My least favorite aspect of this fic is the way it sometimes infantilizes Scully, as in this scene:
Mulder has pulled her half onto his lap.
"It's okay, it's okay," he whispers. "It's just another dream."
When she opens her eyes she leans up and brushes her lips against his mouth. It hurts to pull away. She's crying again. He strokes and soothes his hands along her back, urging her to take deep breaths.
The flight attendant pauses beside their seats. "Sir, ma'am...is everything all right?"
"Yes," Mulder replies. "Just a bad dream."
It's not that she's distraught, or that Mulder is comforting her that bothers me. It's the details, mainly that there are so many of them. She's (half) on his lap, he's stroking her, soothing her, urging her to breathe, whispering to her. Meanwhile she's crying. Plus it's all happening in public. One or two of these things would seem appropriate, but all of them together create an emphasized impression of her helplessness, and Mulder's contrasting command of the situation. Then a flight attendant comes by, at which point I feel like Scully would be mortified. To add insult to injury Mulder actually tells the flight attendant it's "just a bad dream" that has upset Scully, which infantilizes her all the more.
I also don't really like the idea that Mulder actually did die and Scully has made up a dream world in which he's alive and they're together - not for this fic anyway. I think someone - maybe her - could write a fic very similar to this one, in which that was the implication, and I think that fic could be really good. But IMO it wasn't the point of this fic. Butterfly is a little bit quaint to me, and certainly not so very dark as all that. When I read Butterfly it felt like coming across an up kept cabin in the woods, not a deep dark unexplored cave full of creepy sounds, which is what that other premise would be to me.
late comment to my own rec. oops. 2/2
Mulder has pulled her half onto his lap.
"It's okay, it's okay," he whispers. "It's just another
dream."
When she opens her eyes she leans up and brushes her lips
against his mouth. It hurts to pull away. She's crying
again. He strokes and soothes his hands along her back,
urging her to take deep breaths.
The flight attendant pauses beside their seats. "Sir,
ma'am...is everything all right?"
"Yes," Mulder replies. "Just a bad dream."
It's not that she's distraught, or that Mulder is comforting her that bothers me. It's the details, mainly that there are so many of them. She's (half) on his lap, he's stroking her, soothing her, urging her to breathe, whispering to her. Meanwhile she's crying. Plus it's all happening in public. One or two of these things would seem appropriate, but all of them together create an emphasized impression of her helplessness, and Mulder's contrasting command of the situation. Then a flight attendant comes by, at which point I feel like Scully would be mortified. To add insult to injury Mulder actually tells the flight attendant it's "just a bad dream" that has upset Scully, which infantilizes her all the more.
I also don't really like the idea that Mulder actually did die and Scully has made up a dream world in which he's alive and they're together - not for this fic anyway. I think someone - maybe her - could write a fic very similar to this one, in which that was the implication, and I think that fic could be really good. But IMO it wasn't the point of this fic. Butterfly is a little bit quaint to me, and certainly not so very dark as all that. When I read Butterfly it felt like coming across an up kept cabin in the woods, not a deep dark unexplored cave full of creepy sounds, which is what that other premise would be to me.