silver_sun (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
silver_sun) wrote2013-05-24 12:33 pm
silver_sun) wrote2013-05-24 12:33 pm
Thoughts and a question or two about the Andy/Tom Torchwood/Being Human crossover fic.
Still plotting out the Tom/PC Andy Being Human/Torchwood crossover fic. I've got something like 13k of bits of fic and plotting typed up and more hand written in a notepad.
I'm still trying to figure out a timeline that works, but this is the one that I think that I am going with.
Because Andy's story picks up after Children of Earth so 2009 or 2010 depending on which version of the Torchwood timeline you use. I usually use the one what puts events in the same year as the series aired, but for this I'm going to use the one that places the Torchwood episodes about a year ahead of the air date.
Basically the confusion in the years all seems to come from Rose's timeline in Doctor who, which gives the date for the attack on Torchwood One, which then places everything in Torchwood one year later than than when the show aired.
Tom's part of the story starts in 2012 (At least it's 2012 as far as I can tell. As series 3, 4 and 5 take place over a fairly short time scale - around 15 to 18 months from the Pack in mid series 3 to Pie and Prejudice in series 5, although it could be as little as a year.)
But it still leaves a gap between September 2010 and Summer 2012 for Andy before his and Tom's storylines finally meet.
Honestly this is probably me over thinking in the timelines to a far greater extent than is actually needed as all there really needs to be is an amount of time between when CoE happens and when Andy eventually meets Tom.
Sept - Dec 2010.
After the events of Children of Earth he's suspended from duty pending a disciplinary hearing. In the end nothing happens though because so much of the information is classified and can't be release to the officers in charge of the hearing, and other half is incomprehensible without it. So Andy is pretty much told don't do it again and sent back to work.
Jan 2011 to November 2011
Back on duty, Andy finds he's constantly on the rota for the patrols and duties that nobody likes doing. His colleagues are wary of him, nobody wants to be assigned as his partner on patrol. He finds himself getting more and more isolated. There are whispers behind his back about his involvement with Torchwood and about all the officers who died when the weevils (not that they know that's what they're called) during Exit Wounds. He's miserable where he is and he tries for a transfers to Swansea and Newport, but is turned down. He'd not got much life outside of the police – he's been with them since he was eighteen- so he's just about lost all his friends over this.
November 2011.
The police are called to help with the eviction of a traveller camp on some waste ground near a housing estate, as it has been bought by a developer and is earmarked for a new supermarket.
The yelling, people fighting back, children crying, is too much and Andy feels like he is back on the estate where he was when the army had come for the children. The stress of the past year is too much and he freezes, he's just staring at it when a senior officer arrives and start giving them all orders to help with the eviction. When Andy doesn't respond he puts a hand on Andy's shoulder. Startled, Andy pushes him over. Then he realises what he's done. He's scared by his own reaction, and he's shaking and near tears as he tries to apologise. He's taken off duty again and driven home. The officer telling him to get his head together before he even thinks of coming back to work.
Those high up in the police who knew about what had gone on during the events of Children of Earth decide that this is the opportunity they've been waiting for to get rid of him without it raising too many questions. And so and after three months signed off sick with stress Andy gets a letter saying that they are going to place him on ill health retirement, as he's no longer able to perform his duties and is unlikely to be able to again.
He thinks it's ridiculous, but he can't face fighting it, especially as if he does he's warned in no uncertain terms that they'll charge him with assault for pushing over the sergeant. He knows that even if he was allowed back on the force after that – extremely doubtful – the situation at the station would be even worse he's sure that he'd be talked about behind his back and otherwise ignored. So he accepts it.
Feeling absolutely wrecked about it, he goes to his mother's house. She's not exactly sympathetic, especially as she see the situation as being one mostly of Andy's own making. She's disappointed in him and asks him what he thinks he's going do with his life now he's ruined his career.
She's not a horrible person exactly. Just one with a very old fashioned mind set. She had Andy later in life, and she's now in her early seventies. (She was 42 when he was born). She's very much men should be men, women should know their place, 'just pull yourself together and get on with it.' and 'everything was so much better in my day without all these modern ideas' Her three elder children (Andy's brothers who were all born when she was in her 20's) are all successes, who all went to grammar school (the last grammar school in Wales closed in 1989) Andy went into the police after finishing his A levels with decidedly average grades.
(His mother's reactions to things is why he asked Gwen if Rhiannon had known about Jack and Ianto being together. He was worried that Rhi might have acted like his mother would, he didn't want her to have to deal with that kind of anger after losing her friend. The fact that he has had feelings for men in the past as well, although rarely acted on it out of fear knowledge of it would get back to his mother, had made him even more wary.)
Feeling, if possible, even worse about himself, after talking to his mother, Andy goes to see Gwen. Her and Rhys and their daughter are making a life for themselves. Torchwood doesn't officially exist, but Gwen is in contact Martha Jones and Mickey Smith and they are trying their best to make things work. Gwen is colder and harder than he remembers. It feels like everything he ever had or knew is changed and gone.
Eventually in the spring of 2012 Andy ends up taking on a small holding on the edge Cambrian Mountains in central Wales that belonged to a distant relative. Not really knowing what he wants out of life yet, he decides to fix it up with maybe the view to letting hikers camp there.
Andy decides to do much of the renovation work himself due to only having a very small budget. In late spring/early summer he's working on the roof of one of the old barns when Tom walks by, looking for a place to camp.
So that's Andy's backstory. I'm wondering whether to write this as a separate fic and start the main one or just drop in pieces of this information through the course of the main fic.
Any thoughts? I can see it working both ways.
I know this sounds very much like it's not a CoE fix-it story, and the focus of it isn't. However I'm thinking at the moment that it would fit in with the world created in 'Finding Ways to Smile Again.' It's just Jack and Ianto haven't reappeared from their space cruise yet. They will be back though by the time that I get to the end of the Andy/Tom story though.
I'm still trying to figure out a timeline that works, but this is the one that I think that I am going with.
Because Andy's story picks up after Children of Earth so 2009 or 2010 depending on which version of the Torchwood timeline you use. I usually use the one what puts events in the same year as the series aired, but for this I'm going to use the one that places the Torchwood episodes about a year ahead of the air date.
Basically the confusion in the years all seems to come from Rose's timeline in Doctor who, which gives the date for the attack on Torchwood One, which then places everything in Torchwood one year later than than when the show aired.
Tom's part of the story starts in 2012 (At least it's 2012 as far as I can tell. As series 3, 4 and 5 take place over a fairly short time scale - around 15 to 18 months from the Pack in mid series 3 to Pie and Prejudice in series 5, although it could be as little as a year.)
But it still leaves a gap between September 2010 and Summer 2012 for Andy before his and Tom's storylines finally meet.
Honestly this is probably me over thinking in the timelines to a far greater extent than is actually needed as all there really needs to be is an amount of time between when CoE happens and when Andy eventually meets Tom.
Sept - Dec 2010.
After the events of Children of Earth he's suspended from duty pending a disciplinary hearing. In the end nothing happens though because so much of the information is classified and can't be release to the officers in charge of the hearing, and other half is incomprehensible without it. So Andy is pretty much told don't do it again and sent back to work.
Jan 2011 to November 2011
Back on duty, Andy finds he's constantly on the rota for the patrols and duties that nobody likes doing. His colleagues are wary of him, nobody wants to be assigned as his partner on patrol. He finds himself getting more and more isolated. There are whispers behind his back about his involvement with Torchwood and about all the officers who died when the weevils (not that they know that's what they're called) during Exit Wounds. He's miserable where he is and he tries for a transfers to Swansea and Newport, but is turned down. He'd not got much life outside of the police – he's been with them since he was eighteen- so he's just about lost all his friends over this.
November 2011.
The police are called to help with the eviction of a traveller camp on some waste ground near a housing estate, as it has been bought by a developer and is earmarked for a new supermarket.
The yelling, people fighting back, children crying, is too much and Andy feels like he is back on the estate where he was when the army had come for the children. The stress of the past year is too much and he freezes, he's just staring at it when a senior officer arrives and start giving them all orders to help with the eviction. When Andy doesn't respond he puts a hand on Andy's shoulder. Startled, Andy pushes him over. Then he realises what he's done. He's scared by his own reaction, and he's shaking and near tears as he tries to apologise. He's taken off duty again and driven home. The officer telling him to get his head together before he even thinks of coming back to work.
Those high up in the police who knew about what had gone on during the events of Children of Earth decide that this is the opportunity they've been waiting for to get rid of him without it raising too many questions. And so and after three months signed off sick with stress Andy gets a letter saying that they are going to place him on ill health retirement, as he's no longer able to perform his duties and is unlikely to be able to again.
He thinks it's ridiculous, but he can't face fighting it, especially as if he does he's warned in no uncertain terms that they'll charge him with assault for pushing over the sergeant. He knows that even if he was allowed back on the force after that – extremely doubtful – the situation at the station would be even worse he's sure that he'd be talked about behind his back and otherwise ignored. So he accepts it.
Feeling absolutely wrecked about it, he goes to his mother's house. She's not exactly sympathetic, especially as she see the situation as being one mostly of Andy's own making. She's disappointed in him and asks him what he thinks he's going do with his life now he's ruined his career.
She's not a horrible person exactly. Just one with a very old fashioned mind set. She had Andy later in life, and she's now in her early seventies. (She was 42 when he was born). She's very much men should be men, women should know their place, 'just pull yourself together and get on with it.' and 'everything was so much better in my day without all these modern ideas' Her three elder children (Andy's brothers who were all born when she was in her 20's) are all successes, who all went to grammar school (the last grammar school in Wales closed in 1989) Andy went into the police after finishing his A levels with decidedly average grades.
(His mother's reactions to things is why he asked Gwen if Rhiannon had known about Jack and Ianto being together. He was worried that Rhi might have acted like his mother would, he didn't want her to have to deal with that kind of anger after losing her friend. The fact that he has had feelings for men in the past as well, although rarely acted on it out of fear knowledge of it would get back to his mother, had made him even more wary.)
Feeling, if possible, even worse about himself, after talking to his mother, Andy goes to see Gwen. Her and Rhys and their daughter are making a life for themselves. Torchwood doesn't officially exist, but Gwen is in contact Martha Jones and Mickey Smith and they are trying their best to make things work. Gwen is colder and harder than he remembers. It feels like everything he ever had or knew is changed and gone.
Eventually in the spring of 2012 Andy ends up taking on a small holding on the edge Cambrian Mountains in central Wales that belonged to a distant relative. Not really knowing what he wants out of life yet, he decides to fix it up with maybe the view to letting hikers camp there.
Andy decides to do much of the renovation work himself due to only having a very small budget. In late spring/early summer he's working on the roof of one of the old barns when Tom walks by, looking for a place to camp.
So that's Andy's backstory. I'm wondering whether to write this as a separate fic and start the main one or just drop in pieces of this information through the course of the main fic.
Any thoughts? I can see it working both ways.
I know this sounds very much like it's not a CoE fix-it story, and the focus of it isn't. However I'm thinking at the moment that it would fit in with the world created in 'Finding Ways to Smile Again.' It's just Jack and Ianto haven't reappeared from their space cruise yet. They will be back though by the time that I get to the end of the Andy/Tom story though.
no subject
Or, open two word docs and go turn about. :)
no subject