Adstring. Application.
Name: Katie
Livejournal: the_betrayer
Contact: AIM: harkness said
Other Characters Played: None.
Are you 18 or over? Yes.
Canon: Doctor Who (& Torchwood)
Character: Captain Jack Harkness
Timeline: 6 Months after Children of Earth/After End of Time
Personality:
Jack is a flirt. And he will flirt with you, your brother, your mother, and your father. He has absolutely no limitations seen within canon. No species repulses him, no gender brothers him. All that matters to Jack is how attractive he finds the person. He finds the twenty-first century to categorize relationships far too much (“you people and your quaint little categories”). Perhaps he finds them imposing, and he wishes for the freedom that he has in the fifty-first century, which is the era that he is from. He doesn’t say, but he really is a judgmental-free man when it comes to relationships. And he really isn’t someone who is in the place to judge others for their choice of relationships. He will use his ability to flirt with others to get answers that people may otherwise be unwilling to give, and is certainly not above using his appearance to get his way. He is completely uninhibited and is totally comfortable in his own skin. Some may go so far as to say he is a tease, as he is not to be taken seriously - except maybe in that rare, very rare moment - when he flirts. Jack is not a man who is interested in a committed relationship. He has stated many times that he dislikes words that would pair him up with someone, and make them exclusive. This isn’t entirely his cup of tea - or so he says.
He could be what some would call the Fearless Leader, not afraid to take the bull by the horns so to speak. He’s quick to throw himself (and his team) into danger in order to get the job done. He knows that what he and his team do isn’t exactly the easiest job, but he is far from lenient on the job. He also understands that there is sacrifice to his work and wants others to be able to understand it (at a point in canon he chastises Owen for opening a rift and risking the planet to bring himself and Tosh home from the past) is not always easy to make the right choice (he sacrificed his grandson to save many, many children). Jack will throw himself into dangerous situations, and part of that stems from his inability to die and knowing that he will be able to come back from it. The problem comes from him throwing those who can die into the same situations. He has been called on it before, and has been generally unwilling to change in this regard. I doubt he enjoys making tough choices and being the type of guy that people find hard to work for - but he knows that if he doesn’t do it right, there won’t be another person who will.
He does enjoy being a leader, and being in control of the situation. If Torchwood had a manual, Jack probably didn’t read it or threw it out. He likes to do things his own way, and wants others to listen to his way. He will get angry if something doesn’t work, and especially angry if he knows that a situation could have been avoided had someone just done what they knew was right. Jack is someone who yells when he’s extremely angry. It’s not very often that we see him that angry in the series, though. For Jack failure is not an option. Sure, everyone fails at some point in time, but he knows his failures could put the entire world at risk. This is not acceptable to him, and he will often get angry if he sees others struggling and doing something which might lead to failure in one of his goals (this is the easiest way to upset him to the point of anger).
Jack comes off as a confident man. He’s well put together, and well dressed. He’s not shy in his approaching others, nor is he remotely unsure in any step that he takes, or that is how it appears to others. This is a man who likely spends hours looking in a mirror. Jack knows he is attractive. In fact, if he were asked to describe himself, he would definitely focus on his appearance. In a way, though, Jack looks out of place. His style of dress has been called “classic” by others on the team. He’s not the type who would be bothered by this, nor would he consider it an insult.
Jack has a tendency to have a magnetic personality about him. People who do not know him well may call him a variety of things - mysterious, but approachable. He has a generally welcoming appearance, and he doesn’t even really try. People do enjoy being around him, and people are attracted to him. This is probably due to his confidence and strength that he has. Those fifty-first century pheromones probably don’t hurt either.
Beneath the flirt is a generally insecure and selfish man. Jack is out for himself, he’s learned through his lifetime that is commonplace, and has made it a point to not be constantly selfless in his relationships (or remotely selfless). Sure, he is considerably better about assisting people and playing hero than he was in his conman days; however Jack still lacks the ability to give someone all of himself. He prefers to keep people an arm’s length away, sometimes - the further the better. He acknowledges that he can not die, and he doesn’t want to watch others die. He is watching out for himself, and in some ways that is the best way to handle his particular situation (day to day upset isn’t really Jack).
Jack will sometimes use jokes as a defense mechanism. When people call him on something, he'll smile, wave it off, and make joke. Now, he isn't always uncomfortable when he's doing this, and he doesn't always do it when he is uncomfortable -- but it is certainly a very common thing of his. (IE: When someone calls him on something in canon, telling him that he should "stuff it" and how much he "cocked it up"...rather than noting that he's being called on, Jack, being so grown up, points out how it was said and says that it was "Quite homoerotic.")
Jack is incapable of completely trusting someone, and keeps to himself quite a lot. This isn’t an entirely selfish part of him, though, but his reasons for it may seem like it. I believe part of it is his shields he is putting up around himself, and knowing that it is difficult for others to completely understand. Part of Jack does not want to burden others with his worries, so he takes them upon himself to worry about them. Throughout Torchwood’s series, other characters learn about how he is incapable of remaining dead, but initially the only one who knows is Gwen, because she witnessed it. Sure, Jack won’t lie about it if he is asked, but he won’t make that a point of his life. Unfortunately with those “dangerous situations” it has become more and more obvious of what he is.
For all of his confidence and all of his pushing others away, Jack bears mass amounts of guilt. Everything from the belief that he lost his brother, and then Gray coming forward and openly blaming Jack for all that he had been through - all the way through the death of Ianto. Jack will always blame himself when someone on his team dies or suffers. It isn’t always best that he puts on his same-old face and physically appears to have no guilt about the entire situation. He may come off as indifferent, but we learn throughout the series that the guilt starts being pulled from him the closer he gets to his teammates (particularly Ianto). I believe that Jack has constantly carried the guilt, but his desire to not worry others kept him from displaying that he felt so horrible about anything that has happened.
Jack does not feel like he belongs. I would say that his biggest insecurity is feeling out of his time and out of place. Jack does not feel like he belongs among people, especially the twenty-first century people. He likely doesn’t even consider himself human in a lot of ways. Jack has expressed that he desires to no longer live on as he has. He wants to be normal, and be fixed (it was his reason for trying to find the Doctor for so many years of his life). He is sympathetic to a man who travels through a break in time from the past to his present, and understands and doesn’t stop the man from killing himself. Jack says that he is just like that man, someone who is “out of his time”.
Background:
Now, I don’t normally feel the need to add a warning, but I am summarizing a lot of his history due to some things not being completely clear about placement. His timeline is extremely jumbled thanks to time travel. To be honest, I believe Jack’s had trouble keeping some things completely accurate.
Jack was born in the fifty-first century with a name that has not been revealed. He stayed with his mother, father, and his younger brother Gray. It is never told how old he was when this happened, but when he was younger (appearance is probably early teens) his brother was taken and his father was killed by the “worst things in the universe”. It is never revealed what they are specifically, or why they did it. Even with how long Jack has lived, he still calls this day the worst in his life. I believe it has shaped a lot of what he is and what he ends up becoming. Jack says that he searched for Gray for quite a long time, all across the universe, and he still guilts about his brother being taken.
After an undetermined amount of time, Jack joins the Time Agency (the Time Agency’s full purpose is never revealed). When Jack joins the Time Agency, he gets his Vortex Manipulator (tiny time traveling machine, you could say) and a partner by the name of John Hart (or so that’s what he introduces himself as - real name remains unknown). At one point, while partnered with John Hart, he gets stuck in a two week time loop for a total of five years.
What he does while with the Time Agency is unclear, but Jack reveals when he is first introduced that they took periods of time from his memory, so he probably isn’t completely sure of everything that has happened. He learns this at some point in time before being introduced while having time traveled back in time to 1941.
While Jack is in 1941 he plans a con in order to get the time agency to give him back the memories they had taken from him. He sets up a craft to appear to be valuable, and was going to sell it in exchange for the memories that were taken from. This is also where he obtains the name “Captain Jack Harkness”, he has stolen it from a recently deceased American Soldier. It was convenient or him, after all. In 1941, Jack first encounters Rose by rescuing her from a blimp of sorts, and this is when he reveals to her that he is a Time Agent. After some flirting and fun with Rose, he meets the Doctor. Jack gets pulled into the events surrounding the Doctor regarding the nanogenes. Nanogenes are essentially parasites that take on a host and heal them, but they are also driven by the hosts motivations (in the case of this - a child who desired to find his mother). Saving the day for Jack is uncommon, and he says that he never did such a thing before meeting the Doctor. After these events, though, Jack becomes a companion of the Doctor, joining him on the next missions.
The biggest event for him happens following his choice to go with the Doctor and travel with him. After a brief stop in Cardiff to recharge, Jack follows everyone to the Game Station. There, Jack is on a reality television show, stripped of his clothing. He manages to get away from the entire thing (pulling a gun from an unknown place - and then converting another piece of equipment into a ray gun in a short amount of time). He meets up with the Doctor, and after discovering Rose’s location they meet up with her. On Satellite 5. Surrounded by Daleks. While they are fighting on Satellite 5 (which is really the main ship that the Daleks are on at this point in time), Jack gets shot and killed. When Rose takes in the Time Vortex and becomes the “Bad Wolf”, she brings Jack back to life. At this point - Jack is no longer able to stay dead and becomes a fixed point in time.
Jack gets left behind with the Doctor, and he leaves from the area, however, to his poor luck, he ends up in 1869 Cardiff with a now broken Vortex Manipulator. He is unable to leave. There are a lot of things that happen, but not a lot is revealed, just some key points after this, and perhaps an order in which they happened. Dates are listed because they are not known.
At some point after this, Jack learns that is can not remain dead. A fight on Ellis Island reveals this to him. After this (or maybe even before), he becomes a bit of an aggressive man, unafraid to pick fights with just about anyone he crosses. Jack becomes angry and bitter towards the Doctor for abandoning him on Satellite 5. He is discovered by Torchwood in 1899 when he is back in Cardiff. This was initially done as a method of investigating the Doctor, who was an enemy to Torchwood (as named such by Queen Victoria). He initially refused the offer, but promises of money and the thought that it would help him locate the Doctor persuades him. He works freelance and it isn’t until much more recently that he is considered a permanent member of Torchwood.
Jack has consistently been a military man. At one point during Torchwood he mentions that he had an encounter with Faeries in 1909 that led to all of his men dying as a result of stupid choices that were made earlier on. It is not explicitly stated, but based on his history, it is very likely Jack fought in World War I. Sometime, also, in the early 1900s (it was likely 1920s) Jack joined a traveling show. He was known as “The Man Who Couldn’t Die” while he is in this group. He states that he was running an investigation for a group, but doesn’t indicate which one to Ianto, which hints that it is probably not Torchwood. Jack, then, fights in World War II. At this point in time, Jack is in a relationship with Estelle Cole. She expresses that they were likely going to end up married prior to the war. When he goes off to fight in the war, he does not speak with her or keep in touch with her. Many years later he returns and reveals himself to be the man she used to know’s son. She accepts this at face value.
In 1965 Jack first encountered the 456, which are a group of aliens who use children as drugs, so to speak. He was the man who handed over the children to the 456 in an attempt to keep them from harming others. He had caved to their requests. Sometime after this (1975), Jack met Lucia Moretti, who was another agent in Torchwood. They had a daughter named Melissa Moretti, later she goes by Alice Sangster then Alice Carter. It does not state why, but it was likely due to Lucia’s job in Torchwood and Jack himself, they went under protective custody and separated themselves from the life that they once had.
There is several years in between this and the next important events in his life. At some point during these next nearly 25 years, Jack becomes an official member of Torchwood, and he has a team that he works on. The leader of this team is a man named Alex. Alex broke on December 31, 1999 and killed Jack’s other two teammates, and then killed himself. He left Jack with the thought that “in the twenty-first century everything changes”.
Jack rebuilds the fallen Torchwood, slowly but surely. In 2004 - he recruits Tosh, in 2006 - he recruits Owen. And it is after July 2007 (events at Canary Warf that Jack was not involved in) that Ianto is recruited after they go on a wild Pteranodon/Pterodactyl chase (this is where they catch the pet in Torchwood by the name of Myfanwy). It is assumed, but not stated, that Suzie is recruited around the same time as Tosh. And then we get to the recent events of Torchwood’s series.
Jack meets Gwen and recruits her after she witnesses him standing up when he gets shot in the head. He initially tries to keep her away from Torchwood, but he death of Suzie has left a position open, and he decides there is no other he would prefer to have on the job. Early on in the series, Jack witnesses the death of Estelle Cole, and it is learned that he had gone off to war and had a relationship with her. He denies that it is possible.
Later on, he meets a man by the name of John Ellis, who is from the year 1953. This is the first time Jack expresses his concern with being what he is, and what it’s like to be a man out of his time. He sits with John while the man kills himself. He had originally tried to stop the man, but he understands, and chooses not to fight him on it.
Jack and Tosh are investigating, and end up transported back to 1941 Cardiff, just before one of the several bombings that occurred in the city. At this point in time, Jack meets the real Captain Jack Harkness, and Tosh learns that it is not his real name. Quickly, Jack covers up and refers to himself as “James Harper”. Jack gets rather close to the man, and offers him advice, knowing that he will not live for much longer. Owen ends up opening the rift and bringing Jack and Tosh back to the present.
The open in the rift has created a chance or Abbadon to come through, but before that -all sorts of aliens from their past come through as well. Abbadon feeds on life, and Jack offers himself up and the creature takes life from Jack until it dies. At this point, the others believe that Jack may be permanently dead, knowing that he can come back to life at this point.
Jack returns, and then he hops off to Travel with the Doctor once more. While traveling with the Doctor, he ends up at the End of time. However, this has led to him dealing with the Master’s (another Timelord, such as the Doctor) pursuits. Things do not look great for everyone. Martha escapes, and Jack is left behind on the Ship. This is when it is the “Year that Never Was”. During this year, Jack was constantly tortured and repeatedly killed. After everything is resolved, Jack returns back home to Torchwood. Although, once everything is resolved, it sends them back a year - and it is as though that year did not happen for anyone who was not on the ship with the Master. So it is difficult to determine how long he was gone. Due to how well Torchwood reworked itself out, it was still several months.
Just as soon as he returns back to Torchwood, Jack encounters an old friend by the name of John Hart. John informs him that the Time Agency has been disbanded and there is very few of them left. Before John leaves, he reveals to Jack that he has found Gray - Jack’s brother whom he had spent so much time searching for. Adam briefly opens up some old wounds with Gray, but they are quickly forgotten with Retcon, which is a drug that Jack created to erase memories.
Martha joins up with Torchwood briefly, and Jack witnesses the death of Owen. Driven by upset, but what he claims is in order to obtain a code that he didn’t know, Jack brings Owen back to life.
Jack finally gets to see Gray again. But he wasn’t expecting his brother to blame him for everything - and Jack was not upset by this blame. During this time, Jack is pulled back to the year 27 A.D., where Gray and John bury him underground. John leaves a device with him that would allow Jack to be tracked when they are able to. However, Jack is discovered in 1901 by someone in Torchwood who points out that he should be doing his work. Jack requests to be cyro-chamber in the morgue of Torchwood so that he can be frozen in time and not interfere or encounter himself in the times that he was living through. Owen and Tosh both die, as well as Jack freezing Gray in a cyro-chamber.
The last events that happen are the events during Children of Earth, which I am pulling Jack from. During this, the 456 are demanding 10% of the world’s children. They reveal that they will not be fooled. Once he learns that children are the target, Jack attempts to reunite with his daughter, who he reveals that he has been sending money to. She notes that she does not want him to be a part of her life, or her son’s. Steven refers Jack as his uncle, rather than Grandfather. He notes that he wants to say who he is to Steven, but never gets the chance to. Jack was unwilling to hand over the children initially, but he has to fight the government for the right to stand up to them. When he does stand up to them, Ianto gets killed in the crossfire. I am pulling him from this point. After this he uses Steven to stop the 456, and it kills him (Steven, rather).
After the death of Steven and the defeat of the 456 Jack did some traveling and soul-searching so-to-speak. He ended up in a bar in Zaggit Zagoo the last we saw him, flirting with Alonso, and seeing the tenth face of the Doctor off.
Abilities/Additional Notes:
Jack's a skilled Alien Hunter, a Time Traveler (with a group known as the Time Agency), and a fixed point in time. Being a fixed point in time means that if he were to change, things would really be altered in the future by it. (For example, a fixed point in time would be Pompeii). Jack, as a result, can not die - or rather won't remain dead. Yes, can't die, and won't remain dead should be distinguished upon. He can, technically, die. He has died many times, but the problem is he always comes back good as new. There has not been any mention in canon if he were to lose a limb without dying and if it would regenerate, and it hasn't been tested. But part of the stipulation with “fixed point in time” is him not being capable of change, so my guess is it would (eventually) regenerate. He has regenerated from as little as his arm and his head after he was blown up in canon.
"Alien hunter" entails quite a lot. Jack is good with technology, able to work through systems in computers. He is capable of programming things, building things, and comprehending a lot of alien technology that leaves many people puzzled (note: once again -- he is from the 51st century and might find "modern" technology "out-of-date"). He is physically capable and has decent stamina as well in a chase. He can handle a gun quite nicely, and is quite skilled with it. He is not afraid to use it, either. Technology will be mostly irrelevant here.
He’s a Time Traveler which entails really only a few things. It is never stated what precisely the Time Agency did. We simply get that they work in partners and are able to time travel. With that comes Jack's Vortex Manipulator. Jack has traveled through time with it in canon; however, it is known to be broken most recently. So it isn't more than a glorified watch.
Sample Journal Post:
Sample RP: