Story 162: "Inventing the Mulders" by prufrock's love

[wendelah1]

Last year, something remarkable happened. Prufrock's love, a beloved but famously reclusive author, started re-posting her fanfic to archive them at Gossamer. Understandably, this caused quite a stir. In the wake of losing so many XF fanfic sites over the past several years, a process accelerated by Yahoo's closure of Geocities, it showed a lot of love for a fandom she had presumably left behind long ago. Well, that's how I choose to interpret it, anyway. She hasn't re-posted everything by any means, but hey, it's a start.

"Inventing the Mulders" is one of the stories she hasn't archived yet, or at least it hasn't shown up on her page at Gossamer. This is a shame since I think it's one of her best. It's an unsentimental look at how season nine might have played out, had it been better written and still had David Duchovny making an occasional appearance. Do I betray my biases? So be it.

Besides archiving her fic, she's posted an email address. You can send feedback now to prufrockslove [at] yahoo [dot] com. Please do so, then come back and let us know what you think.

The story is PG-13, no warnings. Read Inventing the Mulders.

Comments

[flourish.livejournal.com]

This is what my partner thinks really happened in the series, BTW. He says it's more interesting this way than if they were actually together earlier on, and he prefers to think that they just have a really screwed up friendship that's not platonic but also doesn't involve sleeping together.

Basically, UST bunnies everywhere.

Anyway, having just re-watched all 9 seasons with my partner's UST-goggles on the couch next to me made me like this story a lot more than the first time I read it.

[coldthermistor.livejournal.com]

He says it's more interesting this way than if they were actually together earlier on, and he prefers to think that they just have a really screwed up friendship that's not platonic but also doesn't involve sleeping together.

That's sort of what I thought, actually :P Turns out I'm a sucker for the UST bunnies.

[wendelah1]

I love the UST in The X-Files. It's unequaled, imho. The RST in canon just seemed to mess up the show. Sometimes I like the RST better the way it's portrayed in fanfiction.

[coldthermistor.livejournal.com]

RST in canon?

At this point, I should probably warn that I've watched only up to Season Five (damn you, university!) So I'm vaguely clueless about RST...I think. The alternative is to admit I just can't pick up RST at all.

[wendelah1]

Oh shit. I didn't realize... Forget everything I've said here. Do I need to start putting "spoilers in the comment threads" again? Maybe I do. Just don't read any more comments on this post. Okay?

I love your icon, by the way.

Edit: You can assume any story past season five has spoilers for you.

[coldthermistor.livejournal.com]

No, don't worry about it! I love spoilers, that's why I'm here and all. The idea RST might crop up later is absolutely exciting. (Well, more so than the possibility that I was just to thick to pick up on it!)

And thanks :)

[wendelah1]

Oh, that's such a relief to me. Well, you've come to the right place for spoilers!

See, I hate spoilers. LOL. Seriously, I help mod a community for people who were trying to avoid spoilers before the movie came out. I don't read movie reviews or book reviews until afterward. I like forming my own opinions and I like being surprised.

[coldthermistor.livejournal.com]

Heh. To each their own, I guess (:

The more I look at this though, the more I love the...friction in the fic, for some reason (*Valiant attempt to get on-topic*) I don't know, I just liked the idea that they both have different priorities very much - and that Scully's a lot bigger on family than Mulder is, particularly when he's still got his quest bugbear.

[wendelah1]

I love the friction in this story, too. And I think it's supported in canon. I think Scully always has been more interested in having a life than Mulder. I keep thinking about the conversation in "All Things."

SCULLY: Look, we're always running. We're always chasing the next big thing. Why don't you ever just stay still?

MULDER: I wouldn't know what I'd be missing.

Mulder is a restless guy.

[coldthermistor.livejournal.com]

Good point. I don't know why, but I guess that works with me, sort of. The feel of this story *is* of two people with different priorities, trying to make things work. And the uncertainty just gels with the feel of the X-Files, IMO.

[wendelah1]

That theory works well for me if you subtract out All Things and that kiss in Existence. Plus so many people have said that DD and GA decided to play seventh season as though they were in a romantic/sexual relationship. This was news to me but I have a hard time with the shipping thing as we know.

I think it is vastly more interesting for them to have a friendship that's not platonic but also not sexual. How does your partner think they got from there to the relationship we see in IWTB, where they clearly are together that way?

[flourish.livejournal.com]

His argument re: All Things is that they don't show Mulder and Scully falling asleep or waking up together - they show Scully asleep on the couch and Mulder asleep on the bed, so they were faking us out in the first part of the episode - nothing actually happened. Re: Existence, yeah, I think he's blocking that out.

He hasn't seen IWTB yet, and I'm not sure he ever will. If he does, I bet he'll just block it out too. Hey, no shame - it isn't part of my headcanon either...

[wendelah1]

His argument re: All Things is that they don't show Mulder and Scully falling asleep or waking up together - they show Scully asleep on the couch and Mulder asleep on the bed, so they were faking us out in the first part of the episode - nothing actually happened.

But at the beginning, in the teaser, she's putting her clothes back on... She's at Mulder's house, and she's putting her clothes on. So yeah, she started out sleeping on the couch, but at some point she got up and took off her clothes. So...why was that, if it wasn't for sex? Don't get me wrong. I'm more than willing to buy this theory, but at the same time, if I'm watching the episode, I can't ignore what I see. The interesting thing to me is that she doesn't look blissed out which you would think she might, if only because she'd had a profound religious experience. She doesn't even look happy.

Personally, I think they had probably had sex a few times over the years, but it never turned into a regular, conventional, romantic relationship, because that's just not who they are.

He hasn't seen IWTB yet, and I'm not sure he ever will. If he does, I bet he'll just block it out too. Hey, no shame - it isn't part of my headcanon either...

I'm sympathetic to this. And it works very well for this story.

Some days, I prefer to ignore everything that happened after season five. Some days, I can't make it past season one.

[flourish.livejournal.com]

But at the beginning, in the teaser, she's putting her clothes back on... She's at Mulder's house, and she's putting her clothes on. So yeah, she started out sleeping on the couch, but at some point she got up and took off her clothes. So...why was that, if it wasn't for sex?

I believe that he argues that she just took a shower. Which - you know, seems a little silly to me (I don't usually take a shower at a friend's place if I fall asleep after a late night staying over; I go home and shower there) but, eh, whatever makes him happy!

[tiger-bay.livejournal.com]

Sorry, butting in here, very rude but can't resist. But....as far as I recall you see her zipping up her skirt, not exactly getting dressed. She could have had a pee!

But the one thing that made me always question whether or not something DID happen in All Things is the fact that at she leaves she never so much as glances at Mulder. It just seemed so odd to me....even if she had had sex without being madly, passionately in love, she still would have had sex with her best friend which surely would warrant SOME departing expression: a look at least?

Plus I am in denial about the whole episode because if it WAS supposed to have been their "coming together" it was hideously manipulative to be so coy about it. I am not the biggest fan of riotous sex on the telly (well, depending....) but we could have had SOME chance to feel the action.

So really the only times I believe it is when good authors write good stories about the whole damn episode....

[wendelah1]

Actually she's pulling on a sweater. You can see her bare stomach and everything. Looking at this on my computer, which makes everything crystal clear compared to my TV set, I can even see a point where she turns to look at Mulder and her face softens a little (there is even the beginning of a smile in the corners of her mouth--Gillian is such a subtle actress), then the camera pans over to follow her gaze. Watch it again.

I'm not fond of "All Things" either--obviously--but I accept it as canon that they had sex that night. I'm not convinced it was their first time, however. I firmly believe she would have spent the night if it was their first time, rather than leave him to wake up alone.

[tiger-bay.livejournal.com]

mumble, mumble, you must be right. I'll have to watch it again, it's been a long time.

Still, I found it manipulative but no surprise there. And I did enjoy it anyway even as I threw my slippers at the screen shouting my little head off...