Story 229: "Other People" by Pares

[wendelah1]

In "Monday," we watch Mulder and Scully live one day over and over again. They die over and over again, too, when a robbery attempt goes bad. It's The X-Files time loop episode. But Mulder and Scully aren't the true center of this drama; they don't even remember reliving it. The real protagonist is Pam, the bank robber's girlfriend, whose eventual death is the pivotal event that sets the universe back in motion. This story is about how she tries to stop the time loop, but it's also about what she does and where she goes, after she fails, time and time again.

Title: "Other People" (3955 words) by Pares
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: The X-Files
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Fox Mulder, Dana Scully, Walter Skinner
Additional Tags: Groundhog Day, Episode: s06e14 Monday
Summary: Pam Driscoll and the longest day.

Read Other People at AO3. Or, if you prefer old school text files, the story can be found at Gossamer. Send feedback to the author, please. Then come back and let us know what you think.

Comments

[syntax6.livejournal.com]

I love this story, always have. I love Pam Driscoll following the various people from the bank, trying to determine who might hold the key to halting the time loop. Love that she examines every possibility except for herself, because it's clear she always thinks of herself last:

He asked me out and I said yes, because I could tell that he wanted me more than I wanted to say no.

I also really appreciated the theme of missed (human) connections that runs throughout the fic. Mulder and Scully and their lonely separate lives. Bernard loves Pam but Pam loves Skinner. Skinner pines for lost Mulder and Scully. Marianne had never met Irene's parents, and now she never will.

It's a fascinating, imaginative little fic, filled with keenly observed detail.

[echynoderm.livejournal.com]

I agree.

I love how she observes not only each of the other characters but also their relationships to each other, most obviously with Skinner who clearly values them dearly and laments not being able prove himself to them, particularly Scully. Skinner's character has always tried to be on the side of the greater good but often doesn't manage to live up to his own ideals. Mulder has faith in him, Scully trusts no one.

[wendelah1]

" Love that she examines every possibility except for herself, because it's clear she always thinks of herself last."

She's not so much self-effacing as passive. Accepting what comes along, but not making much effort to create a life for herself.

"It's a fascinating, imaginative little fic, filled with keenly observed detail."

It's a great story. I love fic told from the POV of characters who aren't Mulder and Scully, and this is one of the best.

[infinitlight.livejournal.com]

I thought this paragraph, near the end, was really touching:

My whole life, I was indifferent. Too afraid or too tired to really care about anybody. Now I pay for that apathy every day. I read somewhere that hell is other people; this is my penance. Feeding their pets. Trying to remember their names, their fears. Getting to know them, learning their lives.

And I love stories told from the point of view of someone other than the major characters. This had a real melancholy feeling to it, and a sense of futility, which I think fits well with the episode.

[wendelah1]

I loved that paragraph, too. It was sad, but very real. We always try to tell a story that makes the world make sense, even when it's impossible. And we always make ourselves the center of the drama--but in this case, she was right.

"And I love stories told from the point of view of someone other than the major characters. This had a real melancholy feeling to it, and a sense of futility, which I think fits well with the episode."

I do, too. I particularly love Kel's stories in that genre, but really, it's my favorite next to casefiles, of course.

She captured the mood of the episode and made it feel more real than the teleplay, which was playing it for laughs much of the time.

[bmerb.livejournal.com]

Yes yes yes. Yes.

[estella-c.livejournal.com]

I adore this story. Must read again. It pushes my buttons.

[mogster495.livejournal.com]

I never know how to feel about Pam. Monday is one of my favorite episodes, and I have given a great deal of thought to her character. Pares really captured her nature in my opinion. Pam was strong and willing to do what it took, but she was also very cowardly and scared. I sometimes wonder if she knew what she needed to do and tried to do something where she could live.

I enjoyed the broken details about the secondary characters. She has known most of the people in the bank intimately, but she cares so little about most of them that she can't remember their names. She seems so indifferent, and I wonder if that's her personality or what living in 'Monday' has done to her. I think it may be her personality considering how she started dating Bernard. She just goes with the flow of things, and maybe that is why it took so long for her to end it.

"I stopped bringing alcohol because my headaches were getting too bad, and every day the same hangover". That's a pretty sweet detail.

The story's tone was pretty melancholy, but it worked and I liked it. Like the episode, 'Other People' really made me feel for the Pam character.

[estella-c.livejournal.com]

I think this is a very insightful statement. And I think Monday is a great episode.

Pam did come off as a sort of defeatist outsider in the show, but being trapped in this surreal time-warp would send her into an extended state of shock. Her feelings are deadened because reality has literally become a trap, and although she takes a cautious interest in those who are trapped with her she cannot help them and absorbs the horror they all feel. It's a zero sum life, and really not even that--just a weird, unnatural, hamster-wheel existence. She is probably already half crazy. But the courage to end it comes slowly, as it would for most of us.

This is the kind of angst I can only stand in short pieces that are cleverly written. Fortunately, Other People is both.

I thought the actress was very fine, and it adds to the aforementioned melancholy that we know she later succumbed to cancer.

[mogster495.livejournal.com]

That is so awful to hear. She was a great actress for that episode, and I had considered looking up some other acting she may have done. I might do that now since I read this.

[wendelah1]

I think it's a great episode, too. If we'd had more time, I'd definitely want to add it to the rewatch at xf_is_love.

[wendelah1]

"She seems so indifferent, and I wonder if that's her personality or what living in 'Monday' has done to her. I think it may be her personality considering how she started dating Bernard. She just goes with the flow of things, and maybe that is why it took so long for her to end it."

Maybe it's both. The endless, hopeless repetition of death and fate may have made her more depressed, but she wasn't ever an active participant in her fate. She just went with the flow, as you say. Trying to avert the tragedy and get the world back online was the most active thing she'd ever done in her life, and I think you are right: that's what made her so slow in trying to stop it.

[bmerb.livejournal.com]

Wow. I just. Wow. I really like this one. Maybe I over this one? First impression but damn. I love this character.