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crack_van2011-02-07 09:50 pm
bachlava.livejournal.com) wrote in crack_van2011-02-07 09:50 pm
Entry tags:
La Belle Dame Sans Merci by MustangSally (NC-17)
Fandom: THE X-FILES
Pairing: Skinner/other
Length: 33k
Author on LJ:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
mustangsally78
Author Website: Gossamer page
Why this must be read: Because "Belle Dame" is, for my money, one of the best Skinner fics out there, and Skinner doesn't get nearly enough love. "Belle Dame" draws on the canon material relating to Skinner's marriage and its (presumed) dissolution, and on the legacy of his experiences in Vietnam - or, perhaps, his reluctance to acknowledge that legacy. These are issues that the show brought up in the episodes "One Breath," "Avatar," and "Unrequited," but they remained largely in the background. MustangSally does a superb job of bringing them to the fore, drawing the settings and characters in a dark relief that very much fits with the original. She provides a well-constructed, believable background for his career with the FBI before his days in charge of the X-Files, structured around one (albeit utterly unsupernatural) case that he tracked for years, starting when he was a field agent and continuing into the X-Files era. The story unfolds in three acts, set respectively in 1987, 1991, and the "real time" of The X-Files, 1996.
(1987:)
Case files on the coffee table, bottle of beer sitting in a pool of its
own sweat on the glass, Skinner rubbing his eyes, lighting another
cigarette, and the clock on the VCR greenly nagging 2:15. Black and
white crime scene photographs documenting the deaths of half a dozen
older Italian-American men known for dubious business practices. The
photos also served as a photo record of what all the higher echelon
Italian mobsters were wearing that season. No Miami Vice unconstructed
jackets and T-shirts over five hundred dollar pants the colors of Easter
eggs, the Italian mobsters were still dressing the way they always had -
like there was sale in the Casual Sportswear department at Sears. The
South Americans were probably killing them for crimes against fashion.
"Honey? You coming to bed anytime soon?"
Sharon ambled into the living room, her short hair flattened on one side
from sleep, her nightshirt a wrinkled bed sheet around her body.
Averting her eyes from the death on the coffee table, she slid onto the
sofa next to her husband and rubbed a companionable hand over the taut
muscles of his bare back.
"What's the matter?" she asked.
"Nothing."
An old routine repeated time and time again on many sleepless nights in
many rented furnished houses over the years. Sometimes the routine ended
in acrimony or argument, but more often it ended in sullen silence.
Her hand smoothed the hair on the back of his skull.
"You had your hair cut again."
"It was getting long."
"It looks better long."
"I'm not a long hair guy."
"No, you're not."
Her hand swooped down his spine, until the flat of her hand heated the small of his back over the waistband of his worn sweatpants in an open invitation. While the cigarette burned down to a cylinder of ash in the ashtray, Skinner made love to his wife on the rented sofa of the rented house with a passion that he hadn't had for months. Afterwards, with her head pillowed on his chest in the rented bed of the rented house, he stared at the rented ceiling and thought of eyes the color of cold ashes.
The full story is available at the Gossamer archive.
Pairing: Skinner/other
Length: 33k
Author on LJ:
mustangsally78Author Website: Gossamer page
Why this must be read: Because "Belle Dame" is, for my money, one of the best Skinner fics out there, and Skinner doesn't get nearly enough love. "Belle Dame" draws on the canon material relating to Skinner's marriage and its (presumed) dissolution, and on the legacy of his experiences in Vietnam - or, perhaps, his reluctance to acknowledge that legacy. These are issues that the show brought up in the episodes "One Breath," "Avatar," and "Unrequited," but they remained largely in the background. MustangSally does a superb job of bringing them to the fore, drawing the settings and characters in a dark relief that very much fits with the original. She provides a well-constructed, believable background for his career with the FBI before his days in charge of the X-Files, structured around one (albeit utterly unsupernatural) case that he tracked for years, starting when he was a field agent and continuing into the X-Files era. The story unfolds in three acts, set respectively in 1987, 1991, and the "real time" of The X-Files, 1996.
(1987:)
Case files on the coffee table, bottle of beer sitting in a pool of its
own sweat on the glass, Skinner rubbing his eyes, lighting another
cigarette, and the clock on the VCR greenly nagging 2:15. Black and
white crime scene photographs documenting the deaths of half a dozen
older Italian-American men known for dubious business practices. The
photos also served as a photo record of what all the higher echelon
Italian mobsters were wearing that season. No Miami Vice unconstructed
jackets and T-shirts over five hundred dollar pants the colors of Easter
eggs, the Italian mobsters were still dressing the way they always had -
like there was sale in the Casual Sportswear department at Sears. The
South Americans were probably killing them for crimes against fashion.
"Honey? You coming to bed anytime soon?"
Sharon ambled into the living room, her short hair flattened on one side
from sleep, her nightshirt a wrinkled bed sheet around her body.
Averting her eyes from the death on the coffee table, she slid onto the
sofa next to her husband and rubbed a companionable hand over the taut
muscles of his bare back.
"What's the matter?" she asked.
"Nothing."
An old routine repeated time and time again on many sleepless nights in
many rented furnished houses over the years. Sometimes the routine ended
in acrimony or argument, but more often it ended in sullen silence.
Her hand smoothed the hair on the back of his skull.
"You had your hair cut again."
"It was getting long."
"It looks better long."
"I'm not a long hair guy."
"No, you're not."
Her hand swooped down his spine, until the flat of her hand heated the small of his back over the waistband of his worn sweatpants in an open invitation. While the cigarette burned down to a cylinder of ash in the ashtray, Skinner made love to his wife on the rented sofa of the rented house with a passion that he hadn't had for months. Afterwards, with her head pillowed on his chest in the rented bed of the rented house, he stared at the rented ceiling and thought of eyes the color of cold ashes.
The full story is available at the Gossamer archive.
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