Captain Jack Harkness

if you're gonna get stuck at the end of the universe, get stuck with an ex-time agent and his vortex manipulator.

PERSONALITY
with a dashing hero like me on the case, how can we fail?

Jack deliberately presents a misleading shallow-seeming exterior, or rather two of them: the shameless, light-hearted flirt and the cold, hardass Captain. While it's true that he is a shameless flirt and he is hell to deal with in his Captain role, those aren't the sum of him and he often shuts people out of seeing past either surface. It has been a defense mechanism for him, having a detachment from other people since he inevitably loses everyone due to his longevity. It's also a coping strategy for the decisions he makes; he makes hard choices as a leader and those are more easily done with detachment, and slipping into flirting lets him have fun as if he had no duties at all.

Beneath that, however, Jack deeply feels his responsibilities. It's a great strain on him that he worsens by taking on guilt for things that aren't actually his fault, plus a history of repressing more nuanced emotions. Luckily for him, he has Ianto in his life to make him let go, and Ianto stays very much under his surface. Jack has found genuine contentment through their relationship and being all of himself with Ianto. They initially struggled with their respective issues and it got in the way of honestly expressing their love; in recent years, they are very much open with each other and have since married.

Jack tends towards a leadership role in part because he bristles at taking orders from anyone he doesn't trust; he'd rather make the decisions himself than leave it to someone who might make bad calls. However, he's truly more at ease when he can be a loyal soldier under someone he can count on to get it right-- namely, the Doctor. He much more often has to embrace leading. Since he finds such fulfillment in fighting to protect others, that arrangement is something he has long accepted as part of what he does and thus worth it. His past experiences in not fighting for others led to him becoming recklessly self-absorbed and self-destructive. It's much better for him and everyone else when he has a cause.

It frustrates him when people working under him don't operate under a similar military discipline. Over the years, he is relaxing more on that and learning about the more modern manager mindset of collaborating and accepting input rather than just handing down orders and expecting obedience. And outside of work, he finds it very rewarding to turn power over to Ianto.

Jack absolutely loves action, and the innuendo is very much intentional.

ABILITIES
what's to fix? you don't mess with this level of perfection

Immortal. Though he can be killed and experiences death, he doesn't stay dead, as his body will heal back to its default state. It can take awhile to fully recover after significant injuries (such as maimed limbs and metabolizing poison), and these may linger after his revival and sometimes kill him all over again. He heals from open wounds at an accelerated rate, and apparently has a resistance to (at least some forms of) radiation and disease. He has training in putting up psychic blocks, and it's possible that his unusual immortality is part of what renders him difficult to "read". Excellent shot with a variety of guns and blasters, piloting skills in both atmosphere and space, experience at running confidence games, extensive experience with time travel, mechanics, flirting.

WEAKNESSES
you wanna know the secret? there is no solution. i can't fix this

Ianto('s coffee) Despite healing faster in certain cases and never staying dead, he still experiences bruising; can be poisoned or electrocuted; and still has a biological need for breathing, eating, and drinking and thus can die when any of those needs aren't met for too long. Thanks to a year of imprisonment that included torture by an insane Time Lord and later being buried alive by his insane brother, he has a lingering discomfort with metal cuffs/chains and freshly dug holes in the earth. He's known to go berserk when people he cares about are threatened, and that's very bad when he also has a gun.

CANON POINT
hey, sometimes a little techno-babble is good for the soul

Jack diverges from canon after the Doctor Who series 4 finale "Journey's End", but he is being pulled from a few years' worth of gameplay past that time, in which he was similarly reality-napped in seasidecafe and bearandbarnacle, then resumed life in Cardiff in tempus_alt.

Since he was developed based on the first two series of Torchwood and has been in play since then (early 2008), nearly all events and details of Children of Earth and Miracle Day are incompatible. These series had different characterisations and character histories from the original Torchwood, and thus are regarded as AU for this Jack. Select details that aren't contradictory with previous TW materials or personal canon may be incorporated. Some point-by-point breakdowns:

• The most notable incorporation is that Jack, as in CoE, has a daughter (Alice) and grandson (Steven). Both are alive and well and maintain a relationship with Jack.
• For Jack and Ianto's universe, the so-called "456" aliens came to consume human fear as a drug. Their presence alone was terrifying enough for most, especially paired with the idea that the 456 would take away children. For those who were resistant (namely Torchwood), the 456 trapped them in a shared psychic nightmare to create that fear response. The on-screen events in CoE reflect this nightmare and their fears— Ianto dying without knowing he was loved, Jack's actions causing the deaths of loved ones, Gwen getting pregnant at a terrible time, etc. They were finally able to break out to reality again, and delivered some poetic justice by trapping the 456 in a nightmare.
• There is no Miracle Day equivalent in their reality. Here are some of the detail matches and non-matches.
  ≠ Jack has never known any "Angelo Colasanto." Anyone that significant would obviously have a lasting impact on Jack's life and he can't be shoehorned into Jack's history now. Thus, the related MD events do not hold true for Jack either (no Families encounter, no Miracle).
  ≠ While Jack indeed has an improved rate of healing as MD suggests, the details differ. He actually does normally get lasting bruises, yet minor cuts seem to close up fast (see "Cyberwoman" and "Fragments").
  ≠ Jack has an immune system. With his Time Agency background, he had plenty of innoculations against the diseases of centuries he visited, along with whatever immunities existed in his original time.
  ≠ Jack can and does get drunk ("Fragments" again). He mostly abstained from alcohol while focused on waiting for the Doctor (all that water-drinking in series 1). His immortality doesn't make him alcohol-immune.
  ≠ He doesn't have quite so many uses for his wrist strap.
  ✔ Jack does know many things about roses. Guess why!
  ✔ He's got plenty of familiarity with poisons, too.
  ✔ He also has accounts with interest accumulated over decades.
  ✔ It's also true that he doesn't know what's become of his mother.
  ✔ Jack indeed has knowledge of the Trickster ("Doctor Who Monster Files").
  ? Undecided as of yet if Jack could have been in China for the Boxer Rebellion.

COLLIGO COLLECTING
it's the jaw line: once seen, always yearned for

Why has Jack caught the eye of the Collector? His jaw line! And aside from what might already be eye-catching, the Collector previously collected a Jack and Ianto from a divergent timeline. Those versions developed a history with others here. Possibly entertaining confusion may result from introducing these characters to a Jack who isn't quite the same as the one they knew here or in their home universes, and the Collector may wish to make a study of alternate versions for collection purposes. It's almost like someone collecting various releases of Star Trek action figures. They're recognizable yet still distinctly different-- but without the trading card or packaging and all that and much less time hunting through toy and hobby shops. The metaphor got away from me. Oh, and the coat. Gotta love the coat.

PREVIOUS GAME HISTORY
something happened to me a while back. long story and far away

Jack and Ianto (notjusta_teaboy) got pulled to another people-being-collected reality, dumped at different points of time in that reality, and suffered ongoing memory loss. They reunited and recovered, moved back in together, and eventually married. They were able to escape and return to Cardiff thanks to the Doctor and his TARDIS also being trapped with them. (A much longer point-by-point seasidecafe summary is here). Back home and in tempus_alt, the Rift had been destabilized by Gray and John Hart's manipulations as well as the entire Earth being moved to another galaxy and back. Other Whoniverse characters were inexplicably drawn through it. Jack and Ianto continued their Torchwood work, now assisted by several others instead of just them and Gwen.

RANDOM TIDBITS
gotta be ready. the 21st century's when it all changes. and I hate the commute

NICKNAMES · Jacko · Flyboy · Squiffy · Jackster · Jack-ass · Big Fella · Sunshine · Jolly Jack · Impossible · Happy Jack · Mastermind · Dashing Hero · Mr Testosterone · Captain Jackoff · Jumpin' Jack Flash · Captain Cheesecake · The Armoured Shark Liar · Captain of the Innuendo Squad

ALIASES · Timothy Williamson · Robert Gossage · Alan Jones · John Smith

FAVORITE FOODS · Doughnuts · Pita bread · Chips · Crisps (especially BBQ and chili) · Pizza (favorite toppings: ham, basil, onion, but not all together) · Fish · Eggs · Yogurt (plain or otherwise) · Bananas · Tomatoes (his favorite veggie) · Carrots, especially with ranch · Veggies in general

LEAST FAVORITE FOODS · Swedes/rutabagas · Raw celery ("crunchy water") · Non-breakfast foods at breakfast time (such as pizza)

ALCOHOL · Whiskey, straight-up · Brandy, neat · Martinis · Hypervodka

NOTABLE PERSONS HE HAS KNOWN · Agnetha Fältskog & Björn Ulvaeus · Arthur C Clarke · Arthur Machen · Christopher Isherwood · Keith Moon · Marcel Proust · Stuart Sutcliffe

MUSIC FAVORITES · Abba (during a disco phase) · Glenn Miller · Guns N' Roses · Jimi Hendrix · Nina Simone · Red Hot Chili Peppers · Sparks · T-Rex · The Beatles · The Who · Van Der Graaf Generator · Van Morrison · Winnie Atwell

PAST HOBBIES AND OCCUPATIONS · Morris dancing · Shoplifting · Burger bar at Bondi Beach · Life insurance · Travelling circus performer · Confidence games

WINS AT · Throwing knives · Folding and throwing paper airplanes · Racking up unpaid speeding tickets

FAILS AT · Roller skating · Spiders