Mynon Meme: My Ianto
Jul. 17th, 2008 12:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
out_thereA few people did the Mynon Meme (canon - on the show; fanon - believed by general fandom; mynon - believed by you) for Ianto. There's something very fun about reading those "My Ianto..." phrases and it inspired me to try it.
The only trouble is that my Ianto is a bit tricky to pin down. I have trouble with his family background. (Mind you, I haven't read the TW books, which apparently go into deeper detail for Ianto. But these are my thoughts on it.)
Some days (some stories), I think it's the old Pony Express idea of dead parents. His parents both died in a car crash when he was 17; he wanted to live alone but his aunt and uncle wouldn't agree, so instead he suggested living with his granddad. He did his last year of school and then went to London to university. His grandfather's dead now, so there's no-one left he considers family (as opposed to "relatives" like his cousins, aunts and uncles).
Other days, I think Ianto comes from a fairly large family. He has four older siblings, brothers and sisters, but he was an unexpected "surprise" for his parents, so there's about twelve years between him and the youngest. He wasn't close to his siblings (when he started school, they were finishing high school, by the time he was in high school, they were at uni/getting jobs/settling down into marriage). He loves his family, especially his dad, but he's not close to them. He never felt like he fitted.
What we can see is that I don't see him as someone with close emotional support from his family (I don't see how anyone with pushy, caring family could keep Lisa like that, actually, so there's got to be a separation there somewhere). But other things, I can talk about.
My Ianto dropped out of university. He got into uni in London for the sake of having an easy excuse to get out off Wales, to move to a bigger city by himself and try the whole re-identifying yourself thing. He didn't fail his subjects, but he didn't really see the point, the practical application, so he dropped out, stayed in London, and did a variety of admin/sales/customer service jobs, leaving for a new job when he got too bored to stay.
My Ianto joined Torchwood for Lisa. She was involved in an investigation at his workplace, and he fell for her hard. He helped her get whatever information she needed and she was the one who suggested he apply to work for Torchwood. He joined to get the opportunity to ask her out (which he did); he didn't expect to find the work so interesting.
My Ianto knows he's fairly lazy. He could have got his degree, but he couldn't be bothered studying something boring for years just to get a boring job. He could have done reasonably well in most of the jobs he tried, but he couldn't be bothered staying. He could do a lot more at TW3, but part of him is quite happy covering the Tourist Office (he spends most of his day standing around, reading magazines and books, or surfing the internet, because he can't work on anything classified where the public might see. He really doesn't mind that).
My Ianto wears three piece suits because they look professional and stop people from looking too hard: if you're wearing a suit, people assume you're conscientious and serious about your work. The other advantage is that it reduces ironing time because people only see the collar (and if he keeps his jacket on until after lunch, everyone assumes the shirt was ironed at the start of the day). My Ianto hasn't properly ironed a shirt in years (such an annoying task); he knows this fact would drive his father mad (his father believes clothes deserve to be cared for) and it makes him feel a little rebellious as he comes into work in a carefully presented suit and mostly unironed shirt.
My Ianto would happily live on take-away (take-out?). He can cook but he doesn't see the point in going to that effort for just one person unless it requires less than ten minutes of him in the kitchen. Hence, if he eats at home, his meals are baked beans on toast, fried egg sandwiches, bacon sandwiches, instant pasta-and-sauces that can be microwaved and steamed potatoes with sour cream. (He knows the sour cream makes healthy steaming worthless; he doesn't care.)
My Ianto does most of the TW3 filing and archiving. Not because he's a doormat, a push-over, obsessive-compulsive, has no sense of fun or any of the other phrases Owen's directed his way. he does it because filing is mundane and boring, but if he does it, he knows it's done right. He hates not being able to find a file when it's needed. (Possibly Owen's right that he's a control freak. Ianto doesn't have to admit that out loud, though.)
My Ianto uses humour to cope. In a bleak, stressful situation, a little sarcasm goes a long way to help him keep his cool. Jack doesn't always appreciate it, but given how well his last method of escapism ended (he used to camp out overnight in Lisa's room, put the lamp on, drag the deck chair close to her, hold her hand and read a book), Ianto thinks sarcasm is probably safer for everyone.
My Ianto doesn't think it matters how many people he snogged before Jack (about a dozen, give or take) or how many people he slept with before Jack (about half that number, a mix of men and women, but not always memorable). He does think it's important how many times he fell in love before he met Jack (just once: Lisa).
My Ianto has never told Jack "I love you." He's never used those words. Someday, maybe, he'll say it.
(Jack's never said it to him, either, but Ianto knows Jack loves him. Just as he knows Jack loves Gwen and the Doctor, just as he knows Jack loved Rose, Tosh and Owen. Jack loves wholeheartedly, unselfishly and somewhat indiscriminately. It may not change his priorities and it's almost never more important than his sense of duty -- excepting the Doctor, but Ianto suspects that's simply a different type of duty to Jack -- but he genuinely cares.)
Deep down, my Ianto doesn't think he'll fall in love a third time. He knows it isn't practical -- given their jobs, given the dangers, given the likelihood of getting caught in the Rift and living out your life in another time, given Jack's tendencies to flirt with anything that breathes and rush off whenever the Doctor needs him -- and it's cheesy and idiotically romantic, but it feels true.
My Ianto isn't a prude, isn't embarrassed by something as universal as sex, so he doesn't mind the questions about Jack in bed. Martha's asked, Gwen's asked, Tosh asked -- although very discreetly -- and Owen's yelled out jibes across the autopsy room. It's to be expected: Jack spends so much time flaunting his sexuality that of course it's the thing everyone wants to know. My Ianto also understands the appeal of mystique, so tries to keep his responses vague and intriguing.
My Ianto wasn't surprised at Gwen's reception when Rhys asked, "So, you and Jack, huh?" He agreed, expecting the standard type of question ("So what's he like in bed?") but was genuinely surprised when Rhys followed with, "Is it serious?" instead. (My Ianto was even more surprised by his own fast answer: "Yes.")
There are a lot of things Ianto doesn't tell Jack. Most of them are mundane things (where the expense reports are supposed to be filed, that Gwen's pay is now going to a new account number, etc), some of them are boring things (his family background, his life before Jack and TW3) and the rest are kind of embarrassing (like that he doesn't have nightmares about cannibals but he sometimes has nightmares about sitting exams). He likes practical conversations about what needs to be done today, what they're going to get for dinner, if Jack's staying the night or heading back to the Hub, but he also likes the stories Jack tells, the little tidbits about his life, so he's trying to tell Jack more. It feels awkward, like he's drawing attention to himself or going to bore Jack silly, but given time, Ianto knows he'll get better at it.
I was going to do a "My Jack" one, but that will have to wait for another day.
The only trouble is that my Ianto is a bit tricky to pin down. I have trouble with his family background. (Mind you, I haven't read the TW books, which apparently go into deeper detail for Ianto. But these are my thoughts on it.)
Some days (some stories), I think it's the old Pony Express idea of dead parents. His parents both died in a car crash when he was 17; he wanted to live alone but his aunt and uncle wouldn't agree, so instead he suggested living with his granddad. He did his last year of school and then went to London to university. His grandfather's dead now, so there's no-one left he considers family (as opposed to "relatives" like his cousins, aunts and uncles).
Other days, I think Ianto comes from a fairly large family. He has four older siblings, brothers and sisters, but he was an unexpected "surprise" for his parents, so there's about twelve years between him and the youngest. He wasn't close to his siblings (when he started school, they were finishing high school, by the time he was in high school, they were at uni/getting jobs/settling down into marriage). He loves his family, especially his dad, but he's not close to them. He never felt like he fitted.
What we can see is that I don't see him as someone with close emotional support from his family (I don't see how anyone with pushy, caring family could keep Lisa like that, actually, so there's got to be a separation there somewhere). But other things, I can talk about.
My Ianto dropped out of university. He got into uni in London for the sake of having an easy excuse to get out off Wales, to move to a bigger city by himself and try the whole re-identifying yourself thing. He didn't fail his subjects, but he didn't really see the point, the practical application, so he dropped out, stayed in London, and did a variety of admin/sales/customer service jobs, leaving for a new job when he got too bored to stay.
My Ianto joined Torchwood for Lisa. She was involved in an investigation at his workplace, and he fell for her hard. He helped her get whatever information she needed and she was the one who suggested he apply to work for Torchwood. He joined to get the opportunity to ask her out (which he did); he didn't expect to find the work so interesting.
My Ianto knows he's fairly lazy. He could have got his degree, but he couldn't be bothered studying something boring for years just to get a boring job. He could have done reasonably well in most of the jobs he tried, but he couldn't be bothered staying. He could do a lot more at TW3, but part of him is quite happy covering the Tourist Office (he spends most of his day standing around, reading magazines and books, or surfing the internet, because he can't work on anything classified where the public might see. He really doesn't mind that).
My Ianto wears three piece suits because they look professional and stop people from looking too hard: if you're wearing a suit, people assume you're conscientious and serious about your work. The other advantage is that it reduces ironing time because people only see the collar (and if he keeps his jacket on until after lunch, everyone assumes the shirt was ironed at the start of the day). My Ianto hasn't properly ironed a shirt in years (such an annoying task); he knows this fact would drive his father mad (his father believes clothes deserve to be cared for) and it makes him feel a little rebellious as he comes into work in a carefully presented suit and mostly unironed shirt.
My Ianto would happily live on take-away (take-out?). He can cook but he doesn't see the point in going to that effort for just one person unless it requires less than ten minutes of him in the kitchen. Hence, if he eats at home, his meals are baked beans on toast, fried egg sandwiches, bacon sandwiches, instant pasta-and-sauces that can be microwaved and steamed potatoes with sour cream. (He knows the sour cream makes healthy steaming worthless; he doesn't care.)
My Ianto does most of the TW3 filing and archiving. Not because he's a doormat, a push-over, obsessive-compulsive, has no sense of fun or any of the other phrases Owen's directed his way. he does it because filing is mundane and boring, but if he does it, he knows it's done right. He hates not being able to find a file when it's needed. (Possibly Owen's right that he's a control freak. Ianto doesn't have to admit that out loud, though.)
My Ianto uses humour to cope. In a bleak, stressful situation, a little sarcasm goes a long way to help him keep his cool. Jack doesn't always appreciate it, but given how well his last method of escapism ended (he used to camp out overnight in Lisa's room, put the lamp on, drag the deck chair close to her, hold her hand and read a book), Ianto thinks sarcasm is probably safer for everyone.
My Ianto doesn't think it matters how many people he snogged before Jack (about a dozen, give or take) or how many people he slept with before Jack (about half that number, a mix of men and women, but not always memorable). He does think it's important how many times he fell in love before he met Jack (just once: Lisa).
My Ianto has never told Jack "I love you." He's never used those words. Someday, maybe, he'll say it.
(Jack's never said it to him, either, but Ianto knows Jack loves him. Just as he knows Jack loves Gwen and the Doctor, just as he knows Jack loved Rose, Tosh and Owen. Jack loves wholeheartedly, unselfishly and somewhat indiscriminately. It may not change his priorities and it's almost never more important than his sense of duty -- excepting the Doctor, but Ianto suspects that's simply a different type of duty to Jack -- but he genuinely cares.)
Deep down, my Ianto doesn't think he'll fall in love a third time. He knows it isn't practical -- given their jobs, given the dangers, given the likelihood of getting caught in the Rift and living out your life in another time, given Jack's tendencies to flirt with anything that breathes and rush off whenever the Doctor needs him -- and it's cheesy and idiotically romantic, but it feels true.
My Ianto isn't a prude, isn't embarrassed by something as universal as sex, so he doesn't mind the questions about Jack in bed. Martha's asked, Gwen's asked, Tosh asked -- although very discreetly -- and Owen's yelled out jibes across the autopsy room. It's to be expected: Jack spends so much time flaunting his sexuality that of course it's the thing everyone wants to know. My Ianto also understands the appeal of mystique, so tries to keep his responses vague and intriguing.
My Ianto wasn't surprised at Gwen's reception when Rhys asked, "So, you and Jack, huh?" He agreed, expecting the standard type of question ("So what's he like in bed?") but was genuinely surprised when Rhys followed with, "Is it serious?" instead. (My Ianto was even more surprised by his own fast answer: "Yes.")
There are a lot of things Ianto doesn't tell Jack. Most of them are mundane things (where the expense reports are supposed to be filed, that Gwen's pay is now going to a new account number, etc), some of them are boring things (his family background, his life before Jack and TW3) and the rest are kind of embarrassing (like that he doesn't have nightmares about cannibals but he sometimes has nightmares about sitting exams). He likes practical conversations about what needs to be done today, what they're going to get for dinner, if Jack's staying the night or heading back to the Hub, but he also likes the stories Jack tells, the little tidbits about his life, so he's trying to tell Jack more. It feels awkward, like he's drawing attention to himself or going to bore Jack silly, but given time, Ianto knows he'll get better at it.
I was going to do a "My Jack" one, but that will have to wait for another day.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2008-07-17 03:06 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-07-17 07:08 am (UTC)Aw, I'm so glad. I'm quite fond of him myself.
Mind you, the more I read over this list, the more I realise that my Ianto is a quiet, confident young man very much in love. It's kind of funny, because I've always thought of Jack as being the smitten one, but as I wrote this list, I realised Ianto was too.
no subject
Date: 2008-07-17 08:38 am (UTC)(Jack's never said it to him, either, but Ianto knows Jack loves him. Just as he knows Jack loves Gwen and the Doctor, just as he knows Jack loved Rose, Tosh and Owen. Jack loves wholeheartedly, unselfishly and somewhat indiscriminately. It may not change his priorities and it's almost never more important than his sense of duty -- excepting the Doctor, but Ianto suspects that's simply a different type of duty to Jack -- but he genuinely cares.)
Makes me want to put it on a banner and wave at badfic and silly argument everywhere. Because that's spot-on, it really is.
no subject
Date: 2008-07-17 11:59 am (UTC)Awwwwwwww!
That is something I love about Jack: he approaches a long life from a completely different angle than the Doctor. The Doctor carefully keeps himself a touch emotionally distant, unreachable, travels so he doesn't have to notice the passing years. On the other hand, Jack's rooted himself in a particular time and place, and fallen deeply in love (sure his heart will eventually get broken, but it means he also gets the joy).
no subject
Date: 2008-07-17 09:33 am (UTC)This bit just makes me giggle. :D
And you know how I feel about the rest.
*crazy <3s Ianto*
And you know what? Smitten Ianto with Smitten Jack, what else could be more perfect? Seriously. ;)
no subject
Date: 2008-07-17 11:56 am (UTC)For someone who had mediocre academic results, Ianto takes a lot of pride in knowing everything. I bet he crammed like crazy for his exams.
Smitten Ianto with Smitten Jack, what else could be more perfect? Seriously.
So true!
no subject
Date: 2008-07-29 03:01 pm (UTC)"He never felt like he fitted." is definitely going to be part of the little archivist in my own head.
And thanks for the explanation about the whole mynon-thingy - I wouldn't have had a clue otherwise :)
no subject
Date: 2008-11-07 12:41 am (UTC)Excuse the tardiness of the reply, but I only just spotted this. (slow morning at work, and reading old posts to remind myself of the Ianto-love is a surprisingly good pick-me-up).
"He never felt like he fitted." is definitely going to be part of the little archivist in my own head.
Very cool.