torchwoodinstitute | Well Hello There

Jack hadn't been there for every single moment of Charles' life. He did have a life of his own after all and watching people all day, every day, is boring. He wasn't going to tell Charles that, however. He just kept smiling. It was probably horribly knowing.

But Jack didn't play around.

"Yes. I am asking you to give up your family to put yourself in mortal danger on a near constant basis. And I am asking you this because I do know you. Raven will be fine. And you can visit. Sometimes. These aren't exactly as accurate as we would like all the time."

"You're not any bloody good at sounding convincing right now, you know," Charles pointed out, his lips thinning as he relayed this to his sister. Yet his eyes wandered back to the vortex, wondering if he dared. He wanted to study this, understand it, but he didn't feel like it was safe to relay just how curious he was, even if Jack seemed to know everything about him.

But there was enough adventurer in him to meet part way in this strange talk, with Raven shocked in his mind and trying immediately to talk him out of it. "Prove it. You show me, then you bring me back here. If I find it worth it, and I can convince Raven to let me stay on... then we'll talk longer term."

Hooked.

Charles wasn't going to be completely pleased when he got back to find out that Raven had had tonight erased from her memory, but they tried the Torchwood semi-public approach before and it didn't work. Jack kept his secrets to himself. Especially in this manner.

"Oh good. I actually have a mission for you. Well. For us. Have you ever been to Mars? No, stupid question, definitely not. Don't worry. You'll like it." He held his hand out for Charles to take. Yeah, he took that from a doctor he knew once. The smile was all his own. "Take my hand. Don't hold your breath. And try not to throw up on me."

No, Charles would be downright protective big brother pissed off when he found out about their messing with his sister, but for right now, he knew Raven had to be coming towards him. Charles looked at the hand offered to him, bigger than his own, and knew he had to take it now or Raven would find him and everything would go sour.

He took a breath, knowing he very well could be doing something hugely foolish, before he took the hand and stepped forward towards Jack, his eyes full of curiosity but at the same time, his gaze said that Jack better not be full of it.

Well well well. Wasn't Charles in for a little treat? One moment they were making their way through the diaphanous purple and gold vortex, and the next-- Well Charles would probably puke his guts out. The vortex was not kind to the inner ear at all, likely because it was sling shotting travelers through time and space in a matter of moments.

Should he throw up, he would be doing it on pinkish concrete, bright red grass lining the road. Mars did like to live up to its name as being The Red Planet. And as a tourist destination, it was certainly prone to making tourists happy.

Above them stretched a mile high dome, random panels of which flashed advertisements. There were shops settled back from the main street and further ahead were tall dome-scrapers.

Charles ended up on his knees, gagging as his whole head swam violently from the travel through the vortex. He barely managed to keep everything his stomach but it took all of his concentration for several minutes, eyes squeezed shut as he breathed hard. When, finally he had himself under control, his eyes blinked rapidly against the light as he lifted his head.

Oh...

He breathed out slowly as his motion-sickness became only a think at the back of his mind, staring upwards in utter awe then swept across the land he found himself on. It was like nothing he had ever seen before, like something out of a movie. Impossibly colored, foreign, and far too high tech.

This... was Mars? He looked to Jack with all of the awe and wonder of child, completely mystified.

Jack didn't help him up. It was better to let people get their bears in their own and that included tottering around on deer legs. "I'd like to tell you it gets easier...but I think you really just get use to it." He did, however, give Charles a nice pat on the back before he slipped his hands into his pockets and headed towards the largest building in the center of the dome. Yes, at a mile high, it was easily the tallest thing Charles had ever seen and seemed to be holding up the dome. "Are you hungry? Oh! How about the aquarium ride? Just keep your mouth shut on it. Sometimes people explode if they swallow anything."

It was impossible to tell if he was joking or not. Besides, there were other people around them, all sorts of people in all sorts of shapes...most of whom were not at all human. They were looking at Charles as if he was mad.

And lord help him if he tried to read their minds...

That might be a culture shock!

It was all too much, too fast. Charles was struggling to keep up with even the basics as he dusted off his knees, vaguely listening to Jack but more intent on trying to look at everything at once. Aliens. He was looking at aliens (who were staring at him, or he thought they were)! His fingers shook enough that he ended up gripping them at his sides, only then taking his first proper steps on alien soil.

Thankfully, he didn't immediately try to read any minds, but that was mostly due to trying to absorb everything else through his other senses, first. What he was witnessing through the main five was more than enough to keep his mind occupied for the moment, that childish wonder still on his face as he tried to take it in.

"What.. what year is this?" he asked quietly as he came up from behind on Jack, trying to imagine Earth having any technology like this. Was this what was on Mars? It hadn't been long since they had been to the moon!

"3153 or maybe fifty-four?" Acting nonchalant was actual a tactic to keep people calm. He didn't bring up Charles' distress. He didn't want him to continue to feel it! There was no need for that at all when there was so much wonder to explore instead. "If the botanical center is open, it's fifty-four. Want to see that instead? I've heard that they make really fantastic frozen Lima bean jam-cicles but I never had a chance to try it. Not sure I'll care for Lima bean jam, frozen or otherwise, but it never hurts to try new things. Unless you're on that aquarium ride."

Because of the possible explosions? Keep up, Charles!

Jack slowed so that the other man could keep up with him. Not everyone had his stride.

"Three... thousand and... fifty-four..." Charles breathed out before it left him in a laugh, looking up to the dome above them with those bright eyes. Yes, there was distress, a great deal of it, but it was small in face of pure, good old human raw curiosity. It was clear he had no idea what Jack was actually talking about but what did it matter? He bent to brush his fingers through grass like no grass on Earth, plucking a single piece of it and twirling it between his fingers.

"What is this? Other... than Mars. A city? Have people lived here long, or have we just not discovered this?" He wasn't a particularly tall man- okay, Charles was rather on the shorter side of things- but he did work to keep up while trying to take it in.

“This of it a bit like Disney-- Never mind. That’s just a little ahead of you… Uh, okay, this is a resort dome. An amusement park. Most of the people that live here or around here work here. The northern hemisphere has condominiums and malls and things like that. But no one wants to visit residential domes. They’re a little boring.”

A girl, perhaps ten or so, ran passed them wearing a ‘I survived the Aquarium!” t-shrt in holographic colors that changed three times before she was out of sight.

“You shouldn’t pick the grass. It’s actually part of a native insect colony that shares a hive mind and a shared nervous system.”

"Disney, as in the animator?" Charles questioned, brow up in some surprise, but he pushed the thought aside in favor of the here and now. His eyes followed the child, blinking at the rainbow of color, until Jack mentioned the grass.

Then they went wide and he dropped the grass, looking almost terrified before he briskly brushed his hand on his pants. "Oh, fantastic, I will end up making a world-sized insect colony angry with me because I had no idea." He didn't quite sound afraid, but it was certain fear mixed with joy and excitement, still. The kind of emotions that could completely tip into fear at any moment.

"...There are real aliens here," he murmured, just for Jack, but much like Jack himself, his curiosity will get him in trouble as he cautiously opens his mind up to those around him.

Jack didn’t really remember what it was like to feel so captivated by everything. It wasn’t that the Time Agency was secretive when he was from, but his childhood did put a damper on things when it came to joy early on in his life.

It was always a treat to see it through the eyes of someone else. Jack learned that from the Doctor.

“We’re both the aliens here,” Jack said. “We’re not on Earth, remember?” And honestly, by this time, the humans aren’t exactly as human as Charles would remember either. They adapted so well, so quickly, to utterly that they pretty much recycled themselves time and time again.

He was about to say something else when Charles tried to reach out telepathically to those around him. There was going to be an overload. Alien biology wasn’t always as compatible as humanity might like it to be.

"Right," Charles murmured, but a second later, he was overwhelmed. He staggered visibly, eyes squeezing shut as he tried to focus through it all, tried to understand just what he was 'hearing' floating around him. He didn't even go after any individuals, purely listened as if he was in a crowded room, but even that was almost too much.

Too many languages he couldn't understand, things he should have been but he didn't understand the minds behind them, too many things he couldn't name or had any understanding of.

It was even difficult to turn off, returning his barriers to their normal closed ranks around him. At this point, he had stopped completely, breathing having picked up, almost as overwhelmed as when he had first arrived with none of the nausea.

Jack was a huge fan of letting people experience their mistakes to the fullest. How else were they ever to learn? He watched Charles for a moment before the pain crested to levels no one should experience before he put his hand against his arm and drew him into a shop. It wasn't exactly quiet or I crowded but it was darker and less red and contained. That was an important thing for a telepath.

"Charles, look at me. There you go," he said soothingly as he moved his hand to Charles' neck, thumb brushing his jaw. If the voices didn't stop, Jack had a backup waiting on the balls of his feet. One lean forward and a bit down would connect their lips and Jack's life force was intense enough to give way to some transference of energy. It ought to be more than enough to give Charles the boost to keep his barriers up if he couldn't do it himself.

Before this, Charles would have said he had excellent control of his abilities with the same way any young man would when he was in the prime of his younger years, all spitfire and ego. Now, it felt like he was forcing his natural barriers back into place step by step, staring at Jack with eyes that were utterly determined despite the pain singing through his head. Still, he would manage, oblivious to the people side-eyeing him in the store as he shook slightly under Jack's hand from the mental strain, lips thin and pale as his head bent, trying to catch his breath as his hand fell back to his side.

Bastard. He was pretty sure Jack knew that could happen and was letting him fumble his way through all of this. No exchange of emotion came from Jack's touch, no bright spots of worry or laughter or anything at all. Still only a cold steel wall that still confused him.

"I've got it," he whispered, though it was with strain still in his voice.

"I knew you would." That Charles could stay afloat in all of this spoke to the quality of his control. Jack touched him for only as long as he needed to, and once he felt Charles swallow and cease shaking, he let his hands drop and straightened up again.

"So. Garden or aquarium? I'm really pushing for the aquarium. It's pretty neat."

Yep. Charles just had a break down and Jack was spouting about a life threatening ride being neat.

Oh, fantastic. Charles took and let out another breath, trying to get his mind back completely under his control before he rubbed his face, then gave Jack a bit of a hard look. His temples were throbbing and here Harkness was giving him some spiel about this aquarium ride? Another breath out before sighing.

"Aquarium it is." He wasn't about to try to his powers any time soon, not until he was better at keeping himself filtered from the change between human and... other aliens.

"There's a good man," Jack laughed, patting Charles on the shoulder. Some parents threw their kids out of the nest to learn to fly or die trying. Jack was one of those.

The Aquarium was nothing like Charles had ever seen before. The whole thing was breathable with the fish swimming through the air in little pockets of water that could join with others or meld back into the walls where the 'tanks' were. Jack looked around appreciatively as kids of all kinds chased schools of clown fish and tears of a clown fish across the atrium.

Charles stood in awe of the Aquarium for several long minutes, just trying to watch everything and take in the impossibility of it all, before something registered with what Jack had said and what he was seeing. An amusement park. Children.

"...is this a children's ride?" Charles questioned, brow raising towards Jack with a mixture of amusement and 'really?' combined into one. This somehow didn't look nearly as death defying as the other had been suggesting since they'd arrived.

"For the young, the young at heart and young at third liver," Jack said, quoting the slogan of the place. He nudged Charles lightly and headed up the stairs around the outer edge of the atrium. The stairs were made of the same bubble-water that the fish were swimming around in, and they had to stop for several minutes while an octopus-like creature with seventeen arms slowly strolled passed.

It was rude, Jack explained, to step on the animals.

Once they were to the top, he took Charles down through exhibit hallways for different sectors of space where fish were evidently native to and up a ramp to the Aquarium Experience ride. A bored looking man with two heads and four arms reminded people periodically not to swallow any water that might seep into the ride and then ushered groups of two onto a sleek black ski lift.

Third liver-- right. Just going to accept that. Charles followed Jack up, and couldn't help but stare at the octopus-creature in awe. Nothing like it existed on Earth, or maybe an octopus was a very, very distance relative, but the stop gave him every excuse to gawk like a child as a smile started to come to his lips.

Unlike the children mostly just excited to get on the 'ride', Charles would try to peer at as many of the different exhibits as Jack would allow him to, trying to learn as much as quickly as possible about places that he never would have even dreamed existed. It took effort not to stare at the 'man' who was directing them on the ride, wondering what on-- well, off! Earth that sort of alien was.

When they stepped up onto the black ski lift, Charles was almost vibrating with excitement. "This is incredible," he said brightly, looking to Jack. "Absolutely brilliant. I never would have dreamed it would all someday lead to this."

"Humanity is amazing," Jack said, feeding off of Charles' excitement. "The things the human race is and will be able to accomplish is amazing." He just won't mention how the last of the race ends, or how time and the universe ends. It was a fixed point, like him. Unchangeable across all realities.

It was enough to make people go mad and as Jack had a very long life to keep on living, he'd rather be as sane as possible for the majority of it.

As they moved forward, a bubble of air surrounded them from where the top of the ski lift was attached to the rail above them and they were sent off into the water. A joystick popped up between them and Jack gestured for Charles to take command. They could view the exhibits from the inside.

Charles' smile grew more and more as he looked around, despite the fact that there was still a headache curled around his temples, trying to figure out where to even look first. However, when Jack gestured towards the joystick, Charles looked more than a little uncertain for the first ten seconds or so. The joystick looked a bit like something he had seen on a home computer, but somehow far more advanced. He himself had never used one, so at first, he wasn't entirely certain what to do with it other than the most obvious of touching it.

Once he figured out it moved them, his brows went up and he cautiously started trying it out, wanting to get it under control before really trying to go anywhere. When he felt a little more confident with it, their bubble finally took off properly into the water.

"Do you do this often? Take people from their timeline and bring them to a resort park?" A joke as much as it was serious, trying to learn more - anything, really - about this man he was with.

The answer was a simple no and a not so simply yes, so Jack only smiled and then pressed his own lips closed with his fingers. Swallowing water would lead to explosion after all and while that could happen through the nostrils too, it was better to safeguard one’s mouth on the ride.

He’d answer questions – possibly – later. Or maybe not, it was hard to tell with Jack.

For now, he put his feet up on the bar of what looked like a roll cage keeping people away from the bubble’s edges and let Charles drive them along through the exhibits.

From time to time, little fish would swim through their air bubble inside of their water bubbles or catch a ride in their wake. The other pods floated along behind and in front of them, most going in crazy patterns as the kids driving them enjoyed themselves. There was a lot to see and a lot to explore. The universe was filled with strange sea life.

Well Hello There

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)