silver_sun: (ianto)
silver_sun ([personal profile] silver_sun) wrote2011-08-28 02:44 pm

Fic: Before the Fall.

Title: Before the Fall.
Characters: Ianto. Mentions of Ianto/Lisa, and team.
Word Count: 400
Rating: pg
Summary: Ianto reflects on the affect of pride in his life.
A/N: This was written for the 'Pride' prompt for [livejournal.com profile] tw_lucky_7 Yes I know this is about 2 year or more late. Deals with pre-series through Cyberwoman, brief mention of something from CoE (although not in the context it was used in CoE).



Pride is a double edged sword.

Take pride in your appearance, and people will notice you. Take pride in your work, and people will respect you. Take pride in your actions, and people will trust you.

These platitudes had been impressed on Ianto Jones by his father for as long as he could remember. Emrys Jones who'd given up a good job in his family's tailors shop in Rhyll and moved to Cardiff, all for love of a woman his family would never accept.

He'd been a quiet and often troubled man, who'd told Ianto all about it, because he was the one who'd listen. Because he was the one who dreamt of more than the little ex-local authority council house and a life of shop work and barely scraping by.

At nineteen, with both parents dead and no real prospects of work in Cardiff, Ianto had left for London.

He'd been the poor boy from the valleys when he'd arrived, hungry for success and with a head full of dreams.

Appearance had been easy; his father's advice on suits and his mother's on how to deal with people had set him in good stead. Learning had been easy too, facts and figures went in and stayed there, ready to be recalled for anybody that needed them.

Getting hired by Torchwood had felt like the culmination of everything that he'd hoped for. Success, responsibility, and a healthy wage, had meant that he'd felt justified in his smugness proving his teacher at school that said he was a day dreamer who'd amount to nothing utterly wrong. A nice flat over looking the Thames and a beautiful and brilliant girlfriend had only made it even better.

Even after the cybermen had destroyed everything he'd been sure that he'd known best. Failing to save Lisa hadn't ever entered into the equation. He'd been sure that if he'd tried hard enough, researched thoroughly enough, that there was nothing he wouldn't be able to do.

Months later, kneeling on the blood soaked concrete, Lisa's ruined body in his arms, Ianto remembered that other saying about pride: it goes before a fall.

[identity profile] welsh-scotsman.livejournal.com 2011-08-28 08:30 pm (UTC)(link)
very nice. i liked the endline - it's like punch to the gut and reflects how ianto must have been feeling. i liked how you built it all up with how well everything was going and then destroyed it all with this last paragraph - it's almost as if your story is a metaphor for ianto himself.

[identity profile] nancybrown.livejournal.com 2011-08-29 12:15 am (UTC)(link)
Nicely done. Very good picture of his build-up and his fall.

[identity profile] diggybear.livejournal.com 2011-08-29 03:52 am (UTC)(link)
Very nicely done!
ext_3966: (Default)

[identity profile] lone-star-woman.livejournal.com 2011-08-29 06:27 am (UTC)(link)
I enjoyed this. I like the build-up and how Lisa's death serves as a lesson in humility.
bk_forever: (You)

[personal profile] bk_forever 2011-08-29 04:34 pm (UTC)(link)
They're both true of course - being too proud is just setting yourself up to be knocked down, but if you don't take pride in your appearance, in doing your job well, in being a good and honest person, you'll never get anywhere or make anything of yourself.

Ianto did everything right at first - he learned, he dressed well, he worked hard and life was good. But when it was all ripped away in the Battle of Canary Wharf, he tried to cling to what remained of his perfect life, refused to accept that there was nothing he could do, and it all blew up in his face. I still find that admirable, that he would do whatever he could to save the one he loved. Ultimately it was hopeless, but I can't fault him for trying.