Sam Tyler
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Contents |
[edit] The Mun
- Name: Aubrey
- Contact
- Email: aubrey@beyondtherift.com
- Gchat: aubrey@beyondtherift.com
- AIM: allfireburns
- LJ: http://allfireburns.livejournal.com
[edit] The Character
- Name: Sam Tyler
- Age/Birthdate: 39 / September 29, 1969
- Species: Human (Wanderer)
- Type: Sam knows when people lie around him. The trouble is, it hurts like hell - the bigger the lie, the more it hurts.
- Journal: http://definitivestep.livejournal.com/
[edit] Appearance
Sam's not exactly average, not the sort of person who blends into a crowd, but you'd be hard put to describe any defining features about him. He's about average height, with dusty brown hair (and sideburns), brown eyes, and a face that tends toward sardonic smirks and skepticism, with occasional swings to the extremes of bright grins or dark rages. He used to dress mostly in suits and ties - these days, he tends toward the more casual battered leather jacket and colorful collared shirts, vaguely reminiscent of the 1970s. Some things just don't go away.
[edit] Personality
Sam really is a cop by nature - his first instinct is to protect the people who need it, and bring to justice the people who deserve it. He's not at all reserved, but quiet a lot of the time - he gives the impression of thinking a lot more than he ever says, and a lot of what he does say is sarcasm. The way he thinks is often just a bit incomprehensible to anyone not him. There are a lot of odd leaps of logic no one else can follow, but he's absolutely brilliant at solving problems, putting the facts together. Maybe a little mad, but the best at what he does.
He's not exactly a leader by nature - he can lead when put in the position, very well, and people do look to him for leadership, but he's happiest when he's the deputy, the second in command and the voice of reason. A lot of this is because he has a tendency to second guess himself. He's gotten better at relying on his gut instinct since 1973, but certain things never go away entirely.
When Sam cares about people, he cares about them deeply, and irrevocably. He won't overlook their faults, and will often call them on it. He's often pretty bad at showing how much he cares, and he's careful about getting close to people. But when he does care about someone, he'll stand by them to the ends of the earth, trust them with his life, and give his life to keep them safe.
[edit] History
Sam was born in 1969, the son of Ruth and Vic Tyler. His father was only around sporadically, often missing holidays, birthdays, and he left for good when Sam was little. Sam always wanted to be a police officer growing up, and joined the force at the age of 18. He rose through the ranks, eventually becoming a DCI.
It all fell to pieces one day when his girlfriend, DI Maya Roy, was kidnapped by the prime suspect in a serial killer case in the course of her investigation. Shortly after getting news of that, Sam was hit by a car, fell into a coma, and woke up in 1973. He found himself a DI in Manchester of the early 70s, under DCI Gene Hunt, much more of the "shoot first, ask questions later" school of thought than Sam. All in all, not an ideal situation, especially when Sam couldn't decide whether he was mad, in a coma, or if he'd somehow fallen through time.
After a year, and having been convinced by a man named Frank Morgan that the thing he needed to do to wake up was destroy Gene Hunt and his entire department... he woke up after all. He went back to his life for a while, he recovered and he went back to work and life went on as usual. Except that he remembered something a barman told him, about life and death and how to know the difference, and a promise he made to someone in 1973, and decided he preferred his other world. So he walked up to the roof of CID, and took a flying leap off it, hoping to land back in 1973.
[edit] Beyond the Rift
Instead, he fell through the Rift, which landed him with an ability to know when he's being lied to (or around), a very out-of-place Gene Hunt, a disgruntled ex-girlfriend who turns into a bear, a somewhat hapless guardian angel, and one Jack Harkness who was extremely close to some version of him in another universe. 1973 was a lot less mad than this.
Jack recruited him to Torchwood - or, rather, recruited him to start up Torchwood Four here in this universe's Chicago - and since it was the best way Sam could see of being useful, he accepted. Because apparently, his life wasn't mad enough already. His time in Torchwood has been interesting, involving being used as a human lie detector in a mission to catch a shapechanging murderer, being thrown into walls and shot at by a certain First Angel, and then moving into a creepy tower when said First Angel took exception to Torchwood's existence.
When Romana sent a group of angels to kill him and Gwen, Jack came to the rescue and made sure that they died horribly. All of them. (Alright, except for those two. It was still really scary.) Soon after, Romana launched an attack on the Main Gauche, and Sam ended up there with Maya, who was shot and killed by Romana, causing her to Fall. Sam was less concerned with Romana's Fall than the fact of Maya's death, and hating the death angel who warned him about it. Not long after that, Torchwood got to deal with a really unpleasant Jack doppelganger, a clusterfuck that culminated in Sam getting shot and dying, with Karu on hand, before being revived by Jack, who then buggered off for parts unknown. Sam's death snapped the bond between him and Mat, leaving him temporarily without a guardian angel.
The universe decided to let up on him a little by tossing a welcome familiar face through the Rift, though with some less than pleasant news. The universe then decided Sam could not be left without a guardian angel for long, and arranged to fix that.
