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crack_van2012-07-11 09:41 am
laurie-ky.livejournal.com) wrote in crack_van2012-07-11 09:41 am
Entry tags:
Polarity by Glacis (Explicit)
Polarity by Glacis (explicit)
Fandom: THE SENTINEL
Pairing: Blair Sandburg/OMCs, OFCs; Jim Ellison/Blair Sandburg
Length:11181 words
Author's Warning Explicit
Author on LJ:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
glacis
Author's website: Castle's Keep And Her page on AO3
Why this must be read:
Because it's a gray world out there, and more than one world view. In this story by a very prolific and long time author (she's written under several names) Blair made some decisions as a vulnerable and lonely, and broke, teen college student. It almost ended in disaster for him, but he skated by, leaving him with one of those “But for the grace of God” realizations.
Now, eleven years later, a case is given to Major Crime that brings back those memories, and Blair has a new decision to make. Should he keep quiet or tell Jim and Simon about his past and how it ties into their current case? One thing he knows for sure: Jim is not going to like or agree with Blair's reasons for that long ago decision.
On a personal note, I was asked to make the same decision as Blair made when I was a broke college student. I chose differently, but I did consider it, and it was a great values clarification exercise. Glacis explores Blair's reasons for saying yes, and Jim's for not agreeing with him. And as a reader, I had to think it through to decide if I agreed with Blair, or with Jim. There was a lot of tension as I read to see if this case was going to break them apart or bring them closer.
Summary: A current case opens the doors to Blair's past and creates a new dynamic in the Sentinel/Guide relationship.
* *
Later that night, staring at the ceiling in his room, he listened to the soft exhalations of Ellison sleeping above him and let the door in his memory slip open just a crack.
An experiment, a dream, one he was willing to change life as he knew it in order to pursue. Outwardly confident, excited, enthusiastic, inwardly alone as he had never been in his life. His earliest memories were of a commune, adults and children in one large, bustling tangle, a lap and a hug never far from reach. Later, as times changed and people drifted apart, it was he and Naomi, a commune of two, a mutual support society that was never broken, drifting together wherever the wind took them.
Until a dream anchored him in one place, and the next time the wind blew, he was alone.
Oh, not completely. He could always reach her, in an emergency, but he was determined on his dream. He loved people, was fascinated by them, wanted to know everything there was about them. Where they came from, why they did what they did, how they differed from one another. He wanted to be an anthropologist, and if that meant settling in at a University with people who were older than he was and more settled than he was and who didn't have a clue how to handle who he was, then so be it. He could deal with it. He had to, he had a dream to make come true.
Except the reality wasn't quite like he'd expected. True, the classes were fascinating, and he had a few advantages over his classmates in that he'd been to a lot of the places they had only read about, and he was brighter than the vast majority of them. But he'd never been taught to hide his talents, he'd only learned to shine, and in a very short time he found himself adored by his teachers and ignored by his classmates. For the first time in his life he understood not only being alone, but loneliness.
That wasn't the only problem. Financial aid covered the classes, and the texts, but not the living expenses. And while he wasn't a spendthrift, he didn't have the checks from home his classmates had, and he often found himself short of cash. He was in a dorm but had nothing in common with his roommates, who went out of their way to make things miserable for the skinny, runty little brat who was ruining the curve in their classes. He was adrift, vulnerable, although he only recognized that with the benefit of time and distance. He was looking for an anchor.
He found Paul.
A teaching fellow who taught Intro to Anthropology to the incoming freshmen, Paul was bright, and funny, and fascinating. He loved anthropology, but it wasn't his life. People were his life. He was always surrounded by friends, and he was always busy with one thing or another, but he also always had time for Blair. He listened, encouraged Blair to talk, took him out for dinner when the wallet got too strapped, let him crash at his place when the roommates got to be too much. Paul was gorgeous, light brown hair that showed gold in the light, big brown eyes, mobile face, big and brawny and beautiful.
Blair would have followed him into hell.
With a muffled oath, he squeezed his eyes shut, slammed the door on his memory, and buried his face in his pillow. Eleven years was a long time to go back, and like he was always telling Jim, repression was addicting. Unhealthy.
Necessary.
Polarity by Glacis</a
Fandom: THE SENTINEL
Pairing: Blair Sandburg/OMCs, OFCs; Jim Ellison/Blair Sandburg
Length:11181 words
Author's Warning Explicit
Author on LJ:
glacisAuthor's website: Castle's Keep And Her page on AO3
Why this must be read:
Because it's a gray world out there, and more than one world view. In this story by a very prolific and long time author (she's written under several names) Blair made some decisions as a vulnerable and lonely, and broke, teen college student. It almost ended in disaster for him, but he skated by, leaving him with one of those “But for the grace of God” realizations.
Now, eleven years later, a case is given to Major Crime that brings back those memories, and Blair has a new decision to make. Should he keep quiet or tell Jim and Simon about his past and how it ties into their current case? One thing he knows for sure: Jim is not going to like or agree with Blair's reasons for that long ago decision.
On a personal note, I was asked to make the same decision as Blair made when I was a broke college student. I chose differently, but I did consider it, and it was a great values clarification exercise. Glacis explores Blair's reasons for saying yes, and Jim's for not agreeing with him. And as a reader, I had to think it through to decide if I agreed with Blair, or with Jim. There was a lot of tension as I read to see if this case was going to break them apart or bring them closer.
Summary: A current case opens the doors to Blair's past and creates a new dynamic in the Sentinel/Guide relationship.
* *
Later that night, staring at the ceiling in his room, he listened to the soft exhalations of Ellison sleeping above him and let the door in his memory slip open just a crack.
An experiment, a dream, one he was willing to change life as he knew it in order to pursue. Outwardly confident, excited, enthusiastic, inwardly alone as he had never been in his life. His earliest memories were of a commune, adults and children in one large, bustling tangle, a lap and a hug never far from reach. Later, as times changed and people drifted apart, it was he and Naomi, a commune of two, a mutual support society that was never broken, drifting together wherever the wind took them.
Until a dream anchored him in one place, and the next time the wind blew, he was alone.
Oh, not completely. He could always reach her, in an emergency, but he was determined on his dream. He loved people, was fascinated by them, wanted to know everything there was about them. Where they came from, why they did what they did, how they differed from one another. He wanted to be an anthropologist, and if that meant settling in at a University with people who were older than he was and more settled than he was and who didn't have a clue how to handle who he was, then so be it. He could deal with it. He had to, he had a dream to make come true.
Except the reality wasn't quite like he'd expected. True, the classes were fascinating, and he had a few advantages over his classmates in that he'd been to a lot of the places they had only read about, and he was brighter than the vast majority of them. But he'd never been taught to hide his talents, he'd only learned to shine, and in a very short time he found himself adored by his teachers and ignored by his classmates. For the first time in his life he understood not only being alone, but loneliness.
That wasn't the only problem. Financial aid covered the classes, and the texts, but not the living expenses. And while he wasn't a spendthrift, he didn't have the checks from home his classmates had, and he often found himself short of cash. He was in a dorm but had nothing in common with his roommates, who went out of their way to make things miserable for the skinny, runty little brat who was ruining the curve in their classes. He was adrift, vulnerable, although he only recognized that with the benefit of time and distance. He was looking for an anchor.
He found Paul.
A teaching fellow who taught Intro to Anthropology to the incoming freshmen, Paul was bright, and funny, and fascinating. He loved anthropology, but it wasn't his life. People were his life. He was always surrounded by friends, and he was always busy with one thing or another, but he also always had time for Blair. He listened, encouraged Blair to talk, took him out for dinner when the wallet got too strapped, let him crash at his place when the roommates got to be too much. Paul was gorgeous, light brown hair that showed gold in the light, big brown eyes, mobile face, big and brawny and beautiful.
Blair would have followed him into hell.
With a muffled oath, he squeezed his eyes shut, slammed the door on his memory, and buried his face in his pillow. Eleven years was a long time to go back, and like he was always telling Jim, repression was addicting. Unhealthy.
Necessary.
Polarity by Glacis</a