Paying the Rent
| Sentinel Fanfiction | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Paying the Rent |
| Author(s): | Elaine |
| Date(s): | 2000 or before |
| Length: | |
| Genre: | slash |
| Fandom: | The Sentinel |
| External Links: | online here |
Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Paying the Rent is Jim/Blair story by Elaine.
Series
Reactions and Reviews
I can't help it. It's a guilty pleasure. And since I read every line of this story, unlike some others that may be more accomplished in style, I feel it deserves a rec. The title really says it all. This is very definitely an AU, where reality has branched off, and the characters are younger....Why you should read this: All the little cliches will cling to you, leechlike, sucking out your will so you have no strength to close the browser window: heroin addiction, prostitution, redemption, childhood molestation, therapy. NearlyJailbait!Blair meets ProtectiveMushball!Jim and live happily ever after in the Land of the Loft. It's good, not-so-clean fun. And can I just stand up and say, "Hello, my name is Anna, and I'm a sappy drama queen." Because this story puts out there, in pixels, the realization of a hundred tawdry fantasies I too have had, in which I revolve the clock back a dozen years, plunk a scrappy street kid named Blair down in Jim's buff, protective arms, and launch into a private tale of high-school attendance, clandestine boffing, MasterCard expenditures, helpless indulgence, yuppie house buying, and deep sexy wrongness.
What might throw you off stride: The style is workmanlike, and there aren't any lines that achieve lift-off from the steady, level prose. But authorial restraint keeps this from sinking into a pit of cheesy melodrama, unlike some other stories I can think of but kindly won't name. Like, the whole child abuse thing is thrashed through, and there's some forced sex, but there's no gratuitous humiliation of the kind that makes you want to go take a shower. It has, you know, dignity. There's a certain type of recognizable authorial intrusion in how Blair ("the boy") is reinvented into a young, smooth-chested man-child, which is fortunately redeemed by such things as the discovery of secretive shaving.[1]
The hooker!Blair trilogy. I always am a little leery of hooker fics because, while I like the homeless!fic aspect of these types of stories, the prostitution angle usually falls under the Pretty Woman cliche (become a hooker and you'll land a great guy who is rich *and* handsome) or the Whore level of reality ( i.e., most hookers die young because their life *sucks*). While the latter is probably realistic, I don't read fanfic for realistm. Paying the Rent does a good job of showing the realistic side of hooking without making it unbearably dark, and by the end you are hopeful for Blair's chances of recovery.[2]
Wanted to let you know I finished the first story Paying the Rent. You are right it was long, 108 pages, but that made it possible for me to read it at work over a several day period. I would get so caught in the story it was hard for me to get back from my break/lunch on time all week. The last 30 pages kind of slowed down for me and it took me a while to figure out why but would you believe too much sex. Altogether a very good read. I plan on reading the other 2 stories that follow Paying the Rent and the new Sentinel story you just recommended. But when to find the time, right now I popping in to look at the internet between chores.[3]
In the immortal words of popfantastic, "A fandom without tons of hookerfic is like a day without orange juice." While the Sentinel fandom doesn’t have a great deal of hookerfic, what it lacks in quantity it makes up for with quality.In Paying the Rent, Jim has only recently returned from Peru and is now working in Vice. During a sting operation, he meets a troubled, young hustler named Blair.
There are many things to like: Blair’s time on the streets leaves its mark, the love of a good man doesn’t instantly fix everything, and Jim and Blair’s relationship grows and deepens at a refreshingly believable pace. I also appreciate the gradual introduction of Jim’s heightened senses and the clever plot twist that offers a possible solution to his dilemma. Oh, and lest I forget to mention it, the story’s dang hot.
Now that’s quality OJ.[4]