Random Ramblings

Actually Participating. Record This For Posterity.

2009-08-27T22:03:43Z

Okay, okay, so my dearth of entries this year has prompted me to actually be game and participate in a meme for once, mostly because I think it would be kinda cool to see other people's if anyone wants to participate. I love wallpapers. HOWEVER, though I am pasting the meme as I found it, I'm not crazy about rule number 1. It's kinda bossy for my tastes. Feel free to ignore it. In fact, screw that. I've changed it.

1. Anyone who looks at this entry ~~has to~~ can feel free to post this meme and their current wallpaper at their LiveJournal OR NOT.
2. Explain in five sentences why you're using that wallpaper!
3. Don't change your wallpaper before doing this! The point is to see what you had on!

1. It's Doctor Who.
2. Did anyone expect differently?
3. It was pretty much going to be that or Torchwood.
4. And considering I just got myself a package of Doctor Who Companion action figures, DW won out this week (though Jack is there).
5. I was changing my wallpaper a couple days ago, as I often do, and this one just caught my attention.

The wallpaper was made by the talented deedeedee123 . Go to her journal and devour her work.

A Trip To Cardiff - aka Journey To The Centre Of The Whoniverse

2009-08-24T03:56:09Z

This is only my third journal entry of 2009. I'm not exactly prolific, am I?

My recent visit to Cardiff was very Whoniversey and I decided to put together a collection of particularly Doctor Who/Torchwood related pics. The photos are mine, the screencaps come from The Medusa Cascade.

All of the pictures will get somewhat bigger if you click on them, and the commentary contains spoilers for Torchwood: Children of Earth and may contain spoilers for any episodes of Doctor Who or Torchwood that come before that. Enjoy!

I arrived in Cardiff by train (our car had a minor disaster a couple days before we were supposed to leave for Cardiff, necessitating the train ride). If we had driven as planned, I probably wouldn't have visited the train station, though. The same one Mickey Smith arrived at in Boomtown: Cardiff Central.

We didn't go to the Bay until our second morning there, but on the first day, walking through the City Centre, I accidentally found the narrow street Ianto walks in CoE: Day Two after the Hub explodes. It was the only narrow street across from the castle's clock tower, which you can see behind Ianto in some of the shots. This one clearly shows the same buildings that Ianto is walking past:

And the aforementioned clock tower, shown in our photo and a shot from the opening of CoE: Day One.

The building that Jack is shown standing on in Torchwood's opening was near my hotel (Cardiff Centre Ibis - very nice for a budget hotel!):

Also in the City Centre - near the stadium, but visible from much of the centre - the 'Central Server Building' from Exit Wounds. I don't know if that's really what it is, but here you go:

And the British Gas Building (aka Jack asks Ianto out for a date in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang building):

I couldn't find a good shot of the outside, but what's meant to be their logo is shown quite clearly all over the place :)

Aaaannnnd then to the Bay! :D

We walked to the Bay, so the first view we had was similar to our first view of the Plass in Boomtown!

Also in Boomtown, Nine, Rose, Mickey and Jack eat at a restaurant on the Quay:

Back into Torchwood, Jack and co. often found themselves in front of the Millenium Centre, as it tends to dominate the Plass:

The Plass is also home to the INVISIBLE LIFT! :D

The upper level around the Plass leads to the bridge Jack and Ianto ran across in CoE to get to where Gwen was witnessing child weirdness in Day One of CoE:

Child weirdness was going on by the merry go round!

Right! Enough messing around! Let's head down to Mermaid Quay and the tourist office!

It was a little more crowded when we visited than when Gwen was heading to work.

I went to Mermaid Quay last October. Here is a comparison of my pics of the tourist office PRE-Children of Earth and POST-Children of Earth:

The Ianto Shrine from the front and from the top:

IANTOOOOOO :(

Okay.
So then we went for a walk by the Norwegian Church, where Roald Dahl was baptized and Tosh and Tommy frolicked in To The Last Man:

And then took a water taxi from Mermaid Quay, out to the barrage bridge and then to the castle. You might know the barrage bridge as where that kid disappeared in Adrift. If you can remember any of that episode apart from the hothouse scene ;)

And the houses where his mom is supposed to have lived:

We also went to the Doctor Who Exhibition at the Red Dragon Centre. Here are some of my favourite highlights:

Me & the TARDIS! It was locked. I don't have a key :(

Costumes!

MORE costumes!

CAPTAIN JAAAAAAAAAACK!

K9!

Harriet Jones, Former Prime Minister (I knew who she was).

Other squees included the Anne Droid, Daleks in ACTION and UNIT's cute little red caps :D

My whole trip was loads of fun, but the Cardiff experience was awesome! I would totally recommend it to any Whoniverse fan who finds themself in the UK!

New Story Info

2009-02-15T01:11:52Z

I thought I'd drop a line here on my journal about a story I'm cowriting with tainted_crimson . It's about Buffy taking a job at Torchwood after the events of Torchwood series 2.

The story so far can be found at our story-writing comm: sobuffymetjack . The first 8 chapters are up.

Kudos to Me.

2009-01-12T20:35:22Z

I don't usually post ANYTHING about myself on this journal, but I got major kudos at work today. And why? What earned me this uncommon outburst of appreciation? It's because my filing system is awesome and has superpowers.

And so, in celebration, I offer you Ianto Jones and Donna Noble: Bad-Ass Secretaries Saving The World.

(Not that I'm in their league. I can find specific payroll records from 2006 in 5 seconds flat, but I don't own a pteradactyl and the Ood don't sing my story.)

Some Janto Icons

2008-11-17T03:18:10Z

Preview:

It's, um, no secret that I totally 'ship Jack and Ianto. I've gathered the Janto icons from around my hard drive and decided to post them. Some have been in use by me, others have never seen the light of day. Feel free to use them! (with credit, of course).

1. 2. 3.
4.5. 6.
7. 8.9.
10. 11. 12.
13. 14. 15.

I know, I'm a little obsessed with their hands. It's so totally not my fault that they cast actors with really sexy hands!

The Mourning Doll - Part 4 (Complete)

2008-09-09T23:20:30Z

Title: The Mourning Doll - Final Part (4/4)
Author: magicom
Rating: Maybe PG for canon m/m relationship and some spookiness.
Disclaimer: I don't own Torchwood or any of its characters. No money being made.
Paring/Characters: Jack/Ianto with some Gwen, Owen and Tosh.
Spoilers: Mild spoilers for TW S 1&2 and DW S3 finale.
Summary: As a whole: Torchwood find an alien artifact that leads to some spooky goings-on. This part: Resolution.
Warnings: None to speak of.
Notes: Takes place sometime during the first half of series 2.

“Human,” Ianto repeated, as though he were trying out the word for the first time. He narrowed his eyes at Jack. “How can it be human?” he asked.

“I don’t know,” Jack said a little testily. He couldn’t have all the answers. He looked at Ianto suddenly. “Unless…” He glanced over to where the life energy seemed to be making lazy circles around the doll. “Look, we don’t know if it came through the Rift or if it came from a ship that crashed… but maybe it was empty when it was found.”

Ianto took up the line of reasoning. “If someone died near it…”

“It would absorb their life energy automatically. That’s what it was designed to do.”

“The old man?” Ianto suggested.

Jack shook his head. “Too recent.”

Ianto frowned. “What does that have to do with it?”

“It’s not damaged,” Jack explained. “They’re not designed to hold a life force forever, but they have to be durable enough to be in working order for someone’s entire lifespan, then hold the soul long enough to get it back to the Prane system inside a probe. Depending on which of the colonies it had to come from, that journey could last ten or even twenty years.”

“So you’re saying that the soul escaped because the technology just… wore out?”

“Exactly,” Jack confirmed.

“That means we’re looking for someone who died at least twenty years ago.” He stepped past Jack to Tosh’s computer and began a search of all the databases they had access to. He pulled up all the information he could find on the dead man whose house the box had come from. It seemed to Jack that he was looking for something specific. He turned to Jack triumphantly when he found it. “His wife died twenty-eight years ago,” he said, pointing at the screen. “She was only fifty years old. Cancer.”

Jack nodded thoughtfully. “It could be her,” he agreed.

“It is her,” Ianto said, thoroughly convinced. “What are we going to do?”

Jack shook his head. “We won’t have to do anything,” he told Ianto softly.

Ianto looked at him sharply. “What do you mean?”

“She’s dissipating,” Jack answered. He nodded towards the swirling energy. It was clearly less powerful than it had been when they were in the archives. “The only thing holding her together is residual electrical energy from the device. A sort of electrostatic current. That’s why she makes the hair on the back of your neck stand up when she’s close. She has a static charge. It’s running out. When it’s gone… she’ll be gone.”

Ianto looked over at the little energy vortex. “Can’t we help her?” he asked sadly.

“And then what?” Jack asked. “When the body gives out, people die. The life force dissipates. It’s natural. Even if we could find a way to preserve her life energy, it would be a prison. It would be cruel.” He put his hand on Ianto’s sleeve. “Sometimes helping someone means letting them go,” Jack told him gently, then immediately winced. He hadn’t meant to be talking about Lisa, but, when it came right down to it, it was impossible to broach the subject of death and immortality between them without directly referencing the fact that Jack could never die and Lisa had had to.

Ianto nodded slowly, then sat down on the metal steps that led up to the next level and watched the life energy swirl around the doll until it was gone. Jack considered getting him to do something besides stare at the poor woman’s prolonged death throes, but he knew there was no point. Ianto was sitting vigil and he wouldn’t be moved before it was over. He always took these sorts of things to heart. When she was gone, Jack watched him get up and walk down to where he’d dropped the box. He picked it up, retrieved his torch from where it had been knocked to the floor and walked towards the lower levels. Jack didn’t follow him – not yet.

+++++

Ianto Jones sat at his desk in the Torchwood archives looking at an old photograph in a small album. It was a photograph of the man whose life he’d been dissecting earlier that evening. He was wearing a suit and had his arm around the waist of a pretty woman in a white dress. They were outdoors and she was laughing. A metallic box sat near Ianto’s elbow, a small figure nestled inside, but he ignored it. He looked at the smiling faces in the photo album. He didn’t know why; he didn’t even know these people. It didn’t, however, seem fair to him that the woman in the white dress had passed away two years before he was born and he’d still had to watch her die.

He heard Jack coming the moment he walked into the archive; the floor was still covered in glass. It crunched under Jack’s boots, the sound echoing in the cavernous archives, all the way from the door to Ianto’s desk. He didn’t turn around and he soon felt the warmth of Jack’s hand on his shoulder. He looked up. Jack gave him an affectionate smile, then looked at the album that sat open on the desk. He picked it up and thumbed through it.

“Is this how you knew to look for the wife?”

Ianto nodded.

“This was on your desk when we were down here before,” Jack observed as he closed the album and looked at the cover. His face was carefully neutral. “You didn’t throw it away.”

“Didn’t seem right,” Ianto told him, his eyes flicking away from Jack’s steady gaze. “Not that it’s… the paper’s not archival quality,” he explained. “Those old albums never are. Acid and lignin.” He shrugged with a sort of forced indifference to counter the fact that that thought had crossed his mind not once, but twice. “It will eat the photographs, eventually,” he finished quietly. He took the album back from Jack and set it on his desk. “I thought someone might want it,” he added, almost as an afterthought. He hadn’t intended to admit that part. Jack would ask him who and he would have to answer that he didn’t know… but Jack didn’t ask him anything. He glanced over at the metallic box. “What about that?” Ianto asked, glad to change the subject to something more work-related. “Do I mark it dangerous?”

Jack shook his head. “Not anymore. It’s been used. It’s burned out. It’s just a decoration now.”

Ianto nodded and made a notation on the front of the plastic bag that lay beside it. He knew Jack was watching him write – he did it all the time. Ianto put his pen down and looked up. “I’ve got an extra monitor in storage for Tosh’s station,” he reported, “but it’s going to take some time to replace all the lights down here. We’re talking about hundreds of fluorescent tubes…”

“Nevermind,” Jack told him, cutting him off, and his tone left little room for argument. “It can wait. It’s four in the morning. Come to bed.”

Jack had extended his hand and Ianto looked at it for a moment before taking it and allowing Jack to pull him to his feet. They walked hand in hand over the broken glass and Ianto vaguely thought that there must be a metaphor in there somewhere, but he was too tired to look for it.

Everything ended in death at Torchwood, even ghosts. Everything except Jack. Ianto lay with his head on Jack’s chest and let the steady sound of Jack’s heartbeat lull him to sleep.

+++++

The End. Would love to know what you think!

In case you missed them and want to catch up:

"Part One"
"Part Two"
"Part Three"

The Mourning Doll - Part 3

2008-09-09T02:33:24Z

Title: The Mourning Doll - Part 3
Author: magicom
Rating: Maybe PG for canon m/m relationship and some spookiness.
Disclaimer: I don't own Torchwood or any of its characters. No money being made.
Paring/Characters: Jack/Ianto with some Gwen, Owen and Tosh.
Spoilers: Mild spoilers for TW S 1&2 and DW S3 finale.
Summary: As a whole: Torchwood find an alien artifact that leads to some spooky goings-on. This part: Jack knows what it is. Kinda.
Warnings: None to speak of.
Notes: Takes place sometime during the first half of series 2.

Ianto relaxed visibly when they emerged from the lower levels into the main area of the Hub. He walked ahead and threw his jacket over the back of a chair, then got the scanners at Tosh’s workstation set up for Jack. Once Jack set the box down and began working, Ianto stepped aside.

Jack knew that Ianto was standing close to him - he could see the rolled up cuff of a bright blue shirt sleeve against pin-striped waistcoat out of his peripheral vision as he examined the box – but the younger man’s presence was completely unobtrusive. It had unnerved Jack at first, when Ianto had begun working for him, how he could be in the room and, sometimes, it was almost like he wasn’t there at all… until a cup of coffee appeared on the corner of his desk. A perfect cup of coffee with a biscuit arranged precisely on the edge of the saucer. In time, he’d come to find Ianto’s calm, quiet presence a comfort; close and ready to work if he was needed, but never in the way. He knew what that presence felt like now, and he always noticed when it was there. Sometimes he admitted that he missed it when it wasn’t.

Jack aligned the equipment and set the computer to run a scan of the small figure nestled inside the box. He was looking for a specific energy signature and was already reasonably sure he wouldn’t find it. Not here. Not anymore. He stole a glance at Ianto, who was passively watching the computer’s progress as it took readings from the artifact. In fact, he thought the screen had Ianto’s full attention, until he spoke.

“Do you think it’s stuck down there?” he asked, his eyes still watching the progress bar make its slow and steady way across the screen. “It didn’t follow us up here?”

Jack shrugged. “Hard to say.” He glanced around. “No sign of it so far.”

They stood without speaking for a moment. Again it was Ianto that broke the silence.

“What is it, Jack?” He turned his eyes to Jack now, gazing at him expectantly.

Jack looked at him, but didn’t answer.

“You know, don’t you?”

Jack looked away from him, his eyes coming to rest on the box. “It’s called a Nashoo Dote,” Jack explained quietly. “I suppose the best translation would be ‘soul vessel’.”

Ianto’s brow furrowed in consternation. “Soul vessel? As in…” His voice trailed off as Jack nodded.

“There’s an ancient civilization on a planet called Prane that lies several galaxies away from here. Its people are very technologically advanced, but, somehow, managed to hold on to their superstitions. We’re talking superstitions that have remained virtually unchanged for millennia. That… that just doesn’t happen. Some technologically advanced races maintain their religions, but the religions evolve over time.” He shrugged. As much as he would normally find this kind of thing interesting, Ianto wasn’t looking for a lecture in intergalactic religious studies and seemed a little impatient. Jack skipped to the point. “Anyway, Prane orbits twin suns: a yellow dwarf and a white dwarf. Since beyond the beginning of their recorded history, they’ve always believed the white star was the seat of their gods’ power and the yellow star was… well, I guess it’s like their Heaven. It’s a paradise for the souls of the dead. It’s where they want to go when they die.”

“Okay,” Ianto said, nodding his understanding. “God lives on the white sun and dead people live on the yellow sun. Got it. What does it have to with that?” he asked, nodding towards the box.

Jack took a breath. “Like I said, they became extremely technologically advanced. They spread out across the galaxy. Across many galaxies, eventually, as they developed more efficient means of space travel… but those stars were still the centre of their belief system and they still wanted their souls to go to the yellow star when they died.”

Ianto looked slightly ill. “I don’t think I like where this is going.”

Jack nodded. “They developed technology to store a person’s life energy at the moment of death, and if they traveled or lived away from their home planet, they kept one close to them at all times, just in case.” He looked at the small figure in the box. It was vaguely humanoid. Jack recognized it as Prane. To Ianto, it probably just looked like some kind of stylized human. “It’s a tiny chip, essentially. They could put it in anything, if they wanted to… but they made these dolls… I don’t know how it started, but it became the tradition.”

Ianto stepped forward and took his first studied look at the doll over Jack’s shoulder. “Like Victorian mourning dolls,” he noted.

Jack looked at him in surprise. Jack had lived in Victorian times and the concept hadn’t entered his mind in a hundred years. “How do you know about those?” he asked.

“Saw one in a museum once,” Ianto replied mildly. He looked at Jack. “Except those ones didn’t have people’s actual souls in them,” he added. He frowned. “At least not according to the display.”

Jack chuckled. “No, they wouldn’t have.” He nodded towards the box. “These ones had a very specific purpose,” he explained. “When someone died, their doll was sent back to Prane.” He paused. “Well, not to the planet. They programmed a probe to fly the whole thing right into the sun.”

“So the thing in the archives is a ghost,” Ianto concluded.

“It’s a disembodied life force,” Jack corrected.

“Which is a ghost,” Ianto maintained. “By definition. An angry alien poltergeist, in this case, judging by how it got on in the archives.”

Jack was about to say something when a cold wind blew into the room from the stairs that led to the lower levels. It swooped through the room, blowing papers everywhere.

Ianto rolled his eyes. “It’s here,” he said flatly.

“It’s fine,” Jack told him. “It doesn’t mean us any harm.”

Just then, Tosh’s monitor exploded and Ianto jumped back, looking at Jack anxiously.

“Not intentionally,” Jack corrected himself. He caught the slightly disbelieving look in Ianto’s eye. “It’s scared, it’s lost and it doesn’t know what’s happening to it. It wasn’t supposed to wake up.” Jack looked around, then turned to Ianto. “Take Owen’s monitor and hook it up here,” he said, pushing Tosh’s broken monitor off her desk and onto the floor with a crash.

“What for?” Ianto asked. When Ianto questioned Jack’s orders, it was generally out of curiosity and while he was already doing what he was told. He had quickly gotten Owen’s monitor unhooked and was setting it on Tosh’s desk.

“I want to see if we can get it to run through the scanner,” Jack told him. Ianto looked dubious, but Jack pressed on, lining up the scanner to face along the length of the room. “We can’t talk to it. We need to find out everything we can about it.” He looked up as items flew off a nearby table. “It seems to be drawn to the doll. If we can get it to swoop around this way,” he said, drawing a path through the air with his hand, “then it will pass right along here and I can get a reading.” He watched the trail of displaced paperwork and pizza boxes until it was behind them. He handed the box to Ianto. “Run over there,” he said firmly, pointing to the other side of the room. Ianto gave him a look that promised future retribution, but did as he was told. There was a mournful howl as the life force swirled around and followed him, twisting straight through Jack’s scanner, as he’d predicted. Ianto kept checking over his shoulder. When Jack gave him the thumbs up, Ianto dropped the box and backed away from it. Jack returned his attention to the readings that were coming up on the screen.

“Oh my God,” Jack whispered, furiously checking the findings again.

He felt Ianto approach him and knew he was looking over his shoulder, but wouldn’t understand what he was looking at. “What is it?” he asked.

“It’s not Prane,” Jack said gravely, turning to look at Ianto.

“What?” Ianto asked. There was consternation on his face. Jack’s somber expression must have made him uneasy. “What is it?”

“It’s human.”

+++++

Would love to know what you think!

"Part Four - Final Part"

The Mourning Doll - Part 2

2008-09-08T16:29:59Z

Title: The Mourning Doll - Part 2
Author: magicom
Rating: Maybe PG for canon m/m relationship and some spookiness.
Disclaimer: I don't own Torchwood or any of its characters. No money being made.
Paring/Characters: Jack/Ianto with some Gwen, Owen and Tosh.
Spoilers: Mild spoilers for TW S 1&2 and DW S3 finale.
Summary: As a whole: Torchwood find an alien artifact that leads to some spooky goings-on. This part: Jack goes to the archives to find Ianto and see what's going on down there.
Warnings: None to speak of.
Notes: Takes place sometime during the first half of series 2.

Jack burst into the archives, his hand at his belt, ready to pull his gun from its holster. The first thing he noticed was that it was dark. The archives were always dimly lit by rows of fluorescent lights on the ceiling. Why had Ianto turned them off? He took a few cautious steps and realized that Ianto hadn't. He heard broken glass crunching beneath his feet. The fluorescent tubes had exploded. All of them. Jack could see light ahead, just around the end of some shelving. That was where Ianto's desk sat. The light must have been coming from the table lamp he had there. Jack started towards it, the crunch of the glass under his feet seeming inordinately loud in the still, dark archives. Suddenly something brushed past his arm. It moved quickly and his bare skin felt cold in its wake. Jack turned quickly in the direction he felt it go, squinting into the darkness, but he couldn't see or hear anything. He turned back towards the light. "Ianto?" he called nervously as he resumed his cautious stride. There was no answer, and Jack quickened his pace slightly.

He was nearing the small puddle of light that surrounded Ianto's desk, when something off to the side, down one of the aisles of shelving, caught his eye. A bobbing light moved through the gloom, far across the cavernous space. He turned down the aisle and headed towards it, drawing his gun as he walked. The light dodged from aisle to aisle whenever it came to a break in the shelving and Jack couldn't tell where it was trying to go. Its movement was erratic. He followed it best he could, almost losing it a couple of times, then finally caught up to it in the middle of the G's. He drew a breath before rounding a shelving unit to face it, his gun held firmly at chest level. He found himself facing the barrel of a handgun, and squinted against the light at its owner, who was already lowering it shakily. Ianto. Of course he'd had a torch in his desk drawer. If the Hub had ever gone into lockdown while he was in here, he'd need one to find the door. Ianto also lowered the torch a little, so it wasn't shining in Jack's eyes, and torchlight reflected off the shards of frosted glass that covered the floor.

“Thank God,” Ianto murmured.

“What in the hell is going on?” Jack demanded. Frankly, he was feeling more than a little unnerved. “What happened to the lights?”

Ianto glanced up at the ceiling, then back at Jack. “They exploded,” he said simply. “Row by row by row. It… I think…” He paused for a moment, trying to gather his thoughts. Jack reached out and put a hand on his shoulder. He was shaking slightly.

“Are you okay?” Jack asked firmly.

Ianto nodded.

“Is there someone down here?” Ianto just looked at him. “Or something?” Jack prompted.

“I think so,” Ianto told him quietly. “Maybe. I don’t know. There was something…” He looked around. “It kept… moving. I was trying to follow it, but…” He looked at Jack suddenly. “I think I should show you what I found.” He didn’t wait for Jack to agree, but pushed past him to lead him back through the musty aisles to his desk. They’d almost reached the relatively inviting pool of light, when that cold breeze washed past them again, making the hair on the back of Jack’s neck stand up.

“That’s it!” Ianto cried, turning as it passed them, shining the torch into the darkness after it. “You can never see it,” Ianto told him. “It’s always gone.” He looked at Jack. “I don’t know how many there are.”

Jack glanced around uneasily for a moment, then looked at Ianto. “Show me this thing you found.”

Ianto led him to the desk and flicked off the torch, setting it down next to the lamp that lit his work space. Jack could already see the metallic box. Its top was open and a small figure lay inside. Ianto grabbed Jack’s hand before he could touch it.

“It was solid, when I found it,” he told Jack. “There was no opening and no obvious way to make it open.”

“So how did you open it?” Jack asked, raising an eyebrow.

“I didn’t,” Ianto replied.

Jack gave him a hard look. “What do you mean, you didn’t?”

“I put it to the side. I wanted to finish the rest of this before I catalogued it,” he said, waving towards the boxes and bin bags, all of which had now been toppled over and their contents partially spilled onto the floor. “I was just… working. I was sitting there working,” he explained, nodding towards his chair. “I felt something strange, like a cold wind was touching the back of my neck… like a breeze had fingers and was touching me.” He shook his head. “It’s hard to explain.”

Jack nodded for him to go on.

“I turned around and the box was open. It just didn’t have a top anymore, like it had melted away.” He tore his gaze from the box and turned it to Jack. “That’s when I called you.”

“And that’s when the lights started exploding,” Jack assumed. Ianto confirmed his suspicion with a nod.

“Did you touch it?” Jack asked.

“The box?”

“Yes.”

“No. Not after it opened. No.”

“Good,” Jack told him. What he didn’t tell him, not yet, was that he recognized the contents of the box. He’d seen one once before, a long time ago for him, but many years in Ianto’s future and far from the Earth. “Good precaution,” he repeated, giving Ianto’s arm a squeeze before carefully reaching out and picking up the box.

“Jack, are you sure you know what you’re doing?” Ianto asked uneasily.

“I think so,” Jack said, flashing him the reassuring grin that Ianto didn’t seem to find reassuring in the least.

“You think so,” Ianto muttered. “Well, that’s… good.” He was just reaching out to pick up the torch when that cold shadowy wind returned, swirling around them like a vortex.

Was it Jack’s imagination, or did it seem kind of angry this time? “We’re not here to hurt you!” he called out. “We want to help you!”

There was a howling sound as it whirled away from them, blowing right through a shelf of archived artifacts, sending boxes of them skittering across the floor in all directions. Jack felt Ianto flinch beside him, but most likely because his time-consuming organizational work was being destroyed and he knew he was going to have to clean it up at some point.

“I don’t think it believes you,” Ianto said wryly.

Jack smiled at him. “Maybe it just doesn’t understand me.” He looked around, but everything had gone silent. There was no sign of movement anywhere. “Let’s get upstairs. I want to run some tests on this thing.”

“Do you know what it is?” Ianto asked, picking up his jacket and the torch.

“Maybe,” Jack answered. “I think maybe I do.”

+++++

Would be pleased to know what you think! "Part Three"

The Mourning Doll - Part 1

2008-09-08T02:33:27Z

This story was inspired by pike2 's spooky story challenge, found here. I know it will pale in comparison to her brilliant Angelystor, but I really liked the idea, so I decided to run with it. Here is the result:

Title: The Mourning Doll - Part 1
Author: magicom

Rating: Maybe PG for canon m/m relationship and some spookiness.

Disclaimer: I don't own Torchwood or any of its characters. No money being made.
Paring/Characters: Jack/Ianto with some Gwen, Owen and Tosh.
Spoilers: Mild spoilers for TW S 1&2 and DW S3 finale.
Summary: As a whole: Torchwood find an alien artifact that leads to some spooky goings-on. This part: As usual, Ianto gets the boring, time-consuming job... which leads to danger??
Warnings: None to speak of.

Notes: Takes place sometime during the first half of series 2.

It was a dark and stormy night. Rain fell in horizontal sheets, sending rivers streaming through the cobbled streets. A lone figure in a black trench coat, his collar pulled up and his hat pulled low against the rain, strode purposefully past...

Ianto Jones snapped the worn paperback closed and threw it back on top of the pile of items in the cardboard box where he'd found it. Rubbish. Like most of this lot. Jack had a few contacts at local auction houses keeping an eye out for 'suspicious items', so Torchwood could squirrel them away before they ended up in the wrong hands. People would be surprised how much alien junk was lurking in attics, ignored and forgotten; things that had been picked up unknowingly or by accident... some of it potentially dangerous. One of Jack's contacts said something in this old man's house had caught his eye as his possessions were tossed into boxes. The old man had no living relatives and no will. Anything that was worth something was being sold at auction by the bank. Any 'suspicious items' discovered by Jack's contact were snuck into the boxes headed for the bin and handed over to Jack for a small roll of twenty pound notes, instead of left at the kerb. They were now in the possession of Ianto Jones, Torchwood archivist, who, apparently, had to sift through people's refuse for items to archive, because he obviously didn't have enough to do around there. He looked down at the three boxes full of haphazardly deposited items and sighed. This was a man's final legacy: three boxes of random things that weren't worth anything to anyone... and also, buried somewhere amongst it, the possibility of alien technology that he probably didn't even realize he had.

Ianto looked at his watch and noticed it was after 6 in the evening. He had to see if the rest of the team would be working late - if they were, he'd order them in some supper. He lined up the boxes beside his desk in a tidy row to be dissected later and stood, heading up to the main part of the Hub. That morning, he'd arrived at work as the sun rose, and already the heat of the day had been almost unbearable. He had no idea what temperature it had reached by the afternoon, but he entertained a mental image of the bay boiling. He smiled ever so slightly to himself as he emerged into Torchwood Three's main work area, where his colleagues had been performing their various duties. While the Hub, underground, was certainly much cooler than it was up on the surface, it was still uncommonly warm and stuffy. It hit him like a wall of heat after being in the still, cool air of the archives. He glanced around. Gwen and Owen were gone, their work stations abandoned. The Hub was never quieter than it was when both Gwen and Owen weren't in it. The two of them animated the place in their own vastly disparate ways. Equipment hummed softly in the background as he walked through the expansive room. Tosh was at her computer, her eyes focused on the screen. She'd arrived at work that morning in a fitted short-sleeved jacket over a tank top, but the jacket now hung over the back of her chair and her hair was pulled back into the kind of ponytail that suggested she'd simply gotten tired of it sticking to the back of her neck. She didn't look up, so he didn't disturb her. He passed her workstation quietly, noticing that Jack was in his office, sitting at his desk.

Ianto tended to move quietly and had a knack for sneaking up on people, but Captain Jack Harkness always knew when he entered the room without looking up.

"I sent the others home," Jack told him, barely taking his eyes off the stack of papers on his desk. He smiled. "Tosh wanted to finish up a few things, though." He put his pencil down and looked at Ianto, finally. "Did you find anything in those boxes?"

Ianto shrugged. "Barely had a chance to look at them yet. I had to finish logging the salvage from that wreckage we recovered yesterday."

Jack nodded and picked up his pencil, returning his eyes to his work, but something changed subtly in his posture and, when he spoke, in his tone. It was a change Ianto recognized in Jack: he'd just shifted from business to pleasure.

Jack made a note on one of the documents in front of him, keeping up the pretense of doing proper work. "What are you doing tonight?" he asked casually, his eyes still firmly focused on his paperwork.

Ianto shrugged, perching on the far edge of Jack's desk. "Probably work," he answered, matching Jack's tone.

"You work a lot," Jack noted, circling something on the page. Ianto was perfectly capable of reading upside down, and didn't see any reason for doing that, but Jack was trying to look busy and had probably stopped actually reading the page several minutes ago.

"I have a very demanding employer," Ianto replied mildly.

Jack raised an eyebrow and looked up at him with a smirk. "Really? Demanding how?"

Ianto pretended to give this serious thought for a moment before answering. "Much like a small child, really. Moody, irrational, completely self-involved..."

Jack pushed himself to his feet, his smirk widening into a wolfish grin.

"Prone to temper tantrums," Ianto added once Jack had made his way around the desk to stand in front of Ianto. Between his knees, to be exact, Ianto noted, as Jack rested his hands fairly firmly on Ianto's thighs and pinned him, for all intents and purposes, to his position on the edge of the desk.

"How can you stand working for someone like that?" Jack practically purred.

"He has a nice bottom," Ianto answered matter-of-factly.

Jack nodded sagely, his face only inches from Ianto's as he looked down at him. "That's very important," he stated.

"In some situations, it's actually quite distracting," Ianto argued distractedly, his eyes tracing Jack's lips as they moved slightly closer to him.

"Someone as focused as you can use a good distraction now and then," Jack told him before closing the small gap between them. The fact that Jack certainly provided one flitted through Ianto's mind as he opened up to the kiss and gave up on coherent thought, sliding his hand along Jack's waist.

The moment was soon interrupted by a knock on the office door. Tosh must have noticed that Ianto had come in here, as engrossed in her work as she'd seemed. The fact that she knocked told Ianto that she had done some pretty accurate guess-work in regards to what they were up to... or had seen them through the window. He slid off the desk as Jack stepped back, straightening his tie as he moved a couple of steps away from the captain. Jack gave him a quick amused smile before turning towards the door and calling for Tosh to come in.

"Sorry to interrupt. I'm heading home," Tosh said a little awkwardly, as she poked her head around the doorway. She definitely saw them through the window; she was blushing. "Just wanted to say good night," she told them.

"Night," Jack said warmly. Ianto just gave her a nod and a little wave.

As Tosh ducked out, Jack turned back towards Ianto, who was already heading for the door. "I'm going to get started on those boxes," Ianto told him as he passed him. It occurred to him that he'd only come up here to see if the team needed fed. He'd probably be halfway through the first box by now, if it weren't for Harkness and his distractions. His completely and wonderfully distracting distractions. "They're not going to archive themselves," he declared, flinching a bit on the inside that something so naff had come out of his mouth. He blamed the Harkness Distraction Factor for that too. Jack nodded and Ianto started to walk away, then turned back to face Jack for a moment before suddenly taking two quick steps forward and placing a tender kiss on Jack's lips. "See you in a bit," he added, before turning away again.

"I certainly hope so," Jack told his retreating back, a light lascivious note in his voice. Ianto smiled broadly to himself as he walked down to the archive.

++++++

Ianto finally found something that might be worth the trouble of looking, towards the bottom of the second box. Before he'd even finished uncovering it, he could see there was something iridescent peeking out between the rubbish on top of it. Something with a smooth surface that seemed to swirl with changing colours to the point that it almost glowed.

He'd taken off his jacket and rolled up his sleeves before he'd finished pulling each item, in turn, out of the first box. There was a large black bin bag beside his chair, where he disposed of the things he'd determined were just run-of-the-mill Earth junk. This was the second bag, and it was almost full. He picked up a broken lamp, carefully examining it, as he had every item so far, and placed it into the bin bag, just like everything before it. The difference, now, was that he was anxious to get to the thing that sat, dimly glowing, just below a few pieces of old rubbish. He supposed someone else might just reach down there and pull it out, but he was too systematic for that. He took a lot of pride in his work. This had to be done properly. He reached into the box and lifted out a couple of old paperbacks: more cheap mystery novels - this fellow was addicted. He flipped through them briefly to make sure they were what they appeared to be and that nothing was tucked between the pages, then dropped them inside the bin bag. A small faux-leather album was the last thing between Ianto's eager hands and what he could now see was a metallic box of some sort. He picked up the album and opened it. Photographs. Some were in black and white, some in colour; all of them were old. He carefully turned the pages. A very young man in an air force uniform circa World War Two briefly reminded him of Jack, even though he looked nothing like Torchwood's leader. He was standing next to a man in a navy uniform that must have been his brother, they looked so alike. Ianto noticed that the album itself was old, as well. The materials weren't archival quality. In time, it would damage the photographs. He turned another worn page. He saw the same man that had worn the air force uniform, but now he was a little older. He was wearing a suit and had his arm around the waist of a pretty woman in a white dress. They were outdoors and she was laughing. Ianto closed the album and glanced at the bin bag. No. It was too personal. He'd been told that this man had no living relatives, but how hard had anyone really looked? Someone might want these. He set the album on his desk and returned his attention to his work.

Ianto looked down at the metallic box that had clearly been tossed into the carton as thoughtlessly as everything else that was in it. He reached down and lifted it out carefully, turning it over in his hands, slowly, to examine it. It was about the size of four DVD cases stacked on top of each other and its surface was flawless. There were no seams. If it was hollow, if it was designed to store something, he couldn't see how to open it. He noticed, as well, that it didn't actually glow. It only seemed to do so because it reflected light extremely well. Also, for something that appeared to be made of metal, it was surprisingly light. For all his time working in Torchwood's archives, both in Cardiff and in London, he'd never seen anything quite like this. He found a clear space on his desk and set it down, then turned back to the cardboard boxes on the floor. He'd finish going through them, see if there was anything else of interest to Torchwood and dispose of the rubbish before he set himself to meticulously cataloguing the artifact. He looked at his watch. It was nine o'clock already. It was going to be a late night, even without Jack's after-work distractions.

++++++

Jack stood up from his desk and stretched, looking at his watch. It was after ten o'clock and Ianto had yet to emerge from the archives. Jack often considered telling the young administrator that he worked too much - and he did, he really did; he'd arrived at seven that morning - but Jack always bit his tongue, because he knew why Ianto did it. Ianto immersed himself in exactly two things: Torchwood and Jack, and he did it because those were the two things in the world that mattered most to him. It was relatively quiet and Jack had sent everyone home hours ago. Ianto was well aware that he could go anytime he wanted. He chose to sit in the archives and sort through some boxes that he knew weren't going anywhere. Later, when he finished, he'd come upstairs and look for Jack. Jack had pretended, for quite sometime and even to himself, that what they had was a casual arrangement, but spending a year as The Master's prisoner had given him ample time to think about a lot of things and he'd had to admit that the pretense was exactly that. He'd tried to keep himself isolated from the people around him, at least emotionally, while he had waited for The Doctor. He'd known he was only biding his time in Cardiff. Now that he'd found his answers and made this motley little team in Cardiff his choice, he allowed himself to indulge in feeling things for people and he let himself admit, at least in the privacy of his own mind, that he needed these people that he worked with and he needed... whatever it was he had with Ianto, even if it existed mostly in stolen moments, exchanged glances and late-night liaisons in dark corners of the Hub. He looked at his watch again and toyed with the idea of going down to the archives himself, instead of waiting for Ianto to come up, but decided against it. Ianto liked Jack's overtures, but hated being interrupted when he was trying to work. Jack was smiling fondly at the thought of that look of deep concentration Ianto got on his face when he was fastidiously performing even the most mundane of his duties, when his comm crackled to life.

"Jack?" Ianto's voice in his ear, sounding disconcerted, even... frightened?

Jack was already moving through the Hub when he answered, his finger to his ear to activate the comm device. "Ianto? What's wrong?" he asked, all lightness gone from his tone.

There was a pause - a long enough pause that Jack almost spoke again to try and get his attention - before Ianto replied. "There's something..." Jack heard a movement and the sound of shattering glass before Ianto cut the signal. He had to restrain himself from breaking into an all-out run.

"Ianto?" he called, concern colouring his voice.

Ianto's voice didn't sound much more strained than it had the last time he'd spoken. That had to bode well, at least. "I-I'm fine," he said. "Can you come down here?"

"I'm already on my way," Jack assured him as he descended the stairs two at a time.

+++++

Would love to know what you think!

"Part 2"

John Barrowman (Yes, Again)

2008-08-10T19:28:19Z

I got myself the Torchwood soundtrack yesterday afternoon and have been listening to it pretty much nonstop whenever I'm on my computer since then. Hence more Barrowman-y goodness. Obviously. *Ahem*.

Clicky click click for bigness.

Feel free to snag for your desktop and to comment, of course ;)

Fic: Questions (1/1)

2008-08-06T04:35:45Z

Title: Questions
Author: magicom
Rating: G, I would say. Maybe PG for implied or potential smuttiness?
Disclaimer: I don't own Torchwood or any of its characters. No money being made.
Paring/Characters: Jack/Ianto with Martha and Gwen.
Spoilers: Mild spoilers for TW Reset and DW Journey's End.
Summary: To paraphrase Our Lady Peace: Word games are just sex without the mess.
Warnings: It's kinda fluffy. Is that something that requires some degree of warning?
Notes: I realize that Martha even being in the Hub after Journey's End may likely be Jossed by the time Series 3 airs, but I like her perspective on our boys and their games.

Questions

Ianto stepped into the main area of the Hub, returning from the archives. Martha looked up as he entered; observed him noticing as Jack chatted with Gwen at her station, with his feet up on the table, like he didn't have a care in the world.

"Jack," he said, tapping his watch as Jack looked up. "You have that conference call with the Prime Minister and the new head of UNIT in ten minutes."

Jack sighed dramatically, getting out of his chair and reminding Martha of a particularly petulant child as he stomped his boots onto the floor. "Can't you just tell them I have some kind of alien-related emergency and I'll talk to them next week?" he suggested, turning on The Charm the way most people turn on a light switch.

"No, Jack. You have to take this. I've set it up for you in the board room." He handed Jack a file folder. "Good communication makes good neighbours."

"Isn't it good fences that make good neighbours?" Jack responded. "Because I have fabulous fences," he declared with a mischievously raised eyebrow. Martha didn't even know what that meant, but somehow he still managed to raise the temperature in the room by a couple of degrees with the statement. Well, for everyone but Ianto, it would seem. Ever since Jack had offhandedly asked her for the UNIT cap and Ianto admitted to her that they "dabbled", she'd found the dymanics of their relationship sort of fascinating.

"Mmm," the archivist replied, non-plussed. "I've seen them."

Jack appeared to accept that he had to go through with the conference call at that point and changed his tactic. "New head of UNIT," Jack muttered, opening the folder. "I hate alien invasions. They always kill someone important, and then I have to break in a new one." He looked up from the file coyly. "Go out with me afterwards?" he said in his most inviting tone... which was pretty damn inviting. It didn't, however, budge Ianto's inscrutable expression.

"I'll see if I'm free," he intoned mildly.

Jack advanced on him a step and his expression became both smoldering and slightly predatory. "Why wouldn't you be free?" he asked suspiciously.

Ianto's expression didn't waiver, but something about his demeanour changed ever so slightly. Martha got the impression that somehow a game had begun. "Are you trying to suggest something about my social life?" he asked.

Jack raised an eyebrow. "Should I be worried?"

"Why, are you jealous?" Ianto deadpanned.

"Is there someone I should be jealous of?" Jack retorted quickly.

Something occurred to Martha. She turned to Gwen. "Oh my God, they're playing Questions," she whispered incredulously.

"What if there were?" Ianto demanded.

"Do you think I would take that lying down?" Jack challenged.

"What do you mean?" Gwen whispered back.

"Have you seen Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead?" Martha asked her. Gwen gave her an odd look. That would be a 'no', then.

"Have you ever taken anything lying down?" Ianto replied, his tone full of innuendo. In fact, with every question they seemed more and more like they were about to devour each other. Jack had opened his mouth to say something further, then glanced at his watch. Martha wondered if it was being late for the conference call that he was worried about, or if he was calculating how long it would be before he could reasonably send them home.

"Can you please remind me to continue this conversation a bit later, when we have more time?" he asked his administrator politely, before turning to head towards the conference room.

"It's a game the main characters play," Martha explained quickly and softly to Gwen. "You win when you manage to trick the other person into answering your question with a statement, a non-sequitor, a repetition of an earlier question or a rhetorical question."

"Can't you remember on your own?" Ianto said to Jack's retreating back.

Jack grinned as he turned around. "Do you always have to have the last word?" he asked before resuming his easy stroll up the stairs.

The ghost of a smile flitted across Ianto's face, disrupting the unflappable look that he'd managed to maintain throughout the clearly loaded conversation. "Does that bother you?" he called as Jack reached the top.

Jack's only reply was to toss Ianto one last smirk before going into the boardroom. A bit later when they had more time, indeed.

Wallpapers Just Because.

2008-08-02T20:09:50Z

Maria is OVER! *SOB* What will I do without my weekly dose of The Barrowman telling off the other judges? I guess I will make wallpapers.

Here are two I've done recently. The first one is Ianto Jones from Torchwood, as played by the charming and talented Gareth David-Lloyd. The second is John Barrowman, sort of a colour companion piece to the B&W one I did, which you can find by scrolling down the recent entries.

Clicky click click for full size.

Ianto Jones:

John Barrowman:

Feel free to snag for your desktop. Comments appreciated.

Polaris 22

2008-07-15T03:39:34Z

I spent the weekend at Polaris 22, a sci-fi/fantasy convention in Toronto. It was AWESOME. That's all I can say through the two-and-a-half days of squee.

Anyway, lots of people have written detailed reports of the goings-on there all over the Internet, so I'll get straight to the pictures:

Novelist Jim Butcher - author of the Dresden Files books, among other things. This picture is from an informal chat we attended in the hotel bar. It was meant to be a reading, but he said he didn't like reading his own stuff and wondered if we wouldn't mind having a little informal Q&A sort of a thing instead. Everyone was pretty amenable to that, so that's what we did. It was great. He's extremely hilarious. We seemed to spend half the day with him, as we attended the reading that became an informal Q&A, his book signing *and* viewed an episode of the Dresden Files TV show with him in the video room. We also attended his more formal Q&A in the main auditorium on Sunday.

Rachell Luttrell (pronounced, as we discovered, LUTT-rell) - Teyla from Stargate:Atlantis. We went to her Q&A in the auditorium where we discovered that she's a new mom - her baby is 9 mos old and not a SINGLE OUNCE of fat on the woman!! She looked quite stunning, I have to say and she was a fun speaker, though not laugh-out-loud funny all the time like some of the other guests. I did enjoy her talk and we attended her autograph session afterwards and got her to sign our Atlantis DVDs. My sister stood in her line (her talk had just let out, so it was very very long) and I stood in both Terry Farrell's and Gareth David-Lloyd's and still had to wait for her! Whew! Here is Rachel looking amazing and talking about stuff:

Terry Farrell - Jadzia Dax from Deep Space 9. My highschool sci-fi fangirl self had to come out and see Terry. Deep Space 9 has been my FAVOURITE Trek since it premiered when I was in highschool. I still have magazines and books and shit that came out when it first started airing. I love it! I got Terry to sign one of my early DS9 novels with Dax on the cover. She said it was really cool. I guess she hadn't seen many of them at her table that afternoon. She was funny at her talk. She seemed a bit flustered at times, but she's mother to a four-year-old and has not worked in showbiz lately because she's been staying at home to take care of her son. She talked about a few things she might be interested in doing when her child's a bit older, she talked about why she left DS9 and how hard it was to film, she talked about how much she loved playing the character of Dax and she talked about how it was different working on a sitcom afterwards. One of the funniest questions someone gave her was they would say the name of one of her DS9 costars and wanted her to say the first word that came into her head. She seemed to find the prospect a bit daunting, but some of her answers were HILARIOUS. For example, when the questioner said "Rene Auberjonois" she laughed and said "I'm just so sorry I made that man mad...", then went on to explain a story about a day he blew a gasket at her because she just couldn't get one of her lines right. Her answer to Alexander Siddig was "Ooooh. I love him." That she never elaborated on :) So here she is chatting away:

Rainbow Sun Francks - Aiden Ford from Stargate: Atlantis. AKA, he who got bit by a Wraith and went batshit crazy, had some misadventure as a bad guy and disappeared into space. Apparently, he may be returning to Atlantis soon. He's not really allowed to say anything in particular. He was a lot of fun. We went to his photo session in the morning and got our pictures taken with him, then, later, went to his autograph session and got the pictures signed. He took the time to talk to people at both his photo session and his autograph session. It made him autograph session take a longer time than most, but he diligently signed until his entire time was up, chatting with everyone who wanted to chat. We went to his Q&A that afternoon as well. He was hilarious. He talked about his career and his background and what it was like working on Atlantis. The funniest bits were tangents he went off on. Someone asked him what the most common item on his grocery list was (??) and he thought about it a bit, then said "Cheese. I like cheese. And juice." He then proceeded to go off on a tangent about what a great idea cheese juice would be if someone could figure it out. The next guy at the mic tried to tell him that cheese juice already existed and was called "whey", but Rainbow wasn't having it. "Listen: 'curds and whey' - 'Cheese juice'", then sat back like that explained it all :) He was great. Here he is entertaining the crowd:

And, of course, all these guests were lovely and lots of fun, but we all know the main reason I went to this event:

Gareth David-Lloyd - Ianto Jones from Torchwood. He was great in many, many ways. First of all, shallowly, he looked extremely beautiful. He just looked very, very, very good. Secondly, he was easily the funniest guest on stage. I went to both of his chats and he didn't repeat much from his first Q&A at his second one, even though he warned us at the beginning of the second one that he might. He swears like a sailor, he has an absolutely filthy mind and he's extremely and consistently funny. We also went to the blast off party and enjoyed his company at our table for a little while. He was charming and funny then as well, though a little mellower than on stage. He was very nice at the autograph table. He signed my DVDs and warned me not to close the cover until it dried so it wouldn't smudge. When I went to get my picture taken on Sunday, he shook my hand and I saw his face up close in natural light. His eyes are stunning. Anyway, enough chat about how wonderful he was (EXTREMELY) and here are some pictures of his Q&As.

The icing on the cake: Some dude dressed as Starbuck from the original Battlestar Galactica. I squeed ALMOST as much over his costume as I did over Gareth. Almost.

So it was a fantastic but very busy weekend. It's all sort of a blur at this point, but I'll add more if I think of it. Whew. *exhausted*

New Wallpaper: The Barrowman

2008-07-02T04:34:14Z

In honour of the season finale of Doctor Who (which, btw, the wait for part two is destroying my soul) and the CBC's How To Solve A Problem Like Maria (admitting to watching a reality show is also destroying my soul) : The beautiful and multi-talented John Barrowman. Anyone who can make me watch a reality show by being onscreen for maybe five minutes out of an hour has charisma beyond the ability of human science to measure it. Maybe he really does have 51st century pheromones.

You know the way this works. Click away at the thing to make it big.

Feel free to snag the awesome prettiness of The Barrowman for your desktop. Comments appreciated.

I'm A Torchwood-a-holic...

2008-05-13T22:00:51Z

... since I finished watching Season Two. I like that British TV does 9-13 episode seasons because ideas tend to get stale much less quickly... but the downside is you only have 9-13 episodes to watch until you have to WAIT for more new ones again. Wait until who-knows-when, in fact, because the Beeb doesn't announce things like if they're going ahead with another season until it's practically time to film it. Luckily, Doctor Who is only half way through its season, so I still have my Whoniverse fix (David Tennant as The Doctor is still my fav!) and I'll even get some Captain Jack goodness when John Barrowman returns for the season finale. I think that's confirmed and not a rumour anymore. I don't know. I find I enjoy the shows more if I stay a little bit out of the loop :P And yes, I know that Torchwood is cheese, but it's yummy cheese like cheddar or gouda or that cheese-like-substance they put on Kraft dinner and cheezies.

Since I have no more new Torchwood to watch right now, I have made Torchwood wallpapers celebrating my favourite relationship in the show: Jack and Ianto! They're way too adorable together. I hope the writers don't feel the need for them to break up next season for dramatic shit. They have a rift through time and space to get dramatic shit from. I'd like to see this relationship develop more next year, not less - especially since it's mostly been on the sidelines or in the background so far. They're too cute for that, dammit! </rant>

Click and click for full size.

One in Widescreen.

One in Not!Widescreen.

Comments and snagging for your desktop are welcome!

Raccoon Before The Apocalypse - Part Deux (aka Hamilton, Ontario - May 2008)

2008-05-09T01:15:51Z

I recently went up to Hamilton to visit some friends who live in the city. Since I had time on my hands between arriving there and meeting up with them, I visited a couple more RE2 shooting locations. As with my previous entry involving locations shot in Toronto, the "real life" pictures of Hamilton are all mine, so please do not reproduce or distribute them without my permission. I also took the screencaps from the DVD myself, for illustrative purposes. Click on any of the pictures to make them bigger.

First location: Raccoon City Street Where Carlos and Co. Fought Zombies (aka John Street North, by the King Street PizzaPizza)

On walking up John St from the parking lot towards King St E, I immediately recognized this part of the street:

as the location where they shot all of the footage of Carlos and his men fighting zombies in the street and blowing shit up, like this:

But really, no back-up was coming. They had no choice but to blow up John Street, I reflected... then ate lunch in the PizzaPizza. Mmmmmm PizzaPizza pizza. PizzaPizza veggie pizza and chocolate milk is zombie-fighting fuel, okay?

Second location: Alley Where Carlos and Co Fell Back To Escape The Zombies (aka alley off John Street North)

So I was walking back up the other side of the street to my car, when I spied this alley:

And snapped a quick picture as I realized it was the alley where Carlos and his men made their escape! Fall back, boys! You've just been expended!

Third location: Creepy Raccoon City Cemetery (aka Hamilton Cemetery)

I don't know where exactly in the cemetery they filmed, because it's friggin' huge and full of the tall, creepy, standy-uppy grave stones:

But you can see why they chose to film here. It sure has the ambience.

Now picture it at night:

That's the ticket! Scary!

I have to say, this was much easier than getting the Toronto shots and for exactly one reason: I wasn't dying of exposure! When I went to Toronto it was twenty degrees below zero. The day I was in Hamilton was really very pleasant. I think it was a balmy sixteen degrees or something. Well above freezing, at any rate.

As usual, feel free to comment or ask questions. These were exciting locations to snap pictures at, because - like City Hall and the CBC Building - the actors filmed in these places. Oded was in the scenes in John St and Milla was at the cemetery.

Raccoon Before The Apocalypse (aka Toronto, Jan 2008)

2008-01-24T03:44:13Z

On my recent visit to Toronto to appear on CBC's Test The Nation, I had a free Monday waiting for my 7pm train and spent it wandering around the city, including filming locations used in Resident Evil: Apocalypse. Some photos below. The "real life" pictures of Toronto are all mine, so please do not reproduce or distribute them without my permission. I also took the screencaps from the DVD myself, for illustrative purposes. Click on any of the pictures to make them bigger.

First location (and preview): Ravensgate Bridge (aka The Bloor Viaduct).

I didn't get a chance to go down into the Don Valley to get a side view of the bridge (it was -20 degrees Celsius outside!!), but even so, it's pretty clear that this:

is where they filmed these scenes.

Second location: Random street in downtown Raccoon (aka random street in downtown Toronto):

When Angie's car flips over, you can clearly see a Raccoon City landmark that looks a lot like Toronto's CN Tower.

In their defense, it's REALLY hard not to see it if you're in downtown Toronto facing south. This isn't the same street they filmed in, obviously, but I don't know what street they used and I didn't have ALL day just to search for the same buildings. Most streets downtown have a similar view.

Third location: Abandonned Streetcar (aka a TTC - Toronto Transit Commission - Streetcar)

Not abandonned, these things are still in service. Alice and co used one to hide out from zombies while they discussed the merits of not getting blown up by a nuclear weapon. They voted against it unanimously.

Fourth location: Raccoon City Hospital (aka the CBC - Canadian Broadcasting Corporation - Building on Front Street)

Carlos and his crew wandered into the hospital looking for evac. The first bit was a set where Alice and the Nemesis woke up. The second bit was the centre of the CBC Building.

First the equipment was dropped through the glass roof.

Then Carlos and friends walked down the hallway, ostensibly from the labs (this hallway really comes from the Wellington Street entrance to the centre of the building.

Then they find the weapons cases in here! This room is the heart of the CBC Building.

But Carlos finds it creepy. Probably the lighting. And his friend turning into a zombie and munching on his arm.

Final location: Raccoon City Hall (portrayed by film and television veteran Toronto City Hall)

Toronto's unique City Hall by day...

Creepy zombie-infested mutant fight club slaughterhouse by night!

With added helicopter-related carnage!

Please feel free to comment or ask questions. I had a great time wandering around snapping pics, even though I was FREEZING TO DEATH. I have a ton more pictures of City Hall and some nice cityscapes. There were some filming locations I couldn't photograph, even though I knew where they were... because they were in Hamilton. Hamilton is another city about halfway between Toronto and Niagara Falls. My transit daypass wouldn't get me that far :P

Carlos/Alice Portrait

2008-01-10T02:25:43Z

Here is a little manip I did of Alice and Carlos from the Resident Evil series as though they'd sat for a portrait. I used pictures from the Oded Fehr Appreciation Site and MillaFan. Click for full size.

Comments welcome as always.

Farik Wallpaper

2007-12-09T05:45:08Z

I managed to find some Sleeper Cell caps recently, while surfing the Enchanted Visions gallery. So I've done a couple of Farik wallpapers. It was hard to decide what to do for them. Oded's performance was AMAZING, but Farik was friggin' TERRIFYING.

Here they are - click on them for full size.

The caps (as noted above) are from Enchanted Visions. The quote is from Serenity. Feel free to snag. Comments appreciated.

New Mummy Wallpaper

2007-12-07T01:24:31Z

I've done another Ardeth Bey wallpaper. I just really liked this facial expression out of context. It looks so moody and thoughtful.

PREVIEW:

Click and click again for full size (1280 x 1024)

Feel free to use on your desktop. Comments are appreciated.

Four New Wallpapers

2007-12-02T02:56:00Z

So I had a little creative spurt today. The result: four new wallpapers in four different areas of interest :)

Previews:

Carlos/Alice (Resident Evil: Extinction)

Rick Mercer (The Mercer Report)

Wolverine (The X-Men Movieverse)

Charlie and Don Eppes (Numb3rs)

Click and click again on the images below for the full size.

Carlos and Alice.

Rick Mercer.

Wolverine.

Charlie and Don.

Comments appreciated. Feel free to snag any for your desktop.

magicom @ 2007-11-11T01:27:00

2007-11-11T06:32:31Z

My latest Carlos/Alice creation. Yes, I'm a little obsessed with this 'ship. What's wrong with that? It's even canon and everything! :D

PREVIEW:

Click and click again for full-sized.

Lyrics from "Count On Me" by Default.

Take, use, enjoy, comment.

Raine Maida Concert Collage

2007-10-21T18:43:57Z

I was watching my DVD of Our Lady Peace Live and decided to take some screen captures of Raine Maida performing (mostly because I think his hairstyle here is extremely flattering) so I could make a lovely collage for my desktop. Here is the result:

PREVIEW:

Here is the desktop-size: Click and click again for the biggestness of it:

Feel free to snag for your own personal desktop use. I like to share the pretty. Comments appreciated.

More Wallpaper featuring Oded Fehr

2007-09-24T21:47:48Z

What can I say? I saw Resident Evil: Extinction, and from The Mummy all the way to Res Evil 3 - he's still the hottest thing fighting the undead.

So I made a wallpaper of Oded as Ardeth Bey - mostly because, although I love Carlos Olivera, his character's arc and resolution made me much happier in the "Mummy" films. That's all I'm going to say, lest I spoil anyone.

PREVIEW:

The real full-sized (1280x1024) thing (click to make bigger):

Feel free to snag for your desktop. Comments are most welcome.
Pictures from the Oded Fehr Appeciation Site.

Just For Fun!

2007-09-17T20:21:10Z

I was goofing around on Motivator (which I found through a Doctor Who macro community called ihasatardis) and I made some Mag7 posters - one for each guy, and one for the group. I used dialogue from the show (or bastardized dialogue from the show, if necessary) for all of them... except the group one. Click to make them bigger.

That web site is friggin' addictive. That's all I have to say about this :D Feel free to snag 'em for stuff if you want 'em :)