Yo-ho and a cuppa coffee! (Torchwood team welcome post, come one, come all!)

Seven o'clock, in the morning, of course, and Ianto Jones was already at the Hub. He would be the earliest person on there, if it weren't for the fact that Jack actually seemed to live there.

He was busy storing the freshly bought coffee-making supplies, knowing everyone else would arrive soon; the dead body of an alien who looked remarkably like a bird, but was wearing a pirate costume - eyepatch and all, - whose most likely cause of death had been deemed "drowning", meant everyone would be at the Hub in about - Ianto looked at his watch again - ten minutes, now.

Ianto didn't go to the morgue to observe the body, but he sat in the meeting room, wondering what exactly the Bird-Pirate-man had been doing at the time of his supposed drowning. It wasn't good image for a pirate to drown like that, was it?

Her insides were screaming "LATE! LATE!", but Toshiko Sato knew she could never be late for her wonderful job. The only thing throwing her off was missing her alarm that morning and she shouldn't let it get to her so much. She hurried across the crosswalk in her Kate Spade karolina heels and was thankful she had never fallen whilst doing so. Torchwood Three meant a lot of cat and mouse chase and her balance was right on the dot.

Upon entering the Hub, Tosh could smell the scent of fresh brewed coffee made by none other than Ianto Jones himself and she smiled. She was usually around the second or third person to arrive and the bit of solitude was a nice start to gradually enter the hectic atmosphere.

Tosh made her rounds around the hub just checking for new things that could or needed to be done. She went into the morgue and saw a bird alien dressed as a pirate. Not being at all surprised with what lay before her, she checked the toe tag to see the cause of death - drowning.

"And that," she muttered. "Is why irony is never a surprise at Torchwood."

Ianto had heard someone come in, and as he peeked out of the meeting-room, he saw it was Toshiko. He stood up and, politely as ever, went to fetch her a cup of his fresh coffee, still quite hot.

He walked down to the morgue, and leaned onto the wall as Tosh observed the bird-like alien Pirate.

"So, you've met the worst pirate in history, already?" Ianto asked, amused. He handed Tosh her coffee with a smile, and a nod. "Good morning."

Still amused by their latest victim, Tosh shook her head. Jack was going to have fun explaining this one. She turned to see Ianto was there with a cup of coffee for her.

"So, you've met the worst pirate in history, already?"

She smiled and nodded. "Yes, and I wonder if he had a small man on his shoulder being the tool?"

The coffee mug was still warm. Not too hot so that she would burn her fingers, but a nice temperature to which it was comforting and relaxing. She sipped it and her lips smacked. Ianto always remembered she liked a bit of cream and sugar.

"Good morning."

"Morning, Ianto. Thanks for this," she motioned towards her drink and smiled.

"Yes, and I wonder if he had a small man on his shoulder being the tool?"

"Not that we've found." Jack grinned, pleased to find at least half of the team present and accounted for when he left his office. "Maybe he only swims solo? I'd suggest they made him walk the plank, but.." That would have been a cliche, right? Oh, like it wasn't a funny enough situation as it was.

"Not," he added as he walked down a bit, so he could have a look into the med bay and their alien friend, "That we're sure he drowned in water yet, but that's usually the reasonable guess. Then again, since when do we deal in reasonable?"

Yes, it was early, and Jack was fairly cheerful. But he'd been up for a few hours now.

Ianto chuckled at Tosh's joke about a small man on the bird-alien-pirate's shoulder. This morning was filled with mildly amusing jokes already, thanks to Mr. Blue Feathers (no beard in sight), and all those puns about pirate life made Ianto really want to find a little man in a tiny costume running around looking for his pirate.

He handed Jack another cup of coffee and a "Good morning" as well, not that he hadn't seen the Captain roaming around the Hub, but it was always polite to greet anyone whenever.

"Maybe he choked on bird seeds? Or whatever it is they eat, I don't know..." Ianto rolled his eyes.

Gwen stumbled from the taxi by the big office building and slowly walked towards the "tourist office". Normally she would have parked in the car park at the Plas, but the blasted thing wouldn't start.
As soon as the cog door rolled aside she heard chuckling and that delightful scent of coffee, and she knew it was going to be a good day.
She followed the noise to the morgue to see a bird-like alien dressed like a pirate, and everyone holding coffee.
"Why are alien birds pirates? Because they arr?"

Ianto turned around upon hearing Gwen's voice and his jaw dropped.

"Where did you find that fine piece of comedy, Gwen?" He asked, refusing to believe that Gwen would make such a cheesy joke about The Pirate Bird Who Couldn't Swim, as Ianto had started calling him on his mind. Past the bad-joke shock, he rushed upstairs to fetch Gwen another cup of coffee, handing it to her.

"Careful, it's hot." He said.

"Where did you find that fine piece of comedy, Gwen?"

"Oh Ianto, you'd be surprised, do you know how a pirate get's from A to B?"

Taking her sip of her coffee she gave a silly grin, suddenly feeling so much more alive. A nod to Ianto in thanks for the sugary caffeinated beverage, a smile and Tosh and Jack and a curious glare at the bird.
"So where did it come from? The bay?"

Ianto didn't know Gwen had a whole little black book of pirate jokes, and it was nice to discover something new about his co-worker.

"No, tell me..." He said, amused, taking a sip of his own coffee - finally!
He looked back at the corpse, contemplative. "It just popped up on the bay, I suppose. No cursed ship, either."

"......so not in a car? Arg?" Gwen said to Ianto will all the seriousness she could muster.
She looked at Jack and gave him a lopsided grin "any idea what in Davey Jones' locker it is? Or Ianto Jones' locker?"

Jack tried - no, really, he did - not to roll his eyes at the jokes. He just failed miserably at it. Then again, he had been the first to mention walking the plank, so he wasn't exempt from blame for corny jokes.

"No clue," he told Gwen with a shrug. "All we know is, it's avian, alien, and apparently liked costume parties." Glancing at it again and having some of his coffee while he thought it over, he added, "Sort of resembles something I saw once from Chryseis. But different facial structure and feathers." From Chryseis, on Chryseis.. was it important if it'd slipped through the Rift or he'd been to the planet?

Tosh looked over to see Gwen happily making jokes with the rest of them. Whilst she and Ianto kept the jokes flowing, Tosh just sipped her coffee, tuning them out for the time being. She really did wonder what this bird was up to and if he did drown by water. What its motive was, why it was here. There was always something to ponder about.

Glancing over at Jack, she could see him rolling his eyes and she giggled, knowing he felt a hypocrite himself. Jack was special to Toshiko; she owed him her life.

Getting back to reality, Tosh looked at the clock on the wall. "Where the hell is Owen?!"

All this joking back and forth, and nobody had yet any clue of where that creature had come from.

It seemed only one of them was missing, and coincidentally, it was the most necessary of them at the moment: Dr. Owen Harper - MD.

"Uhhh Owen called in sick about half an hour ago. He did sound sick. Or just hungover. Whichever." Ianto said, looking up at nothing in particular, playing with his empty mug. It figured the one day everybody needed Owen's expertise, he'd be suffering from alcohol withdrawal from the night before.

That wasn't good news. Not necessarily awful news, since they had no proof the bird-pirate-thing was bent on world domination or anything, but either way, it was exceptionally disappointing. He was pretty damn curious about that thing, and now they would have to wait to find much out about it.

"He always calls out when we get something interesting," Jack commented to no one in particular. One of these days, he was going to have to get round to limiting time allowed off due to alcohol... no, probably not, but it was worth a passing thought.

"Uhhh Owen called in sick about half an hour ago. He did sound sick. Or just hungover. Whichever."

"Well I suppose we'll just have to make do without him then. Anything else interesting come in overnight? You know, what we don't need Dr. Hungover for?"
Gwen drained her coffee and placed the cup on counter, the rough and slightly wobbily start to the morning already forgotten.

"Not that I know of, then again, I only got here at quarter to 7." Ianto told Gwen, shrugging. He supposed Jack would probably know, but he would have to wait until the Captain said something. "How about the CCTV footage?"

He figured Tosh would get on it as soon as possible - or once she finished her coffee - because she was the expert on noticing strange activity both from the Rift and from the footage they would collect overnight.

"Nothing overnight here," Jack remarked with a shrug. Minus a blonde and a guided tour, he thought, but kept that to himself. He wouldn't be informing any of them of Rose's visit, or the invitation for her to 'drop by again' unless she actually did happen to drop by again (preferably not literally, because that was a steep fall, but he never minded catching her). "If we're really unfortunate, it'll be a slow day."

Which would, really, be a pity. Hopefully Tosh would find some Rift activity to follow up on, or something.

The toe heel beat could be heard echoing the hub as Tosh strode over to the computers. She sipped the last bit of her coffee, feeling that caffeine buzz and she was ready for the day.

Logging in and checking the dailies, which included security tapes, who's been logging in and all that great stuff she clicked on yesterday's date and began taking mental notes on everything she saw. A couple of kids messing around, man picking his nose (and eating it), but something else... Tosh rewound and watched it again. It couldn't be. Rewinding one more time with two hundred percent zoomed in and slow motion Tosh watched as she watched what looked like Owen with a mechanical hand loitered around. She checked the time - it was at exactly 3 AM.

"Jack...?" Tosh motioned over to him. "I think you should take a look at this..."

"Hmm?" Concerned, but as usual hardly showing it, Jack walked over to Tosh's work station, looking over her shoulder as the tape wound itself through again. Owen..? That was more than a little worrying. "What the hell?"

A pause, and he reconsidered the footage. "So, how sure can we be that that's him?" he asked Tosh. These things weren't, after all, 100%, and it wasn't unknown for such things to be faked, or their own identities stolen.

Gwen ducked round Jack's arm, smelling in the oak-y scent that seemed to follow him, to see the CCTV footage.
"It certainly looks like Owen, moves like Owen, you know his swagger. I don't think anyone could copy it so well."
Sighing, she figured she better come clean, "me and Owen went to the pub last night, no funny business, just catching up. I left about 1am, but I think he went on to a club..."

Even Ianto was now standing behind the rest of the team, watching incredulously as what looked like Owen did some very strange things on the CCTV footage. He would probably have dropped the mug, out of sheer surprise, if he hadn't set it on the cupboards at the medical bay/morgue.

"What club, where did he go?" Ianto asked Gwen, without taking his eyes off the screen. "What's that he's holding?" He moved as closely to the screen as he could without making the image look so pixelized, he wouldn't be able to see anything.

"What club, where did he go?"

Gwen shrugged. "I'm sorry I don't know, we we're just in The Skiff. Doesn't he usually go to that place that looks like the end of the world?"

Ianto sniggered and nodded.

"You're going to have to be more specific, there's a whole list of places in Cardiff that look like the end of the world, depending on who's world we're talking about..." He smirked at her. "Plus, I don't get out much, I don't know which club is which..."

Owen walked into the tourist center, grateful to find that Ianto was not there. He had a killer hangover, and tried calling in sick, but Ianto had a strange way of knowing when he was lying. He also thought he heard the teaboy say something about some pirate alien thing, Owen wasn't really paying attention, so maybe it was a parrot alien? Parrot pirate alien? Who knows.

He snuck into the hub, nearly blinded by the gate entrance's siren. Owen swore to himself right then that he would never ever drink again. Maybe he could sneak into Ianto's coffee bay and make himself the strongest espresso in world history...

Ugh... It was shaping up to be a brilliant day...