Fic: Torchwood 1913: Jack be Nimble

[jjpor]

Fic: Torchwood 1913: Jack be Nimble, Part 14

The gang go back to the Hub to regroup - wackiness ensues. More Lydia POV stuff, and some of her thoughts on Gerald. Gerald meanwhile, finds out just what Jack and the rest of them were up to while he was in London, and is not best pleased. And Harriet wonders just what she has got herself into... Oh, and Lydia probably should have copyrighted that line she comes out with at the end...

The link:

www.whofic.com/viewstory.php

Comments

[thisbluespirit]

Yay!

Am not sure when I'll get to it, but it's a Good Thing to know there's a treat waiting when I do. :-)

(BTW, a new comm has started up - dbskyler gave me the heads up - who_like_giants which, while it will include a ficathon, also is now the place for linking to stories from DW, TW and SJA focusing on minor and original characters. Don't know why I thought you might be interested... ;-D).

[jjpor.livejournal.com]

Well, I'll look forward to your thoughts when you get a chance to peruse it. It includes period armaments pr0n as well, for which I know you'll be grateful... ;D

Minor and original characters you say...?! A couple of the prompts on their ficathon there do look, well, tempting (and one of them is one that I was toying with a while ago, and unable to believe that nobody else seemed to have already thought of it)...but I must resist! Yes, resist...

Plus the next couple of months look like being a bit horrible real-life wise (I may have to find another job before the end of June...unless it's actually before the end of March, because our bosses are being about as upfront with us as they usually are). Actually, that's the sort of thing that usually prompts me to write fanfic rather than refrain, but I've got the Bore of Arvswood etc to think of...

[thisbluespirit]

Well, firstly, i'd been thinking of you, cos I remember you said things had gone quiet - and right now that tends to be bad rather than good somehow. So: :-( You have all my sympathy (& good luck with those escape routes - none of them was that dodgy ejector seat I seem to recall from somewhere, was it?)

And secondly, I knew you probably wouldn't want to do a ficathon right now - I thought you might like to pimp your fic there, like this. (If not, I can & will rec them, but you can only do recs in the comments on one specific post and yours is way too good to hide like that.) I like the idea of a central bank to find obscure character fic, I have to say.

Besides, you might like to note that someone else has written a story with Gerald in it!!! I was shocked. I count him and the rest as being completely yours; I don't care what the BBC say.

But I looked at the prompts and thought pretty much that. (Although I'm willing to bet just about anything it wasn't the same prompt. There's another been added since that I thought was fun. I think I may be signing up - the timing would be ok for me, and I don't have to worry about the Boar of Arvswood.

But - what a week. I'm trying to do what I can to stop the gov't casting the public library service to the four winds (yup, it's a windmills moment, I think, but absolutely true!), while being sent off to deal with grass-cutting and dog-poo, and you're not the only one on my flist who's been put out of job on the same day. But why worry? The woman on the news says the recession is over. Talk about ironic.

:-( Fic doesn't cure all ills, but it does help when it comes to catharsis. (Even of spurious morality, if you want.)

:-(

[jjpor.livejournal.com]

Well, thank you very much for your kind words, and you know, it could be a lot worse - it could have been one of those situations where people turn up for work and find the building locked up or something. At least I'm still making money for now, and have a bit of time to ready the ejector seat sort something else out. So it could be a lot worse, definitely.

I think Gerald fic is cool in general, not that there's that much of it, even those weird ones where he and Jack seem to be...friends! ;D I draw the line at Jack/Harriet, though; she's far too sensible not to see through his dubious charms...

Proprietorial? Me??

I'll get to work on the fic-pimping, actually; I'll even put in that weirdo every-minor-character-in-NuWho-pulls-off-a-heist-together one...

My, though, some of those ficathon prompts do look awful tempting...

Hmm...

[thisbluespirit]

I'm glad you seem to have some options. Best of luck! Let us know when you've landed safely what happens. But stress, stress... any uncertainty like this is not good for the soul, the motivation or anything generally. Except maybe angsty fic. So, silver lining... *rolls eyes*

Yay, good. I knew you had more than just the TW stuff, too.

*glares* Clocket will have things to say if I draw you into a distracting ficathon at this point, you know. We could both be in trouble... :lol:

[jjpor.livejournal.com]

Yeah, stress... I mean, I get stressed at all sorts of silly minor things, so if I start babbling incoherently either on here or DbyA, you'll know why...

My pimping post is up now, and...I kinda sorta accidentally slipped on a banana skin or something and ended up signing up for the ficathon...

So, yes, if Clocket asks, it's your fault! :-D

[thisbluespirit]

There, there... (Or something). :-( And, erm, babble incoherently online through stress? Write endless fic? I think if you found me commenting about that, the words pot and kettle would come to mind. (I'm sure right now you'd rather have my stress, but Uncertainty of any sort produces that and we still have yet to have any indication that anyone has a clue how this Grand Plan will actually work. Or if it actually can at all.)

So, babble away.

How does slipping on a banana skin get you signed up to a ficathon? (Love your Gerald/Harriet icon over there btw. Icons are frivolous things that bring much cheer.)

Right. Okay. (What was she going to hit you with?)

[jjpor.livejournal.com]

Well, there there to you too, and I hope your uncertainty is resolved sooner rather than later, and to your benefit, as I hope mine will be (I can hope, can't I? :D). There may be some babbling before the end, though...

A rolled-up newspaper? Could be worse - could be a cricket bat with nails through it, or a "great flanged mace of black iron" such as the Bore used the other day to break the arm of one of my characters...

As you say, if we just keep _very quiet_ about it, she'll never notice...

A banana skin? I meant the dog ate it! Or _he_ made me! or... *runs out of excuses*

And that Gerald/Harriet icon is a treasured possession of mine that I was presented with by someone who liked one of the retro-TW stories, so I keep it stashed away for special occasions... :D

[thisbluespirit]

Yes, well, you should have hope! Life would be a bit bleak without that. Good luck! I hope it will be to your benefit, too. (I seem to remember a thread about work on DbyA & if what you posted then about work wasn't just the result of a bad week at the time, then I really hope you find something a bit more fulfilling this time. Of course, that also is sufficient to live on - always important! ;-D) Shall we talk about fic now, then and not the horrible W word??

Ah, yes, a rolled up paper - well, if I put up that brolly I nicked off Seven and use it as a shield, I'll be fine. :-) (And what have you been writing? *sigh* Torture is always obligatory at some point, right?) Plus, you mean *she* made, in this case, don't you?

And aww to that icon story - I'm not surprised it's a treasured possession.

[jjpor.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I am going to try avoid mentioning the W word too until I have some definite news one way or the other - although I have spent much of the time I planned to spend writing this weekend doing getting-a-new-job-related stuff, but you know, needs must...

It wasn't torture (although it did hurt!) - the character in question was attacking him with a sword at the time! And he got better later... :-D

And I actually made new retro-TW icon during a particularly creative five minutes I had on Friday night!

[thisbluespirit]

Well done! I'm all impressed - I'm usually ready to procrastinate over anything like that, so that's great.

Heh, very cool. Icon-therapy is obviously the way to go - either making, or in my case, snaffling other people's.

[jjpor.livejournal.com]

Well, the image was conveniently sized (ie tiny) so I didn't have to resize it much (which is always a recipe for disaster where my crappy applications are concerned - I need to download something better). I don't know if you've seen this before, but comes from this photo, which is glimpsed for about two seconds in the ep in which Gerald and Harriet actually feature (for about a minute tops), but can be perused on the BBC website and various other places:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/torchwood/images/downloads/1024/tw_downloads_s2_ep03_tw1918_1024.jpg

Because the one thing you really want to be doing if you work for a top, top secret organisation is pose for group photos...

Yeah, I kind of surprised myself with my job-searching enthusiasm this weekend, as I'm normally a ditherer myself, but it makes me feel virtuous or something, and as I say, it hasn't come as as big a shock as it might have, what with all the Ominous Rumblings etc going back to the end part of last year...

[thisbluespirit]

Heh, that's one interesting and truly awful photo! :-)

My icon-making problem stems from several things - lack of talent, technical ignorance, lack of software, lack of source images, and other people can do it so much better. :lol:

However, it's interesting you should say that, because, two things:

1. I use this website for final resizing (although actually, what software I do have is okay on the resizing). Sometimes if you throw a large file or it doesn't recognise the software, it throws a strop, but otherwise, it simply turns it into a perfect icon for you. Which is nice. (But you probably already know these things.)

2. I actually got Serif Photoplus9 (outdated, but complete and free, when it originally cost £80) with my last edition of my family tree mag, and have registered it. I can now do all the things I couldn't (like layers, writing any text etc.). Except the above website doesn't recognise the files, which is typical. I now just need to learn how to use it, so am right now playing about with book covers, only nothing very exciting & then find something that will let me take screen grabs, because that's a big drawback. I followed the how-to-get-round-it with screen prints instructions, but all I ended up with was a massive image I could do absolutely nothing with whatsoever. That was useful, and it took ages to get to that point... (I could make myself a Colonel Crichton icon! :lol:)

And well done & good luck, yes! :-D

[jjpor.livejournal.com]

Why thank you! Somebody told me today that I could very probably get a job doing what I do now, for the same money, but in Birmingham. To be honest, though, I'm not really sure whether I want to carry on doing what I'm doing now. Plus, it's in Birmingham. :D On the other hand, it's a job. So, another option, anyway; it's good to have options.

Make a Col. Crichton icon! Go on - you know you want to! :-D That website looks far more sensible than my current method, which doesn't even work that well - thanks for the pointer.

And Team Torchwood 1918 do look like a fairly gormless bunch, don't they? ;D I think that picture's trying a bit too hard for that stiff-collared awkwardness you see in some old group pics. But if you were ever wondering what the gang from the fic actually look like - that's them.

[thisbluespirit]

Yes, options are good. I'm glad it isn't ALL doom and gloom at least.

I DO want to make a Colonel Crichton icon! I was thinking of other things, but now I thought of that, I want to make one badly. Just cf my screen caps problem. If I can download or pay to download something reasonable that will let me do that, I'm sure I can at least manage something, as I have plenty of DVDs (inc The Five Doctors).

Yes, I know what you mean about the photo - and it's TV flawed reasoning, because they would only have been that stiffly seated for an official studio photo, which that clearly isn't meant to be, therefore it's been taken by someone they know and they would therefore be much more relaxed, smiling (and possibly a little blurred). Do I spend too much time reading family history mags, do you think?
But, it's cool to see them & I can recognise them - except who's the older man on the left?

[jjpor.livejournal.com]

Heh - I've seen the Col. Crichton icons - love that one with the Brig and Crichton looking over his shoulder.

The guy on the left I assume to be Douglas - I probably wrote him as a bit younger than the guy in the photo, actually, but the spurious fluff on the website claimed he lived til 1957, so he can't have been too old in 1918. He reminds me of Ray Stubbs, who used to present Soccer Saturday on BBC1, but with an enormous moustache...

But yeah, the idea that people in the late 19th, early 20th century automatically adopted this terrified "it's going to steal my soul!" sort of attitude when confronted with a camera, any camera, is a bit ridiculous, really. As you say, it comes from seeing those painfully posed studio photos and assuming those were the only sort of photo being taken in those days.

And of course, it begs the question who was taking it? The obvious candidate would be Jack, but my timeline has him off dogfighting with the Red Baron and pals at the time that was supposedly taken...

hmm...

[thisbluespirit]

Heh. I thought after I posted the comment when I looked again at the date you said, that it must be Douglas.

Yes - This was taken in 1911 (if I can get this to work, which is unlikely):
(Okay, it works in as far as you can see it if you click on it!)

I don't think that's a problem, though - Jack on leave. It would be a natural thing to do.

Heh, and I'm never going to be a great icon-maker, but at least I have the ability to scrape up something if I want some odd minor character. Which, you know, happens... (I think this one is probably the most successful so far. I'm learning slowly!)

[jjpor.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I like this one - old Colby certainly looks pretty...sceptical, as you say... ;D I think part of the problem may be that the 70s TV images are of comparatively low resolution, so if you try and resize them too much the graininess really comes out, but that one's a very good effort. I was looking at your Fendahl picspams before (couldn't think of any comments to leave that weren't unseemly and puerile, so didn't bother! ;D), but yeah, the potential for icon-making and indeed shipping (shipping everybody, with everybody else, just about!) is strong in that one...

Now, that's a nice photo, and illustrates what we've been saying. Is the baby in the front laughing or crying, do you think? I couldn't quite decide. Like the smiling bride.

So, yeah, Jack's on leave from the Western Front, pops in to see the old gang (I mean, when he's had enough of boozing/sleeping his way around London, where else is he going to go?) and takes a photo of them. I think getting them to pose like idiots in front of the "Torchwood" sign (which is presumably there in case any aliens/enemy agents break into the Hub, so they'll know they're in the right place!) would probably appeal to Jack's sense of humour, actually. Gerald's looking so annoyed because he's thinking "get on with it, Harkness..." Yes, that's fanon now as far as I'm concerned. Yes. :)

[thisbluespirit]

No, I think it's because it's a free thing I downloaded as per John's instructions. It takes snapshots, but they're quite a small size. It didn't work too badly on the Image ones, but it showed more on The Five Doctors. However, it works and that's enough for me for the moment.

Heh, well, you could have said they were pretty or something, just to cheer me up. ;-) And, yes, I didn't get Thea/Max in there, but it is a bizarrely shippy episode. With a very shippy commentary!!! :lol:

I thought laughing, but that's the only copy I have (it was sent by my Dad's cousin), so it's hard for me to tell. (The bride and groom are my great-grandparents, btw. I don't know who anyone else is!) But it shows that if it's studio conventions that result in that stiffness. And, yes, I don't see what other explanation there is. Unless Jack telegraphed for a professional photographer to go down and annoy them, but somehow I don't think he'd have got away with that...

[jjpor.livejournal.com]

Well, they _were_ very pretty. Actually, I don't know if "pretty" is really the right word to describe Tom Baker, but he wasn't in most of them, anyway... ;D

Aw, well it's a very nice photo as I say; I wish I had anything that old from my own family. The oldest family photos I've ever seen date from the 40s-50s and consist of my granddad and family in various army camps around England and Germany just after the war. And nothing really from my dad's side of the family... Ah, well.

Of course, now I'm thinking just what sort of uniquely Torchwood domestic drama has ensued between Jack, Gerald and co just before the taking of that photo - it must have been _something_ judging from the unamused faces on them... Thus are unwanted plot bunnies born...

I've got some sort of consultation meeting with the HR people this week, and am going to a presentation about this wonderful job I don't really think I want in Birmingham, but hopefully there will also be time for writing in among it all...

[thisbluespirit]

No, I don't think pretty is ever the word to describe Tom! Hence, not many pics of him.... :lol:

I don't have many old photos, but there are some (like that) on my Dad's side that are pretty old. On Mum's side, like you, 30s & 40s are the earliest I've been able to find. But I have been doing the family history, so I contact distant relatives, who email me photos. (This one came from my Dad's cousin). There could be any number hiding with long lost cousins! Heh.

Hope all the HR stuff went OK. :-( A move isn't fun if you don't want to go. Although I suppose at least B'ham isn't too far to go back for visits home. (I moved 300 miles to be a librarian and now I'm a not-a-librarian stuck 300 miles from home. It seemed like a plan at the time. ;-D)

You could always just turn the bunny into a drabble. Sometimes that makes them go away fairly painlessly. Heh.

[jjpor.livejournal.com]

Heheh, poor Tom! Now, Louise Jameson on the other hand... :D

Yeah, no doubt there are old photos of my family out there somewhere - probably with all of those cousins and great aunts and stuff on my dad's side of the family who I only ever see about once a decade at weddings or funerals!

The work saga rumbles on - there are various complications which I won't go into here that mean I still have a job for the time being (good!), but that it's still impossible to say for how long (bad - uncertainty bad!), or indeed what my best move would be right now (don't really want to miss out on redundancy payouts etc, but don't really want to put things off for too long either). We are told that it will be a lot clearer where things stand in another couple of weeks, with a timeframe, dates etc finalised - all I can say is, I hope so!

And yeah, a drabble seems about right, what with the Black Bore demanding that I get back to it sooner rather than later (and I had an idea for a short original fic the other day - not the Cybermen one but something on those lines, inspired by something horrible I read on the BBC news website the other day).

[thisbluespirit]

Uncertainty is very bad, yes. Change, uncertainty = stress. Like I said, you have my sympathy. It's not much use, but, you know, you have it all the same...

I saw your 'drabble' -1300 or something? :lol:

Did you also see that Big Finish are now running a short story comp as well? (2,500 words max, though. ;-D)

[jjpor.livejournal.com]

Aw, well, thank you again very much for your sympathy - it's much appreciated! :)

I set out to write a drabble, honest...or a double drabble, or a 250-worder... Yeah, it kind of burgeoned, beyond my control...er...

They are?! Lemme see! Lemme see! That word-limit might turn out to be a bit of a hurdle, though... (on the other hand, my literary verbosity does give me an edge when it comes to writing fantasy doorstoppers, I guess...);-D

[thisbluespirit]

Yes, they are. And, okay! Here's the link for you.

I was contemplating this, too, but actually found that I rarely write anything much between 100, 500 and then 3,000+! I have a good idea I was starting to write as fan fic right now, but no way could I do it 2500. :lol:

[jjpor.livejournal.com]

Hmm, looks interesting - I like that they've left it very open-ended as regards Doctors/companions and subject matter (the audio script thing they advertised last month had to be Five and Nyssa, a combination I don't reckon I'd ever write off my own bat - I sent them something, but I'm not convinced it was any good, because I wasn't _feeling_ it as I was writing it, if you know what I mean)... don't know what sort of story you can tell in 2,500 words though (I've written fic at that sort of length, but just plotless fluff, not what you'd call a _story_)... I'll think about it...

Of course, entering something like this is just an excuse to write fanfic and feel like I'm doing something useful at the same time! :D

Seven and Ace seem attractive right now, just because I haven't written anything about them in too long...

[thisbluespirit]

I know what you mean, but i don't know if it always matters much to the person reading, or if they can tell. It depends on the resultant output! ;-)

Well, you can tell a story in 100, or 500 words, so... A night's sleep helps a lot (once I eventually got some) and this morning it occurred to me that instead of looking to see if I could adapt any of my story, I should look at expanding a drabble. I also thought about the fact that it would be an audio short story and that that lends itself to OC first person narrative, fable-type things, or just plain good prose, but I leave that to you. :-) And now I have an idea, but having seen around others who are entered, I don't have a hope!

Still, I can't ignore something like this twice in a month. What's the point in all this fan fic writing if we don't try?

You write Seven and Ace so well; I look forward to hearing it on BF audio. :-D

[jjpor.livejournal.com]

Well yes, as you say - we can but try, and it's too good an opportunity to pass up. Now, if I could just think of a story...

I like the idea of a POV OC who sort of sees the Doctor's adventure obliquely - the reader/listener knows what's going on, but the narrator doesn't have a clue...

Now, if I could just come up with a story...

[thisbluespirit]

Heh. That's kind of mine. At the moment, I'm doing an Eight story, but I am still thinking of one for One, because it struck me that my only hope would be to do a relatively unpopular Doctor! :lol: Anyway...

Historical? Little snappy period piece with Seven plotting? You could have your 14th C politics, with Seven fitting right in and Ace not so much... (I'm just after fic here!!! :lol:)

[jjpor.livejournal.com]

All good ideas...historical sounds good actually (Seven giving history a little tweak for purposes of some scheme or other). I'm still thinking about this one; I'll let you know when I have something. Hmmm...