Story 193: "Sore Luck at the Luxor" by Rivkat (Anubis)

[wendelah1]

This week's theme is Under the Covers Undercover. Yeah, I made that one up, but it does pretty much sum up this week's selection. Mulder and Scully are in Las Vegas, posing as a couple (duh!) to get dirt on some scumbag mafia type. This was originally posted under the moniker "Anubis," who it turns out was a small group of fanfiction writers who decided it would be fun to write stories individually and then post them under the same sock puppet. Yeah, I don't get it either, so there must be more to the story than what little I've gleaned.

Anyway, this story is funny and sexy, which is exactly what I'm in the mood for.

Summary: Not enough plot to summarize. I only wrote one story as Anubis. As for the rest, I'm not sayin'.

Organized Crime had jumped at the chance to have fresh faces doing the surveillance, and Mulder had jumped at the chance for a weekend in Las Vegas, and they met in the middle and smacked together and came down right on Scully.

Ever since she'd been lured to Vegas, Mulder had been itching to go together. Unfortunately, all the time she'd spent apart from the Gunmen was rather hazy in her mind and she hadn't resisted with as much vigor as she should have. Now that she considered it, Mrs. Franklin was a pretty pitiful excuse even for him. Mulder no doubt had some sort of dark and nefarious bet with the Gunmen involving what *he* could get her to do in Vegas.

Regardless of his true motive, he'd signed them up to do surveillance on Chip Morelli in a hotel in the ridiculous and superstitious shape of a giant pyramid. A black glass pyramid with neon coursing down the edges in case any alien spaceships needed landing lights. Mulder was in love with it.

I'm kind of in love with its ultra-tackiness, too.

You can read Anubis's other stories at their Gossamer page, and then try to guess who wrote the rest. Members, Watchers, Lurkers: feel free to come forward if you are one of the other authors!

Read Sore Luck at the Luxor at AO3. Leave feedback for the author, then let us know what you think. Suggestions are always welcome at the nomination post.

Comments

[estella-c.livejournal.com]

I had thought I would be the first commenter, and I had a great first line invented: "Well, might as well get the tumbrils rolling on this one..." The French Revolution, get it? Because I thought a lot of people might hate it. (Go ahead, explain some more.)

But if everyone's going to *like* it, just as well I was late.

I of course love SLATL, because it's gorgeously overwritten with hot and cold running metaphors (there is such a thing, and the only time it got in the way, a bit, was during sex) and it's unabashedly about LUST. There's hardly a scrap of unnecessary sentiment in the whole thing. And although I have no desire to visit Las Vegas I don't mind reading about it; it's such a manmade pile of excruciatingly persuasive bad taste (I hear). (Totally OT, but has anyone read Tim Powers' Last Call? Now there was a VEGAS.)

I'm sure we'll get into analysis and stuff, but I'd like to mention that Penumbra's Contact High popped into my brain, which is amusing because the two pieces are very different. So I think I'll compare and contrast. For fun. We're still in fun mode, right?

They're roughly of a size. I'm guessing. (Research, are you crazy?) They are both "first times." But while in SLATL it's Mulder who craftily, hopefully plans for unbridled sex, in CH it's a far less crafty and more hesitant Scully who knocks on her partner's door. (She is reading his sex fantasies as a result of their Field Trip mindmeld, and feels confident of welcome. Surely you've read it!) When Mulder attempts to bring her down to earth, she dissolves into humiliation. Of course they end up in bed, talking and fucking, soul to soul.

This doesn't happen in SLATL. Though Mulder technically initiates, it's an exasperated,undercover,overdressed and sweaty Scully who suddenly decides--watching her partner throw successful dice in a tux--that she might as well take advantage of the situation and claim the sexual satisfaction from his well-maintained body that years of professional loyalty have earned her. And she does, inviting him to partake in wonderfully philosophical language that he "thinks" he understands. She has a couple of second thoughts along the way, but Mulder brings the ecstasy. It kind of surprises her, and though the morning after she suppresses his bursting desire to brag, she is definitely keeping options open.

Why am I comparing these two. Dunno, exactly. They are both wonderfully written. One is sweet, and one is on the verge of acid. They have very different Scullys and Mulders. There's a power transfer. Nonetheless, everyone gets off and is happy.

What have we learned today? Nothing. Except I love both stories. Except, maybe, keep your options open.

We are still in fun mode

[wendelah1]

That's an interesting choice to compare but I'll play. "Sore Luck at the Luxor" is a little short of 12,000 words. Contact High is over 16,000, and having just reread it, I feel confident that it could have benefited from some judicious editing. The sex scenes seemed interminable.

Though quite different in both tone and style, both stories are a little over-the-top in their use of language, with both writers losing some control during the sex scenes. Both stories use the characters' altered states as a catalyst to sex, which isn't my favorite trope. I don't know what you mean by a "power transfer," but maybe that's not something I notice in relationship stories. I probably like Rivkat's story better because it's a little shorter, and plays the sex for laughs. I love Penumbra but in "Contact High," her Mulder and Scully are a little too earnest for my taste. The romance is a little grating. But I like that M&S get to be happy, if only for a little while. I am all for happiness in fanfic, and I don't disbelieve in the romance and object to the sex, the way I do with so much of the fanfiction for Fringe. It's The X-Files! It's Mulder and Scully. We all know they're in love and have been for years.

[estella-c.livejournal.com]

I don't think I'd argue with any of this--and thanks for correcting me on the lengths; just *love* being corrected--and I suspect CH could use a trim. It's been a long time since I read it, but I remember being kind of entranced during the second part, with the sex. (The story itself starts strong and suspenseful and then, with Scully's meltdown, kind of enters onto a plateau.) That part of it didn't strike me as oversweet. It was more as if the two of them had entered into a magical union, were inhabiting a timeless place where their souls could at last communicate. Doesn't sound like me, does it? But Penumbra's way with words is capable of casting a spell.

And I'm CRAZY about Sore Luck. I think what I was trying to say is: how wonderful that we have two such terrific writers writing about the same thing and they're so distinctive. It's proof that Chris Carter, damn him, had something unique going there for a while. And further proof is that a lot of television to this day imitates The X-Files and tips him a homage.

[estella-c.livejournal.com]

Oh, I *like* the altered states trope (can't we ever talk about Good Vibrations?) and by power transfer I meant that Mulder was controlling things in CH and Scully was in SLATL.

[wendelah1]

Oh yeah, and both stories are set during season six so the date Rivkat put on the story when she posted it to AO3 has to be wrong. She couldn't have posted it in 1997.

Mulder was controlling things in CH and Scully was in SLATL.

Yes, I see. Yes, yes. We can talk about "Good Vibrations" although funny though it is, I have no idea what there is to talk about. That's the story about Scully's drawer full of vibrators, right? From the vibrator of the month club gag gift. (rolls eyes)

Anyway, the award for Best Vibrator dialogue, Mulder angst division is from THIB.

"What?" Mulder looked into his glass. "We need to talk?" he muttered. He swallowed the rest of the liquor. "I can't do this, Scully. I can't be your fuck buddy."

"What?" Scully sat down on the coffee table and put one hand on his knee. Mulder's leg was thrumming like a plucked guitar string. "I never thought of you like that, Mulder."

"Well, fine," he said. "I don't know what you think about me. I mean, other than the 'oh yes' and the occasional 'oh god' and the 'shit' you said last night. But for all I know, that's what you tell your vibrator."

She couldn't resist. "Mulder, you're way better than my vibrator."

Heh.

[estella-c.livejournal.com]

True that!

[wendelah1]

I'm sorry. I wasn't trying to correct you—I was merely being factual. They are both what I would call short stories (although there are plenty of people now who consider anything over 1000 words to be long and burdensome), so I don't think you were incorrect in calling them "roughly of a size."

Maybe I'm just immune to Penumbra's magic in my current state of mind. I didn't get anything cosmic out of their finally declaring themselves (and I nearly always skim over the sex), they both just seemed high as kites. But I tend to roll my eyes at the whole mystical union destiny thing, don't I? The only story where that worked for me was OMaN's story, "El Quinto Sol," where I thought the sex really was transcendent and matched up with the spiritual state they were supposed to be in. And Darwin's story, "Ceremony." That might be it. I thought Scully was very amusing stoned out of her mind.

I thought the last line was good but rather ominous. I guess I should go figure out the season of the episode, because I've forgotten. Was it seven? I guess then it's referring to Mulder's abduction.

Edit: No, it's six, so I have no idea what she's referring to. Maybe Mulder's mysterious brain disease.

[infinitlight.livejournal.com]

Contact High and SLATL are both fics that I would point to as using language really well. I don't love everything about either story but they both have a very distinctive voice and I go away from both of them remembering specific lines.

I love Last Call, and Tim Powers in general. I read them out of order and started with Earthquake Weather. It made slightly more sense once I went back and read Last Orders. He has a great sense of place.

[estella-c.livejournal.com]

Good for you! I think Powers is one of the greats. He really gives your brain a workout. Try The Stress of her Regard. I really had to grow up to appreciate that one.

[amyhit.livejournal.com]

Why am I comparing these two. Dunno, exactly.

Well, FWIW, I seem to recall Penumbra saying something positive about SLATL in one of my journal threads a long while back. I think. Pretty sure.

Though I simply cannot help myself but add that I find Contact High complex, lyrical, intellectually intricate, exqusitely sensitive, while I find SLATL brash, and any similarities between the two fics seem quite minor, to me.