We All Have to Start Somewhere

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TITLE: We All Have to Start Somewhere
AUTHOR: lawsontl
RECIPIENT:  solsticezero 
BETA:  amand_r sussed me out based on a comment I made in the prompts thread, so I enlisted her, and she responded graciously (after doing a victory dance at having caught me, natch).
SUMMARY:  Gwen and Ianto have a little chat about scotch and Dalek guns.
RATING: TWH Standard
SPOILERS: Minor for "

Comments

[electro_club]

Omg, anon. This is brilliant.
I don't even know what to say, really. It's just - it's awesome. I loved Gwen and I loved Ianto and I loved their conversation here. Loved it to bits.

You're a winner, anon. You are.

[lawsontl]

Awwww, thanks! I just felt the need to write this after I saw Solstice's prompts and preferences. I'm a conversation junkie. White rooms, no plot, gimme chat!

[solsticezero]

Always a great sign when the first thing that happens upon my opening a fic is I laugh out loud.

I loved this. Oh my god. It's just - smart. So smart, and I didn't even say "smart" in my request; you are just an awesome enough writer that you don't need to be told "I like when things are clever". You made so many fantastic points, things I'd never have thought of, and it was just a gift for someone. "Daleks exterminate in pairs"; Ianto keeping the second one to himself, because it's his job to dispose of it; "You saw more action in Canary Wharf than I did".

And, of course, "Auntie Beeb"; The Everpresent Torchwood Spag Bol; THE NOTE. The note, Anon. The note is my favorite thing. It's the perfect ending. It strikes the best possible chord. It's brilliantly phrased.

Thank you so much for writing this! I really cannot think of a way that this could have been any better. It's absolutely brilliant. You've won my damn heart.

[lawsontl]

Thank you so much! Because I've been loving your stuff since Currie recced you, so it's always doubly-nice to get gooning from someone whose writing you respect!

And, I'm anal, and a geek, and I try to notice this kinda stuff. Mind you, I don't usually notice it right off. I'm usually too "Oooh, look at Ianto's dreamy eyebrows!" to notice details like this. It's when I tear it apart, say, a YEAR OR SO later, that I can start synthesizing little stuff into cool tidbits.

The Canary Wharf stuff came out organically, though. I was just writing the conversation and the characters took me there. It's so COOL when that happens!

And, yeah, Spag Bol. Required by LAW. Or, um, LOL.

I had so much fun doing this, thank you for the inspirational suggestions!

[lawsontl]

So, if Ianto's Scarlett, does that make Jack Rhett? Or Ashley? I'm looking for the deeper meaning here :)

God, I love post-JE fics, though, and there's still not nearly enough Gwen/Ianto friendship fic out there.

[lawsontl]

Why you sneaky little shit. You commented on your own post.

[nancybrown]

That note! :D :D Fantastic work on the friendship in this, anon, just fantastic.

[lawsontl]

The note was, honestly, a bit of an afterthought at first. But I liked the idea of bracketing the story with the snippet of dialogue at the beginning, and then...something, at the end. And it made so much sense that Gwen would NOT let that conversation sit still. And she'd hope that Jack would come back by the time they did, so she'd be very pointed.

This is the part of Gwen I love.

[amand_r]

You know what I like the most about this? The relaxed nature of the dialogue. This is one of the least explored moments in fanfic, and I wish we saw more of it.

Also, the image of "we need scotch, bin liners, coffee and oh yeah, A DALEK GUN, ASSHAT." makes me LOLOR5KATES.

[lawsontl]

ASSHAT!

I so wanted to reply, just to that, but didn't want to risk exposing myself.

Thank you so much for the beta, too, m'duck!

[amand_r]

YOU KNOW THAT WAS UNSPOKEN BUT FELT IN THAT NOTE.