Thirty Flavours of Torchwood

[laligin]

Right, because I'm far too tempted, this is opening up much quicker than I'd planned. :D Thanks go to those who gave me prompts (and if you want to add some, do feel free - it's never too late).

Right. Here's how this works.

Here are Thirty Flavours of Torchwood.

You pick a prompt. Then, for that prompt, you pick any member of the Torchwood Team (past or present) or any such combination you please, add an extra condition or two if you want, and I write it for you in the comments.

The idea is that I write a drabble-size piece, but they may start at 100 words and head off into the sunset... And I will put the whole set in one post when they're done, for neatness' sake. :)

Crossovers are allowed, I suppose, but I'm not too well aware of many other fandoms (not even Buffy) so be cautious...

Eek. I hope this works. ^_^'


DONE 1. Bloodied
DONE 2. Claustrophobic
DONE 3. Cold
DONE 4. Confused
DONE 5. Cuddly
DONE 6. Dancing
DONE 7. Daydreaming
DONE 8. Divided
DONE 9. Domestic
DONE 10. Ecstatic
DONE 11. Efficient
DONE 12. High
Claimed 13. Hunted
DONE 14. In-denial
DONE 15. Lost
DONE 16. On-a-roll
DONE 17. Point-of-no-return
DONE 18. Proud
DONE 19. Reading
DONE 20. Researching
DONE 21. Secretive
DONE 22. Silent
DONE 1 Claimed 1 23. Silver-tongued
Claimed 24. Singing-in-the-rain
DONE 25. Sleepy
Claimed 26. Snarky
DONE 27. Sorrowful
DONE 28. Suspicious
DONE 29. Victorious
DONE 30. Warm


All prompts now claimed! Working on them. ^_^

Oh, and if you don't like the drabble (or... er... short fic) tell me and I'll do another. XD

Comments

[taffimai.livejournal.com]

“Oh,” Jack said, and slowly started to grin. “How very efficient of me.”

Oh, that's perfect Jack!voice. *loves*

[laligin.livejournal.com]

^_^ I'm so very glad you think so! Thank you!

[damalan.livejournal.com]

Oh, excellent! Highly efficient use of 600 words! ;)

I love the fact that Ianto knows Jack well enough to spot the danger signs and then act on them in such a way that he both gets what he wants and doesn't just accede to Jack's wishes. He outsmarts his lover, and that's got to be fun for Ianto!

I really enjoyed this. Thank you. Once they're all done you should do a compiled journal entry with links to each story.

[laligin.livejournal.com]

Thank you most kindly, I'm very glad you liked it. :D

I like Ianto being devious and cunning... ^_^

And yes, I will be doing a proper entry with links to them all when they're done. Only 20 or so left to go... Eheh.

[laligin.livejournal.com]

Well, here it is. I think you win Longest Flavour So Far, at 790 words... In fact, it’s so long, it’s in this comment and the reply. XD I finally broke the comment boundary… Hope you like it... (Warning, as it involves Owen there is a certain amount of swearing...)

Bad Day

Jack wandered out of his office, folding his arms and frowning at the Hub in general for a few moments. Then he said loudly, “Why’s it so quiet?”

There was a long pause, and then Tosh managed to drag herself away from her computer screens, saying distractedly, “What?”

“It’s too quiet,” Jack said. “Where’s Owen?”

“Working on something,” Tosh said, gesturing in the direction of the autopsy room behind her, and then turning back to her work again.

Jack sighed, and, with nothing better to do, went to see what Owen was up to. The doctor was standing with his back to the entrance by one of the trolleys, scalpel in hand, apparently dissecting some alien blob or other.

“Got anything interesting?” Jack asked, leaning on the railing at the top of the stairs and barely bothering to be insulted when Owen didn’t reply.

“Fine, ignore me,” he sighed, turning away again, and then paused and looked back, peering down at the table to Owen’s right saying, “Owen? Coffee’s cold.”

When he got no reaction, he found himself getting curious, and went down the stairs to see what Owen was up to, asking, “What exactly are you working on?”

Owen stayed silent.

[laligin.livejournal.com]

Jack edged around to his side, took one look at the brown blob that had Owen’s scalpel stuck into it, and started sniggering.

“Oh,” he said, grinning. “I see.”

Owen rolled his eyes towards Jack, managing to fit a certain amount of fury and pleading into one sideways glare, and Jack folded his arms.

“How long have you been stuck like this, then?” he asked calmly, and Owen rolled his eyes again.

“Oh yeah,” Jack said, “the paralysis. Roll your eyes to the right for yes and the left for no.”

Owen tried glaring at him at him again, but Jack only grinned broader, and asked, “An hour? More?”

Giving up, Owen rolled his eyes to the right.

“More than an hour,” Jack confirmed. “More than two? Ah, yes. Three?”

When Owen confirmed that as well, Jack couldn’t help but burst into laughter.

By the time he’d got himself under control again, Tosh and Gwen had come to see what was going on.

“Owen’s paralysed,” Jack told them, still quite breathless from laughing so hard. “Oh, don’t worry,” he continued, when they broke into startled cries of concern, “it’s harmless.”

He grinned at them both, and raised his hand to his earpiece, saying, “Ianto? Hi, yeah, sorry to interrupt. Could you bring a broom down to the autopsy room? No, no hurry. You finish that first if you want. Thanks.”

The girls were staring at him by then, and Owen was doing his best to turn the glare up a few notches as Jack shrugged, and told them, “He’s just finishing the filing. He’ll be down in a few minutes.”

“Why a broom?” Gwen asked, and Jack waved a casual hand at the blob.

“Because that’s a Drestek, and we have to get him to stop touching it without us touching him. They usually hunt in swarms, you see. One of them touches their prey, and then the prey and any other living object in contact with it becomes paralysed. Then the rest of the swarm crowd in to eat it. Except this one’s on its own, so it’s paralysing Owen for no particular reason, and if any of us touch him, we’ll get stuck as well.”

“But he said it was dead,” Tosh pointed out. “And he’s not touching it.”

Jack shoved his hands in his pockets and leant back against the wall, waiting patiently for Ianto to arrive, and saying, “It’s a blob. It’s mastered the art of playing dead for the good of the swarm. And he’s got his scalpel stuck in it, and the whole paralysis effect seems to work in a similar way to electricity, so…”

A cough from behind Gwen and Tosh alerted them to Ianto’s arrival. He held up the broom, and said, “I wondered what you were up to. I’ll go back to the filing later. Would you like me to do the honours, sir?”

Jack grinned at him, and gestured for him to go ahead. He came down the stairs and had a look at the situation, then poked the broom handle forward, hooking it under Owen’s hand and raising his arm away from the blob. Owen rocked back on his heels, utterly rigid, until the scalpel cleared the blob with a slight pop, and he fell over backwards.

Jack put a glass jar over the top of the now squirming blob, while Owen rubbed the back of his head and scrambled up, growling, “You bastards! Four fucking hours I’ve been stuck here, and you didn’t even bloody notice!”

[emlyn-rune.livejournal.com]

*Happy Dance* That was great! Poor *gigglesnort* Owen. Guess everyone else was enjoying the quiet a little too much. Think I'm going to be laughing over this one all day! Thank you thank you and thank you again. :)

[laligin.livejournal.com]

*grins* Thank you most kindly, I'm very glad you liked it. ^_^ It's not often the others get a day without Owen complaining about something or making loud, inappropriate remarks... :D

[taffimai.livejournal.com]

*giggles madly* Owen's hilarious in this and I love the happy, relaxed Jack.

[laligin.livejournal.com]

Thanks! And wow, you spotted that quickly... Keeping a close eye on the Flavours post, then? ^_^' Eheh.

Hapy, relaxed Jack is always fun to write. As much fun as angsty Jack. Or angry Jack. Or sneaky Jack.

Aw, heck. Jack's just fun to write in general. And I'm beginning to like Owen a little too...

[taffimai.livejournal.com]

Hee! Yeah, I added it to my tracking list (http://www.livejournal.com/manage/subscriptions/) so I get notifications whenever you add a new one. *grins*

And how could anyone not love Jack? ... he's Captain Jack Harkness!

[laligin.livejournal.com]

Ah, cunning. Good to know you're not entirely stalking me. :P

*is now having whole scenes of Pirates of the Caribbean rewrite themselves...*

Re: hello, is sorrowful still free?

[laligin.livejournal.com]

This should fit in one post... 690 words. Hope you like it. :)

Drown Your Sorrows

Yet another rainy day, and Ianto was once more alone in the Hub, taking the chance to clean up while the others were out chasing up a police report involving six people getting stuck together. He was busy attacking the mess in Jack’s cupboards when he heard a low croak from out in the Hub, and ventured back to the doorway, peering out cautiously.

For a moment he saw nothing moving, and then there was a clack and a heavy sigh, and he looked up a bit further. Myfanwy was staring down at him from her nest, head hanging over the side listlessly. She clacked her beak again, sighing even heavier, and he stepped out of Jack’s office, frowning at her, hands on his hips.

When Myfanwy pulled her head back into her nest, with a mournful groan, Ianto thought to himself for a few seconds, then ducked back into Jack’s office.

~*~

The pterodactyl ignored him when he climbed up to the nest and sat down, cross-legged, just far enough in from the edge that if she knocked him over he’d only fall flat on his back, rather than plummeting to his death. He noticed (initially alerted by the smell as he’d approached) that she hadn’t been finishing her food in the past couple of days, and took a swig from the bottle he’d brought with him to fortify himself. He was determined to stay for a little while, even if he couldn’t manage to do anything to cheer Myfanwy up.

He was somewhat startled when she turned abruptly and fixed one beady eye on him. He blinked at her, slowly lowering the bottle from his lips, and she raised her beak sharply.

“You’re not going to hurt me,” Ianto said soothingly, wondering for the first time if paying a visit to a moody dinosaur was really such a good idea. Keeping his voice gentle and cheerful, he continued, “You should know by now that if you hurt me, you’ll end up stuffed and hanging from the ceiling for Jack to boast about. I’m sure he’ll elect to tell stories about how you were fought and killed, rather than anything else, of course.”

Myfanwy made a noise similar to a creaking door, and stretched her neck forward to fasten her beak around the bottle Ianto was holding.

Ianto promptly smacked her on the beak, and she pulled back with a startled squawk as he told her sternly, “You can’t have that. It’s Jack’s favourite flavour of schnapps. Do you really think he’d appreciate me sharing it with the pterodactyl?”

She hunched her wings and made herself small in the nest, peering at him pleadingly, and he hesitated, then said, “Then again, if it’ll get you to eat your food and not die on us unexpectedly, I suppose it’s all in a good cause.”

Locating meat from that morning, still in its bowl, he poured some schnapps over a piece and watched Myfanwy lunge at it, snapping it up with a gleeful crrk and a clack of her beak as she demanded more.

Ianto smirked to himself, and did as he was bid.

~*~

When the others finally got back, Tosh and Gwen somehow having managed to get their elbows stuck together, Jack bounded cheerfully up the stairs, asking Ianto (who was going through some files on Toshiko’s computer), “Get up to much while we were out?”

“Not much,” Ianto said calmly. “I just got the pterodactyl drunk and trained her to recognise a bottle of schnapps from a hundred yards.”

The others laughed, and Jack grinned at him, then went through to his office to check on Ianto’s tidying up, while Tosh pulled Gwen over to him, saying, “Could you just connect this device to those wires there, please? I’d quite like to have my arm back…”

Ianto was just separating the two of them when Jack reappeared in his office doorway, asking, “Ianto, why are there beak marks on the doors to my now empty drinks cabinet?”

Ianto looked back up at him, the picture of innocence, and said, “I forgot to say. She also developed a taste for whiskey.”

Re: hello, is sorrowful still free?

[harem-ent.livejournal.com]

...gigglesnort

Re: hello, is sorrowful still free?

[metztlimoon.livejournal.com]

Oh *bounces*. That's soooooooo cool. Thank you. The whiskey chaser was just perfect....

Re: hello, is sorrowful still free?

[laligin.livejournal.com]

:D Goodgood. Thanke most kindly. ;)

Re: hello, is sorrowful still free?

[laligin.livejournal.com]

Thanke. ^_^ It was kind of inspired by one of the lovely harem_ent's Myfanwy fics... (http://harem-ent.livejournal.com/1684.html) I must remember to include Myfanwy more often...

Anyway, glad you liked it. :) ^_^

[laligin.livejournal.com]

1530 words... You win longest Flavour (at least for the moment...)!

Cup of Coffee and an Ice Cream

“Coffee?” one of the men said cheerfully, bringing in a tray with three cups on it, giving one to his fellow interviewer (interrogator, more like) and putting another on the table in front of Tosh. She was about to shake her head when she remembered how long it had been since she’d drunk anything, and picked up the cup. As soon as they let her out of here she’d do her duty as a good little scientist and report back to UNIT with everything she’d learned about Torchwood from her questioning today.

The man taking notes (the one who hadn’t fetched the coffee) suddenly frowned, and raised his hand to the Bluetooth headset hooked into his ear, saying, “Yes, she’s still here. Not yet, we were just about to – are you sure? No, no sir, sorry sir. Right away sir.”

Tosh paused with the cup halfway to her lips, wondering what the other half of the conversation had been, then went to drink the coffee, only for the man to reach across the table and hastily take the cup from her hands, saying, “Change of plan.”

She sighed and sat back, coffeeless and thirsty now, but obeying all the same. The two men stood up and went to have an urgent, whispered discussion in the corner by the door, and she did her best to eavesdrop but caught only a half-strangled, disbelieving, and insulted, “Harkness?” before they hastily shushed each other and tried to act professional.

The door opened, and the two men left, then the door was closed again and she was alone with a different man. Handsome, certainly, though the period military look was hardly in keeping with fashion.

He turned away from the door, turned on a blinding grin, and took three steps towards her, holding out his hand and saying, “Captain Jack Harkness. Pleasure to meet you, Doctor Sato. Don’t drink the coffee.”

Tosh found herself shaking his hand, starting to get up until he waved her back down and twisted to sit on the edge of the table beside her.

“Working for UNIT at the moment, aren’t you?” he asked, and she automatically opened her mouth to respond, then paused, intrigued by the peculiarity of his appearance and manner, and decided she could risk being a little bit more belligerent than usual, saying, “You know well enough already. Are you Torchwood as well?”

“Not the same lot that tried to hire you last time,” he told her, smiling in an altogether irritatingly knowing way. She gave him no gasp of surprise or look of awe or confusion. It wasn’t remotely startling that he’d read Torchwood’s file on her.

“As I recall,” he continued, looking away from her, up into empty space to affect an air of thoughtful musing, “you turned them down flat. The official reason was that you didn’t want to leave your post with UNIT on such short notice. Care to tell me the real reason?”

Tosh watched him for a moment, waiting until he turned to look at her before saying, “That was the real reason, Captain.”

“So it wasn’t because you found them arrogant, power hungry and imperialist?” he asked casually, then smiled brightly at her when she said nothing.

“And you don’t find UNIT too hung up on military discipline and rules and regulations. You don’t want to be somewhere where they’d listen to you, value your opinion and include you as part of a team, rather than sidelining you because you’re not military personnel, and assigning you to the wrong taskforce because they don’t want to brief another expert, when you should be working on the technological side of things.”

Tosh bit her lip, and he grinned at her, then stood up, saying nonchalantly, “Torchwood Three, Cardiff. I can promise you a say in pretty much every decision that gets made, enough autonomy to pursue your own interests, and all the alien technology you could ever want to investigate.”

She hesitated a moment longer, and he paused, then said, “Or you can drink your coffee, go back to UNIT, and forget you ever met me. Your choice.”

For another few seconds, Tosh said nothing, considering the matter, and then she stood up and shook the Captain’s hand again, saying firmly, “I’m in,” and trying to ignore the feeling telling her she’d either just made the best decision of her life – or the worst mistake.

[laligin.livejournal.com]

Tosh leaned on the railing, frowning at the Bay, and wondered how the others were getting along. She was still a little annoyed that Jack had taken the rest of the team off on a two-day trip hunting a reported alien in Norfolk, but left her behind. He’d told her to man the fort and keep an eye out for anything unusual, then in the same breath said he’d get round to reading her report on the proposed Blaidd Drwg nuclear power plant when he got back from the trip, and she wasn’t to take any action without consulting him first.

This wasn’t the autonomy and decision-making and “valued opinion” she’d been promised.

In quite a huff, she stared moodily out at the water, getting so lost in her thoughts that she barely even heard the gulls screeching incredibly loudly nearby until she realised that of course there were no gulls, and it wasn’t even the fake call that scared them off that she was hearing. By the time she realised that, the sound had stopped.

Straightening up and looking around, she was wracking her brains trying to work out what the noise had been (and why it was ringing vague bells in the back of her mind) when she spotted a familiar figure, and paused, startled.

He was walking with a blonde girl, gesturing out at the Bay and clearly in the middle of telling her an amusing anecdote, as her attention was utterly focused on him, and she laughed occasionally, shaking her head in amused denial. Carefully, Tosh got close enough to be sure, and then dared to interrupt, asking nervously, “Doctor?”

They both turned, and the girl glanced between them as the Doctor paused, then suddenly recognised her and grinned from ear to ear, saying delightedly, “Doctor Sato!” and hugging her enthusiastically.

Tosh smiled back at him when he let her go, telling him, “I just wanted to thank you for everything –”

“Oh, that was nothing,” the Doctor said cheerfully, still grinning. “How are you, though?”

“Um… I’m fine,” Tosh answered, smiling when the blonde girl pulled apologetic faces behind the Doctor’s back. “Working for Torchwood now, but –”

From behind her, an all too familiar voice said loudly, “And you tell me not to flirt with everyone I meet.”

Tosh froze, while the Doctor affected an indignant look, saying, “Doctor Sato and I were just catching up on old times, actually,” and the blonde girl skipped past her, with a broad smile and a quick, “Thanks, Mickey.”

Tosh turned, as Jack handed the Doctor an ice cream, asking, “Do I still need to buy you a drink?”

The Doctor grinned, told him simply, “Yep,” and then turned back to Tosh, gesturing at each of the other three in turn, and saying, “Rose, Ricky –”

“Mickey.”

“– and Jack.”

Jack grinned at her, saying, “Pleasure to meet you, Doctor Sato. Let me buy you an ice cream?”

Shaking her head absentmindedly, Tosh looked him up and down, debated for a moment whether any interaction with Jack on her part would cause the universe to implode, then decided that her Jack had left her behind in the full knowledge of his earlier arrival, whatever she was going to do she’d already done, and it was far too late to turn and run now anyway, and said, “You look better with the coat.”

[laligin.livejournal.com]

“Have a good time while we were away?” Jack asked cheerfully as she came to help them unload the SUV.

“Yeah, solve any useful equations?” Owen asked, far less cheerfully, carrying a heavy box past them and heading for the armoury.

Ignoring him, Tosh stared at Jack until he stopped loading Suzie and Elijah up with the rest of their stuff, and turned to face her, folding his arms and raising his eyebrows.

“Problem?” he enquired, the faintest curve to his lips telling her that he knew precisely what had been going on in his ‘absence’.

She waited until the others had gone into the Hub to unload properly, aware that Jack was beginning to look slightly wary, unsure how she was going to react. It would be so easy to use what she knew to force more answers out of him – who knew how many more secrets he was keeping from them all? – but she had the feeling that if she took that route Jack would be the one offering her a drink, rather than the one saving her.

So she smiled instead, and told him, “You owe me an ice cream.”

The smile he gave her in return helped her squash her curiosity, and he offered her his arm, saying, “We’ll let the others finish unpacking. So, Doctor Sato. The million dollar question. Strawberry or vanilla?”

[laligin.livejournal.com]

Here you go (at last). 180 words. If you don't like, feel free to ask for another. XD

Try To Keep Up

“So,” Jack said eventually. “Not dangerous, then.”

“Shut. Up.” Owen told him flatly.

For a few minutes, Jack was silent again, looking down at the others, working frantically to remotely disarm the device now embedded in the stationary lift. At last he sighed, asking, “Why did you have to drop it?”

He could feel Owen tense against his back, growling, “I didn’t do it on bloody purpose, alright?”

“We’re still stuck here,” Jack pointed out, back to back with Owen on the lift and both of them doing their best not to move in case they blew themselves up by accident. “That’s the last time I believe you when you say you know what you’re doing.”

“We found another one just the same while you were gone,” Owen protested. “It was easy to disarm.”

“Who did it?” Jack asked, and Owen paused, then admitted, “Tosh.”

“There you go,” Jack told him, spreading his arms in a gesture of revelation, and nearly knocking Owen off the lift as he did so, “Tosh makes everything look easy. That’s why I hired her.”

[shadowbyrd.livejournal.com]

I think you already know I love this. I'll just say it anyway to make sure.

I love the Hot Fuzz/shaun of the dead ref, I love Jack leaving Tosh behind so he can meet up with her, I love Nine hugging her (I'll hug anyone)and Jack “And you tell me not to flirt with everyone I meet.” Bless him, he's jealous!

Anyway, love lots and yay! Longest fic yet. Wouldn't put it past you to write a longer one.

Back to the karaoke!

#Flash! O-oh!# Flash, I love you! But we only have fourteen hours to save the Earth!

[laligin.livejournal.com]

^_^ Yay! Am glad you like. :D (And yes, Jack's jealous... But who of? :D)

Longest Flavour yet, and at over 1500 words it may well stay that way... We shall see. :)

#Flash! Aa-aah! Saviour of the Universe! (What do you mean, Flash Gordon approaching?)#

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Hee! Love it! Beautiful salute to Toshiko - many thanks!

[laligin.livejournal.com]

Thank you, I'm glad you like it. ^_^ (Tosh needs more love... :) )