Skindogilicious (Or How I Became a Boyslasher)
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| Title: | Skindogilicious (Or How I Became a Boyslasher) |
| Creator: | Dasha K |
| Date(s): | 2001 |
| Medium: | online |
| Fandom: | The X-Files |
| Topic: | |
| External Links: | Skindogilicious (Or How I Became a Boyslasher) |
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Skindogilicious (Or How I Became a Boyslasher) is a 2001 essay by Dasha K.
Some Topics Discussed
- The X-Files
- losing touch with an old pairing but finding a new one
- Skinner/Doggett
- many fic recs
The Essay
If you know me at all, you probably know I'm an MSR kind of girl. I jumped on the ship early in the game and rarely strayed off it. Granted, I wrote some Scully/Skinner, some Scully/other (including slash), and one Mulder/other. But really, even then it was all about the Mulder/Scully romance. I can't help it, I'm a pathetically hopeless romantic when it comes to them. Even though I'm somewhat of a cynic in my real life, when it comes to those two I believe in fate, destiny, and all that smooshy crap. I turn into a sap when I see them banter, bicker, or exchange goo-googly eyes. And we won't even get into Existence, the season finale, because if I talk about the last scene I'll get all teary and it'll make my keyboard soggy. We can't have that.
Despite all that shippy stuff, I've always had a soft spot in my heart for boyslash. I was first introduced to it during the glory days of the fabulous XAPEN list. At the time it was a smallish list packed out with quality writers. The beauty of the list back in 1998-99 was that there was almost an equal number of gen and slash writers and a great feeling of mutual respect between the two camps. I remember getting feedback on an MSR story from Viridian 5, a devout Mulder/Krycek girl, and sending feedback to Te on her M/K stories. The attitude on the list was "Great writing devoted to the X-Files is great writing and should be celebrated." It was a heady experience for a writer new to fan fiction and it helped me develop as a writer and take chances. I don't think I would have had the guts to write Scully slash if it hadn't been for the freewheeling world of XAPEN and reading the delicious efforts of the boyslashers on the list. Nowadays there's a very Balkanized divide between gen and slash writers in the X-Files fic world and that's just too bad.
I always wanted to write some XF boyslash because it was so darn hot. Why did I think boyslash was hot? Well, you do the math. You have two handsome men with demonstrated UST on the screen and you put them into a well-written and often angsty sexual situation. Can you say "Yowza?" I knew you could. So, like I was saying, I wanted to write boyslash but my problem was finding guys to slash. Although I certainly liked reading the occasional Mulder/Krycek (please tell me you've read Torch's Ghosts) story, I was too much of a shipper to believe in that pairing. Plus, there's the whole Krycek killing Mulder's father and being responsible for Scully's abduction thing. That made it hard for me to those two together buy lock, stock, and barrel. For some reason, I've never found Mulder/Skinner particularly hot. I think that both men are smokin' separately but together, I'm just wishy-washy on the whole thing. One exception is Merri-Todd Webster's I Don't Remember How It Happened. Yum. Probably my favorite pairing was Krycek/Pendrell. The absurdity of it was just too great for words. DB Kate made a masterpiece out of this pairing with the hilarious Goober and the Czar, as did Merri-Todd, with the touching Pendrell Talks, or Richie and Fonzie. Occasionally I enjoyed a well-written slash story with an original character, such as Cathleen Faye's breathtaking Wind River, but to me the whole point was to see two guys you know doing the nasty.
So, yeah, I was stuck. I did, sort of as a dare to myself, write and post a Mulder/Krycek story called Pretty As You Are, but I chickened out and wrote it under the pseudonym Sosoprano. I was afraid my MSR rep would be sullied. :::snort::: And I was careful to set it just after the episode Sleepless, so I didn't have to go against my distaste for the things Krycek did later.
Eventually, I just gave up on any slashy aspirations. It was too complicated and besides, slash was slowly dying in the XF world since Krycek made so few appearances in seasons 6, 7, and 8. There wasn't that old slam-you-against-the-wall/kiss-you-on-the-cheek-and-mutter-endearments-in-Russian chemistry we'd seen in years past. So, over the years I wrote a bunch of MSR, had fun, and eventually burned out. I didn't write fic for a whole year. Although I never came right out and made an announcement to the fact, I considered myself retired from fic writing. Over, done, finis, buh-bye. I had pretty much run out of things to say about the Mulder/Scully romance. I'd already said it a hundred times over. Yeah, yeah, they love each other, they're soulmates, it's eternal. I get it.
That was until I saw something beautiful on the show. Sometime that made me grin and lick my chops. Something that made my fingers itch to write again. I saw the chemistry between Skinner and Doggett.
At first I thought I was the only one who saw the electricity light up between those two men whenever they shared the screen. I thought I could be the only one demented enough to want to see them naked and writhing angstily on a bed. Then, on Scullyfic and in emailing various fic friends, I found I wasn't alone. There were others who had noticed the chemistry and were clamoring to see those two paired in fic. I think Halrloprillalar might have been the first out of the gate with her story, Drunkard By Choice, although I could be wrong, but it was good. Oh yeah, it was gooood. Then, Jessica, the XF reviewer for Television Without Pity started making cracks about Doggett taping up a big picture of Skinner above his bed and I knew that the next big XF slash pairing was about to be born. And I wanted in on the yumminess.
It took me a while to get the story done, out of my own inherent laziness and completely out-of-control work schedule, but I finally knocked out Down A Lazy River, thanks to the goodness of sunny afternoons at my local cafe and caffeine IV drips. And I found I was loving writing XF fic again. For a long time, writing fic had almost felt like a duty to me, another thing in my long set of responsibilities along with feeding the cat and doing the laundry. I was putting too much pressure on myself to write the perfect story, to write the penultimate MSR. Now I was writing and having a great time angsting out two hot guys and letting them have gnarly sex. I felt like I did in my early days of writing fic. I felt happy, with no pressure.
I know I'm the only person feeling like that these days. The Skinner/Doggett pairing is slowly growing. There's now a mailing list called Doggett-slash, a Skinner/Doggett archive called Chemical Reaction and a small, but excellent body of work. I especially adore the spare, powerful writing of Maddie LeClerc's Scenes in Dark Rooms and Sabine's Gee, Ma, I Wanna Go Home. And I want more. Much, much more. I'm actually reading fic again. Fancy that! So, writers, get your butts in gear, because I want to see those two together-- fighting crime, angsting, and fucking. Please? Pretty please?
I'm not sure if I'll be involved with fic again to the extent I was in the past. I have too much going on in my life-- work, friends, family, love life, hobbies, napping, etc. But I'm happy that my faith in fic is back. I'm smiling because there's something in XF fanfic that makes me want to read again, that makes me want to write. And I'm not saying I'll never write an MSR again. Who knows? To Chris Carter and company, I have plenty of complaints but I'm grateful you cast two men that are so steamy together. To the Scullyfic readers, thank you for making me not feel so alone. To the Skinner/Doggett writers out there, bless your hearts and GO WRITE! There's some cookies in it for you...