Double Drabble: Keeping It Secret
May. 31st, 2025 05:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Title: Keeping It Secret
Author:
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Characters: Gwen, Ianto.
Rating: PG
Written For: Challenge 867: Right at
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Spoilers: Nada.
Summary: Ianto explains why the Rift has to be kept secret.
Disclaimer: I don’t own Torchwood, or the characters.
A/N: Double drabble.
“You know I’m right,” said Gwen, her expression stubborn.
“No, to be perfectly honest, I don’t,” Ianto replied calmly. “Just because you think people should be warned doesn’t mean that would make anything better.”
“Of course it would! If people knew about the Rift, they could make an informed decision about whether they wanted to live here or not.”
“Yes, and then what do you think all the ordinary, everyday people would do? The shop assistants, food services, office workers, bus drivers, the people who keep a city going… Most of them would leave, go somewhere safer. The city’s infrastructure would shut down. All we’d be left with would be the daredevils, the risk takers, the criminals, the kinds of people who’d be determined to get hold of any alien technology, or aliens, that fell through the Rift and use it for their own profit. You think the Weevil fight club we shut down would be the worst of it? Or the Space Whale being butchered alive for meat? That would only be the tip of the iceberg.”
“Oh. I hadn’t thought of that.”
“You never do. People are complicated, Gwen. They need protecting from the things they don’t understand.”
The End
“No, to be perfectly honest, I don’t,” Ianto replied calmly. “Just because you think people should be warned doesn’t mean that would make anything better.”
“Of course it would! If people knew about the Rift, they could make an informed decision about whether they wanted to live here or not.”
“Yes, and then what do you think all the ordinary, everyday people would do? The shop assistants, food services, office workers, bus drivers, the people who keep a city going… Most of them would leave, go somewhere safer. The city’s infrastructure would shut down. All we’d be left with would be the daredevils, the risk takers, the criminals, the kinds of people who’d be determined to get hold of any alien technology, or aliens, that fell through the Rift and use it for their own profit. You think the Weevil fight club we shut down would be the worst of it? Or the Space Whale being butchered alive for meat? That would only be the tip of the iceberg.”
“Oh. I hadn’t thought of that.”
“You never do. People are complicated, Gwen. They need protecting from the things they don’t understand.”
The End