Story 187: "Relic of Tough Weather" by Jesemie's Evil Twin
For Thanksgiving three years ago wendelah1 posted JET's widely loved holiday fic, "Small Lives Awake." It happens to be the first fic I ever commented on, here at the book club, which makes me feel rather delighted to have the privilege of posting my own choice of Thanksgiving fics this year, this one also by JET
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As you so eloquently put it, the style is distinctively hers, with "evocative prose and compassionate characterizations" as two of the elements.
It does have a beginning, a middle and an end, although I had to print it out for careful scrutiny to be certain.
To recap, Mulder has a dream triggered by a newscast, a dream laced with memories of them on the ship in the north Atlantic, both of them inexplicably dying of old age. Scully's dad makes an appearance. Then Mulder has another memory triggered by finding out that a neighbor is dying of cancer; the memory is of Scully's last hospitalization for cancer. She is dying. She tell him she's grateful he is there with her. He decides he has to go tell her he's grateful, too.
I just don't know. I mean, one minute he's baking a pie and telling himself he's not missing Scully (um, right); the next minute he's taking the pie over to her house and he's hugging her, there's kissing and then the fade to black.
The "spoilers" indicate this takes place in season seven, but other than an oblique reference to "rapid-fire images," there isn't much to connect it to the episodes it supposedly contains spoilers to. Maybe I'm not smart enough to understand what she's getting at here. There must be a kind of emotional logic to this story, with the dream and the memories and the pumpkin pie and the cancer arc and Mulder's own latest brush with death, but I don't understand why this year of all years Mulder would decide to bake a pie and why he'd decide to take it to her and well, why any of it really.
Like all of JET's stories, it's beautifully written, full of imagery and subtle emotion, but in the end, it just doesn't add up. I don't find myself getting pulled into the drama or convinced that they're really doing it. Any of it. Maybe this story would have more meaning for me if I shipped them? I admit I was pleased that the inevitable sex was suggested rather than described in detail.
I want to believe. I swear I do. But I think there's something missing here. Plus, Mulder's sister disappeared in November, so it seems odd that there's no mention of Samantha. And what about his family? He thinks about Scully's family and their Thanksgiving celebration. He has a dream where her dad appears. Well, Mulder had a father, too. He still has a mother. No thoughts of her, either, on a holiday this family-centered?
I'll try reading it again.
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JET filtered out a lot of the genuinely troubling stuff about Mulder's own life, PAST AND PRESENT, perhaps because that stuff is so hard to write about, or maybe because it's just such old news by this point in the fandom? Instead, she creates some neighbors to stir up some empathy, in him and by proxy, in the reader.
People do have neighbors. People do get terminal cancer. Of course, usually they don't make it, since most of the people who are dying don't get a tailor-made miracle cure microchip from the DOD to turn it off (wtf, show).
If anyone was primed for feeling something for these people, you'd think it would be me; instead, I just feel like I'm being manipulated, and end up irritated at the writer.
I'm not fond of the cancer arc either but it's canon so we are stuck with it.
This isn't JET's fault, but I can't help reading this story from where I stand with canon. I know in a few months' time, while on a case, Mulder is going to get a phone call from his mother and shortly thereafter, she's going to commit suicide. She's dying of cancer and he's so disconnected at this point from his own family that he doesn't even know she's sick, let alone dying. And I'm supposed to believe that a dream and a glimpse of a dying man enjoying his last Thanksgiving dinner with his family is enough to propel Mulder to Scully's side and then into her bed?
Who are these people and what show are they on again?
To me, this is clearly nothing but a shipper fantasy. That's fine. This is fanfiction, after all, and this was written for one of those Scullyfic challenges, and it seems to be making most of the readership here happy and hey, we're supposed to be having fun here. But it doesn't work for me. I don't think it would have worked for me back then either.
I would probably like this story better if she'd started from scratch and written new characters, instead of making this about M&S. Maybe if she'd written more about the neighbors, because from where I am sitting, she is using this painful scene to justify the shippy ending and that makes me feel sick and kind of shitty, not all warm and fuzzy inside.
For Thanksgiving fic by JET, I'd much rather reread "Small Lives Awake." So I think I will.
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But I think the "um, right" is what we're supposed to think. We're not meant to believe him.
There must be a kind of emotional logic to this story, with the dream and the memories and the pumpkin pie and the cancer arc and Mulder's own latest brush with death, but I don't understand why this year of all years Mulder would decide to bake a pie and why he'd decide to take it to her and well, why any of it really.
I addressed some of this in my comments below, but I feel like I've been kind of antisocial by just posting my own comments and not replying to anybody else's so:
Why this year of all the years? Because this is S7. He spent the summer out of his mind, was crucified, tempted, denied temptation and was resurrected (thanks largely to Scully). He made some peace with his inner child, made sandcastles on the beach with a boy I've always felt was meant to represent him (perhaps with some Samantha throw into the mix), and he and Scully all but revelied they were the love of each other's lives.
ROTW was written immediately after all of this happened. In that light, why not S7?
I don't find myself getting pulled into the drama or convinced that they're really doing it. Any of it.
Maybe because, as monumental as this shift in their relationship is, what we see in ROTW is only the very last bits of fear and reservation melting away. Most of the shift has already taken place. They're not going from platonic to intimate. As Mulder's memories demonstrate, they've been intimate for years, and as of late, they basically know it. Now they must acknowledge it.
Plus, Mulder's sister disappeared in November, so it seems odd that there's no mention of Samantha. And what about his family? He thinks about Scully's family and their Thanksgiving celebration. He has a dream where her dad appears. Well, Mulder had a father, too. He still has a mother. No thoughts of her, either, on a holiday this family-centered?
What's to say he has to think of his wretched family on Thanksgiving? They failed him so unforgivably as a child. I think his lonliness is pretty strongly implied, but that doesn't mean his blood relations would be any kind of an answer for him. Scully is his family, and by proxy her family is some comfort to him as well, even if he is not comfortable going amongst them himself.
I'm sure there have been many Thanksgiving when his family has been foremost in his mind - maybe every Thanksgiving up until this one. I'm proud of this Mulder, and happy for him, because this year he is thinking of Scully instead.
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I suppose you could also assert he remembers from when she was abducted in season two, and was missing for three months, only to reappear in a coma. But I don't agree. Mulder never gave up looking for her when she was gone. He never gave up searching for a cure. He doesn't give up searching for Samantha until presented with evidence of her death. He wasn't swallowed up by hopelessness. He felt fear and grief, certainly, but not hopelessness, not the kind that leads to resignation and defeat, to the acceptance of the inevitable.
Why this year of all the years? Because this is S7. He spent the summer out of his mind, was crucified, tempted, denied temptation and was resurrected (thanks largely to Scully). He made some peace with his inner child, made sandcastles on the beach with a boy I've always felt was meant to represent him (perhaps with some Samantha throw into the mix), and he and Scully all but revelied they were the love of each other's lives.
This is one of those we really aren't watching the same show moments, isn't it? Noromos get lonely out here in ShipperLand. Sob.
Seriously, I always need a more convincing storyline for their Relationship than this story provides. It's season seven doesn't cut it for me.
I can believe he'd be thinking of Scully. He's always thinking of Scully. But not thinking of Samantha during this month of all months? This week of all weeks? That doesn't sound like Mulder to me.
Having a miserable family life doesn't always make it easier to stop thinking about your family of origin during the holidays. Quite the contrary. Maybe Mulder has made peace with that piece of unfinished business by the end of season seven, but I rather doubt it. If he had, would he have gone running off to Oregon again?
Maybe because, as monumental as this shift in their relationship is, what we see in ROTW is only the very last bits of fear and reservation melting away. Most of the shift has already taken place. They're not going from platonic to intimate. As Mulder's memories demonstrate, they've been intimate for years, and as of late, they basically know it. Now they must acknowledge it.
Okay. Just because they love one another doesn't mean they want or need to be in a physical relationship. Maybe they are just fine with the way things are. Or maybe they are saving the consummation until after they've saved the world from the alien menace. Maybe they see sex and romance as An Unnecessary Distraction from Their True Destiny as Saviors of the Planet.
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That's not what I said at all. What they need is to be open to each other, to trust each other, to give thanks for each other, to let the relationship be what it is. The fic says that quite plainly:
He still does not know the words, but he knows they must nonetheless be said.
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That's not what I said at all. What they need is to be open to each other, to trust each other, to give thanks for each other, to let the relationship be what it is. The fic says that quite plainly...
Perhaps it's plain to you but, honestly, it's still not plain to me. I'm still sitting here unconvinced by JET's words that they need to do any of that, or even that they could or would at this juncture in the series.
The dreams and the neighbor with cancer and the pie and rest of it, it doesn't get me there. I know this was written right after Amor Fati et al. The connection between that and these other elements seems tenuous at best, and despite your intelligent analysis and cogent arguments to the contrary, doesn't lead me to the story's foregone conclusion.
I guess we'd better agree to disagree?
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