March 2015 reccing challenge for H/C Bingo

[merryghoul]

I focused on the prompt theft. My recs focus on thieves, crime fighters stopping thieves, and people forced to commit theft. Fandoms: The Bletchley Circle, Doctor Who (classic and new), Leverage, Miami Vice (TV show), Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries, Orphan Black.

cursed

theft

tyranny / rebellion

The Bletchley Circle

Millie, Susan, Lucy, Jean, Wainwright: Mrs. Gray, in Scotland Yard, with a Map by MadameHardy [General Audiences | no archive warnings apply]. Susan Gray, in Scotland Yard, with a map. The bank robbers didn't stand a chance.

This fic is similar to the (sadly, since the show was canceled by ITV last year) three cases seen in the show, and is set before Susan leaves the Circle. Lucy is hurt after a bank robbery, and the circle bands together to figure out who did it.


Doctor Who

Section note: "Teaspoon" is short for A Teaspoon and an Open Mind, an archive for Doctor Who fic as well as fic for related fandoms.

Tenth Doctor, Jack Harkness, Christina de Souza, Malcolm Taylor, Ace, River: Stealing Silver by nostalgia [All Ages | no archive warnings apply] The Doctor assembles a crack team to help pull off a heist in Dalek space.

The summary as well as the list of characters pretty much sums up what's going on, but there's more on the surface. The Doctor assembles some of his past companions to save the universe from an evil artifact. Some of the characters, like Malcolm and Christina, are forced to do things they normally wouldn't do to aid the Doctor. Others, like Jack, refuse to work with the Doctor because of things the Doctor did that pissed them off. As you can see, it's not a straightforward, agreeable heist.

Christina de Souza, Ace, Romana III: Female Time Travellers of the Flying Bus by AussieDalek [All Ages | no warnings apply] Christina has a flying double-decker bus and Ace has some Nitro 9 and a baseball bat. There will be a lot of running, a lot of laughter and and definitely an explosion or two. Welcome to the Female Time Travellers of the Flying Bus sorority.

This unfinished WIP (it was started in 2009) deals with Christina stealing jewelry from aliens and the fallout that follows that theft. Romana doesn't get involved into the end of this WIP, and unfortunately, we'll never know exactly what she would've done with Christina and Ace.

Ada Mullins ("Robina Redmond"/"The Unicorn"): The Hunt of the Unicorn. by JustJyve [Teen | no warnings apply]. The Firestone escaped her grasp. Mostly in her opinion, due to a man in a brown pinstripe suit who she never wanted to think of again. New Years Eve, in the year 1929, The Unicorn sets about another heist. The Doctor in attendance.

Ada's fate in "The Unicorn and the Wasp" is one of the loose ends of that episode. As you can tell, this fic is an unfinished WIP (posted in 2009, with a promised, but unfulfilled, attempt to update the fic in 2011). But this fic's prologue shows Ada's daring escape after the chaotic ending of said episode and what startled her as she attempted to return to London.

Eleventh Doctor, River, Romana II: Postscript by nonelvis [PG | no warnings apply | LiveJournal | Dreamwidth | AO3 | Teaspoon]. Romana finally turns up after years of exile ... and she's got robbery on her mind.

Romana asks the Doctor to help her steal from a known traitor of the Time Lords. The traitor's actions enrage the Doctor.

Twelfth Doctor/Missy (Gomez!Master), River: Force of Nature by nostalgia [Teen | no archive warnings apply | Dreamwidth | AO3 | Teaspoon]. In which the Doctor reluctantly aids Missy's life of crime.

A tropey, but well-executed hurt/comfort plot: Missy poisons River. To save River's life, the Doctor has to help her steal a few things.


Leverage

Sophie-centric, Nate/Sophie: with your progress stretched out for miles by abvj [PG-13 | no warnings apply | Master post on LJ | AO3]. Sophie Devereaux from age eleven onward. Some years were better to her than others. (Or, alternatively: my love letter to Sophie Devereaux.)

I should note that, first of all, a lot of what this fic has is pre-series head canon. (Then again, Leverage never established Sophie's pre-series years or even what her real name was.) But I do like how, in this particular fic, how Sophie's early years shaped who she was and how it adversely affected the people she knew as well as herself. One note, however: This fic does suffer from shifting tenses and has words missing in a few sentences, so tread with caution.

Sophie/Nate: Fine Art, Vol 2: Office at Night by Edward Hopper by Fleur27 [Fiction T | no warnings apply]. Nate will never cheat on his wife, but it's fun to tempt him all the same.

This fic is part of the author's four (intended for five, before the author quit) part series of writing Nate/Sophie fics centered around artworks. However, this fic holds up well on its own.

In this pre-series fic, Sophie and Nate, while he's still married to Maggie, work together to stop an art thief. Some straightforward hurt here: Feelings and fingers get bruised along the way.

Sophie/Nate, Jim Sterling: Catch You Catch Me by Mizzy [Teen | no warnings apply]. Two paintings worth millions of dollars. An insurance agent and a dashing grifter. Wherein Nathan Ford knows everything, and Sophie definitely has an opinion on that.

At the heart of this fic is an art theft that Sophie and Nate bond over, but some things in Sophie's past still hurt. But don't be put off by my review of the fic. It's very much a light-hearted caper.


Miami Vice (television show)

Crockett/Castillo: Eidolon by gwyneth rhys (gwyneth) [Mature | no archive warnings apply, but read my notes after this rec ]. Sonny can't get over his experience with the cat burglar, but Castillo tries to help him overcome it.

Even with all the canonical het relationships depicted in this show and Crockett and Tubbs working together, a lot of early Miami Vice fics were slash fics between Crockett and his (second, in the show) boss, Castillo. This fic was originally written during that early period of Miami Vice fandom.

The episode's not specified in the notes of this fic, but it's "Shadow in the Dark," where a mentally unstable home invader's crimes become more and more troubling as the episode progresses. Crockett becomes obsessed with capturing the home invader during the course of the episode, and by the end of the episode, he's still troubled by the home invader's behavior. In this fic, after the end of "Shadow in the Dark," Castillo comes by Crockett's boat (for those new to the show, yes, Crockett lives in a boat at a Miami dock with an alligator named Elvis) and checks up on Crockett. Things progress into comfort sex. (Despite the mature rating of the fic, you might still want to not read this fic in a place where they frown highly upon sexual explicit material.)


Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries

Phryne/Jack, Hugh: Staying Afloat in the Tunnel of Love by st_aurafina [General Audiences | no warnings apply]. Trapped in an amusement park ride, Phryne and Jack are after the same thing. Unfortunately, so is every criminal in Melbourne.

Phryne and Jack are inside a Tunnel of Love ride looking for jewel thieves. The thieves are armed and dangerous, ensuring that apprehending these thieves wont be easy for the two of them.

Phryne/Jack, Elizabeth, Hugh, Dot: fighting vainly the old ennui [Teen | no warnings apply | fic by Fahye | podfic by knight_tracer].

The Bowerbird wasn't playing fair; Jack couldn't debate these pieces of paper. He couldn't tell pieces of paper and a growing pile of feathers that he, too, remembered the rare treat that was eating a single piece of tropical fruit in the heavy heat of a Christmas afternoon, stickying his best suit of clothes, which had been so clean and pressed for church that morning.

(In which Inspector Jack Robinson is having a fairly uneventful year, divorce notwithstanding, until he acquires a lady doctor for a drinking buddy and receives a series of flirtatious notes from a jewel thief.)

Jack is frustrated and embarrassed by a thief who calls herself the Bowerbird. No matter what Jack does, he doesn't seem to be able to capture the Bowerbird. The thief isn't who Jack expects it to be.


Orphan Black

Cal/Sarah, Kira: Nature, Nurture by katiac [Teen | no warnings apply]. Sarah and Cal's early days together.

A closer look at some incidents mentioned in the second season of Orphan Black, but not seen on screen. The fic focuses on Sarah's plans to rob Cal, and how it affects their relationship as well as Sarah and Cal individually.

Sarah, Vic: Running like (Wild Horses) by captainjaybird /captain-jaybird [Mature | graphic depictions of violence (domestic abuse) | AO3 | Fanfiction.net]. One night, everything goes to hell and Sarah Manning runs away. What happened in those ten months she was gone?

Orphan Black fans are loathe to label fics "Sarah/Vic" because of their canonical abusive relationship, but yes, this is technically a Sarah/Vic fic. Here, Vic forces Sarah to leave her daughter, Kira, for a life of grifting. The fic shows the toll of Vic's abuse and the constant grifting on Sarah's life.

Paul/Beth, Paul/Sarah: Duplicity by barometry [Teen | choose not to warn; content notes include canonical drug use and suicide]. Beth was everything Paul had been led to expect. And then one day she was different.

This fic deals with Paul's pre-canon life, monitoring one of the Orphan Black clones, Beth, as well as his feelings when Sarah steals Beth's identity initially for Beth's cash and later to find out about the show's clone conspiracy.

Comments

[merryghoul]

...yeah, sorry about the 2014 in the title of the post FOR A YEAR.