Story 152: "Acceptable Responses" by JET

[amyhit.livejournal.com]

I once told Jesemie's Evil Twin that a snippetfic from her every year or so would be enough to keep me in love with Mulder and Scully forever. I wasn't brown-nosing, her snippetfic is just that good. Go check it out.

Snippetfic:
Acceptable Responses
mid-Deep Throat
Disclaimers: I am merely passing through.
Thank you: M. & M. You're the grooviest.

Comments

[amalnahurriyeh.livejournal.com]

BRB, making small meeping noises.

This little moment is really great, and I love feeling Scully's panic rise within her. And that she snaps it back down, figures out something (anything) to do. I also adore her list of things-to-check-with for Mulder.

This brings an important issue into relief, though: the timeline problem. By Deep Throat, have Mulder and Scully been working together for a year and change, or for six months and change, or less? There's a hesitancy here that feels...very early in their relationship. But if the Pilot and DT internal dates are taken into account, they've been working together nearly 18 months. Do we really think they'd still be so standoffish after all that time? I don't know. Clearly stakes become different mid-s2, but still. Shouldn't they be more sympatico by here?

[amyhit.livejournal.com]

I've always been strongly in the ignoring-pilot-datestamps camp. I feel like the way Mulder and Scully are with each other in DT is a fairly close match for how they are in Acceptable Responses, so I place the flaw with the show itself, not JET's portrayal of it. But I believe it said in some cheesy Gillian Anderson bio book I own that they filmed the pilot way before filming a half-order season, and waaaay before airing anything, which accounts for the timestamp discrepancy, and makes me feel a-okay about ignoring that whole 'it's 1992!' bit entirely. I presume JET's ignoring the datestamps too.

[wendelah1]

I must have missed something because to my knowledge, "Deep Throat" has no internal dates. "The Nitpickers Guide for X-Philes" is my source. So by my reckoning, you can date it as occurring anytime between the Pilot, and well, "Squeeze," which does carry a date of July 23, 1993. This episode feels pretty early in their partnership, and this story makes it feel even earlier.

My problem with this story is not with the writing, which is, of course, excellent. It's with the characterization. I like the list of things JET sets out for Scully to check Mulder for very much. What I don't agree with is that Scully wouldn't carry on and do it. JET has her allowing her emotions get the better of her. That doesn't seem right to me. There is no way she wouldn't have examined Mulder for trauma. She's a physician. Plus she's Scully. She would see this as her duty as a doctor, if not as his partner and a trained investigator.

The scene as written is emotionally evocative, and probably a better story than watching her conduct a thorough physical exam--unless she made him undress--that could get interesting. Anyway, I just don't see it going down this way.

[a-is4addiction.livejournal.com]

I liked it but I agree that she probably would have checked him over. Also, small nitpick:

Some vicious instinct makes her clamp her back teeth together

I don't like this line. She should have taken "back" out, because the first thing I thought was is it possible to clench only your back teeth?

Bad link

[bmerb.livejournal.com]

Augh deleted journal! Amyhit has already informed me that she has no copies of this. Anyone else?

Re: Bad link

[wendelah1]

I'll ask around.