Fic: A Lucky Man, for firstbreaths

[narie]

Title: A Lucky Man
Author: narie
Recipient: firstbreaths
Word Count: 4169
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: None
Summary: Jesse St James apologises to no one. Not Paul, not John, and definitely not Ivan Denisovich, not that he’s even ever heard of him.
Author's Note: I wanted to write this story ever since I saw your prompt. I hope you feel I did it justice. Many thanks to hedgerose

Comments

[xsaturated]

This is so, so perfect.

I've always wanted to read the story of Jesse's time at UCLA, which I know the show will never actually give us Jesse ~angst played in any capacity other than for laughs, but to me he's always been one of those characters that has so much more going on beneath the surface that's just buried beneath all of that narcissism and complete lack of self-awareness. I love how it seems like he's completely oblivious to how much his life actually sucks at UCLA, it makes those little moments of self-awareness where he admits to having no friends, or is calling his mom and basically just the loneliness of his environment all the more poignant.

[narie]

Thank you! I wanted to write this story the moment I saw the prompts come in, and being mod I totally cheated and assigned it to myself. Hah!

At first I thought it would just be a lolz romp through Jesse's day, just because there's a certain dark comedy to a kid who doesn't even know what a recession is and expects people to take his tests for him, but then all this angst started to creep in, and it was actually absolutely necessary to the story.

Sorry I've taken so long to reply to you!

[firstbreaths]

I am so, so glad you went with this prompt because this is absolutely everything I wanted, and then some. You've given Jesse so many layers, and made his personality really pop (I feel that Jesse would be disappointed with my inability to find a better word, but alas) in so many areas. His ability to delude himself, even when he knows he's deluding himself is fabulous, even if it breaks my heart. (Although his feelings about Rachel make the St Berry shipper in me squeal, I will admit).

This was hilarious, as well - so much witty commentary and so many funny one liners that reminded me of why I fell in love with Jesse in the first place. And his obsession with Simon Cowell.

I really wish I could give you a more detailed comment, but there's just so much that I love about this that I don't know where to begin. <3

[narie]

Oh man I totally assigned myself your prompt the moment your sign-up came into your inbox. From the get go it was 'lol Jesse St James fails out of UCLA' and I made all these little notes that first night (the Simon Cowell stuff, for instance). I was so so happy when I was rewatching scenes later to make sure I got his voice right to see him talk with Schue about the reality tv class in Funeral, and just being an overall twat. But then as I wrote I was very surprised by the darker underbelly to it all, and yet it was so necessary to telling a story where Jesse wasn't just a one-dimensional tool.

I'm so sorry I've taken so long to get back to comments but I'm so so so happy you liked it - I had a lot of fun writing it!! Thank you for the awesome prompt.

[missgoalie75]

LOVE.

Jesse is such a fascinating character and you did an amazing job illustrating the depth of his person, how yes, he's very narcissistic and just completely ridiculous, but he has moments where he's more grounded and even sad. I always thought his character was quite tragic and you really showed that beautifully.

[narie]

Yeah I was surprised by the tragedy tbh, when I started writing I thought it would just be lolz but it can't actually be that, because here's a kid who fails out of UCLA because he expects the system to cater to his every whim - how can you actually exist at that level? I didn't want to make him a complete tool, so he had to have these little moments where reality seeps in, and just, yeah, I made myself all sad writing the last couple of scenes. Poor Jesse. :(

Thanks for the comment!