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

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Log with Ianto: The Proof is in the Pudding

Sulu knew that this was one of those Terrible, Horrible, Rotten, No Good ideas that he was occasionally prone to having. He was grounded, after all; inviting Ianto over to prove that he wasn't just making up the things he'd been talking about was kind of pointless if you couldn't get to the car to prove any of it.

Still, he'd heard his parents leave to visit his aunt in Bakersfield, so... why not? It wasn't like they'd notice - he was really good at hiding his tracks. So, he'd invited Ianto out to prove that his universe really was all he'd said it was. It was the least he could do to prove he was seriously as awesome as he made himself out to be, after all. So, he waited in his room for the inevitable worldhopping Ianto Jones, wondering if that was too specific a place but figuring that worldhopping itself was already pretty specific an art.

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The fact that Sulu's attempt to prove his universe's existance had turned out to be a pretty good time for both of them made Sulu a little self-satisfied. He couldn't help it; he'd invited Ianto over to prove a point and in turn ended up having a good day out on the boardwalk, showing off to a kid from the 21st century.

"Yeah, well." Sulu scratched the back of his head briefly, "Uh, no problem. Glad the future's not boring, or whatever." The fact that he was trying (and failing) to play it cool was pretty obvious, all things considered, but he was (somehow) not trying to be cool at that moment.

Ianto appreciated Sulu not trying to play it cool around him. It made him feel better about the fact that...well. He was probably never cool ever, certainly not in the other boy's eyes at any rate, with his weird accent and his freaking out about random things and his...getting lost in a crowd, for god's sakes, what was he, a five-year-old?

"It's the future," Ianto said, shaking his head with a smile. "Think about it. I'm from right at the turn of the century. You're...what. 200 years after that? Imagine visiting somewhere 200 years in your future, and a different country that you've never been to. I mean. Not that it couldn't have been boring to be here, but. I'm glad that it wasn't." Ianto took another sip of his milkshake. "And this...is really good. Now I'm going to be spoiled when I go back home."

It was practically impossible for Sulu to imagine the world in 200 years - he figured it was going to be a lot like now, only with more technology - but he could still understand Ianto's point, at least somewhat. Ianto was interested in everything going on, and it wasn't so dull and peaceful that they were sitting around meditating or whatever - he'd seen scifi movies, after all. "Just don't tell everyone that you're pining for future food, right?" he said, laughing, "After all, I'm pretty sure they'd think you were crazy."

Ianto laughed right back at the other boy. "Don't worry, I won't. Although I'm pretty sure that most of them think I'm crazy anyway, so. No harm done there, really." He wasn't the most popular of kids, after all. Although that probably had something to do with the fact that he was just so surly all the time. He hated Newport and his life with his father and he was sure that as soon as he got the hell out of there and made a new life for himself that things would be different. He was sure.

"Well, you don't really seem crazy to me." Sulu couldn't help but at least try to reassure the other kid, but he realized that might be lame and so he added with a shrug, "Then again, I'm used to alien cultures and races, so. I might not be the best judge on turn-of-the-century normalcy."

Really though, Ianto didn't seem that bad. Kind of neurotic, maybe, or something like that - Sulu didn't always know what words he was supposed to use for what situation - but either way, he wasn't crazy. Just kind of dorky - but Sulu definitely couldn't judge on that, so he couldn't hold it against him.

Neurotic and dorky were definitely adjectives that should be used to describe Ianto, even as the fifteen-year-old that he was at that moment. He was glad that Sulu could see past that and just dismiss certain habits he had as being kind of weird, rather than seeing his habits and just dismissing Ianto himself as being weird and therefore not worth the time or effort.

"Well, I'm glad, then," Ianto said, smiling slightly. "The future must be a lot nicer about these sorts of things. Or maybe it's just Americans." He thought about it for a moment, before he cocked his head at the other boy. "D'you know... I think you're the first proper American that I've ever really talked to?"

"Really?" Sulu asked - after all, he was really used to seeing Americans. And Europeans, and various races that weren't even from the planet. The idea that Wales didn't get a lot of visitors, especially from just America, was kind of bizarre to him, considering anyone could really go anywhere nowadays if they wanted to. Of course, Sulu had never been out of the country himself, so he couldn't say much about it.

"Well. We're not exactly a rare phenomena, around here," he said with a laugh, "And we're not that different from anyone else, are we?"

Ianto shrugged, taking another sip of his shake. "Yeah, really. I mean, why would any Americans want to be in Newport of all places? I've seen a few around in Cardiff, but they're mostly tourists, and it's not like I've ever spoken to them at all. And..." He raised an eyebrow at the other boy when he asked whether Americans were all that different from other people or not.

"...are you kidding me?" he asked. "Of course you are. You're... You're so American," Ianto said, with a laugh, because that really was what they said to describe people like Sulu in Wales. "And. Let's put it this way. How many Welsh kids have you met, before me?" he asked, raising an eyebrow again.

"Well..." Sulu didn't want to admit that he probably wouldn't have noticed if someone he was talking to was Welsh or English - at least, not right off the bat. So, he shook his head. "Not any, I don't think. But I dunno what makes me so American. Then again," he took another spoonful of ice cream, "There's less of a distinction between people here than in your era, you know? Without the boundaries of war and government and stuff."

"Yeah, I guess that makes sense," Ianto said, chewing on his straw absently as he thought about it. "I mean. I've no idea what you mean, about without the boundaries of war and government, or whatever, but. I can see how things might be different in the future. So maybe it's not that you're just so American," he said, with a bit of a smile. "Maybe it's just that you're such a spaceman instead, with your...hovercars and your peach ice cream and the likes."

Oh, right. He probably shouldn't have been talking about the Federation too much, just in case Ianto ended up doing something with it. He didn't think he would, but it was better to be safe than sorry.

"Hey, man, I'm from Earth, born and raised," he said, dropping the topic of the Federation, "So I'm not a spaceman. And peach ice cream can't be that new, it's pretty basic as far as flavors go." He took another spoonful to prove that it was normal to him. Not that that would prove it was normal in general, but there wasn't much he could do for that one. "I can't help it if cavemen haven't invented it yet."

"Oi," Ianto said, elbowing the other lightly in the side, laughing slightly and shaking his head. "I may be from the past, but I'm better than a caveman. We do have electricity and cars and the internet and everything. It's not like...y'know, the greatest invention yet known to man is fire or anything like that."

He paused for a moment, before shrugging. "No, it's alright. I mean. It's pretty cool, everything here. Aliens and space travel and the sort." He glanced sideways at the other boy, suddenly realizing something. "So wait. If there are aliens here, that means that...there are humans out there on alien planets? There are people out there that live in space? That there are people out there that aren't from Earth?" He should have made the connection a while ago, but for some reason it didn't occur to him until just then that that was even a possibility.

"Says you," Sulu replied, because ice cream flavors were important, damn it.

He couldn't help but give Ianto a look at his sudden revelation, nodding along slowly with what he was saying. "Well, uh, yeah. Of course there are people not from Earth - I thought we covered that with the alien part. And there are people on the moon, and ambassadors on other Federation planets, so... yeah." He shrugged, a little surprised Ianto was only just realizing this.

"Yeah, but..." Ianto motioned with his milkshake. "Those were aliens. They're supposed to be from another planet. I'm talking about people. Or, well. Humans. D'you mean to say that there are humans out there, colonizing in space? People that... Duw," Ianto exclaimed, after a moment of trailing off. "People that have never even seen the Earth, maybe? Or well. Have never been to it. Like. There are kids out there that are our age who haven't been to the planet yet, same as I'd never even been to America before now...?" Ianto knew that he was geeking out a little at that moment, but he couldn't' help it. He was overwhelmed with the sudden realization of it all.

Sulu grinned and nodded, realizing that Ianto was really surprised by this realization. "Yeah, there are. It's not totally everyday, but there are human families on other planets. There's no way Earth could handle the entire population of humanity, y'know?" He raised a brow, "That's already coming up in your century, after all, right? The whole 'not enough room' thing?"

Ianto thought about it for a moment, before nodding. "...yeah, I. I suppose it is. I mean. Not every part of the world is completely filled up, but. I mean, there are certain places where they could stand to have a population decline. China, for one. And other areas are way overpopulated for the little resources they have. But then again...I suppose that the invention of something like the replicator made that all alright over here, then." He ran a hand through his hair, scratching his head slightly. "Ugh, this is all so confusing sometimes."

Sulu shrugged. "It's probably better that it's confusing, so I don't get in trouble for telling you all about how the future works." It was one thing, after all, to show him around a touristy spot with no real information, just a lot of fluff and good time. Explaining everything about the fundamentals of the Federation and how everything operated - that was not really a good idea. "But trust me, it's not as confusing as it seems. Then again, I've been learning about this stuff my whole life, instead of in like one afternoon, you know?"

Ianto shrugged, taking another sip of his milkshake and frowning as he did so. He didn't like not understanding something. He liked to get to the bottom of a matter until he without a doubt just got it, he had a need to know, and when he just couldn't really wrap his mind around something, it bothered him. He tried to justify that, though. "Yeah, I guess. I mean, I'm just hearing about all of it today. I'm sure that there are things that I know a whole lot about from my time that you probably aren't very familiar with. ...can't really think of what that might be, but. I'm sure that there's something."

"Especially since I don't always pay attention to history lessons." He couldn't help it - history was boring if you allowed it to go back far enough, and his teachers always did just that. "But seriously, I haven't told you... anything about it, really. So what you have figured out is pretty much all on you, there." Which Sulu figured was pretty impressive, considering.

Ianto shrugged slightly, chewing on the straw of his milkshake slightly. "Well. It isn't all that hard to connect the dots, really. It all makes sense, and all. It's just...weird. Like, maybe it's not even gonna happen where I am. Or maybe it is. I dunno. It'll be hundreds of years in the future, so it's not like I'll know anyway, but. Yeah."

Ianto realized that he was getting awfully geeky, there, so he tried to rein it in a little. "Hope that something exciting happens in my lifetime. I'd hate to be living in one of the most boring towns ever in one of the most boring periods of history there is, after all. I mean. We've only been to the moon, us. And that was just a landing, no...I dunno, colonies or anything."

"Oh man, don't even worry." Sulu couldn't give specifics, but that didn't mean he couldn't at least give Ianto some reassurance there. "I mean, every era has something exciting in it, you know? You're at the end of the 20th century, right? Because the 21st century starts a lot of chain reactions that lead to this." Some of it wasn't good - terrible, even - but he was sure that Ianto's timeline hadn't developed the same way his had. "So it won't be boring." Maybe it wouldn't be "colonizing planets" exciting, but still.

"Yeah, turn of the century, really," Ianto said, uncertainly, at the question (or not quite question, but whatever) that Sulu had asked about when he was from. "We're starting on a whole new time, and well... I guess you're right. I mean. From the way things have been going, it'd be pretty silly to worry about it all stopping right then." He shrugged, making a bit of a face before grinning at the other boy, sorry that he'd turned the conversation to so serious a topic, there. "Guess we'll just have to wait and see, now won't we?" he asked, with a quirk of his head and another bit of a shrug.

"Pretty much the only thing to do," Sulu agreed. "It's not like there's any time travel going on in either of our eras." Well. Except for the community - but he figured that was a given. Ianto was way too pessimistic about his era, though, and Sulu was sure of that. Of course, there wasn't much to do to change that, and Sulu honestly didn't think to try. It was just how kids were.

"Well, either way," he said, scraping the inside of his bowl and feigning complete nonchalance, "I guess you can come hang out here if the 21st century ends up being boring or whatever."

Ianto sipped his milkshake again as the other mentioned time travel, wondering if such a thing were possible anywhere, if it would be possible in any era in his own universe or whether that really was just a sci-fi plot.

At Sulu's other words, though, he shot him a look, his eyebrows raised. "Oh, you guess, so, huh?" he prompted. "Well. I hope I'm not boring you too much, for you to be so reluctant to have me back and all..." he kidded, joking around.

"Well, just as long as you don't get lost again or whatever, I figure it's okay if you come back out." As it was, Sulu knew they'd have to get back soon, since he needed to be home and the engine needed to cool so that no one knew he'd left. He was pretty sure he wouldn't get in too much trouble, anyway, even if they found out - but he didn't want to risk it.

"Besides, it's... I dunno. More interesting showing stuff off to someone instead of just doing the same things you always do, I guess." He shrugged.

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