laligin: (Default)
laligin ([personal profile] laligin) wrote2007-07-01 01:16 pm

Face to Face

Right. I saw the finale of Doctor Who series three, and let's say right here, I was hugely disappointed. Maybe I'll rant in more detail later.

But I'm in denial about one specific thing at the moment (if you've seen it, I'm sure you can guess) so I've written a turnip (that's my word for a "canon is still canon but here's your get-out-of-jail-free card" sort of fic) to prop up what remains of the already wobbly Doctor Who/Torchwood canon.

Fandom: Doctor Who/Torchwood
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 833
Summary: Jack reminisces a little on something he just told the Doctor and Martha...
Warnings: Spoiler for DW Series 3 episode 13 - though only that one little thing.

By the way - this is now my canon. Apologies to those of you who disagree, no offence intended.

A/N: Oh yeah. And there's plenty of canon that defies the little revelation. It just doesn't work. RTD hasn't been keeping track of what he himself has written regarding the whole issue. Clearly he just threw the line in to round Jack off in DW and give the fans some closure on him - whether it makes any flipping sense or not. Which it doesn't. Gack. I'm not getting started on that. Have escapist denial fic instead.

Face to Face
(or Jack's Ego May Be Out Of Control, But He's Not That Big-Headed)

Jack shoves his hands in his pockets and heads for the paving stone lift, smiling to himself. The Face of Boe. He hasn’t thought of that in years. That had been quite a month.

~*~


Of course, it had been the media that had started the whole business. They’d thought it was hilarious to give a twenty year old Human boy from a backwater little planet the same nickname as a forty thousand year old Oroiodron who’d travelled the universe. They’d even gone so far as to arrange a meeting between the two – his mother had kept all the holographs, always been showing off the one of him with his arm resting on old Boe’s head, both of them smiling broadly for their audience (he’d had the nerve to tell Boe a few of his filthier jokes when he’d discovered the Oroiodron had a wicked sense of humour, but they were tactful enough to claim Boe’s grin was due to him enjoying the fresh air, and the few hours he was allowed to spend out of his tank each day).

Even if the whole set-up had just been to please the media, it had still been a brilliant day for Jack. He and Boe had talked for hours – though admittedly the Oroiodron hadn’t talked so much, more used his telepathy to show Jack what his youth had been.

Jack was sure he’d never forget those scenes of Boe’s home planet, with groups of Oroiodrons (such giants compared to humans) playing and living peacefully, running on three legs through fields bigger than Jack’s home city, four arms always moving in a complex visual language (since telepathy was reserved for use with close friends and family – and he’d felt truly honoured when he’d found that out).

Seeing inside someone’s head like that was a sure fire way of getting attached to them. He’d only just managed not to burst into tears when he’d hugged as much of old Boe as he could reach before they sealed him back up in his tank again. Boe had neatly stopped him from crying by giving him a compressed telepathic glimpse of some of the many places he’d visited (and letting him know how to explore the memories at his leisure later on) and then wishing the Time Agency’s newest recruit as much good luck as he could spare. And then he’d told him an outrageously dirty joke involving a Tlethan, a Karide and a Human going to a bar. Jack remembered laughing until his sides hurt, and only daring to tell a few others in the Time Agency the joke, it was so filthy.

The meeting had been reported with delight in the local sector (headlines had dredged up every old pun they could find – Two Faced; Face to Face; Not Just A Pretty Face!; Face Off and far too many more), he’d been recognised everywhere he went for the week remaining before he shipped out, and then he’d been gone from home for a year, as per Time Agency directives.

(When he’d gone back at last, he’d found the hype had vanished – mostly because two girls (twins) had made it into the Agency as well, barely eight months after him. The media was a fickle mistress, he discovered. But he didn’t much care. He didn’t want the adulation of an ignorant public any more – he’d had to torture and kill on his last mission, and when he cried for hours in his mother’s arms, all he could bear to tell her was that life in the Agency wasn’t as great as he’d expected. (He felt sorry for the two girls – never did find out what happened to them in the end.) She’d told him repeatedly that it didn’t matter what happened, she’d love him no matter what, and he’d sworn he’d keep trying to make her proud. From then on she’d played down his fame – less of the, “My son, the Time Agent…” and more of simply, “My son…” – and, to his great relief, he’d dropped off the radar with no further ado.

The next time he’d gone back, she was dead. It was a small comfort that she didn’t live to see him turn criminal.)

~*~


Reaching the paving stone, Jack pauses for a second, wondering if he should have mentioned the original Face of Boe to the Doctor and Martha. Then he shakes his head, laughing to himself – what does it matter? It’s not as if they can get mixed up between him and old Boe, is it? The difference in species would be a bit of a giveaway to start with!

Grinning to himself now, trying to remember how that joke went (it started “A Tlethan, a Karide and a Human walk into a bar. They each order a hypervodka…” but where did it go from there again?), Jack hops onto the lift and activates it.

If he’s lucky, the team will have been back from the Himalayas long enough for Ianto to make some coffee.

[identity profile] laligin.livejournal.com 2007-07-01 06:45 pm (UTC)(link)
Goodly goodly. :) Hope you have fun with it, even if I can't make it down. (Have found Jack's coat material! And I have two bears that are only slightly too short... :D)

^_^ Hope it makes sense enough to work...

[identity profile] joulez217.livejournal.com 2007-07-01 06:53 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh I will do! I let my mum and sister read it as well and they both agreed they'd played something like that before! And yay you show piccies once its all made!
ext_29272: (Default)

[identity profile] sunnyrea.livejournal.com 2007-07-01 07:15 pm (UTC)(link)
I love you, thank you for saving me the agony of that "the face of boe they called me" moment. This is so the new canon and I will just pretend the other is not possible. Thank you!

Hello new Canon!

[identity profile] graciouswings.livejournal.com 2007-07-01 07:16 pm (UTC)(link)
That is great. Much as I love the face of boe, Jack ending up as him is just wrong. This is a wonderful and plausible route to go that doesn't just save Jack from a fate worse than death (all that time without sex? This is Jack we're talking about!), it redeems RTD from the circle of hell reserved for bad writing.
And anyway - Didn't Gwen say before (in countryside) that you can never tell when Jack is joking?
Love love love. :D

[identity profile] laligin.livejournal.com 2007-07-01 07:18 pm (UTC)(link)
^_^ Ehee. Happy to help! This was the only way I could keep writing him! Resolve, find a loophole, move on happy. ;) Glad you liked it!

Re: Hello new Canon!

[identity profile] laligin.livejournal.com 2007-07-01 07:19 pm (UTC)(link)
^_^ Hee. Glad you like it so! I love Boe too, but I love him and Jack as separate people, please. Starting with the species and going from there... :)

[identity profile] hellenebright.livejournal.com 2007-07-01 07:56 pm (UTC)(link)
Love this. Now why can't RTD write like this.

[identity profile] laligin.livejournal.com 2007-07-01 08:08 pm (UTC)(link)
*blush* Thank you most kindly.



Ahem. ^_^'
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[identity profile] 1aquaesulis76.livejournal.com 2007-07-01 08:37 pm (UTC)(link)
Thank you so much - just what I needed. Now I can listen to that statement without wincing - or putting my fingers in my ears and singing. A logical explanation, a Jack back-story, and a well written piece full of good characterisation. Thanks for sharing!

[identity profile] laligin.livejournal.com 2007-07-01 08:42 pm (UTC)(link)
Eheh. Thank you very much! I'm glad you liked it.

A logical explanation, a Jack back-story, and a well written piece full of good characterisation.

Mm, not bad for half an hour's writing in the wee hours of the morning, then. ^_^

[identity profile] metzy37.livejournal.com 2007-07-01 09:15 pm (UTC)(link)
Wow. This whole fic is fantastic, but I especially love frocks icon :D

[identity profile] laligin.livejournal.com 2007-07-01 09:16 pm (UTC)(link)
Well, thank you from me! ^_^

[identity profile] pairatime.livejournal.com 2007-07-01 09:45 pm (UTC)(link)
Can I claim this as my Connon too? Please

[identity profile] aunt-deen.livejournal.com 2007-07-01 10:14 pm (UTC)(link)
God bless you.

A few hundred more like this and I might stop being depressed.

[identity profile] bane-huntress.livejournal.com 2007-07-01 11:40 pm (UTC)(link)
lol I did the same ranting with my best friend, but it didnt help :P
lonelybrit: Apples & book (Default)

[personal profile] lonelybrit 2007-07-02 12:02 am (UTC)(link)
Yep, until RTD comes to his senses and fixes that horrid 'revelation', this will do very nicely as my new canon :) I do love the idea of Boe having a filthy sense of humour and getting on with Jack so well. Nice one, bravo!

[identity profile] spacedye-vest.livejournal.com 2007-07-02 01:41 am (UTC)(link)
That was great :) Thank you so much for writing this fic ♥

[identity profile] mrs-norrington.livejournal.com 2007-07-02 03:14 am (UTC)(link)
That made me so much happier. ;)

[identity profile] lyore.livejournal.com 2007-07-02 08:02 am (UTC)(link)
OK, home from work.

Another potential place to pimp this comm would be [profile] galatic_conman, since it's Jack specific.

I have one suggested change to the rules - just clarification of rule 1, to make it completely clear.
1a - This includes those poor, deluded souls people who like the idea.

Also, I'll do up a generic 'pimp' post, if you like, for you to take a look at. And maybe have a go at bashing out a rough set of rules for the ficathon for review.


[identity profile] lyore.livejournal.com 2007-07-02 08:04 am (UTC)(link)
Have you got an email address I can send these to, btw?

[identity profile] laligin.livejournal.com 2007-07-02 10:35 am (UTC)(link)
You certainly may. :) Welcome to the new world. ;)

[identity profile] laligin.livejournal.com 2007-07-02 10:36 am (UTC)(link)
We're working on it! Ficathon from [livejournal.com profile] notsobigheaded is on its way. ;)

[identity profile] laligin.livejournal.com 2007-07-02 10:37 am (UTC)(link)
Hee. I have a twisted imagination. ;) Glad you liked it!

[identity profile] laligin.livejournal.com 2007-07-02 10:38 am (UTC)(link)
My great pleasure. :) I'm glad you enjoyed it!

[identity profile] laligin.livejournal.com 2007-07-02 10:39 am (UTC)(link)
Yup - laligin at hotmail dot com.

Adding the rule clarification now! And the generic pimp post/ficathon rules sounds great. ^_^

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