burntcopper: (jack sunglasses)
burntcopper ([personal profile] burntcopper) wrote2007-05-20 09:52 pm

Fic : Dinosaur (Torchwood)

Title : Dinosaur
Author : Gunbunny
E-Mail : snapdragon@beeb.net
Fandom : Torchwood
Pairing : none
Rating : No sex and no swearing. am slipping.
Summary : Yvonne Hartman has views about appropriate behaviour.
Disclaimer : Not mine. Russell's.
Feedback : I accept burnt offerings and alcohol.
Archive : http://burntcopper.com/fic , anywhere else feel free.



Yvonne Hartman is 25. She has a first from Cambridge and three years' experience in the civil service. She loves her country and wants to see it great. She has been employed at Torchwood for two weeks, and she is quite certain that Captain Jack Harkness is completely unprofessional, a dinosaur, inefficient, and not at all the image a modern Torchwood should be presenting.

He swaggered into the new employees debriefing, ego entering the room at least eight steps ahead of him, dressed as though he'd stepped out of a Battle of Britain film, which screams affectation, and proceeded to sexually harass the entire room within about 3 seconds of his entering. There will be no place for men like him in Torchwood in the future, if she has any say about it.

Yvonne Hartman is 30. She's rightly recognised as a rising star in the Torchwood Institute, and her own department is within her grasp. She loves her country and has visions of its potential and place in the world and on the universe's stage. Several years at the Institute have given her more insight into the head of Torchwood Three, as has a higher security clearance. Contrary to what you might think on first impressions, he understands image very well, and the image is exceedingly useful in their work. People are blinded and distracted by the unusual and flashy, which Harkness certainly is. The antiquated clothing and off-colour comments are all most people remember clearly from their encounters with Torchwood Three, which keeps the use of retcon down, at the very least.

The PR department wish he would restrain the flirtatious comments - the reputation of Captain Jack Harkness filters back to them on a regular basis - and that a better first impression was made on the public, showing that it's a modern organisation that certainly has no truck with that sort of behaviour. At least it's confined to Wales. Beyond that, he has his uses. He's a very good field agent, and his knowledge of aliens is almost encyclopaedic, and a highly valuable resource, although the circumstances in which he claims to have attained it she's highly sceptical of. On the downside, he's lackadaisical about paperwork, proper protocol and has no idea about encouraging employee cohesiveness and morale in the workplace as befits the modern age.

Yvonne Hartman is 36. She's head of Torchwood One, one of the youngest ever, rising through a combination of her own merits, good contacts and a way with people. With her at the helm, not even the sky is their limit, and the future for Torchwood and Britain is glorious. They're breaking new ground every day, defending and bolstering Britain, and the Ghost Shift is just one more feather in their cap. Harkness is advising caution, hating this experiment, calling it rash and dangerous. With the classified files that were given to her on gaining this position, she surmises it really is the voice of experience calling. But it's also the voice of a stick-in-the-mud more comfortable in the field than in command, a relic who wants to stand in the way of progress. A dinosaur who clings to the past outwardly, unable and unwilling to embrace change inwardly, stuck with his bunch of misfits. She'll get him on that appropriate behaviour course one of these days.

Yvonne Hartman will never be 37.

END

[identity profile] terrylj.livejournal.com 2007-05-20 09:16 pm (UTC)(link)
Ooh, I really like this. It rings very true to what we saw of her character. The last line is chilling.

and proceeded to sexually harass the entire room within about 3 seconds of his entering.

Hee! Jack really can sexually harass an entire group of people just by walking into the room, can't he?

[identity profile] bodlon.livejournal.com 2007-05-20 09:39 pm (UTC)(link)
Well, you know the lines between him and Nine on the Game Station:

Jack: Nice to meet you, Lynda Moss.
The Doctor: Would you stop flirting? I'm trying to concentrate.
Jack: I was just saying hello.
The Doctor: For you, that's flirting.

[identity profile] terrylj.livejournal.com 2007-05-20 09:55 pm (UTC)(link)
You know, as many times as I've laughed over that scene, I just now realized the implication that Jack flirting (with someone else) makes the Doctor unable to concentrate.

Thankyouverymuch...

[identity profile] bodlon.livejournal.com 2007-05-20 10:30 pm (UTC)(link)
*grin* Indeed.

[identity profile] burntcopper.livejournal.com 2007-05-21 01:21 pm (UTC)(link)
Yvonne is way too much fun to channel.

Ianto is far too aware of this ability, since Jack has a tendency to do it when he's trying to talk to tourists.

[identity profile] noneofyours.livejournal.com 2007-05-20 09:37 pm (UTC)(link)
I second. I love that last line.

[identity profile] burntcopper.livejournal.com 2007-05-21 01:15 pm (UTC)(link)
thankyou! This last line appears to be rather popular.

[identity profile] sunstar77.livejournal.com 2007-05-20 09:46 pm (UTC)(link)
I never liked Yvonne, but that last line is quite sad.

[identity profile] burntcopper.livejournal.com 2007-05-21 01:11 pm (UTC)(link)
I adore Yvonne, but mostly for the fact that she's so well-defined and well-drawn - you're not *meant* to like her as she's clearly cast in the villain role, but earns the status due to her arrogance and oversight. :muses: many people appear to like the last line. huh.

[identity profile] sunstar77.livejournal.com 2007-05-21 08:48 pm (UTC)(link)
You're right. She is a very well deinfied character. Maybe it's cause the last line is so sudden and a bit unexpected.

[identity profile] celievamp.livejournal.com 2007-05-20 10:01 pm (UTC)(link)
excellent piece. and that last line... killer

[identity profile] burntcopper.livejournal.com 2007-05-21 01:04 pm (UTC)(link)
:g: glad you liked.

[identity profile] crabby-lioness.livejournal.com 2007-05-20 10:31 pm (UTC)(link)
That sums up Yvonne and Jack quite well.

[identity profile] burntcopper.livejournal.com 2007-05-21 01:03 pm (UTC)(link)
ooo, great. One day we will get flashback eps of seeing them interact. One day.

[identity profile] burntcopper.livejournal.com 2007-05-21 01:03 pm (UTC)(link)
yay!

[identity profile] neadods.livejournal.com 2007-05-21 12:05 am (UTC)(link)
What a chilling ending!

[identity profile] burntcopper.livejournal.com 2007-05-21 01:02 pm (UTC)(link)
huh, really? thought it was fairly standard for this style of fic. Glad it gave you the shivers.

[identity profile] neadods.livejournal.com 2007-05-21 01:42 pm (UTC)(link)
Standard doesn't mean not creepy. :>

[identity profile] jwaneeta.livejournal.com 2007-05-21 05:55 am (UTC)(link)
Great story, and the end was really impressive!

[identity profile] burntcopper.livejournal.com 2007-05-21 12:59 pm (UTC)(link)
:g: thankyou!

[identity profile] jamjar.livejournal.com 2007-05-21 12:21 pm (UTC)(link)
I love this. I liked Yvonne and I was pretty disappointed when she died, in that way where the death itself isn't a disappointment, just the fact that it severely cuts down on your chance of seeing them on the show in the future. I like that Yvonne doesn't really change her atttitude. She might think more of him as she works with him more, but her basic personality, view on the world and Torch Wood, is still there.

He swaggered into the new employees debriefing, ego entering the room at least eight steps ahead of him, dressed as though he'd stepped out of a Battle of Britain film, which screams affectation, and proceeded to sexually harass the entire room within about 3 seconds of his entering.

He was on his good beahviour, wait until he was actually in the room. It's so much more disconcerting when he does it through the walls.

[identity profile] burntcopper.livejournal.com 2007-05-21 12:48 pm (UTC)(link)
Yay, you liked it! Channelling Yvonne is just... way too much fun, since she's got such a defined character. I think we need flashback eps of Jack's history in Torchwood, including clashes with Yvonne. And we're sure Ianto has had to suffer through those times when Jack's projecting. Especially when he's trying to talk to tourists.

[identity profile] laurab1.livejournal.com 2007-05-21 12:59 pm (UTC)(link)
I love this, especially the swaggering and the last line. Great!

[identity profile] burntcopper.livejournal.com 2007-05-21 01:23 pm (UTC)(link)
one should always swagger, darling.

[identity profile] earlybird42.livejournal.com 2007-05-21 09:02 pm (UTC)(link)
This is a short fic. I was going to read it, enjoy it and let it go. That last line has promoted it firmly to my favorite places. I shall read it over and think on it. Impressive

[identity profile] ladyharkness.livejournal.com 2007-06-19 09:08 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh this is great. You've really got Yvonne down perfectly here. And Jack too, the guy really does distract people rather well doesn't he??

Great ending. Loved the last two sentances. It was great how I went from smile to shock at the close.

[identity profile] burntcopper.livejournal.com 2007-06-19 10:02 pm (UTC)(link)
I figured it had to be partly the reason he does it, holdover from being a conman. I want flashbacks of Yvonne from Ianto's days at Torchwood One in series 2.

:whistles: one more person got with the format of the fic...

[identity profile] ze-toaster.livejournal.com 2007-07-30 01:47 pm (UTC)(link)
...wow.

I really love this.

(especially the last line!)

[identity profile] burntcopper.livejournal.com 2007-07-31 08:29 am (UTC)(link)
hee. thankyou.
genarti: Knees-down view of woman on tiptoe next to bookshelves (Default)

[personal profile] genarti 2008-06-10 04:25 pm (UTC)(link)
I love fic written from the POV of minor characters, and this is a delightful (and bittersweet) example. Nicely done!