All in the Mind

Fanfiction
Title:	All in the Mind
Author(s):	Gemini
Date(s):	1997
Length:	about 10K
Genre(s):	slash
Fandom(s):	Blake's 7
Relationship(s):
External Links:	online here
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All in the Mind is a Blake/Avon, Avon/Servalan Blake's 7 story by Gemini. It was originally printed in the zine Forbidden Star #2.

Reactions and Reviews

Why this must be read: Another of my favourite B/A fics (this one was written/published in 1997), and the first fic that I've recced thus far that it's going to be difficult to talk about without talking spoilers. Nevertheless, I shall attempt it...

It takes place after the end of the series - a time period B7 fen generally call PGP (if you don't know what that stands for, don't look it up), and it deals with one of the many fan-crack ideas that B7 casually introduces and then forgets about. In this case - the idea of memory erasure and implanting new memories into a person. The first canonically happens to our hero and it's something he has to deal with a lot in fic. The latter is less common, but still a reasonably persistent theme.

This fic does something quite unusual and interesting with the memory erasure/implanation idea, and what it is does is essential to the two major relationships explored in this fic: B/A and A/S. They're far more complex than this as characters (particularly Blake, who makes some spectacularly grey decisions), but in a way (while getting on with their own stuff) Blake and Servalan also function as Avon's shoulder angel and his shoulder devil. And this fic, which depicts the relationships simultaneously (sex in both), plays into that negotiation between Avon's best and worst instincts in a very plausible and compelling way. I'm not that keen on the ending, but I'm keen enough (i.e. very keen) on the rest of it to strongly urge you to read it. I also recommend Gemini's other work - particularly 'Identity Crisis', which, as you may guess from that title, plays on a similar idea, but in a very different way.

Horribly plausible PGP fic in which Avon and a mostly dead Blake are the only survivors of the massacre. Servalan offers to heal Blake and mentally condition him to love men... if Avon will work on her teleport device and continue to have sex with her. The wretched negotiations between what Avon wants and what he can bear to do to get it are incredibly compelling. We both feel the ending does Blake a disservice, but overall 'All in the Mind' is still exceptional. It's Katy's favourite of Gemini's fics.