OTA

[im_torchwood]

Jack had a very bad habit of letting his guard down. He loved hard and loved well, but in all his long years he was aware that love was brief. Here and there love had lasted for years. Angelo. His wife. Logan. In between there were others, loves great and small. And when love came, even though he knew better, Jack would let his guard down.

Life with Torchwood was all too often painful, bloody, and short. People came and went, but no one retired. No. No one got out so easily.

And the newest, freshest wound was Val. It had all been going so well. Jack's knowledge of tech and Val's understanding of magic had furthered the research into the portal. They were nowhere near being able to pinpoint a time or location, but they'd gotten one to hold steady for a while. It was promising.

Until it all went to hell.

Val went missing right before Jack's eyes. He'd tried desperately to undo what they'd done, but after a while even Jack had to admit he was lost. Gone.

And so Jack threw himself into work. There was no point in drinking- he never got drunk. There was no thirst for companionship- that was just hollow. But work was always there. Work to be done. Aliens to track. Tech to catalogue. A world to keep safe. Jack jumped right back into it and let the satisfaction he found in duty mask the pain of a broken heart.

Tonight he had just confiscated a crate of 'antiquities' and they were loaded in the back of the SUV. He'd let the sellers go since they were just humans who hadn't the first clue about what they were trying to sell. Jack locked the rig up and looked around, trying to decide if he ought to get a bite. He really hadn't been hungry, not since Val vanished, but he knew he needed to eat. He'd died of starvation before and it was a hell of a way to go.

(OTA find him anywhere in London or the outlying towns if you prefer. Jack needs new friends, and old faces will be welcome too!)

Comments

[pecked_by_birds]

"Mmm, lovely. You should try the shrimp. You know, there was a point in my life where just a whiff of fish or anything sea based, made me violently ill, but these days I quite like it," he admitted.

[im_torchwood]

Jack took the invitation and speared a shrimp from Prometheus's carton. It was delightful, and he stole another.

"That's really good. I grew up by the sea. I've always loved everything sea-based."

[pecked_by_birds]

"Spend enough time chained to a rock and I'm sure that love will dampen pet," Prometheus replied flatly.

[im_torchwood]

"Probably," Jack said. "Took me a long time before I could eat goat again after being kept in a slaughterhouse. That took a while."

[pecked_by_birds]

Prometheus wrinkled his nose at the thought, shaking his head. No, that didn't sound like a good time at all

"So, what do you do these days, hmm?"

[im_torchwood]

"I'm Torchwood," he replied. "We keep the world safe from alien threats. Mostly I'm a garbage collector, but sometimes it's a thrill."

[pecked_by_birds]

"So military, just different military," Prometheus laughed. "Hmm, I suppose I didn't really expect you to tell me you were a ballet dancer or a pianist now," he smiled.

[im_torchwood]

"Ive never had much talent for the arts," Jack grinned. "I do like going to the ballet, though. Been a long time since I'v been."

[pecked_by_birds]

"I go when I can, though it's been a while. I paint though. I paint a lot," he said, gesturing around them. The flat had become his art studio, and his work was all over the place, propped up against walls, laid flat on tables...

[im_torchwood]

"I can see that. You're good. May I?" he asked, moving to the paintings to get a better look.

[pecked_by_birds]

"Of course," the titan nodded, gesturing for Jack to poke around as he pleased.

[im_torchwood]

Jack took his time, enjoying each painting on its own before he stepped back and took in the sight of several at once.

"You're very talented," he said, knowing it wouldn't be news to the titan. "Do you ever sell them? I'd buy this one. Hang it in my room."

[pecked_by_birds]

"You can have it, if you like. I don't sell them, and they often wind up lost and forgotten," he admitted with a shrug. "Curious that you should pick that one. Feeling a bit melancholy, are we?"

[im_torchwood]

"Maybe a little," Jack said. "You know how it is, I'm sure...lovers leave. Not always because they want to. But it doesn't make any difference to the heart when they're just...gone."

[pecked_by_birds]

"It leaves your heart emptier and your soul aching," Prometheus said gently. "I understand."

[im_torchwood]

"That pretty much sums it up. Some are so much more than you ever expected. The way they touch you. I think I fell in love too fast this time. I should have known it was too good to be true," he said, looking at the painting rather than at Prometheus.

[pecked_by_birds]

"The heart does as it wants," the titan said gently. "It can't be controlled."

[im_torchwood]

"Isn't that the truth," he huffed, not quite laughing. "I'm sure you have more stories than I do about how that is just the way things are."

[pecked_by_birds]

"Doesn't matter how many, my cuts are no deeper for it. We all ache the same, be it the first love lost or the hundredth," Prometheus soothed.

[im_torchwood]

"It's a shame. You know, I know a lot of people who think they'd like to be immortal. They never think about thing like love. Like watching your children grow old and die. About having to adjust to the changing times, all the time," he said thoughtfully.

[pecked_by_birds]

"Fear of the unknown is far more frightening to mortals than the fear of having to learn to start a new life over and over again," Prometheus pointed out. "Death is a mystery to them, but life? Life, they think they know."

[im_torchwood]

"They think," Jack agreed. "And there are times I do like it. All the history, everything I know, the anticipation of what I have yet to learn. Sometimes that balances out the pain that comes along."

[pecked_by_birds]

Humming his agreement, Prometheus nodded a little and watched Jack from across the room.

"They are so easy to love sometimes though," he admitted quietly.

[im_torchwood]

"Too easy. I can't tell you how many there have been. So, so many. I was in love once, a blinding, all consuming love. It was epic. Since then, though...I don't think I've ever fallen that hard for anyone else. I've loved, but not like that," he confessed.

[pecked_by_birds]

"You'll love again, harder and deeper even. We all do eventually, Jack," the titan soothed.