Solitary Creatures
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| Sentinel Fanfiction | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Solitary Creatures |
| Author(s): | Aristide |
| Date(s): | March 1999 |
| Length: | 13,028 words |
| Genre: | slash |
| Fandom: | The Sentinel |
| External Links: | Solitary Creatures at AO3 |
Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Solitary Creatures is a Jim/Blair story by Aristide.
It was hosted at 852 Prospect and imported with the rest of the archive to Archive of Our Own in 2013.
Author's summary: "Space and time and events therein are viewed with various levels of objectivity. Smut ensues. Ha!"
Reactions and Reviews
Jim's POV, masterfully told. He's given proof that he's not alone.
Why you should read this:Gorgeous prose - this is language like honey, slow and languid and full of nuance. It somehow manages to be slightly dark despite the fact that nothing bad happens, and I guess that hits one of my kink buttons because this story does it for me in a big way. [1]
Where I Started: Solitary Creatures, by Aristide. This was the very first TS story I ever read, back when I didn’t know the difference between Jim/Blair and Bodie/Doyle. (And if that’s not enough of a humiliating admission, how’s this: I thought, for the first couple pages of this story, that the Teenagers From Outer Space were actual canon characters. Under that name. As in, you know: Teenagers From Outer Space played by Mary-Kate and Ashley Olson, or whatever.) This story seems to be as good a place to start as any – you get a decent sense of who the characters are and there aren’t a lot of in-jokes or canon references to confuse you.[2]
This story came up in discussion on Prospect-L, and I re-read it. And discovered that this was the story I was trying to remember that had the achingly sweet first-blowjob scene, the one that's tender and scared and sexy all at once.[3]
Jim watches Sandburg prance around the Police picnic with nubile twin teenage girls and smells his arousal. Afterwards, he removes splinters from Blair's thigh and is shocked when he notices Blair has an erection -- and admits it's because of him... This is another story that deals with a Jim who has to come to terms with the surprising fact that he's switched tracks overnight from het to gay, but it also has an added dimension dealing with Jim's inately solitary nature. This story features a Jim POV and also Bottom!Jim, a fairly rare beast and one to be enjoyed as thoroughly as possible whenver he appears <g>. Very hot sex scene, too, IMO.[4]
Another writer who calls her stories Pop-Tarts, but I don't think I'll let her get away with that. This is more like a strawberry shortcake with fresh cake, and cream, and strawberries and maybe some chocolate drizzled over the top. Um...it's four a.m. and I'm hungry...Why you should read this: A lapful of lush, pushy Blair. Lots of creeping Blair fascination from Jim's bewildered and pie-eyed point of view.
What might throw you off stride: I had to actively search for something to carp about: punctuation. It can be a bit scattershot, here and there. Parantheses, asterisks, unclosed dashes, ellipses...sometimes all in a single sentence. But I've been there, done that. I too know the slow mournful lure of the ellipses of the heart....
Ahem.[5]
It starts with a splinter and leads to all sorts of interesting things, including Jim's realization that he and Blair aren't the solitary creatures he thought. This wonderfully offbeat story is sweet and humorous and oh-so sexy.[6]
Often in fic, the catalyst for capitulation is a huge thing. Some great and dangerous event occurs that teaches our protagonists how important each is to the other. In real life, catalysts for change often come about very simply, from small circumstances, and Aristide is in the pantheon of Sentinel writers who not only understand that, but capture that "real life relationship" feeling when you read their fiction. Better still, she also knows how to write molten sex scenes that fall into the "burn your face off" category. Aristide is amazing at writing Jim, and her interior voice for him in this fic is nothing short of a tour de force. Jim is one of the harder characters to write in a believable fashion. He’s uptight, but not closed off; a throwback, but not a Neanderthal; a cop, but not a stereotype… Here, Aristide sets the standard for writing Jim, as she spins a tale about an older guy who’s just realized that he’s not as straight as he thought he was, and what he does about it.She also writes a magnificent Blair: sexually in charge; not always sure of his standing in Jim's life; and totally, occasionally, sharply insightful.
This scorchingly hot slice-of-life story has everything: barbecue, free beer, and sex scenes that make your panties moist. It even has Teenagers From Outer Space. Well, no, not really; they’re not actually from Outer Space, they just look like they are [7]
Aristide wrote a masterpiece with this one. Her command of Jim's voice is exquisite, and she just makes their relationship so real. And the sex... Damn! ...hot and sweet is right![8]
The best part is it manages to hit all the major highs and lows without ever seeming cliched: Jim's rigid self-control, his fear of Blair's flightiness, partnership versus relationship, it's all perfect and unique to the story. But damn, am I glad you recced something sizzling today! Work was hella boring!...I think she and Francesca do "guy" better than anyone.[9]
One of the things that Aristide does here also that I love is she makes them both such "guys." So often writers feel a need to create a male-female dynamic in their slash stories, and "Solitary Creatures" is mercifully free of that kind of treatment.[10]
References
- ^ from The Sentinel Fan Fic Recommendations by Wesleysgirl
- ^ Fandoms I Have Loved 2: The Sentinel , May 4, 2004
- ^ Oral Sex Fic Recs, Laura Jacquez Valentine, 2001
- ^ Madrigal's Fanfiction Recommendations, January 11, 2004
- ^ 2000 rec by eliade
- ^ "Fiction by the Sea Recommendations". Archived from the original on 2021-01-25.
- ^ 2006 comments at Crack Van
- ^ 2006 comments at Crack Van
- ^ 2006 comments at Crack Van
- ^ 2006 comments at Crack Van