New TS story: Take Seven

[resonant]

Take Seven
Jim/Blair -- PG -- 20K
Jim meets Blair for the first time. And then he meets Blair for the first time. And then ...

Huge massive enormous fluffy lightly-sweetened mounds of beta thanks to cesperanza, and additional brainstorming help from astolat and cmshaw. Oh! Forgot to mention the usefulness of kassrachel's link to the List Of Useful Quechua Phrases.

Written for the Getting A Sense Of Cliches challenge on ts_ficathons, which has generated lots of wonderful stuff; the master list of stories is here.

Sorry there's no smut. I wanted to write smut. I'm craving Sentinel smut now. This ficathon has really left me feeling the Sentinel love this week.

I've been re-reading all my old favorites -- Cesca's "Nothing On" and "I Love You" and Ces and Miriam's "Dork," Helen's "Seemingly Impermeable," shalott's "World Burning Down," something by Anna that might or might not have been titled by the filename I saved it under (which was "Sex"), Lyrica's "Behind the Storm We feel," Aristide's "Solitary Creatures."

I was surprised to discover that five or six years later I still had a lot of scenes almost memorized, and embarrassed to find a lot of phrases that I can remember using in my own stories. Who knows how many of these people I've stolen from without knowing it.

Sentinel was my second fandom, and the first one I ever wrote anything in. And, man, if you wanted to learn how to write smut, there was absolutely nowhere better to be than Sentinel in 1999. I mean, look at those names. It's a Who's Who of Hot.

Comments

[nestra.livejournal.com]

Aw, man. Now I'm nostalgic too.

And, man, if you wanted to learn how to write smut, there was absolutely nowhere better to be than Sentinel in 1999.

No kidding, huh? And sanj, and thisisbone, and kormantic, and kassrachel, and probably fifteen other people. And you, of course.

[nestra.livejournal.com]

Also, hey, feedback! That was hysterical. Made me miss Blair.

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I was surprised to find that I missed him, too. Guess no matter how many slashgeeks you get, you never forget your first.

[neery.livejournal.com]

Hey, I don't want to be dragged back into the Sentinel fandom! I was perfectly happy with SGA, which is nice and new and shiny - not to mention nicely active - and then there go my favourite writers and start on TS again. Away from me, temptress! *g*


I think this was the most amusing take - or, well, seven takes - on Jim and Blair's first meeting I've ever read. But clearly Blair needs a bit more practise on the first contact bit. Seven tries and still not getting it right? That's pretty embarassing. He's just seems to be too enthusiastic about the whole thing to explain it in any coherent way. Poor Jim. One can almost understand his need to push Blair into a wall, especially if he subconsciously remembers some of the other takes.

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

SGA definitely has it over TS in the 'active' department, I admit! Glad I could tempt you a bit, though.

[spikedluv]

OMG, I nearly died laughing, lol! That was great! I loved Blair's thought process. *snicker* And how Jim threw him up against the wall every time. And the kisses. *vbg*

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

I tried so hard to get some smut in there, but I just couldn't manage it. I mean, yes, I could probably get them in bed together this early, with a little struggle -- but they wouldn't be Jim and Blair as we've come to know and love them, just a couple of good-looking strangers. Not the same.

Your icon is guh so beautiful and hot!

[flambeau.livejournal.com]

He dragged the unconscious Peruvian down the hallway, thinking furiously.

*laughs like crazy* Oh, whee! That was so much fun!

Also:

there was absolutely nowhere better to be than Sentinel in 1998

X-Files, 1997! We had Anna first!

I wonder if everyone feels this way about their formative fandoms? *g*

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

X-Files, 1997! We had Anna first!

In 1997 I was still just dipping my toe into Voyager het. (Though I don't remember finding any that was good except for cruisedirector's.) Still working up to that first dip into slash. Now this is making me want to track down all the old Paris/Kim writers and see what they're up to now!

[flambeau.livejournal.com]

Hee! I know some were in TPM and some of us reconvened in popslash...

[vickita.livejournal.com]

OMG, those were some of my favorite stories, too. *sigh* It was good stuff wa'nnit?

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

Amazing. I mean, I think we've all improved (though for some there wasn't much better that they could get), but there was some amazing stuff back then, and you just can't get back that first-fandom love.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_inbetween_/]

They tried to convert me to sentinel, your old and new buddies, they tried on SGA chat the other day, but I still don't get it, and a few seconds of blooper kisses are not enough without having seen it!

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

No, no, the blooper kisses just give you a sense of the whole spirit of the show, which was very much "Oh, you think this seems gay? Eh. What the hell. Let's do it anyway." Not like they were doing it on purpose (like late Due South) but more like they just didn't think it mattered very much.

The show itself, um, could have used some improvement in many ways, but the Jim-Blair dynamic was so lovely. Total opposites, yet super-comfortable best friends. Both admirable. Entirely interdependent, and mostly unashamed of needing each other. Bickering and sweet, sweet affection.

Take a look at spikedluv's Blair icon above, and read some of the slash, and you'll have enough to enjoy; no need to follow the show.

(And glad you liked the story! Dr. McKay is canon!)

[http://users.livejournal.com/_inbetween_/]

Hmmmmmmm. Maybe it's good I don't know which is which because I don't like the looks of one and the character the other plays in another series *g* so yes, I might try to actually read slash for canon I know little of *digs through your stuff*

[http://users.livejournal.com/_inbetween_/]

Ouch. And again. And again. I've got a headache now, the poor guy *rofl* and ... McKay?! *ggg*

Best to keep him strapped to a bed and not to stop kissing. Against a wall also good coz no sneaking up by head-hitting guy possible.

[http://users.livejournal.com/tesserae_/]

*Loved* this - as someone says upthread, best take on the first meeting ever...and, your stories are some of my favorite ones in this fandom...

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

Aww. Thanks!

[jacquez.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure that story is actually titled Sex, yes.

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

I was a little less careful how I saved things to disk in those days. I don't think it was really real to me that I was still going to be reading over these stories six years later!

[miriam-heddy.livejournal.com]

Brilliant, as one would expect.

I loved this:
which, like Blair's office, was basically sound but a little sloppy.
because it gave me little "Why I still love Blair" shivers.

Also, Blair's 20% and Jim's 20% should definitely meet more often.

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

I hadn't realized I was missing Blair! The beautiful funkiness of his thought process. I went to read the Switchman transcript so I could mangle his explanation, and I got to this:

Oh, hey. Notice how the war chant of the Yanomamo headhunters finds its echo in the cellars of Seattle. I'm sure your dad used to say that stuff all the time about the Stones. "Hey, hey, turn that jungle music down."

and just fell in love all over again!

Personally I think it's more like 80% for Jim, but Blair doesn't know him very well yet.

Hysterical

[lynnzo.livejournal.com]

This had me laughing right out loud at work, which is not safe, but fun.

I particularly liked this part: Jim was looking deeply confused, like -- well, like a guy who'd spent his afternoon alternately being lectured and hit over the head with a stick. Kind of like grad school.

Heh! You've gotten Blair's voice absolutely perfect here, and I loved the way the story wrapped up back in line with canon, what a joy! Thanks so much for posting.

[celli]

Oh, that cracked me up a LOT. WHat fun!

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

Thanks! Glad you liked it.

[copracat]

I can't believe I haven't loved on you for this one! It was just fun, wonderful Sentinel fun with the whacky plot and great Blair-voice, his giddyness, his quick-thinking and his determination.

OK, clearly this sentinel gig was going to be a bit more hands-on than he had anticipated.

I should hope so, too.

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

Thanks! It was a lot of fun to write. I miss Blair and his nutty internal voice.