Story 242: "Skin" by Annie Sewell-Jennings

[discordantwords.livejournal.com]

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.

Comments

[infinitlight.livejournal.com]

OKAY. I think I'm probably among the readers here who are more appreciative (tolerant? :) of very descriptive prose. Those in purple glass houses, etc. But I found this really long and with a lot of superfluous story.

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 wendelah1 and femmenerd's discussion of Scully's name that the only person who refers to her by her first name is the serial killer.

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.