Our second Halloween fic this year is "Through the Fire," a very distinctive AU that basically incorporates a little bit of everything into the mix
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Thanks for the Word file. The format is cute but also distracting and difficult to read. I'm printing it out. It's just a little over 21,000 words, too, so not a huge commitment of time.
Please read Oyster. You can look up the Club discussion near the beginning. Wendy was brilliant. (That's it for suckup, W.)Thanks, babe. I used to be smart, didn't I? What the hell happened
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So the structure is tricky and the style is--inconsistent. What about the themes? I think we are supposed to be drawing parallels between the plight of the human/alien spirit, trapped in the bones of its victims, since just as with the black oil even the host is a victim, and Mulder, imprisoned by an unknown element of the Consortium, now released but angry and psychologically damaged, perhaps irrevocably.
Scully cures them both. The spirit of the alien/human hybrid gets cleansed in the fire on the bridge, then the remains cremated down to ashes. Mulder gets healed by having sex with Scully, getting the better end of the deal. As for Jeffrey, he gets to see something paranormal for a change and then be transferred to an assignment more to his liking. Diana--gets nothing. Sure. Fine. Whatever.
Edited to add, yes, her Skinner was great. I do love her Skinner. And naturally, he gets the happy ending!
I just remembered that many of our members/lurkers have been stricken by electrical outages. What kind of excuse is that? Double down on your mental signals! Sigh. Where is the paranormal when you need it?
I did lose power, but my main excuse for not posting so far has been homework. School has been kicking my ass something fierce this week, hence my silence. I have read this story and I liked it enough, but that's about the limit of my critique. I read fairly quickly to get the gist, so I'm sure I missed a lot. My feelings run neutral-positive. I don't remember any strong reactions other than that I am glad M/S seemed to have figured it out by the end (eternal shipper that I am).
estella_c, I think Mulder's anger stems from being wrongly locked up for years and not knowing where he stands once he is released. He's missed so much, especially Scully since she never saw him in prison (right? am I remembering that correctly?). Then again, I did skim, so maybe I'm missing something myself. Because I definitely don't remember anything about cucumbers. Yikes.
I agree with you, Mulder is angry because he's been locked up away from the world, and away from Scully. She's always been his human credential so he's gone downhill since he's been shut away. It was his decision to keep her from visiting, and who knows except Jordan whether it was the right one. It damaged him, POOR BASTARD. Lucky for him, he got to have MAGIC HEALING SEX!
This was a good sex scene to have skimmed over quickly. I'll just leave it at that.
Edited to say, as much as I disliked the sex scene overall, she does give us this line at the end:
"How could I have never realized before, she wonders dreamily afterwards, with her chin tucked in his collarbone and her hand feather light on his sweating chest, that even falling is a form of flight?"
I agree that Jordan is capable of bad lines and also great lines, in this specific case. We know what she's capable of.
I can accept certain self-supplied reasons for Mulder's totally evil reception of Scully. I just wish they had been at least *hinted at* by the writer. Except maybe they were, because close reading of fanfic is HARD. Which is why I revere amyhit. (Hey, she's young and at leisure.)
Cucumbers are nothing. Visit Gossamer and find fics about salami and--stop there. (Didn't SeinfeldGeorge talk about salami as the "most erotic of processed meats"? Or it might have been pepperoni. I guess it depends on your cultural history.)
My perception of this fic is all scrambled. I've really liked it all this time, and was prepared to defend it strongly. But then it turned out I blundered and hadn't read one entire chapter, and I like the fic less now that I've read that chapter. I don't even know how I feel about it at this point, but my comments were written before I read Part 6.
Part 1: I really like part one. There's so much going on, and I love that I have to work to get my bearings. I really like the way it's broken up into three segments, the first one from Hagen's POV, then a scene change to Scully's POV as she steps out into the hall, then a momentary time jump to Hagen checking the hall and hearing her departing foot steps. This is the perfect opening in my book. It's tense, with lots of sensory details, and it introduces basically every important plot thread that's to come without having to use obvious exposition once.
Part 2: I think Jordan uses the dream sequence very well. It's obviously a dream, but it's also obviously not just a dream. It's very
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She does do atmosphere well, which seems especially appropriate for Halloween. But, as you know I really don't like non-linearity in fic when it undermines the narrative, which I think it does in this story. It's a casefile, which implies it has a beginning, a middle and an end. It's fine to have a flash-back or two, but this was too mixed up for my taste. I shouldn't have to make a g-ded timeline on paper to keep track of what happened when in a fanfic story. Frankly, it doesn't work all that well when JET uses it either, most of the time.
But. It works brilliantly in "Oyster." So all is forgiven.
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"I'm sorry about your mother," she said ( ... )
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Scully cures them both. The spirit of the alien/human hybrid gets cleansed in the fire on the bridge, then the remains cremated down to ashes. Mulder gets healed by having sex with Scully, getting the better end of the deal. As for Jeffrey, he gets to see something paranormal for a change and then be transferred to an assignment more to his liking. Diana--gets nothing. Sure. Fine. Whatever.
Edited to add, yes, her Skinner was great. I do love her Skinner. And naturally, he gets the happy ending!
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estella_c, I think Mulder's anger stems from being wrongly locked up for years and not knowing where he stands once he is released. He's missed so much, especially Scully since she never saw him in prison (right? am I remembering that correctly?). Then again, I did skim, so maybe I'm missing something myself. Because I definitely don't remember anything about cucumbers. Yikes.
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This was a good sex scene to have skimmed over quickly. I'll just leave it at that.
Edited to say, as much as I disliked the sex scene overall, she does give us this line at the end:
"How could I have never realized before, she wonders dreamily afterwards, with her chin tucked in his collarbone and her hand feather light on his sweating chest, that even falling is a form of flight?"
Now I'm swooning.
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I just read your other comments and when I am home and have access to LJ (stupid work filter), I want to respond to them.
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I can accept certain self-supplied reasons for Mulder's totally evil reception of Scully. I just wish they had been at least *hinted at* by the writer. Except maybe they were, because close reading of fanfic is HARD. Which is why I revere amyhit. (Hey, she's young and at leisure.)
Cucumbers are nothing. Visit Gossamer and find fics about salami and--stop there. (Didn't SeinfeldGeorge talk about salami as the "most erotic of processed meats"? Or it might have been pepperoni. I guess it depends on your cultural history.)
Reply
Part 1: I really like part one. There's so much going on, and I love that I have to work to get my bearings. I really like the way it's broken up into three segments, the first one from Hagen's POV, then a scene change to Scully's POV as she steps out into the hall, then a momentary time jump to Hagen checking the hall and hearing her departing foot steps. This is the perfect opening in my book. It's tense, with lots of sensory details, and it introduces basically every important plot thread that's to come without having to use obvious exposition once.
Part 2: I think Jordan uses the dream sequence very well. It's obviously a dream, but it's also obviously not just a dream. It's very ( ... )
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But. It works brilliantly in "Oyster." So all is forgiven.
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