anstaar

The Official Reclassification of the Restricted Items of Archive 8 (Torchwood 3)

tags:
alternate universe - canon divergence (though those become far more obvious in the sequel);
theories on multiple timelines (aka basic reason for ORR)
background relationships (Ianto/Lisa is very important because this is why Ianto feels so betrayed, Ianto/Jack is the 'present', and Fitz/Eight is always looming in the background)
Canon-Typical Body Horror (honestly, much less than canon in general, but to be safe)
HR nightmares and other adventures (my tag for Torchwood)
[with the frizz] no way! (the joke about Ianto always thinking about the professionalism of Torchwood One)
Mansplain Manipulate Manwhore (Fitz: I can't mansplain, manipulate or manwhore my way out of this one, guess it will have to be murder)
looming specter of grief that people refuse to talk about (speaks for itself)

Chapter One: Memory Foam Mattress (+ 'Sea-monkey' boyfriends)

- for the list of made up alien 'encounters': sea-monkey boyfriends
- there's not a nudity count but I absolutely believe that everyone has seen everyone else in Torchwood naked, there are so many reasons their HR Department would be so overworked
- someday I might write up a few Torchwood event reports/forms, they are extremely unprofessional
- from mattress to man, Fitz's first transformation (Compassion copied Jack's handwriting for the label)

Chapter Two: Inappropriate Clothing (G through N)

- Jack would cut dry cleaning from the budget and then be like, 'but not for me'
- Fitz: you can torture me as much as you like, but I'll have told you everything the first time you threatened me
- Ianto's thoughts on boss/boyfriend, again HR would be doing so much
- list of alien encounters: plastic assassins (reference to Uncanny Valley), sentient fungus, weevil cult, alien motorcycle gang, weapons coming alive, pub quiz driving people crazy, something in the water (reference to Something in the Water), woman eating people (reference to Slow Decay), ghost ship, killer ice men
- [note: 'reference' doesn't mean the audio/book happened in this continuity, it's more like 'inspired by']
- Fitz doesn't have a perception filter, but there are implications to build up to the end of ORR
- 'inappropriately horny nurse ghost', in the time line where Fitz arrived before Fragments Fitz would use this to explain how he saved Tosh
- 'greaser' ghost (because of Fitz's deep distrust of subcultures, ref: The Space Age)

Chapter Three: Chronological Measuring Devices (I through W)

- in The Christmas Invasion there's a comment about how no one is supposed to know about Torchwood, which I ignore like everyone else
- especially as they also say that it's a new start for Earth where they're now aware of aliens
- "of course you have pronouns and are an enemy of the state"
- my thoughts on the Doctor's (or 'Doctors') gender: he (or she) is never a man/woman but, importantly, also has absolutely no interest. 'Whatever pronouns someone uses' is the Doctor's attitude. Tied to this is my thoughts on how the Doctor does not register 'microaggressions' from aliens because of, well, that bit of a superiority complex. The only microaggressions that hit are from other Time Lords about test scores. Academic trauma all the way down.
- Yvonne's characterization/Ianto's thoughts on Yvonne are based on the audios, but, in Juncture continuity, he didn't have the same sort of relationship with her in terms of his job
- that humans fall outside of null-psychic species is important throughout the series
- Temporary Solutions is very much a reference to the audios, but, again, the actual details are different in this continuity
- there are several reasons that Fitz doesn't like Jack, but the TARDIS vs paradox thing does play a part, even as he'd deny it forever
- Ianto's feelings are part 'was there during the destruction and death of those I was closest to' and part 'my boyfriend's ex'
- Jack, as is later made explicit, has a lot of trauma from 'the Year That Never Was'. Also he is a bit of a stalker when it comes to keeping track of the Doctor
- Fitz, 'oh of course you have to have a translator set up'
- the Forge is audio continuity, which Fitz is not, but he's traveled a couple continuities with Compassion

Chapter 4: Office Supplies (Secretarial through Janitorial)

- a lot of the stories are based off random plot elements in various DW books/audios
- Fitz does have the 'hate vampires gene'
- finally getting into the theory of alternate timelines directly (Fitz has been building up to this, he can be quite patient)
- alien encounter: spaceship of semi-sentient 'wood'
- Fitz has a lot of empathy for a lonely alien spaceship
- (I did a lot of looking at who sort of stands together even if not talking in Torchwood episodes)
- my headcanon for End of Days involves more psychic influence that's stated in the episode
- Ianto's psychic defense lessons are a tool that will come back later

Chapter 5: Entertainment (Books through Music)

- Professor X as Doctor Who expy is something that can be so personal
- 'would Fitz's experiences at school have been like Ianto's if some of the circumstances that made Fitz's schooling so bad were changed?' It's a question I have my own hc for, but it is also what's meant to be raised
- Fitz sure heals fast. I mean. Is careful not to get too injured.
- psychic lending library
- according to Revolution Man, Fitz can spend days in the library (supported by further evidence). Nerd.
- reference to Delta and the Bannermen
- reference to Broken
- Fitz's look at Ianto being twenty-six is basically 'I don't want to think about how long ago it was that I was twenty-six but this is so depressing (also being twenty-six is peak depression)'
- references to: Interference, Dominion, Eater of Wasps and Shadows of Avalon, in that order

Chapter 6: Entertainment cont. (Film & Television)

- I always hope to make it clear that I think Ianto & Jack's relationship is both something important to them and also enjoyable. I just enjoy them breaking up because Ianto's 26/27 and I hope representation has come far enough that they can get into a toxic breakup cycle in Ianto's 30s.
- Ianto carrying his biphobia on his bisexual shoulders
- 'would you love me if I was a worm'
- Anji didn't exist in the TV continuity until she did

Chapter 7: Daecun Monster

- time bubbles makes Ianto think of Jack & John
- also, to be fair to Jack's irritation, the tales of Fitz & Ianto's sex farce adventures do end up on his desk
- "Nurses are allowed to be horny, Ianto." A line that just made me laugh.
- When did Fitz watch The Magic School Bus? It was commentary on his scientific knowledge and then the Doctor got really into it so here they are
- Fitz is trying to open a space for Ianto to talk about his bisexuality if he wants to. Ianto does not want to
- reference to The Adventuress of Henrietta Street
- Chloe is actually probably related to the Doctor in some way, which make the parental questioning funny for me
- the Owen mention is a reference to The Last Beacon

Chapter 8: Four People From Torchwood Three

- it's important that in this timeline The Sontaran Stratagem/The Poison Sky/The Doctor's Daughter take place before Reset
- Gray's reference to Tosh's type of brilliance tying into her grandmother's, even without getting into any other color theory (because it's very straightforward with someone called 'Gray' & also the shadow thing with the Faction Paradox...)
- 'seven, one, two, five, six, three, four' is Fitz's list of Doctor's from least to most personally attractive to him
- there was extensive tarot reading for Fitz & Owen's game
- I hc Fitz avoided National Service by faking a disability, while very much Not Thinking about history of mental health issues in his family
- Jack talks big game about being seen as a person while putting Martha up on a pedestal
- I like Gwen/Rhys because of how much they laugh while having sex
- Compassion is like, 'hurry it up'. But she was the one who picked Fitz. RIP Adam, you were a nice snack.

Chapter 9: Fitz Kreiner (I)

- Not just here, but there are a number of things that are based on Ianto in Adrift, an episode I have... feelings about
- 1904 sex pollen form was written by Jack, and edited by others
- the question of how much active or purposeful manipulation Fitz is employing is one that cannot be answered
- (literally only Ianto is thinking about the Lisa thing, mainly because to them it was 'the Cyberwoman thing', which they don't see a reason to think about)

Chapter 9: Fitz Kreiner (II)

- Daedalus’ knot & everything that comes after has foreshadowing about Fitz's ultimate fate, but also it is for dramatic atmosphere
- it's also playing with dark/light in terms of safety/danger. It's not about either of them being bad, exactly, but the darkness is safety and then there's Jack's perception is the light is the crack that comes between him and Ianto in the sequel and going back to whether 'brilliance' is always a good thing, etc.
- lot of dimensions relative to space
- (holding hands is bad practice because of needing to get to a weapon, which does play into other things)
- getting into some sequel relationship issues: Ianto feels that Jack has lost his trust in him (because he blames himself for stuff with Fitz), and as Jack has actually lost his trust in himself he doesn't recognize the issue
- there's an unwillingness to push each other on certain important issues, which is meant as kindness and can lead to a level of passive-aggressive problems
- I do the thing where names are in lower case when it's from Ianto's POV because they're nouns a couple times. Because I think it's funny.
- Fitz is doing so much lying. How much of it is true lying and how much is because he's done some playing around with his memories to stop himself knowing things until he 'has' to? A question he won't answer.
- my thoughts on the Battle of Canary Wharf are extensive even if they often show up here basically as 'yeah that would really fuck you up'.
- Fitz's references when trying to hit Jack's weak spots use Eater of Wasps and not The Talons of Weng-Chiang itself but more stories using elements from it like Emotional Chemistry and The Butcher of Brisbane
- Fitz was made by the TARDIS. In the end it seems like he takes after his mother.
- “It was for Gallifrey. It was always for bloody Gallifrey. They never deserved him at their best, not that I can imagine what that would look like. They certainly didn’t deserve him by the end. Do you know what it took to bring it back? We had to build the damn thing. They gave him nothing. They would’ve destroyed him. Do you know how often we fought that war? Gallifrey deserves Rassilon. But the Doctor would say that the rest of the universe doesn’t.”
- going to the sequel, Compassion and Fitz exist because of EDA!Eight in the Zero room, but the existence of Anji makes Fitz sure that the plan is going to work (they're there before the box opens which is proof of the paradox working)
- As a former Time Agent and companion of the Doctor, Jack has a good idea of some of the danger, though he doesn't know how deep it goes
- saying that Jack is only there because he's material they need is the only thing Fitz doesn't mean. Jack wouldn't exactly change his mind about Fitz because he didn't mean one of the things he said

Chapter 11: The Doctor

- is it a coincidence that Gray moves between Fitz and Jack?
- there's a lot of gender going on with Ianto and his relationships with his family, and, to be clear, that gender is that he is properly being a man (TM)
- Ianto does not, actually, manage to get over his obsessive need to keep things in separate boxes when it comes to 'Torchwood' and 'Family', and he doesn't even have the excuse of having his memories messed with
- how honest Gray's story is, is again, complicated
- some of what he says is just straight up lying, but it's actually lying to Fitz as well as Jack
- The TARDIS doesn’t like paradoxes that she doesn’t have a hand in making. You’re not my brother. The Doctor would have been sad at your heroic death, but he would’ve let you die. So, the TARDIS wasn’t going to stand it. / just so much here that no one in the scene gets around to questioning because tensions are, lets say, high.
- honestly a lot of things could've been figured out much sooner if Ianto had had a direct conversation with Jack about what happened in the archives, but it's not all his fault that didn't happen
- 'Jack is clutching at his head', Jack doesn't consciously note this even when he's going through his memories because it's an automatic reaction to what's going on with time
- Jack saying things are too late to stop vs the Doctor saying it's too late...
- also Fitz, while making out with the Doctor: to be clear, we're not in a relationship

Track List*

*or, to be more accurate, my Fitz track list for this story, some more based on vibes than others but all of them somewhat vibe based

Istanbul (Not Constantinople)
Which Side Are You On
Every You Every Me
Hell's Comin' with Me
Hawk Moth Theme Song

(The last is sort of the most blatant, Fitz is the bad guy of this story. He's so special to me.)