reversedpolarity | [ddd; log; Jack]

Entry tags:

*ddd,
jack harkness

[ddd; log; Jack]

Scotty hadn't yet had time that day to check the community; he'd been busy, which wasn't an unusual thing for him, and between one thing and another he'd not only managed to go nearly a whole day without checking up on the community, he'd also managed to go nearly a whole day without remembering to eat. The end of his shift found him tired, hungry, and once again covered in grease; the other day it had been helm relays and piston shafts, today it had been plasma conduits. Cleaning the things was a dull, tedious task, usually delegated to the rookies or anyone who'd been in a bit of trouble, but every now and then Scotty liked to make an example by doing those sorts of jobs himself.

After the plasma conduits it had been an on-going series of other small, menial tasks, but it was a welcome break from paperwork. Now, however, Scotty was off duty and on his way down to the mess hall to grab something to eat before heading back to his quarters. He'd almost made it to his destination when he happened to pass by someone who was both strangely familiar and not wearing a Starfleet uniform. He paused, and turned, and then it hit him. After the few video chats they'd had, he'd recognize that coat anywhere. "Captain?"

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Jack nodded. "I can understand missing the weather. I... I mean, there was one time where I was. I was stuck somewhere, somewhere I never would've ever wanted to be stuck, and. Aside from missing my team, missing the people I love, I... Yeah. I missed the rain. The sun." Jack swirled his drink in his hand, before taking a rather large swallow of it, obviously not a good memory that he's talking about.

"If you ever want to pop down to Cardiff to experience the elements, you're more than welcome. Can't say much about snow, but it rains nearly every other day. Sulu seemed to get a kick out of seeing the rain again, at least. Or so Ianto said, and y'know. I'm kind of inclined to believe him, considering how little he tells me about some things."

"I've seen enough snow tae last me the rest o' my life," Scotty replied, grimacing at his drink. Anyone who spent any amount of time with him would invariably be treated to horror stories regarding Delta Vega - and never mind that it wasn't half so intolerable as he made it out to be. That was the point of a good 'war story', after all - making it sound absolutely horrible. It'd been cold, true, and if it hadn't been for Keenser he'd have gone mad without anyone to talk to, but on the whole it hadn't been absolutely awful. Just boring - although as far as Scotty was concerned, boring was about as bad as it could get.

"Rain, on the other hand... Or fog. I'd give just about anything tae see a good fog again." He sighed, feeling a small pang of longing for home. "I'll have tae be sure tae schedule my visits for helpin' you with that still tae coincide with the weather, aye?"

Jack chuckled. "Well, fog, rain, you name it, all of those great 'British' weather conditions, Cardiff gets them in spades. It shouldn't be too hard to schedule a visit that'd coincide with that sort of weather, though. I mean, like it said, every other day it rains. I never thought that I'd miss it, but." Being buried alive in the ground for centuries sort of cured him of whatever hate for the constant rain he'd had before that'd happened, which Jack supposed was a good side-effect, compared to all of the other side-effects he'd gotten from that experience.

"Oh, aye. Never thought I'd miss rain or fog, 'til I started workin' in space. Sure, there's shore leave every once in a while, but it's always nice, sunny planets with cool breezes an' perfect weather, an' y'know, it's nice for a while but you get tae missin' havin' it piss down at three in the mornin' when you're drunk off your arse an' tryin' tae make it home before your mum wakes up..." He laughed, shaking his head. "God, listen tae me. Complainin' about the weather bein' too nice."

Jack shrugged. "You're within your right. God knows, it's nice to hear someone complaining about something normal, something small, something that I can maybe have a hand in helping out with, rather than something that I have absolutely no idea what to do about. So really, really not a problem." Talking about breweries and the rain and the weather was a lot easier than talking about anything that he was trying so desperately hard to forget about that moment, like the Earth was being taken over by the Master, that the Master had taken over Gwen, and that there wasn't a thing he could do about it. The one silver lining in all of it was that Ianto had escaped it, having already been on board the Enterprise when it all had gone down.

"Complainin' about the weather bein' nice isn't normal," Scotty replied with a laugh. "Then again, normal isn't really something that happens around here very often. Not normal in the twenty-first century sense, anyhow." He laughed again, and set his drink aside, pausing to stretch a bit. "Either way, it'd be nice tae see rain again. But only if I can spare the time. I know Sulu's been spendin' off-duty time off the ship, but I've got tae stay. I've got too much tae do tae feel comfortable just poppin' off whenever. On shore leave, or when we have a bit o' down time, sure. But I need tae stay with the ship as much as possible."

Jack nodded. "Yeah, understandable. I'm not asking you to do what Sulu does, nor am I expecting you to. He's..." He trailed off, shaking his head, taking another sip of his drink, loosening up a little because of the alcohol. "What he does for Ianto is...above and beyond anything I would expect from anyone else, don't worry. I'd be happy to entertain you in Cardiff whenever you wanted, though. So long as the world isn't ending, that is," he said, a bit bitterly. He raised his glass. "Let's hope that it stops trying to do that so often, yeah?"

He reached for his glass and picked it up again, raising it in return. "Aye, let's hope." He still only knew bits and pieces of what had been going on with Ianto and Sulu, and while he wanted to know more, even if he were the sort to ask outright, right now wasn't the time. Not when he was supposed to be providing a distraction for Jack. "But I seem tae be failin' in distractin' you, so I'm goin' tae change the subject for now. What's the most interestin' planet you've ever visited?"

Jack chuckled at Scotty's question, shrugging. "Well, it depends what you're looking for when you mean interesting. The Eye of Orion is probably one of the most beautiful places you can ever end up. Karas don Kazra don Slavang has got singing fish. And then there's the Lotus Nebula, with its famous 17 simultaneous pleasures. It really just depends on what you're looking for out there in a planet."

"Seventeen simultaneous... Y'know, I'm almost afraid tae ask," Scotty replied, laughing. "But since you brought it up, an' since I'm only almost afraid tae ask..." It was a good thing he'd been drinking, because otherwise he'd have not even attempted to ask at all. But he'd been generous with the alcohol that evening, and even he had some trouble keeping a clear head when indulging in Saurian brandy.

Jack laughed, shaking his head, snorting into his brandy a little as he took another sip before responding. "Seventeen simultaneous pleasures of the Lotus Nebula," he said, with a shrug. "It's exactly what you think it is." He chuckled, shaking his head. "Not for the faint of heart, that's for sure, but. Man, the things that they can do there... If I hadn't been so busy enjoying myself, I would've taken notes."

"I think," Scotty said slowly, "That it's a good thing that doesn't exist here." He wasn't going to comment on Jack's last comment. Not at all. And he certainly wasn't blushing. Not at all. Just a bit red from alcohol consumption, of course.

It said something about Jack's mood at that moment that he didn't even notice or mention Scotty's blushing at all. "It is a bit of a distraction, I will say that much," he said, shaking his head and swirling his brandy around in his glass. "Probably the best, that you all can't stop by a place like that. You might never leave again, if you do."

"I can think of a few people we'd never see again, that's for sure." Not himself, of course. He didn't have time for that sort of thing, and his sense of duty far outweighed any tendency he might have had for pleasure-seeking. If he were going to be completely honest with himself, he might enjoy stopping by for a little while - no, strike that. He'd definitely enjoy stopping by a little while, but it wouldn't be the sort of place he'd want to stay.

Jack nodded. "So can I. It's... It's a nice place. But definitely somewhere only to visit, and only occasionally. Like a treat, or something. It really is possible to have too much of a good thing, believe me, and it's...well, seventeen times more possible with that place, as it is."

"I can only imagine." Well. To be honest, he couldn't really imagine it, but that was alright by him. He wasn't sure he wanted to try imagining it. "Not for the weak o' heart," he added, shaking his head as he repeated Jack's words. "Hell of a way tae go."

Jack chuckled. "Don't you know it," he said, shaking his head at the idea of it. "I knew a few people that enjoyed themselves a little too much there, and. Hoo, boy. Let's just say that there's only one Lotus Nebula for a reason, and I'm glad that there's only one. And that humans don't discover it until they're ready for it."

"Aye, it... it seems like something else, that's for sure." He shook his head again, and took a long sip of his drink, before adding, "An' here I thought maybe I'd have a couple o' impressive stories tae tell. Not sure I can match anything like the Lotus Nebula."

Jack shook his head. "Oh no, Mr. Scott, you're not going to get out of story-telling that easily. You start talking about impressive stories, now you have to follow that up. So go on, spit it out. What sort of impressive, space-traveling have you gotten up to, then?"

"Nothin' near so interestin' as this Lotus Nebula o' yours, I'm afraid," he replied, grinning. "But... Ah, let's see. There was a planet we stopped off on for shore leave, way back when I was a cadet. Served aboard the Deidre before I went tae the Academy proper, see. Anyhow. So we stop off on this planet for shore leave, an' when we get down tae the surface, it looks alright an' more or less normal, an' since we're dry-docked we get tae spend a few days on-planet. Well. Someone'd forgotten tae mention tae the captain that the people on this planet customarily went nude - an' that they expected visitors tae do the same."

Jack laughed out loud, glad that he hadn't had his glass anywhere near his mouth as Scotty had said that, imagining the shade of scarlet that the other man would've turned in response to a realization like that. "Oh man," he said, shaking his head, "that's too good. Far be it from you to go against the customs of the planet." He chuckled, taking a sip of brandy, waiting until he had swallowed it fully before asking, "So. What'd you do about that, then?" with a small, wicked smile.

"Captain wanted tae beam back up tae the ship an' just stay there, but shore leave is shore leave an' nude or not I think the crew would've mutinied if he'd made 'em all spend leave on the ship. So I'm stuck on this planet with the rest o' the crew, without a stitch o' clothin' tae my name, which wouldn't've been that much o' a problem except for one tiny little detail." He paused to take a gulp of his brandy, because this sort of story required a bit of liquid courage. "The Chief Engineer was takin' shore leave too. An' you know, there's just some people you never want tae see naked, or tae see you naked. So I ended up stayin' in my room most o' that week."

Jack laughed loudly at that, the alcohol in his system muting the worry and anxiety that he had over what was going on on his world and making it so that he was able to at least enjoy his conversation with the other man, there. "The Chief Engineer, huh? Isn't that your job title?" he asked, with a smile. "So. Having been promoted to that position yourself, now, d'you think that you have underlings who'd think the same of you, then? Or was this Chief Engineer of yours a real bear?" he asked, grinning at Scotty, unable to help himself.

"It's my title now. You have tae understand, this was about.... oh, eighteen, twenty years ago. I don't doubt I've got underlings who'd think the same o' me, but as for the Chief back then..." He shook his head, and took a moment to refill his glass, before continuing, "Nothin' against the woman, but... Well. Thing is, I always thought she looked rather a bit like my mum."

Jack laughed loudly and fully, shaking his head. "Oh god," he said, grinning. "Yeah, that would definitely be a reason not to want to be naked around her. I mean, I loved my mum a lot, and I really didn't have anything against nudity, but. I'd rather not be running around in the nude in front of my mum if I could help it at all, so. Surprisingly, I don't actually blame you, there."

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