"Autumn Clarke"
_Autumn's assumed name on Earth before the fall of Gallifrey and her eventual forced return to her home planet's affairs.
Autumn met Ianto Jones while touring Cardiff. She was about to enter the tourist's center as he was leaving it -- being forced into a suspension at Torchwood. Given no one else had taken over his role, he was also closing the tourist's center when she walked in and asked if there was interesting to see in Cardiff. At first, he was quite terse and short with her, if in his usual polite and professional manner and he was surprised when she picked up on it. He apologized and then offered her coffee in the best coffee place in Cardiff, not one of the tourist traps, but an actual cafe. She pointed out that cafes were more French than Welsh, and he answered, "That may be - but the traps' coffee is rubbish." That meeting would change the course of both their lives. | The Herald of Gallifrey's Final Winter
Autumn, at the end of her life.
Autumn is the first wife of Ulysses, and the mother of Irving Braxiatel and the Time Lord who would eventually become known as the Doctor.
With no actual canonical reference to Autumn, her creation is purely supposition and the picking together of obscure tidbits and hints from the show, books and other Doctor Who related media. For the canonical entry on "The Woman" go here. |
Ianto and Autumn
Autumn Clarke, as remembered by Ianto.
_In Ianto, she found a kindred spirit who could accept her half-truths
about her past as he had just as many half-truths about himself. They
could talk in falsehoods while the point of the conversation was still
clear to both of them. Ianto found someone he could talk about Lisa
with without having to go into full detail, or even be asked. Autumn
found a listening ear for her issues over Ulysses leaving her without
having to explain just who, or what, she was.
Eventually, this grew into a friendship, then a far closer and serious relationship without either pressuring the other for anything more intimate. In part this was due Ianto's sense of propriety and unwillingness to draw someone into his less than safe life. However, it was just as complicated on her side of things.
As she was Gallifreyan, and more importantly a full Time Lord, such things were never talked about let alone acted on. It was more than vulgar to even bring it up. Platonic, emotional, relationships were acceptable, if borderline, but physical affairs were unheard of.
Eventually, Ianto trusted her with the knowledge of where he actually worked, and what the Tourist Center was truly hiding. While she was horrified at Torchwood's mission -- especially given her 'alien' origin -- she still liked Ianto and appreciated his honesty even if she wasn't sure she could trust him with the full implication of who and what she was. She fought with whether she should or should not tell him for a few months but in the end the decision was taken out of her hands when Ianto brought Jack Harkness over for dinner and wine.
Jack drugged her wine with a substance known as Retcon and while she was susceptible to the sedating affect, she was not susceptible to the memory altering affects but was aware of the attempt of what it was supposed to do since Ianto had told her of each and every time it had been used on others to protect Torchwood. When she woke in the morning and realized it had been used on her, she was furious with Ianto and Jack. While she accepted, and even forgave, Ianto after his heartfelt apology she swore she'd never forgive Jack for forcing Ianto into having to do it in the first place.
She then told him, as he had told her the truth of himself, what she was and where she came from.
Eventually, this grew into a friendship, then a far closer and serious relationship without either pressuring the other for anything more intimate. In part this was due Ianto's sense of propriety and unwillingness to draw someone into his less than safe life. However, it was just as complicated on her side of things.
As she was Gallifreyan, and more importantly a full Time Lord, such things were never talked about let alone acted on. It was more than vulgar to even bring it up. Platonic, emotional, relationships were acceptable, if borderline, but physical affairs were unheard of.
Eventually, Ianto trusted her with the knowledge of where he actually worked, and what the Tourist Center was truly hiding. While she was horrified at Torchwood's mission -- especially given her 'alien' origin -- she still liked Ianto and appreciated his honesty even if she wasn't sure she could trust him with the full implication of who and what she was. She fought with whether she should or should not tell him for a few months but in the end the decision was taken out of her hands when Ianto brought Jack Harkness over for dinner and wine.
Jack drugged her wine with a substance known as Retcon and while she was susceptible to the sedating affect, she was not susceptible to the memory altering affects but was aware of the attempt of what it was supposed to do since Ianto had told her of each and every time it had been used on others to protect Torchwood. When she woke in the morning and realized it had been used on her, she was furious with Ianto and Jack. While she accepted, and even forgave, Ianto after his heartfelt apology she swore she'd never forgive Jack for forcing Ianto into having to do it in the first place.
She then told him, as he had told her the truth of himself, what she was and where she came from.
Time Lord and Companion
The first planet Autumn took Ianto to see was her home planet of Gallifrey.
Autumn then did something that her younger son, the Doctor, would one day become particularly infamous for; she asked Ianto if he wanted to see the stars and go with her for a time, and then once he had seen what was out there, return home. Ianto was blown away -- but accepted her offer almost immediately knowing an once in a lifetime offer when he heard one.
With Autumn, Ianto saw wonders that few humans in his time would ever see and some that what few who had would never get the chance to see. In Jack's time as a Companion to the Doctor Gallifrey had been destroyed in the Last Great Time War. In Autumn and Ianto's timeline the War was so long and into the distant future that no Time Lord had even heard of the word "Dalek"... and so Autumn gave Ianto a gift. Like he had shown her his home and birthplace, she took him to hers and showed him Gallifrey and, in the distance, the Citadel of the Time Lords itself and even took him to see the House of Lungbarrow that, while not where she had been "Loomed" was now her House.
Ianto would also see other places, other times, but the second home they always returned to was always Gallifrey and the massive estate she oversaw as the House's Keeper. He became friends with Quences, an Elder Time Lord who was the head of the House, or, in their terms the Kithriarch as well as others within the House. The few Time Lords within the house coolly tolerated his presence through ignoring him, but the non Time Lord family were warmer and while still aloof at least acknowledged his existence. Eventually through what he called fifty years of wearing down stone he managed to able to say he was at least the young Lord Braxiatel's acquaintance as he began to at least talk to him more and more, being fascinated with the outside universe more so than the others who still largely ignored his presence.
When Autumn was told that Gallifrey was closing its borders and lands to aliens, even going so far as banning them on the planet's surface, Autumn told Ianto it was time to leave. They returned to the Citadel and she was almost into her TARDIS when she was ordered back by the new Lord President in order to "return to her duties... and leave the alien where he belongs."
It was a sad journey back to Earth as Ianto knew it was the end of the line, but he told her that he was happy. While he was happy to have known her, and happy to have seen her home as well as other wonders in the universe, he also knew that it was time for him to return home and in so doing... perhaps it was time for both of them to return to their lives. He to Torchwood where he would always watch and wait for her return and her back to Gallifrey and the other Time Lords.
With Autumn, Ianto saw wonders that few humans in his time would ever see and some that what few who had would never get the chance to see. In Jack's time as a Companion to the Doctor Gallifrey had been destroyed in the Last Great Time War. In Autumn and Ianto's timeline the War was so long and into the distant future that no Time Lord had even heard of the word "Dalek"... and so Autumn gave Ianto a gift. Like he had shown her his home and birthplace, she took him to hers and showed him Gallifrey and, in the distance, the Citadel of the Time Lords itself and even took him to see the House of Lungbarrow that, while not where she had been "Loomed" was now her House.
Ianto would also see other places, other times, but the second home they always returned to was always Gallifrey and the massive estate she oversaw as the House's Keeper. He became friends with Quences, an Elder Time Lord who was the head of the House, or, in their terms the Kithriarch as well as others within the House. The few Time Lords within the house coolly tolerated his presence through ignoring him, but the non Time Lord family were warmer and while still aloof at least acknowledged his existence. Eventually through what he called fifty years of wearing down stone he managed to able to say he was at least the young Lord Braxiatel's acquaintance as he began to at least talk to him more and more, being fascinated with the outside universe more so than the others who still largely ignored his presence.
When Autumn was told that Gallifrey was closing its borders and lands to aliens, even going so far as banning them on the planet's surface, Autumn told Ianto it was time to leave. They returned to the Citadel and she was almost into her TARDIS when she was ordered back by the new Lord President in order to "return to her duties... and leave the alien where he belongs."
It was a sad journey back to Earth as Ianto knew it was the end of the line, but he told her that he was happy. While he was happy to have known her, and happy to have seen her home as well as other wonders in the universe, he also knew that it was time for him to return home and in so doing... perhaps it was time for both of them to return to their lives. He to Torchwood where he would always watch and wait for her return and her back to Gallifrey and the other Time Lords.
Retirement on Gallifrey
An artist's rendition of a view within the Citadel of Time Lords.
Autumn returned to her former life as a Time Lord on Gallifrey preferring to live in the Citadel with the other Time Lords. As she had been forced to return she decided she would at least keep herself busy and threw herself into her duties within the Citadel.
She was an instructor in the Time Lord Academy, a Senator as well as Member of the Time Lord High Council throughout the long centuries until she finally retired back to the Estates of the House of Lungbarrow to take up the role of Keeper again. There she raised her younger son's children and oversaw their early educations before they eventually entered the Chapterhouse's Academy. At this point, she retired having earned the right to be called an Elder Time Lord. At this point, she had no duties but was grounded without a TARDIS as hers had been taken to the breakers for decommissioning and she was not eligible for another -- not that she would have chosen to bond with another anyway. She chose to fill her days within the libraries of the estate and the pursuit of other hobbies. Years, then centuries, passed and she found herself called on to educate another generation, this time her grandchildren's children until they, too, entered the Chapterhouse's Academy and then the Time Lord Academy in the Citadel itself.
It was shortly after the graduation of Arkytior, and on the eve of her arranged marriage to another -- and much older -- Time Lord that both Arkytior and Autumn's younger son (and the grandfather of said Arkytior) disappeared from Gallifrey, slipping out. What was particularly outrageous about their disappearance was that Theta Sigma had not ever been granted permission to take a TARDIS... but had somehow still found one that was willing to bond and then be 'stolen' off of Gallifrey itself. When the Chancellory showed up to ask her of her TARDIS, Autumn knew which TARDIS her son had taken... hers. At first she was outraged, and then she was delighted even if she had to carefully school her features to show disapproval as was expected.
She never saw either until much later -- and then without Arkytior. Her grandson, and Arkytior's father, forbade her from going to see her son who now chose to call himself the Doctor instead of Theta Sigma. Eventually word reached her that his sentencing had been carried out and he had been forcibly regenerated and then exiled from Gallifrey, as well as grounded upon the planet he was particularly attached to at the time. Autumn was furious at being barred from seeing him, and chose to leave the House and move to the Citadel where she would never be left out of the loop again.
The next time she would see her son was when he again regenerated and was again incarcerated when he was implicated with the assassination of the Lord President of Gallifrey. This time she bullied herself in being allowed one short visit, but was shocked when he refused in order to save her being embarrassed by his actions. The Doctor changed his mind after he was cleared of any wrong doing and was reunited with him at last for a few minutes until he left Gallifrey in her TARDIS, now permanently stuck in the shape of a 1960's Blue Public Call Police Box (something of which she found amusing -- knowing her former TARDIS's quirks as well as she did and knowing that he did not... yet).
She would push for a short visit each and every time he returned to Gallifrey after, sometimes having the pleasure and sometimes not.
She was an instructor in the Time Lord Academy, a Senator as well as Member of the Time Lord High Council throughout the long centuries until she finally retired back to the Estates of the House of Lungbarrow to take up the role of Keeper again. There she raised her younger son's children and oversaw their early educations before they eventually entered the Chapterhouse's Academy. At this point, she retired having earned the right to be called an Elder Time Lord. At this point, she had no duties but was grounded without a TARDIS as hers had been taken to the breakers for decommissioning and she was not eligible for another -- not that she would have chosen to bond with another anyway. She chose to fill her days within the libraries of the estate and the pursuit of other hobbies. Years, then centuries, passed and she found herself called on to educate another generation, this time her grandchildren's children until they, too, entered the Chapterhouse's Academy and then the Time Lord Academy in the Citadel itself.
It was shortly after the graduation of Arkytior, and on the eve of her arranged marriage to another -- and much older -- Time Lord that both Arkytior and Autumn's younger son (and the grandfather of said Arkytior) disappeared from Gallifrey, slipping out. What was particularly outrageous about their disappearance was that Theta Sigma had not ever been granted permission to take a TARDIS... but had somehow still found one that was willing to bond and then be 'stolen' off of Gallifrey itself. When the Chancellory showed up to ask her of her TARDIS, Autumn knew which TARDIS her son had taken... hers. At first she was outraged, and then she was delighted even if she had to carefully school her features to show disapproval as was expected.
She never saw either until much later -- and then without Arkytior. Her grandson, and Arkytior's father, forbade her from going to see her son who now chose to call himself the Doctor instead of Theta Sigma. Eventually word reached her that his sentencing had been carried out and he had been forcibly regenerated and then exiled from Gallifrey, as well as grounded upon the planet he was particularly attached to at the time. Autumn was furious at being barred from seeing him, and chose to leave the House and move to the Citadel where she would never be left out of the loop again.
The next time she would see her son was when he again regenerated and was again incarcerated when he was implicated with the assassination of the Lord President of Gallifrey. This time she bullied herself in being allowed one short visit, but was shocked when he refused in order to save her being embarrassed by his actions. The Doctor changed his mind after he was cleared of any wrong doing and was reunited with him at last for a few minutes until he left Gallifrey in her TARDIS, now permanently stuck in the shape of a 1960's Blue Public Call Police Box (something of which she found amusing -- knowing her former TARDIS's quirks as well as she did and knowing that he did not... yet).
She would push for a short visit each and every time he returned to Gallifrey after, sometimes having the pleasure and sometimes not.
The Last Great Time War & The Fall of Gallifrey
Autumn, hostage of Rassilon.
Autumn survived the Time War through the interference of her son Braxiatel and her grandson, by the Doctor, Hawke as well as a host of others including River Song.
Her involvement in the Time War was one of public denunciation of the plan to resurrect both the Master and then Rassilon. When she was ignored, and the horror of Rassilon's reign as Lord President came to full light, she involved herself in the Resistance led by the former Lady President Romana and Lady Flavia. She had been captured by Rassilon and taken to the Citadel as a hostage to force her son, the Doctor, to act as Rassilon ordered him to. As Rassilon prepared his final plan to action, she was taken by surprise when Braxiatel appeared out of thin air with a human woman by the name of River Song, who strapped a device to her wrist and told her that once the Master 'sacrificed' himself in front of her to save the Doctor to "hit the blue button". She did and just before the Time Lock reformed, as the Master stepped into it, she was teleported out of the horror of the Time War and to Hawke and Braxiatel on Braxiatel's planetoid. She asked about River Song, and was told that her involvement was done.
She then found that while she had escaped the Time War and the destruction of Gallifrey her role in life had changed very little. She was still a hostage, only now of her grandson, Admiral Hawke and the Remnent of Time Lords and forced to endure his idea of what the Time Lords should be until finally his daughter, now working under the name "the Doctor" in his place after his death, brought an end to Hawke's plan and saved the universe from another Rassilon.
Her involvement in the Time War was one of public denunciation of the plan to resurrect both the Master and then Rassilon. When she was ignored, and the horror of Rassilon's reign as Lord President came to full light, she involved herself in the Resistance led by the former Lady President Romana and Lady Flavia. She had been captured by Rassilon and taken to the Citadel as a hostage to force her son, the Doctor, to act as Rassilon ordered him to. As Rassilon prepared his final plan to action, she was taken by surprise when Braxiatel appeared out of thin air with a human woman by the name of River Song, who strapped a device to her wrist and told her that once the Master 'sacrificed' himself in front of her to save the Doctor to "hit the blue button". She did and just before the Time Lock reformed, as the Master stepped into it, she was teleported out of the horror of the Time War and to Hawke and Braxiatel on Braxiatel's planetoid. She asked about River Song, and was told that her involvement was done.
She then found that while she had escaped the Time War and the destruction of Gallifrey her role in life had changed very little. She was still a hostage, only now of her grandson, Admiral Hawke and the Remnent of Time Lords and forced to endure his idea of what the Time Lords should be until finally his daughter, now working under the name "the Doctor" in his place after his death, brought an end to Hawke's plan and saved the universe from another Rassilon.
Life on Earth
Autumn of House Furyare (Lungbarrow)
_Autumn helped the Doctor bring the Remnant to Earth where they were
granted temporary refugee status by the UN, and was reunited with Ianto
in the end, but life has not been easy...