likesthecoat | (no subject)

"Oh--yes. I know someone else who works at Atlantis. Major Lorne? Solid fellow with blue eyes and dark hair?"

Teyla smiles a little. "Where did you meet Major Lorne? In...Milliways?"

"Oh, yes. We talk quite a bit."

"I did not realize he knew of the bar," Teyla says. "I may have to ask him about it."

Ianto gives a guilty little twitch and hopes he's not got Lorne in trouble.

"I'm sure he'll have lots to tell you."

"I...have been reluctant to talk of it to anyone. Alternate realities are something of a touchy subject in Atlantis. But Major Lorne is a good friend. It will be good to have someone else who knows of it."

"Never hurts," Ianto murmurs.

How own coworkers know--most of them, as far as he knows--but he rarely sees them.

"Makes it a little more real, really."

"Yes, I think it would," Teyla says, sensing that there is more to it than that, but not pushing.

She finishes off her tea and sets the cup back onto the tray.

Ianto gulps the last of his and puts down his cup as well.

"Sugar in both cups now," she says quietly. "It mixes with the kirsan because our memories are both bitter and sweet."

Ianto smiles as he spoons sugar into the cups. "I like that."

[ooc: Break? Eyes are tired.]

Teyla smiles softly. "It is a very appropriate sentiment. The ceremony looks to the past, the present, and the future." She nods to the cups. "The tea next."

[ooc: Sure thing.]

Edited 2009-01-12 01:44 (UTC)

He pours the tea again and hands her her cup.

Teyla takes it with a nod of thanks. "It is customary at this time to offer a prayer to the Ancestors that they will watch over those we have lost in their journey beyond this life."

"Um . . . perhaps you ought to do that. I'm not one for praying."

"I confess," Teyla says, "I am not as accustomed to praying as I once was."

She sets her cup down on the floor in front of her, rests her hands, palms up, on her knees and closes her eyes. "Pere lume tempo e teri, we ask your blessing on those who have traveled beyond this world, that they may find peace and rest in their journey."

Ianto places his hands in imitation of hers and watches Teyla, solemn.

Teyla opens her eyes when she finishes, smiles softly at Ianto and picks up her cup, sipping the sweetened tea.

"So . . . the Ancestors. Who are they, really?"

He sips, too. The mint tea is much better with the sugar in.

"They were once very much like you or I. Rodney says that they were the first evolution of this form. They built the great cities of my galaxy and seeded it with life, but several thousand years ago, they ascended."

"What does that mean, ascended?"

"It is the next stage in our evolution. They reached a point where they no longer required physical bodies and they exist now as pure energy." She pauses, sipping her tea. "That is, of course, the scientific explanation, but I understand there is a spiritual component as well."

"Really," Ianto says, and his expression, a bit more eloquently, says he doesn't like the notion of being pure energy much at all.

Teyla's expression is similar. "It is...very strange for me to think of it, but yes. When I was younger, I believed the Ancestors to be gods who watched over us, kept us safe when they could."

"What do you think of them now?"