Mutual Service Verse by phaetonschariot

[baka-sensei.livejournal.com]

In honor of the snazzy new format and my self-appointed mission to start posting more recs, I wanted to give you my recently discovered new favorite. (Note to the admins- for some reason, when I attempted to get to the masterlist, the google.docs didn't want to let me in! Perhaps because I was logged into my personal gmail account? I dunno! So if this has been recced before, please let me know and I will happily get rid of the redundancy.)

Title: Mutual Service 'Verse
Author: phaetonschariot 
Genre: AU, Angst, Romance
Rating: PG-13
Summary: When some misplaced technology triggers a custom-coded lockdown, Torchwood quickly realises the quickest way to open up the Hub again is to get the program's creator to shut it off. The only problem is that Ianto Jones is dead.
Status: Each story is complete, but the series is ongoing.
Length: 4 separate stories in 6 parts
Warnings: Death... emo-ness? Boy kissing and hints towards sexual themes.
Comment or Excerpt from fic:
This fic is absolutely BRILLIANT. It is very well written, and phaetonschariot packs an emotional punch without becoming melodramatic. The premise for this fic centers around the glove and a "what-if Ianto had actually acted on his suicidal/depressed feelings" and is incredibly well-done; not something I'd ever thought of before. Everyone is fabulously in character- Ianto is the sad, stoic Ianto we saw from series 1, underestimated and unappreciated but resilient, Jack is the guilt-riddled immortal who feels both responsible for and flabbergasted by the people under his command- and the writing style is simple but fraught with implicit emotion and illumination of the characters. Morbidly funny, it takes They Keep Killing Suzie and turns it into a story I would have liked just as much, if not more (which is saying something, since TKKS is definitely in my top 3 Torchwood episodes). I can't say enough good things about this series; it completely floored me, intrigued me, and left me begging for more!

As the author writes, the title is taken from the suicide note of Charlotte Perkins Gilman: "Human life consists in mutual service. No grief, pain, misfortune, or 'broken heart,' is excuse for cutting off one's life while any power of service remains. But when all usefulness is over, when one is assured of an unavoidable and imminent death, it is the simplest of human rights to choose a quick and easy death in place of a slow and horrible one."

( Excerpt )