Vocation

Fanfiction
Title:	Vocation
Author(s):	kenaz
Date(s):	21 December 2011
Length:	3190 words
Genre:	missing scene
Fandom:	Mary Renault
External Links:	archived in Yuletide 2011
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"Vocation" is a short story by kenaz based on Mary Renault's 1953 novel The Charioteer. It fills in Alec's off-scene discovery that Bunny has gone to the EMS hospital and met Andrew (which canonically leads to the denouement of the novel). The title comes from the poem "Like a Vocation" by W.H. Auden

Synopsis

After a hard shift, Alec runs into Toto at a bar and gets an earful. He then has to make a decision: to speak and take the consequences, or implicitly submit to blackmail.

Background

The story was written as a gift for greerwatson in Yuletide 2011 to the prompt:

Alec Deacon, Andrew Raynes. Yes, they never met in canon but...what if maybe they did, some time later on in the war? Could be slash, but not necessary given how uptight Andrew is. If this doesn't grab you, then you can leave Andrew out and focus on Alec: backstory at school, maybe; or something about him and Sandy (how they met, their parting after they get called up, or maybe *his* POV on his infidelities). Preferably not Alec/Ralph, since there are quite a few stories along those lines. Preferably *not* explicit.

Comments

"Vocation" elicited a number of comments, including the following:

• "Wow! I don't think anyone has tackled this particular missing scene before; and you have done it with a vengeance--and done it justice. This is Alec, exactly as Renault pictures him. No, more, because you have got into his head and lived in his skin, whereas, in The Charioteer, we saw him only through Laurie's eyes. So this is what happened. Yes, I believe it. Thank you.—comment by greerwatson
  • "I spent a good deal of time pouring over the timeline discussion on the Maryrenaultfics LJ community because I had initially intended to write--and actually drafted--about Alec's thoughts on infidelity vis-a-vis his revelations to Sandy which lead to Sandy's "climbing the walls," etc. Yet the story ended up becoming quite something else."—reply by kenaz
• "I love Alec as you tell him and totally believe this scene. This is one of the most authentic missing scenes of The Charioteer that I have ever read. Definitely kudos for this one."—comment by oshun
• "This is superb. It is entirely believeable and the period detail - in relation to slang of the day and also underground queer life of the 1940s makes this piece very special."—comment by fawatson