A hypothetical question

[sineala]

In the previously-mentioned XF story, Mulder, who has swapped places with an AU version of himself, sleeps with AU!Krycek. AU!Krycek is upset about this, as he has cheated on AU!Mulder whom he wuvs so very much, and AU!Mulder is upset with him when he gets back to his proper universe

Comments

[eruthros]

Did AU!Krycek know that he was sleeping with our!Mulder, or did he think he was sleeping with his Mulder? Because it seems to me that that makes a difference.

If he knew, then yah, that's dirty pool. :)

[sineala]

Oh, he totally knew it wasn't his Mulder.

[eruthros]

Then he deserves to be roundly tsked at. I'm with lysimache re: snowmobile parts. A clone of me would also not be okay, unless we'd all talked about it first :)

[sineala]

Kay. Guess I'm the weird one out.

I don't know how I feel about clone sex, though. I'll have to think about that one.

[count_to_seven]

I can't believe how much conversation that one fic is generating!

[count_to_seven]

Also, as per my poll response... I think it is cheating, and the snowmobile analogy is appropriate. HOWEVER. Mulder had no idea at that point whether or not he'd ever return to his own world, and given that he was technically still himself and Krycek was still Krycek, it would have been logical to life where his AU self left off. It only became a question of cheating once he'd been returned to his own world, and it was the only form of cheating that I would say is unarguably forgivable.

So. Cheating it is, but not the kind that gets a television show host stabbed. More the kind that becomes an amusing parlor story years later. "Hey, honey, remember when you slept with the me from another dimension?"

[ekaterinn]

HOWEVER. Mulder had no idea at that point whether or not he'd ever return to his own world, and given that he was technically still himself and Krycek was still Krycek, it would have been logical to life where his AU self left off.

Yep, I would agree with that, with the obvious caveat that the AU! person you're sleeping with should also know you're from another universe.

[sineala]

Nice answer. That's probably what I would have said if I'd thought about it more.

[mireille719]

Mulder had no idea at that point whether or not he'd ever return to his own world, and given that he was technically still himself and Krycek was still Krycek, it would have been logical to life where his AU self left off.

I could get behind this (though I have not read the story in question). In that case, if Mulder believed it was unlikely that he'd ever return home, I would not think of it so much as cheating, as I would think of it as the relationship having been severed. (Much as, if, say, Krycek disappeared for five years, I would not think Mulder was a dirty philanderer for moving on with his life.)

[isabeau]

I think it depends on how close the AU!SO is, and on whether you know they're AU. Not that I buy "I accidentally slept with them" as an excuse in most situations, but -- if I sleep with someone who looks like a duck and quacks like a duck and I believe is a duck (er, metaphorically speaking of course, since I don't literally sleep with ducks, heh), it's not so much cheating, but if I sleep with someone who looks and quacks like a duck but I know they're really a goose, well... yes, cheating. :)

(And this discussion amuses the heck out of me because I'm working with a fic where X and AU!X switch places, and AU!X and AU!Y had been in a relationship, and there's all sorts of complications regarding X/AU!Y and AU!X/Y, and ... yeah. Especially since AU!Y doesn't know -- at least immediately, I'm not sure if he ever gets told -- that X isn't his X, but X is quite aware of it. Lots of wackiness ensues. Except the kind of depressing angsty sort of wackiness.)

[sineala]

In this particular story, the characters involved were both aware of the AUness by the time they had sex. Just in case that influences your opinion.

(Hey, I'd read that.)

[fiatlouis]

Sorry, I'm going to have to go with the majority that if they both knew, then it's cheating. Basically, if you can know that they are not the same, then they are not the same person (a slightly pragmatic argument, perhaps), and sleeping with someone who is not the same person == sleeping with someone else, so if there was not prior ok, then it's cheating.
Of course, if my partner and her AU! version could be in the same universe at the same time with me, I think great fun could be had.

[sineala]

Yeah, I figured the majority would go against me. But, hey, not everyone did. So there.