Fic: "Anthony"

[cyus]

Title: Anthony
Characters: OC, Jack
Length: 700 words
Rating: G
Summary: Torchwood's left Cardiff, but that doesn't mean that they took everything alien with them.
Notes: I originally came up with the idea for WIAD 4.02 (Prompt: "waking up" + "two foreign words") before I wrote the story I eventually submitted because the prompts never quite worked with this idea and the word count limit

Anthony doesn't play well with the other children, that's what his teachers used to say whenever Anthony knelt at the utmost edge of the pier, handful of chips stretched out for the taking. The seagulls swarmed around him, and while everyone else would point and stare, the teachers busy with tittering jokes, he'd watch the gulls glide on wings and pick at the food with sharp beaks, and he'd notice none of them even there.

Now Anthony's seventeen and he's changed his embarrassing school shorts for hipster clothes and attitude and the handful of chips has turned into a bottle of wine that he takes down to the Norwegian Church when he's back in Cardiff.

The sun's warm, the grass only just damp under Anthony's back and once in a while a family walks past in front of him along the promenade to walk across to the barrage. It's a Saturday, families do that. It's quiet otherwise, and the waves provide a soft lull.

"They like you."

Anthony looks up. A seagull is sitting on his chest, and he shoos it away, half embarrassed. He squints past it at the man in the long coat, American accent. "Long time no see," he says, playing with the mouth of the bottle. There's the edge of fear or grudging respect, only because he's heard too much about him second-hand.

It's been years since he's swapped smokes with Ianto down by the pier, before his parents had decided that school in Scotland would be better for their strange child than a city that had him out late by himself, watching the stars and watching the birds. He'd seen all this go up in flames on the telly in the common room of his dorms, and even rebuilt it isn't the same now.

First time he'd been back the Plass had still been smoking, and he'd spend hours standing there, waiting. And again every holiday he is down in Wales.

"Where's the bloke with the suit?" Anthony asks and beckons a seagull closer that waggles around them curiously. It picks at the bottle of wine and he lets it have a taste.

The American doesn't say anything, only kneels down to stare at the seagull and sighs. "Can I have a sip?" he says, and Anthony laughs and hands over the bottle of wine. "You remember him?"

"He had stories about aliens," Anthony replies, caging, judging. "I don't know. He'd give me fags."

The man laughs. "I bet he did. You were, what? Thirteen? Fourteen?" He looks out towards Penarth.

They lapse into silence, until Anthony says, "You've been gone, haven't you? I don't know who you are or anything," he says immediately, "but I figured you'd left."

The bloke sits on the grass next to Anthony. "You were his pet project. I let him have it. Only felt right to..." he trails off and leans across, question in his eyes.

Anthony nods and stays still when the bloke draws down the neck of Anthony's t-shirt and rubs a thumb over the feathers, the thin bones. Anthony ruffles the feathers with an embarrassed laugh that he hates, he is such a child sometimes, and the bloke lets the shirt snap back. He reaches for the bottle and takes a healthy swig.

"He's still around then?" Anthony asks, rubbing his hot cheeks on his shoulder.

The bloke doesn't reply, doesn't say anything.

"Still owe him a pack of smokes. And a thanks."

The American bites out a laugh. "Yeah, don't we all." He lies back in the grass, blinking at the sky, fond smile for the sea gull that hopps over him to get to Anthony, or maybe the wine. "It's fine."

Anthony looks at the guy and looks out at the sea and back at his bottle. "Gets lonely," he says. "Being different."

Ianto would have had a word of comfort, or a naff dirty joke about what's under birds' skirts, but the guy has nothing, only silence. Cardiff feels different, even when it looks the same, and they exchange tight smiles when the bloke leaves, coat billowing in the breeze.

Anthony leaves his bottle of wine at the door on the pier and walks away. "Cheers, mate."

Comments

[heddychaa.livejournal.com]

All the more sad for how understated it is. Strange and sad and lonely. And with a real sense of loss. Not for just for Ianto though. A lot of things, it felt like. Thoroughly enjoyed it.

[cyus.livejournal.com]

There is a sense of loneliness and hmm ... possibly just change and coming of age from Anthony and growing up, really, but yeah, glad it worked.

[wynkat1313.livejournal.com]

oh my. That's potent. I like it.

[cyus.livejournal.com]

LOL good. Appreciate that :D

[chryssalys]

Gorgeous.

[cyus.livejournal.com]

Thanks :)

[dremiel.livejournal.com]

I love everything you put in and everything that you didn't. The images are going to stick in my brain, particularly young Anthony with the chips, Ianto slipping fags him, and later staring at the ruins of The Hub.

Don't we all, indeed.

[cyus.livejournal.com]

I was unsure whether not directly putting those scenes in would work since I do usually prefer to write things out, but glad it does work.

Your Cardiff is delicious!

[starshine24mc.livejournal.com]

On many levels. While I definitely have at least one.five feet planted firmly in the "don't ever forget Ianto Jones" camp, I must admit to completely understanding that things change, that everyone will be forgotten one day, and it's up to us to find peace in the present. I think Torchwood is a great vehicle for this philosophy, and your stories in particular, which find so much of the odd, the disjointed and the strange (or stranger, if you like-I adore your OCs), really bring this point across....

thanks!!

Re: Your Cardiff is delicious!

[cyus.livejournal.com]

Hah this is me inching a lot closer to the 'don't forget Ianto Jones' than I usually am, probably, because it seemed to work to have two people connect over knowing Ianto and still being unable to connect over it, but yeah, everything changes and such, and maybe for them both it was the last moment of 'farewell, Ianto'.

I certainly have a thing for the the odd and disjointed, so I'm glad those stories work even if they're a bit surreal or strange at times.

[saintmaybe1121.livejournal.com]

I liked the strangeness of this and the sense of loss. That even though Jack is unsurprised about Anthony, he can't connect to him on a human level the way Ianto could. That Ianto's death means something's changed or become unmoored.

[cyus.livejournal.com]

Thanks, glad you enjoy it. I have to admit that this version of Jack is not the one I usually have in mind or think of, that ... touched by Ianto, but I think it worked for the story in this instance (especially in terms of "connecting" to Anthony), so yeah, glad you liked it.

[topgeargirl2.livejournal.com]

I really enjoyed this.

[cyus.livejournal.com]

Thanks :)

[amand-r.livejournal.com]

Holy shit.

Of course he owes him a pack of fags.

[cyus.livejournal.com]

Hah.

And yeah he does. I just like the idea of both of them standing in front of the tourist office door, smoking and Ianto complaining about work.

[rabecka.livejournal.com]

Oh wow. There's so much packed in here, with so little being said directly. And it's so amazingly visual - I can pretty much see scenes with every paragraph. I'm rather glad you held this out of the WIAD round. I'd hate to see any of it cut to make the word count.

[cyus.livejournal.com]

Not my preferred way of writing something, the mentioning of scenes without playing them out, but I'm glad it works, and maybe works better than writing it all out would have.

I'm still sad I couldn't use it for WIAD and I was of half a mind to hold onto it to maybe use it for another prompt, but ultimately all wiad prompts would have been slightly shoehorned into the idea so it's probably better like this.

Glad you enjoyed it, thanks.

[wildeagain.livejournal.com]

I love Torchwood Orphan!Anthony.

You see, this is the type of compelling fanfiction that's so great to read -- TW has unlimited OC potential (think about it -- each ep introduced characters for the weekly story) which aren't simply for shipservice. In addition to the small amount of Jack/Ianto playing out here, there's perspective on what outsiders must have thought about post-Hub explosion. As Anthony says, Jack was gone. Really like this.

You know I dig your style, but nice work writing Jack as the pronoun 'he' because who's who is quite clear throughout.

[cyus.livejournal.com]

Interestingly the Jack/Ianto element here is the one I'm most uncomfortable with. It works as an interpretation of their relationship and is a possibility within that spectrum of possible dynamics between them, but it's not really the way I see Jack after CoE, even long after CoE. That said, it works and it works for the purpose of the story but it's not the interpretation I'm most comfortable working with, I guess.

I like OCs within the Torchwood universe because yeah, TW doesn't shy away from giving us quite a lot of them, even more so when you go into book canon where OCs are often integral to the plots. I just like the idea that Torchwood doesn't work in a vacuum of enclosed dynamics with just the five of them doing their job, there's a world around them.

One thing I'd like to see more people work with, and misswinterhill did that awesomely in her virtual season ep, is the 'how much does the population of Cardiff know about Torchwood?' I've always naturally assumed absolute-secrecy and no-one-knows-anything but she used Torchwood as this community knowledge thing that gets bandied around and so on that I find quite intriguing and possibly more plausible than absolute secrecy.

So while I still find Torchwood itself fascinating, I think I'm currently in this phase of looking at the wider Torchwood world and at the stories that exist there.

And I'm kind of in love with Anthony. Aww.

[lone-star-woman.livejournal.com]

You know... I like this.

[cyus.livejournal.com]

Thanks :) Appreciate that.

[owensheart.livejournal.com]

Suha a sad and loney story especially since we know what happened to Ianto.

Great writing

[cyus.livejournal.com]

Thanks very much, appreciate it :)

[blue-fjords.livejournal.com]

Awww. I got something in my eye. Lemme blink it out...

This was such a lovely flavor of bittersweet. I really liked the glimpse into Ianto, and a weary Jack. As always, your OC is exceptionally well-drawn, and I loved his affinity w/ the seagulls.

I think Anthony should reinstate the shrine and include a new "All of China misses Ianto Jones" sign there. :D

[kel-reiley.livejournal.com]

oh, is the shrine gone now? :(

[kel-reiley.livejournal.com]

i always love how you include such detail without packing too much in - like in 'time has set its maggot', you make the city almost another character in the story

and anthony... i really really like anthony - i think jack should recruit him or something

[paragraphs.livejournal.com]

Me too. :)

[misswinterhill.livejournal.com]

Jesus, Nick, this is beautiful. I love it very, very much, and I want to take it home and pet it like feathers. This is such a gorgeous OC, and such a brilliant look at Torchwood from the outside. I am so, so looking forward to you in WIAD with a longer wordcount.

[cyus.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I am kind of proud of it because I just like Anthony so much and similarly would like to take him home because he's that right mixture of innocent and cheeky and aww.

[hab318princess.livejournal.com]

that was wonderful, bittersweet and layered

[cyus.livejournal.com]

Thanks very much. Appreciate the comment :)

[neifile7.livejournal.com]

Oh, god, so behind on comments. Almost wish you could have used this for wiad (just because it's so distinctive), but it works so well on its own terms that it hardly matters. You draw Anthony so sharply and yet so economically, and there's a world of story just in his recognizing Jack right off the bat. And, hmm. This is the Nick version of wingfic, eh? Nothing like a good genre subverted?

[cyus.livejournal.com]

Cheers. I actually thought about keeping it for a later prompt but I've given up hope on getting one that I could squeeze this into, but yeah, in part I'm trying some things with the structure that I wouldn't usually do (more the type to spell all events out), and I'm happy to see that it's working here, that the hints and between-the-lines paint this whole story that seems bigger than 700 words.

And n'uh, those feathers are sexy, but I never thought of it as wingfic, but ... very sexy. Jack likes them. And I do like this dynamic, so yeah, am still tempted to use Anthony in another fic because he's so awesome.

Thanks for the comment, Anya!