Reading Room - The Blue Figurine by Courtney Gray

[byslantedlight]

Title: The Blue Figurine
Author: Courtney Gray
Link to story or zine/ProsLib info: at the Circuit Archive and in Nudge Nudge Wink Wink 3.
Pairing: B/D

Bodie and Doyle have been on the trail of the Lehman brothers for months, and just when they're within nabbing distance, something goes wrong in the op... in fact Bodie goes wrong, so wrong in fact

Comments

[shooting2kill]

This is terrible.....I read the story earlier in the year for the first time and loved it but couldn’t remember the specifics at all so began to read it again but it’s been a heavy reading week so I only got as far as Doyle finding the blue figurine. Your more general questions are interesting, too, though:

Did you struggle with the supernatural element to the story, or did it work for you?

Usually I can’t be bothered with the idea of the supernatural in stories because I can never imagine whatever it is that’s being written about but I really did enjoy this story, perhaps because, as you've implied, that once the essential supernatural part of the story is done and dusted, the rest of it is pretty normal i.e. it doesn't involve lots of unimaginable things!

And what about the reason even before the figurine that everything went haywire - that Bodie was being too protective of Doyle to the point that it mucked up the op and prompted Doyle to make a wish-in-anger-and-frustration? Do you believe in that Bodie?Not sure….. I don’

[byslantedlight]

I tend to think of this as a reasonably "classic" Pros story, so how fun to be reading it for the first time! Hopefully you'll be able to finish it at some point, because it's worth it.

Nice examples of protective lads, too! I always think of the start of Backtrack too, when the canister/bomb rolls down the stairs and Bodie pushes Doyle out the door - although a bit of me also thinks it's Bodie pushing him out so that he can get out too! Ojuka's a good example on Bodie's part though, especially of disobeying orders to do it. Hmmn - does Doyle ever disobey Cowley to help Bodie... (now we're asking... *g*) In Klansman he says he's going to go after the blokes who stabbed Bodie, and Cowley won't stop him, but is that revenge rather than protection? And is Bodie going after May-Li the equivalent, or is that too much Cowley-enforced... actually that is canon that Bodie wants to stay with Doyle in the hospital, come to think of it - I've always hand-waved that a bit in fics, cos I remember both of them heading off on the ops in the

[shooting2kill]

Nice examples of protective lads, too! I always think of the start of Backtrack too, when the canister/bomb rolls down the stairs and Bodie pushes Doyle out the door - although a bit of me also thinks it's Bodie pushing him out so that he can get out too!

Oh, good example, I’d forgotten that scene and yes, I agree, I’m sure Bodie was trying to get out!

Ojuka's a good example on Bodie's part though, especially of disobeying orders to do it. Hmmn - does Doyle ever disobey Cowley to help Bodie... (now we're asking... *g*)

I tried to think of examples last night and didn’t get very far. I can think of lots of times when Doyle gets very angry with Cowley but actually defying him? Hmmmmm...…what about investigating Ann’s father in Involvement? I’m sure Cowley warned him off doing that.

In Klansman he says he's going to go after the blokes who stabbed Bodie, and Cowley won't stop him, but is that revenge rather than protection?I suppose if it’s after the fact then it’s revenge? But I'm not sure if 'revenge' is the right word for how

[byslantedlight]

I can think of lots of times when Doyle gets very angry with Cowley but actually defying him? Hmmmmm...…what about investigating Ann’s father in Involvement? I’m sure Cowley warned him off doing that.
Involvement's the ultimate example of Doyle defying Cowley, I guess... and perhaps in Klansmen where he says he'll go after the guys whether Cowley likes it or not (but Cowley gives in to him then!)

Oh! They both rather deliberately defy Cowley in PMPD when they go chasing after Nesbitt at the end, but perhaps that's mischievous lads goading each other on rather than the kind of real, heart-felt defiance we see in Involvement and Ojuka and Klansmen...

I'm not sure if 'revenge' is the right word for how they'd be feeling in that kind of situation... maybe 'avenging' each other is how I'd see it.
But... isn't that the same thing, but in different tenses of the word? Avenging someone = getting revenge on whoever hurt them? Or have I been missing different meanings all this time (not impossible!)?

He’s so volatile, quick to anger and

[gilda_elise]

Oh, not one of my favorites at all. I don't see Doyle, especially at the beginning when he's being such a jerk about Bodie. I know Doyle can lose his temper with him, but this Doyle is almost purposely cruel. It was almost as if some perverse need in him wanted to drag it out, to make Bodie twist in the wind. And he's still going on about it the following day. "You should have stayed in the jungle, Bodie. That merc was right; you would've been right at home there...and I would've been better off without you." I mean, really, you can be mad at someone without wishing you had never met them.

And I really didn't care for the ending. I want to know that things are okay, not just think they are. After all the drama, we don't know for sure what is going to happen next.

[byslantedlight]

Oh, I'm the opposite about endings - I don't mind knowing for sure that they're happy (*g*) but I quite like a bit of ambiguity too, as long as my brain can twist the ambiguity into a happy ending. Not that I thought there was much ambiguity in this ending, though, given that Bodie was wishing he lived a life where he and Ray Doyle were in a happy relationship, and that we'd seen what happened when Doyle got his wish... *g* Maybe I'm more trusting than you are, about that sort of ending. *g* I think maybe I find them a bit comforting too - in real life you don't always know that things turn out well, so if there's a bit of uncertainty but you're pretty sure in a fic, then perhaps it hints to me that it's a possibility when real things are looking a bit uncertain... *g*

I can totally imagine Doyle being in a grumpy temper as described in the story I'm afraid - we do see him being irritable and grumpy and very snappish at people sometimes. Hmmn, do we see him being snappish to Bodie? Well, we see him cross enough to punch him in

[gilda_elise]

I think as the story progressed, I saw more of the "real" Doyle. Of course, by then the real Bodie has totally disappeared

[byslantedlight]

Of course, by then the real Bodie has totally disappeared.
Oh, interesting... actually when I think about it, my picture of Bodie in the first part of the story is quite hazy, except in relation to Miller as an ex-merc... After the initial meeting, I guess we see that he's being patient with Doyle's temper, because he knows he's upset him and he knows how - ...since the shoot-out. I tried to tell you why I - but then we slip into Doyle's pov, and sort of lose any more contact with him until we come across merc-Bodie.

I don't think merc-Bodie was a heartless merc though - I think there are lots of moments, mentioned above, where we catch the Bodie we recognise from the eps. So I don't think it was that there was any kind of black/white change in him when he met Doyle/CI5/SAS/army etc., I think it was just the gradual thing of changing into being who we are gradually - because we don't see the in between bits, it perhaps seems more of a clear-cut jump from merc to CI5, but of course it can't have been, because as you say something

[paris7am]

This is a placeholder - I *am* coming back to really respond and discuss, just having a time crunch at the moment! I really enjoyed this story and want to talk about it!

[byslantedlight]

Oh I'm glad - it was partly your reminding me of this one in a comment somewhere that made me think to use it... *g*

[heliophile_oxon]

Just poking my nose in to say - although I do like Courtney Gray as a writer, this particular story is really not for me. I have to admit I just couldn't get into it at all, and haven't read anywhere near all of it. A little bit because of the supernatural thing (which I very rarely like in Pros; not quite never, but almost) but mainly because they neither of them seem very like them, to me. The obstacles to happiness come from their being unpleasant people - and they are very unpleasant. Possibly a bit of unfair damned-by-association, tbh, but I've skipped past too many Bodie-in-the-Dreadful-world-of-sexually-predatory-mercs stories ...
I'm sorry not to join in this week, but this specific story just ain't my cuppa (if it had been Object of Desire, now, that would have been quite another story!)

[byslantedlight]

Yeay for poked noses (well... *g

[nypagan]

^_^ I agree with helio and gilda, I could not get into this story at all. I remember starting to read it a few years ago, and not making it through. I tried again this time, and made it through. It still does not interest me. I must say, the slight supernatural element didn't bother me. I enjoy CG's other works, but this one does nothing for me.

[byslantedlight]

Oh - it doesn't interest me is an interesting reason for not liking it - what is it that bores you, if you don't mind me asking? If you didn't mind the supernatural bit, then...? Did you want more of something? Less of something? Was it maybe problems with the characterisation, as others have said? Which bits in particular?

No interest...

[nypagan]

I wasn't bored exactly. Just, once the wish was made, the story became predictable. Doyle would go looking for Bodie. Bodie would be the tough merc, taking advantage of Doyle's vulnerable state, but offering no comfort. Characterization was off for me. Less desperate Doyle and less jackass merc-Bodie. I also didn't like Doyle's treatment of Bodie for all his alleged faults.

I'm not very good at articulating why I don't like some stories. Sometimes, I just don't.

RE: No interest...

[byslantedlight]

I know what you mean by Sometimes, I just don't. - I guess I quite like to try and work out why, though... *g*

I suppose it wasn't an unpredictable story, plotwise - maybe that's why I find the characterisation the most interesting thing in it. I'm surprised so many people have found it "off" though, especially compared to other fics. I can see Doyle being desperate to get Bodie back in those circumstances, but I didn't see Bodie as a "jackass" in any way - you mean an idiot? I thought he was pretty good at putting up a front to fit in with Miller and the life he'd decided he'd have (money etc.), but that even he knew that there was more to him underneath, and I thought it was interesting how the two parts of him were somewhat at war - and the better parts won in the end, because he wished for a relationship with Doyle - effectively wished he'd chosen a different path... I guess I thought he offered some comfort to Doyle too - he made and kept the second appointment with him after all, and there was that smile when he saw Doyle