All these positive comments and raves about this story recommended it to me. I have said before I'm not into AU!AU for some reason, but I decided to give this story a chance and am really really glad I did. I am enthralled and enchanted. I asked Vic to friend me a while ago and finally got around to printing out the 1st 20 chapters last night. And I am loving it so far.
Jack and Ennis are archetypal figures to me. BBM Jack being the dreamer longing and hoping for the sweet life, more open and self aware than BBM Ennis who is internally homophobic and too afraid and repressed to commit to the sweet life, but who is also down to earth, competent and hard working. I can see some of those characteristics brought over in IPS Jack and Ennis. IPS Jack is definitely more self aware the IPS Ennis. IPS Ennis is repressed because of his upbringing like BBM Ennis, but it was a different sort of upbringing altogether. Vic has done a great job creating a new sort of Yin/Yang between IPS Jack and Ennis. One thing I found off putting for me, was how mean IPS Jack has been so far to IPS Ennis. They're still in the gay bar, and Ennis just took his 1st shot of whiskey.(just so you know where I'm at in the story). I had a bit of a hard time with Jacks cruelty to Ennis. BBM Jack only had a great tenderness for Ennis and I found IPS Jack's seeming contempt for Ennis hard to take. But, I've concluded the reason for this is that IPS Jack is a little afraid of his own attraction to Ennis. Not sexual attraction, but Ennis is the embodiment of the possibility of another kind of life; the Sweet Life. I think what Jack is attracted to and frightened of is that Ennis is a calling to a higher more grounded way of living. IPS Jack is reacting out of cynicism because it's something he may have never acknowledged before that he wants, and he's taking it out on Ennis. This is a great story!
