A Doctor Who Reccing Community

Title: Jack Harkness - Super Temp
Creator: madder_rose (Teaspoon) // madder_rose
Rating: Adult/Explicit
Word Count/Length/Size: 38,609 words (for the first fic of the series)
Creator's Summary: Jack Harkness lives in a cubicled office. Then one day, he meets a blue eyed man, and things slowly start to change.
Characters/Pairings: Characters: Jack Harkness, Ianto Jones, Gwen Cooper, Mickey Smith, Martha Jones, Sarah Jane Smith, original characters. Pairings: Jack Harkness/Ianto Jones, Jack Harkness/OMC
Warnings/Notes: Well, this one has warnings in spades. There's domestic abuse, explicit violence, sexual abuse and non-con (not between Jack and Ianto), character death, implied torture. Also explicit sex and swearing. Do take the warnings seriously if you have issues with any of those. I'm squeamish and sensitive and only rarely read stories involving explicit violence or non-con, but I was okay with this story, however, it doesn't mean it won't be too much for others.
Spoilers for Torchwood S2 and Doctor Who S4 finale.

Reasons for reccing: For the bingo square "It's not what it seems". This fic immediately popped into my mind the moment I saw this square on my bingo card, so I don't know why I took so long to make this post. It's one of my favourite long Torchwood fics, and "it's not what it seems" definitely fits this story. I avoided it for long, despite seeing it on many Torchwood recs lists, because it sounded like a very OOC AU - but trust me, it's actually awesome and clever. You start to see it after a while, so if you're not immediately convinced, give it a few chapters.

I don't want to say too much about the story because I don't want to spoil anything, but it might be for you if you if you like:
- long Torchwood fics
- emotional hurt/comfort and angst
- hot sex scenes (Jack/Ianto)
- stories that back a strong emotional punch
- Jack who's vulnerable and victimized for reasons
- Ianto being kick-ass and awesome; think the S2 episode "Meat"

I happen to like all those things, so I've read this one and it's first sequel, Tonight (7570 words), many times. One of the things I really love about them is that characters face some actual psychological and emotional consequences as a result of bad things happening to them; it's one of the many things Torchwood the TV series rarely got right, though I love it in all its flawedness.

There's also a full-length sequel called "Jack Harkness - Lives Again," but if you don't feel like committing to over 60,000 words, you don't need to read it (it was good, but not quite as good as Super Temp). However, I strongly recommend reading the first "Tonight" if you read the first story, because it deals with some unresolved emotional issues in the end of the first story. And it's only a few chapters, so if you've already read over 38,000 words, it's not too much.


Link: Jack Harkness - Super Temp, on Teaspoon (for the whole series including the two sequels, see here // On LiveJournal, the master list for the whole series