If someone has been away from Torchwood fandom for at least a year, what would you suggest that they read? Which are the unmissable fics of 2010 / late 2009?

I particularly enjoy: Tosh, serious 'grownup' fics (which doesn't necessarily mean ones with high ratings, or tearjerkers, or torture and gore) and well-done, smoking-hot smut.

Also -- hello, again.

 Since I'm finding it hard to pinpoint resources on this:

What was Victorian sex-ed like?  Specifically in the case of an only child, a teenage girl in an upper-class family.  How much would she be expected to know before marriage?  Would she be expected to be told certain things by a mother/other female role model?  Comments from servants?  Did marriage manuals exist then?

Of course, a lot of this may go out the window, as her father is steampunk!Jack.  But we'll see.

Title: What You Wish For
Ratings & warnings: Adult (explicit sexual content, language).  Very light D/s & bondage.
Characters: Tosh/PC Andy
Spoilers: None.  Zip.  Nada.
Beta:pocketmouse, who put up admirably with my inappropriate 3 AM reference to How Doth the Little Crocodile.
Wordcount: ~5,600
Author's Note: They're not directly quoted, but I had two snippets in my head as I wrote this: each the other's world entire, from Cormack McCarthy's 'The Road', and still point of the turning world, from T. S. Eliot's 'Burnt Norton', the first of the Four Quartets.  So this is some kind of homage.  With pr0n.
Summary: Toshiko has a plan, and Andy can't say no.

 

 

( Read more... )

I don't think I've done the rec thing here before, but here is one now:

An Echo of the Thing by rm 

PG; The Face of Boe character study

This fic portrays a character who is, by virtue of his incredible age, almost incomprehensible--and portrays it amazingly well.  As the Face of Boe looks back over his life, how much he has forgotten and how much he remembers, we get a real sense of what eternity might mean.  rm 's vision of the FoB is haunting and nuanced and basically gave me shivers.

 What I'd really write home about, if I had to pick one thing, is the language of this fic: there's something amazing done with sentence fragments, with the use of 'then' and past-tense verbs.  'Cruel gift of much forgetting'...

Title: A Process in the Weather
Ratings & Warnings: soft 15 / R for adult themes
Characters: Jack/Ianto
Spoilers: All of seasons 1 and 2 of Torchwood
Beta: slartibartfast 
Wordcount: 5,405
A/N: Written for andromeda05 as part of the Jack/Ianto exchange at thestopwatch.  The title is taken from the Dylan Thomas poem.

Summary:  Ianto knows all about the fragility of the human body; he knows how it bleeds and how it breaks. And he knows, as he thinks of the cold uncaring perfection of metal, that it is better than the alternative.

( A Process in the Weather )
Comments and constructive criticism welcomed!

Meta ahead!  Beware of swearing.

Shamelessly stolen from shaggydogstail, since I really feel like writing some drabble-ish-length fic:

Comment with two characters I'm familiar with, and I'll tell you how they kissed (the first time)

In terms of fandoms, I'm really familiar with Torchwood, modern Doctor Who and Sunshine (the movie.)  If you feel like throwing a well-known character from Harry Potter or Pirates of the Caribbean in there too, by all means do--but, as with the rest, it's possible that I won't feel able to write it, or just not be interested.  You could also throw in other characters from popular culture I'm likely to know, and I'll just tell you if I don't, but Winnie the Pooh fic is way out.

(Well, unless it's a really great pairing.)

[Edited to add: bizarre crossovers are fine, but expect bizarre and probably implausible explanations for why Toshiko Sato is aboard the Black Pearl with Captain Jack Sparrow.]

Prompted by misslucyjane's post here, I've decided to post up some snippets from Torchwood fics I never got round to finishing (though I'm really tempted to now I've collected them to post here).  One is short, one is longer, and one is several hundred words long.

Angel was an original 'sketch' for a one-off fic about the dangers of spacetime strangers that I'm really tempted to finish.  Not fluffy at all, and full of communication problems, deceptive appearances, and misplaced trust.  Orders seems to have been something porntastic, though I can't remember my initial plans for it.  Ripples was intended as the beginning of a long, episode-style fic focused on several murders in the Brecon Beacons and their alien culprits; it incorporates a little of the porniness from Orders.  The 'Apple' in this shows clear developmental references to the 'Apple' from Angel, but the concept is morphed.  If I continued this, I'd change the name and seperate the two characters entirely.

These snippets contain adult content.  Which means sex.  Mostly of the Jack/Ianto variety.  And there are spoilers for pretty much the whole series.  Anything you have to say about them'd be welcomed, too.





Also: does anyone with free time on their hands feel like reading a much longer incomplete fic (we're talking 12,000 or so words) and telling me if it's remotely interesting?  The plot is completed and it just needs to be actually written, but after an intense period of work on it several months ago (before RL became suddenly busy) I've found myself unable to go back to it, and I'm unsure if it's even remotely interesting.  It's rated 18/NC-17, and contains sexual content and OCs introduced for the sake of plot.