ainm's area

The Sentinel

Buffy the Vampire Slayer

2004
(aka "The Really Busy Year")

In the beginning of 2004 I was still answering every challenge at the ever-fabulous Sentinel Thursday, but that sort of output is difficult to sustain, and I'd tapered off a bit by the end of the year. But the responses got longer over time as well -- the number of drabbles dropped and the number of >1000 word responses increased. 2004 also saw the inception of Sentinel Secrets, another LJ challenge community but in addition to writing to a prompt, the entries are posted anonymously and readers have to guess who wrote what.

DISCLAIMER: All canon characters belong to Pet Fly, etc. - no copyright infringement is intended and no money is being made.
SUGGESTION: If you aren't familiar with my work and you haven't read my overview of what I do and don't write, you might want to do that.  Stories are rated but not typed as gen, pre-slash, slash, etc.
NOTE: Please heed the ratings and do not access stories that you are not legal to view in your jurisdiction.
PLEA: Feedback! I love it, even if it's just a generic one-liner saying you liked the stuff (or disliked, whatever, be honest! :-) ), so please consider dropping me a note.
The Stories
(as chronologically written, oldest at top, in the following form:
[Title]  [Rating]  [Length]
[Challenge {where appropriate}. Description/Warnings/General Rambling.] )
  • A Matter of Choice      PG for language      drabble

    Challenge: Beginnings. A return to writing after too long a holiday break. Drabble.

  • The Look      R      275 words

    Challenge: Old. I wanted a different twist on the theme, and something a bit sexy. I think I got there...

  • Hypocrite      PG-13      drabble

    Challenge: Moral dilemma. Inspired by Blair indicating that Jim didn't need binoculars to scope out women.

  • Anything      NC-17      696 words

    Challenge: Birthday, kink. In honor of co-mod Terri's birthday. Many clichés within, but it was intentional, somehow... Assumes Blair & Jim are in a romantic relationship of a healthy number of years.

  • Sneezium      PG for language      drabble-and-a-quarter

    Challenge: Elements. Honest. "Sneezium" is a newly discovered element -- and I am a very serious author. ;-)

  • Old Married Couple      PG for language      440 words

    Challenge: Domesticity. Fluffy dialog-only first-time piece (which isn't actually about gay marriage). I'm sick, so don't hold anything against me right now. :-)

  • Changes      PG-13 for language      1028 words

    Challenge: Post-TSbyBS. Jim contemplates Blair's changes, then institutes one of his own.

  • Partners      PG      653 words (with plans for expansion into a full-fledged story -- me & my big plans!)

    Challenge: Crossover (I picked X-Files). Two pairs of partners talk about each other.

  • Sensory Perception      PG-13      drabble

    Challenge: Senses. Jim isn't the only one with senses, you know.

  • Fixing Things      PG      455 words, some of which have the distinction of having been written in the dark during the Friday night vid show at ConneXions 2004 :-)

    Challenge: Hurt/comfort. Actually, several hurts & comforts. :-)

  • Hidden Truths      PG      662 words

    Challenge: Honesty & lies. Blair tries to talk, Jim tries not to listen.

  • Photographic Evidence      R for language      570 words

    Challenge: Photograph. Blair gets an eyeful. Feedback spawned an expanded version of the story.

  • Photographic Evidence (extended edition)            R for language      17K

    This rather odd piece actually sprung from the above ficlet for sentinel_thurs with the theme of "photograph." ozsaur & fluterbev made some comments that somehow brought forth a rather different Jim than I was expecting to tell the (or perhaps "a possible") end to the story. I changed a couple of words from the original.

  • Destroying the Evidence      PG      400 words

    Challenge: Crime scene. Jim copes with the fact that Blair doesn't seem to understand that "no sex in the loft" really means "no sex with someone other than me." Not fluffy, but not the height of angst -- I like to think that there's always hope for the boys. :-) (And despite the use of "evidence" in the title, this isn't related to the previous fics.)

  • Residual Evidence      R      1173 words

    Challenge: Food. This time the use of "evidence" in the title does imply a relationship to the previous ficlet. :-) This story takes place the morning after Destroying the Evidence. Thanks to misanthrope for instigating -- and reading through -- this sequel!

  • Lunch in the Sandburg Zone      R      758 words

    Challenge: Food. No evidence, no angst, just lust and a taco.

  • Monsoon Games      R      392 words

    Challenge: Games. Silly! A dialog-only first-time, but silly. :-)

  • Entry One      R      446 words

    Challenge: Diary/journal. Jim starts a journal, because Blair wants him to. Set some time in the aftermath of "Remembrance." In a weird font because it's supposed to be handwriting. :-) Kinda weird.

  • Last Entry      R      636 words

    Challenge: Diary/journal, again. Jim starting a journal leads to Blair ending a journal      sequel to Entry One. In a weird (but different than the previous!) font because it's supposed to be handwriting. :-) I wanted something painfully happy, and unintentionally (at first) made a sequel to the last piece. :-)

  • Celebrating      PG-13 (for innuendo)      331 words

    Challenge: Celebration. Dialog-only version of celebrating Blair's graduation from the police academy      there's a longer NC-17 WIP that fills in the details, hopefully to be completed someday...

  • Deprivation      PG      225 words

    Challenge: Deprivation (yeah, I know my titles have hit the depths ;-) ). Is this gen? pre-slash? flat-out slash? I couldn't decide while writing it, and might write 3 tiny sequels, taking each path. Or I might not. :-) At any rate, Jim is held captive and deprived of many things      what do you figure the worst of them is? :-)

  • Wherein Simon "Has a Cold"      PG      478 words

    Challenge: Three Monkeys (see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil). A silly response, my offering in the obligatory "sex in the closet at work" category. Except without the actual sex. ;-)

  • You Can Only Bend So Far      PG      drabble-and-a-quarter

    Challenge: Grey area. Blair tries to push Jim's limits, but you can only bend so far. ;-)

  • Enough Is Enough       R for language and off-screen violence      12K

    Challenge: Last straw, but additionally it was written in honor of Gay Pride Month.

  • Bird in the Hand      R      230 words

    Challenge: Proverbs. A silly little thing which apparently turned out to be much funnier at the end that I actually intended, I must admit. ;-)

  • Not Much of a Detective      PG      322 words

    Challenge: Major crime. Just a wee snippet of a view from outside. I have the familiar but terrible feeling that the reason this sprung into my head this morning is because I've read it somewhere else, but I haven't a clue where or when -- if it looks too familiar, please let me know, as it truly is unintentional.

  • For Your Own Good      PG      334 words

    Challenge: Losing control. Dialog-only ficlet, in which Blair takes command of a particular problem. If this ficlet bothers you, please read the note at the end (I don't want to spoil anything up front, but it's not really warn-worthy IMO, not like death or true non-con).

  • Integration      G      drabble

    Challenge: Losing control, again. Sap!!! Thick & sweet runs the sap! :-) But that's where I was today      what can I say?

  • Something to Strive For      PG      325 words

    Challenge: Dreams. Blair assesses the state of his dreams.

  • The Hidden Dangers of Fruit      PG-13      860 words

    Challenge: Exotic (or at least non-Cascade) location. Jim has cause to reassess his choice of scientist-based nickname. :-)

  • Stages       R      10K

    Challenge: Waking, but it also can be seen to answer the previous week's challenge of "exotic/non-Cascade location," as it features Jim & Blair at the beach.

  • It's a Joke, Right?      PG      522 words

    Challenge: Hidden talent/secret hobby. This is a really odd one -- a sort of silly (hopefully in a fun way!) experimental dialog-only conversation between three people. Blame Jim for any oddness -- he & Rafe sort of hijacked this and took off without me. :-)

  • All Wet      PG-13 for language      166 words

    Challenge: Book. A snippet of an argument on the balcony, consisting only of dialog and childish humor. :-)

  • Mutually Challenging      hard R, boring NC-17?      double-drabble

    Challenge: Challenge. :-) Blair has a long night ahead of him. I'd warn for BDSM, but it's only a double-drabble, how objectionable can it really be? :-) Perhaps I should warn that as usual, no actual sex manages to take place. :-)

  • The Doll      G      619 words

    Challenge: Toys. Blair gives Jim a birthday gift. Probably the most soundly gen fic I've ever written. :-) Schmoopy, but many people have commented that it's not too schmoopy. :-)

  • No Idea      PG      393 words

    Challenge: Stakeout. An ode to the awesome cluelessness of Jim. I hope to follow this up, but whenever I say that, I rarely pull it off. :-)

  • Happy Endings            PG      9K

    My entry for Round 1 of Sentinel Secrets, with the "prompt" of "Someone receives a letter that impacts their life in some way." Here several people read several letters, because hey, can't get too much of a good thing. :-)

  • Where's Sandburg?      PG for language      drabble-and-a-half

    First-line challenge. I used the line -- over & over again, actually! -- "Where's Sandburg?", courtesy of Veronica's sentinel_thurs story Blendship.

  • Pumpkin Guts            R-ish      15K

    Challenge: Halloween. Sweet but hopefully not sickly so, this story is dedicated to misanthrope for lending her personal ailment to Jim, and for helping me get Jim moving when he was getting contrary. :-)

  • Hold the Sprinkles      R for innuendo      140 words

    Challenge: Disappointment. I couldn't handle writing anything actually depressing, so I found a hopefully tastier way to handle the challenge. :-) Dialog-only.

  • Ill-Kept Secret       R      13K

    This story is for Audra Rose, written in response to her challenge of "secrets" as sort of a consolation prize for the first round of Sentinel Secrets. (The plan wasn't to write a story longer than my actual Sentinel Secrets offering, but hey, that's just how it came out. :-) )Jim keeps his secret less well than Blair.

  • The Bet            PG-13ish      15K

    Challenge: "It's a bet!" Light h/c first-time hike-fest. :-)

  • Lessons Finally Learned      PG-13      894 words

    Challenge: An outsider's point of view. I've read a lot of neighbor-fic where Blair befriends everyone in the building and knows everybody's cousin's dog's birthday      I decided to go for a different approach, on the theory that not every neighbor is chatty and hell, when does Blair have time to befriend everybody's cousin's dog? :-)

  • Analogy As Olympic Sport      PG-13 for language      297 words

    Challenge: Olympics. I wrote this months ago and it sat as a WIP until I did a year-end clean-up of the WIP folder and decided I liked it as it stood. :-) Dialog-only.

All material © ainm, 2003-2007