Story 15: "How to Fake An Orgasm" by V. Salmone (R)

[emily-shore.livejournal.com]

Our next story, nominated by threeguesses, is How to Fake An Orgasm, in which we learn that there may be women in the world other than Scully. Or maybe not.

TITLE: How to Fake An Orgasm
AUTHORS: Punk and Sab, writing as V. Salmone
CLASSIFICATION: S, M/O, MSR
DISCLAIMER: Mulder, Scully and the X-Files are the property of Ten-Thirteen Productions and Fox. No money has changed hands, nor do I expect it to. That doesn't mean I didn't enjoy writing it.
RATING: R for sexiness and language
SPOILERS: general for season six
CONTACT: punkm@teleport.com, iamfrequent@gmail.com
WEB: http://home.teleport.com/~punkm/punkandsab.html

SUMMARY: Mulder, Scully, and the other woman.

Let us know what you think, and let the authors know what you think. Also, remember that next week is our Short Story Week. Do you have something that you'd like to nominate? Let us know about that too.

Comments

[wendelah1]

I guess I am going to swim against the tide here to say that I enjoyed reading this very much. I am also a fan of the the authors and I was not disappointed by this at all. I am clearly in the minority in enjoying Mulder/Other and Scully/Other stories, whether they lead to MSR or not, as long as there is no Mulder or Scully bashing taking place. I suppose the point of writing and reading these stories is the point of any fan fiction: to enjoy the ride. It is clearly not that popular a genre, but I like it.

I like the idea of portraying Mulder and Scully as more like normal people, who date other people, and try to have a social life. It makes sense to set this story during a time when the X-Files has been taken away from shut them. I agree that X-Files Mulder would not be taking two hour lunches. However, Shit Detail Mulder, who is hating working for Kersh, and doing those background checks, seems like a good candidate for a two hour lunch and some serial dating.

The story is full of delightful Mulder/Scully banter, with many classic moments, like this one, when Scully catches Mulder playing computer games.

Scully reached a hand around and pulled Mulder's monitor to face her.
The wrong Tetris shape slid down the screen to balance inappropriately
on a growing center tower. "Well, thank god you're taking care of the
Tetris portion of our assignment," Scully said, spinning the monitor
back toward Mulder. "I was really hoping you'd take it off my hands."

One of the things I like best about this story is that Mulder doesn't get all of the funny lines.

I like the little running joke that Scully is having trouble with her phones. Her answering machine isn't taking messages from "Doug," who appears early on and then conveniently disappears into thin air. Her cellphone keeps calling Mulder's cellphone, which makes Susan Anthony giggle and say it must be lonely. Nice bit of foreshadowing there.

It is pretty clear almost from the start that Mulder is more in love with the idea of being in love with Sue than he actually is in love with her. I don't feel sorry for her. She knows what she wants from a relationship and when it is clear that Mulder isn't going to give it to her, she dumps him. She can take care of herself. A cute, funny woman like her will meet someone better suited to her in no time. Since deshenka brought it up, I can contrast Sue Anthony with Cassidy Neill in Blair Provence's "Banging Your Head Against a Red-Haired Brick Wall," who just doesn't get it, and spends a lot of time planning her wedding to Mulder and wondering why he isn't confiding in her and acting like a normal boyfriend. I don't feel sorry for Cassidy either, but by the story's end, I do want her to wake up and get a life, the sort of life she deserves. A life she is not going to get hanging around waiting for Mulder.

Sue Anthony is a fun, likeable original character. It is easy to see why Mulder was attracted to her. But as he confesses to Scully at the story's end, she was both too easy and too demanding. She does serve her purpose: to bring our hero and heroine into closer proximity to each other, so that Scully can make him tea that he doesn't really want, and so that Mulder can kiss Scully, which she does really want.

I also love the ending with Mulder in the laundromat taking off his jeans to add them to the washload while Scully watches him through the window, her nose pressed against the glass, like a little girl looking wistfully at a department store mannequin wearing an outfit she knows she will never own. But Scully can have Mulder; in fact, by this point she has had him, so she is no longer on the outside looking in.

She started to dial his number again, but changed her mind. Grinning at
the Santa, she crossed to the door of the laundromat. Inside, Mulder
was dialing, and Scully's phone rang from her pocket, but she didn't
answer it. She didn't need to, anymore, didn't need to stare through
foggy glass at the wonderful man with no pants who was her best
friend for life. She was right here. And she wasn't going anywhere.

Taking a deep breath, freezing her lungs, tasting snow and smiling, she
reached up and opened the door.

Her best friend for life. Ah shucks.

[pam-casso.livejournal.com]

I agree, I really liked this story.

[memento1.livejournal.com]

I do love that "best friend for life" thing. Awwwww!

SO, I finally got to this one since I needed a bit of light-hearted humor. I certainly enjoyed it, and loved the humor and characterization while I was reading it, but overall it somehow just doesn't grab me enough to save. I feel like partially I'm missing something. I feel like it's saying something about what Scully has that no other woman can fill, but I'm missing what. That's actually quite a high compliment for Sue because she was extremely likeable and fun and spunky. I almost hated her for it. ;) It made me wish Scully could bring out that light-heartedness in Mulder, and thankfully they did show how fun and light-hearted their interactions can be. I almost felt like it was good for the MSR in the end, reminding them both how to just have fun with each other.

I wasn't very thrilled by Mulder's explanation for why he wanted to get with Scully in the end - "I noticed you were jealous and flirty so I figured I'd give it a try?" At least that's the way it came off to me. So, I feel like I'm missing something.

However, the joy in this story is in the details - the witty dialogue and banter and moments (like Scully in Mulder's bathroom, smelling him on her after using his shower) that are written so well. And they really, really capture both the thrill of infatuation (in Mulder) and the sorrow of being left behind (in Scully) in ways that we can all sympathize with.

[wendelah1]

SO, I finally got to this one since I needed a bit of light-hearted humor.

It has been a bit of an angst fest here lately, hasn't it? I am glad you enjoyed this. I think the Mulder/Scully interaction in this story is so adorable that I forgave Mulder for being slow on the uptake. I thought his reasoning for deciding to see whether or not Scully was interested was very plausibly male. Scully was such a goner by that time that she just didn't care! One of the things I really liked about the characterization of Mulder in this story is how recognizably a guy he was. In so many MSR stories, Mulder is romanticized to the point of absurdity.

And they really, really capture both the thrill of infatuation (in Mulder) and the sorrow of being left behind (in Scully) in ways that we can all sympathize with.

I agree. This is a universal experience and there are not that many of those in The X-Files universe. It was a lot of fun for me to read.

[bmerb.livejournal.com]

Shit Detail Mulder, who is hating working for Kersh, and doing those background checks, seems like a good candidate for a two hour lunch and some serial dating.

Oh yeah. Pretty sure Shit Detail Mulder was taking half day lunches to shoot hoops in at least one episode...

[wendelah1]

Snort! That is right. But which episode?

[bmerb.livejournal.com]

Hmm there were two Mulder-playing-indoor-basketball scenes (where Scully was there anyways), I know at least one was in the Two Fathers/One Son episodes. Seems likely that's when he was shirking his work?