poly_chromatic | || one ☯ video / action

[Jack is standing in the square, looking up and around at the City and then back down at the Vortex Manipulator on his wrist.] Oh, come on. You had to malfunction now? I mean you've done it before, but...

[Another few brisk taps at the wristband.] Work! If you don't work, a lovely second in command named Bernard is going to be very disappointed when he's stood up. And seriously, of all the places...

[Another sigh as he looks around him again. No way had he wanted to come back to Earth yet. It had been a couple of months but all that guilt he carried still felt as if he'd only acquired it yesterday. He wasn't ready to be here on Earth again. At least it seemed Earth-like...]

Well isn't this nifty? And convenient... [He spots the device and eyes it for a few accessing moments before picking it up. It's rare that Jack shies away from alien technology so he he instantly begins to fiddle with it. The video comes on to a brightly smiling Jack.] Ah, there we go. Captain Jack Harkness here. [And since he knows his smile is impressive, he nods his agreement with what others obviously must be thinking at the sight of it.] I know.

Seems I'm a little bit off course from where I intended to materialize. Malfunctioning Vortex Manipulator. Anyone care to put me up for the night while I work on repairing it? [A glance to his left at the coffee shop and then an arched brow back into the video screen.] I'll be sure to con you a cup of coffee for your trouble.

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I could help you with that last part. Coffee.

[but seriously, though...] You don't remember this place?

[Another dead person? Yeah he is seriously starting to get freaked out. Mostly because he's pretty sure that his fiends are getting reanimated like zombies or taken over by some alien species. And he isn't going to let that happen. He takes on a look of determination to hide the guilt that seeing Ianto arouses inside of him.]

I've never seen this place before. But whatever you are you're going to stop what you're doing. You're going to get out of his body so I can kill you. [Because killing anything that looks like Ianto would just break him all over again. He isn't sure he can do it.] Painfully.

[Not the reaction he'd been expecting, or hoping for. He frowns, blinks at the screen a few times. Here he thought Jack got over wanting to kill him ages ago.

Wait. He thinks he's an alien? Ianto isn't an alien, wouldn't he know that sort of thing?]

Jack... I haven't done anything. This is me. There's been no shipeshifters or alien intervention here, alright? Please, you have to believe me.

[It wasn't that he wanted to kill Ianto. He wanted to kill whatever was walking around in his dead 'whatever's' body and he wanted to kill it now. Ianto deserved better than to play meat suit to whatever was animating him right now. In fact, Jack was sitting here getting angrier and angrier, wishing he'd been holding a that sonic rifle he liked so much when he'd transported here.]

Prove it. And oh... [That 'oh' is said with a bit of a maniacal laugh to it, the kind of laugh that proves that he is not playing around and that he's on his last string of sanity at the moment. Just when he's beginning to get past everything that had happened back on Earth, there's this?] ...oh it better be good.

Jack, what -? [Now Ianto is disturbed. He looks downright pissed off, and he is. What is Jack playing at? He wants to go and have another drink and forget this, but... instead he continues to stare the other man down as not to run off.] If anyone should be asking about alien intervention or possession, it should be me, with the way that you're acting right now. This is ridiculous. But seeing as you've just arrived, I'll humor you.

Ask me something only I'd know.

Humor me? Yeah, humor me. [Alright, he wants to rip whatever is walking around looking like his 'whatever' out of that skin through it's throat. But he's willing to listen for a brief moment. People keep telling him that this is Ianto and that Tosh is Tosh. And he, of all people, can understand different time lines crossing each other.]

What did you tell me about gloves after we finally buried Suzy for the last time? How do I take my coffee? How did we meet?

[Ianto sighs, runs a hand over his face. He's more and more wanting to throw this thing across the room. Head back to the nearest pub. Tell Jack exactly what he thinks of him right now.] I told you that there may be another one, that gloves always came in pairs. You take your coffee black, but occasionally like a bit of sugar.

As for that, I jumped a Weevil that was attacking you. I wanted the job so I followed you. You left but I stood in front of your base the next day with coffee and asked you for a job, which you denied. The next night, you found me and we caught a dinosaur with a tranquilliser and bar of dark chocolate.

Dammit, Jack! I'm not some alien joyrider in a stolen body. It's really me.

Edited (i wasn't ready to post :c) 2012-03-13 05:45 (UTC)

[After a few heavy breaths, while he takes all that in, his features slowly soften around the edges. Either this is really Ianto or the alien is able to glean his memories. Jack is leaning on the side of this somehow being Ianto. It takes him several moments to keep any tears that might gather in his eyes at bay and to push all that guilt he still feels deep down enough to put on a good show.

But finally, he smiles, calling Ianto's name cheerfully.] Ianto! Nice to see your pretty face again. [And a bit unnerving. Okay, very unnerving. But his smile holds.] Just can't get enough of me, can you?

[Ianto frowns, studying Jack and his reactions, his own anger pushed to the side. The sudden flash of pain, to the smile that Ianto is so used to quickly replacing it.]

At the risk of inflating that ego anymore, I am glad to see you again as well.

Jack.. is everything alright?

Everything's fine! Great, even. [Except his heart is all twisted in knots at the moment with the sight of you alive and walking around, Ianto. And he still isn't a hundred percent sure about you. But he knows that you seem to know him. And Ianto is acting like Ianto. It's hard not to soften up to him.]

Things are always fine, you know. Even when the world's falling apart... just depends on how you look at it. [He's kind of talking to himself here. Convincing himself that this is okay, that Ianto is okay, and that maybe they would be okay. The thing is, on the inside, he doesn't feel okay.] So you've been in this place... how long?

[He knows better than to push Jack into talking about something he doesn't want to, and if he ever does in time - Ianto would be here. Still. Maybe he could ask Gwen or someone if they knew what this was about because he is still on the confused side.]

Of course. We get by. [this is accentuated with a half shrug.] Ah. Not long. Little more than a month now, maybe.

['We get by.' Such an Ianto thing to say. Jack has to work really, really hard not to let his emotions get the better of him, not to let the lump in his throat be anything more than a lump. He swallows hard, smirks and nods.]

Yeah, we always do.

[The math of course doesn't add up. It's been lots of months since Ianto died, thanks to him. But then he guesses that's the nature of a place like this, if others are to be believed.] Lucky for you there was another me here, from what I understand. So you didn't have to do without. Good to know that some things go right. [Even if he couldn't remember one thing about them. And he's just assuming that Ianto would be glad to have him here in whatever capacity, just because he's cocky enough to do so.]

I was only here about two, three weeks before we were all separated and the City went nuts. When I got back he -- you had been gone for about a week and a half.

But it is good to see you again.

Does it not seem to disturb anyone else that I have no memory of being in this place? It's like I've been retconned and everyone knows something I don't. Gotta say I don't like it, being on the outside.

[Cause honestly, that is what it feels like. Everyone talking about this other him as if it were actually him when it wasn't. Not a good feeling getting the backlash of another him. He'll just pile that on top of the rest of the not so great things he's feeling and pretend they don't exist.

Instead, he grins at Ianto and arches a brow.] You didn't let anyone retcon me, did you Ianto? [The question is half-joke, half-serious. Cause Jack definitely feels retconned.] Kidding. Gwen's staying all alone. Gonna go check on her. Make sure she's okay.

[Gwen was the only one who was alive when he left. It's more comfortable there at the moment.] I'm... sorry I thought you were an alien. And uh... it's good to see you too. [Alive.] You don't know how good.