{ Torchwood: fic recs. }

[delga]

Today's fic recs: Torchwood/Doctor Who. Um. Well. Okay, a disclaimer. If you're expecting fics about the protagonists, the primary ships and what have you, this is not the post for you. What you'll find here is a collection of fics about Suzie Costello (!), some Jack Harkness gen, and a smidgen of Lucy Saxon who I was ambivalent about in the show, but have taken a liking to via fic. Other characters make more-than-token appearances - Ianto, for example. All of the fic I've chosen are good reads; I'm picky about what I like/dislike in these fandoms.

Warnings for a general excess of angstcakes.

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doctor who.
threads by violetisblue (fourth doctor/romana i)

It was here, at the center of time as she herself remade it, that Rom, sired by An, gestated by Ad, of the Vora chromosomal line of the Tre genome sequence of the ancient and venerated House of Lundar, found herself staring inescapably into herself, and what she saw was a great and bottomless emptiness that no amount of time could never fill, that no art or accomplishment could ever mask. Time roared into her and through her and turned her inside out and showed her the nothingness that was her lone self, and she was horribly, terribly afraid.

Who am I? she demanded, almost despairing, knowing the Loom heard every fleeting thought. What am I? Am I anything at all?

You are you, the Loom answered, when it deigned to pause in its work.

But what is this thing you call me? she cried, from inside herself. I see inside it, and I see nothing. How can you, the Loom, create me out of nothing?

I'm not a classic Who fan, by which I mean to say that I've not seen any. That said, I have a vague idea of who Romana is and watching a couple of youtube clips clued me in well enough. That was after I'd read the fic, though.

It's an excellent fic, giving you enough that a new reader doesn't have to scrabble for information. More than that, it's an interesting look at Gallifreyan social structures, of their coming-of-age rituals, and of Romana's search for her identity. Touching and true, the author skilfully takes us through canon, giving us Romana's impulses. Some fics try too hard to explain, but this one is almost casual. I loved this from start to finish.

general_jinjur has written a commentary for this fic here; it's an intense and interesting probe of Romana's characterisation in the fic, as much as the fic is of Romana's characterisation in canon. Also, I liked reading a classic Who fan's take on the fic, if only to see how far my reactions were 'on'/'off' the mark.



thornfield by paperclipbitch (doctor who/torchwood; suzie/lucy saxon, suzie/jack)

The door opens when Jack has been gone what Suzie thinks might be five months, one week, two days and an hour. He is carrying a crumpled blonde woman in his arms.

“Are you starting a collection?” Suzie asks. She hasn’t missed him because she doesn’t like him.

Jack lays the woman down on the sofa; she’s silent and still. She’s dressed in red silk, and Suzie thinks she looks rather like a woman raped and left for dead after a dinner party.

She wishes she hadn’t thought that.

Be prepared to see a lot of fics by this author because I love her style and I love her take on the characters. Also: she writes a lot of Suzie, which is a plus.

Back to this fic... uh. Jack's a bit of a bastard, really. I mean, horrifically so, in a way that veers away from his charm in canon and to a character who is a manifestation of all the tired, brutal history that resides within him. It's a stretch of a characterisation, but this fic isn't about him, it's about Suzie and Lucy Saxon, and what happens when you put two crazies in one box. As it turns out, Suzie's saner than you ever thought, and Lucy is so, so broken.

I think that the reason this fic works is because it's horrible. The characterisations are devastating, but so skilfully executed. I came away feeling venomous. Um. Please don't let that put you off.



sally sparrow against the toclafane by samdonne (doctor who)

Before the egg forums went down someone posted about survivors fleeing London for the midlands and the south, so Sally and Larry packed some food, some clothes, Larry's laptop and Sally's collection of seventeen DVDs, and headed to Brighton along the railroad, because that's where Larry was from. The first night they slept in a WWII bunker. The next day they picked a street close to the seafront and looked in the windows until they found a house that looked empty. They broke inside and discovered the old lady drowned in her bathtub. They didn't go outside for two days. They drained the tub and rolled the body in a tarpaulin and propped it out the patio door until they could go out and bury it. It was winter, so it would keep.

samdonne wrote an epic Thoughtcrimes fic (which I recced here) and her efforts in the Doctor Who fandom are similarly wide-reaching and wonderful. I loved Sally Sparrow from Blink, and this fic looks at how she and Larry coped during the Master's year of apocalypse. Sally is so brave, and Larry adores her, and they're just ordinary people doing exactly what they did in their episode: fighting blind to stay alive. Sally is a great tool for fandom to explore life on earth in the missing year, and samdonne masterfully brings her to life, maintaining that snappy energy she displayed in Blink and giving her voice once again. An excellent, excellent story with a wonderful ending.



fathful companions by serrico (doctor who/torchwood; jack, lucy saxon)

Lucy's room is bright, tidy, comfortable, and locked from the outside. Half of one wall is a one-way mirror; she spends most of her days sitting on the edge of her bed, playing the Master's ring between her fingers, staring straight at her reflection.

Or maybe she's looking through her reflection, at Jack. No matter how long he watches from the dark side of the mirror, he's never sure.

Maybe she's looking at nothing.

Jack and Lucy were both left behind by Time Lords. This fic is much more sympathetic to both characters than the above but no less compelling. Lucy is still broken, and Jack is trying to help her without knowing how. Essentially, Lucy is Torchwood's prisoner, but there's sympathy for her because the Master asked her to share his madness and it killed them both, just in different ways. Her characterisation remains chilling. The closing sections to this fic offer up explanation for Lucy's actions without being patronising (although some of the earlier sections are a little). This one will stay with you a little while after you've read it.



no sleepers must sleep by mercurial_wit (doctor who)

"Play your scales, Lucy," her mother says, but Lucy makes a lot of mistakes. The notes don't seem all that important, and the songs she is asked to play are too slow, and she lacks the patience to perfect her technique to the extent where she can play at the speeds she prefers.

But something in Lucy remembers how to dance, and it flares up as a savage phoenix of exultation the first time she sets foot inside a nightclub. That night, and all through all the other nights just like it that come to define her unique teenage rebellion, she dances and dances until her neck is slick with sweat and her perfectly smoothed sheets and perfectly plumped pillows are very far away. This is the rebellion: the acknowledgement that she cannot stand appearances for their own sake, and that sometimes she just wants to corrupt everything that her parents and her society hold incorruptible. Including herself.

Two fics now by the same author who wrote the Pirates of the Caribbean fic that I recced last week. mercurial_wit is obviously well-read, and her writing is fluid ad elegant. Her fic is the larger story of Lucy Saxon, from her youth through to her marriage to Harold Saxon. This Lucy isn't weak, she's strong, and she takes what she wants; this Lucy Saxon was in it for herself. I love this characterisation because as much as Lucy is a unwitting victim of the Master's, she's also strong. She is. She shot him, for fuck's sake. This isn't just the story of Lucy's descent, it's the story of her ascent, and she is sharp and touched and tragic only because you know where the story finishes. Just fantastic.



the holes in the ground by mercurial_wit (stargate: atlantis/doctor who; rodney, the doctor)

Later, Rodney never quite links the first encounter to all of the ones that come after it; for one thing, he's only eight years old when it happens. For another, it's the only time that the ridiculous scarf makes an appearance.

"Excuse me," the man says, "could you tell me where I am?"

"Parlour Street," Rodney says. He is standing leaning against the low wall of the front yard, watching the stars come out and hoping that his mother forgets to call him in. A soft breeze blows scents past his nose: summer dust, rubber, and the grass clippings from the lawn next door.

"Of course." Pause. "Interesting. A deviation of -- and what year is it?"

"I don't have a concussion," Rodney informs him. "I know all this stuff."

The tale of two geniuses - The Doctor falls in and out of Rodney's long life, giving him devices for safe-keeping, taking him for drinks, and generally making things more complex than they need be. A fun character piece with a linear/non-linear storyline that I thoroughly enjoyed.



torchwood.
workaholics make rubbish talkers by twincy (torchwood, toshiko/rhys)

They are the same, she and Rhys,
both always waiting,

always watching.

HAIKU FIC, GUYS. !!! In twincy's own words, Tosh and Rhys are "two of the most quietly tragic characters on the show" and this fic/haiku series reflects their respective 'outsider' statuses whilst being lyrical and true to canon. The closing haiku is so decisive and so empowering of Tosh - I love how you can read it as Tosh trying again to shake off the shackles but also as her finally, finally succeeding. And, you know, haiku.



the quick and the dead by calapine (torchwood, jack/suzie [jack/ianto])

"Fuck," he says. Because he's never been that good with twenty-first century technology and Tosh isn't there and he should be able to follow-up a Weevil attack by himself.

"Yes, sir."

He'd thought he was alone, and it's Suzie, not Ianto. Still he spins in the chair and smiles his all-American smile. Her arms are folded, she's leaning back against the wall.

She can communicate very eloquently with her eyebrows.

Suzie, oh, Suzie Costello. On one hand this fic is about how Jack could never quite hold on to Suzie; on the other hand it's about Jack's loneliness in his immortality. Suzie is not tangible to Jack, sometimes he forgets she's there; sometimes he sees her, but he can't read her. (Perhaps it's just me, but when she laughs, Suzie is wild and beautiful. "Oh Captain, my Captain," she laughs because she's quick and she's cleverer and she can come back from the dead too.) A short fic, but it goes a long way towards representing quite a common idea of the Suzie and Jack relationship in fanon.

I find that fanon ideas of Suzie deviate somewhat from canon because there was so little of her to go on, but what I love about the thing that most authors retain from canon is Suzie's phenomenal strength, despite her being tired. (The part that fanon skips - self included - is the part where she is madly manipulative, and, you know, a murderer.)



she's my man by paperclipbitch

Torchwood Cardiff wasn’t really getting anywhere: there was Suzie, who had enthusiasm but no idea what she was doing, and Ianto, who had a filing system. Between them, they’d just about stopped the fabric of time and space collapsing on them. But it was never going to do. You announced that you would be running the operations from hereon out and they shrugged and let you.

From the author who brought us scary!Jack and Suzie/Lucy comes one of a handful of Suzie-centric fics, although this is really Jack's story. Jack, again, is fucked up; paperclipbitch certainly brings the angst. In the aftermath of the Doctor's exit, Jack is deathless and still stuck in that frenetic obsession with the Doctor. Somewhere after his arrival in Cardiff he strikes up a relationship with Suzie just for want of someone to touch; then Suzie does what Suzie does, and Jack is alone again, and the closing line has some chilling implications for the future.

This is not my favourite fic by this author. There's something rote about this fic, something too incidental and too self-involved. That said, I kept it on the recs list because of Jack's compulsive destructive behaviour in it. I don't think it's so out of character. He's not the Doctor, after all.



Here in My Head: The Final Testimony of Suzie Costello by paperclipbitch (torchwood, hints at pairings)

I proved my loyalty. I had your back. I saved your life on countless occasions. I stood by and watched you fuck everyone who had the misfortune of falling into your path. I withstood your flirting and brushed lint off the collar of your coat without making it seem like I was coming onto you. I learned to play your games and I held on. Montague is lost forever in time and space. William is dead in a drawer, three along and two up from mine. Annabelle is in a mental institution somewhere quiet, mumbling with what remains of her mind in tatters. Greg is retconned, living out the rest of his life in Florida, with no idea who we are.

But I’m still here. I died and yet I’m still here.

And when I’m gone, really gone, dead or escaped, you still won’t remember me Jack, the way you won’t remember the dozens of team members who’ve slipped through your hands over however many years you’ve been down here. We’re temporary. We don’t matter.

Don’t think I don’t know why you’re here.

The gimmick is this: in They Keep Killing Suzie, Suzie writes her confessions on the back of a handful of photographs. My notes for this at del.icio.us read: "Things Suzie needed to say. Depressing, less characterisation towards the end, but painful in the way Suzie must have been all her life." By which I mean: I liked the idea a lot, but the execution comes apart a little as the story goes on.

Now to sell it! No, but seriously, what paperclipbitch truly captures is Suzie's anger, her hurt and her frustration, all of which are captured in that same episode. There is in Suzie an epic misunderstanding of Jack sometimes, and there is also an acute dissection of his masquerade. The others bitch behind Jack's back whilst still being under his thrall; Suzie is not one of them. And although I do believe the voice undermines the idea towards the end of the story, I still think this (possibly imagined) combat between Suzie and Jack is a tantalising idea because there is nothing passive about Suzie which is what makes her compelling. The closing section is cruel because beneath the sneer there's truth.



five reasons owen harper waters plants by paperclipbitch (torchwood, owen)

"And who will be taking care of your mini jungle?" Ianto asked. His tone implied that whoever it was, it wouldn’t be him.

Owen sighed.

"Ok, fine. I will."

In which Owen waters plants; various pairings. This is really a set of character vignettes in which paperclipbitch nails the voices. Considerably lighter than the other fics I'm reccing, Owen is at the charming edge of his personality whilst retaining his bite and breath. A nice balance to the other fics, and seriously, just a breeze to read and enjoy.



baby, I die every night, every time by paperclipbitch (torchwood)

“Oh bloody hell,” Suzie murmurs. It doesn’t really do the situation justice, and she probably should be using considerably stronger language, but it’s the best she can come up with, covered in fettuccine and what remains of her boyfriend. She didn’t like him all that much, it has to be said, and she spent a lot of time while dating him attempting to find ways to avoid him, but that doesn’t mean she wanted him dead. Now, there’s blood on her face and her clothes and Adam is on the floor in front of her in six distinctly separate pieces.

a.k.a. Four Ways That Suzie Costello Didn’t Die (And The Way She Eventually Did). Meet Suzie Costello, meet Torchwood. There's this overwhelming sense of Suzie's pathos throughout this fic and it gives everything a lightly ironic edge. The author nails her voice in this, and there are some wonderfully touching and humorous moments in this: see Suzie and Owen's desperation in the face of death, and an absolutely brilliant scene with Ianto which includes dialogue such as the following gem:

"There are shelving units stomping about in the corridors," Suzie tells him very slowly (maybe she’s the one who's hysterical after all – but she’s not thinking straight right now so she can’t actually tell). "And they’re communicating in a way that sounds a lot like rustling but is probably somewhat homicidal, and if I’d only kept my mouth shut I’d be upstairs right now, while you were being horribly killed a nice safe distance away."

There is also a wonderfully telling line about Suzie and Ianto's interactions but I'll leave that for you to discover.

The final section is one of the most sympathetic renderings of Suzie's demise and in the greater context of the fic, makes a hell of a lot more sense than some of paperclipbitch's darker offerings. The fic is a good blend of humour, hysteria, and human feeling, and far less vitriolic than the other fics I've recced. I think of the Suzie fics I've posted, this is probably one of my favourites.



can't stop now by paperclipbitch (torchwood, suzie/gwen)

Gwen never intends to pity Suzie. Or like her. She intends to hate her for the innocent lives she took, for the people she stabbed in the back. Suzie will never be sent to prison for her crimes, never tried and found guilty. Jack avoids her gaze and Ianto and Owen are awkward around her and Gwen will barely speak to her but it isn’t forgiveness and it isn’t right.

An AU in which Suzie suicide is a failed attempt, and Jack extends forgiveness (which is ironic considering the discussions I've been having with razorxrosary about Ianto). This fic is actually about Gwen adapting to Torchwood whilst Suzie is still there, and the ensuing mess of a relationship; this fic is about Torchwood's take on justice. The conclusion is apt and quietly genius. A compelling ficlet, worth the read.



she can't wait for him to watch her die by paperclipbitch (torchwood, suzie/jack)

There’s something about Jack’s smile that is really unsettling. Suzie notices this the first time she meets him. She has concussion and is losing blood frighteningly quickly, lying twisted on the pavement and wondering whether this is it; there is a creature that is not fucking human being subdued somewhere behind her by people in black, but her attention is caught by the man crouching beside her.

Another Jack/Suzie fic but less bitter than the others. They meet, they are, and Suzie dies the way that she dies. paperclipbitch's author notes are a good summary of this drabble series: "I love this pairing because there’s so much potential for both hatred and darkness, and lightness and safety". And that's what this fic is. Hatred, darkness, lightness and safety, though not always in that order. Suzie's voice, as ever, is just how I feel it would be.



it's all twisted up and none of it works by paperclipbitch (torchwood, suzie/ianto)

“Don’t you have a girlfriend?” Suzie asks, second time around. Her skin is still new to Ianto, he doesn’t quite know where to touch to instantly spark a reaction.

“I do,” he tells her. “But it’s complicated.”

“Then why are we doing this?” Suzie enquires.

“Because it’s complicated,” Ianto points out.

He thinks of Lisa, alone and fuming in her basement. He thinks of her metallic skin and the rebukes she throws at him just because she can.

Fantastic. Suzie is derisive, Ianto is defensive. I'm surprised at how well this pairing works, considering how dismissive Suzie can be of Ianto in some fics. I mean, she's still dismissive, but there's a sense in which the two of them are keeping each others secrets.

This is very much Ianto's story, about his love-hate relationship with Lisa and his need for some sort of contact (which comes to fruition in Suzie - someone just as broken as his girlfriend, though in a less obvious way). This fic is almost made more affecting if you consider that after this fuck-up of a triangle Ianto turns to Jack; it ends before Cyberwoman with a line that's an accurate summary of the distance between the two of them at this juncture in canon. Ianto wonders how it’s possible for one man to be so fucking blind. There are moments of levity but mostly this is sad, and suiting to Ianto's self-entrapment. An excellent fic.



restraint by lookninjas (torchwood; ianto, toshiko)

They don't talk about what happened in the Beacons. They don't need to. Every time Tosh is struggling, every time it seems like Ianto has managed some sort of Gordian knot that will keep her bound forever, she remembers running through the woods, branches whipping at her, hands knotted firmly behind her back, and thinks, Not again. Never again. And somehow, she gets free.

It's the same for Ianto. He's not as agile as she is, not as flexible, and has a hard time shaking off even Tosh's feeble attempts at restraint. But right when she thinks they should take a break, that she should give him a few minutes before they try again, his eyes open, and he looks at her. She doesn't need to be a mind-reader to know what he's thinking at that moment -- the cannibal's hands on her, meat has to be tenderized. His eyes close, the look of concentration on his face so similar to a look of pain, and he redoubles his efforts. Eventually, the rope slips from his arms, and he looks up at her, smiling triumphantly as she clicks the stopwatch.

Finally: a fic by someone else! Ianto and Tosh practice trying to escape. This is a fic about affection and friendship, but also about desperation. The end is sad, but the voices are spot on, and there's something so earnest about both characters that your heart breaks for them. A short ficlet, but direct and emotional; just brilliant. (Specific spoilers up to and including 2x04, Meat.)

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Torchwood is on tonight, but I've missed the last few episodes so I think I'm just going to have to leave it. Watch more Lost instead.

Comments

[general-jinjur.livejournal.com]

oh, awesome list. and thank you for the shout-out!


i have an underscore, though - that's someone else.

[delgaserasca.livejournal.com]

Hopefully there's something up there of interest. And you're welcome! Thanks for linking me to your commentary... way back when.

[the-muppet.livejournal.com]

Torchwood is on tonight, but I've missed the last few episodes so I think I'm just going to have to leave it.

Me too. Keep missing it. Need a catch-up session. You know, they're on The List if you want them, or I'll happily chuck them on a couple of discs for you.

Always looking for something to do, that's me =)

*hugs*

[noorie.livejournal.com]

bb, you know i say it with love, but when your post is 25 pages longs (at least, 24 page downs on my flist), it might be a good idea to lj-cut.

[delgaserasca.livejournal.com]

Not a problem :) I'll edit that now.

[delgaserasca.livejournal.com]

Thanks sweetie; I have them, just need to force myself to make time, is all!

[the-muppet.livejournal.com]

Me too =)

[twincy.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the rec, and the recs, lols. Have unlocked that fic post of mine for the time being. Should really get a move on with that art comm, y? Also: have bookmarked several of the TW fics for future reading, because it's looking to be a long, quiet Easter weekend.

♥

[violetisblue.livejournal.com]

Found this entry through my website trackbacks--thank you very much for the rec! I appreciate it. :-)

[delgaserasca.livejournal.com]

Hi! You're welcome - I really enjoyed it, and I don't even know the canon properly, which is a mark of your talent :) It deserves to be read by more people.