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Slightly Odd

Summary:

Fandom: Torchwood
Characters: Jack, Ianto, Owen, Tosh, Gwen, alien
Rating/Warnings: none really, this was just a fit of madness on my part.  Let's just call it pre-slash okay?
Summary: an alien with the ability to change its appearance is in the Hub, trying to make friends.

Work Text:

Slightly Odd
by Lilithangel

 

Ianto backed out of the small kitchen area and retreated to the stairs.  He took a deep breath and returned to find only one coffee machine.  Where it always was and without the replica he could have sworn was there an only moment earlier.  A replica that somehow managed to look sheepish at his shock, although how was anybody's guess.

Tosh picked up her notes and turned back to her computer that somehow looked wrong, as if a photo had been double exposed just off centre, making it look as if there were two keyboards there.  She pulled off her glasses and pinched the bridge of her nose.  She had definitely been working too hard, but the sense of frustration wasn't coming from her.

Gwen picked up her phone to call Rhys and ask him what was for tea.  When she pressed the keys they felt soft and almost clammy and they didn't make any sound.  She dropped it next to another phone just like hers and swung around to see if Owen was pranking her.  When she looked back there was only one phone on the desk and it felt like someone had kicked her petulantly.

Owen reached for his lab coat and shrugged it back on.  The feeling of not rightness sank through his shirt and onto his skin at the same time as he saw his lab coat draped over the step.  He tore the thing off his body and threw it aside, where it suddenly wasn't.  He could have sworn it had purred as he put it on and squeaked with disappointment when he threw it away.

"Okay everyone," Jack said from the door to his office, "there's a Morph in the Hub.  Its defence mechanism is to adopt the form of something inoffensive and important to a new species at first contact.  It's mostly mildly telepathic but mostly harmless so don't be alarmed if something seems slightly odd."

"Too late," Ianto said.

"Way too late," Tosh added, "but at least I'm not going crazy like I thought I was."

"Coffee machine," Ianto said.

"My computer," Tosh said.

"My phone," Gwen confirmed.  "What did it turn into for you?" she asked Jack.

"You really don't want to know," Jack said, resolutely not looking at a certain hand bubbling away in the corner.

"So it's basically harmless?" Owen said, coming up from the autopsy bay.

"Basically," Jack confirmed, "it will live in a symbiotic relationship with a host until it has learned what it needs from the culture and then it will move on.  It can startle the unwary so just watch your step and tell me if anything strange pops up again."

"What sort of symbiotic relationship?" Ianto asked.

"Like you've already seen," Jack explained, "it will find out what the host likes and be that.  It will provide pleasant stimulus to the host in payment for experiencing what the host experiences."

"Let me know if anyone sees it then," Owen said, "but I've got an autopsy to finish."  He straightened his lab coat and went back down the stairs, before anyone thought to ask him what he had seen and so he could put his other lab coat away.

The others got caught up in searching for anything slightly odd and forgot to ask.

The autopsy took longer than normal thanks to his hitchhiker finding out exactly what pleasant stimulus he liked and him having to stop quite a lot to recover.  He wasn't complaining and sure as hell not sharing the little beauty with anyone.

END