A lifelong SF buff, I'm fond of stars. They're sort of my personal insignia (so personal no one knows about it; I once mentioned it to my sister and she said, okay, she was going to adopt the carob cluster as hers; private joke; too private?)
I did not know that but now I do.
Moving on, An Influence of Stars is a wonderful cluster of vignettes, iridescent like a cluster of soap bubbles, linked just so delicately by the stars on the ceiling and the threatening stars in the sky that make The X-Files, after all, a piece of science fiction as well as a cop show and a romance. The references to various episodes, the time-hopping, is carefully done, and I absolutely love the opening, in which you are in mortal terror that Mulder has somehow been imprisoned in a fake domestic existence that forbids him Scully--remembering then that of course, in dreams, he was.
I love the opening, too, probably because Diana is in it. As the story moves on, I get distracted by worrying whether Scully would let anyone put stars on her ceiling and then once I've let that go, reluctantly, at trying to figure out how her little nephews could possibly have gotten them up there in the first place: "He does. The ceiling is patterned with star-stickers radiating pale green..." Huh?
But the story gets better by the ending. I actually love the sex in this story. It's not lacking in physicality at all. I rarely relate to the sex in fanfiction: It's too phallocentric for my taste, whether slash or het, and mostly too formulaic: kissing, breasts, oral sex, Scully comes, insert tab B into slot A, she comes again, then so does he. It's so conventional and so boring.
But the sex in this story is completely focused on her: her pleasure, her needs and desires. His are barely mentioned despite being told from Mulder's POV. I find this highly erotic.
He smoothly slides his fingers back inside her, the sight of his hand between her legs more erotic than anything he's ever seen. She's wet and soft and tight, gorgeous dark auburn curls parted to show the dark pink slick flesh. He spreads her, and she grinds into his palm. He can feel the hard knot of her clitoris against the heel of his hand. He wants to make her come like this first, wants to see the flush spread up her radiant flesh, her head tipped back, throat exposed like a sacrifice.
She's so close, and she knows what he's doing. She braces her hands on his stomach to balance herself, then lets her arms hang at her sides. She watches him, permission and desire in her eyes.
He feels her muscles tighten, her breathing catch. So close--
He grabs one of her hands and kneads it, paints a star on her palm over and over with his thumb. Her hand flexes open and trembles, and he doesn't release it when she comes, contracting around his fingers. She collapses a little, kisses him and tastes darker, more addictive.
I doubt that there is a man alive who would have the presence of mind to trace the shape of a star on his lover's palm even once at this juncture, let alone over and over, but by this point I hardly care. She keeps this reader right in the moment along with the lovers. I've usually hit the back button long ago.
Thank you for the rec. I'm surprised it got so few comments.
no subject
I did not know that but now I do.
Moving on, An Influence of Stars is a wonderful cluster of vignettes, iridescent like a cluster of soap bubbles, linked just so delicately by the stars on the ceiling and the threatening stars in the sky that make The X-Files, after all, a piece of science fiction as well as a cop show and a romance. The references to various episodes, the time-hopping, is carefully done, and I absolutely love the opening, in which you are in mortal terror that Mulder has somehow been imprisoned in a fake domestic existence that forbids him Scully--remembering then that of course, in dreams, he was.
I love the opening, too, probably because Diana is in it. As the story moves on, I get distracted by worrying whether Scully would let anyone put stars on her ceiling and then once I've let that go, reluctantly, at trying to figure out how her little nephews could possibly have gotten them up there in the first place: "He does. The ceiling is patterned with star-stickers radiating pale green..." Huh?
But the story gets better by the ending. I actually love the sex in this story. It's not lacking in physicality at all. I rarely relate to the sex in fanfiction: It's too phallocentric for my taste, whether slash or het, and mostly too formulaic: kissing, breasts, oral sex, Scully comes, insert tab B into slot A, she comes again, then so does he. It's so conventional and so boring.
But the sex in this story is completely focused on her: her pleasure, her needs and desires. His are barely mentioned despite being told from Mulder's POV. I find this highly erotic.
He smoothly slides his fingers back inside her, the sight of his hand
between her legs more erotic than anything he's ever seen. She's wet
and soft and tight, gorgeous dark auburn curls parted to show the dark
pink slick flesh. He spreads her, and she grinds into his palm. He can
feel the hard knot of her clitoris against the heel of his hand. He
wants to make her come like this first, wants to see the flush spread up
her radiant flesh, her head tipped back, throat exposed like a
sacrifice.
She's so close, and she knows what he's doing. She braces her hands on
his stomach to balance herself, then lets her arms hang at her sides.
She watches him, permission and desire in her eyes.
He feels her muscles tighten, her breathing catch. So close--
He grabs one of her hands and kneads it, paints a star on her palm over
and over with his thumb. Her hand flexes open and trembles, and he
doesn't release it when she comes, contracting around his fingers. She
collapses a little, kisses him and tastes darker, more addictive.
I doubt that there is a man alive who would have the presence of mind to trace the shape of a star on his lover's palm even once at this juncture, let alone over and over, but by this point I hardly care. She keeps this reader right in the moment along with the lovers. I've usually hit the back button long ago.
Thank you for the rec. I'm surprised it got so few comments.