Chances (Professionals story)
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| Fanfiction | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Chances |
| Author(s): | Angelfish |
| Date(s): | Before 2004 |
| Length: | 125k |
| Genre(s): | angst |
| Fandom(s): | The Professionals |
| Relationship(s): | Bodie/Doyle |
| External Links: | online at the Circuit Archive |
Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Chances is a Professionals slash story written by Angelfish.
The story sometimes appears on fans' Desert Island lists.[1]
The story first appeared on the circuit archive in 2004. It had been written years before, but when the circuit archive underwent an overhaul in 2004, she offered the story up to the archive as a way of helping kick-start the new launch.
Reviewers summary: "Jealousy does strange things, heads people onto the most unlikely paths – and sometimes back again. A beautifully written, angsty fic."[2]
Reactions/Reviews
Jealousy does strange things, heads people onto the most unlikely paths – and sometimes back again. A beautifully written, angsty fic.[3]
Hard to put one [story] at the top of the pile, and hard to pick out of the three of hers. But this *just* edges to the surface for me. This was a fic that crept up on me unawares. I avoided it for the longest time because I thought the premise – Doyle and Bodie separated? Doyle with another man for two years? – was one I wouldn’t buy in a million years. But it’s one I’ve been drawn to again and again since the first time I read it, and it’s the writer as much as the reader in me who loves this. She has a turn of phrase like no other. To wit, a moment on a mountain from long ago.[4]
First Time Emphasis: This was recommended on the ProLit list, so I followed it up and heartily endorse the recommendation. It's an excellent read and an interesting take on the relationship between Bodie and Doyle.[5]
Today's story is a new (or just about) story by a new - and unusually talented - author. In Chances, Bodie and Doyle have been estranged the past two years, ever since Bodie discovered that Ray was gay and Ray left CI5. During this time, Ray has been living with his lover and Bodie has been working with Murphy; when the story begins, Ray's lover has just been killed, and he and Bodie are about to have their first meeting since the fiasco two years before. Neither of them has been able during that time to forget or truly move beyond the other, and despite the inauspicious beginning to the evening, by the end of it they have begun to rediscover each other. I absolutely love this set-up: I love the potential for emotional intensity, and the hurt-comfort aspect, with a grief-stricken Ray and a repentent Bodie; and the author executes it extremely well. Bringing Ray and Bodie together immediately after Ray's lover's death could have felt unrealistic and jarring, but the scenario the author sets up, and the insight she gives us into Ray's feelings, makes it feel entirely natural and plausible. She also has an amazing way with words - there is an intensity and gorgeous "lushness" to her writing, her imagery, her evocation of emotion, that I find irresistable and incredibly compelling. The rhythm and richness of the language draws me in, mesmerizes me; I find myself savoring particular phrases, rolling them around in my mind and marvelling over how perfectly they convey images and feelings. She writes from an almost unconsciously omniscient point of view - reminiscent of M Fae Glasgow to me - which gives the story a bit of a dreamy, soft-focus feel that I love. This is the author's first published Pros story, and I hope very much to see more from her.[6]
I just read this story thanks to your rec, and I am sitting in stunned and overwhelmed gratitude and admiration for this author. I'm so glad you recced this. What an incredible storyteller the author is! I'have already emailed her my praise and comments. You are right about her way with words. I kept rereading certain lines and reveling in their perfection. Every single scene is so well described that I felt a part of it. Ray's grief is so real and poignant, as is Bodie's remorse. And the love between our Lads suffuses it all in a rosy glow. Love how she flashed back to the scene when the Lads were first put together by Cowley and how what happened then had repercussions later. I have to admit I could do without the epilogue. I too sincerely hope that we hear more from her.[7]
As for the epilogue ... well, I am a happily-ever-after slut, as you no doubt know, and the epilogue guts me a little, yet there's something kind of ... well, transcendent about it - they are together forever, wherever they are, and life has no further ability to hurt them ...[8]
A great story up until the epilogue and then it cops out. And as for Cowley--the man should have left well enough alone. It's dangerous playing God.[9]
well, since you asked...i read chances last night and was very torn about it. it hit a couple of my major kinks and i loved the premise, but i felt it all happened too fast. maybe i'm too much of a sucker for long drawn-out dealing/misunderstandings/... but the 48 hour seeing your lover die -> sex&making up and whatever was just too fast for me. [and i get the sex as numbing/comfort thing, but it was that *and* the having to deal with their complicated falling out at the same time that made it too much too fast for me] it was one of those fics that were good but could have been great if that makes sense. [oh, and the ending suckerpunched me...i wish i'd not read the epilogue (yes, i'm sappy :-)] [10]
Re: Chances - I understand what you're saying. It did require a certain suspension of disbelief, but it was one that I was able to make - mostly because the author didn't avoid the issue entirely; she made it plausible to me that Ray would react that way, even if it probably should have taken longer. And yes, there was a *lot* of emotion packed in there, between their falling out and the death and their coming back together. The author could indeed have made it longer (I too like long and drawn out). Still, I found it so satisfying. Part of that is I simply love her way with words, the way she puts sentences together, her imagery and language - it's just so gorgeous. This makes me love simply *reading* it, almost without regard to the story. Also, I absolutely love the set-up and the intensity of the emotion, and it has a very original feel - this author has style; it's not just another cookie-cutter story (not that cookie-cutter is necessarily bad, not at all - but I really like it when an author has something to say, if that makes sense; when a story gives you something to talk about. I'm probably not making sense, but I know what I mean at least! *g*). It's the best new thing I've seen in a long time.[11]
References
- ^ Close Quarters Desert Island Episode/Zine/Fic dated July 18, 2009
- ^ review at rec50 dated June 2006.
- ^ from rec50, June 2006
- ^ Desert Island fics post at ci5hq dated April 14, 2007; reference link.
- ^ alicambs, Archived version dated March 19, 2010
- ^ justacat's review at Crack Van, posted 2005-02-27
- ^ from a 2005 comment at Crack Van
- ^ from a 2005 comment at Crack Van
- ^ from a 2005 comment at Crack Van
- ^ comments by cathexys at justacat's livejournal, March 1, 2005.
- ^ livejournal comments by justacat in response to cathexys, March 1, 2005]