It's intelligent and also emotionally resonant, it fits canon faultlessly, there's that sense of the irresistible subtext starting up between Ianto and Jack. Everything I want in an excellent Torchwood story, in fact!
*BEAMS* That is a wonderful thing to hear. Thank you.
I love backstories that fit into canon, and that's really what I wanted this piece to do: I wanted it to work with what we know about the characters, not add anything shockingly new.
Ianto's relentless attention to detail, that works so well for him when he has time to plan, but lets him down when he's dropped head-first into pure, brute danger.
I hadn't thought of it in those terms, but you're right. Ianto's strengths are in research and planning, pattern-recognition to a great extent, but in the midst of danger... well, he handles it relatively well (read: better than I would) but he doesn't get the same buzz of almost-enjoyment that the others do.
Jack's exceptional shrewd intelligence, underpinned by just enough human weakness to have him miss the last small details that might clue him in...
*nods* I hadn't considered it human weakness so much as a harshness towards other people that is very clear at the start of TW S1. Jack seems to have become blase to other people, has stopped looking too closely at his team -- as long as they do what he wants, as long as the team works and does it's job, he doesn't look any closer and doesn't want to see the ways they start to fall apart.
In Cyberwoman, both Jack and Ianto are right. Ianto has been hiding, he purposely came into TW3 lying about who he was and why he was there. But I don't think Jack really asked a lot of him. I think Jack made his mind up about who Ianto was, what sort of person he was, very quickly and never looked any further than the suits and politely offered coffees.
I'm not implying it was Jack's fault -- Ianto's actions were considered and deliberate -- but an organisation like Torchwood needs close supervision of its employees for their own health (ie. Suzie and the glove, Owen and the weevil fights, Tosh and Mary, etc). And if Jack wants to play the leader and run it with a tiny team, then he needs to take on that responsibility for his subordinates (which he does as TW S1 goes on).
no subject
*BEAMS* That is a wonderful thing to hear. Thank you.
I love backstories that fit into canon, and that's really what I wanted this piece to do: I wanted it to work with what we know about the characters, not add anything shockingly new.
Ianto's relentless attention to detail, that works so well for him when he has time to plan, but lets him down when he's dropped head-first into pure, brute danger.
I hadn't thought of it in those terms, but you're right. Ianto's strengths are in research and planning, pattern-recognition to a great extent, but in the midst of danger... well, he handles it relatively well (read: better than I would) but he doesn't get the same buzz of almost-enjoyment that the others do.
Jack's exceptional shrewd intelligence, underpinned by just enough human weakness to have him miss the last small details that might clue him in...
*nods* I hadn't considered it human weakness so much as a harshness towards other people that is very clear at the start of TW S1. Jack seems to have become blase to other people, has stopped looking too closely at his team -- as long as they do what he wants, as long as the team works and does it's job, he doesn't look any closer and doesn't want to see the ways they start to fall apart.
In Cyberwoman, both Jack and Ianto are right. Ianto has been hiding, he purposely came into TW3 lying about who he was and why he was there. But I don't think Jack really asked a lot of him. I think Jack made his mind up about who Ianto was, what sort of person he was, very quickly and never looked any further than the suits and politely offered coffees.
I'm not implying it was Jack's fault -- Ianto's actions were considered and deliberate -- but an organisation like Torchwood needs close supervision of its employees for their own health (ie. Suzie and the glove, Owen and the weevil fights, Tosh and Mary, etc). And if Jack wants to play the leader and run it with a tiny team, then he needs to take on that responsibility for his subordinates (which he does as TW S1 goes on).