Title: Tales Untold
Rating: G-PG
Spoilers (in this chapter): None
Characters (in this chapter): Gwen, Suzie
Archived: LJ and FFnet
Disclaimer: Torchwood, Doctor Who, and all related characters, scenes, plotlines, etc. don't belong to me but the rest of this story does. Don't steal.
Warnings: I like Gwen AND Ianto. If you're totally against either character then this isn't the story for you.
Summary: A ficlet collection of unconnected character introspections, alternate universes, potential futures, and other odds and ends. This chapter: the changes in Gwen's life outside of Torchwood and the real first encounter between Suzie and PC Cooper.
Prompt 1 – Tired– WC 120 – 6/08
These days, Gwen can never get enough sleep. It seems like as soon as her head touches the pillow, Jack is pulling her out of bed for some alien emergency or other. She knows it is a necessary evil, and one she signed up for when she chose to work for Torchwood, but she never seems to get used to it.
Worse, Rhys can not understand why she is being called away for so many emergencies.
Every time Jack stops by at 2am or sends her a text message during an intimate moment, a little more of Rhys' trust in their relationship dies.
And every single time, Gwen feels a little more of herself and her life die with it.
Prompt 2 – Here – WC 248 – 6/08
When Suzie first met Gwen, it was nothing special. The local constabulary constantly managed to stumble into situations out of their depth and most of its members had been retconned at least once. In this case, PC Cooper somehow managed to stumble across a Torchwood crime scene, a bad one, and Jack had no time to track her down. He was too busy dealing with eviscerated corpses and the creature that had caused them.
So he sent Suzie.
It turned out that Gwen had not run far; in fact, she hadn't made it half a block before her nausea from the crime scene had her losing the contents of her stomach in an alley.
Suzie felt a sort of contemptuous amusement at the innocence reflected in the woman's manner and did not even bother to be careful when she arrived. Somehow it just seemed ridiculous that Gwen might actually use the gun at her belt, even in fear. Instead, she approached as she would a scared animal, with quiet words and soothing sounds.
When Gwen allowed her to approach, Suzie offered a water bottle 'to help rinse the taste away'. Accepting the small kindness without a second thought, the constable took a liberal sip of the heavily retcon and sedative laced liquid.
Ten minutes later, she was out like a light, no questions asked of or by the Torchwood agent.
Suzie did not even learn her name until much, much later.
And by then she no longer cared.
Commentary: Prompt 1
This is the first drabble I wrote for the table and I'm still somewhat proud of it; not sure why, normally this tense is too passive for my tastes. But I like it and I think it illustrates how Gwen's non-Torchwood life was falling about during Season 1.
Commentary: Prompt 2
I know a lot of people hate Suzie because…well, because she's an insane murderer. But I'm of the belief that she was not always insane and that there was once a really good person beneath her broken shell. After all, it takes someone who cares to use the glove. There are several prompts dedicated to Suzie in this collection; first person and third person, pre and post death. They aren't overwhelming or anything; 4 or 5 out of 50; but I like her character. Also, this is not a Gwen-bashing attempt; to Suzie who has been around death and horror for so long, she would seem like an innocent.
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Author's Notes: This fic collection is sort of a pet project of mine. XP It started as a 50 prompt strong drabble collection but after the first five or so installments I realized it would be impossible to keep myself down to 100 words per prompt so it became a ficlet collection.
I've seen the first half of season 1 and random scattered episodes as they've become available; they inspired the first half of the ficlets. The second, larger, half of the project was inspired by The Stolen Earth and Journey's End. I can't wait for the Children of Earth installment to come out!
Oh, yeah…one thing I forgot to say that is very important: No Character Bashing Comments Will Be Tolerated. If you don't like a specific character then either keep it to yourself or, if it's actually relevant in some way (I can't imagine how it would be), make an intelligent comment about it. And I like both Gwen and Ianto so I'm not going to sympathize either way. In fact, most of these ficlets are centered on Gwen, Ianto, Jack, or a non-romantic combination of the characters
Seriousness over, my favorite character are Gwen and Ianto followed by Suzie, Tosh, and Myfanwy. My least favorite characters are Owen and John followed by Jack. However, Jack has been steadily moving up the scale as I get to know the character so he'll probably become a favorite pretty soon. My original impression was what I got from Everything Changes when Jack acted selfish and egoistic; when he had the gall to take control over Gwen's life by slipping her retcon, it really bugged me. But he's become personable since so…yeah. Owen has stayed low because…well, using his words, he's a twat. John is just John.
Further commentary in later chapters, if you care. XD
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Format of Future Chapters: There are 50 ficlets pre-prepared, centered on prompts taken from a specific song. Two are going to in each chapter and the chapters are going to be posted separately; if enough people are interested (say 5-10 reviewers per chapter) I'll try to post a chapter every day or every other day but if people aren't interested then I'll do it when it's convenient (every two or three days for 3-5 reviews and probably once a week, subject to change, for any less). Hmmm…Oh! There will be mechanics (like this section, with bold titles) at the top of each chapter and 2-3 sections of italicized commentary at the bottom (one for each prompt, one for author notes).
Contests: Okay, so this is just a random bid to fill up my prompt table because there were two boxes left after I found the fifty words I needed. Two chances are available to win and the contest winners get to suggest a prompt each as well as a few words saying what they'd like me to write about.
(1) is to guess the song whose lyrics I used to choose my prompts. It isn't too hard since the words are roughly in the order I found them in but I don't think it's a very popular song. Once somebody guesses it, I'll tell you all how and why I chose it. If you'd like to enter this contest, send me a message or a review with the title of song and who it's by.
(2) is to find references to a slightly obscure crossover series that I made in several different prompts. It shouldn't be too hard if you've seen the other series: if you haven't, but you're into the genre, then you've probably at least heard of it. It IS NOT Doctor Who OR the Sarah Jane Adventures. In my mind, since they're part of the same canon universe, shuffling characters between series doesn't count as a crossover. If you'd like to enter this contest, email me the name of the crossover series and the references you found.
If you win either contest then I'll post a note at the beginning of the next chapter listing your name and your answer. The prompt you choose will be kept hidden until chapter 26, when it will be used for prompt 51 or 52. If no one wins then I'll fill the chapter with whatever I've got in my ideas folder.
