Story 182: "Up the Ladder" by rivkat

[wendelah1]

Fall is here, though you'd never know it by the temperatures in SoCal. I read "Up the Ladder" in 2007, when I was new to the fandom. It's novella length, at 30,000+ words, but wow, it is a fast read. I would have pegged the word count at half that or less. It was originally posted in 1997. Yep. This is old-school fanfiction at its best.

Summary: Marita comes through for Mulder, giving him what he wants most. But twenty-five years haven't brought as many changes as he might have thought, and her gift might be more dangerous than anything he's faced to date. And what's up with those bees? A potpourri of Conspiracy elements with many old favorites present. Note: Almost everything here about bees is actually true, except for the parts that are just paranoia.

"Up the Ladder"

The link is to AO3, where you can easily leave feedback for our author, but you can read this at her website or at Gossamer if you prefer. Leave your suggestions at the nomination post. And don't forget to let us know what you think.

Comments

[amyhit.livejournal.com]

I'm only half way through so far, and it's be so long that I'm finding I hardly remember what's going to happen, but it's been a very interesting read so far. Not that I'm surprised, since it's RivkaT.

I keep reminding myself that this really is old school fic. It doesn't feel nearly as old school to me as a lot of fics do, probably because the writing is so sharp, and the entire fic (plot and characterizations) are quite radical. Though not as radical as some of Rivkat's other fics.

I'm liking the bee plot. It's creepy and has a disturbing kind of plausibility that many mytharc stories don't have. Plus the way it's written makes it very clear and intelligible without it feeling dumbed down. I suspect (and hope) this story was begun immediately after Zero Sum aired. It's a very cool example of fanfic that takes the dropped threads of an important plot point and runs with them.

The Scully/other thing was tough for me, but when I think about this fic probably having been written before the end of S4, it suddenly seems a lot less of an extreme possibility that Scully would go off, get cured of cancer, and develop feeling for her doctor. The bit about Scully immediately taking in Samantha as a substitute child is troubling to me too, infinitlight, and I don't think canon Scully would share this Scully's motivations, at least not in the spirit they are expressed to us. But it is pretty interesting that Rivkat wrote a Scully-is-infertile storyline before it became canon on the show.

infinitlight, you say the M/S dynamic in this story is too sweet for you. Does it get warm and fuzzy in the second half, because so far I would say just the opposite. Despite the abundance of domestic trappings they seem to go through in this fic (which bothers me), their relationships seems, as with all of Rivkat's fics, to be quite dark, and definitely unhealthy.

But as always, the thing I like about Rivkat's writing is the way she seems to experimentally push Mulder and Scully's characterizations to extremes in order to reveal certain hidden truths about them, and in order to discover what things about them remain true in the stress she puts them under.

There's a kind of glibness and insensitivity with which her characters reflect on things, that makes for some interesting observations, of themselves, others, and the patterns of the XF narrative:

Mulder knew that Skinner saw Scully as some sort of embodiment of truth, justice, and the American way -- "nymph, in thy orisons be all my sins remembered," or something like that.

-

Matt doesn't need to know that everything I say to him is the absolute truth."

Suddenly there was no more pain in his throat; the words came smoothly. "I think that's the most awful thing you've ever said to me. I can't believe that you wouldn't respect yourself enough to wait for someone who'll demand the truth from you every time."

-

Not for the first time, he wondered about the connection between Deep Throat, Mr. X, and Marita. How did they decide -- the one who gets the short straw has to tantalize, mislead and succor Mulder until he or she is killed? What wheels within wheels were turning at the UN, the Pentagon, the NSA?

-

Yes. It had been easy to imagine that, when Sam came back, everything would be perfect and he'd be whole. The rotten foundations of that lie had been exposed by her return, and he hadn't quite managed to construct another myth to explain his existence.

Or my personal favorite for creepy shippiness at it's finest:

"Why do you look at each other like that?" Samantha asked him when Scully was putting away the leftovers.

"Like what?"

She shrugged and looked away, squirming on the chair. "I don't know. Like you want to hit each other, but not really."

Mulder laughed, immediately shocked at how bitter the noise sounded. "Tell you what, Sam. As soon as I figure it out, I'll let you know."

None of the characters look so nice under the light this fic shines on them, but for the most part I think they are still in character, which is what I find so interesting.

[infinitlight.livejournal.com]

I found the M/S relationship toward the end of the fic to be...maybe too sweet isn't quite what I'm reaching for. There's plot-necessitated full body contact. There's giggling. I found the relationship earlier in the fic much easier to digest--I thought Mulder's withdrawing from Scully and Samantha very believable.

I'd be interested to hear what you think.

None of the characters look so nice under the light this fic shines on them, but for the most part I think they are still in character, which is what I find so interesting.

RivkaT doesn't show her characters a lot of sympathy, either in story angst or in exploring their characterization. It's interesting to me because a lot of fic writers seem to try to see/explore the best in the characters.

I like that creepy shippiness excerpt, as you say it's creepy but kind of accurate. I'm not sure how well it works coming from Samantha.