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xf_book_club2014-04-02 07:43 am
discordantwords.livejournal.com) wrote in xf_book_club2014-04-02 07:43 am
Story 242: "Skin" by Annie Sewell-Jennings
I'm not much of an AU person. A lot of what drew me into the X Files was the dynamic between Mulder and Scully in their particular set of circumstances. That said, I've been hankering to revisit an AU that I remember reading and enjoying back when it was originally published. It may actually have been the first AU I ever read. I thought of it again recently and wondered how it would hold up to a reread all these years later.
"Skin" has a pretty standard set up. What if Scully caved to familial pressure and never joined the FBI? What if Mulder never reopened the X Files?
This story occasionally makes its way onto "classics" lists, although I don't see it recced as often as some other AUs. Possibly because it's very long, possibly because it's somewhat harder to find (it is not archived at Gossamer), or possibly because I've viewed it too fondly through the lens of nostalgia. The author is probably best known for "Erosion," which I have never read, but which has a reputation as one of the saddest MSR fics ever written.
This is a long one. Novel length, MSR.
SUMMARY: In a world where Mulder and Scully have never met, fate intervenes and brings two worlds colliding in the city of Charleston, as a vicious murderer reigns and a storm approaches.
Read Skin.
"Skin" has a pretty standard set up. What if Scully caved to familial pressure and never joined the FBI? What if Mulder never reopened the X Files?
This story occasionally makes its way onto "classics" lists, although I don't see it recced as often as some other AUs. Possibly because it's very long, possibly because it's somewhat harder to find (it is not archived at Gossamer), or possibly because I've viewed it too fondly through the lens of nostalgia. The author is probably best known for "Erosion," which I have never read, but which has a reputation as one of the saddest MSR fics ever written.
This is a long one. Novel length, MSR.
SUMMARY: In a world where Mulder and Scully have never met, fate intervenes and brings two worlds colliding in the city of Charleston, as a vicious murderer reigns and a storm approaches.
Read Skin.
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Part 1 Chapters 1-9
The prologue is terrible. If "Skin" hadn't been posted here, I'd never get past the first paragraph.
Above the churning, steaming Atlantic, a single bolt of violent lightning flickered between two dark, malevolent clouds. Nothing more than a single bolt, one bright current of electricity and heat, simmering and sizzling against the dark cobalt sky.
I don't think she meant "steaming," unless it's the end time and God has set the ocean on fire. Is lightening ever anything but violent? An experiment: here's the same sentence minus the adjectives.
Above the Atlantic, a bolt of lightning flickered between two clouds. Nothing more than a single bolt, one current of electricity and heat, simmering and sizzling against the sky.
Isn't that more effective? She doesn't list a beta, which doesn't surprise me. I suspect there were plenty of readers who were just there for the romance. But that's not why we're here. Well. That's not why I'm here. Onward.
X-Files MSR Trope List: Because there is a list somewhere, right?
1. Mulder hates profiling. It's destroying him, just like it destroys everyone who does it.
2. Mulder has violent nightmares.
3. Mulder dreams about Scully, even though they've never met. Scully dreams about him, ditto. Weirdly, these dreams are scenes from actual episodes and also the movie, Fight the Future.
4. Scully didn't join the FBI. She's regretted it ever since. Her life is a wasteland, even though she has a beautiful house, a cat and a successful career.
5. Co-workers call her "Scully" rather than Dana. (This is always a WTF in an AU for me).
6. Scully is single. Mulder is single. Duh, Wendy. How can you have a romance if one of the parties is married or involved?
7. Scully is an Ice Queen. She also has no friends. (WTF)
8. She has red hair and blue eyes, which will be described over and over again in florid language. She has a temper. "Women like this always did."
9. Their attraction is instantaneous.
10. Mulder's eyes are intense. Also hazel. Will be described ad infinitum. See no. 8.
11. Even her "tight, professional smile" is enchanting.
12. Only Mulder can see through her persona to the real Scully.
13. Mulder wears bad ties.
14. Even with a gruesome body right in front of them, the sexual electricity is unrelenting. (This always grosses me out. It makes me certain the writer has never seen a dead body, too.)
15. Mulder is a maverick who never follows the rules.
16. Fanfic coffee is always disgusting. EDIT: Unless it's from Starbucks.
17. She calls herself "Scully." THIS IS GETTING RIDICULOUS PEOPLE.
18. Mulder is "a tortured FBI agent." He has panic attacks and headaches and pops pills for same.
There was nothing as comforting to Scully as the cold sterility of the medical scrubs. Their bland mint green and their uncomfortable polyester was only tolerable to the numbed and uncaring body, not to mention the fact that it put her in her place. As soon as she donned the uniform, she felt her identity and her emotions leave her body, replacing them with the cool intuition and control of a medical examiner. The uncertainty and intrigue that the FBI's earlier arrival had inspired were now banished from her body and thoughts, and all that was left was the calculating mind of the skilled pathologist.
I like this. It's over-written but I like the insight into Scully. Of course, she goes on in the same vein for two more paragraphs. Sigh.
But she interrupted the moment by turning away from him and picking up a bone saw. The whirring sound of the saw's motor effectively ruined the earlier sensuality between them, and Mulder chuckled to himself as Scully continued her autopsy.
Nothing ruined sexual tension better than the reminder of death.
AND THANK GOD FOR THAT. See above-trope 14.
"If you find anything, let me know," he said before turning his back on her and walking out of the autopsy bay.
Wait. I thought it was his job to stay during the autopsy.
"The truth is that I am required to stay for the autopsy," Mulder answered. "It's part of my job."
Oh, never mind. Of course! Mulder is a maverick who never follows the rules. Duly added to trope list.
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The prologue made me cringe too. I think the author is trying to set up some sort of fate vs. chance dichotomy here, but it gets lost amid the flowery language. Which is a shame, since starting the story with the birth of a storm that will surely come into play later is a nice idea.
Things I don't like so far:
Too many adjectives. My first impression is that this isn't badly written, per say, but it is certainly overwritten. I feel like I'm drowning in a sea of descriptions. A cerulean, bejeweled sea.
I can understand why a red-haired woman on a bicycle would catch Mulder's eye as she whipped past. I have a harder time buying that she'd notice him at all, since she should be concentrating on where she's going, but I'll still accept that she might take note of an attractive man as she passes. I do not, however, buy that all this:
She turned her head, and felt herself nearly lose her grip on her handlebars. Someone was watching her, a stranger in a black suit and a wildly-colored necktie, and that stranger was one of the most striking men she had ever seen. A unique face stared at her, with high cheekbones and summer-colored skin, all marked by a dominant and slightly crooked nose. But it was his eyes that caught her attention. The color swarmed together in the distance, displaying only dark brown the color of cocoa beans. Yet it was what resided in those eyes that she could discern even now. Intelligence, intensity, and a deep, heartbreaking flavor of sorrow.
could take place in the split-second she has to glance over her shoulder at him.
This confusing passage:
Five years ago, he might have gone home and found images of skinned women lying everywhere, haunting his dreams as well as his days. But now, they were merely a fact of life that he had to deal with. People died. People were murdered. And he was supposed to bring them justice. It was a routine, losing himself in the darkness of the demons that had killed him. And now it was becoming more and more difficult to pull himself back out.
I would consider no longer having visions of skinned corpses haunting your every waking moment a sign of improved mental health, not a sign that you've slid further down the rabbit hole.
Focus on eyes and eye color is one of those things that always irritates me, be it fic or novel. This is excessive:
He stared back at her, trying to read her thoughts underneath the bright blue ice of her eyes, and he felt a sudden tension simmer between them. Electricity crackled in her eyes, sparkling and sizzling with clear cerulean heat, before they settled into closed-off, reserved pools of frost.
Count the shades of blue!
Things I like so far:
I love stories that effectively make use of location. Charleston is described with loving care and seems to come alive. The author's familiarity with (and fondness for) the city really shines through.
I liked the image of Scully riding her bike along the Battery, merging land and sea.
Scully's house sounds lovely.
It might be the romantic in me, but I don't mind the idea that Mulder and Scully were always supposed to find each other and thus experience some sense of completion at doing so. This is a love story first and a casefile second, so I'm willing to cut it some slack in that regard.
I liked this description of the oppressive Charleston heat:
It felt like some sort of virus, sinking through his skin and claiming his body.
Although the case is taking a back seat to Mulder and Scully gazing at each other, I am finding myself interested in it nonetheless.
In defense of tropes:
Profiling in general seems like an unpleasant bit of business. Fully immersing yourself in the worst of humanity and trying to put reason to it has got to take some kind of toll. I'm not a fan of the PROFILERS ARE ALL SECONDS AWAY FROM TURNING INTO MONSTERS THEMSELVES trope, but the only episode of the show that dealt heavily with Mulder-as-profiler did put him into a rather dark place.
Morgue coffee probably is terrible. That's not an excuse for Scully accepting a cup of it and then being nauseated. She works there, she should know better.
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I'm certain the coffee is bad. But why is she drinking it at all? She has a house with a kitchen. Make yourself a cup of coffee, Scully. But yeah, as a writer, I know it's hard to figure out action-y stuff for characters to do when they're just having a conversation.
I would consider no longer having visions of skinned corpses haunting your every waking moment a sign of improved mental health, not a sign that you've slid further down the rabbit hole.
Me, too.
The profilers are all crazy bit doesn't match up with the reality of profiling at all. Is it too much to expect that someone writing a long fanfic about a profiler might do a little research? I blame Oklahoma for cementing this fanon just as much as 1013 and "Grotesque." One of the things that was refreshing about Tesla's fanfic was how refreshingly normal--for Mulder--he was while profiling.
Mulder's been in BSU for what, ten years now? If he was going to snap, wouldn't it have already happened?
I love stories that effectively make use of location. Charleston is described with loving care and seems to come alive. The author's familiarity with (and fondness for) the city really shines through.
So far, for me, that represents the best of her writing. She relaxes and just writes when she's describing the city. The character appearance descriptions are the worst.
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And plus there's the fact that while he abandoned the BSU for the bigger picture of the X-Files - actually searching for his sister rather than proxies - I often like stories where he takes a profiler "vacation" later on, because solving a mystery that's actually solveable is a relief of sorts, even if the findings are grim.
Of course in this story we have an X-less Mulder, but I still take the view that Mulder doesn't unilaterally hate profiling - his demons/passion/quest just led him elsewhere.
I mean, for all of his self deprecation and voluntary isolation, I think the man does enjoy being competent, in and of itself. He's got I securities, yes, but he's also arrogant - and not without cause.
(Also, I would like to state that I don't think tropes and tropiness are inherently bad - although perhaps individual ones might be - and creative interpretations and combinations of tropes are how genres grow, evolve and play with revel in themselves.)
Okay, not sure I'm making sense anymore, so I'll stop!
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The Scully name thing is a pet peeve of mine. Not directly relevant to this story, but I feel like I encounter a lot of Scully POV in which even she thinks of herself as "Scully" in her internal dialogue, which rings wrong to me. I mean, canonically everyone close to her (except for Mulder) refers to her as Dana.
And the thing with the last names is interesting on the show because it is a professional thing and a kind of distancing thing that gets re-signified in M & S's relationship as their working partnership (and their work in general) dissolves into the personal. This is less meaningful out of context!
There's also gendered stuff specific to Scully with regard to the Dana/Scully divide. Because while Mulder's preference for eschewing his first name can be read as a desire to detach himself from aspects of his past, childhood, yadayada, for Scully there is the significance of needing to assert herself as "Dr. Scully" while being petite, young, female yet QUALIFIED.
Oh dear, I'm not really talking about the fic at hand am I!
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She had talent. Maybe she found a beta and cleaned up her prose. Or she became better with more writing experience? My husband's comment was, "I wrote like that when I was about nineteen. I thought it was good at the time--literary even."
The Scully name thing is a pet peeve of mine. Not directly relevant to this story, but I feel like I encounter a lot of Scully POV in which even she thinks of herself as "Scully" in her internal dialogue, which rings wrong to me. I mean, canonically everyone close to her (except for Mulder) refers to her as Dana.
Exactly. It's a pet peeve of mine, too. And there are so many readers who insist on her as Scully, regardless of context, who will backclick if they so much as glimpse the name Dana. Of course she uses her first name in her own head.
And the thing with the last names is interesting on the show because it is a professional thing and a kind of distancing thing that gets re-signified in M & S's relationship as their working partnership (and their work in general) dissolves into the personal. This is less meaningful out of context!
I think Mulder does insist on the last name thing at the beginning to create professional distance with her. Because everyone from his personal life except for the Gunmen calls him by his given name. "I even made my parents call me Mulder." But we know that's not true. His parents, his sister, all of his old girlfriends--even Bambi the entomologist--all call him Fox. It's a white lie but still a lie. And he still calls her Dana whenever it suits him.
They do continue with the Mulder-Scully thing even when their relationship turns personal, from habit I assume.
There's also gendered stuff specific to Scully with regard to the Dana/Scully divide. Because while Mulder's preference for eschewing his first name can be read as a desire to detach himself from aspects of his past, childhood, yadayada, for Scully there is the significance of needing to assert herself as "Dr. Scully" while being petite, young, female yet QUALIFIED.
This, too.
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I know! I can't figure what they're thinking. Mulder doesn't do that in canon, for pete's sake.
Part 2 Chapters 10-12
A deliciously heavy breeze fluttered through the magnificent boughs of the oak tree, twining through the greenery and flora. Late-blooming wisteria wavered and trembled underneath the gentle breath of the wind, and one delicate violet flower loosened itself from the tethers of vines and moss. The silky purple bud traveled through the air, the bright explosion of color tantalizing and seductive as it drifted on the wind. The spray of lavender twisted and turned gracefully, like the tulle tutu of a floral ballerina, and it wafted and waved through the ancient city.
Underneath the lantern's light, the vibrant red color of the wine danced and glowed like fire. It was the color of mellifluous rubies and garnets, like sparkling jeweled liquefied into nothing more than honeyed gemstones. It was the exact color of Scully's shirt, and both shone in synchrony beneath the rich glow of the lantern. The only difference was that she was more tantalizing than the wine.
But at least he could taste the wine. He couldn't taste her.
OH BUT HE CAN. FORESHADOWING! ALSO PURPLE PROSE ALERT.
The description of the wine goes on for another full paragraph. I think this is what we used to call "food porn" before Instagram. There is a lot of food porn herein.
He would only be here a couple more weeks anyway, before he would return to Washington and she would return to her dull, typical Southern life. But that didn't mean that she couldn't have two weeks with him. Fourteen days, if that, spent in his arms and inhis world. An escape from the boundaries and concise territories of logic and reason - a little foray into the impossible.
Perhaps she should consider this one extreme possibility.
Perhaps she should. GO FOR IT DANA.
Lifting her chin proudly, Scully turned around to face Mulder, and she started chuckling at what stood behind him.
"That's my house," she said, and Mulder turned around to take it in.
The bright canary house stood shaded by billowing willow trees and one meandering oak, both shadowed with sprinklings of Spanish moss. An iron-wrought gate surrounded the residence, intertwined with pineapples and wisteria in a fashion that was elegant and enigmatic, just like the house's owner. A round balcony protruded from the front of the house, surrounded by white railing, and Mulder imagined her standing on it, looking out at the ocean, searching for something that only she could find.
"It's beautiful," Mulder murmured, and Scully smiled a little in gratitude.
"Thanks," she said. "Do you want to come in?"
His only reply was a satisfied smile.
FINALLY. THANK GOD. Also, I want this house.
I have to say I like her descriptions of place much, much better than the weather and Mulder's constantly changing eye color.
WHAT! FELLATIO BUT NO CUNNILINGUS! I AM SHOCKED! SHOCKED!
Edit:
On a more serious note, we're over a quarter of the way through this, we've already had one sex scene, but we still don't have any real sense of who the killer is. I think that's a mistake. By this time, we should have been in his head at least once, at least that's how it always works in the crime novels I've read. Syntax6 always gets us into the killer's head and always has at least one bogus suspect, too, which is how it's supposed to be done.
I am annoyed by the nightmares about the life they aren't living. I consider them a needless distraction at this point. We get it. Mulder and Scully are meant to be together.
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I agree. I don't have any idea what's happening with the casefile and I'm somewhere beyond halfway at this point.
I am annoyed by the nightmares about the life they aren't living.
also, ditto.
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I love this song. Central Reservation is one my favorite CDs from the nineties.
For the people who haven't heard of Beth Orton, let alone the song "Sweetest Decline." Play it.
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Beth Orton is so great.
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Beth Orton is so great.
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But. There are just too many words for the amount of content. Lots and lots of descriptive language. I have never read so many adjectives in one place that mean red/brown/blue/hazel in the context of hair and eyes. I guess all this description is supposed to help create atmosphere...the storm, the romance, the weird cross-over with their "other" lives, but it's just overdone.
I may have more to say when I'm finished.
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It's way overdone. The descriptive language is mostly detracting from the story she's trying to tell. That's obvious just from reading the prologue.
I agree that she's trying to create atmosphere. It's not working, except for the physical descriptions of Charleston and even those could have been tightened up.
Still a Gen Person after all of these years; The Rest of the Story
I feel the same way about the structuring of the casefile. I think if you're going to write one you need to follow the rules--or be such a brilliant writer that you can get away with doing anything you want. I recognize this is more of a romance than a casefic but I still found that section pretty disappointing. We don't get inside the Killer's head until right before he takes Scully prisoner. We didn't learn much about who he is or how he became a homicidal maniac. If there were clues along the way, I missed them.
I was surprised that Mulder put up so little resistance--what with him being trained in law enforcement and self-defense. I correctly predicted that Mulder, Scully and the Killer would all end up in a room together (add to trope list) and that there would be some supernatural element to the crime (this is the X-Files). How exactly did Super Scully manage to get loose and save the day? Why didn't the Skinner start skinning her like he did his other victims? She's a better conversationalist? Why didn't he just kill Mulder and dump the body? Or leave him tied up at the morgue?
I don't think Mulder would either have the time or take the time to undergo regression hypnosis in the middle of investigating a case. What was the urgency? Even during TFWID, he at least had the excuse that he was trying to locate the Civil War bunkers. I doubt that Mulder would need to worry about getting an erection while Scully was tending to his wounds. (The men I have consulted with have assured me that it is not at all difficult to keep one's libido in check when necessary.) I'll mentally add that to the MSR fanfic tropes list.
I guess I'm most disappointed that there was so little suspense. I never doubted for a minute that they'd escape the Killer or the storm, or that they'd end up together in DC for that matter, Scully's weak protests to the contrary. The thing is, you can use exactly the same elements and create tension for the reader--but you have to know how to structure a story. I remember reading "Blood Oranges" for the first time and being on the edge of my seat over what was going to happen to Mulder.
Having said that, I thought the writing got crisper as it went along. When there was something happening, she managed to move the characters around without describing their eye color, and without referring to Scully as the redhead.
Having the two realities bleeding together was beyond annoying. There was no remotely believable explanation for it, and no reason for it. Instead, I wish she'd focused on creating fully realized, rich AU characters, done more world-building, and made this into a genuine romance--one that didn't need The X-Files TV universe as an excuse for the characters to fall in love and be together.
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Having the two realities bleeding together was beyond annoying. There was no remotely believable explanation for it, and no reason for it. Instead, I wish she'd focused on creating fully realized, rich AU characters, done more world-building, and made this into a genuine romance--one that didn't need The X-Files TV universe as an excuse for the characters to fall in love and be together.
If this story typified msr stories, I, too, would have to be a gen person. Or perhaps a non-fanfic person.
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I hear you.
I think she was trying to demonstrate that the TV universe is the "correct" universe, which is ironic for an MSR writer since on the series their sixth season relationship is platonic.
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I appreciate the comments already made about "Skin" but other than to agree with most of them I don't think I have anything new to add. I have read the story but I don't think I'll read it again. My recollection is pretty much what is described in the comments above.
I do recommend "Wearing Icicles" as a kind of amuse-bouche after reading "Skin."
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Also, very near the beginning of my fic reading, I read "Erosion" and it haunted me for weeks. I likely won't go back and re-read it because I don't need that again(!), but I could also imagine that I might see it in a different light if I read it now, after having read a lot more stories (ie, it might not affect me in quite the same way).
Both of these things made "Skin" more disappointing than it would have been otherwise.
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I think you've hit it. I read "Erosion" early on as well, when I was omnivorous as far as fanfic was concerned. It was probably the darkest story I'd read at that time and I don't want to read it again, though I confess I have a bit of curiosity to see if it holds up.
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A lulling shower of frozen ivory drifted down around outside of the rustic cabin, languidly shimmering to the ground in fragments of alabaster.
All that just to say it's snowing. But she doesn't stop there.
Each minute piece of snow was utterly unique, shaped differently as well as exquisitely, imprinted with different patterns and magnificent shapes, pirouetting like icy ballerinas.
I picture the author checking each snowflake personally. "Yep. That one's different. Yep. That one is too."
It's common knowledge that all snowflakes are unique. So I am left wondering what the point of this is for the story.
This is Scully's POV. Ideally, everything in a story is supposed to work together: character drives plot and plot illuminates character. Even the descriptions, of place, person, events, should be there for a reason-- to show us something about the characters or the theme, or perhaps to set up for events yet to unfold. But this description doesn't even sound remotely like something Scully would be thinking. Ever.
I think this writer is not for me.
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(Anonymous) 2014-04-09 04:25 am (UTC)(link)no subject
Although I do remember, even back then, finding the two realities annoying. It jarred me right out of the story.
Anyway, I find more and more that I am disappointed when I revisit something I loved back in the day, and this story is no exception. It's funny how tastes change.
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I did like the casefile and maybe would have enjoyed it more without the background of the characters being in an alternate universe to the show. The serial killer was interesting although I'm not the hugest fan of profiler Mulder (honestly, he just seems like a smug asshole. He corrects a police officer who says that a child brought a blanket over for a victim because they didn't want her to get cold by saying that no, the child brought the blanket to cover the victim's body because she was naked and when the police officer wonders how he knows that he says "I know how children work" (seriously, Mulder, do you? Is it even relevant to the story other than to make you seem like an overbearing douche? I guess that's the cliche of profilers though)).
I thought it was funny that given
I thought the story moved way faster in the last third, although I skimmed all the sex scenes after the first one and most of the dream sequences, otherwise I'd still be reading this sucker next year. I think I was kind of burned out by the last few chapters though so I didn't really enjoy the story about the storm.
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Temper tantrum over. It is important, though, for even an amateur, just-learning kind of fictioneer to weigh words carefully. Test and examine each one as you go. It's a difficult way to write (some prefer to do it in rewrite) but you owe it even to a loyal beta not to waste precious hours of recreational time.
Someone mentioned Scully referring to herself as "Scully." It reminded me of a totally awful fic in which Scully's hair is referred to as "luscious," "titian," lots of forgotten but complimentary adjectives. By--wait for it--Scully herself!
I am owning my inner brat.
I'll read the next one, Wen!