Inclination

Fanfiction
Title:	Inclination
Author(s):	Laura Jacquez Valentine
Date(s):
Length:
Genre(s):	slash
Fandom(s):	Sentinel/Star Trek
Relationship(s):
External Links:	Inclination on AO3
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Inclination is a Sentinel Star Trek fusion story by Laura Jacquez Valentine. It has a sequel, Exhalation

Author's Comments: 2001

The author writes at great length about this story in the essay Worldbuilding, "Inclination", Alternate Universes, and the Creation of Vulcan.

An excerpt:

"Inclination" was a very interesting story to write. It's about twice as long as anything else I've ever written, and I had to deal with a lot of unexpected things while working on a story of that length and complexity. If you don't want to hear a lot of what went on in my head while writing it, you really hate Star Trek, and/or you're horribly bored by worldbuilding, you probably ought to bail on this post right about now.

The genesis of the story was someone (Kalia, I think) begging me to write Elf!Blair. Sure, right...ice skates, Hell...if you're going to have a pointed-ear Blair, why not be slightly more interesting and make him a Vulcan? He's been done in the Trek universe before (Saraid's "Guided Voyage" and...um...the sequel. "Voyager's Guide"?), but I hadn't seen him done as a Vulcan. And, on the surface: Blair? Vulcan? Never the twain shall meet.

So you have a worldbuilding challenge now: How do you build a universe in which Blair can be Vulcan? For that matter, how do you look at the Trek universe and fit Sentinels into it? For *that* matter, what does that universe do to the characters? How does it change them and the way they view the world? What parts of the characters do you need to bring out? I'm now off on the subject of AUs, which in general I dislike; I dislike them mostly because people tend to Insert Generic Bad Tolkein Imitation Fantasy World Here or somesuch rather than going to the trouble of worldbuilding.

Author's Comments: 2008

Sometimes I think of my story "Inclination" as my "kitchen sink" story, what with its heterosexual minority non-biological-adult alien with heavily ingrained cultural homophobia ended up soulbonded to a gay man, and only the soulbond and alien sexual heat get them through it.

Laid out like that, I feel like a crazy person for having written it.

So, having written a story where a straight character ends up married to a gay character, I think there are some things that I ran into while writing it that might help us understand why it's not more common.

First and foremost, we (as authors) love the characters and don't want them to be unhappy. We have a sense that a happy sex life is essential to human happiness, and it just plain makes us sad if we can't work that out for them somehow. Now -- that doesn't mean that we don't know that plenty of people are happy without a great sex life, including possibly ourselves. But on an idealistic, emotional level, it doesn't fly as well.

Second, I think it's very difficult to write that kind of angst. I struggled with it a lot, and in a lot of ways I think I failed; there are certainly areas in "Inclination" where I feel like I shied away from the real story because it was too difficult and I couldn't think my way through it. Why is it difficult? That's hard to answer. For me, it's partially hard because I'm bisexual and don't really understand monosexuality. I would imagine that for a lot of women in particular, that fluid aspect of female sexuality makes it harder. We don't lack for imagination, but I find that love and attraction (and gender, actually) are more difficult to imagine around than, say, faster-than-light travel, or time paradoxes, or death. At any rate, when you are trying to write a fun story (you know, for fun!) ending up bogged down in what, exactly, the hell is going ON here, can be not only unpleasant, but fatal to the story: it feels like it doesn't WANT to be written, and eventually you can stop wanting to write it.

...that's really all I've got for now, but those were the two big things that popped to mind when I thought about writing that story, so I thought I'd share.

Reactions and Reviews

Unknown Date

A Star Trek TS fusion, with 'Blair' as the Vulcan Telar. The characters are not quite like they are in 'regular' TS, but that's to be expected with Blair as a Vulcan, and the reasons for the differences in characterizations are sound and not arbitrary, which is what matters to me in an AU. This story does some fascinating things with Vulcan culture, but I'd have really liked to see more of why and how enhanced senses are useful on a Starfleet ship, with all their sensors, their empaths to detect hidden intentions etc. What does make a sentinel so valuable for Starfleet that they specifically train guides? And how does Jim use his senses? The story focused a lot on this AU's version of Vulcan and Blair's situation and that was fascinating, but there could have been more stuff about the senses in it. Still definitely worth reading.

A Sentinel AU novella set in the Trek universe. What if a human starship captain were to strike up a close relationship with his Vulcan Guide...his heterosexual Vulcan Guide? This has an original plot and a fascinating take on Vulcan culture.

2007

Blair is the only known Vulcan guide (and he's called Telar in this fic). Jim is a Starfleet Captain (with a reputation for having a man in every port). It's a story that shouldn't work, and yet somehow is amazing.

Telar is a trainer for Sentinels and Guides at Starfleet when he is informed that he's being assigned to Jim, who has just come on-line. Since in this universe there is a sexual component to the Sentinel/Guide relationship (in fact, bonded pairs are automatically married) and since Vulcans (including Telar) are strictly heterosexual, Telar's not thrilled with the assignment. He doesn't have a choice, however, and while Starfleet doesn't actually order him to bond with/marry Jim, it isn't logical for Telar to attempt something he knows will fail, so they are married almost immediately. Since Telar hasn't reached his first pon farr (and since Jim isn't, you know, an *assohole*), there isn't any actual sex going on, but Telar's anxiety about the future borders on terror, and after a visit to Vulcan, Jim learns why. Turns out Vulcans aren't as enlightened as you might think...

Star Trek as a fandom has never really appealed to me (probably because I only have a passing interest in the canon), but I have a kink for AU's so I gave this fic a chance. Man, am I glad I did. Jim and even Telar/Blair are perfectly in character, despite the restrictions of the universe, and it's both fascinating and surprisingly believable to know that in some ways the Federation is more advanced than Vulcan. If you're tired of all of the Sentinel's fandom cliches (TableLeg!Blair, Repressed!Jim, evil Sentinels/Guide kidnapping governments/global conspiracies!) then this is the fic for you.

2012

Another Sentinel crossover/everyone knows AU, but in this case Jim and Blair are native to the Star Trek world. Blair is a Vulcan, and very few people write Vulcans as well as [personal profile] laurajv. An interesting look at how Sentinels might function in the Star Trek verse, and possible downsides to Vulcan chauvinism, as well as a very Star Trek take on the "we're not gay, we just love each other!" trope. (It's probably the only time I've ever seen that trope that I didn't find it at least mildly offensive.)