Fandomweekly Challenge 173 - Plan B
Apr. 1st, 2024 04:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
m_findlowTitle: Plan B
Fandom: Torchwood
Characters: Ianto
Author: m_findlow
Rating: PG. Minor spoilers for Torchwood book "Risk Assessment" by James Goss.
Length: 1,000 words
Content notes: None
Author notes: Written for Challenge 173 - Escape at![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
fandomweekly
Summary: Ianto is on his own against seemingly impossible odds. In other words, just another day at the office.
We are a consumer society, Ianto thought as he watched the enormous black blob of an alien lurching down the aisle of the toy megastore, absorbing shelf after shelf of shiny wrapped plastic toys like it was an all you can eat buffet.
‘Yes, that's it. This way please,’ he said, ushering the terrified shoppers with his arm, pointing them in the direction of the back of the store. ‘Come with me if you want to live,’ he said, delivering the line in his typical deadpan fashion, as if he'd suggested they just head out the back for a cuppa whilst the chaos raged on and then fizzled out without them.
‘Yes, prams, pushers and walking frames all welcome,’ he added, watching as one frumpy, far too young to be a mother, barged past a woman in her eighties, clipping the bottom of her frame with the front wheel of the stroller. Out of habit, Ianto caught the old lady before she could stumble to the floor and helped her move towards the door with a bit more haste. Someone grabbed her from the other side and Ianto caught a look at a young woman who'd come to his aid as they helped her through the narrow door, the last people to go inside before Ianto turned and flipped the lock on the storeroom door. ‘Thanks…’ he said, pausing at the end of it with a question.
‘Nina,’ she replied.
‘Nice to meet you. I mean, well, probably not given the circumstances but…’ he drifted off wondering what she was doing in a massive toy store. She was on her own and looked too smart to have popped one out in her teens as an act of rebellion or stupidity. Perhaps she was just like him, an aunty who never quite knew how to be around small children and decided that buying toys was the solution.
‘What was that?’
‘Not sure yet, but safe to say hungry.’ That was an understatement. The huge black blob had consumed everything in its path so far. Evacuating the store’s customers was all he could do right now. At least until Gwen and Jack turned up with a better plan. ‘Now,’ he said, pointing again, ‘everybody out the back.’
One confused mother stared blankly at him. ‘The back of what?’
‘The storeroom.’ Duh, he silently added. Then he looked toward the back of the concrete walled space, lined with shelves and stacks of unpacked cardboard boxes and then frowned, turning to the one disenfranchised looking young cashier. ‘Where’s the back door?’
‘What back door?’
‘The one to the loading bay?’
She shrugged, like it wasn’t important. ‘Don't have one. Got that big trolley thing there,’ she pointed, ‘to wheel it in from around the back.’
‘So, you're telling me I just corralled a whole bunch of people into a room with no exit?’
The cashier shrugged again. ‘S’pose.’
‘Well, this was a brilliant idea,’ Nina told him in no uncertain terms.
‘Shut your face.’ He at least managed to say it without coming across as harsh and vitriolic. It was more of a concessionary acceptance that yes, his idea had been rubbish. Spared from death for a whole additional five minutes. He was getting good at that sort of thing.
He looked at the faces of the women and children stuck in here with him. He expected there to be tears and panic and anger but instead they were all muted. Bloody Torchwood, he thought. It had desensitised the entire population of Cardiff into no longer understanding just how much danger they were in. It had its pluses at times, but right now he could do with a little mass hysteria to keep him focused on formulating a plan of how they were going to get out of here. Alive, he added.
‘So, come on, brilliant Torchwood man,’ Nina said. ‘What are we going to do?’
‘How did you know I was…’ he trailed off. ‘Never mind.’ He supposed it was a bit bloody obvious, what with him carrying a gun and not being the least bit surprised that a giant hydrocarbon eating monster alien was invading a toy superstore, hell bent on consuming everything in its path. I used to be more subtle, he reflected. He'd blame Jack. Jack was naturally to blame for most things. Him and that coat of his sucked all the oxygen out of a room just by being there. He was about as unsubtle as you could get and now he was rubbing off on Ianto. Great.
‘So, come on. What do we do now?’ Nina insisted.
‘I'm thinking.’
She moved toward the door, peering out the tiny viewport. ‘Think faster. That monster just ate a whole swing set and an aisle full of barbie dolls and is getting bigger.’
He chewed the inside of his cheek in annoyance, more at himself than at the dry-witted update on events outside. ‘You know, contrary to popular belief we don't always march in with a fully thought out plan of action.’ In fact they almost never did. ‘That's the thing about aliens,’ he told her. ’They don't book their invasions ahead of time.’
‘So, be spontaneous!’
‘I am! What do you think this was?’
‘A great way of boxing us up as a ready to eat dinner?’
He grimaced. ‘Point taken. Okay, so it likes to eat plastic, petrol, humans… basically anything carbon-based.’ He dwelt on that for a moment. ‘You,’ he said, turning to the teenage mother of the year, ‘got a lighter?’ She pulled several from a tote bag, offering him a choice of colours.
‘What’s your plan?’ Nina asked.
‘Go out there, distract it, hopefully set it on fire.’
‘Sounds rubbish.’
‘Yeah, I know,’ he said, ‘but it’s me or all of us. Think you can get these people out of here while I'm busy trying not to get killed?’
‘Is there another choice?’
He shrugged, tugging the door back open, flicking on the lighter. ‘Probably not.’
Fandom: Torchwood
Characters: Ianto
Author: m_findlow
Rating: PG. Minor spoilers for Torchwood book "Risk Assessment" by James Goss.
Length: 1,000 words
Content notes: None
Author notes: Written for Challenge 173 - Escape at
fandomweekly Summary: Ianto is on his own against seemingly impossible odds. In other words, just another day at the office.
We are a consumer society, Ianto thought as he watched the enormous black blob of an alien lurching down the aisle of the toy megastore, absorbing shelf after shelf of shiny wrapped plastic toys like it was an all you can eat buffet.
‘Yes, that's it. This way please,’ he said, ushering the terrified shoppers with his arm, pointing them in the direction of the back of the store. ‘Come with me if you want to live,’ he said, delivering the line in his typical deadpan fashion, as if he'd suggested they just head out the back for a cuppa whilst the chaos raged on and then fizzled out without them.
‘Yes, prams, pushers and walking frames all welcome,’ he added, watching as one frumpy, far too young to be a mother, barged past a woman in her eighties, clipping the bottom of her frame with the front wheel of the stroller. Out of habit, Ianto caught the old lady before she could stumble to the floor and helped her move towards the door with a bit more haste. Someone grabbed her from the other side and Ianto caught a look at a young woman who'd come to his aid as they helped her through the narrow door, the last people to go inside before Ianto turned and flipped the lock on the storeroom door. ‘Thanks…’ he said, pausing at the end of it with a question.
‘Nina,’ she replied.
‘Nice to meet you. I mean, well, probably not given the circumstances but…’ he drifted off wondering what she was doing in a massive toy store. She was on her own and looked too smart to have popped one out in her teens as an act of rebellion or stupidity. Perhaps she was just like him, an aunty who never quite knew how to be around small children and decided that buying toys was the solution.
‘What was that?’
‘Not sure yet, but safe to say hungry.’ That was an understatement. The huge black blob had consumed everything in its path so far. Evacuating the store’s customers was all he could do right now. At least until Gwen and Jack turned up with a better plan. ‘Now,’ he said, pointing again, ‘everybody out the back.’
One confused mother stared blankly at him. ‘The back of what?’
‘The storeroom.’ Duh, he silently added. Then he looked toward the back of the concrete walled space, lined with shelves and stacks of unpacked cardboard boxes and then frowned, turning to the one disenfranchised looking young cashier. ‘Where’s the back door?’
‘What back door?’
‘The one to the loading bay?’
She shrugged, like it wasn’t important. ‘Don't have one. Got that big trolley thing there,’ she pointed, ‘to wheel it in from around the back.’
‘So, you're telling me I just corralled a whole bunch of people into a room with no exit?’
The cashier shrugged again. ‘S’pose.’
‘Well, this was a brilliant idea,’ Nina told him in no uncertain terms.
‘Shut your face.’ He at least managed to say it without coming across as harsh and vitriolic. It was more of a concessionary acceptance that yes, his idea had been rubbish. Spared from death for a whole additional five minutes. He was getting good at that sort of thing.
He looked at the faces of the women and children stuck in here with him. He expected there to be tears and panic and anger but instead they were all muted. Bloody Torchwood, he thought. It had desensitised the entire population of Cardiff into no longer understanding just how much danger they were in. It had its pluses at times, but right now he could do with a little mass hysteria to keep him focused on formulating a plan of how they were going to get out of here. Alive, he added.
‘So, come on, brilliant Torchwood man,’ Nina said. ‘What are we going to do?’
‘How did you know I was…’ he trailed off. ‘Never mind.’ He supposed it was a bit bloody obvious, what with him carrying a gun and not being the least bit surprised that a giant hydrocarbon eating monster alien was invading a toy superstore, hell bent on consuming everything in its path. I used to be more subtle, he reflected. He'd blame Jack. Jack was naturally to blame for most things. Him and that coat of his sucked all the oxygen out of a room just by being there. He was about as unsubtle as you could get and now he was rubbing off on Ianto. Great.
‘So, come on. What do we do now?’ Nina insisted.
‘I'm thinking.’
She moved toward the door, peering out the tiny viewport. ‘Think faster. That monster just ate a whole swing set and an aisle full of barbie dolls and is getting bigger.’
He chewed the inside of his cheek in annoyance, more at himself than at the dry-witted update on events outside. ‘You know, contrary to popular belief we don't always march in with a fully thought out plan of action.’ In fact they almost never did. ‘That's the thing about aliens,’ he told her. ’They don't book their invasions ahead of time.’
‘So, be spontaneous!’
‘I am! What do you think this was?’
‘A great way of boxing us up as a ready to eat dinner?’
He grimaced. ‘Point taken. Okay, so it likes to eat plastic, petrol, humans… basically anything carbon-based.’ He dwelt on that for a moment. ‘You,’ he said, turning to the teenage mother of the year, ‘got a lighter?’ She pulled several from a tote bag, offering him a choice of colours.
‘What’s your plan?’ Nina asked.
‘Go out there, distract it, hopefully set it on fire.’
‘Sounds rubbish.’
‘Yeah, I know,’ he said, ‘but it’s me or all of us. Think you can get these people out of here while I'm busy trying not to get killed?’
‘Is there another choice?’
He shrugged, tugging the door back open, flicking on the lighter. ‘Probably not.’
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Date: 2024-04-15 10:36 am (UTC)