[TW fic] Agōgē (Jack/Ianto, PG)
Jun. 20th, 2010 04:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rmTitle: Agōgē
Fandom: Torchwood
Pairing: Jack/Ianto
Rating: PG
Stuff you should know: Written for![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
writerinadrawer round 4.02. Follow the link for the parameters of the challenge.
Not all alphabets are ordered the same. It's a point Jack's obsessed with, and one Ianto knows because he grew up in Wales: just because he can't speak more than a few lewd Welsh phrases doesn't mean he doesn't know his letters. But Jack has spent too long being old and likes to teach people things as if it's all he has on offer.
Ianto's upstairs neighbors are loud, but he forgives them the yelling and supposed clumsiness because he figures he's no saint either, and in truth their fights are easy to sleep through, the background noise not much different than that of his childhood, when he was still at home and his mother still alive.
But it drives Jack, who hardly sleeps and rarely deeply, mad, and jolts – a smashed glass, a dropped shoe – him awake more often than not. Ianto only knows because once woken Jack murmurs to him of alphabets, breath hot in his ear and luring Ianto out of frustrated and too-rare dreams.
Jack whispers – agápē, érōs, philía, storgē – like Ianto was never fourteen (erômenos) and reading everything he could to find words for his self-suspicions other than ponce and poofter.
Ianto knows the Greek words as surely as he knows the way he once clung to them. He knows, too, the way Jack (erastês) must think they probably help all the quaint miserable queers of the 21st-century feel more noble or some such, and Ianto is too sound a sleeper, too good a liar, to disabuse Jack of the notion.
But Jack's trying, isn't he? And it's quite the thing, having someone content to wake in the night and whisper alphabets into him, like time doesn't matter and half-filthy words in a dead language are enough to make him real.
Fandom: Torchwood
Pairing: Jack/Ianto
Rating: PG
Stuff you should know: Written for
writerinadrawer round 4.02. Follow the link for the parameters of the challenge.Not all alphabets are ordered the same. It's a point Jack's obsessed with, and one Ianto knows because he grew up in Wales: just because he can't speak more than a few lewd Welsh phrases doesn't mean he doesn't know his letters. But Jack has spent too long being old and likes to teach people things as if it's all he has on offer.
Ianto's upstairs neighbors are loud, but he forgives them the yelling and supposed clumsiness because he figures he's no saint either, and in truth their fights are easy to sleep through, the background noise not much different than that of his childhood, when he was still at home and his mother still alive.
But it drives Jack, who hardly sleeps and rarely deeply, mad, and jolts – a smashed glass, a dropped shoe – him awake more often than not. Ianto only knows because once woken Jack murmurs to him of alphabets, breath hot in his ear and luring Ianto out of frustrated and too-rare dreams.
Jack whispers – agápē, érōs, philía, storgē – like Ianto was never fourteen (erômenos) and reading everything he could to find words for his self-suspicions other than ponce and poofter.
Ianto knows the Greek words as surely as he knows the way he once clung to them. He knows, too, the way Jack (erastês) must think they probably help all the quaint miserable queers of the 21st-century feel more noble or some such, and Ianto is too sound a sleeper, too good a liar, to disabuse Jack of the notion.
But Jack's trying, isn't he? And it's quite the thing, having someone content to wake in the night and whisper alphabets into him, like time doesn't matter and half-filthy words in a dead language are enough to make him real.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2010-06-20 09:24 pm (UTC)Ianto's upstairs neighbors are loud, but he forgives them the yelling and supposed clumsiness because he figures he's no saint either, and in truth their fights are easy to sleep through, the background noise not much different than that of his childhood, when he was still at home and his mother still alive.
Nice character-study bit.
The story itself is lovely, and the ending line is poetic.
no subject
Date: 2010-06-20 09:26 pm (UTC)Thank you.
I was both relieved/sad when I didn't get any "This is elitist like the Caecilius wank" comments. I suppose there is still time.
no subject
Date: 2010-06-20 09:40 pm (UTC)I think people want to read beautiful things (and horrific things) but beautiful prose. :)
no subject
Date: 2010-06-20 09:30 pm (UTC)Classical Education and all :D
eromenos... fucknig sexy.
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Date: 2010-06-20 09:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-06-20 10:31 pm (UTC)Whenever I read something of yours, there's always one or two lines that jump out and grab me. This time it was the last one: And it's quite the thing, having someone content to wake in the night and whisper alphabets into him, like time doesn't matter and half-filthy words in a dead language are enough to make him real.
♥
no subject
Date: 2010-06-20 10:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-06-20 11:55 pm (UTC)(this week i totally guessed yours, but i couldn't get crue's!!! no points for me)
no subject
Date: 2010-06-20 11:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-06-21 12:07 am (UTC)i had 3 guesses for crue, and none were right :(
(i've sort of made it a challenge to try and guess his each round)
translations, please?
Date: 2010-06-21 12:28 am (UTC)Re: translations, please?
Date: 2010-06-21 12:30 am (UTC)agápē, érōs, philía, storgē are the words for the four types of love in classical Greek.
Agōgē refers to the system/nature of education in Sparta.
erômenos refers to a young/beautiful boy who is the bottom in a sexual and mentoring relationship. erastês is the older mentor in that situation.
Re: translations, please?
Date: 2010-06-21 01:20 am (UTC)I am now totally in love with Jack
Date: 2010-06-24 10:38 pm (UTC)I recognized the 4 loves, but didn't know the title or mentor/mentee.....
But I LOVE THE WAY WORDS MAKE US REAL, weather we like it or not:
....the way he once clung to them.... feel more noble
Having names for things is an invaluable part of knowing what the hell is going on in your world.
This is an excellent piece, (not to mention an excellent use of so few words.)
Re: I am now totally in love with Jack
Date: 2010-06-24 10:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-06-21 01:21 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-06-21 01:21 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-06-21 02:44 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-06-21 01:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-06-21 06:02 am (UTC)Poor Jack; after the Year, hell after so many years, no wonder he gets startled.
no subject
Date: 2010-06-21 01:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-06-22 03:21 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-06-21 09:43 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-06-21 01:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-06-21 10:35 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-06-21 02:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-06-21 01:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-06-21 02:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-06-21 02:34 pm (UTC)Greek!
no subject
Date: 2010-06-21 04:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-06-21 02:54 pm (UTC)Lovely.
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Date: 2010-06-21 04:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-06-21 03:18 pm (UTC)And I like a Ianto who is not just bi for Jack.
That was a bit of canon that miffed me.
So like bad fanfic.
no subject
Date: 2010-06-21 04:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-06-22 03:07 am (UTC)there's a special place in my heart for agápē, érōs, philía, storgē, and talk of alphabets. :D
no subject
Date: 2010-06-22 02:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-06-26 10:09 am (UTC)