The Last Of The Remixes: Torchwoody Stuff
These two turned out to be sort of variations on a theme. Completely opposite variations, I guess, but still. The second one was the pinch hit, and it's longer than all the others combined, because I lacked the time to make it shorter.
I've marked both of these "Doctor Who/Torchwood," because they sort of feature elements from both, but if I'd realized that would relegate them to the crossover section of remixthedrabble posting, I probably would have gone with just "Torchwood" for the first one. It's not a crossover, exactly. Hell, it's sort of an anti-crossover. It just happens to be set in the gap between the two shows.
Anyway, here ya go:
Title: Not on His Side (The Laughing Universe Remix)
Fandom: Doctor Who/Torchwood
Original Fic: Another Time, by aralias
Character(s): Jack
Length: 100 words
Rating/Warnings: G, spoilers for season 2 of New Who and the first episode of Torchwood, maybe
Not on His Side (The Laughing Universe Remix)
Jack tries to find the Doctor, looking for him in the places he knows he'll be, because Jack remembers being there with him. But something always happens. He's called away on an emergency. His car dies. A ridiculously contrived chain of circumstances deflects his path at the last moment. Twice, he dies on the way.
Time attempts to protect itself from paradoxes. Jack knows that; it's Time Agent 101. But it isn't usually this good at it. Maybe time hates him. Maybe because he's the one person it just can't seem to defeat any other way.
Like that's his fault.
Title: Clothes Make the Man (The One Small Thing Remix)
Fandom: Doctor Who/Torchwood
Original Fic: Lilies of the Field, by joking
Character(s): Jack, Nine
Length: 495 words
Rating/Warnings: G-rated
Clothes Make the Man (The One Small Thing Remix)
Jack is in the back of the second-hand shop, scanning some items that have turned out not to be alien after all, when the Doctor walks in.
He's already opening his mouth to call out the Doctor's name, when he suddenly realizes it's the wrong Doctor. Not the one he saw last, but the one he knew first. It's odd, this mixed feeling of familiarity and strangeness... You'd think he'd be used to meeting people out of sequence, as much time traveling as he's done, but somehow it's a little different when the person in question has a habit of changing his face.
The Doctor doesn't see him. He doesn't appear to see anything, or even to be entirely aware of where he is. He looks oddly vulnerable without his usual leather jacket, and his eyes are unfocused and strange. Jack might even go so far as to call them "haunted." He looks as if he's just come from a war.
Oh, hell.
Jack walks towards him. "Doctor?"
The Doctor blinks. "Do I know you?" His voice is flat. Lifeless. He doesn't even seem to register that "wrongness" his later self talked about, which leaves Jack wondering just how much temporal wrongness he's seen lately, to become so inured to it.
"Not yet," he says. "I don't think you'll remember me, either." At least, if he will, he'll be surprisingly good at hiding it. But regeneration sometimes has that effect, if the things he's heard are true. Funny, to think that the Doctor has a harder time coming back to life than Jack does.
Jack's gaze suddenly lights on something familiar hanging on the clothing rack, and he laughs. "Well. Look at that." They taught him at the Time Agency that it's better to go along with a closed temporal loop than to fight against it. Who is he to argue? He slides the jacket off its hanger and settles it gently around the Doctor's shoulders. "You're having a tough time right now," he says softly. "There's nothing I can do about that. But I've found that the right coat can do wonders for one's sense of identity."
The Doctor shrugs himself the rest of the way into the jacket and looks into Jack's eyes with an expression of surprised confusion, as if startled to discover that there's still kindness in the universe. "Thank you," he says. He looks different already. Better armored. More himself.
"You're welcome," he says. "Keep it as long as you need it. But, you know, you really don't want to shop here. Try Henrik's. I think they may have some of what you need."
The Doctor blinks at him, nods, manages something that might at some point in the future evolve into a smile, and walks to the exit.
Jack holds up a hand as the teenager behind the cash register begins to protest, and tosses him a small wad of cash.
"Keep the change," he says.
I've marked both of these "Doctor Who/Torchwood," because they sort of feature elements from both, but if I'd realized that would relegate them to the crossover section of remixthedrabble posting, I probably would have gone with just "Torchwood" for the first one. It's not a crossover, exactly. Hell, it's sort of an anti-crossover. It just happens to be set in the gap between the two shows.
Anyway, here ya go:
Title: Not on His Side (The Laughing Universe Remix)
Fandom: Doctor Who/Torchwood
Original Fic: Another Time, by aralias
Character(s): Jack
Length: 100 words
Rating/Warnings: G, spoilers for season 2 of New Who and the first episode of Torchwood, maybe
Not on His Side (The Laughing Universe Remix)
Jack tries to find the Doctor, looking for him in the places he knows he'll be, because Jack remembers being there with him. But something always happens. He's called away on an emergency. His car dies. A ridiculously contrived chain of circumstances deflects his path at the last moment. Twice, he dies on the way.
Time attempts to protect itself from paradoxes. Jack knows that; it's Time Agent 101. But it isn't usually this good at it. Maybe time hates him. Maybe because he's the one person it just can't seem to defeat any other way.
Like that's his fault.
Title: Clothes Make the Man (The One Small Thing Remix)
Fandom: Doctor Who/Torchwood
Original Fic: Lilies of the Field, by joking
Character(s): Jack, Nine
Length: 495 words
Rating/Warnings: G-rated
Clothes Make the Man (The One Small Thing Remix)
Jack is in the back of the second-hand shop, scanning some items that have turned out not to be alien after all, when the Doctor walks in.
He's already opening his mouth to call out the Doctor's name, when he suddenly realizes it's the wrong Doctor. Not the one he saw last, but the one he knew first. It's odd, this mixed feeling of familiarity and strangeness... You'd think he'd be used to meeting people out of sequence, as much time traveling as he's done, but somehow it's a little different when the person in question has a habit of changing his face.
The Doctor doesn't see him. He doesn't appear to see anything, or even to be entirely aware of where he is. He looks oddly vulnerable without his usual leather jacket, and his eyes are unfocused and strange. Jack might even go so far as to call them "haunted." He looks as if he's just come from a war.
Oh, hell.
Jack walks towards him. "Doctor?"
The Doctor blinks. "Do I know you?" His voice is flat. Lifeless. He doesn't even seem to register that "wrongness" his later self talked about, which leaves Jack wondering just how much temporal wrongness he's seen lately, to become so inured to it.
"Not yet," he says. "I don't think you'll remember me, either." At least, if he will, he'll be surprisingly good at hiding it. But regeneration sometimes has that effect, if the things he's heard are true. Funny, to think that the Doctor has a harder time coming back to life than Jack does.
Jack's gaze suddenly lights on something familiar hanging on the clothing rack, and he laughs. "Well. Look at that." They taught him at the Time Agency that it's better to go along with a closed temporal loop than to fight against it. Who is he to argue? He slides the jacket off its hanger and settles it gently around the Doctor's shoulders. "You're having a tough time right now," he says softly. "There's nothing I can do about that. But I've found that the right coat can do wonders for one's sense of identity."
The Doctor shrugs himself the rest of the way into the jacket and looks into Jack's eyes with an expression of surprised confusion, as if startled to discover that there's still kindness in the universe. "Thank you," he says. He looks different already. Better armored. More himself.
"You're welcome," he says. "Keep it as long as you need it. But, you know, you really don't want to shop here. Try Henrik's. I think they may have some of what you need."
The Doctor blinks at him, nods, manages something that might at some point in the future evolve into a smile, and walks to the exit.
Jack holds up a hand as the teenager behind the cash register begins to protest, and tosses him a small wad of cash.
"Keep the change," he says.