Castles in the Air (Blake's 7 story)

Fanfiction
Title:	Castles in the Air
Author(s):	Phillipa Scott
Date(s):	April 1991
Length:	15 pages
Genre:
Fandom:	Blake's 7
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Castles in the Air is a Blake's 7 (Blake/Avon, Blake/Jenna, Avon/Anna - incorrectly labelled as Tarrant/Avon) story by Phillipa Scott.

It was published in Southern Comfort #6.5

Reactions and Reviews

ok! and at last we reach: the fic the zine is for! (well, arguably it's bondmate, but i didn't read that one, because i didn't think i cared enough about avon/tarrant to read 26 pages of it).

so, his is another familar premise from my brief time in blake's 7 fandom - it's time to go to a pleasure world! where you can experience your own fantasies inside an artificial reality generator, hurrah. and blake wants a fantasy with... jenna? but i thought this was a blake/avon fic (a good start, really, as even though i don't want blake/jenna i do like realism and i think it's ok for him to want to have sex with her but not hurt her/make things complicated etc), so... anyway, that's his plan. and the simulation-operator is like 'do you want her to sort of resist you, but then yield eventually?' and blake's like - well, that's not much like jenna, but yes! i think i'd enjoy that. (and my mind started to skip ahead and wonder whether blake's simulation of jenna was actually going to accidentally be avon only a woman, which i would be perfectly happy with - but that's not what happened). unfortunately, in order for the simulation to work properly you have tp take drugs and blake hates taking drugs - so he refuses, and that means the operators can't control the fantasy. thus everything goes really really wrong...

i'm going to stop summing up the plot here, because that's kind of boring - but essentially, i think this fic uses its cracky sex premise to really good effect. rather than just being an excuse for blake to realise which one of the crew it is that he genuinely desires, it is a chance for blake to realise that, for all he is a good person (and he is), he is also deeply flawed - most notably in that he tries to control everyone and is often deeply guilty. this latter can be a good thing, because it's all about how he's a decent person, but it also makes him act irrationally. and can be really frustrating for everyone else if blake keeps insisting on making everything about him.

anyway - it's a strange fic in that... i don't think it can really be classified as blake/avon. avon definitely loves anna... and blake... is really confused. the sex he has with avon is mostly a metaphor.

but avon is surprising kind and i think is willing to put in the time to seriously help blake at the end (although for a given value of help)... and i think it's interesting. and also not unfeeling on either of their sides.

so yes - this one is very good. do recommend. even if it is not actually in support of my ship (probably).

(Sex? Yes, with references to past ducon, but arguably gen) Unusual. Phillipa Scott writes a more mature Avon than most, but he doesn’t feel out of character. Blake is forced to confront the least appealing aspects of his own personality, but she treats him with sympathy. Makes you think hard about what dreams and fantasies do and do not reveal about what we want from reality.

Despite shipping Blake/Avon to the death, I loved that "Castle in the Air" managed to feel like a gen story, in the end, after pages of fantasy sex. In fact, that's probably what I like most about it. An unusual and difficult twist to pull off. Oh, and such a well written Avon, I thought! I think it's a real feat to write a mature Avon whose maturity seems like a natural part of usual brand of weird/crazy. Also I thought it was funny that Anna wouldn't stop asking him about Blake while they were in his fantasy.