Story 110: "Gutless" by Magdeleine

[wendelah1]

Yep, this is the one with the talking parrot, a pretty good casefile, and Scully having "Mulder Awareness Days." The author refers to the latter as Uber-UST in her summary. I think the term "parrotfic," not to be confused with parrotfic, might have originated here. "I mean why read babyfic when you can read parrotfic, right?" Truer words were never spoken, er, written, Autumn. There is a talking parrot in a Syntax6 story that I bet is a little shout-out to "Gutless." At least, I think it is a parrot.

If you don't find this to your taste, try "Bonemeal," which is a very different kind of story. You can find it on her author's page at Gossamer, along with "Gutless" broken into smaller bites. "Bonemeal" deserves its own discussion, but it's so short, I doubt we'll ever do it formally. If anyone knows if this writer changed fandoms, has a different email address, and is perchance still around somewhere, please let us know. Thanks to an anonymouse, you can go leave Magdeleine comments on her story at Archive of Our Own. You can read her fic for The Office there, too.

This story was suggested by amyhit as being one that would generate discussion. I guess it's time to read it and find out.

"Gutless"

Upcoming attractions: "Fathoms Five" by Penumbra, "Melancholia" by Jeylan, and "This House is Burning" by Tesla. If you don't like those, you can always go post your own suggestions at the nominations post.

Comments

[wendelah1]

The plot would require serious revision to be turned into an episode. You'd have to throw out nearly the entire Uber-UST plot thread to begin with, and without it, you'd need a new "B" plot, which would necessitate a different ending. Maybe the Uber-UST is really the "A" plot. Maybe the two plots are so closely entwined that by the ending, they nearly climax simultaneously. Sorry.

Scully torture? It skirts the line for awhile, and then crosses over, never to return. If I could take this fic seriously for long enough, I might get mad about it. You know I don't like stories that torture their characters either. But here, hasn't Scully been effectively replaced by the Fangirls/readers/writers? It sounds like from up thread, and from remarks made in my journal, that poor Magdeleine had to run the gauntlet to even get this posted. No wonder it took her a whole year, with the chorus of listmates hounding her, all in good fun, to write MSR smut. I think we have to give her credit for refusing to write that ending and instead giving us one that at least resets the UST back to levels more nearly approaching what I saw on screen.

This story did make me laugh out loud in several places. It also made me want to get out the red pencil.

Maybe the script could keep the parrot? I have this theory formulating about the parrot, about how it's the elephant in the room, representing the attraction that M&S feel that they can't acknowledge or act on. This works okay up until the moment Scully shoots the parrot, leaving me with nothing but dead parrot jokes to write about.

[amyhit.livejournal.com]

Maybe the Uber-UST is really the "A" plot. Maybe the two plots are so closely entwined that by the ending, they nearly climax simultaneously. Sorry.

Ha! i think it was a deserved joke.

But here, hasn't Scully been effectively replaced by the Fangirls/readers/writers?

you really don't think this characterizations is anywhere near the mark? one of the things i find most fascinating about this fic is that for the most part the scully characterization doesn't suck. her characterization is definitely stretched by the circumstances, but i find the way scully reacts to the circumstances quite in character, on the whole. remembering, naturally, that MOST of the UST isn't part of scully herself, but something forced on her by the supernatural element. it's only the way she deals with the UST that can legitimately be deemed part of her character.

[wendelah1]

I agree with you, after rereading it again. Scully and Mulder both stay remarkably in character, all things considered.