Post by Jack Harkness on Jun 1, 2009 17:47:26 GMT -5
Name of Character: Captain Jack Harkness
Image of Character:
Basic history of Character:
To pin down the history of Captain Jack Harkness would be a near impossibility. He's crossed too many timelines, had multiple instances of himself alive at one time... all we can give now is a rough approximation. He never is one to talk about his past either and tends to change the subject away from himself and to anything else. And when you're Jack, it's quite easy to flirt your way out of anything.
Jack (though, what his actual name is remains a mystery) was originally born sometime in the 51st century, growing up on the Boeshane Peninsula an otherwise normal (and mortal) child. His entire life was turned upside down the moment an alien race invaded his homeland. Told by his father to run and keep Gray with him, Jack couldn't even follow that simple order. He accidentally let go of Gray's hand and when he returned home all that faced him was death and destruction. Gray missing and his father dead, Jack was left utterly alone.
Passed around between a few aunts still alive, Jack never really felt at home anywhere. A few years here and a few years there, always seeming to be on the outside looking in. It didn't take much persuasion by a few friends when he reached the age of eighteen to join up with the Time Agency. They were fighting and really, Jack had nothing better to do. The Agency saw something in him and he quickly moved through the ranks, surpassing the friends who had enlisted him to join and giving Jack more and more secretive projects to work on.
During this time, Jack was partnered with another young recruit who exhibited many of the same qualities as Jack. He and John Hart began going on missions and their partnership turned into a different sort all together. Though Jack doesn't remember if the relationship came before the two week time loop or after. Spending five years with one man, there are only two options: lovers or kill the man. Jack chose the former (though he was not the wife, thank you very much). His employment with the Time Agency came to an abrupt end when Jack realised he was missing two years of his life. No memories, no knowledge, no warning -- just two years, gone. To this day, Jack has yet to recover those memories and he wonders just what he did during those two years.
Leaving the Time Agency, Jack took up life as a time travelling con artist. With his knowledge of the future, Jack was able to make a small chunk of change selling items he knew would be destroyed before the buyer could purchase. He lived by his own rules, caring for nothing and no one. Around the time of the second World War, Jack assumed the alias he is known by today, taking the name of a soldier who died in action. Also at this time was Jack's first meeting with the Doctor and Rose. Really, his con would have gone off without a hitch had he not run into the girl hanging in the sky. And damn his latent hero complex that said he had to be the one to save her.
Enter the Doctor and Rose: two people who would end up turning his life upside down and irrevocably change it forever. Selected by a transmat beam, Jack, Rose and the Doctor found themselves aboard Satellite 5 and trapped in a series of deadly television games. They were not without casualties, Jack watching Rose get disintegrated right before his very eyes. It was Jack, however, that realised the trick of Satellite 5. The games were a front, hiding a much larger problem: a fleet of Daleks. Suddenly, the threesome found themselves in the middle of a Dalek invasion, Jack relying on both his military and Agency skills to lead the defence in order to give the Doctor the chance to complete the Delta Wave. He was the last man standing and his sacrifice was enough for the Doctor, even if he chose to be a coward and not destroy the Daleks at the expense of the human race. Facing certain death, Rose fueled by the power of the Time Vortex returned to Satellite 5 in time to save the Doctor. Her actions brought Jack back to life, unbeknownst to her. Hearing the sounds of the TARDIS engine, Jack wasn't fast enough to reach the Doctor before he left, stranding Jack on Satellite 5.
Knowing there wasn't much power left in his Vortex Manipulator, he made one final time jump, aiming for Earth and not caring where he landed. Jack arrived in London, somewhere in 1869 with a burned out and useless manipulator. Not the most ideal time, but at least he made it someplace where he wasn't surrounded by Dalek dust. Jack (somehow) managed to stay out of trouble for the next 25 years and in 1892 he decided to immigrate to America. Jack being Jack managed to provoke another man at Ellis Island (really, some men cannot take a joke when they're called good looking) and was shot in the chest.
The next morning, he woke up.
And that was when Jack knew something wasn't right. He purposefully threw himself into dangerous situations and it took seventeen creative deaths (a note: javelins are not a fun way to die) to learn the horrifying truth: he couldn't die. No matter what happened, within a few minutes (or hours depending on the severity of the death blow) Jack would reawaken with all of his wounds healed. Shortly after, Jack returned to London where he was captured by Torchwood members Alice Guppy and Emily Holroyd in 1899. The agents had discovered his secret of immortality and basically tortured Jack until an agreement was met: they would release him if he would give his life to Torchwood.
Thus began Jack's long involvement with Torchwood. He worked, always in a grunt position, taking assignments that would lead to certain death. Well, when they had an agent who couldn't die, why not use him? Jack never complained (much), slowly working his way through Torchwood and attempting to change the ideals the organization had fostered for so many years to those more in line with the Doctor's. Take-and-study was Jack's motto rather than kill-on-sight.
Jack became the leader of Torchwood 3 on New Year's Day, 2000 when then-current leader Alex Hopkins. Alex (the reason Torchwood has a rule of not using alien artefacts unless Jack is around), using a mysterious necklace-like artefact, saw the future and believed the kindest thing to do was to remove the team from the oncoming storm. As the only one left, Jack was not so subtly appointed to the title of leader. Over the next several years, Jack began to assemble his team, turning Torchwood 3 into what it is today. He was able to completely reshape it into his own group with their own ideals, ones that echoed the Doctor's morality a bit closer. (Even if Jack does subscribe to kill-on-sight with some things, particularly when his team is threatened). Toshiko and Owen were both sought out for their particular brand of skills, but it was Ianto who found Jack. Ianto, a former member of Torchwood 1 had to do quite a bit of persuasion before Jack allowed him onto the team.
All the while, Jack awaited his Doctor's arrival. Armed with a "Doctor Dectector" (which was nothing more than the Doctor's disembodied hand), it was several years before he sensed the Doctor's presence and when he did? Jack stupidly ran to the TARDIS, leaving Torchwood to fend for themselves. He and the Doctor (with the Doctor's new companion Martha Jones) travelled to the end of the universe, the brink of Utopia. Encountering another Time Lord known as the Master, the man stole the TARDIS, leaving the Doctor and his companions to make a jump back in time with Jack's now-working Vortex Manipulator. Their time jump threw them back to the 21st century at the time a man named Harry Saxon was taking over things in Britain. Harry Saxon, alias for the Master. Sent into a hellish year (known affectionately as the Year That Never Was), Jack spent 365 days chained in a steam pipe room, tortured, beaten, and killed repeatedly as befit the Master's whims. Safe to say that, by the end, the Master was off Jack's Christmas card list. Martha was the one to save the day, reverting the world back to how it should be. It was, though, during this time that Jack finally was able to talk to the Doctor about what happened to him and that the Doctor had known of Jack's predicament all along. Jack's worst fears were realised: the Doctor couldn't fix him. But, really, over the course of his life, Jack had come to accept the gift/curse he was given. Though, as he is a man who ages, albeit very slowly, his vanity comes into play a bit, wondering what he will look like millions of years from now.
At this point, Jack has lost track of how many times he's died and has been brought back to life. He returned from the Year that Never Was and ran back to the waiting arms of his team, re-taking the leadership role without so much as a struggle. While he had questions answered when he left to seek out the Doctor, Jack knows that it's with Torchwood that he truly belongs.
Roleplaying Sample (About 3 paragraphs):
[Entry taken from a recent thread at Parabolical. If you want something new, let me know and I'll provide. *g*]
It may have looked like the Hub, but without the rift it didn't feel like the Hub he knew and loved. Still, if this was what he had to deal with, he'd take the familiar setting over everything else. Seemed strange to speak with Owen and Suzie through the medium of the city-wide boards when they were both in the same building (so to speak) but it did prove to be convenient for fast conversations. Perhaps if, when they all returned to Cardiff, he'd talk to Tosh about installing something for the team to use. There was no sense having something city-wide there, now was it? City-wide and one wrong filter could send the place into a panic. Here, at least, strange occurrences seemed commonplace and no one batted an eye with when it came to the bizarre.
Rubbing his temples, Jack fought the urge to hit his head against the desk. Until they knew what this Lazarus Pit liquid did, he didn't want to be anywhere near it. If it gave immortality or put people back to how they were -- Jack wasn't sure he wanted to know what it could do to him. As he'd once told the Doctor: there had been a time when he wished he could die. Now, though, he'd come to accept his predicament.
Rising from the desk, Jack wound his way through the Hub, fixing himself a cup of coffee from Ianto's station. Jack ignored that slight tug, the annoyance that Ianto wasn't here to fix his coffee. He could almost hear Ianto in the back of his mind, grumbling that Jack dared to touch the station. Just because he jammed the machine one time...
At least his mug was still here. Some semblance of normalcy was not only desired but appreciated. Waiting for the coffee to percolate, Jack kept his mind from wandering too far, focusing on the Pits themselves. And why it was ignoring Owen's attempts to be analysed. Being stumped was not something Jack liked, nor was used to.
Ignoring the groan from the machine (thank god Ianto wasn't here to ream him a new one), Jack grabbed the cup of coffee, and headed down to Owen's station.
Anything else?: I have a complete profile of Jack from one of the RPGs I'm in. You can find it either Jack @ Parabolical or Jack @ Vas.Captio. The Parabolical has info on the Hub and Vas.Captio has more profile/personality type stuff. And I apologise for the length, I just developed a very strong Jack!muse -- which is why I gave you links rather than make this any longer than it is! Anything else, just PM me!
Image of Character:
Basic history of Character:
To pin down the history of Captain Jack Harkness would be a near impossibility. He's crossed too many timelines, had multiple instances of himself alive at one time... all we can give now is a rough approximation. He never is one to talk about his past either and tends to change the subject away from himself and to anything else. And when you're Jack, it's quite easy to flirt your way out of anything.
Jack (though, what his actual name is remains a mystery) was originally born sometime in the 51st century, growing up on the Boeshane Peninsula an otherwise normal (and mortal) child. His entire life was turned upside down the moment an alien race invaded his homeland. Told by his father to run and keep Gray with him, Jack couldn't even follow that simple order. He accidentally let go of Gray's hand and when he returned home all that faced him was death and destruction. Gray missing and his father dead, Jack was left utterly alone.
Passed around between a few aunts still alive, Jack never really felt at home anywhere. A few years here and a few years there, always seeming to be on the outside looking in. It didn't take much persuasion by a few friends when he reached the age of eighteen to join up with the Time Agency. They were fighting and really, Jack had nothing better to do. The Agency saw something in him and he quickly moved through the ranks, surpassing the friends who had enlisted him to join and giving Jack more and more secretive projects to work on.
During this time, Jack was partnered with another young recruit who exhibited many of the same qualities as Jack. He and John Hart began going on missions and their partnership turned into a different sort all together. Though Jack doesn't remember if the relationship came before the two week time loop or after. Spending five years with one man, there are only two options: lovers or kill the man. Jack chose the former (though he was not the wife, thank you very much). His employment with the Time Agency came to an abrupt end when Jack realised he was missing two years of his life. No memories, no knowledge, no warning -- just two years, gone. To this day, Jack has yet to recover those memories and he wonders just what he did during those two years.
Leaving the Time Agency, Jack took up life as a time travelling con artist. With his knowledge of the future, Jack was able to make a small chunk of change selling items he knew would be destroyed before the buyer could purchase. He lived by his own rules, caring for nothing and no one. Around the time of the second World War, Jack assumed the alias he is known by today, taking the name of a soldier who died in action. Also at this time was Jack's first meeting with the Doctor and Rose. Really, his con would have gone off without a hitch had he not run into the girl hanging in the sky. And damn his latent hero complex that said he had to be the one to save her.
Enter the Doctor and Rose: two people who would end up turning his life upside down and irrevocably change it forever. Selected by a transmat beam, Jack, Rose and the Doctor found themselves aboard Satellite 5 and trapped in a series of deadly television games. They were not without casualties, Jack watching Rose get disintegrated right before his very eyes. It was Jack, however, that realised the trick of Satellite 5. The games were a front, hiding a much larger problem: a fleet of Daleks. Suddenly, the threesome found themselves in the middle of a Dalek invasion, Jack relying on both his military and Agency skills to lead the defence in order to give the Doctor the chance to complete the Delta Wave. He was the last man standing and his sacrifice was enough for the Doctor, even if he chose to be a coward and not destroy the Daleks at the expense of the human race. Facing certain death, Rose fueled by the power of the Time Vortex returned to Satellite 5 in time to save the Doctor. Her actions brought Jack back to life, unbeknownst to her. Hearing the sounds of the TARDIS engine, Jack wasn't fast enough to reach the Doctor before he left, stranding Jack on Satellite 5.
Knowing there wasn't much power left in his Vortex Manipulator, he made one final time jump, aiming for Earth and not caring where he landed. Jack arrived in London, somewhere in 1869 with a burned out and useless manipulator. Not the most ideal time, but at least he made it someplace where he wasn't surrounded by Dalek dust. Jack (somehow) managed to stay out of trouble for the next 25 years and in 1892 he decided to immigrate to America. Jack being Jack managed to provoke another man at Ellis Island (really, some men cannot take a joke when they're called good looking) and was shot in the chest.
The next morning, he woke up.
And that was when Jack knew something wasn't right. He purposefully threw himself into dangerous situations and it took seventeen creative deaths (a note: javelins are not a fun way to die) to learn the horrifying truth: he couldn't die. No matter what happened, within a few minutes (or hours depending on the severity of the death blow) Jack would reawaken with all of his wounds healed. Shortly after, Jack returned to London where he was captured by Torchwood members Alice Guppy and Emily Holroyd in 1899. The agents had discovered his secret of immortality and basically tortured Jack until an agreement was met: they would release him if he would give his life to Torchwood.
Thus began Jack's long involvement with Torchwood. He worked, always in a grunt position, taking assignments that would lead to certain death. Well, when they had an agent who couldn't die, why not use him? Jack never complained (much), slowly working his way through Torchwood and attempting to change the ideals the organization had fostered for so many years to those more in line with the Doctor's. Take-and-study was Jack's motto rather than kill-on-sight.
Jack became the leader of Torchwood 3 on New Year's Day, 2000 when then-current leader Alex Hopkins. Alex (the reason Torchwood has a rule of not using alien artefacts unless Jack is around), using a mysterious necklace-like artefact, saw the future and believed the kindest thing to do was to remove the team from the oncoming storm. As the only one left, Jack was not so subtly appointed to the title of leader. Over the next several years, Jack began to assemble his team, turning Torchwood 3 into what it is today. He was able to completely reshape it into his own group with their own ideals, ones that echoed the Doctor's morality a bit closer. (Even if Jack does subscribe to kill-on-sight with some things, particularly when his team is threatened). Toshiko and Owen were both sought out for their particular brand of skills, but it was Ianto who found Jack. Ianto, a former member of Torchwood 1 had to do quite a bit of persuasion before Jack allowed him onto the team.
All the while, Jack awaited his Doctor's arrival. Armed with a "Doctor Dectector" (which was nothing more than the Doctor's disembodied hand), it was several years before he sensed the Doctor's presence and when he did? Jack stupidly ran to the TARDIS, leaving Torchwood to fend for themselves. He and the Doctor (with the Doctor's new companion Martha Jones) travelled to the end of the universe, the brink of Utopia. Encountering another Time Lord known as the Master, the man stole the TARDIS, leaving the Doctor and his companions to make a jump back in time with Jack's now-working Vortex Manipulator. Their time jump threw them back to the 21st century at the time a man named Harry Saxon was taking over things in Britain. Harry Saxon, alias for the Master. Sent into a hellish year (known affectionately as the Year That Never Was), Jack spent 365 days chained in a steam pipe room, tortured, beaten, and killed repeatedly as befit the Master's whims. Safe to say that, by the end, the Master was off Jack's Christmas card list. Martha was the one to save the day, reverting the world back to how it should be. It was, though, during this time that Jack finally was able to talk to the Doctor about what happened to him and that the Doctor had known of Jack's predicament all along. Jack's worst fears were realised: the Doctor couldn't fix him. But, really, over the course of his life, Jack had come to accept the gift/curse he was given. Though, as he is a man who ages, albeit very slowly, his vanity comes into play a bit, wondering what he will look like millions of years from now.
At this point, Jack has lost track of how many times he's died and has been brought back to life. He returned from the Year that Never Was and ran back to the waiting arms of his team, re-taking the leadership role without so much as a struggle. While he had questions answered when he left to seek out the Doctor, Jack knows that it's with Torchwood that he truly belongs.
Roleplaying Sample (About 3 paragraphs):
[Entry taken from a recent thread at Parabolical. If you want something new, let me know and I'll provide. *g*]
It may have looked like the Hub, but without the rift it didn't feel like the Hub he knew and loved. Still, if this was what he had to deal with, he'd take the familiar setting over everything else. Seemed strange to speak with Owen and Suzie through the medium of the city-wide boards when they were both in the same building (so to speak) but it did prove to be convenient for fast conversations. Perhaps if, when they all returned to Cardiff, he'd talk to Tosh about installing something for the team to use. There was no sense having something city-wide there, now was it? City-wide and one wrong filter could send the place into a panic. Here, at least, strange occurrences seemed commonplace and no one batted an eye with when it came to the bizarre.
Rubbing his temples, Jack fought the urge to hit his head against the desk. Until they knew what this Lazarus Pit liquid did, he didn't want to be anywhere near it. If it gave immortality or put people back to how they were -- Jack wasn't sure he wanted to know what it could do to him. As he'd once told the Doctor: there had been a time when he wished he could die. Now, though, he'd come to accept his predicament.
Rising from the desk, Jack wound his way through the Hub, fixing himself a cup of coffee from Ianto's station. Jack ignored that slight tug, the annoyance that Ianto wasn't here to fix his coffee. He could almost hear Ianto in the back of his mind, grumbling that Jack dared to touch the station. Just because he jammed the machine one time...
At least his mug was still here. Some semblance of normalcy was not only desired but appreciated. Waiting for the coffee to percolate, Jack kept his mind from wandering too far, focusing on the Pits themselves. And why it was ignoring Owen's attempts to be analysed. Being stumped was not something Jack liked, nor was used to.
Ignoring the groan from the machine (thank god Ianto wasn't here to ream him a new one), Jack grabbed the cup of coffee, and headed down to Owen's station.
Anything else?: I have a complete profile of Jack from one of the RPGs I'm in. You can find it either Jack @ Parabolical or Jack @ Vas.Captio. The Parabolical has info on the Hub and Vas.Captio has more profile/personality type stuff. And I apologise for the length, I just developed a very strong Jack!muse -- which is why I gave you links rather than make this any longer than it is! Anything else, just PM me!
