Story 16: "Confirmation" by Bonetree

[emily-shore.livejournal.com]

Our first selection for short story week was nominated by lsugaralmond. It's an all things vignette.

TITLE: Confirmation
AUTHOR: Bonetree
CATEGORY: Vignette, missing scene
RATING: NC-17
DISCLAIMER: These are not my characters. No profit is being made and no infringement is intended.
SUMMARY: Choices, wings and all things.

Comments

[lsugaralmond.livejournal.com]

I like this vignette because it stands out amongst the many many All Things fics by portraying the first time as one tinged with regret and questions and uncertainty, instead of the hearts and flowers mutli-orgasmic transcendental love making that appears in most of the others (not that there isn't a special place in my heart for that stuff too). It feels more real to me because of this, and I think of all the attempts I've read to explain the missing time in the episode, this is probably the one I've chosen to absorb into my own personal canon.

It also leaves me wanting so much more, as all the best fics do. I'd love to know what happened in the minutes after the story ended, what they said to each other, if anything was resolved. But I also like that we don't get that. It's just a perfectly-preserved moment in time, and it ends with things still unsaid and unresolved. What did the rest of you think?

[wendelah1]

I also liked the lack of happy, multi-orgasmic sex. (All right, I admit it, I am almost always happy about that. In fic, that is.) At the beginning of "All Things," Scully didn't look especially happy as she was getting dressed, so that seemed to fit. I also think it was well-written piece. I do have some problems with this story but I am still trying to articulate what they are, so I will post something a little later. Or tommorrow.

[emily-shore.livejournal.com]

I'd be very interested to hear your further thoughts if you manage to clarify them.

[emily-shore.livejournal.com]

Personally I'm very impressed by this story. Often I feel that "missing scene" stories don't add very much to the episode, but this one seems perfectly integrated, and in fact it brings the themes of relationship and spirituality together in a way that the episode itself didn't get to. It is not story plus sex. It fits together perfectly.

Count me as another one who is annoyed by the usual "hearts and flowers" first time MSR sex scenes. This was refreshingly different and actually more meaningful as a result. It has sex as a spiritual experience--transcendent in a real sense. And it's beautifully written.

One could object, I suppose, to the idea that Scully is finally introduced to the feeling of sacredness by (what else?) sex with Mulder. But I think the story is fairly clear that it's part of a process, neither the beginning nor the completion of it. Nothing is perfect, even Scully's sacred experience.