Ianto and Sam, Cardiff

[likesthecoat]

The Hub is a bit dark, with the blue lights from the computers playing off the walls, and a soft glow from the greenhouse above the central area. Ianto flicks on a few more lights so they don't trip over the steps and their own feet, and calls, "It's just me, I brought a friend, we're going to look for things to fight demons!" in a tone that suggests he doesn't expect anyone to answer.

The others must have left for the day already, and Jack is probably on a roof somewhere.

"Let me get a notebook and we can get started," he tells Sam.

Comments

[gavemea_45]

"Good point," he says, after a moment. Sam's looking at the archives with extreme interest.

[likesthecoat]

"You'd be surprised how often an artifact turns out to be nothing more than a hair dryer or a musical instrument. But sometimes something turns out to be amazing."

He leads Sam through the maze of file cabinets and locked storage cabinets to one in particular.

[gavemea_45]

"What kind of amazing?"

Real curiosity is evident.

[likesthecoat]

"Beautiful things like letters home, or terrifying things that a glove that brings a dead person back to life, or pendants that make you able to read people's minds."

He unlocks a cabinet and takes out a round piece of brass with switches down one side.

"This tells you the weather on any day, past or present or future, on the planet you're standing on."

He takes out a narrow locked box. "In here is an instrument that will reveal strong emotional moments of the room where you are. One side does the past and one side does the future.

"And this..." He rummages, then brings out a black piece of ... something shiny. "This, we have no idea. Jack thinks it's an intergalactic garage-door opener. I like to think it's an actual copy of the hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy, only there's no 'don't panic' on it."

[gavemea_45]

"Panicking never really helps," Sam says, dryly.

The place reminds him a little of their dad's storage room, which makes him think to ask,

"Do you have any wards set up around any of this stuff?"

[likesthecoat]

"No, it doesn't, but it's still hard to avoid at times."

He looks puzzled. "Wards? I'm not sure what you mean. We have several redundant security systems, including one that alerts us to unknown alien technology."

[gavemea_45]

"... probably the same thing, or close enough," he says, a little doubtfully.

"Sigils, salt circles, anything like that to contain forces?"

[likesthecoat]

Ianto looks thoughtful. "Sounds like folk magic," he remarks. "We have a containment disk..." He rummages and finds it. It looks like a coaster. "You toss this down on the floor and it'll contain any life form within its radius. But salt and things, they don't help us with the creatures we face.

"Most of our enemies, we can kill with a gun." He pauses. "Sometimes a very big gun."

[gavemea_45]

"Don't knock it until you've tried it."

Dry as dust.

"But yeah, there's no question that a gun's generally a good thing to have, no matter what."

[likesthecoat]

"I've picked up a few things lately," says Ianto mildly. "They just don't come in handy often."

[gavemea_45]

"Yeah."

Sam gives the 'coaster' a curious look.

"Does it work on, er, nonliving forms?"

[likesthecoat]

"We've never tried it on one. They tend not to run away so much."

[gavemea_45]

More and more, he's got a sinking feeling this is going to be a dry well in terms of finding anything he can use to help Dean.

"I meant -- well, hm."

He studies the disk a little more.

"I guess you've never had the chance to test it on a spirit, huh."

[likesthecoat]

"No, never. We don't get much call for that. When we do, it usually turns out to be something else. Alien, of course.

"The only things we've really dealt with that you would consider properly supernatural were the Old Ones and the demon Abbadon. With the Old Ones we could only give them what they wanted, and with Abbadon Jack ... sucked the life out of him, basically."

And he hopes to never experience anything like that again, seeing Jack so cold and pale.

[gavemea_45]

"Of course," Sam says. "Right."

A wry, wry half-smile.

"The fewer the demons the better, I always say."

[likesthecoat]

"One was enough," says Ianto with feeling. "But I doubt that method would be effective again, even if your demons aren't fifty feet tall."

[gavemea_45]

"... fifty feet tall," he echoes. "Uh, no."

A beat.

"At least I hope we don't run into one of those."

[likesthecoat]

"I hope so too."

He frowns at the items in the file. "Anything that detects life forms helpful? Or something purely ... not-alive?"

[gavemea_45]

"Hm. I don't know," Sam admits, after a moment. "I mean, if it's hiding, that's one thing -- but... "

Another beat.

"Ever used an EMF reader, or anything like that?"

[likesthecoat]

Ianto has to think. "No, I don't think so. But that's something you can pick up in any electronics store, isn't it?"

[gavemea_45]

Sam smiles.

"Not quite like these. They can be tuned to pick up paranormal frequencies; spectral residue, that sort of thing. Dean built our first one out of Radio Shack parts, but they work really, really well."

[likesthecoat]

"Spectral residue--ectoplasm, yeah?"

[gavemea_45]

"Sometimes, yeah. That's usually the sign of a really strong spirit, though."

"More often it's just like weird electronics -- lights flickering, TVs fuzzing out, that sort of thing."

A beat.

"Which is why I was wondering -- how does your thing work? Detecting life forms, I mean?"

[likesthecoat]

"Well, like it'll detect body heat or a heartbeat within a fifty-metre radius. I'm not entirely sure of the science itself."

[gavemea_45]

"Cool," Sam decides. "Or, well, not in the case of body heat, but it sounds like more than just infrared-- anyway."

"Can you show me how it works?"