Story 112: "This House is Burning" by Tesla

[wendelah1]

"This House is Burning" is flat-out the best Profiler!Mulder series I've ever read. Tesla's writing style flows effortlessly, and is, by turns, unobtrusive and lyrical. Her Mulder is both much more competent at his job and much less crazy than he's often written. Frankly, that's a pleasant change. But the trilogy is more than a series of meticulously constructed police procedurals, it's also a believable, emotionally involving, Mulder/Scully romance. So let's see: great writing? Check. Exciting plot? Check. Scorching hot sex scenes? Check, check, check. This story was nominated by estella_c, and seconded by yours truly.

tesla321 is still on Live Journal, but unless I've missed something through my inconsistent lurking, she's not actively writing. Could I be more wrong? She's still writing and has even posted a challenge at fandom_charity.

As far as I know, her email address is still current, so go send her some feedback. Or leave it at her Live Journal. Then go donate some money to the Haitian relief effort and get her to write us some fic.

If you don't like my choices, you can always go suggest some of your own.

This House is Burning
Part 1: Blood on the Snow
Part 2: A Thief's Diet
Part 3: The Quiet Glades of Eden

Here in multiple parts on her LJ:

Blood on the Snow 1/2
Blood on the Snow 2/2
A Thief's Diet 1/3
A Thief's Diet 2/3
A Thief's Diet 3/3
The Quiet Glades of Eden 1/2
The Quiet Glades of Eden 2/2

Tesla's Author Page at Gossamer.


Upcoming attractions: "Fathoms Five," by Penumbra, "Blue Patches" by Maybe Amanda, and maybe--Your Nomination.

Comments

[sangria-lila.livejournal.com]

Oooh, looks very good, will comment after having read.

[bardsmaid.livejournal.com]

Yikes, I've never seen anyone display their fic in 8 pt. Times New Roman before. If a reader doesn't know how to enlarge the page, they could just give up and go away. (Sorry, it's hard to turn off the usability analyst in my head.)

[leucocrystal]

I. Love. This. Fic.

I wish I had the time now to go on and on about all the hows and whys, but I have to work at the ass-crack of dawn in the morning, ugh. Anyway, I'll just say that I don't typically enjoy many casefiles, and almost never enjoy profiler!Mulder fics (because of mainly the issues with his character, which you touched on above), but this one got past my prejudices on both counts and punched me in the face with awesome. This is one of those special fics that I can reread over and over and never tire of it. Guh.

[briar-lily.livejournal.com]

This was so gorgeous. I loved it. All of them :)

[brooklynmili.livejournal.com]

This is among my favorite stories.

I'm not usually a big casefile fan; I like them fine on the show, but that's not, generally, what I want out of fic. But the cases in these are interesting enough that I don't mind looking at them, but also not supremely complex, such that they take up too much of my intellectual time. They do what I think a fic-ish casefile should do; they put Mulder and Scully in an interesting emotional place, which then moves them forward through their emotional arcs.

I like the way this fic lets Scully process her abduction emotionally, both that she finds some peace in working through it, in doing her job well and letting that be cathartic, and also that she finds little sneaky ways of relying on Mulder emotionally without having to say so. It's important to her that she not be twigged as needy, but it's important to her emotional recovery that have support from people who care about her and validate her choices (and it seems her family was maybe not so good at the latter). So, Mulder it is.

And the eternal irony of the Mulder/Scully relationship is that this means that he's all about needing emotional confirmation of how people feel about him, repeatedly. He can't just know; he needs to be sure. So Scully's reticence here is terrifying. There's a way in which they're an O. Henry story of a relationship, full of misreadings and misinterpretations and awkward accidents. (That said, I think the second part does drag a little; Mulder's rather mopey and it doesn't move the story along. I also think I'm frustrated with him for his issues, which is rich coming from me, but is true none the less.)

The final scene of the third part is flat-out amazing. I love how Scully puts things together; I love that she's angry with him; I love the line "I though I was supposed to be the one with all the angst, or whatever"; I love the dialogue that closes it. I just--it's perfect. It's both the perfect culmination of the story, and also a very 'them' ending.

[(Anonymous)]

I actually did not like this one at all. I felt it used an excessively contrived situation to become an inevitable kind of MSR. I thought Mulder was spot-on, but Scully was a bit too into the hero worship. However, I really liked Tesla's style and will try another of her fics. The plotting and the storyline in this one didn't work for me. Maybe Season 2 fic isn't my cup of tea; I just couldn't get into mopey Mulder and blushing Scully.

[antfarmponies.livejournal.com]

::Points upward:: Sorry, I posted the previous comment. Thought I was logged in, but apparently not.

[counterphobe.livejournal.com]

I adored this story the first time I read it. I didn't enjoy it as much this time around. Oh, I liked it, and there were some great lines, because Tesla definitely is as smooth as silk. I like competent Mulder, but this guy was profoundly comfortable in ways that Mulder is not. Mulder was super-competent in Miracle, but he seemed more plausible. Mulder being sophisticated and self-possessed in a courtroom is contrary to what we've seen of him.

Scully falling paroxysmally in love with Mulder is okay with me. Scully convincing herself that sleeping in Mulder's bed can somehow fall within acceptable noromo practice is a problem. Oh, I'll give her the one time, but not night after night.

I loved the dialogue and I loved the sex. Mulder thinks Scully can't be in love with him because she won't acknowledge the sex. Isn't that why Scully thinks Mulder can't be in love with her? I think this kind of thing was easier to accept when the show was still going on, because you'd read about them having hot sex, and then you'd see them on the show, acting like two professionals who mostly loved and respected each other, but not romantically. That made it easier for your brain to accommodate the situation.

[estella-c.livejournal.com]

Tesla is in my top tier of fic writers, as This House Is Burning is in my top tier of her X-Files fiction. She is simply sensational from the point of view of sophistication, streamlined style, built-in wit, grammar, all that good stuff. I reread her with unusual pleasure (except for, you know, the exceptions).

The good thing about THIB is that it is a detailed, law-enforcement-savvy casefile which is *actually* about the Mulder and Scully relationship. Brisk business as usual with a sexy subplot. The perfect fic for me!

I suppose there are some theoretical problems. The middle part, excellent in itself, doesn't seem to advance the main plot or enlarge Mulder's comprehension of his emotional situation. One wonders why Mulder is so impervious to the notion that his partner might be in love with him. A friend pointed out that one could say the same of Scully. Why didn't *that* occur to me? Maybe because, like Tesla, I think of Mulder as a sex god. How embarrassing.

I call these problems theoretical, because they didn't bother me. I am not normally in favor of same-bed scenarios--so unrealistically contrived to one purpose--but Tesla makes hers work. I can't see Mulder as a moony, needy, self-denegrating lover or Scully with a schoolgirlish hot crush. Yet Tesla pulls both characterizations off. I think it has to do with the cool, no-nonsense presentation, the refusal to indulge in excessive interior whine. Scully gets into Mulder's bed because she's scared, they do it because he's stoned, they keep doing it because people do keep doing it, sometimes very foolishly. I bought it all.

Oddly, I thought the final scene was not all that. Of course we want the declaration of love, but the ultimate sex seemed gratuitous. Also, I don't like Scully calling Mulder "you maniac." Fussy, fussy, fussy.

Still absolutely in the top tier.

[antfarmponies.livejournal.com]

I like the casefile and I'm a fan of Mulder in profiler mode, but Dawson Rambo's ELS is the epitome for me. After reading Miracle and Mystery (which I enjoyed more), I realized what bothered me the most about Tesla's fic. She makes Scully weak and needy in a way that doesn't jive with me. Her contributions to the case's resolution are minimal and if these were episodes I'd have skipped them in a season rewatch. When Scully stands with the other two agents on the ski slope, listening to the wonders of Mulder's profiling skills, I nearly stopped reading. From the Pilot forward, even though Scully's marveled at his ability for mental leaps, she always manages to puncture his ballooning ego. Scully as a whimpering fangirl detracts from the story. After everything that's happened to her (even at this early canon stage), not being able to sleep with Mulder or the lights on is a bit much. I admire Scully as a strong woman and I think Mulder does too. Having her as his 'little woman' doesn't seem right.

Better late than never, right?

[hlbr.livejournal.com]

This is weird, because I don't like the last scene that much, either. The first time I read this fic (and the second, and the third) I absolutely loved it uncritically. This time, I started to think why there are parts that don't work as well as others for me.

First, I think the second part is totally unnecessary as part of this fic, and that is the best written of the three. To me it's like Tesla was trying out doing away with (some) transitions, and in the second part is were this just works. The other parts (uhm, at least the third, as I can't remember now any on the first) have some moments where the story jumps around and I suddenly don't know where I am.

Also, this time I noted the hero worship. The only thing that makes it endurable is that it's not there when it's Mulder's pov. Also, the characterizations were a bit... on the service of the (a bit contrived) plot, I guess. I don't think I'm convinced by their fights most of the time.

That said, it still works--it's very well-written.

sunflowerseed in the night ;)

[(Anonymous)]

I am aware that this discussion is no longer taking place but as a long-time lurker I am also aware that some lurkers read all the comments after reading the fic and I sincerely hope that at least the mods will get notifications. Also, please excuse any grammar or idiomatic mistakes - English is not my maternal tongue.
I am an original baby-phile in the sense that I was 9 when I started watching the series in season 1 during its original run. I read fanfiction back in the day but never ventured away too far from casual recs and I never had a scholarly approach to this, what with life interfering and a lot of growing up I had to do and all. With the revival coming up I find myself emotionally compromised by my conspiracy and MSR obsessions and I am very thirsty for fic, so I wound up here. Thank you for this resource -it's very engaging, fun and classy, all at the same time! I love your different approaches to the discussions!
Anyway, I was seduced out of lurking because I found myself continuously questioning Tesla's background - she has done a lot of research into the investigative aspects of the work but her psychological portrayal of Mulder especially is effortless, exquisite and very professional. I agree that Scully's somewhat professionally passive attitude is bordering on OOC but Mulder is very believable from a psychological POV, which is something that does not come around often in fic and personally mesmerized me. My appraisal of the situation is that he is in his typical stress-induced tunnel thinking patterns. Mulder is someone, who has taken a path in life that is not typical for his personality. If it wasn't for trauma and personal motivation, he would have been a brilliant psychologist or literary critic or anthropologist but through a combination of life determinism and free will he has chosen a field in which he is constantly operating in stress-induced extremes. Thankfully, he is actually a lot less neurotic than most people perceive him as - he is resilient - a highly functioning member of society despite the constant challenges and traumatic events he encounters. The X Files have provided him with a way to channel his high curiosity, open nature and integrity and further develop his analytic skills. But profiling is even more intense in the way that it puts him under the strain of more time-dependent responsibility - he is the best at what he does, no one to rely on and very little time to produce a solution before another one bites the dust.

sunflowerseed in the night 2

[(Anonymous)]

So I think what we see in the show when he ventures out on profiling missions and what Tesla has described here masterfully is not the Mulder we usually encounter - it's Mulder on cocaine, kind of. Extremely competent, very analytic, details-obsessed, he is constantly looping between his intuitive and analytic functions and completely outside of his reflection zone, when he would have time to pay attention to his own emotional and sensory responsiveness - hence the insomnia, the rash choice to take advantage of the Scully-riding-him-situation and the incapacity to perceive that she might just be as in love with him as he is. I think it also makes it more probable for him to risk her, although as he says "he [only] had a good guess" of what the press conference might provoke in the killer. It was a calculated risk, something he was aware of but not entirely sure was probable. Although, I think this is an argument against Tesla glorifying him as putting Scully at risk is actually a lapse in judgement, although it may be a very practical move. It is, however, something he would never do in his right mind and quite a cold, emotionless calculation on his part. He is cracking, here. So, thank God for fic resolutions, this wouldn't have flown so easily in real life. What the second chapter does to Mulder in terms of amplifying his guilt and God Complex and also the PTSD has already been discussed here and is an explanation, albeit not an excuse for his looping ways.
As for the casefic, from a professional point of view, this profile is all over the place and inconclusive at best, contradictory at worst but I have my problems with the art of profiling anyway. It is a very controversial method and this may be coloring my judgement.
Anyway, as you said, this is a MSR story first and foremost and it was a relief to have such a skillful and sex-savvy Mulder to lust for in addition to having him psychologically believable.
Thank you for the amazing classic fics I found through this journal - keep up the good work!

[bmerb.livejournal.com]

This was my second read of this fic and I'll admit I enjoyed it a lot more the second time around. The first time I got stuck and frustrated a bit with the things others have mentioned already (Mulder is sooooo good at everything and Scully is just swooning). This time? I think I just enjoyed the writing. And the MSR of course. I also think I somehow didn't catch the early season nature of it the first time around, and due to that the whole fic felt sort of off.
This time my biggest frustrations were typos, wording errors, and unreliable use of tenses, which were throughout all three parts but weren't enough to seriously detract from enjoying it.

Also, hot sex in parts 1 and 3 aside, I too liked the second part best. That was great having the action unfolding both in the courtroom and in memory, and I really enjoyed the way the courtroom action went. Lots of slow tedious lawyerly interruptions 😊