Story 185: "Through the Fire" by Jordan

[amyhit.livejournal.com]

Our second Halloween fic this year is "Through the Fire," a very distinctive AU that basically incorporates a little bit of everything into the mix.

In this universe Mulder has been imprisoned for several years on false charges, and Scully has continued their work in his absence. Now she must cope with a dangerous case - an MoTW with its roots at the heart of the mytharc - while also coping with a sudden change in Mulder's circumstances. It's a tense, unusual, and downright creepy fic with an M/S dynamic that's intense and quite lovely. Diana, Jeffrey Spender, and Skinner also have parts to play.

Through the Fire

Oh my god, you guys, I'm SO SORRY! Anyone who downloaded the text file of the fic missed chapter 6! My face is literally in my palms. I read the whole fic and didn't even realize I'd missed an entire chapter, and from the looks of things an important one. I only just realized it now.

That is, from what I can tell, the only place the fic is posted. If the format (which is seasonally cute, but also rather visually loud) bothers you, I've uploaded the fic as one complete Word file, which you can download here.

Happy Halloween, everyone! And season's greetings to anyone who doesn't celebrate.

Comments

1/3

[amyhit.livejournal.com]

My perception of this fic is all scrambled. I've really liked it all this time, and was prepared to defend it strongly. But then it turned out I blundered and hadn't read one entire chapter, and I like the fic less now that I've read that chapter. I don't even know how I feel about it at this point, but my comments were written before I read Part 6.


Part 1: I really like part one. There's so much going on, and I love that I have to work to get my bearings. I really like the way it's broken up into three segments, the first one from Hagen's POV, then a scene change to Scully's POV as she steps out into the hall, then a momentary time jump to Hagen checking the hall and hearing her departing foot steps. This is the perfect opening in my book. It's tense, with lots of sensory details, and it introduces basically every important plot thread that's to come without having to use obvious exposition once.

Part 2: I think Jordan uses the dream sequence very well. It's obviously a dream, but it's also obviously not just a dream. It's very rich in details, impressions, and textures. Already there's a feeling of enchantment, of dark magic, in the fic because Scully is clearly having ~*spooky visions*~.

Part 3: Backstory! I love non-linearity in fanfic. The way the last three and a half years are sketched in is nice. We get the gist, and a few clear details, but the rest is left to the imagination. If I were still writing fic, I would love to write a fic in this universe, set during Mulder's imprisonment.

Scully seems to passive and timid here: "No," she said, overcome by horror at the thought of rejection, after all this time. Better to hold onto the dream... But I can overlook it because of wonderful moments like this: "I won't quit," she had told him, even after Mulder had refused to so much as look at her as they took him from the courtroom. "Don't even think of asking me to quit."

I also love the idea of "Scully the Invisible." I can absolutely picture her that way: the smart, quiet, relentless, effectual data gatherer. In Mulder's absence she became the Scully version of what he becomes in her absence.

And then there's this:

So here she was, dodging the chasing moon, alternately hot in the airless car with the windows rolled up, and cold when she rolled them down to the late October chill. Rushing on a fool's errand to a man who had made it clear enough by his actions he didn't want to see her, risking everything for what in the end might come to nothing.

I could pick ten different paragraphs to say this about, but Jordan does atmosphere SO well.* Every scene is vivid, both emotionally and sensually. Considering its ambitious plot, TTF is not the most weighty fic. It could have been a longer, darker, heavier read. Instead it's a textural experience - all together frightening, dramatic, and sweet. It gets at least as much of its impact through being evocative as it does through conveying things in more straight-forward ways.

*As a side note, I found this fic when I was reading JET's Spotlight On interview. She'd listed it as one of her favorites, which I love, because they have significant writing-style similarities - particularly when it come to evocative, atmospheric writing.

Part 4: Scully's thoughts about Mulder are a bit OTT, in that "Mulder-the-tragic-poetic-demigod" kind of way, but it's not enough for me to complain about it yet. Scully's moment of prescience about the mouthwash is very sensual. She had a sudden sharp vision of him standing over the bathroom sink, washing out his mouth with green rinse, his eyes looking at his own face in the mirror, and at that moment he had been thinking of her. It goes along with his barely perceptible shiver when she tells him she hasn't found a place to stay the night yet.

NOTE: now that I've read chapter 6, I like this section less. I liked the subtlety of Mulder's behavior in this scene - the small indications that he was fighting himself, meaning to shut her out entirely, but also wanting her desperately - followed by the sudden break of resolve at the beginning of part 8 where they make out in the hall.

Re: 1/3

[wendelah1]

She does do atmosphere well, which seems especially appropriate for Halloween. But, as you know I really don't like non-linearity in fic when it undermines the narrative, which I think it does in this story. It's a casefile, which implies it has a beginning, a middle and an end. It's fine to have a flash-back or two, but this was too mixed up for my taste. I shouldn't have to make a g-ded timeline on paper to keep track of what happened when in a fanfic story. Frankly, it doesn't work all that well when JET uses it either, most of the time.

But. It works brilliantly in "Oyster." So all is forgiven.