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crack_van2011-02-17 07:02 pm
bachlava.livejournal.com) wrote in crack_van2011-02-17 07:02 pm
Entry tags:
Dreams trilogy by JiM (R)
Fandom: THE X-FILES
Pairing: Skinner/Doggett
Length: 101k in three parts
Author on LJ:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
jimpage363
Author Website: JiM's personal archive, DitB page, reconstituted ex-Geocities page, and Gossamer listing.
Why this must be read: John Doggett was one of the few things I liked about the last seasons of The X-Files; Skinner's increased presence was about the only other one. The two share a lot of background: both are former Marines with combat-related PTSD that they really, really, really don't want to talk about; they tend to fall into line with respect to authority but will break that pattern for good cause if necessary, and stay under the radar doing it; both have failed marriages; both are goal-directed and taciturn, and sort of alpha-male.
The "Dreams" series (named for a Yeats poem, FYI) is set in the timeline of S8, and bases itself around some major events (for Doggett and Skinner) from . What it does from there is incredibly; for my money, it's one of the best fics out there, period. This is a bit of gushing about it from my personal journal:
...more of the focus is on where Doggett is mentally (as opposed to where Mulder is physically), something that in canon is necessarily an aside to the narrative. And where Doggett is mentally is not at all a pretty place to begin with, much less after everything he encounters (and experiences) when he's assigned to the X-Files. The fic takes his state and his taciturn refusal to deal with it and puts it in conversation with Skinner's parallel situation and similar disposition, again drawing on Skinner's care for the agents under his authority and (very sublty implied) his psychological need to fill the troubled-agent-to-watch gap that Mulder's absence has created.
JiM is one of those rarest of creatures, a writer who is a natural with good summaries, good enough to be worth quoting here:
In Dreams (PG): "After the episode 'Via Negativa,' Doggett's insomnia blurs the lines between Real Life and the world of dreams."
Begins Responsibility (PG): "After the events of 'Existence,' Skinner needs someone to talk to. Or not."
In Common Hours (R): "Mulder points something out to Doggett, who thinks about buying flowers."
It was as if complicity had made them friends. Or, if not strictly friends, it had shown them the spaces into which the other might fit without causing any more damage to already shattered lives. That second awakening with one another, on a long golden afternoon, had been as silent and empty of discussion as the first. He had loaned Skinner a razor and a shirt and given him a mug of coffee. Then they had gone to burn the shirt Skinner had been wearing and vacuumed every inch of his car. By evening, they were done. The evidence of Krycek's killing had been as thoroughly concealed or destroyed as two federal agents could make it. They had parted with few words and none of thanks or obligation.
But Doggett wasn't especially surprised to find Skinner on his door step the next Saturday morning, a basketball in hand. It ought to have surprised him, his dour boss shotgunning the ball into his chest, but it didn't. Somehow, it was part of their agreement now. Pick up games of basketball, an early movie, random householding at Doggett's, yardwork. There were never any plans, neither of them ever spoke of it in the office, but one would just appear at the other's house with some suggestion. It was always accepted. ("In Common Hours")
In addition to the above links to JiM's page, you can also find them at DitB: In Dreams/Begins Responsibility/In Common Hours.
Pairing: Skinner/Doggett
Length: 101k in three parts
Author on LJ:
jimpage363Author Website: JiM's personal archive, DitB page, reconstituted ex-Geocities page, and Gossamer listing.
Why this must be read: John Doggett was one of the few things I liked about the last seasons of The X-Files; Skinner's increased presence was about the only other one. The two share a lot of background: both are former Marines with combat-related PTSD that they really, really, really don't want to talk about; they tend to fall into line with respect to authority but will break that pattern for good cause if necessary, and stay under the radar doing it; both have failed marriages; both are goal-directed and taciturn, and sort of alpha-male.
The "Dreams" series (named for a Yeats poem, FYI) is set in the timeline of S8, and bases itself around some major events (for Doggett and Skinner) from . What it does from there is incredibly; for my money, it's one of the best fics out there, period. This is a bit of gushing about it from my personal journal:
...more of the focus is on where Doggett is mentally (as opposed to where Mulder is physically), something that in canon is necessarily an aside to the narrative. And where Doggett is mentally is not at all a pretty place to begin with, much less after everything he encounters (and experiences) when he's assigned to the X-Files. The fic takes his state and his taciturn refusal to deal with it and puts it in conversation with Skinner's parallel situation and similar disposition, again drawing on Skinner's care for the agents under his authority and (very sublty implied) his psychological need to fill the troubled-agent-to-watch gap that Mulder's absence has created.
JiM is one of those rarest of creatures, a writer who is a natural with good summaries, good enough to be worth quoting here:
In Dreams (PG): "After the episode 'Via Negativa,' Doggett's insomnia blurs the lines between Real Life and the world of dreams."
Begins Responsibility (PG): "After the events of 'Existence,' Skinner needs someone to talk to. Or not."
In Common Hours (R): "Mulder points something out to Doggett, who thinks about buying flowers."
It was as if complicity had made them friends. Or, if not strictly friends, it had shown them the spaces into which the other might fit without causing any more damage to already shattered lives. That second awakening with one another, on a long golden afternoon, had been as silent and empty of discussion as the first. He had loaned Skinner a razor and a shirt and given him a mug of coffee. Then they had gone to burn the shirt Skinner had been wearing and vacuumed every inch of his car. By evening, they were done. The evidence of Krycek's killing had been as thoroughly concealed or destroyed as two federal agents could make it. They had parted with few words and none of thanks or obligation.
But Doggett wasn't especially surprised to find Skinner on his door step the next Saturday morning, a basketball in hand. It ought to have surprised him, his dour boss shotgunning the ball into his chest, but it didn't. Somehow, it was part of their agreement now. Pick up games of basketball, an early movie, random householding at Doggett's, yardwork. There were never any plans, neither of them ever spoke of it in the office, but one would just appear at the other's house with some suggestion. It was always accepted. ("In Common Hours")
In addition to the above links to JiM's page, you can also find them at DitB: In Dreams/Begins Responsibility/In Common Hours.