FIC: Torchwood drabble: Stardust

[fajrdrako]

Title: Stardust
Author: fajrdrako
Characters: Ianto, Toshiko
Challenge: tw100 #16: welsh saints
Rating: G
Words: 100
Notes: Spoilers for the ending of Torchwood season one. Cross-posted to my LJ and tw100.



Stardust

Glenn Miller music filled the dimly-lit restaurant: Jack would have loved it. Tosh held Ianto's hand, remembering the Ritz, where angels danced, and she had held Jack's hand in sympathy.

Everything changes. The Ritz was gone, as were Jack, Mary, and Lisa. Toshiko and Ianto remained, savouring wine and memories of love.

Ianto turned to Tosh, his eyes full of hope and humour. He kissed her. It wasn't like kissing Mary. Tosh loved Ianto less, liked him more. Ianto was Jack's, but Jack wasn't around.

"I'm not a saint," said Ianto.

"Neither am I," answered Tosh, kissing him back, properly.

Comments

[femme-slash-fan.livejournal.com]

WOW! Beautiful!

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I've been wanting to write more about Tosh - looking for an entry point, or an idea.

[femme-slash-fan.livejournal.com]

It works brilliantly!

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Hooray! Every time I write about her, I want to do it more.

[reina-isabella.livejournal.com]

Ooh, yes, please! Tosh doesn't get enough fic-love, I think, especially at the hands of capable authors.

This is lovely - compact yet very rich.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I have read three stories about Tosh that I thought were quite good, but all had the same situation and premise. I, of course, want to do something different - but haven't got it sorted in my head yet. That will come. I hope.

So glad you liked this one.

[walkingowl.livejournal.com]

Remember which three, and where I might find them...?

Looking forward to yours....

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

One is easy to find, since I just read it last night: it was In the Mood (http://fandomfrom3.livejournal.com/24945.html) by chicafrom3. The first one I read, a bit of a classic, is Live in Infamy (http://community.livejournal.com/galactic_conman/236646.html) by livii. I'll try to find citation for the third.

For a Tosh-related threesome you might like A Maddening Addiction (http://hegemony.livejournal.com/222848.html) by hegemony. I certainly did.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I'll try to come up with more.

[femme-slash-fan.livejournal.com]

I'd love to see more Tosh stuff from you. If need be you can borrow Liz... she seems to hack into Tosh's more... feisty side.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I couldn't handle Liz - I only know what she looks like from your icons. No, I'll find a way to write Tosh, given time and thought.

Hmm.

[femme-slash-fan.livejournal.com]

I can always give you Liz's bio???

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I don't want to write crossovers. I want to write Torchwood. So I want to sort out my thoughts on Tosh in the Torchwood context.

[femme-slash-fan.livejournal.com]

Then I wish you luck.... and maybe I'll eventually take a gamble on that Tosh/Liz myself.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Yes - go for it. You have a feel for it.

[rosiespark.livejournal.com]

I like this, very very much. It's very them.

Another success for your Torchwood drabble portflio!

[rosiespark.livejournal.com]

I meant to type portfolio, of course. That's me today. *sigh*

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

That's me today too, since I didn't even notice your typo. Thank goodness I had spell-check for the drabble... for what it's worth.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I enjoy writing about both characters, and I'm not sure I don't prefer writing about Ianto when Jack isn't around. Jack overwhelms Ianto sometimes when I put them together.

I do love writing these drabbles - almost too much, they're addictive. Easier than working on longer material, but more satisfying than you'd think they'd be, and fun for priming the pump of ideas. An idea doesn't have to be worth hours or days of work - it just is.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

Aw I couldn't resist the lure of the Torchwood - nicely done!

Hurry back, Jack - look at what Ianto's doing!!!!!

xxx

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

So glad you liked it!

Hurry back, Jack - look at what Ianto's doing!!!!!

Hee! And meanwhile, on the TARDIS...

[walkingowl.livejournal.com]

Okay, I too love Glenn Miller music. (Think of the matched tragedy, with Miller dying when his plane vanished -- now thought to have been tragically caught in the way when RAF planes, returning over the Channel, jettisoned their remaining bombs before landing.) And the recordings of it that we hear in Doctor Who and Torchwood are the original orchestra's, too, not some latter-day reconstruction... the fullness, the sway, all the beauty is there in it.

I am wordlessly amazed that you found this way to fit into the over-arching pronouncement: Everything changes! ...Instead, here, you have two people feeling how their world has been knocked out from under their feet. And, yes, that might have been the total meaning that Jack had meant in the first place! ...or not.

I have never felt comfortable with people in love referring to their lover as "mine," nor themselves as "Jack's/Toshiko's." It bugs me. When I am with someone, I am still as free as always, just enlarged and enhanced by that other person... and in my mind the same goes for the other person in that connection with me.

That said... just a thought, there, not a negative observation. And it is a handy shorthand, after all.

I like "It wasn't like kissing Mary"... in so many ways, isn't that true? Apart from all the obvious reasons (alien, two hundred years of experience, female form, hidden agenda), just think of how a person's kiss can be so like a fingerprint -- except, also, that person might and sometimes must kiss different lovers differently, as well. Multiple fingerprints.

I liked this. I always like your well-distilled little stories!

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Okay, I too love Glenn Miller music.

I love the way it was used on Doctor Who. I don't always like Big Bands and I don't necessarily like swing, but there is so much that I do like that there's no point in making a blanket statement - and I absolutely love the character-implication of Jack's love of the music. I wonder what other music he likes?

that might have been the total meaning that Jack had meant in the first place! ...or not.

I love the phrase. Its connotations. I suspect Jack meant a lot more than changes in people's personal lives - but we won't know until he explains!

I have never felt comfortable with people in love referring to their lover as "mine," nor themselves as "Jack's/Toshiko's." It bugs me.

I wouldn't normally do it, but in this case it was meant as characterization in reference to both Toshiko and Ianto: Tosh's belief that Ianto is/was a possession or adjunct of Jack, morphing into the realization that this is no longer true, or might never have been true, as her realization of attraction to Ianto brings her to see him in a new light as an individual.... And perhaps by implication, Ianto's belief that his illusion of "belonging" to Jack was never more than an illusion, or maybe even a delusion.

Moreover, when you have a 100-word limit, every short cut is necessary - at least, it is when you're as verbose as I tend to be.

just think of how a person's kiss can be so like a fingerprint

I like that idea. Did Jack, when dead, recognize Gwen's kiss to awaken him?

Thank you for the kind comments.

[walkingowl.livejournal.com]

You are welcome. Thank you for the lovely little story.

I did realize that you were probably falling back on a short-cut, there; writing a story only 100 words long must be something like trying to do jumping-jacks inside an orange crate ;-]

And your characterization was so spot-on (as others mentioned)!

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

writing a story only 100 words long must be something like trying to do jumping-jacks inside an orange crate ;-]

Actually, what it's like is writing sonnets or limericks or anything else that puts words and meanings into a tight and restricted structure. I love doing it but there are always compromises to be made between form and meaning and elegance.

your characterization was so spot-on

Delighted to hear it!

[fandom-me.livejournal.com]

. Tosh loved Ianto less, liked him more.

This is lovely - and that is perhaps my favorite part.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Thanks for commenting, and I'm glad you liked that line. I thought it summed up their friendship, and its potential for more.

[firko.livejournal.com]

Lovely - wistful and yet hopeful all rolled into one.

And Ianto/Tosh should be canon. It's just right

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Yes, I really like Ianto/Tosh. Maybe it will become canon, why not? This is the kind of show in which you never know who will choose whom. And things change.

So glad you enjoyed this!