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"The Sentinel" recs

Callisto's recs

Restricting myself to ten for reasons of space was tough. I have been in hog-heaven in this fandom over the past few months and I have to thank Ancasta in particular, who has an uncanny knack for knowing which writers I will like.

Folk should know that I like my Sentinel fic long – though there are some short ones here - and slashy. And these are in no particular order of preference.

All the following recs are slash.

1 The Woods series by Anna

Yup, we’re starting off with a cheat, as this is really three stories in one. Down to The Woods, The Tree Becoming and The Wood Beyond.

In Down to the Woods, we’re in the rhythms and banter of Man Land as the gang go fishing. It is joy to be there, especially because of the sweet sense of something building between Jim and Blair.

The Tree Becoming is where it gets dark, no bones about it. The cabin is invaded and Blair is brutally raped. But it is not torture porn in any shape or form and if you can manage it, read it.

If you can’t, then skip to The Wood Beyond, for the portrait of Jim if nothing else. This is the Jim I achingly want for Blair, at all times. All quiet, solid care and love, and not a gram of mush or sentiment to take him out of character. For all the darkness, this one especially, is pure comfort fic for me. And with some of the best writing on the planet.

He drew his head back and gazed up at Jim. Sometimes he didn't know what to say in the face of Jim's kindness, or to his literal face in which handsomeness disguised such beauty that Blair would have thrown himself on a knife in sacrifice to it. Sometimes there were moments when he looked at Jim and recognized that he'd wanted this man for as long as memory stretched, wanted these elements, as starkly as a child wants snowfall or a father. He'd just been waiting, like a boy standing at a fence in twilight surrounded by snow and emptiness and silence, looking at a road down which no one ever came.

2 Waking by Resonant
My kind of writer, she does funny, warm and sexy with such style and skill. Some post-first time conversation:

"That's the best sex I ever had."
The look he gives me is surprised, but it mutates into smug pretty quickly. "Really?" he says. "Cool."
"Sandburg. I've had sex on top of a Camaro on a public beach. I've been tied up and licked all over for an hour. I've had two women at once --"
"You have?" Seriously, the astonishment in his voice is damned insulting.
"-- and groping on the floor with you for half an hour is the best sex I've ever had?"
"So?"
"So it's weird, that's what."

3 Fear of Flying by Lanning Cook
Makes me chuckle from start to finish. It’s a posh police do and the Cop of The Year is drunk, up a tree, and quoting Whitman.

"I am communing with the intricate web of life that is the upper canopy." Another object struck the ground. "Behold! I am the mighty harpy eagle of Amazonia! RAWK! RAWK!"
"Christ in a cathouse," Jim sighed as his gaze was drawn, finally, upward.
Blair sat straddled on a tree limb, his back to the trunk, about twenty feet off the ground. His curls had pulled free of their restraining tie and floated wildly around his face as he flapped his arms in a vigorous, if inaccurate, imitation of a large bird of prey. Jim tripped over something in the leaves, and glancing down, realized that the mighty harpy eagle had disposed of its shoes.

4 Truth, Death and Donuts: Learning Curve II by Antimony Hayes
Blair’s father, whom he never knew, has died. Just the best road trip –kind of - and an almost first-time fic. The quote is from near the beginning. Again, dialogue is my thing and she gets the voices spot on.

"So," Jim said, finally, when he remembered they were having a conversation. "Where to?"
"Deer Park. It's a few hours east."
"You got an address?"
"Yeah."
"Got a map?"
"I was gonna pick one up."
"I have a map."
"No," Blair said, eyes crinkling up at the corners. "Really?"
"Are you fucking with me? Now, in my own house, in the middle of the night, when I'm about to drive you God knows where?"
"Yes, Jim. I am."
Jim smacked Blair in the back of the head and shoved him through the door, grinning still, but an easier grin, a more familiar one, the grin of a guy who was back on land he recognized. Driving was good. It was a way to touch Blair and be around him and hear him talk, all things he was learning to love to do, and if it was a little morbid, a little inappropriate to their purpose, well, Jim would just have to handle that a little at a time. He'd do what he could to make the trip okay for Blair, and maybe, maybe when they came back and Blair had a grip on things, and didn't need a friend like he needed to breathe anymore, well -- maybe then Jim would say something, or do something, so that Blair had a fair view of the playing field.
Maybe not, but the possibility was there.

5 Somewhere To Be by Arrow
The problem was which of hers to pick, and this semi AU just about wins out. It starts with a down trodden, tormented Jim working in soup kitchen, having never gotten any kind of handle on his senses. Then along comes an anthropology student....The way Blair slowly and steadily just enhances Jim is to be savoured. Exquisite.

They bumped around the kitchen together, getting in each other's way, Blair loving every second of it. Until finally Jim gave a little growl and slammed him back against the freezer and laid a kiss on him that made Blair's hair even curlier.

He looked up, out of breath, and Jim's eyes changed. He stroked a thumb below Blair's eye—God, Jim was touching him so tenderly it actually hurt, gut-deep.

"Everything okay?" Blair asked softly.

"Five-by-five," Jim said, but his thumb still rubbed gently, obsessively, moving down Blair's cheek to stroke his lips.

There was a lot they still hadn't talked about, a lot of details to straighten out now that Jim was healthy and they weren't in danger anymore. But the only thing Blair really cared about was the look on Jim's face.

6 Territorial Imperative, part 7 by Bone
Of the series, this one’s my favourite, and they are fairly self-contained and can be read out of sequence. She has their narrative voices down pat as the POV alternates between Jim and Blair while they deal with the fallout from ‘Sentinel, Too’ fiasco. If part 7 is my favourite, then this is my favourite moment, when Blair fixes things just by climbing onto Jim’s lap in that life-affirming way he has about him..

So I stop him the best way I know how. I just lean right over, lay my lips on his and oh yes. That's it. Just like that. It's just us, Jim, just like always. Except it's better somehow. Maybe that month of enforced celibacy has its hidden virtues, because as much as I appreciated Jim's mouth before, right now it's something I'm willing to worship at. I'd sacrifice something for that mouth.
He's giving way a muscle group at a time. The mouth dove right in -- you've got to appreciate that. The mouth knew what it wanted. Now the arms are getting into it. He's finally losing the death grip on my biceps and sliding his arms around, bringing me in. Yeah, yeah, this is what I wanted. I can feel his thighs relaxing and he's pulling me in closer, wrapping me up, touching me wherever the chair lets him.
All his heat, all that strength, all that love, back on me where it belongs.

7 Equilibrium by Lamardeuse
I reread everything of hers many times before I even saw an episode. This is the longest I could find online. It’s a plotty, post series, first-time fic that has EVERYTHING – angst, great characterisation, warm wit, a struggling Jim, Blair at the Academy, h/c galore. You fall in, and then emerge blinking and happy about two days later.

Weakly, he raised a hand, both to let Jim know he was all right and to fend him off. Whenever the other man worried that Blair was injured, he tended to do stupid things like touch him to check if he was still alive. Blair was sure that if Jim laid a hand on him he’d turn into one huge, convulsing spasm.

“’Malright,” he muttered, opening his eyes to meet Jim’s clear, pale gaze. “Gym.”

Jim stared at him, waiting.

“Oh. I mean, I just came from the gym,” he said stupidly. He tried to lever himself up, but his body had other ideas. A pained groan escaped his lips, and he subsided into wet noodle state again.

8 Distant Journey, Unknown Lands by Martha and Lemon Drop
HUGE. About 560K. Post series, Jim and Blair go down to Indiana and rent an old house for the summer so Blair can get some research done.. but around those bare bones is an epic, a gorgeously written tale that fairly sweeps you off your feet as it pulls you into a Jim and Blair finding their way to each other. And the supernatural is weaved in, too. Which I normally mind in my fic, but which has me spellbound here.

Like a dog, Blair marked his world. Jim had slipped through his silently, leaving little trace of his passage. But Blair seemed to need to mark his presence, to touch his environment. And he had marked Jim, deeply, profoundly. Irreversibly. Blair had touched him and he could never be un-touched now. He was marked not simply by Blair, but as Blair's.

9 Jim’s Gift by Veronica
The writer who first taught me to love Jim and Blair. She has a million ways to write a kiss, all of them wonderful. This particular kiss is from a delightful first time Christmas fic, Blair POV. They end up separated. Blair on duty, Jim at his father’s. Blair goes to collect Jim..

Then his mouth was on mine, strong and firm, no hesitation, no fumbling. I slipped both hands beneath his coat jacket and around his waist, tugging him closer. He pressed against my lips and I opened to him, inviting the smooth invasion of his tongue. It wasn't forceful—it was a slow, sweet incursion that stole my breath away and curled my toes with its tenderness. My right knee wobbled and gave way and then I found myself leaning against him, my head falling against the curve of his shoulder as he swept me closer without relinquishing the hold he had on my mouth.

10 A Guide’s Guide..by Brook Henson
Now here’s something I never thought I’d rec, a long fic written in second person present tense. But here’s the thing. It’s beautiful. It is what it says, a guide’s guide to living with – and loving - a blind sentinel. Hits my hurt/comfort button like a freight train, and has enough bite, wit and sex to keep me happy for days.

guide`dog` n 1. A dog that has been specially trained to lead a blind person in walking about. 2. A fiercely protective male Golden Retriever named Sam that is hopelessly addicted to peanut butter. 3. An extremely annoying male Golden Retriever named Sam that starts barking at exactly the wrong moment while you are having lascivious sex on the dining room table with the man you worship. 4. An animal you would kill with your bare hands if Jim didn't love him so much.

All images from The Sentinel courtesy of Starfox's Mansion

The Sentinel is owned by Paramount and Petfly and no copyright infringement is intended.

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