parked | Log with Ianto: The Proof is in the Pudding

"Yeah," Sulu said, grinning a bit before working on finishing his own burger. He never ate entirely too fast, so it took him a little bit, but he figured Ianto could distract himself by looking around the area below from their vantage point. Maybe he'd see a shop or something he'd want to hit up - who knew?

Once he finished, he added, "We can hit up a souvenir shop even, if you want. 'S not like any of that's expensive."

Ianto sat, eating his chips, thinking about it. Souvenirs... How would he explain away something from America in his own rather Spartan room? It would have to be something that wasn't quite obvious, something that he could just shrug and say that a friend gave him. But. Even to just have that one thing, and know how he got it... It'd be fairly spectacular, really.

"Yeah, alright," he said, with a bit of a smile. "Dunno what I might find, but it's worth a shot. Could always get...I'm not even sure. Nothing that'd stand out too much when I'm from..." For all he knew, even mechanical pencils were complicated now.

"Everyone I know has like, at least a shot glass from one of these places," Sulu replied, shrugging as he picked off a few fries, "And those aren't always big or fancy, right?" He waved a hand. "I'm sure we'll find something, anyway. Let me pay and we'll head out, yeah?"

Ianto wasn't sure that he could get a shot glass. He was almost legal to drink yes, but. Maybe...a coffee mug instead. At least then it'd be something inconspicuous. Tad wouldn't chide him for drinking from a mug, at least. "Yeah, sure," Ianto said, momentarily forgetting that he didn't have money for this country, let alone this time period. He suddenly felt guilty for making the other pay for him. "...thank you," he said, his manners poking their head out again. "For paying for me. And doing this. You... You don't have to, after all."

Sulu shrugged. "Don't worry about it. I'm breaking my punishment, so I might as well do it totally, y'know? Besides, it's not like I don't have the spending money." Things weren't that expensive, anyway; they were little luxuries, and inflation had disappeared, so it wasn't as though you got overcharged for things.

Once Sulu had paid for their meal, he waved towards the stairs back down to the main boardwalk. "C'mon, we'll find something to do. Even if it's just hanging out by the water or something."

Ianto stood, walking with Sulu as the pair of them left the restaurant. "Yeah, alright. Honestly, just about anything sounds good to me," he said, sticking his hands in his jean pockets. "I'm glad that I don't stand out too much here, at least. I mean. Yeah, the accent, but. I'm glad that you all still dress the same way, if nothing else." They passed another person dressed in a Starfleet uniform, which gave Ianto pause for a moment. "...alright, mostly the same way. But it's not, like. I dunno. Two hundred years ago for me, women were still in corsets and hoop skirts, and men had handlebar mustaches and cravats and the likes..."

Sulu laughed, "Yeah, some of the classic literature we have to read for school talks about people in our era wearing like... silver spandex and stuff, but really that's not how most people dress." He shrugged, "I mean, there are some planets where the fashion is kind of strange, but y'know. Jeans are pretty much always going to be in style."

He led Ianto down the stairs, then turned to head down the boardwalk, towards the huge, 2-story carousel that had been on the pier since the 20th century, even if it barely showed after so many renovations.

Ianto followed him, trying to stick as close as he could to the other boy's side just because of how large of a crowd there was, now that the lunch hour was essentially over and everyone was back out and wandering the boardwalk as well, in all of its touristy glory. As they turned to head toward the carousel, though, Ianto's eyes widened.

"I thought you said carousel," he said to the other boy, "not...whatever the hell that is. I'm not even sure..." Carousels weren't supposed to have multiple stories, as far as Ianto was concerned.

Sulu raised an eyebrow, looking at Ianto, then at the carousel down the walk. "It is a carousel. It's just a two-level one - it's been like that pretty much for forever, like even in your time. They've had to redo the animals almost every decade for the last few years though - for some reason, they're really set on keeping it 'true to form' or something." Meaning: wood. It was a far cry from the remodeled crab statue at the end of the pier where they'd come from, which had been done over in three different ways before then.

This, though, kept with the theme; there were sea lions, dragons, horses - though they'd also installed animals from other Federation planets, some of which Sulu didn't remember the name of. He smirked at Ianto, "Almost makes you want to go on, huh?"

Ianto shook his head. "Then this is something that's entirely American. We certainly don't have two-level carousels in Wales, that's for sure." They barely even had one-level carousels, but that was besides the point. "I don't even... What is that?" he asked, pointing out one of the animals that a particularly ambitious little child was all but hanging off of as it went around.

At Sulu's question, Ianto raised an eyebrow. "Makes me want to go on a carousel?" he asked, making a bit of a face. "I'm from the past, and I'm from Wales, but that doesn't make me bloody five years old, mate," he said, half-incredulously, half really rather amused at it all.

"Hey, man, I'm just saying. It's a pretty cool attraction, all things said and done." Sulu held up his hands in defense, though his expression showed how little he was really offended. "It's not like every carousel in America is like this, though, you know. It's always been two-stories, all the way back to the 20th century."

Ianto stared at it some more, shaking his head. "Well. It is pretty impressive," Ianto agreed. "I just... It's kind of...gaudy, yeah? With all the lights and such. Like. It stands out a bit, yeah. Which I guess is fine if you're a kid, but." He looked sideways at Sulu, quirking a smirk at him. "If you think you're gonna convince me to get on, however, you've got another thing coming, mate. Maybe we should keep walking, before you start getting ideas about any of this..."

Sulu rolled his eyes. "C'mon, it's a merry-go-round for crying out loud. They're supposed to be gaudy and flashy! Besides, it's always been a big landmark on the pier, so whatever, man." He waved his hand, gesturing for Ianto to follow him as he started to make their way past the large carousel. "And are you kidding me? If you went on, I'd be obligated to go too, and that's not exactly my style."

Ianto grinned. "Glad we're both in agreement on that much, at least," he said, sending the carousel one last look before they started on their way away from it. He nodded down the boardwalk, to an area where the crowd was a lot thicker than it had been so far. Something exciting or popular must be over there. "...what's down there, then?" Ianto asked, automatically drawn to it because whatever it was, it seemed to have the crowd excited.

Sulu followed Ianto's gesture with his eyes, shrugging a bit when he saw the tourist-laden crowd. "I dunno - probably a performance of something. There's always someone out here doing something, like street art or music or something." Still, that was probably just the kind of thing Ianto could stand to see, so he nodded in that direction before moving towards the crowd. "C'mon, we can check it out."

Ianto nodded, heading after Sulu in the direction of the crowd. "Performance?" he asked, cocking his head slightly. "Street art? I... What's that, then? Do people normally just set up on the street randomly?" That didn't happen so much on the streets of Newport. He'd seen it sometimes in Cardiff, the times he'd been there, but. In general, people just kind of went about their business. He'd never really hung around any tourist areas before, aside from the Plass, which had only been the once and it had been a school trip anyway, it's not like he could just wander off and check out what all was going on.

"Some people do. You know, musicians and those guys who act like statues and stuff." The crowd was pretty thick, and Sulu couldn't help but wonder who the hell was performing that so many people were interested in. "It might be a cultural show too. Like an Orion dance, even though they're usually... uh, not here. You don't see too many of them, after all. But that'd be kind of kickass."

"An Orion dance?" Ianto asked, raising an eyebrow at Sulu curiously. "Orions are...those green women that we saw earlier, right? While we were driving? What's so great about their dancing, then? Are they, like... I dunno, masters of the art, or something?" If they were, that would certainly explain the crowd, after all. Or something. Ianto couldn't remember if he'd seen a crowd like this gather for one single impromptu event in Cardiff before...

"Y-eah, you could say that," Sulu said, grinning. "I actually don't know if they're even allowed to do that kind of thing in public." And, okay, he was letting his imagination get the best of him, because chances are it wasn't anything like that, but who could really blame him? He'd never seen Orions dance before, only heard stories, and so of course they became larger than life in his head. Once they reached the crowd, he started gently elbowing his way through, leading the way towards the front. "C'mon, at least we can see what it is."

Ianto nodded, elbowing his own path into the crowd, the people shifting around him. A very tall person stood in front of him and he sighed, inching his way through to the right, getting caught up in what seemed to be almost a tour group until finally he managed to find a spot to see what was going on.

It was a street performance, like Sulu'd suggested. Not an Orion dance (which was slightly sad, because Ianto's curiosity had been peaked), but some sort of alien street magician instead. At least, that's what it appeared to be to Ianto. He wasn't sure what was going on, exactly, how much of it was technology that he just had no idea existed, all that sort of thing. It was impressive though. Ianto could see why it had drawn a crowd. He watched for a good five minutes or so, mesmerized, before turning to comment to Sulu about it...and not finding him. Ianto cast a glance around, his heartbeat speeding up as he realized...he couldn't see the other boy anywhere. And calling out to him was absolutely out of the question.

Sulu had gotten to the front after pushing past a family of five, unfortunately unable to do much more than lean around a few Starfleet cadets to catch the apparent show going on. It was a pretty good magic show, all things considered; Sulu knew some of the tricks were pulled off with all sorts of little gadgets, but they were hard to pick out among the ones that looked like real magic.

After a few minutes, Sulu realized that Ianto wasn't saying much of anything; he looked over his shoulder, expecting to see the other absorbed by the magic show - and instead didn't see him at all. Immediately, Sulu's mind went blank save for the thought that he'd lost a 20th century kid in the 23rd century, and he was sure that Starfleet would find out and then where would he be? In jail or something, probably, if he didn't destroy the universe from losing him. He shook his head - need to keep it together - and started moving slowly through the crowd, not thinking to call out for Ianto in case somebody asked him what was going on.

Ianto was all turned around. He didn't know which way he'd eased into the spot he was standing in from, didn't know which way they'd come from to begin with. He didn't know anything other than the fact that he was now effectively alone in a universe that wasn't his own, 200 years or whatever it was in the future, and that he may be hyperventilating a little. He turned to look at the crowd around him, a little desperately, but there were too many people and suddenly he felt very, very claustrophobic. Elbowing his way as quickly as he could, he bee-lined for the nearest edge of the crowd, not stopping once he'd gotten there, but running down the walk until he was well enough away that he could breathe again. Sort of.

He stopped, sinking down against the side of a building, trying desperately to calm himself down, but. Goddamn it, he couldn't even remember what city he was in, let alone how to get back to Sulu's house. He half expected that he was going to forget his English, or that the lack of the other boy with him would be enough to break whatever bubble he'd had and then he'd be stuck in a foreign place with a foreign tongue that no one had ever even heard of before and oh god this was such a mess. He ran his hands through his hair and put his head down on his knees and it was probably only through sheer teenage boy stubbornness that he kept himself from crying or making an even bigger fool of himself than he already was.

Sulu pressed through the crowd, attempting to be as methodological as he could be, given the fact that he was having a very internalized sort of panic attack. He was going to be in so much trouble, never mind the fact that he'd broken his punishment. He was going to have to figure something out here. Someone would find Ianto eventually, right? But Ianto had some weird hangups about people and he imagined he wouldn't take too well to a stranger asking him if he needed help. Jeeze, what a mess.

Okay. He shoved down the internal panic and forced himself to think positively - he was going to find Ianto, and they'd go hang out somewhere less crowded, and it wasn't even that big a deal. Ianto was a teenager, it wasn't like he was babysitting a five-year-old or something. He pushed his way out of the crowd once he realized the other wasn't there, trying to decide whether or not to go down the walk the way they'd come or go the way they hadn't gone yet. Nah. He'd go back the way he came; if worse came to worse, Ianto could trace his way back to the restaurant they'd been at. It wasn't like the boardwalk had any real side-streets or anything, after all. He'd just... keep looking. He had plenty of time. He was going to get killed when someone found out how he'd screwed up.

Ianto wasn't sure whether it was the fact that he was a teenager, or whether he was hiding his panic well, or whether no one wanted to bother, but no one stopped to ask him what the matter was, or even seemed to acknowledge that he was there at all. He gave in to a moment of sheer and utter panic, because oh god he was never going to get home and he'd be lost and he couldn't even remember whether Sulu was the other kid's first or last name how the hell was he going to find him again before he swallowed that down. Now was not the time. He was 15 years old, and he was better than that.

So Ianto forced himself to stand up and head back a little way toward the crowd. He figured...he could just stay close to the area, and maybe... Maybe Sulu would find him? He hoped Sulu would find him. And soon. He could only keep this optimism going for so long before he started ultimately freaking out again. Finding a bench nearby, Ianto sank into it, putting his elbows on his knees and his head in his hands and forcing himself to remember to breathe. It... It would be okay. He just. He just needed to calm down. ...god, he wished he'd thought to bring his cigarettes along.

Sulu slowly made his way up the boardwalk, keeping his eye out for any indication that Ianto was somewhere nearby. If only the other kid would just call for him, he'd be able to pick that weird accent out of the bustle. But of course he wouldn't - that'd probably draw attention, right? And Ianto didn't seem big on attracting attention. So, it was up to Sulu to keep his wits about him.

As he made his way through the light crowds, Sulu caught sight of Ianto sitting on a bench, looking just as panicked as Sulu felt. Heaving a huge sigh of relief, he all but ran to the bench, calling out Ianto's name as he approached.

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