Log with Ianto: The Proof is in the Pudding

[parked]

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.

Comments

[parked]

Sulu laughed and shook his head. "No man, I've never heard of anyone using vinegar for... like, anything, really. But don't worry, you can call them chips if you want." He grinned, "We're in the heart of the Federation - there are plenty of European people all over the place. Chances are, nobody will even notice." They'd probably find his accent weird, but. That wasn't something he was going to bring up.

[torchwoodteaboy]

Ianto blushed at the laugh and the reassurance, but. He was reassured by that statement. "You... You don't think they'd mind, too much?" he asked, quietly. He was pretty self-conscious about the being Welsh thing, after all. He didn't need to draw any more attention to himself, although it was hard not to. Talking the way he did made him stick out like a sore thumb, and unfortunately, he was nowhere near good enough at faking an accent for that.

[parked]

"Nah, if they have it, they're not going to even think about it." Sulu leaned back in his chair, pretty content with his decision on the matter. "I mean, everybody's got weird eating habits, right?"

Just then, the waitress came back to them with two large glasses filled with a red liquid. It was something like a slushy, like Sulu had said, but it shared a whipped sort of look like a shake, despite the fact that it was obviously just an ice drink. He didn't hesitate to ask for some vinegar, and like he said, she just smiled and said, "Sure."

"See? No problem. If anything, she'll think I'm weird, since I asked for it." He paused, then added, "She won't, though. I mean, it's not like putting mustard on... cookies, or something."

[torchwoodteaboy]

Ianto smiled at the other boy. While he wasn't sure he liked that the other was still making implications about the food choice being 'weird', he had asked for the vinegar for him, and so... "Yeah," Ianto said, quietly. "Thanks, then. Y'know, for. For asking for me." Standing out was kind of really difficult for Ianto, especially because no matter what he did here, he'd stand out.

He looked at the drink in front of him. He liked cherry flavoring, luckily, but. He wasn't really sure what to make of the thing. "...I thought that you said that this was like a slushy," Ianto said, cautiously. It had the distinct look of a frappe or something, except... Bright red, basically.

[parked]

"It is like a slushy. It's made like one. I think, at least. With ice and flavoring. It's just that they put something else in it that makes it look like that. I'm really not sure, but it's good, I promise." Sulu took a drink of his own to prove it, because really, it was good. He liked them well enough, even if he usually got a soda. It was worth it to give Ianto a taste of something from this era, he figured.

"And anyway, if you want anything else, man, you just have to ask. It's not like it's a big deal to me if you want vinegar or... I dunno, you don't like the Slusho and want a soda instead. I'm not going to blame you for being sort of shy here. It is a different time, and all."

[torchwoodteaboy]

Ianto looked at it, warily, and then took a hesitant sip. It was bizarre. It tasted like a slushy. It just had the consistency of something...less water-based. Maybe the technology in this time had something to do with it. He took another sip. "It's strange," Ianto said, after a moment. "But. I... I think I do like it."

He blushed a little at the other boy's reassurances, ducking his head a little. "It's... It's weird, yeah?" he said, after a moment, trying to explain himself. "I mean. I'm not only in America, but. I'm in America 200 years in the future. Things that are current and recent to me are not only foreign but also really old, or... I don't know, 'classic', here. It's. It's well cool, but. It's weird." He blushed a little harder. "And. I think... That I might want a soda as well. Since. Since you're offering..." He lowered his eyes to the table. "I'm sorry. For, y'know, costing you this money, and all."

[parked]

Sulu didn't completely understand, but he didn't tell Ianto that. He wasn't going to be a jerk to the other kid, just because he was from a different time. If anything, Sulu was trying to sort of be on good behavior - it'd be better to show him the benefits of the future, after all, right? "It's cool, don't worry about it. I've got you covered, and yeah, it's kind of a different place altogether, so like I said, it's cool if you're reserved or whatever. It's not like anyone notices - they're all doing their own thing, you know?" And it was true. People cared about others, sure, but that didn't mean they were going to notice if someone wasn't speaking up as much as they probably should.

Just then, the waitress returned with the Andorian sampler; it was arranged like any other sampler, but even Sulu wasn't completely sure what was what. He wasn't much for Andorian food, but their fast food was pretty good, so. It was just a variety of fried and roasted vegetables, with some sauces for dipping that he wasn't even sure about. He asked the waitress for a Coke Classic, since it was the one thing he knew would be like what Ianto was used to, and once she left, he told him as much. "I didn't want to get you something that... wouldn't be what you were used to, or something."

[torchwoodteaboy]

Ianto picked up a vegetable, looking at it closely. He shook his head, not looking away from the piece of food in his hand. "That's alright. I think...maybe familiar might be good, in some cases," he said, warily eying the vegetable in question.

"Right," he said, after a moment, before looking at the sauces. There was one...that looked kind of like ranch dressing, but Ianto was willing to bet that that wasn't what it was. "I just...pick one and dip it, then, yeah?" he asked, even though. Well, it was pretty much explanatory. The idea of trying alien foods was a little more intimidating, now that the food was actually there in front of him.

Deciding to just go for it, Ianto took the piece of food, dip it, and just eat it. Of course, he probably picked the most spicy of the three dips, in retrospect, but he hadn't any idea of that until it was far, far too late. He tried to swallow fast, but it burned on the way down as well, and Ianto burst out coughing. "Jesus Christ," he managed, reaching for his drink and trying to pause and take a breath long enough to take a sip and wash out his mouth and throat.

[parked]

Sulu couldn't decide if Ianto's reaction was hilarious or terrible, and so his face reflected both his amusement and horror. "Shit, are you okay?" he asked, deciding finally on being worried for the other kid - who knew what his tolerance to spicy foods was? It figured that the only really spicy food there would be the one Ianto tried first...

[torchwoodteaboy]

Welsh cuisine was actually pretty bland. Sure, there were some Indian food dishes that had a bit of a zing to them, but Ianto didn't really branch out into anything adventurous, usually, knowing what he liked and sticking with it. That fact in and of itself was half the reason he was so bowled over. He hadn't been expecting spicy, hadn't been prepared, and had been pretty generous with his bite size and dipping, and so.

Ianto took several large swallows of the drink, coughing despite the fact that the offending food had been swallowed already. "Oh my god," he said, tears coming to his eyes, his voice momentarily hoarse, still choking a little bit on the remaining flavor. "What the bloody hell was that?" he groaned.

[parked]

Sulu didn't really know all the different types of food and dip on the platter, so he tried the sauce himself - not with the same kind of vegetable though. He made a face and shook his head.

"Jeeze. That's some kind of habanero sauce, or something. I didn't realize there was any really spicy Andorian food..." He tried to think of something that would have that kind of kick to it, but everything he thought of was very... well, American. Or Hispanic, but he didn't think Mexican food and Andorian vegetables really worked together.

[torchwoodteaboy]

"God, that's... That's awful," he said. Ianto took another vegetable from the platter, wanting to try and cleanse his palate, but decided against any of the sauces this time. He didn't want to make the same mistake twice, after all. Then he'd look like an absolute fool. More so than he did already, even.

"The vegetables themselves aren't bad, though," he said, with a shrug. "Kind of reminds me of...I dunno. Tempura I guess..." He eyed the sauces warily. "D'you actually know what any of those are?" he asked. He could guess the spiciness of the sauce that he'd tried was unexpected even to Sulu, given his reaction there, but. Did he even know what any of the stuff that was in front of them tasted like?

[parked]

Sulu nodded, "Yeah, tempura's a good comparison. It's not heavy like... you know, deep fried chicken or something. But... let's see. I know that's honey mustard, because every place serves that as a dip," he pointed to the yellow dip. He paused, then picked up a piece of vegetable and dipped it in to make sure.

"Yep, it's just plain old honey mustard. The other ones..." He tried the other dips and managed to pin them down to at least their closest Earth relatives, "This one's kind of like ranch; this is a sort of tangy barbecue sauce, I think it might actually be Andorian; and that one's... I think it's like the broth for Andorian cabbage soup, but I've only had that once, so..." He grinned. "The BBQ stuff and the habanero stuff are the only really spicy things, but you should be okay with the BBQ. Don't worry, we're safe from here on out."

[torchwoodteaboy]

Ianto knew that it wasn't very adventurous, but he'd probably be sticking with the honey mustard and the ranch from then on. Especially the honey mustard, because Sulu had tried it himself and he didn't seem to be suffering any adverse effects from it in front of his eyes or anything like that. Picking out another vegetable (they were all covered in batter and of alien origin, he had absolutely no idea what any of them were), he tried the ranch warily, nodding as he chewed, indicating that yes, it was ranch.

"'s a bit weird, yeah?" he asked, after a moment. "To be eating alien vegetables. I mean...can they grow here, then? Or are they imported? And why would you ever import vegetables that far, if they are?"

[parked]

Sulu picked out another piece and went for the barbecue sort of sauce, munching on it for a moment before responding. "Yeah, they can grow here. We've got special hothouses for pretty much any kind of vegetable you might want. Besides, replicators can create them from scratch, if you want them somewhere where you can't get them. So long as it's got the card for it, at least."

He realized that Ianto probably didn't know what a replicator was, so he went on to explain, "A replicator is basically a machine that can create any kind of food you might want. Most people don't think it's too much different from real food, but I kind of prefer the home-grown stuff."

[torchwoodteaboy]

Ianto was glad that Sulu went on to explain just what he'd meant by a replicator. They didn't have anything like that from his time, as it were, and so he marveled at the sound of it, and the description that he was getting.

"So...what. I just...makes food? Out of nowhere?" Ianto asked, a bit skeptical really. "I mean. How can you just make food from a card of information? I know that there has to be some sort of science involved, but. I mean, it sounds a bit mad, yeah?"

[parked]

"They basically use matter in one form to make a different form of matter. It involves transporters, it's kind of weird," Sulu said, shrugging. "I understand the general theory of using one, but I've never really looked into how, exactly, it works. I mean, it'd be like learning about how a fridge is designed to run - interesting, I guess, but not really something you go out of your way to learn."

He felt a little silly for not knowing how this kind of thing worked, all of a sudden; Ianto probably wanted to know all the finer points of replicating food, but Sulu just didn't know off the top of his head. He munched down another vegetable to hide the fact that he was a little embarrassed for not knowing.

[torchwoodteaboy]

Ianto, however, didn't blame Sulu for not knowing. He grabbed another vegetable to munch on--this one tasted a lot like a sweet potato, which he liked. He was going to have to see if he could find more of this one and eat those. "It sounds complicated," he said, thinking on it. "I dunno how I'd feel about that, though. I mean. It's got to take away from the quality. Even if the food's alright. It's got to be a lot more tasty when there's been someone paying attention to the preparation and all..."

Of course, now Ianto was contemplating food preparation, which the last time he checked, was not a cool kid thing to do. So he took another vegetable as well. "Think I'm going to leave off of the sauces, now, though," he said. He didn't want another repeat of the last time simply because he forgot which one the spicy one was again.

[parked]

"Most people don't notice any difference in taste," Sulu replied - and let's face it, he wasn't above discussing things like food preparation instead of whatever cool kids talked about. "I just... dunno, I can kind of taste it. It's pretty much the same thing, though. Replicators basically made starvation obsolete." If you could make something like that obsolete. "But yeah, I'd... keep clear of at least the spicy one," he said, grinning a bit, "But it's good enough without the sauce, I think."

[torchwoodteaboy]

Ianto, in the middle of raising another vegetable to his mouth to eat, paused. "...I'm sorry," he said, giving Sulu a look like he'd gained another head. "I could've sworn you said something about making starvation obsolete. Last time I checked, I'm pretty sure that something like that on such a grand scale is just impossible, no matter how good your technology is..."

[parked]

Sulu blinked at Ianto, raising an eyebrow. "Uh... That's exactly what I said, actually. You can't have mass famine if you have a machine that can make food from literally anything."

[torchwoodteaboy]

Ianto raised an eyebrow right back at Sulu. "So, what. You're just saying that people supplied everyone who needed one with one of these machines so now the world is some bright, happy place where world hunger is just a thing of the past?" he asked, sarcastically. Even at 15, Ianto was a pessimist, and he really didn't know what to make of what Sulu was saying, even if it were true or not.

[parked]

Sulu couldn't help but stare at Ianto, much like Ianto was staring at him - the shock and pessimism of Ianto's comments sent him for a loop, big time. How was it so hard to comprehend? Then again, he'd never lived in a world with famine, or disease, or war (not real war, anyway; they weren't at peace with the Romulan or Klingon empires, but the fights happened lightyears away from home and were way beyond his scope at the moment). Maybe it was just different.

"...Uh, kind of, yeah."

[torchwoodteaboy]

Ianto sat back in his seat, shaking his head, ignoring the food and the drink for a moment as he stared back at Sulu. "That's... That's not possible," he said. "People. People don't do things like that. They don't just make helpful machines and give them away to people who need them. I mean, yes, one or two, here or there, but. The whole planet?" Ianto flushed, embarrassed as how pessimistic he was, but. It was true. "People don't go out of their way to do nice things on that level. Not where I'm from, at least."

[parked]

Sulu frowned at that. What kind of world was the 21st century, that Ianto would be so surprised that people would try to help other people? Then again, there were a lot of things that had happened between then and now... He shook his head. "People do, now. It's... it's really not the same place you know. People care about other people. We don't have disease or famine. It's..." Better. But he didn't want to say that and sound like a dick.