likesthecoat | log for Near: Cardiff

He puts an arm around Near's shoulders to direct him to the car. He is better--there's a little smile at his mouth and a bit of lightness to his step.

"So," he says, because there's no reason to delay this, "Lorne and I talked. Well, you know. Online."

"I'm glad," Near says, relieved, and shoves his phone back in his pocket. "You seem a lot better. Did you... Er... Sort anything...?"

"Well . . ." Ianto lets Near into the car and gets into the driver's seat. "Sort of. I asked him not to keep me waiting for years."

Near curls up in the passenger seat in his usual fashion and considers this.

"And presumably he said yes?"

"He did indeed. He said there's a few things he needs to sort out first." He pulls the car out onto the street. "And I suspect he's waiting to see what happens with Jack and I before he makes any kind of commitment."

Near nodded.

"...That is sort of... understandable. After you say something like that, it would be... hard to know the person you said it to was with someone else," he says quietly.

"And then--" he hesitates for a second, "...there's the distance issue."

He looks at Near, and then nods and looks back at the road. "It's a very long way.

"I don't know what to do about Jack. Giving him up will be very hard, if it comes to that."

[ooc: Gotta break for the evening, I think: we have con stuff and I need dinner.]

"Well..." Near draws it out a bit, not wanting to say the wrong thing. "I don't think he would expect that of you unless you were able to... be together properly. It be very hard otherwise, I think."

He takes a deep breath.

"...And you know how hard it would be for him to get away. You know... being where he is," he says quietly, hoping Ianto will catch his meaning.

[OOC: No problemo; my internet crapped out on me right after I got the notification of that comment anyway. Have a nice time, and we can pick up tomorrow. :)]

"I know. He keeps saying he doesn't expect me to give up Jack, but I'm fairly certain he wants me to anyway. Which I can hardly blame him for, really. Under normal circumstances I'd expect it of myself.

"Yes, I know." He glances at Near again. "The Pegasus Galaxy. I know."

[ooc: It'll probably be more like Monday--I'll be in transit most of tomorrow.]

"These aren't normal circumstances, though," Near points out. "Things are... more complicated than that. Pegasus..." he muses quietly. "I didn't know exactly where it was... I thought just another planet maybe, but a whole other galaxy..."

He ponders this for a moment.

"...Still, when it gets to the point of space ships and... gate things, one galaxy is the same as the next, isn't it?"

[OOC: That's cool, I was shopping with mum all day and I didn't get a lot of sleep last night, so I'm taking to bed for a few hours as of now anyway. Travel safely and have as nice a time as possible!]

"I'm very aware of that.

"It's three million light years away."

He frowns at the road. "I suppose it is. But the thought of leaving Earth is just . . . I can't do it."

Near blinks, considering the reality of three million miles, and how he would probably waste away from emo if Matt were that far away. He's less than two hundred miles away now, and Near has already sent him ten of fifteen text messages. He fumbles his phone into his pocket.

"Do you mean to leave it permanently, or...?"

"Ever. No matter how long. I couldn't leave it permanently--I'm not sure I could leave for an hour.

"The thought of standing on another planet terrifies me."

Three million light years is much, much farther away than three million miles. Ianto will be happy to explain it.

Near frowns. If he had the ability to come back, or even if he wouldn't have to leave Matt, he'd probably do it without a second thought.

"Really?"

[OOC: My bad! I actually do know the difference, I swear. It's just six am and I'm working on a log, another thread, and a plotting session with a friend of mine about another RP for tomorrow and thus, I make mistakes. Near would definitely know the difference, anyway~]

"Yes."

He's quiet a moment. "I mean, I deal with aliens every day. That's my job. And sometimes they're so lost . . . I can't imagine what it's like, looking at a different sky, but the notion of it is just terrifying."

[ooc: Hee. I figured as much.]

Hmm. Near ponders this. He's never actually met an alien, although a Shinigami probably qualifies. They do have their own world, after all.

"I don't think I'd mind, so long as I knew a bit about where I was going beforehand. If Lorne is there, and Sheppard, it can't be that bad. I remember talking about the place with Lorne before I knew where it was, and he kept saying how special it was and how he felt about leaving. I mean... I don't think I'd want to go somewhere if I didn't know anything about it, but... I wouldn't mind seeing where they are."

"Yeah," Ianto murmurs. "He's made it sound so beautiful."

He sighs. "We're still explorers when it comes to outer space. There's so much we don't know."

Near nods, glancing over.

"Of course-- we don't even know our own planet properly, after all. I just mean... I wouldn't want to randomly hop in a ship bound for somewhere utterly unknown. I'd be quite uncomfortable with that. But if it was somewhere people I knew and trusted had been, and I had a safe way home... I couldn't imagine not going." He smiles a little. "The curiosity would plague me too badly."

Ianto pulls the car into a car park and shuts off the engine, and sits still for a moment. "No, it'd just be foolish to hop a ship when you don't know where it's going.

"Look, the only way I can really explain it is you're afraid of monkeys, I'm afraid of space travel. It's not rational, it's not logical, it's just how I feel.

"Anyway, we're here."

"I think everyone has got at least one major phobia hidden away," he agrees quietly. Near actually can explain his monkey phobia, but it is, in some ways, even more embarrassing than if he couldn't, so he doesn't want to explain and make the mood uncomfortable. Or... more uncomfortable.

"I'm sorry," he adds, after a second's pause. "I didn't mean to press you about it."

"It's all right." Ianto smiles at him tightly and gets out of the car.

Knowing what's out there doesn't make him want to see the rest of it.

[ooc: Dozing off. Will be back tomorrow.]

A very touchy subject, then, which Near can kind of appreciate. He would have little desire to visit the Shinigami realm, probably, but... Hm, well, where Lorne was seemed different... He'd never thought much about alien life before talking to some of the people online, but now that he had, his curiosity was piqued, for certain.

He steps out of the car and follows along for a minute, trying to think of something to say.

"I think my curiosity gets the better of me sometimes," he says eventually. "It's gotten me into trouble before..."

"It has that tendency," Ianto says quietly, and then adds, "I know I have to get over this if I ever want to visit Lorne."

Near nods.

"If that's even possible. I don't know if... visiting... is a viable option. It's still a military base, after all, and highly secret. I don't imagine they get a lot of visitors."

[ACK, SORRY! I had a lot of threads going on for a while and this totally slipped my mind. My bad, sorry.]

"No, they don't." He pauses to give his name to the maitre d', and they're taken to their table.

He goes on once they're (relatively) alone again, "Martha seems to think she can take me to him."

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