Story 173: "How Gravity Works on Planet Spooky" by Khyber

[amyhit.livejournal.com]

khyber@citizensofgravity.com
DISTRIBUTION: Ephemeral, Gossamer, please ask for anywhere else.
RATING: PG-13 for mature content
CATEGORIES: V,R
KEYWORDS: Mulder/Scully something.
SPOILERS: S7, lots.
SUMMARY: Post-ep for "First Person Shooter." "And Mulder's
falling down on his end of the deal by doing a lousy job of making
the bed; it's impossible to convince myself that this really
is nothing."

Disclaimer: 1013 owns and is sorely neglecting significant
creative capital borrowed in this story.

Author's Notes: Part of Khyber VS 7. Thanks to Mims and
Samiam for early reads. This story was posted a week ago at:
http://www.alanna.net/Khyber. I *strongly* recommend reading
"Collapsar" and "Weret-hekau" first.


3. How Gravity Works on Planet Spooky


And if you have any suggestions for fics you'd like us to read once we get back to our regular schedule, please head over to the recs page and toss 'em out there.

Comments

[amyhit.livejournal.com]

- I like the way all Mulder's thoughts at the beginning of the fic are further addressed by Scully's thoughts at the end of the fic.

- I like that they have these unspoken arrangements, that Scully can sleep in Mulder's bed and pretend it's nothing so long as Mulder pretends he doesn't ever use the bed himself. And that Scully has been essentially hiding her collection of living essentials under his bathroom sink.

- I like the way this fic is a surprising combination of adorable and also kind of heartbreaking. They have this complicated network of lines they've drawn between each other, and they navigate them so well. They clearly have a lot of consideration for each other and whatever's between them (no matter how Scully felt about that impulsive New Years kiss) - but Mulder was clearly right when he said on New Years that they tend to over think things. I'd say they over think their personal relationship far more in this universe than in canon, even, which makes sense considering it's a relationship that's been complicated by years of co-dependant sex, as well as all the other crap that Mulder and Scully face. Watching them try so hard and put so much effort into not stepping a foot wrong is saddening. There’s a lot of hope in this fic, but there’s also so much pathos and wariness.

- I like Mulder's resentment of Scully's apartment. When you think about it, it's kind of his resentment of her inner critic - that rigid, ever appropriate part of Scully that won't stop "pushing her to measure up" to "all the things she thought she was supposed to be". He's basically resentful of the part of Scully she picks on herself with, which I think is sweet, but also kind of bizarre, in a very Mulderish way. After all, he has a lot of personal experience when it comes to self-castigation.

- I like the Mulderisms: "Horton Hears A Who," and the way he refers to their outward stability as "front ranks", and "We know what's in hot dogs, but we still eat them," and organic slime being worse than chemical slime because, "with chemical slime you know you're alone." Khyber's Mulder is a lot wittier than canon Mulder, but it still seems like Mulder’s kind of humor.

- I like this:

We're white gods, her beautiful and expensively shod, me tall
and armed. Every time I make a smartass comment, Scully gives me a
little backhand slap on the arm and takes a sip of her diet Coke.
She grabs the popcorn once I've eaten the butter off the top, and
we don't even think about whether there's any reason for her to go
back to her place that night. We make love again, serious this
time, in the dark, one of us on top but close, so close, coming
close together.

Though I have little desire to read about them actually going on a 'normal date', I do love the fantasy of it, the painful, sweet longing for it. Not to mention Khyber's ability to describe a sex scene in a single sentence, so that it unfolds in parts to reveal a whole picture that is painfully poignant.

- I like the whole last part of the fic, where Scully finally starts to give us some real insight into what their relationship has been like all this time: "hot words and dares and darkness." This fic starts off seeming kind of coy and joking, but by the end it's plunged into very dark territory.

Why would it be fun this time? It's not fun, it's like... so many
other things we've done. Like a clash of weapons, like suddenly
going to war. Forgetting everything in the terrible intensity of
the moment. Knowing that right or wrong, for better or for worse,
there is nothing else like this.

At any rate, on the wedding day, if I recall correctly, I was in
Africa.

This is kind of the crux of the issue, and I love it. It's something I feel should definitely have been addressed in canon, and I love KvsS7 for going there. Plus, they talk about what happened in FPS in a way that makes me almost think the episode wasn't rubbish.

- I love Scully's description -- "the vaguely terrified looks I'm afraid we give each other in the moments before impact." That really sets everything in place for me. It's tremendously sad, but also very sexy. It's a strange combination, and I don't know anybody who's better at achieving it than Khyber.

[amyhit.livejournal.com]

I don't think there's anything in particular I don't like. This isn't one of my top ten favorite fics or anything, but I can't really think of anything I'd want to change. Hmm.

At times Mulder's characterization throws me a little. The way he relates to Scully somehow makes her seem more separate from him than I'm used to. I don’t know how else to describe it. He can be thinking admiring or desirous thoughts about her and still seem quite aloof. I think Khyber’s really great with POV, in terms of making individual POV’s distinct and realistic and interesting, and this Mulder is all those things, which I like. But there’s something about him that keeps me a little on edge. Though I could say the same about canon Mulder.

[estella-c.livejournal.com]

Just to say that I'm completely--COMPLETELY--exhausted from circumstances that have nothing to do with fic commentary. Everyone knows I adore Khyber, and I'll try to say something more analytical tomorrow. If I sleep.

But the analytical stuff seems to be doing okay without me. Still, where is everyone? He is one of our greats.

[estella-c.livejournal.com]

Still exhausted, but what the hell. Where DO you two get your energy? You seem to find it so easy to unfold such little tiny pleated bits of superanalysis. I'm not saying you're overthinking. I'm say I'm presently capable of underthinking at most. But what the hell.

As previously, perhaps repetitively stated, I'm not too intense about specific Mulder/Scully characterizations. If a writer can write, and damn can he write, I'll accept all sorts of twisty stuff. One big and maybe the biggest reason we hyperbolically have the largest and longest fandom in the world is that the canon relationship didn't make any sense. There was all this lovely chemistry, and the crew just pushed and pulled and forgot and turned the lens in some other direction. Here are two perfectly lovely and loveless heterosexuals (with apologies to the slashers) inhabiting not only a lonely office but a positively claustrophobic mutual project involving the possible end of civilization. And they just kind of keep it professional. He teases. She smiles sweetly. There was a birthday party once. Good God. NO ONE BELIEVED YOU, Carter. Of course something was happening, and I doubt it was all that platonic.

But a happy love affair, even a secret one, isn't very dramatic. It must be a tormented, indecisive, denialist relationship. Because M&S's lives are constantly at risk, risking their hearts--as opposed to their virtue, to unearth an overquaint phrase--is perhaps a risk too far. That seems to be how Khyber is playing it. I like it. I like that they sometimes explode into lust but pretend it's just accidental. I enjoy the game of the bed that really isn't his bed. It's one of the very few same-bed scenarios I'll accept, probably because it actually isn't.

I like everything Khyber does. I'm a pushover. I adore the next stories. I can't imagine why they would upset anyone. Perhaps my heart is made of stone. Perhaps I'm happy with the sunlit ending of Sokol. Perhaps I'm just too tired to second-guess Khyber or myself.

Sorry for the whining. The lamp won't fit together.

[bmerb.livejournal.com]

Sorry critics but I'm with Estella on these. The writing trumps all and I love em in all their twistyness