Rare Ships Month: Rose/Mickey/Jake Part II (rambling and recs)
Rose/Mickey/Jake Part 1: Picspam
Well, I think I’ve scientifically proven that these three are all extremely good-looking, so my work is done… what, actual reasons why I think they’re awesome together? You lot want the moon on a stick, honestly.
Why do I ship them? Because I think they’d be really fun together, with lots of potential for snark and adventure and two of them ganging up on the other three, and that’s how I like my threesomes. Basically, I’d been shipping Mickey/Jake ever since Mickey decided to stay in a parallel universe forever with him and they went off to hunt Cybermen in Paris; but I loved Mickey/Rose too. Clearly the only way to settle this dilemma was to ship all three of them together. Well, that or some sort of cage match.
Mickey/Jake, Mickey/Rose and the trio
Taking the canon ship as the obvious starting point: “we were nice” Mickey says in Boomtown, and I winced in sympathy. They did have a nice, sweet relationship - all that mucking around on their lunch break in the first episode - and he obviously had no clue that Rose was restless, that she wanted wider horizons. It took him ages to realise that he wanted a bigger world too; Mickey saved the world on his second appearance (and did it by making a choice the Doctor in all his incarnations has historically dithered over, choosing to save the world even though it meant killing someone he loved) but it wasn’t till School Reunion that he invited himself on board the TARDIS. I don’t think, as I’ve seen people suggest, that this was some sort of attempt to get back with Rose - I think by then he’d decided they were done and made peace with that. Mickey’s looking, maybe subconsciously, for a meaningful life, and when he finds it he’s so sure of what he wants that he makes the huge step of stranding himself forever in another universe (and look how Rose takes that, despite her reluctance for him to come on board the TARDIS).
So that’s the end of the good ship Mickey/Rose, then? Well, no, IMO. AoG/Doomsday indicated things weren’t dead and buried on that score, between Rose’s interested looks and the statement that Mickey’s been talking about her for the last three years. Even if you think canon puts the kibosh on them being together again, or you’re going with the production team/Billie Piper’s comments on Confidential and other places that they didn’t get back together (although in that case I should point out that RTD says of the beach scene that they wanted Rose to run to her mum rather than her boyfriend) - there’s plenty of time after Doomsday until season 4 Josses this whole essay, but shush. Look at where they both are at that point; world-saving heroes who’ve travelled in time and space, who’ve seen things nobody else in their universe has, who are (literally) a million miles away from the kids larking about in episode 1. They’ve grown up, and I think it’s completely feasible they could grow together as well.
On the Mickey/Jake side of things, people have been shipping this since Rise of the Cybermen, when people picked up on subtext between Jake and Mickey’s alternate double, Ricky. Not that fangirls seeing slashy subtext is anything special, but in this case there actually was intended to be a relationship between Jake and Ricky that was cut from the final episode because it was thought to be trivialising the relationship. Ricky, of course, is dead by Cybermen quite quickly and Mickey decides to take his place. This is supposedly because of his Gran, but he instantly suggests that he and Jake drive a van by themselves to one of the most traditionally romantic cities in the world to kill them some Cybermen. It’s a peculiar idea for a first date, but it pleased a lot of fangirls.
As I said in the picspam, one of my criteria for my OT3s is that the three potential relationships all have to work - that it really is a trio, not one person with two boyfriends/girlfriends who aren’t that into each other, or a devoted couple with a third wheel. Obviously, it’s pretty easy to pair up Mickey with either of the other two. What about Jake and Rose? It’s hard to judge, since they barely interact onscreen, but to detour into the land of pure fanon - if Jake was indeed involved with Ricky, then adjusting to getting together with your dead boyfriend’s duplicate from another reality has got to make any sort of unconventional relationship look simple. And Rose is a seasoned universe traveller; she knew Jack, for heaven’s sake, she’s bound to have heard that ‘quaint little categories’ speech before. Next to a 900-year-old time travelling alien, having two boyfriends at once looks simple…
How? What? How?
Obviously the only time this ship can really take place is post-Doomsday (unless it’s a quickie in the van at the end of The Age of Steel or an AU where the TARDIS couldn’t get home, and come to think of it either of those could be quite interesting…) I’m all for this, because the alternate world is like a big epic playground of all the things I like in fic. They had me at ‘zeppelins’, honestly. Even ignoring the ship and looking at gen adventures for these three… well, where do you start. They work for Torchwood. There’s that steampunk thing going on with the airships. They live in a world that’s mostly like ours but with an alternate history: Britain’s a republic, there’s mention of New Germany; what else is different? Are the Sycorax or the Autons waiting to invade? Were UNIT ever formed here? Are the Silurians biding their time underground? Are there versions of Donna and Martha and Ace and the Brig that never met the Doctor? Throw into all of that three characters who I really love, who I think are brilliant fun to write, and who have these potentially lovely, complex relationships, and you make for a very happy me.
time_and_chips did a six-word fic challenge once. The fic I wrote for it says pretty much everything I want to about my fanon post-Doomsday Rose: To her surprise, life is fantastic. Unless and until season 4 Josses me, that’s what I believe, that after Darlig ulv Stranden she went home and made a superb life for herself - missing the Doctor, of course, but having fantastic adventures on her own and coming to love every minute of it. In my happy imaginary post-Doomsday place, Rose and Mickey and Jake are running their own department in Torchwood (as I said in the picspam comments, very possibly the Department of Brilliant Plans, because Mickey is just the sort of person to have sat down and worked out a detailed plan about what to do in the event of a zombie apocalypse), and they might be all involved with each other, or two of them might be a couple with the other as the platonic best friend, or they’re just all BFFs, but either way there is a lot of affectionate sarcasm, world-saving, ganging up on Mickey, silly-looking aliens, gadgets, disguises and plans nicked directly from James Bond films, and quite possibly nobody else entirely gets the three of them, but that’s okay.
Fic
Shamefully, I’ve never properly written this ship - I maintain this is because I love it too much to properly get it down. I have, however, written a bit of post-Doomsday gen with the three of them.
Another Country
Duck Day Afternoon (Rose and Micke/Jake)
They Came to Norway to Eat Our Brains (Rose/Jack and Mickey/Jake)
Do I Dare Disturb the Universe (Mickey, Jake and Romana)
Recs
I’ve recently lost a lot of bookmarks and I’m mostly doing these from memory, so if you’ve written anything that stars these three - shippy or gen - feel free to link it in the comments.
Kinetics - aerlin
She's been here (this Earth) for months and hasn't stopped moving since a day trip no one talks about, and Jake's been along for the ride. (Jake/Rose)
Chronic Lack of Imagination - netgirl_y2k
“That’s my boyfriend!” Mickey tried to sound suitably pissed off, but Rose was naked and he couldn’t help but realise that he sounded like someone off of Trisha.
And Our Friends Are All On Board - aervir
She might jokingly call the airship their TARDIS, short for "Torchwood And Relatives Dirigibling In Space", no matter how often Mickey and Jake pointed out that "dirigibling" wasn’t even a word and she’d just made it up; but Rose did love her new home away from home for what it was.
People As Places - netgirl_y2k
Mickey's doubts were interrupted by Jake, who'd been wandering around the inside of the ship, sticking his head out the hatch. "Bit small," he said, "but you two shameless heterosexuals can always share a room."
Role Play - booster17
“Okay, Doc,” said Mickey firmly and in a reasonable attempt at an American accent, “How we gonna get out of this fix?” (crackfic, NC-17)
Coup de Grace - airelin
She wonders after the Doctor. Constantly. Unrelentingly. They never settle in one place long enough to breathe and she has a lot of time to think about things like this. (Rose/Jake/Ricky)
from up here you can barely see the ground - livii
A paper airplane landed right on top of his head. Rose and Jake both had their very best innocent faces on. (Rose/Benton with lovely Rose/Mickey/Jake friendship)
Links
rose_lives - Rose community, for both gen and ships other than Doctor/Rose and Doctor/Rose/Jack
rickys_world - Mickey/Jake and Ricky/Jake comm.
leftbehind__ - Mickey comm
Well, I think I’ve scientifically proven that these three are all extremely good-looking, so my work is done… what, actual reasons why I think they’re awesome together? You lot want the moon on a stick, honestly.
Why do I ship them? Because I think they’d be really fun together, with lots of potential for snark and adventure and two of them ganging up on the other three, and that’s how I like my threesomes. Basically, I’d been shipping Mickey/Jake ever since Mickey decided to stay in a parallel universe forever with him and they went off to hunt Cybermen in Paris; but I loved Mickey/Rose too. Clearly the only way to settle this dilemma was to ship all three of them together. Well, that or some sort of cage match.
Mickey/Jake, Mickey/Rose and the trio
Taking the canon ship as the obvious starting point: “we were nice” Mickey says in Boomtown, and I winced in sympathy. They did have a nice, sweet relationship - all that mucking around on their lunch break in the first episode - and he obviously had no clue that Rose was restless, that she wanted wider horizons. It took him ages to realise that he wanted a bigger world too; Mickey saved the world on his second appearance (and did it by making a choice the Doctor in all his incarnations has historically dithered over, choosing to save the world even though it meant killing someone he loved) but it wasn’t till School Reunion that he invited himself on board the TARDIS. I don’t think, as I’ve seen people suggest, that this was some sort of attempt to get back with Rose - I think by then he’d decided they were done and made peace with that. Mickey’s looking, maybe subconsciously, for a meaningful life, and when he finds it he’s so sure of what he wants that he makes the huge step of stranding himself forever in another universe (and look how Rose takes that, despite her reluctance for him to come on board the TARDIS).
So that’s the end of the good ship Mickey/Rose, then? Well, no, IMO. AoG/Doomsday indicated things weren’t dead and buried on that score, between Rose’s interested looks and the statement that Mickey’s been talking about her for the last three years. Even if you think canon puts the kibosh on them being together again, or you’re going with the production team/Billie Piper’s comments on Confidential and other places that they didn’t get back together (although in that case I should point out that RTD says of the beach scene that they wanted Rose to run to her mum rather than her boyfriend) - there’s plenty of time after Doomsday until season 4 Josses this whole essay, but shush. Look at where they both are at that point; world-saving heroes who’ve travelled in time and space, who’ve seen things nobody else in their universe has, who are (literally) a million miles away from the kids larking about in episode 1. They’ve grown up, and I think it’s completely feasible they could grow together as well.
On the Mickey/Jake side of things, people have been shipping this since Rise of the Cybermen, when people picked up on subtext between Jake and Mickey’s alternate double, Ricky. Not that fangirls seeing slashy subtext is anything special, but in this case there actually was intended to be a relationship between Jake and Ricky that was cut from the final episode because it was thought to be trivialising the relationship. Ricky, of course, is dead by Cybermen quite quickly and Mickey decides to take his place. This is supposedly because of his Gran, but he instantly suggests that he and Jake drive a van by themselves to one of the most traditionally romantic cities in the world to kill them some Cybermen. It’s a peculiar idea for a first date, but it pleased a lot of fangirls.
As I said in the picspam, one of my criteria for my OT3s is that the three potential relationships all have to work - that it really is a trio, not one person with two boyfriends/girlfriends who aren’t that into each other, or a devoted couple with a third wheel. Obviously, it’s pretty easy to pair up Mickey with either of the other two. What about Jake and Rose? It’s hard to judge, since they barely interact onscreen, but to detour into the land of pure fanon - if Jake was indeed involved with Ricky, then adjusting to getting together with your dead boyfriend’s duplicate from another reality has got to make any sort of unconventional relationship look simple. And Rose is a seasoned universe traveller; she knew Jack, for heaven’s sake, she’s bound to have heard that ‘quaint little categories’ speech before. Next to a 900-year-old time travelling alien, having two boyfriends at once looks simple…
How? What? How?
Obviously the only time this ship can really take place is post-Doomsday (unless it’s a quickie in the van at the end of The Age of Steel or an AU where the TARDIS couldn’t get home, and come to think of it either of those could be quite interesting…) I’m all for this, because the alternate world is like a big epic playground of all the things I like in fic. They had me at ‘zeppelins’, honestly. Even ignoring the ship and looking at gen adventures for these three… well, where do you start. They work for Torchwood. There’s that steampunk thing going on with the airships. They live in a world that’s mostly like ours but with an alternate history: Britain’s a republic, there’s mention of New Germany; what else is different? Are the Sycorax or the Autons waiting to invade? Were UNIT ever formed here? Are the Silurians biding their time underground? Are there versions of Donna and Martha and Ace and the Brig that never met the Doctor? Throw into all of that three characters who I really love, who I think are brilliant fun to write, and who have these potentially lovely, complex relationships, and you make for a very happy me.
time_and_chips did a six-word fic challenge once. The fic I wrote for it says pretty much everything I want to about my fanon post-Doomsday Rose: To her surprise, life is fantastic. Unless and until season 4 Josses me, that’s what I believe, that after Darlig ulv Stranden she went home and made a superb life for herself - missing the Doctor, of course, but having fantastic adventures on her own and coming to love every minute of it. In my happy imaginary post-Doomsday place, Rose and Mickey and Jake are running their own department in Torchwood (as I said in the picspam comments, very possibly the Department of Brilliant Plans, because Mickey is just the sort of person to have sat down and worked out a detailed plan about what to do in the event of a zombie apocalypse), and they might be all involved with each other, or two of them might be a couple with the other as the platonic best friend, or they’re just all BFFs, but either way there is a lot of affectionate sarcasm, world-saving, ganging up on Mickey, silly-looking aliens, gadgets, disguises and plans nicked directly from James Bond films, and quite possibly nobody else entirely gets the three of them, but that’s okay.
Fic
Shamefully, I’ve never properly written this ship - I maintain this is because I love it too much to properly get it down. I have, however, written a bit of post-Doomsday gen with the three of them.
Another Country
Duck Day Afternoon (Rose and Micke/Jake)
They Came to Norway to Eat Our Brains (Rose/Jack and Mickey/Jake)
Do I Dare Disturb the Universe (Mickey, Jake and Romana)
Recs
I’ve recently lost a lot of bookmarks and I’m mostly doing these from memory, so if you’ve written anything that stars these three - shippy or gen - feel free to link it in the comments.
Kinetics - aerlin
She's been here (this Earth) for months and hasn't stopped moving since a day trip no one talks about, and Jake's been along for the ride. (Jake/Rose)
Chronic Lack of Imagination - netgirl_y2k
“That’s my boyfriend!” Mickey tried to sound suitably pissed off, but Rose was naked and he couldn’t help but realise that he sounded like someone off of Trisha.
And Our Friends Are All On Board - aervir
She might jokingly call the airship their TARDIS, short for "Torchwood And Relatives Dirigibling In Space", no matter how often Mickey and Jake pointed out that "dirigibling" wasn’t even a word and she’d just made it up; but Rose did love her new home away from home for what it was.
People As Places - netgirl_y2k
Mickey's doubts were interrupted by Jake, who'd been wandering around the inside of the ship, sticking his head out the hatch. "Bit small," he said, "but you two shameless heterosexuals can always share a room."
Role Play - booster17
“Okay, Doc,” said Mickey firmly and in a reasonable attempt at an American accent, “How we gonna get out of this fix?” (crackfic, NC-17)
Coup de Grace - airelin
She wonders after the Doctor. Constantly. Unrelentingly. They never settle in one place long enough to breathe and she has a lot of time to think about things like this. (Rose/Jake/Ricky)
from up here you can barely see the ground - livii
A paper airplane landed right on top of his head. Rose and Jake both had their very best innocent faces on. (Rose/Benton with lovely Rose/Mickey/Jake friendship)
Links
rose_lives - Rose community, for both gen and ships other than Doctor/Rose and Doctor/Rose/Jack
rickys_world - Mickey/Jake and Ricky/Jake comm.
leftbehind__ - Mickey comm