Story 218: "An Influence of Stars" by JET

[wendelah1]

I didn't think it had been that long since I last posted here, but I see LiveJournal has changed the posting format. Again. Well, I guess we'll see how it goes. It looks like I have to insert my own paragraph breaks now. Lovely. Or maybe I can't make them at all?

This story was suggested by estella_c. It has a holiday component; however, merry it's not. But it's jetfic so it's well-written, original, poignant, etc.

Summary: "When stars are in the quiet sky, the most I pine for thee," —Edward Buward Lytton. Or Mulder and Scully at bedtime. Overall, it's less smutty than it sounds. (Sorry)  

Category: Oddness, M/S. Post-ep For a Good Portion of Season Seven in Fewer Than 13 Pages With Less Than a Point Than Usual.

Spoilers: Yes, through "All Things."

The author is still on LiveJournal so you can pm her feedback. I believe her email is current. The link is to her old site, waybacked, but this story is also available at Gossamer under Jesemie's Evil Twin.

Let us know what you think and please keep the suggestions coming.

Read "An Influence of Stars" (way-backed) | "An Influence of Stars" (Goss, scroll to story) | "An Influence of Stars" (LJ)

Comments

[mogster495.livejournal.com]

I read this over the summer and once in between, and it’s a really sweet story. JET did a good job of using episodes without relying too heavily on them. I especially liked the part with Samantha and Teena Mulder. It was a sweet domestic setting, made even more potent because the readers knows Mulder just saw Samantha in starlight. It a good example of why JET is a good writer, because she lets the story tell you what is going on without directly telling you what is going on.

I didn’t like Scully in this one though. She was too… docile.
“I sort of… I want to make love to you tonight.”
I like my Scully a little edgy. I love the romance in MSR, but sometimes it makes the characters seem weak. I think that’s just my preference though, not really a critique.

[newo-fic.livejournal.com]

I just love the way JET writes. It feels almost dreamy. Thought that may not be the write word. Whether it's this story or any of her other works or snippets, I feel as though I'm floating when I read her, and she says so much with so few words, it's stunning.

When the craziness of this coming weekend winds down, I hope to be back to comment with something more specific and concrete, but I just wanted to throw in my immediate impressions.

[estella-c.livejournal.com]

Well, I suggested this, so I have to say something. But it's hard to explain my fascination with this story because it's a type of story I don't usually favor: floaty, dreamy (yes), really a cluster of vignettes rather than a plotted tale. But the imagery has seduced me. 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?)

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 loved the description of the cathedral windows and later the Christmas allusion and, well, both Christmas and Hanukkah being light festivals the story gives me a holiday glow that shopping can't touch. It's all very personal, I guess.

JET is, of course, a very good writer, but I couldn't stay with her fiction permanently. It's not dramatic or physical enough for me, and I start to experience the sort of impatience that so many feel with Penumbra's Parabiosis. But that's okay. Other fic is for the future. AIOS is for this twinkling time of year.

[mogster495.livejournal.com]

OneMillionNine is almost too much for me! His/her stuff is weird to read but great at the same time.
I know your right, Scully deserves to be soft spoken. I just like to see her bold and in control. Again, its a preference.