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Jack Harkness
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April 2008
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Jack Harkness [userpic]
Torchwood Diary (Sort Of - It's a Ficlet)

Disclaimer: As usual, I don't own 'em, or the setting. The Beeb and their lovely, handsome, forgiving lawyers do. This is all homage, please don't sue, etc. Also per usual, feedback is appreciated but not expected.

For whatever reason, this fell into my head as a third-person thing, but as I want to use it for this character, it's staying here, rather than going on [info]fangrrl_squees. I apologize for the punctuation and lack of things like adjectives, but what can you expect from fic written over a lunchbreak?

***
 
(Un)Pop Music

Ianto once again thanked Providence for the existence of good tailoring, as running flat-out was a hell of a lot easier in trousers cut for it. As long as I don't drop this bloody bottle, he fretted. Good vodka wasn't cheap, and the brand Ianto carried was excellent.

Somewhere in the shadows above, the pterodactyl squawked unhappily. Ianto spared it a sympathetic thought as he looked for the source of the crackling white noise that filled the area. For a prehistoric predator, it was rather timid, and particularly didn’t like loud noises. That’s what I get for letting Tosh raise it, I suppose, Ianto thought as he neared his objective.

Arriving at Jack’s desk, Ianto found the things much as he feared they might be. Several wall-mounted speakers in the area had been torn from their moorings and, to judge by Jack’s slightly mournful regarding of his shoes, stamped to pieces by the American.

The attention being paid by Jack to his shoes was just a little too deliberate, and Ianto decided to err on the side of caution. Jack's worst moods invariably occurred during the small hours such as these. Fortunately, Tosh, Gwen and Owen had long since gone home.

“Am I to take it that Unchained Melody is off the playlist from now on?” Ianto asked, his tone neutral.

Jack looked at the wreckage that had recently been several quite-sturdy pieces of equipment, but reached automatically for the bottle already being offered. Ianto wondered if he was becoming a tad too predictable as he handed the vodka over. Well, that wasn't necessarily a bad thing at the moment, was it?

Jack took a large swig straight from the bottle and pretended not to notice Ianto's wince. “Yeah,” he said, quietly. “It is.”

“Fair enough.” Ianto finished what Jack had started by pulling some wires out of the wall. I might have to rethink the merits of oppressive silence. Jack's done this four times, now. I suppose I could just let him pick the background noise for the off hours. He's usually the only one here to listen to it, as it is.

With timing so coincidental as to make Ianto suspicious - and not for the first time - Jack asked, "Who queued that up, anyway?"

Ianto shrugged. "I'm not sure. I can look it up if you like."

"Don't bother," out of deference to Ianto's presence, Jack poured his next drink into an empty tea mug, first. "It was probably Owen's idea of a joke. He looked smugger than usual when he left." Jack emptied the mug and pulled a face. Tea dregs did awful things to fine spirits.

"It seems like his style. Want me to feed him to Myfanwy?" It was the usual offer and Ianto was glad to see it still got a smile.

"No. I don't want him getting indigestion. Imagine the mess." And that's the usual response, Ianto relaxed, marginally. All might not be right in the world at large, but at least the worst of Jack's fit of bad temper had passed...

Current Location: Cardiff
Comments

Interesting fic, you should expand on it a bit. I do like the Ianto/Jack dynamic, though I admit it seems a bit one-sided to me. I love how Ianto's there to care for him, an aspect I was working into my new fic!

*grins* Hence the caveat that it's a) a mere "ficlet" (I tried to get it down to drabble length, but it wasn't happening) and b) that it fell into my head over lunch. I literally slammed it out whilst eating my sandwich at my desk. But you know how it is, some days you just gotta get that stuff out of your head *somehow*. ;)

I suspect that I'll be poking the (non-slashy) Jack/Ianto dynamic in the future, too, as Ianto's role is a bit undefined at the moment (upcoming events in eps 4 notwithstanding, of course) and that leaves a person a lot of room for rummaging abouit. :)

Certainly does, I look forwards to reading it.

*chortle* no promises. I've so much outlined fic that's already waiting to be written.

Mind you, it's always the squeaky wheel that gets the grease. :)

this show is begging for it - I'd started a long Rose-centred fic which has been ruthlessly shoved aside for some fluffy Gwen/Jack

Oooh I liked this lots!

Pterry? lol. Are you a Terry Pratchett fan or is that coincidence?

Liked this ficlet lots too!

Well, it was Pterry or Ptracy - those are the traditional names for pterodactyls, surely?

I've read a bit of Pratchett, but I don't remember encountering a Pterry. It's entirely possible I pinched the name unconciously but how could I not? It's so fab!

Thanks for the kind words. I'm usually pretty share about sharing media fanfic as there are so many amazingly good ficcers out there. They leave me feeling rather inadequate.

After Pyramids, where the Djelibeybian accent was shwon by adding a silent P to most words beginning with T, Terry Pratchett has sometimes been referred to as Pterry by fans. Or amongst my crowd he has, anyway!

I did like this, and I hope you write more after we've got a better view of Ianto on Sunday. Should be interesting...

*blink* oh yeah, I've seen that a lot. Never really registered, though. Strange!

re: Ianto-fic, we'll see, I s'pose. I must admit that the apparent production design of the Cyberwoman has me spitting nails for a variety of reasons (lame, needless titallation and did I mention lame?) and I just hope that none of that rubs off on my favorite coffee-serving lad of anguish and darkness.

The other challenge of Ianto-fic is, of course, resisting the tempation to write terribly sordid Jack/Ianto slash. My feelthy little mind has already suggested a few scenarios. The one featuring chocolate frosting was beyond the pale... And so one must heavily tranquilize those plot bunnies, first, in order to get *anything* done. But they're such pervasive little devils... ;)

Chocolate frosting/icing? With Ianto taking those neat restrained little nibbles? I think it would drive Jack nuts...

*ahem* Indeed, the thought had crossed my mind. 'Scuse me, I have to go have a little lie down for a minute...

:-D

I have a much nicer, non-slashy ficlet idea involving chocolate icing (hard to believe, I know) but I think it'll have to wait until the between-season-hiatus to write up, mostly to be sure that something canonical doesn't blow it into flinders.

What is this 'non-slashy' to which you are referring? Does such a thing exist? ;)

Write the slash, you know you want to....

Do it! Do it, do it, do it! *bounces*

What, the chocolate frosting story? Maaaaaaybe someday, but darnit, I really *stink* at writing smut, even the mildest sort (of which this idea currently is) so I wouldn't hold my breath, if I were you. :)

Lovely!

Thank you. :)

Ianto's POV on Jack was really great, and the fact that Jack throws fits that only Ianto gets to be around for is totally perfect. Really liked this!

Thanks!

It's my conceit that Ianto's got the best handle on Jack's personality - warts and all - and the rest of the team, too. That's why he always knows when to show up with tea, brandy or chocolate cake (assuming I write the story that [info]lower_case_me is egging me on to do. :))

Dude, bringing Jack alcohol and chocolate cake? He needs to stop pining for the doctor and settle down with Ianto! And you can totally add my vote into the lot for any story like that ^.^

I adore your ficlet. The 'usual' banter is wonderful.