nexus_crossings | (no subject)

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"Coffee or tea?" Ianto was exploring the Plaza after being dumped in it not long ago, and once he is able to replace the clothing he died in with another suit, he opts to ask a question. He is hanging out at the park, and he is sitting on a bench with a paper cup filled with a warm cup of coffee. He is trying to deal with the fact one he is dead and two he is not dead. He's not sure if a deadman should be able to smell or even taste. And if Owen's recent time as a zombie should have taught him, Ianto Jones should not be able to enjoy a hot cup of coffee.

But his cheeky question didn't seem serious, and not exactly, what Ianto Jones was looking for. He stares at the cup that he hasn't touched out of fear of having to purge it out. "So what can one tell me about being dead? Or undead for that matter?" The cut on his cheek is still there, and he still feels a tad bit ill from the alien virus that killed him. And he clears his throat, and he looks at the cup of coffee with a sense of longing. "And is this Nexus place either Heaven or Hell? And if not do you believe in whatever afterlife that you've been told about?" He phews after asking his question to what seems to be none.

He has more to ask about the matter, but Ianto hopes to spill those questions on whoever might answer his questions about life and death.

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Ianto finally decides to bite the bullet and he takes a sip of his coffee. It doesn't seem to taste half bad, or it just tastes good because Ianto realizes he can taste something. He puts the cup of coffee down on the picnic table in front of him, and he looks up at the woman with a smile on his face.

"I'm sorry, nothing really leaves you ready for the act of dying. Then again most people don't tend to come back, or find themselves somewhere completely different." He scoots over on the bench to make room for Adia to have a seat if she wants simply so she doesn't sit on the other 'dirty' bench. He reaches back for his coffee, and he takes another drink. "I've never been religious either, but I suppose we hope that we'll be greeted in Paradise or wherever it is by loved ones. Or we just end up food for the worms."

Ianto stops as he raises an eyebrow. "Sorry for the macabre conversation." And he smiles a little. "It's just I happened to well..." He lifts his one hand off from his coffee cup, and he wiggles his fingers. "...experience it first hand. Well at least rigamortis hasn't set in yet."

Adia smiles at Ianto gratefully and takes the offered seat. She wishes briefly that she had a cup of coffee as well, more to give her hands something to do than because of any actual craving. She settles for resting her hands in her lap. "I never gave much thought to the afterlife, to be honest. Not until the War started."

Her eyes widen at Ianto's admission. "You don't look dead," she says before wincing. "Sorry. Is that offensive? I don't mind talking about death, it's fine. In fact... um, can you tell me what it was like? Only if you want to," she adds hurriedly. "It's just that someone I was close to died and came back to life, but... well, it's a long story but I can't ask him."

Ianto is great when it comes to his manners, and he looks at the coffee in his hand and if he had more money, he'd offer to buy her something. So for now, Ianto simply leaves his coffee be, and he still worries about it sitting in his stomach for who knows how long. But when Adia mentions a war, his eyebrows arch upwards. "I think that's one of the things war does to a person. It makes you question your own morality."

"And, no, I'm not hard to offend. Though maybe if there were some very nasty looking zombies roaming the streets, perhaps they would take offense." Ianto changes the mood of the conversation, and he laughs a little and he cuts himself short. "Oh? As for what it was like, the part prior wasn't present but when it came, it wasn't anything special. I just saw darkness, and then there was all of this."

"I've always been agnostic," Adia admits. "It's tempting to wish for a happy afterlife where I'll see my family again, but I can't put faith into something I don't have any evidence for."

She smiles wryly, both relieved that Ianto hasn't taken offense and amused at the idea that she would say anything to a nasty looking zombie instead of just running the other way. But his answer to her question makes her lose her smile. "I see." She tries not to think of her friend, the one who died, and instead says, "You know, I've heard of people coming to the Nexus after they've died in their universe, and... well, I guess that technically makes them undead, but they aren't dead physiologically, if that makes any sense."

"You're right about not putting faith into something none of us have proof over. But I suppose it is better than thinking about the opposite. An eternity of nothingness." And Ianto has heard one of his friends speak of it being just that. And even from his own experience there was no bright light, no pearly gates, and certainly his friends weren't there for him.

And he looks back to the tempting cup of coffee again, and the part about people coming to the Nexus after they've died. Now that will explain why he doesn't look dead, and he still is breathing. "In other words, this place is going to be my home unless I look forward to being a corpse. But it makes some sense, but I suppose I'll get used to it. At least it beats the other alternative."

He smiles and he looks over at his coffee. "I'd offer to buy you a cup, but I was fortunate enough to pull out enough money from my old clothes to buy this for myself."

"It's no fun to think about," Adia agrees. "Sometimes I think that's the only reason we still have religion, even after everything else has been explained by science."

"Maybe just your own world," she amends, feeling bad for him. There are worse places to get stuck, but she knows what it's like to never be able to return home.

"Oh! Thank you, but actually, they have free coffee here." Her smile returns, glad that she can offer some good news. "Tea and hot chocolate, too. One of those machines that will brew a cup or hot water. It's over by the vending machines, in the plaza."

Ianto gasps in mock horror at the mention of vending machine coffee. "Yup, this is most certainly hell." He looks at the coffee he paid for, and then to Adia. "I really hope you weren't trying to kill me again!" His tone is teasing, and he goes to take another drink of his coffee.

"You're right about lots of things being prove by science. Just sometimes having something to believe in no matter how silly it seems when times are dark can be reassuring to people." He continues to hold the cup, and he tries to think of what his own world would be like. "I think I'll just keep to the Nexus proper. And find something to do with myself while I start my life here."

And that there is another question for another day. But Ianto goes to turn around, and offer Adia a hand. "And I don't believe I caught your name."

She knows he's only joking, but Adia huddles into herself a bit at the coffee critique, twisting the ends of her scarf around her hands anxiously. "It's better than what we have back home," she says softly, in her defense. "And it's free. My currency is worthless here."

"It's good to have something to believe in," she agrees. "If not religion, then maybe in other people, or second chances." She untangles one of her hands from her scarf and shakes Ianto's hand. "Adia Costas. I've already met someone who has managed to start over in the Nexus. I don't live or work here, but both are certainly possible."

"That seems strange, they didn't give me trouble when I gave them a few pound notes. Because you would think a place like this would accept money from anywhere." Ianto then wonders if he just got lucky, and he might try to brake up the twenty quid he is got in his pocket. "Or maybe they were simply giving you a hard time."

And with a firm shake of her hand, Ianto introduces himself. "Ianto. Ianto Jones. And you are right when people finding hope in other people, and a belief in giving others a second chance. I've had experienced that numerous times, and more recently before my death."

Edited 2016-09-23 19:06 (UTC)

"Oh, I... I didn't ask. There's no real economy anymore, where I'm from, since we've been on the run from the enemy. I don't have any paper currency." She'd rather just assume that the few coins in her possession have no value than try to buy something and be told that her money is no good.

"It's nice to meet you, Ianto. Were you from Earth? What did you do before you... um, before you came here?"

"It doesn't hurt to try and see if the money is good here or not. The most you'll do is look a bit daft for it." Ianto wasn't about to be left with a cup of bad coffee sit in his stomach for eternity. If it was going to happen, it was going to be something good and welcoming.

And then the question of what he was doing before he came here. He sighs, but seeing there is no worry about the laws of Torchwood, or rules for that matter he sees no harm in being open about it.

"Yup. I'm from good ol'planet Earth. And what I was doing before I got here was my job. And seeing there is no harm in telling, I will tell you. My job involved dealing with hostile aliens. And my death was the result in me trying to do my job."

Adia shrugs self-consciously. "I guess it doesn't hurt to try," she agrees quietly. "As much as I like coffee, it'd be nice to have something more substantial here."

She seems only mildly surprised by Ianto's answer, but she has met enough people in the Nexus to accept the extraordinary. "That sounds like a dangerous profession. You must be very brave."

"It was very dangerous, and I nearly got killed before." Ianto takes another drink of his coffee. "And to think the public never really knew about the things I did." And he finishes the last drop of coffee in his cup, and he sets it down on the table besides him.

And a faint smile crosses his face. "Though I reckon after what I encountered that all changed." The smile is quick to fade. "And not in a positive way either, though I wouldn't blame the people back home for how they feel towards alien life."

"The aliens were kept secret?" She asks. "But not anymore?" She twists the ends of her scarf nervously. "Is there a war now, between the two?"

"Think. If the general population at large would have the fundamental idea of there being intelligence life on Earth, what do you think would happen. I'm not saying this to be an ass, okay; maybe I'm coming off as an ass. But after we were invaded by, a race known, as The Daleks, and they happened to move the Earth to another place in space. it was really hard to sweep that one under the rug."

Ianto's tone is as serious as the look on his face, as he clasps his hands together. "We managed to defeat them, so there isn't a war. Oh. And we moved Earth back to where it belongs. Still that hasn't stopped hostile the encounters with other non-terrestrial life forms."

His voice relaxes and he rests his hands on the table, and he looks at her, as he doesn't want to place all the blame on their visitors. "We just don't protect humanity. We also protect the aliens who find themselves stuck here from humans who seek to do them harm."

"We couldn't even handle sentient robots," Adia says with a small grimace. "I don't know how we'd even begin to handle alien life... I'm glad there isn't a war, though. And that Earth is back where it belongs. We're... well, we were looking for Earth, for a time. It'd make a search that much harder if it had moved."

"What are the aliens like, the ones that you protect?"

"You had sentient robots? Were they alien sentient robots?" Ianto knows they have enough trouble with organic based aliens, and the thought of something like a Terminator showing up in Cardiff was not something Ianto ever wanted to deal with. "Eitehr way it sounds like they were a handful."

"As for the good aliens, it is hard to explain other than they simply came seeking asylum or got lost. But the good aliens seemed so rare compared to everyone else who came across Earth."

Adia shakes her head. "No, they were made by humans. They were designed for dangerous labor and given artificial intelligence... their sentience emerged, somehow, and they rebelled their work conditions. It started a a war." She smiles tiredly. "Still a handful... we're under occupation."

It's a depressing sentiment, the ratio of good to bad aliens, at least to Adia. "Maybe there are other good aliens, but they're better at blending in," she suggests. "So they don't need your organization's help."

"Killer AI, sounds like every bit of science fiction involving robots." Ianto is sympathetic to the situation Adia's world is going through. The thought of something humanity making an AI that would gain sentience is chilling. "And seeing they were originally built to do dangerous labor, I'd hate to think of what they've done to you lot."

He looks to his empty coffee cup, and then he looks to the people in the Plaza. And as much as he knows about how diverse the universe is, and even though he's seen some of it, everything seems to compare to it. And he laughs a little at the thought of the good aliens hiding in plain sight. "I wouldn't blame them for hiding either. And there are plenty of aliens that exist who look human."

"The ones that still look like robots have machine guns in their arms," Adia says with an uncomfortable frown. "But the ones who look human are the most dangerous." She twists the ends of her scarf and hesitates to say more, not wanting to burden her problems on someone who's dealing with his own. Finally, she adds, "They've killed most of us by destroying the twelve colonies. We were on the run for a while, but they caught up to us."

Still, she's alive and looks healthy, despite the wear on her clothes. "Technically, I'd be an alien if I visited your Earth," she points out. "If there are aliens who look human, then... well, they'd be treated like any other human."

"The least obvious threat is the biggest threat." Ianto can understand how living under any type of occupation can be horrible. And even if The Dalek occupation of Earth was short lived, it was horrific and for some point it truly did look grim. And he was fortunate enough to get an insiders story from some of the families who lost loved ones. But it wasn't his job to play nice, but to make sure that people 'forgot'.

But there's a nod of his head. "We'd know no better. That's unless you'd go wonky, and made it obvious that you weren't exactly human. But those who slide under the radar without drawing attention to themselves do just fine."

Adia nods unhappily. She'd have a great deal of sympathy for anyone under the Dalek occupation -- the Cylons have at least the facade of peaceful subjugation. "What have been the scariest aliens you've encountered?" she asks, to get a bit of perspective.

"I think there's very little danger of me going 'wonky'," Adia says with a small laugh. "I don't think there's much difference between me and an Earthling, anyway. In my universe, Earth was colonized by the thirteenth tribe who left Kobol before everyone else. We shouldn't be genetically any different."

Ianto sits and thinks on the question of the scariest alien, and without sounding, the least bit bitter he answers. "Humans. I know as a whole we're not bad, but I came to question humanity in the past four days and what it is capable of doing." The entire rounding up kids to give to the 456 to use as drugs doesn't sit well with Ianto right now.

"And when we're cornered we're ruthless, or we just throw our hands up in the air to give whatever that happens to be threatening us exactly what it wants. And don't get me started on how we treat each other." Nope he doesn't sound the least bit bitter, nope, nope, all is just fine as he stares at his coffee cup and fiddles with it in his hands. "And I find it really hard to think that at some point we'll become the model civilization in the universe." He coughs. "Well my universe that is, or so my boss has told me."

Adia looks down at the twisted ends of her scarf while Ianto gives his answer. It wasn't what she was expecting, but she doesn't disagree, not when his reasoning hits so close to home. "We've done all of that and more," she says softly. "Maybe it's for the best that we're all alone in my universe."

That last bit catches her attention, however, and the tiny spark of hope that she always carries within her. "Model civilization? In what way?"

"I hardly doubt you're alone in your universe. I mean with all of those planets, stars, and galaxies there has to be intelligent life out there just waiting to meet you, or perhaps you have already crossed paths." Ianto knows things are different now, but with how Jack spun the stories it all seems surreal to know that humanity will finally get its act together and act civilized.

He looks back to the coffee cup, and he goes to fish his hand into his pocket to pull out some change. "If there's one thing we're known for it is the humanities. But my boss wouldn't tell me much more." He gets to his feet, and he stretches his legs out. "I was going to see about another cup."

"I wish I had your optimism," Adia says with a small smile. "We've traveled through our galaxy quite a bit... if they're out there, they aren't making themselves known." Maybe the aliens know better than to get involved with a species that seems determined to cause its own extinction. Or maybe sentient robots fill the "science fiction" quota of her universe.

She stands up as well, quickly, and dusts off her hands. "Oh. Don't let me keep you, then. It was nice to meet you, Ianto."

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