InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "I'm not a goth I'm a sith"

Dr. Owen Harper [Torchwood] (imatwat) wrote in colligo_threads,
@ 2012-05-01 19:01:00

Entry tags:

cordelia chase, owen harper

WHO: Owen Harper & Cordelia Chase
WHAT: Owen has changed.
WHEN: May 1st; Afternoon
WHERE: Owen & Cordy's flat
RATING: PG
STATUS: In Progress

Owen had first arrived in the flat in a wave of confusion, one that had swept over him and left him faltering for some purposes to his being there, but even as the situation was explained to him, as the pieces seemed to fall into place that he was some other version of the man that the people here seemed to know and that he was here merely on the whim of some minor deity, he remained confused about the more obvious minor things like the fact that he was sharing a flat with a woman, that they seemed to be sharing one bedroom in that flat, that he was working here at a clinic as a regular doctor even though the majority of the Torchwood team seemed to be here and they had plenty of precedent to restart their work.

But even as he had more questions about all of that, he didn't want to press the issue. The other Owen seemed to be a lot bolder than he was, a lot more open, and even as he wanted to try and imagine the sort of individual that he would be if he was capable of that, he wasn't. He'd gone to his shifts, done the work that was expected of him, laughed awkwardly as the jokes some of the patients made about his bedside manner being just as terrible now as it had been before, though for entirely different reasons, and went back to his flat only to make up the couch to avoid trying to think too hard about the reasons that they shared the bed. Or make things even more awkward between himself and his, the other Owen's, roommate, Cordelia, than he already felt they were.

A few days on from arriving, though, Owen was starting to settle, slowly, in the new routine, and as he arrived back at the flat from his morning shift at the clinic, he figured that now was as good a time as any to try and get some more details about this place, his situation, and, most importantly, the other him. Pizza in hand as he slipped in the door, Owen cleared his throat, taking a deep breath to work up the ability to speak over the nerves building in his gut. And even as his voice break a little on the first word, he was able to get out, "I brought lunch," without getting too flustered.

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thisismyofframp
2012-05-06 12:44 am UTC (link)

Honestly, the more this version of Owen spoke, the more Cordelia felt the urge to start humming the Twilight Zone theme song. It was just too weird, seeing him acting so different. Briefly, she considered backing out of the lunch offer but ultimately decided she owed it to the guy to stick it out. Besides, knowing her luck he'd fling himself off the roof in a fit of emo if she left him to his own devices. So it was probably better this way.

Taking the offered beer, she opened hers and took a long drink before setting the bottle down and glancing over at her roommate. "I doubt every alternate version of you is as extreme as this, though," she pointed out as she snagged a piece of pizza. "I mean, sure. You're about as different from the you that I know as freaking possible, but I'm guessing the change in your life, or his, or whatever, was probably pretty massive. Probably not so much with other versions." She shrugged, reaching for her beer and taking another drink before finally picking up her pizza.

"I got to be an alternate me back home once," she admitted after she'd taken a bite of her slice. "Turns out, if I hadn't run into a friend of mine at a party in L.A., I would have wound up a world famous television and movie star. No visions, no death and destruction, no spending my Saturday nights up to my eyeballs in demon goo while trying to help save the world." She shrugged and gave him a small smile. "In the end, though, I realized that no matter how much life had changed me, I was still me."

Another swig of her beer and she tacked on, "Like you. Sure, you aren't bold and brazen and, okay, you kind of act like you're going to squeal and hide from your own shadow at any given point in time. But you're still smart beyond the telling of it and you still wind up working for Torchwood. Which means that you're still the same Owen we all know. Just... nicer and more human-acting."

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imatwat
2012-05-06 02:08 am UTC (link)

"I can see that," Owen said after a moment, a bit of a smile on his features before taking a sip of his beer. "The movie star bit. It doesn't seem that far of a stretch. I mean, you are... Well," Owen said, blushing a bit before looking away and focusing on his food. It had taken Owen several years to work up the nerve to tell Tosh that he was attracted to her, and it really just wasn't like him to tell women that he found them attractive so the second that he'd realized where he was going with that statement, his mind had pretty much shut him down. The best that he could manage was, "You know what I mean," He said with a bit of a shrug before glancing back up at her.

"I'm not going to hide from my own shadow. I'm not that jumpy," Owen said with a bit of a chuckle. "The others might assume that I am, but I can hold my own when it's really demanded. I just prefer lab work as opposed to going out into the field. I have...problems with people," He said as he glanced up at her, raising a hand to adjust his glasses. "Ones you can probably guess."

It really didn't take a genius to figure out that Owen's people skills were pretty damn stunted when it comes to being anything more than a doormat. Even with the team, he was always the one that was put under pressure from the others to do what he was told or stay out of the way. At least, until they needed a miracle solution to an impossible situation.

"He's not nice?" Owen asked, looking curious at Cordelia. "Really? Mum always used to say that I wouldn't get anywhere in life if I had a bad attitude."

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