#favourite things about gwen cooper | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

the-torchwood-archive · 3 months

Text

From TWM #8, it's part one of Harm's Way.

Since there was some interest in me sharing my collection, I thought I'd start with one of the first short stories and one of my favourites. Which is odd, considering Trevor Baxendale wrote one of my least favourite novels. Judging by The Undertaker's Gift, he's a big supporter of Jack/Gwen so it's interesting that he wrote a Rhys/Gwen focused story.

Full text is under the cut. This was a quick transcription, so please let me know if you find any errors.

The Torchwood SUV pulled up with a screech of brakes and Captain Jack Harkness climbed out. ‘Came as fast as I could,’ he said with a grin.

‘No news there, then,’ said Ianto Jones. He was standing on the lawn of a neat semi-detached bungalow, squinting in the sun as it reflected off the SUV’s paintwork.

Jack took off his sunglasses as he strolled over, ‘Ok, Fun Boy, what gives?’

‘You’d best have a look yourself. Tosh is in the back checking it over.’

‘What about the people?’ Jack asked as he strode up the garden path.

‘I sent them next door. The neighbours are providing tea and sympathy. It’s that kind of area.’

‘It’s a sunny day. Everyone’s nice on a sunny day.’

Jack pushed open the gate at the side of the house and Ianto followed him down a shady passage into the back garden. It wasn’t too large, a meticulously cut lawn and some well-tended flower beds. Not the kind of garden kids played in, so this was unlikely to be a prank.

Toshiko Sato was already there, examining the artefact with a portable scanner. If artefact was the right word, it was really still just a thing, but that sounded so unprofessional.

It was pretty big, at least two meters long, a meter wide, shaped like a loaf of bread. In fact the surface looked, at first glance, just like a crust – until you realized it was translucent, like amber. The midday sun sparkled like gold coins scattered across the top.

‘It sinks,’ said Jack, wafting the air away from his nose.

‘I think it’s the heat,’ said Toshiko straightening up, ‘We need to get it somewhere cool.’

‘Okay,’ Jack nodded, ‘Owen’s on his way with a van. He’ll be here in ten.’

‘I thought Gwen was going to have a word with Rhys, see if we could just one of his lorries?’

Jack shrugged, ‘She changed her mind.’

Ianto pulled a face and Toshiko understood. Jack had changed Gwen’s mind for her.

‘Rhys is ok, but I don’t want to put him at risk,’ Jack explained, noticing the silent exchange, ‘And neither does Gwen.’

---------

Rhys Williams sat down and pushed the skinny latte across the café table to his fiancee Gwen Cooper. He was having a large mocha with extra whipped cream and chocolate sprinkles. ‘Nearly five quid,’ he sasid, licking froth off his thumb, ‘For two coffees, it’s a disgrace.’

Gwen smiled at him. It was a beautiful day and they had been lucky enough to find an empty table on the pavement, ‘Stop complaining, it’s not offen we get to meet up in the day time.’

‘Well I’ll just have to make the most of it, won’t I?’

‘What does that mean?’ Gwen stiffened slightly. There was something in Rhys’ tone that rang alarm bells, the way he said something with that causal smile but without meeting her gaze. It always meant trouble.

‘Y’know…in your line of work. Torchwood and all that. You never know the day, do you?’

Gwen put her coffee down, ‘What’s got into you? I thought we were good about this?’

‘We are, we are.’

‘Well you don’t sound it. C’mon, what’s up? I thought we were going to have a nice cup of coffee and chat about the wedding?’

‘Oh yeah, that.’

Gwen’s shoulders sagged, ‘Rhys, please tell me what’s the matter.’

‘Well I just thought…it’s not like you’re a police-woman anymore, is it? I mean, that was bad enough…’

‘Bad enough?’

‘Yeah, you know, with the risk and everything. Well, what I mean is, it’s not like being a…’ he floundered, ‘I don’t know…a secretary, is it?’

Gwen glared at him, ‘Is that what you wish I was? A bloody secretary, for God’s sake?’

‘No,’ he said, realizing that he had said the wrong thing again, ‘No, I only meant it as an example. You could be a bloody bricklayer for all I care. At least I’d know you were safe.’

She was still thinking of a reply when her mobile sang out. She flipped it, shielded the screen from the sun, saw the single word. TORCHWOOD. Oh great. Prefect timing, Jack.

‘I’ve got to go,’ Gen said, standing up, businesslike, ‘Thanks very much for the coffee.’

Rhys got up as well, ‘Don’t go. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to moan. I’m just worried, that’s all.’

‘I haven’t got time for this.’

And then the look was back in his eyes again. The one where his eyebrows sand right down over his nose. The only look on his face that she ever disliked, ‘No, you rush of, Gwen, run along to Jack. Maybe I’ll see you tonight, eh, if you’ve not been ubducted by aliens or eaten by a Weeble.’

‘Weevil!’ yelled Gwen, and then realized, just as Rhys did, that they had raised their voiced loud enough for the other people at the nearby tables to hear. She turned abruptly and walked away, her heart hammering, leaving him to face the stares.

---------

She made it to the Hub in record time. There was nothing like a really bad mood to get you moving and by the time she’d walked to Roald Dahl Plass, Gwen did feel batter.

‘Where have you been?’ asked Jack as Gwen stepped into the cool and cavernous interior of the Torchwood base.

‘You gave me the morning off,’ she told him.

‘I never give anyone the morning off,’ he said, ‘That must have been an alien imposter posing as me.’

‘Don’t joke about it.’

‘It could happen. You have to be ready. If I ever give you the morning off again, question it. If I change my mind, then it’s the genuine me.’

‘There’s only one Captain Jack,’ Gwen laughed, ‘That I do know. What’s the emergancy?’

‘No emergancy. I just wanted the whole team together. We’ve brought something in and we need to check it out.’

Gwen dumped her jacket and bag on her workstation, ‘What is it?’

‘We don’t know,’ Ianto said, coming down the steps from the hothouse, ‘We’re thinking of having an office sweep. But so far it’s been officially promoted from a “thing” to an “artefect”. Coffee?’

Gwen shook her head. She could still taste the latte and it wasn’t good, ‘Where is it, then?’

---------

It was on the slab in the autopsy room. Owen Harper, white lab coat glowing under the operating theatre lights, was examining the artefact with an old-fashioned magnifying glass while Toshiko stood close by, taking yet more readings on her PDA.

‘Blimey, that’s a big one,’ Gwen said as she came in.

‘That’s another way you can check it’s the real me.’ Jack murmured as he followed her down the steps into the cool, circular chamber.

‘Excuse me,’ said Owen, looking up from the examination table, ‘This is an innuendo-free zone.’

‘Since when?’

‘Tosh and I just agreed it, didn’t we, Tosh?

She looked up and nodded quickly, the blue glow from the scanner hiding her crimson blushes.

‘Did it come through the Rift?’ Gwen asked.

‘Landed slap-bang in the middle of Pontcanna,’ nodded Ianto, ‘Someone’s back garden, no less. They were pretty surprised but not traumatized.

‘Good neighbours,’ explained Jack.

‘And no need for retcon.’

Gwen nodded, satisfied. The memory-altering drug perfected by Captain Jack was used too often for her liking. She knew the public had to be protected, but sometimes it just felt wrong to protect them retrospectively.

‘We brought it back in a van,’ Ianto continued, ‘Took all four of us to lift it. I still can’t get the smell off my hands.’

‘You were wearing gloves,’ Owen pointed out.

‘I know, it’s the smell of the gloves I can’t get rid of,’ Ianto screwed up his face, ‘It’s the rubber.’

‘So any idea of what it actually is?’ Gwen approached the examination table cautiously. Whatever it was, it certianly ponged. It was a distinctly organic smell, like the mulch at the bottom of a forest floor. Ripe and peaty.

‘I’ve been collecting a number of different readings and scan data,’ Toshink reported. Her glasses flashed blue in the light of the PDA screen as she continued to run through the analysis programs, ‘It’s one hundred percent extraterrestrial, but there’s not match in the database for organic compounds, cell structure, polymer chains or nucleic acids.’

‘So,’ Jack summerised, ‘Something new. Any guesses?’

‘Crusty roll for a giant?’ offered Ianto, ‘Abbadon’s packed lunch, perhaps…’ But no one even smiled at that.

‘It’s organic,’ Owen comfired, ‘But it’s dead.’ He tapped the side of the amber pod with a knuckle. Even with surgical gloves on, there was a distinct, hard rap.

‘It’s a chrysalis,’ said Gwen.

They all turned to look at her. Self concious, she managed a shrug, ‘ What? I did a project on them in juniors. You know, butterflies and moths – in the larval stage, when they’re caterpillars, they weave a silk covering all around themselves and it dries out and forms a hard chrysalis. Inside, the caterpillar dissolves into a kind of soup an then reforms as an entirely new creature. A butterfly or moth.’

‘You’re saying there could be a giant caterpillar in there?’ asked Jack.

‘Or a butterfly,’ added Toshiko.

‘Or soup,’ suggested Ianto.

‘I don’t know,’ Gwen said. She was standing close to the thing now, staring down into the translucent shell outer layer, ‘But that’s the thing about them. The chrysalis, the shell, is dead matter. It’s what’s inside it that’s alive.’

---------

Rhys jumped down from the lorry cab and slammed the door. It was still sunny, but there were puddles left over from yesterday’s downpour. He splashed his way across the yard towards the Portakabin office of Harwood’s Haulage, still fuming.

He and Gwen were arguing far too much lately. He’s put it down to pre-marriage nerves; some of his married mates had said that the weeks leading up to theire weddings had been the worst of their entire lives. ‘And then after the wedding, it all goes down hill,’ Banana Boat had warned. Feeble joke, but it had made Rhys laugh out loud.

‘Get away,’ Rhys had said, ‘What would you know about it? I’m looking forward to it, me.’

‘No you’re not. You’re bloody terrified.’

But Banana Boat was wrong about that. Rhys was scared of notgetting married. Of getting there, up the aisle, with Gwen, before some insane alien space monster ate her alive or fried her with a laser blaster.

Before he’d known, in the months before he’d stumbled on the truth and found out about Captain Jack Harkness and Torchwood, Rhys and Gwen had argued a lot. In a funny kind of way it had been a relief to find out about the space aliens and the Rift and the Hub and all that crazy stuff. Because it made sense of the arguments, of the tension, and the deceit. He hadn’t liked it but he’d understood it. And the truth had brought them closer together, closer than they had ever been.

But there was a doubt in Rhys’ mind now. After the initial excitement, the thrill, the breathtaking madness of It all, it came down to this; Gwen faced deadly danger on a regular basis, peril and adventure that the rest of the world could only have nightmares about. But for the people in Torchwood, for Gwen Cooper, and now Rhys himself, those nightmares were reality. And more than that, they were daily routine.

And that was scaring Rhys now. Scaring him big time. Because every time his phone rang, his guts would turn stone cold and his hand would tremble as he took his mobile out of his pocket. Because one day, any day, that would be Jack Harkness calling with bad news.

---------

Gwen was in Jack’s office. She was standing at the window, looking across the Hub to the autopsy room where Owen and Toshiko were still working on the chrysalis. It had been officially promoted from “artefact” to “chrysalis” and Gwen felt quite proud.

‘Problems?’ asked Jack. He was sitting with his boots up on his desk and his hands behind his head. His sky-blue eyes were watching her carefully. Gwen always knew when Jack’s eyes were on her.

‘No, nothing,’ she replied, fiddling with her necklace. It was a cheap leather and shell thing that Rhys had given her only last week, down by the waterfront. It had caught her eye on the Cardiff Bay souvenir stall and Rhys had bought it for her instantly.

‘You can’t kid a kidder,’ drawled Jack, ‘Listen, I know you wanted Rhys to help. The truck thing – it was a good offer, a kind offer. Exactly what I’d expect from you. But I can’t involve Rhys in our work. He’s gotta stay separate, do you understand?’

‘Sure.’

Silent as a panther, Jack appeared at her shoulder, one warm hand on her arm, ‘I mean it, Gwen. You’re Torchwood. Rhys is the real world. He’s what you go back to at the end of the day. Let’s not ruin that.’

‘I understand.’

He turned her around and looked deep into her eyes. She could feel her irises loosening, widening, drinking in that cool blue gaze. When he spoke, she could feel his breath on her face.

‘Do you understand? Really?’

‘Yes.’

‘I’ve gotta care for everybody, Gwen. Even Rhys.’

She closed her eyes, ‘Yes.’

There was a polite knock at the door and Jack let go of her.

‘Excuse me,’ said Toshiko, ‘But I think we’ve found something that might be of interest…’

---------

‘It’s writing,’ said Ianto.

They were all staring at a patch of smooth amber on the side of the chrysalis. Owen’s pen torch was picking out a series of marks in the material, angular cuts which run in a long line around the entire perimeter, ‘From most angles the marks are actually quite difficult to see,’ explained Owen, ‘But if I shing a UV light on them…’ He changed the setting on his torch and the tip glowed ultraviolet. And then, instantly, the markings were impossible to miss.

‘The y are not random or accidental cuts,’ Toshiko confirmed, ‘It is definitely some sort of deliberate, intelligent inscription.’

‘So what does it say?’ Jack asked.

‘I’m running it through every transcription protocol we have. It could be a long process, though.’

‘Ok,’ Jack clapped his hands, ‘The day’s just got interesting. Let’s get to it, guys. I wanna know what this thing is and where it’s come from.’

‘Uh, Jack,’ began Gwen, ‘I think the day might be getting a little more interesting than you thought…’

‘What do you mean?’

Gwen pointed, ‘Look at the chrysalis. Can’t you see? Inside. Something’s moving inside.’

---------

Rhys dialled Gwen’s mobile. It rang twice and then her voice said, ‘Rhys, what is it?’ She sounded busy, distracted. Ringing her was wrong, he shouldn’t be checking up on her like this, but he had done it now.

‘Gwen love…about before. I didn’t mean to have a go at you, I was out of order.’

‘Yeah. Ok. No worries.’

She sounded like she wanted to close the call. Rhys felt a flare of irritation again; here he was, trying to make amends, extend the olive branch, and she was too busy, ‘What’s up?’ he asked, ‘What are you doing?’

‘Rhys, I’m busy. I’ll call you back.’

Gwen snapped the phone shut and returned it to her back pocket, ‘Sorry.’

They all looked at her for a long moment. None of them ever received calls in the Hub, at least not from anyone outside Torchwood. Gwen didn’t know whether to feel embarrassed or smug. But she did bloody feel annoyed with Rhys, didn’t he ever know when to let go?

‘I’m getting new readings,’ Toshiko announced, ‘Gwen’s right. There’s something in there and it’s alive.’

‘How come we’ve only just noticed it now?’ Jack wanted to know.

‘It’s only just started moving,’ Owen said, circling the examination table, ‘Something’s activated it.’

The chrysalis cracked open with a sound ricocheting around the Hub like a gunshot. The team all took a step back, reflexively.

For a second after that, nobody moved. They all stare at the jagged split running down the top of the chrysalis from one end to the other. Something moist glistened beneath the two halves, something which moved with a slow, ugly sucking noise.

Jack’s hand was on his gun, drawing it already. Owen was backing away from the chrysalis, one hand out to pull Toshiko back with him. She was still immersed in the readings from her scanner, her eyes fixed on the blue screen, ‘There’s been a huge surge in energy levels,’ she reported without looking up.

‘We kinda noticed,’ Jack said, levelling the Webley revolver. Ianto was already mounting the steps leading out of the autopsy room, heading with brisk efficiency for the weapons cabinet.

Only Jack, Gwen, and Owen saw the thing emerge from its chrysalis. It burst like a giant abscess, globules of stinking ichor spraying across the room as the contents were disgorged.

It moves so fast that they should even see what it was, not properly. It shot upwards in a tangle of limbs, knocking the theatre lamps flying and sticking to the ceiling like a screwed up spider. Owen was in his back, shouting something, and when Gwen looked at him she could see that he was hurt, twisting from side to side while he clutched his face.

Jack fired three shots at the creature, the boom of the heavy calibre pistol rattling all the instruments in the room. Brick dust showered them as each bullet missed its target. The thing scuttled with inhuman speed across the ceiling, swung down through the entrance ach and lashed out, somehow, in retaliation. Jack was sent spinning through the air, all the breath knocked out of him, until he crashed into the wall with bone-crunching force.

‘Jack!’ Gwen yelled, charging across to him. She skidded in a patch of alien goo and hit the floor hard next to Jack’s inert figure. She turned him over and gasped when she saw the huge black gash on his forehead. Blood had already begun to pour down his face and he was out cold.

Toshiko was bent over Owen, who has stopped screaming but was not moaning in a way which was somehow worse. It was the kind of sound that no one should ever had to make, the same sound Gwen had once heard at a road traffic accident she had been unlucky enough to attend as a fresh-faced WPC. The young lad caught under the wheels of the bin lorry had made the same noise minutes before he died, before the ambulance ever got close. It was something Gwen had hoped to never hear again, and yet now she was, only this time it was her friend, someone she loved, someone she’d screwed, for pity’s sake, dying right in front of her. Owen was still holding his face, his fingers white and ridged. Toshiko was panic stricken, trying to speak to him, but barely able to say anything coherent.

Gwen made Jack as comfortable as she could, but quickly. She knew he would be ok. Then she crabbed across the room, patting Toshiko on the shoulder as she went, ‘Look after him,’ she ordered, and Tosh, bless her, just looked up and nodded without a word. Owen was holding onto Toshiko’s arm with one hand now, his fingers flexing and pulling her. His other hand was on his face and Gwen could see blood, lots of it, running down his wrist as he rocked back and forth, groaning and whimpering.

‘He’ll be alright,’ Gwen said and again Toshiko simply nodded, as if hardly daring to disagree.

‘Get it!’ Owen hissed through his fingers. Blood bubbled behind his hand and one eye blared feverishly at Gwen, bloodshot and frightened, ‘Get the bloody thing!’

Gwen nodded and ran up into the Hub.

---------

It looked empty. The huge space was quiet, save for the tick and whirr of the computer stations and the hum of the Rift manipulator. Nothing moved.

Gwen’s weapon, a powerful 9mm Sig Sauer automatic, was on her desk. She could reach it in half a dozen quick strides. But where was the creature?

Something moved across the Hub and Gwen froze. Then she saw Ianto step out of the shadows beneath the hothouse, a Heckler & Koch SMG slung over his shoulder. There was a magazine already in place, a second one taped to the side of it for speedy reloading. He was scanning the Hub, sweeping the area for any sign of the thing from the chrysalis, his forefinger resting on the trigger of the gun.

He saw Gwen, nodded once. Then something crawled across the high walkway which ran along one side of the hub and Ianto swivelled, bringing the SMG up to his shoulder to aim.

The creature stopped, almost invisible in the shadows. Gwen could hardly see it, apart from the impression of a number of limbs sticking out from beneath a shiny carapace, like a beetle or a cockroach. But, boy, was it big. Big and fast.

Ianto took a cautious step forward, still keeping the creature in his sights, but trying to reach a better firing position. As he moved, the creature moved. It crawled slowly along the gantry, matching him step for step.

Then, without warning, it sprang. Ianto fired instinctively, the muzzle flash igniting the scene for split seconds like a strobe light. Gwen saw a few glimpses of the thing in mid-air, like momentary snapshots, saw the widening jaws and jagged fangs.

It barely slowed under the hail of gunfire. It collided with Ianto and he disappeared in an instant, as if he had stepped off the kerb in front of a speeding lorry.

Gwen had already made the dash for her gun. She grabbed the Sig, cocked it, aimed, squeezed the trigger. Once, twice, so many more times she lost count. It was a big gun, too big for her really, the magazine holding 16 very heavy rounds. But Jack Harkness had taught her how to shoot and there was no one better than Jack.

The bullets in the Sig were not ordinary rounds. They were Torchwood ammo, hollow point, steel jacketed, with one microdot of super-dense Dwarf Star alloy to pack and extra punch. A great lump of it, about the size of a grain of sale, had come through the Rift 30 years ago. It was enough to keep them all in ammunition for decades to come, thanks to a tame microphysics engineer Jack knew at UNIT.

The bullets tore chunks out of the walls, holes in the pipe work and left one armoury window shattered. Several struck the creature. She didn’t see the rounds hit, but she knew, she just knew, they’d hit home. The creature squealed and crashed against a wall, splashing through the water at the base of the water tower and disappearing into the shadows.

Then all went quiet. Gwen’s ears were still ringing, but she could tell that the Hub was silent again. She couldn’t even hear Owen anymore. Perhaps he was dead now, like the boy who had been run over by the bin wagon. Perhaps Ianto was dead too. Jack was unconscious. Toshiko was not a warrior.

It was down to Gwen.

She walked forward slowly, keeping the gun level, ready to shoot again at point blank of necessary.

Silence. She strained to hear something, anything, that might give the creature’s location away. Breathing. Or the click of its amour. Or the sticky noise of its jaws opening.

Nothing.

She crept forward, arms extended, rigid, like a signpost to death.

It had to be nearby. It couldn’t have gone much further.

Another step. Her canvas trainers didn’t make a sound.

And then her mobile went off in her pocket.

She physically jumped with shock. The jaunty ringtone trilled out across the Hub, drawing the attention of anyone, or anything, that might be listening.

The creature sprang from its hiding place, jaws snapping at her. Gwen actually saw the spittle flying from the jagged spikes which filled the gaping maw, aware that the last sound she was ever going to hear in her life was her ringtone, and the last thought she would ever have was Rhys you stupid bugger.

And then it was on her.

#torchwood #jack harkness #ianto jones #gwen cooper #toshiko sato #owen harper #rhys williams #short story #harms way

28 notes · View notes

electraslight · 1 year

Note

Not a request, but a question: just...what are your thoughts on Gwen? Like, what impressions do you get from her character? I'd be lying if I said she isn't my favourite B10 character, but I'd like to hear your thoughts. What you think of canon Gwen, which Gwen is the best iyo, if you want maybe some headcanons...

But only if you want to, of course. Thanks in advance!!

hey!!! to answer ur question i love gwen very dearly and shes one of my favorites!! shes probably the charatcer ive drawn the most bc i draw her all the time traditionally. Shes also the character ive done the most fanon stuff for as her drastic personality shifts between series kind of make it so u have to be fanon-ey lol. i kind of merge classic gwen's bitchiness pettiness and general childishness with uaf gwens maturity and (while not very present in the show) angst potential. as for what gwen i think is the best i still always love classic gwen bc i paticularly hate how they made gwen a mom character and also nullified a lot of her personality to make gwevin work. i just love girls that suck lol, but i do like uaf gwen for the anodite stuff, which plays into my super ultra fanon hcs and my 'gwen is trans' conspiracy, plus i like that her villians changed to reflect her struggles in a way in uaf, becoming less fun evil magic people and more cruel predators preying on her and the people she loves.

i dont really know how to condense my gwen fanon into single headcanons lol, i have a very complex narrative in my head about her.

-before the roadtrip one of her worst fears was transformation, she used to watch movies where someone would be transformed into something against their will and get really scared which she became more desensitized to bc of ben but which is also one of the reasons she is extremely distressed by her not being a real human. she has nightmares all the time of her stepping out of her skin and it being stolen from her so shed be stuck as an anodite forever

-she loves computery stuff and coding and the like, and when she went to college she majored in compsci. she lost this interest around uaf bc she was stressed due to the anodite thing and the DNaliens invading but she picked it back up around ov. shes likd of sad cooper was such a creep to her because she wanted to talk computers with him

-she doesnt like being alone in public so she always takes ben or kevin with her anywhere.

-shes very bad at making female friends because she has a tendency to hate most girls she knows for insignificant reasons or just the mere association of them and ben. shes only able to really become friends with girls who r either unrelated to ben or who shes forced to be around all the time. this is also why she hates all her girl cousins (shes kind of a mysoginist lol)

-shes very judgy and often very harsh in her judgements and not easy to trust, but she puts on an air of being trusting and nice so as to not appear hostile or mean. she did this with kevin and never really trusted him fully even when she was trying to get him to ask her out. she only really trusts grandpa max and ben in her life, then later kevin.

-her mom didnt allow her to have a lot of sugar as a kid because it made her irritable, but once she goes to college she contracts a crippling orange soda addiction

there ya go!! sorry soem of these r heavy i have a lot of gwen thoughts. here take a gwevin 4 the road

#ben 10 #ben 10 omniverse #ben 10 alien force #kevin levin #ben 10 ultimate alien #gwen tennyson #ben 10 classic #gwevin #ben 10 art #ben 10 fanart #ben ten #b10 #ben 10 series #ben 10 headcannon #ben 10 hcs

140 notes · View notes

secretartquotes · 1 year

Text

One of the many things I love about Gwen Cooper , and probably my favourite , is that she was a mess in the beginning . She fucked up so much in season 1 and I loved every minute of it. Gwen wasn't written to be likeable , but to be human.She was going to be heard no matter what.She cheats on her boyfriend and she isn't punished . And the cheating is not because she's bored or she's this wicked person. No it's born out of trauma and need to share and yeah attraction too. Is it the best choice? No but it's one she does and sticks by and acknowledges is bad . But she still does it and continues to do.She later retcons Rhys just so she could tell him about the affair ,so she could feel better. Again a bad decision , morally questionable. Every Gwen wrong should be as celebrated as every Gwen right , because it's really a testament to her as a complex character and fucking wonderful and badass person. She fucked up , messed up , she failed and got back up again.

#torchwood #gwen cooper #I love this woman

106 notes · View notes

thepunkmuppet · 9 months

Text

so i have been writing my ideal version of season 14 in my head laying awake at night for weeks now and someone else needs to hear about it before i go insane. so.

concepts that would make miss ruby sunday ✨interesting and spicy✨ without going against the evidence we already have:

she is from the near future (2046 possibly?? i heard that year floating around in relation to robert ap gwillam)

she is from the further future, potentially WAY further, but was sent back in time by weeping angels hence her seemingly modern clothing. also this makes way for a weeping angels episode. you’re welcome.

she either has splinters like clara or there is a spatial genetic multiplicity thing going on (like with gwen cooper and gwyneth), and she exists in multiple time periods (eg, 60s and regency like we have seen in promo photos)

she is some kind of creation of jinkx monsoon’s character or “the duchess”. we don’t know anything about these characters but they are described as “the doctors most powerful enemy yet” and “beware the duchess”. i think creating a companion would be a pretty cool thing for a villain to do (and would probably end in utter tragedy, in the interest of fucking the doctor up, which is always fun)

she is a zygon, other alien or even a time lord who thinks she is human living on earth. i have thought about this and it’s my absolute favourite. there is potential for a queer / outsider allegory which is always great (i don’t belong here, i feel like i’m hiding, etc). she can still be from the modern era, but would have a unique perspective and presence on the show due to actually not being from earth. if a zygon, she would be able to shapeshift, a helpful and never-before-seen skill to have on adventures with loads of fun possibilities. and it would just make the whoniverse feel interconnected, not just retconning important world events with “time can be rewritten” but actually acknowledging that yeah, there are zygons living on earth! remember that? now that ive thought about it, i really want this option…

she is actually from the 1960s or the regency era, and we are seeing it out of sync and/or assuming based on promo stuff that her modern clothing is her everyday clothing and the historical stuff is just for funsies. i would love a 60s companion because a character from the time of the shows creation next to a black doctor?? what a fucking boss move it would be so awesome

she is mia tyler. im adding this because it’s popular, but people are really grasping at straws here in my opinion and i just… don’t like this idea? if mia tyler ever appears i want them to make it damn well clear, at least with foreshadowing and stuff. i’m going into season 14 wanting new and fresh and original. not supernatural nostalgia-bait soap opera shit. “I’M YOUR DAUGHTER FROM ANOTHER UNIVERSE” gimme a break i don’t like this one

she’s a unit or torchwood agent. this could actually be real! i like this one it’s fun, we know there’s gonna be a unit episode including kate stewart, why not have her be involved? love me a badass spy lady, plus it could open up martha jones and spin-off opportunities so….

she’s a secret villain. very broad and vague i know, but it’s never happened before and the shock horror twist of it all would just be so awesome, especially because millie has a background in soap operas lmao

her timeline is funky in some way. maybe she’s like river song, maybe she’s like clara, maybe she’s stuck in a time loop or is from an alternate universe or there’s something very wrong about the events of her life that means timey wimey stuff ensues

she’s a time lord / gallifreyan and possibly a relative of the doctor. possibly linked to susan in some way, or an otherwise relative of the doctor’s. a secret sibling (again, millie gibson’s soap opera background!!), his child / susan’s parent, someone linked to the doctors daughter jenny, etc etc

she’s a time agent. the idea of time agents is really cool but woefully unexplored, we only ever meet jack and john and sure you can’t beat the wives but i want to see the full potential of them, there’s so much you could do

if you can think of any more, please do share in tags and comments i wanna know other ways i can get my hopes up way too high!! :))

#doctor who #dr who #dw #new who #nuwho #millie gibson #ruby sunday #rtd2 #ncuti gatwa #14th doctor #15th doctor #fifteenth doctor

15 notes · View notes

adventure-showdown · 6 months

Text

What is your favourite Doctor Who story?

ROUND 1 MASTERPOST

synopses and propaganda under the cut

Everything Changes

Synopsis

The Torchwood Three team arrives at the scene of a brutal murder. PC Gwen Cooper's curiosity is challenged by their attitude; their approach and their technology is at odds with everything she believes in. As she investigates them, she begins to uncover a dark, mysterious and dangerous world right in the heart of Cardiff.