "Real."
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"No," John says, "I'm sorry but I'm with TJ on this. I thought you were miniature home-world security -- you know, alien threats. So did you name an alien after a biblical threat or are you also The Slayer part time and the rift is a hell-mouth?"
This is something you should have mentioned, Ianto! Demons! Demons are absolutely worth mentioning! There is no way John can just let go of demonic things suddenly being part of your job!
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"Listen, I'm. Look, I'm pretty sure it inspired the Biblical threat, I mean it definitely existed before then," he says. "But I'm not an expert. I barely even knew about Abaddon myself until we ran into it first-hand. I'm not talking heaven and hell, John. I mean -- real, ancient creatures. Beings capable of existing outside of time and space, I mean. So, yes, they called it a demon when they were figuring out how to classify it. I mean. It's not like it came from space. Not everything we dealt with came from space, there were. The cannibals? And the -- fairies?"
In retrospect that one is going to need a bit of explanation too.
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Absolutely refusing to look at John this time because, honestly, she's not trying to gang up on Ianto, she clears her throat. "And fairies, right? Not cannibal fairies." Right? "Not that you have any say on things, exactly, but." What. "What?"
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"The cannibals were outside Cardiff," he says finally, because he does remember that bit. Anyway -- "This is actually horribly plausible. I mean, we're buddies with Hermiod and the SGC spent a long time dealing with Ba'al."
So, in the grand scheme of things... John turns his squint on Ianto.
"I still don't like your hell-mouth situation, thought."
Just so they're clear on that.
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Hermiod and Ba'al? The names vaguely ring a bell and he supposes they must mean something in the context of this conversation, but for the life of him Ianto can't quite place them. Regardless, it's enough to help the other man believe what he's saying and he supposes that's something. Still...
He makes a face at the other man in turn. "For what it's worth, I'm not exactly keen on the idea of it myself," he replies. "Though he's dead now. Jack killed him -- my boss," he says, explaining for TJ's sake, "so there'll be no more torment from The Great Devourer, at least. So long as we don't open it up intentionally again, I'm pretty sure nothing that big can actually come through. Comparatively speaking, the odd unknown alien artifact is a relief."
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"Alien artifacts sound more up-" This time she'll spare the Colonel a glance, feeling more at ease. "That's why the SGC started, really. Exploration, learning and finding new things." See, practically the same thing. Except. She watches Ianto for a moment longer, then: "Okay, one more question. How'd he kill it?"
Just to make sure. Not that the Storm shouldn't have done it's job, but is that thing in stasis somewhere?
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"Throw it back in the rift?" he guesses, "along with a nuke?"
Careless use of nukes: the american way. It's always worth a try.
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"Not the worst idea," he replies, raising an eyebrow at John, "though I'm not sure that wouldn't have blown up the entire city in the process. No, he..." Ianto dances delicately around the reply. "Abaddon fed on life, yeah? He seeped the life out of things. So I guess you could say we gave him something we had on hand that. He wasn't able to feed off of, and he couldn't handle the result."
A delicate way of saying he sucked so much life out of Jack that he died and Jack himself didn't come back for three full days. But. That is neither here nor there.
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"If it fed on life, what could you have possibly given it that it couldn't handle?"
Look, Ianto. Delicate isn't going to work at this point. She has to know details.
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"Something that would poison it, or interrupt the feeding process in some way?"
John feels his spidey senses prickling nervously at this, because he's imagining different scenarios. Terminally ill people, drugs, situations that he's already had to abandon once before because they rubbed wrong.
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"I don't know exactly how it worked," he replies honestly. "I wasn't there to see how it happened, Jack wouldn't. Let any of us get too close while he did it." Since it would have killed any of them but him. "But it overwhelmed the creature, so much so that it died from what I understand, so I suppose it could have been considered as a sort of poison?"
Don't judge them for this, the thing was literally three times the size of anything around and it killed people just by passing its shadow over them. It needed to be stopped...
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She's definitely not judging. She also doesn't know Jack or his idea of a very long life.
"What did he feed it?"
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"If it's all sciencey, don't worry about the details," he says. An out, of sorts, if Ianto needs it. "I know not everyone is as brilliant at diagram drawing as I am."
A topic change as well, if he wants. John is happy to redirect onto himself as a joke if need be, it doesn't bother him. He'd be a hypocrite if he forced Ianto into discussing things he didn't want to after dodging so many things himself.
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