Lookin' for Eight

Sentinel Fanfiction
Title:	Lookin' for Eight
Author(s):	Fidus Amicus
Date(s):
Length:
Genre:	gen
Fandom:	The Sentinel
External Links:	Lookin' for Eight
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Lookin' for Eight is a Sentinel story by Fidus Amicus.

Reactions and Reviews

This is a lovely alternative meeting AU where Jim, plagued by his senses, goes to decompress at a Texas ranch after catching the Switchman. He meets a young student named Blair Sandburg there, who's struggling to get his life back on track after a terrible accident. Fidus Amicus does a great job taking canon threads and weaving them into a different, yet subtly familiar story of how our intrepid hero and sidekick met. One of the things I really love about this story is that Blair needs Jim's help as much, if not more, when they first meet as Jim needs Blair's.

This is another Jim-didn't-meet-Blair-in-Switchman Alternative Universe story from this author; it takes a slightly different tack from her "Road Not Travelled" universe, in that Jim still managed to save the day in Switchman, but asks for time off. The other difference is in what happened to Blair before that point, but you can read the story to find that out. As is not surprising for this author, we have an "instant instinct" Sentinel-Guide connection as soon as Jim and Blair meet; an easing of Jim's senses by Blair's presence, a protective instinct, and an instant friendship. I get bothered by that kind of thing in Alternative History stories because as far as I can see, that changes the "rules" of the universe, since I don't believe the "instant instinct" thing happened in canon, however much people like to read that interpretation back into the text. With Parallel Universe things it often doesn't bug me, because I feel there's more freedom there to change the "rules" since one is changing the setting radically. All that said, however, it was only a minor irritation, and I like this author's stuff so much anyway, I just live with it. And what was the "stuff" here that I liked? Two structural things stood out: the meaning of the title was cool, and the parallel between Blair's situation and Jim's situation, where both of them have to admit that they need help. I loved the repetition of Jim's line that he's helping "because he wants to, not because he has to". And it is nice to watch Jim and Blair being friends. Also for those who have a visual imagination, consider Jim in cowboy gear (grin).

Although I hate rodeos, I was still able to enjoy this story as one about Jim and Blair meeting and developing a friendship. I can't help but wish the writer had included a case to go along with it. While I enjoy relationship stories, it's been a long time since I've been able to read a nice juicy case story. I really miss detective Jim and consultant Blair. I was curious, though, why the writer had Blair use the exclamation "Gods" instead of God. I see this in a lot of TS stories, especially slash. Maybe Blair was being written as a Pagan, but I don't remember this being mentioned as part of his background, so it threw me when I read it. Even so, I've always considered using "God" as a form of explanation to be more a figure of speech than an indication of one religious beliefs.