Words, Words, Words

Another fic repost, because I got up early but don't feel like going for a run on my crampy legs. And because the first draft of Season of Mists is done but I'm not quite prepared to start the second. And because it's Tuesday. And because I can.

Have I mentioned I miss Owen? I miss Owen.

Fic: Note to Self
Title: Note to Self: Don't Die.
Characters: Ianto, Jack, Owen, OMC, OFC
Rating: R (Violence, Owen's pottymouth)
Summary: He was still Ianto Jones, and caring for people was still what he did best.

Disclaimer: Not mine. Not even remotely. Not even in my dreams. [ETA: Written pre-Series Two. Now completely and utterly and thoroughly Jossed. So AU it's not even funny.]

This is the follow-up to Sex Changes (Everything) You'll want to have read that first. Really.

( One day, you're going to hate me for everything I've done to you. )

I've decided to repost some of my older stuff here, rather than leaving it all scattered on various communities. I'm doing this partially out of a desire for organization, and partially because this allows me to feel like I'm "working" when I'm not actually writing a damn thing. Call it productive slacking.

I'm starting with the Sex Changes (Everything) stories because they've been on my mind a lot lately. Bear in mind that these were written before Series Two, and were heavily, heavily jossed. I mean, they were AU to start with, and I knew it, but they're even moreso now. Damn, I miss Owen and Tosh.

Title: Sex Changes (Everything)
Characters: All
Rating: R (implied slash, dodgy language)
Summary: Jack can bring someone back from the brink of death with just a kiss. And Ianto has gotten far more than just a kiss from Jack.

Disclaimer: Torchwood isn't mine. Neither are the Dresden Dolls. But it'd be really interesting if they were.

( We need to chop your clock off )

And just for funsies: the DRESDEN DOLLS!

So posting excerpts from the novel-in-progress didn't go as well as I hoped. Honestly, I'm just blocked on the silly thing -- I think it'll be easier to write in fall and winter. I've never really written well in the summer; there's too much to do.

Well, I say that, and yet.

I watched Children of Earth, and I have my complaints with it; I'm sure most of you know what they are. I've never claimed that I don't play favorites with the Torchwood gang. I love them all, and I still can't watch Exit Wounds without sobbing, but I have a favorite and we all know who he is. So I have my complaints with Children of Earth. So I'm currently 20,000 words into fixing said complaints.

So much for not being able to write, anyway.

Anyway, in case anyone stops by this journal anymore, I'm not dead. And I'm once more writing for Torchwood, although it'll be a while before this one is ready for posting. So there's that.

Also, since I'm still catching up from my long-ass internet hiatus, what have I missed in Torchwood fandom? Any fics I should be reading? I've tried to catch up on the one-shots, but the epically long multi-chapter fics that seem to be in vogue recently just intimidate the crap out of me. What should I be reading?

Anyway. Life happened, no internet, blah blah blah, and I fell away from Torchwood fandom for a while. And I've started working on an original project, so I'm trying to focus my writing energy on that. Here's the thing, though; fandom has fucking spoiled me. I honestly feel like it's harder for me to write without the "deadline" of wanting to get things up and posted. And then, too, there is the sheer addictive crack that is instant comments and feedback and reviews. I have my little IRL writing group, but we're all such slackers that our meetings, when we have them, revolve around us trying to find a good program with which to share the stories that we never actually write. I miss that.

So I've been mulling it over in my mind, and this is what I've decided -- I'm going to start posting what I've written, in easily digestible chunks, on this journal. I am going to friends-lock, because they say that publishers don't want to pay for a story that's already been offered for free, and I realize that friends-locking won't really help that, but I don't feel like doing more than the bare minimum, so. If you want to read, and you're not on my friends' list, comment and I'll add you. If not, that's fine.

And if no one comments on this or is reading this journal anymore, that's fine. I'll go be emo in my emo corner for a little while, and then cheer up and start posting it anyway, regardless. Just to see if it gets me more inspired to write.

Oh! The story, if you're interested, is more or less steampunk; it's about a girl, a robot, and Jack the Ripper. More than a little influenced by the Dresden Dolls, naturally.

And that's me, lately. How've you guys been?

WIAD Week Seven -- I am stressed out, I am exhausted, and I am worried. My last story didn't go over so well, and I didn't feel it met my standards. What fresh hell awaits me?

The prompt: Wasted.

Now, there's few prompts that lead to crack quite as well as having a character get completely and utterly trashed. And there is no Torchwood episode quite as cracky as "Something Borrowed." Alien pregnancy! Catfighting mothers! Rhys with a chainsaw! Ianto the Wedding Fairy! And then, of course, we finally get to meet the infamous Banana Boat, the best man who wound up in jail in Lanzarote and just barely got sprung in time for the wedding. My brain lit up. I spent my time wandering around, thinking up story ideas, and snickering to myself. It was fantastic.

Was it my best work ever? No, probably not. But it was a hell of a lot of fun to write, and I'm definitely going to expand a bit on the idea and see how much more I can do with it. I have a feeling there's loads.

( White Rabbit )

So I won Week Four, which was thrilling. And, as real life proceeded to kick my arse around and up and down, it became a bright spot in what is turning out to be a very, very, very bad month. It's kind of astonishing how these small things can help so much.

Week Five's theme was "Insult to Injury," with the bonus element of a television show. I don't know much about television in the UK (except for Dr. Who and Torchwood, but that's far too meta for me), so I went with "The Bill," because I at least know of a catchphrase for it. That led me to writing a PC Cooper story. I liked it when I was writing it, and I still do. I think it's solid. Also, for once, it fit the word count pretty easily.


( Day One )

Week Six... Yeah, kind of the less said, the better on this one. The prompt was "Busted;" the added element, a craft (knitting, etc.) I started off with a brilliant idea, as I always do, that proved to need far more space than I had. So I scrapped it, and started casting about for something else. Then my real life went to hell. All in all, I'm impressed that I wrote anything at all. This was a piece that I was hoping would let me hide in the tall grass. The grass was not as tall as I thought. I just barely survived. But I did survive, so there is that.

At least I got to write knitting Ianto. I do like knitting Ianto.

( The Beginning (of a Beautiful Friendship) )

So I lived to write another day. And then I got the prompt that made me happiest of all. Details to follow.

So. Week three sucked. I almost defaulted. I hated my story. Although I made it through with some positive reviews, I was nervous as hell about the next round.

Then I saw the theme. Team Weevil was given a list of West Wing episode titles. The challenge? Use one of the titles as the title and basis for a story of your own. (Added element: A coin.) I clicked the link, and damn near squealed. So many good titles. So little time.

I grabbed a notebook and jotted down every title that stood out to me. It was not at all a short list. Then I pondered. "He Shall, From Time to Time," really spoke to me. I loved "Freedonia," because how often do you get to riff on the Marx Brothers? "On the Day Before" would be perfect for an "Exit Wounds" fic...

But I kept coming back to "The Fall's Gonna Kill You." I am, when all is said and done, a Jack/Ianto shipper, and the title just fit so well. The story itself came out very naturally, with a minimum of fuss and fighting. When it was all done with, I sat back and knew that no matter what, I was proud of this one.

It was a good feeling. And then I won, and that was even better!

The story itself wasn't universally loved; I actually had two negative votes on it, which wasn't much of a surprise. Rather than writing one single story, I wrote five loosely-connected drabbles, and that's not going to work for everyone. I'm still happy with it, though.

And I'm happy to have immunity. Immunity is nice.

Title: The Fall's Gonna Kill You
Author: lookninjas
Rating: PG-13, for language
Spoilers: "Fragments"

Summary: He could still break his own fall.

( One moment, Jack was clinging to the pterodactyl's leg )

Note: The movie mentioned at the end is, of course, Singin' in the Rain

Week Three's theme was super powers -- mental for Team Pterodactyl, physical for Team Weevil (added element: A book.) I was thrilled; I grew up on comic books, so this was going to be easy. I already knew what I wanted to do: a riff on what happened to Kitty Pryde after the Morlock Massacre, when intangibility became her natural state and staying solid became a struggle for her, with Tosh as my Shadowcat. Easy. Right?

Heh.

The thing is, when you grow up reading nothing but origin stories, you want your first go at the genre to be perfect in every way. And that just wasn't happening for me. I'd write two paragraphs, delete them, write two new paragraphs, delete them... repeat this for a while, decide that my first version was the best one, revert back to that only to realize it was terrible and I was clearly delusional, write, delete, write, delete... I did this for two days solid, until I realized that time was running out and I had to just stick with something, or default out of the competition.

I was so frustrated that defaulting began to seem like a viable option.

But dammit, a woman has her pride. So I sat down one last time, and came out with a story that, although not perfect, was still pretty good. And I got some good reviews, and I made it through another round. I still have mixed emotions, though. Objectively speaking, it's a good, solid story. There's a lot that I like about it. On the other hand, it's always going to remind me of how frustrated I was that week, so I kind of can't like it, even though I know I should.

Title: Shadow
Author: lookninjas
Rating: PG
Spoilers: Uncanny X-Men #129

Summary: If she doesn't concentrate, she'll fall forever.

( Tosh, are you sure there's something here? )

So. The theme for the second week of WIAD was diary entries; Team Weevil's had to center around an event from Season Two (The added feature, this go-around, was "weather.")

I immediately had a brilliant idea involving Captain John. And then I watched Exit Wounds, and got Jossed. Hard. (I also had a really hard time writing after that -- I think I was too busy grieving. Anyway.) After that, I had another good idea, about Ianto's father. Unfortunately, it didn't fit the prompt in any way, shape or form, so I had to scrap it. Still might write that one, though.

This was Idea Three. I like it well enough. Martha's a fun character, and I like her voice. It's not as elegant as it could have been, but obviously it got me through, so there you are. I'd like it better, though, if it weren't for Idea Four, which came to me two days after voting started. It's a brilliant idea, though.

Anyway. Story time.

Title: Martha Jones's Diary
Author: lookninjas
Rating: Barely PG, if that. She's from Doctor Who, you know.
Spoilers: DW series 3, TW series 2, through beginning of "Reset."

Summary: Martha gets to see that team of Jack's for the first time.

( 9 April 2009 )

(For the record: I did toy with the idea of really lifting from Bridget Jones' Diary and giving a little header that said things like "Aliens Dissected: None so far. Times Had to Run For Life: Twice, once when Owen fired off that alien gizmo, once when pterodactyl wanted me to play fetch." But that seemed a bit over the top to me, and out of character for Martha, so I held off on it.)

Title: And I'll Be Gone
Author: lookninjas
Characters: Ianto, Owen
Rating: PG-13
Spoilers: Great big spoilers for 2.13, "Exit Wounds." Seriously, if you're trying to remain unspoiled, do not read.

Summary: Owen leaves a message of his own.

Notes: Big thanks to seize, who kept me from overdoing it.

( Owen's refrigerator was completely empty )

Survived the first round, thank heavens. I've been debating posting this story -- it did reasonably well, but I don't know. In retrospect, I should never have tried to squeeze this down to 250 words. But in the end, I thought I'd just post this here, along with the original version, which was just over 400 words, in case anyone feels like reading them.

The prompt for this was "Girls' Night In" -- female characters only, and it had to take place in the Hub. Somehow, I wound up writing Suzie monologuing about Catholicism, and then topped it off with a Dostoevsky quote. And I didn't stand out all that much, either. I was pretty proud of Team Weevil -- we took the prompt and ran off in all kinds of cool directions. Makes the competition pretty tense, though.

Anyway, story time. Comments/queries are always welcome. And yes, "What were you thinking?" is a perfectly valid query.

Title: Little Souls
Rating: PG
Spoilers/Warnings: None.

( The first draft )

( And the final cut )

You never really know how short 250 words is until you've tried it, believe me. Four hundred words seems such a luxury now...

Title: Motherless Boys
Author: lookninjas
Characters: Jack/Ianto
Rating: PG-13
Spoilers: "From Out of the Rain," and "Adrift"

Summary: Ianto doesn't ask about Jack's family, so Jack doesn't ask about Ianto's.

Notes: Much, much love to seize and ffarff for all their assistance with this fic.

( Jack knew that silence, knew what it meant )

Title: Once
Author: lookninjas
Characters: Jack, Ianto, Gwen, Rhys
Rating: G
Spoilers: "Something Borrowed"
Warnings: Fluff. Lots and lots of fluff.

Summary: Jack is on the dance floor with Ianto in his arms, but he can't relax.

( The monster is dead, the happy couple have been married. )

Title: The Persistence of Memory
Author: lookninjas
Characters: Team
Rating: PG-13
Spoilers: Up to 2x05, "Adam"

Summary: Suzie always used to say that RetCon wasn't 100%

Beta'd by ffarff and seize

( Who's Adam? )

Title: Brothers in Arms
Author: lookninjas
Characters: Ianto, Owen
Rating: PG
Spoilers: Up to 2x07, "Dead Man Walking"

Summary: The boys talk about zombies and debate the merits of fresh vs. frozen brains.

seize fixed the bad stuff, 'cause she's good like that.

( Owen had always wanted a little brother. Instead, he wound up with Ianto. )

Title: Restraint
Author: lookninjas
Characters: Ianto, Tosh
Rating: PG
Spoilers: Up to 2x04, "Meat"

Summary: Tosh and Ianto practice methods of escape.

Beta'd by the ever-lovely, ever-welcome seize.

( Tosh hisses when the rope bites in )

Title: Plums
Author: lookninjas
Characters: Jack/Ianto
Rating: PG-13.
Warning/Spoilers: None.

Summary: Ianto eats a plum. Jack enjoys the view.

( The plum is small )

Title: The Art of Losing
Author: lookninjas
Characters: Jack/Ianto
Rating: PG at the absolute worst
Spoilers: "To the Last Man"

Summary: Gwen can't quite understand just why this photo has such a hold on Ianto, but Jack knows.

The title was taken from Elizabeth Bishop's One Art.

( He finds Ianto in the Archives after the others have gone. )

Title: Five Times Owen Harper Said "Let's All Have Sex"
Author: lookninjas
Characters: Ianto/Owen/Tosh/Gwen
Rating: NC-17, for vaguely described violence, death, and... well, sex.
Spoilers: "Sleeper" and Owen's report on the Himalayas (taken from the BBC website).

Summary: It's become something of a running joke.


( The first time Owen says it, they're both drunk )

Title: Easier
Author: lookninjas
Characters: Ianto, Gwen
Rating: PG-13
Spoilers for: "Sleeper"

Summary: Sometimes you have to let them go.

Written for the Gwen/Ianto friendship challenge, because I love those crazy Welsh kids. seize approves this fic.

( She'd no idea how long she'd been sat there )