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]

Okay, now that I've read the whole thing--

Things I like:

- I think my favorite thing about this fic is how cinematic it feels. There are so many scenes that make me wish it could be made into a movie, because it would be absolute dynamite on the screen. Particularly the scene where Mulder comes over and discovers Scully has been possessed by the oilien, the scene where Mulder lets the oilien trade Scully's body for his, and the entire scene in the desert with the bomb going off behind them and the bees trapping them in the car as they speed away.

- Mulder and Scully's relationship: I like that the fic has a few very striking nods to their UST, and that their mutual codepency and dedication to each other is always a strong undercurrent of the story, but that it doesn't take a staring role. Ultimately, despite the major upheaval going on in their partnership, Mulder and Scully are all business. One of my favorite moments of the fic is when Mulder does the body swap with the oilien:

Its mouth -- Scully's mouth -- was inches from his face.
"Transfer has to be accomplished somehow," it said. "Isn't this
appropriate?"

"Fuck you," he said, low and harsh.

"Do you want me to tell you that she wants you? That she
wakes with your name on her lips and her hands between her legs?"

"Scully," he said, looking at her lovely mouth and not at her
swirling eyes, "if you can hear me, I know this isn't you."

It chuckled and pulled his face down.

Maybe what the oilien says is true. Maybe it isn't. It's certainly shocking, but there are way more important things going on, and it doesn;t bear thinking about. I also really like the twist that Mulder is brainwashed too, so when he seemingly bares his heart by saying, "There is no one but Scully," there's the question of how close those sentiments are to his own.

I like that in the course of the fic their relationship goes from being seriously in question, to more united than ever, but that there's no real resolution - no kiss on the lips, no token RST gesture.

- The scene where the bees swarm the mouse. It's horrible, and I actually think it's creepier than showing the bees swarming a person, like in Zero Sum. Zero Sum never made me cringe, but this one little mouse did. And the fact that it's Scully who is in charge of this disturbing demonstration makes the scene all the more unnerving.

- Scully actually gets to do something awesome as a scientist and manufacture a pheromone to ward off the bees. But even more than that, I love that she makes sure samples of the pheromone are sent all over the place, so that it can't be destroyed. This kind of strategic thinking was all but non-existent in TXF - clumsily ignored because the writers didn't seem to want to have to follow through on any of their plot threads. It's vexing to be reminded of the weaknesses of canon, but well worth it, for the chance to read fanfic that has Mulder and Scully protecting their evidence and broadening the scope of their ambitions.


- The fics explanation of the mytharc. It must have been great to have watched the show back where there was still any hope that all the pieces of the mytharc might somehow fit together. Speculating on the answers must have been a lot of fun. I love the explanation of the black oil as an entirely separate kind of alien that is inhabiting the greys, just as it plans to inhabit us. It's creepy, and it makes sense, at least until S5 mytharc comes along.