Story 84: "Half A World Away" by Jane St. Clair

[wendelah1]

"Half A World Away," Jane St.Clair's first posted fic for The X-Files, has been nominated by estella_c. I've been trying to figure out a way to post this without giving away that while Mulder/Scully/Krycek is a major kink of mine, Scully/Krycek is a major squick.

I gave up. Here is the authors' header for the fic. Have fun. This is probably the best Scully/Krycek story in the fandom. Given the heated discussion in Live Journal Fandom lately about warnings, I feel I should warn that it is fairly easy to see the sex in this as dub-con. I disagree, but I'm getting ahead of myself here.

Fandom: X-Files
Rating: NC-17
Spoilers: Sleepless, Ascension, Piper Maru/Apocrypha, Terma
Keywords: Krycek/Scully, Mulder/Scully UST
Summary: After Scully is kidnapped and rescued, she finds herself under Krycek's dubious protection.

This story is rated NC-17 for nasty words and not-entirely-vanilla sex. If you're under whatever age you're supposed to be in whatever place you are, you don't know about sex, so go away. Oh, and the people in this story don't use condoms. In the real world, this is very stupid. Practice safe sex, especially when making it with one-armed Russian thugs. You don't know where they've been.

I think I like this woman.

"Half a World Away"

As always, let the author know what you think and then come back for discussion. I am more than interested in what people will think of this fic. Suggestions for next time can be made here.

Comments

[merrycaepa (from livejournal.com)]

I loved this fic for a long time. Jane's amazingly evocative, and I love her Scully - vulnerable yet tough, and above all imperfect. And oh, her Mulder... I don't have the words. I really don't. All I can do is flail and point.

This passage gets me every, every time:

Krycek kissed her at the same moment that she saw lighting on the next hill (count one Mississippi, two Mississippi) and she kissed him back (three Mississippi, four Mississippi, five Mississippi) and broke away with the shock of the thunder. The storm was five miles off and blowing in. The momentarily shattered radio signal reconstructed itself and she danced with Krycek again and steadily until the rain came.

[wendelah1]

Hello. Welcome to the book_club. Jane St. Clair is a great writer. After I read this story, I found her website and starting reading through some of her other fic. Wow. She is quite prolific and in so many fandoms, too. I do love her Scully in this. All of the characters feel very three-dimensional.

I love this passage:

His eyes imitated her motions of eating. Peeling her and tasting the juice that leaked out of the skin. Her hands were sticky and his eyes were clinging to her. Nearly colourless liquid ran in droplets towards her elbows. She sat cross-legged on the bedspread and segmented the fruit, pulling it apart and sucking at it gently a moment before ripping out the centre with her tongue. Krycek's expression was mild, but she was soaking wet all over and his eyes were blazing and the whole room smelled like oranges.

[amyhit.livejournal.com]

is this a 'scully sleeps with krycek out of a craving for cold comfort because mulder is dead/presumed dead/otherwise tragically unavailable' type scully/krycek pairing? or is this a 'scully sleeps with krycek because he's sexy and she wants to' kind of pairing?

because as much as that passage that merrycaepa quotes is lovely, i'd like to know what i'm getting into before i, er, get into it. and the tags don't seem to tell me much as to the nature of the story.

if someone whose read it could tell me, thanks a bunch.

[wendelah1]

If I am understanding you correctly, I don't think it fits into either of those categories. The way I am rereading it now, I am seeing it as more of a character study. I am hoping that estella_c will show up soon to get the ball rolling here. As previously mentioned, Scully/Krycek is not a big favorite for me; however, I am trying to set that aside and just evaluate the writing.

[sixpences.livejournal.com]

I found this a bit of a weird one. I can see that it's obviously very well written, and there are some lovely bits of description, but I am always a bit suspicious of stories which seem to be trying to convince me that Krycek is really a misunderstood woobie (though thankfully that didn't seem quite as strong here as it does in a lot of other stories) and I honestly had no idea where Scully went. She just didn't seem recognisable to me half the time. The Mulder bit at the end seemed weirdly off too, like the author was trying to artificially up the angst by having him believe Scully was dead long before the Mulder I know ever would have (seriously, leaving it a day and a half and saying 'that's it, she's definitely dead'? Who is this man and what did he do with Fox Mulder?).

Also I was pretty irritated by the constant references to Krycek being Russian, though I'm guessing that's that weird American thing about being '[insert other country which you are not actually from here]-American'? Which I suppose is all fun and games until somebody funds the Provisional IRA, but I digress.

[wendelah1]

but I am always a bit suspicious of stories which seem to be trying to convince me that Krycek is really a misunderstood woobie

I like my Krycek evil, too. But St. Clair does an amazing job of humanizing him in this story, don't you think? And to me, he is a much more interesting character when he is allowed to be complicated, rather than a stock villain as he is in so many other stories.

I honestly had no idea where Scully went. She just didn't seem recognisable to me half the time.

Could you be more specific? What sections or passages made you feel this way?

I think we all agree that the time frame was off at the end. Mulder would not assume Scully was dead after so little time had passed, not without a better reason than what we were given.

Also I was pretty irritated by the constant references to Krycek being Russian, though I'm guessing that's that weird American thing about being '[insert other country which you are not actually from here]-American'? Which I suppose is all fun and games until somebody funds the Provisional IRA, but I digress.

I had always thought that Krycek might be Russian and just had a really good American accent.

I don't choose to identify myself as a [insert other country from which I am not from]-American but I have no objection to it as I respect other people's rights to self-definition, no matter what their country of origin is or what country they claim citizenship in. Jane St. Clair, as far as I can tell from her introduction, is Canadian. This is what her LJ bio says also.

[estella-c.livejournal.com]

Get the ball rolling. It must be a sports metaphor.

I'm not up to any heavy explication here, but I could toss out a couple of things. First, there's "good" writing that's nice and smooth and grammatical, and then there's good writing that's sparky and eccentric and fun to read, although it may have grammar glitches and is by its nature sure to offend *someone*. And then there's this kind of good writing, firm and enigmatic and evocative, poetic in a good way. That's my favorite kind. Whatever one thinks of the content, this prose is hard to argue with.

I'm sure some will be wary of this pairing--how *could* she?--but I really think the writer has found possibly the only justifiable way of bonding Scully and Krycek. They are in crisis mode, and they are sharing their most personal nightmares. The sex--first ugly and angry, then tender--is a punctuation mark to the process of enemy souls being forced into total empathy. Clever, really.

As for Krycek's Russianness, well, Americans do that nationality typing, comes of being a volatile nation of immigrants, and also K's trauma occurred in Siberia. Also, there's something kind of fascinating about his origin, sexy even. Maybe it's the after-effect of several decades of cold war.

I found the ending confusing too. Mulder should have been waiting longer.

addendum

[estella-c.livejournal.com]

Someone mentioned, in relation to Scully, Stockholm Syndrome. Does she have it? Does it matter? Does it lesson the sexual impact? Does *that* matter?

With moderate embarrassment, I report that there's no "e" on the end of St. Clair. I intend to doublecheck the next time I watch "House." Someone mentioned that she's on the writing staff.

Re: addendum

[wendelah1]

I believe that her fic is written under a penname; her professional name is--something else. I will check her website for her name's spelling when I get home. If it's wrong, I'll fix it.

I'll be back later with a theory about Stockholm syndrome.

Edit: You are right! I will fix it. Mea culpa.

Her LJ info says she is working on a dissertation and has published a novel. She certainly has written a lot of fic.

[counterphobe.livejournal.com]

I found I had very little reaction to this story. Arguably, the fault is mine. I'm not a smut fan. Very occasionally something will catch my fancy, but that's rare, especially since I tend to skim or skip.

If there's a problem that stems from the story itself, it's this: Even though Krycek turns out to be trustworthy, Scully really has no reason to trust him. In the scene in Edmonton where she follows him into the service station with his sweater hiding her handcuffs, I wanted her to attempt to get help. I didn't think "Stockholm syndrome" on the first reading, but now that the question's been raised, it seems plausible.

One reason I might have failed to engage with the fic are the second and third paragraphs. After an opening that gives us a cool-headed Scully assessing her predicament, we get this:

If this was Mulder's fault, she was going to shoot him. Yes, again. He wasn't where he should be, unconscious, whimpering a little, curled up close behind her in this narrow space. If he were, she would catch his hand and hold it for a while, trace the lines across his palm. Mulder had broad hands, long fingers, had a touch that could drown out the pain in her body and the increasing terror she felt at this enclosed space.

If it could be called an improvement, at least there were no while lights, no experiments this time. Just Agent Scully locked in a dark closet and feeling like hell. Sweet Jesus. Surely by this time she rated a better class of kidnapper.

To me it was precious and coy, and it made Scully sound as if she knew she was a character in a fanfic.

On my first reading, I didn't like anything in HAWA. On rereading, I do like the dreams, especially Scully dreaming Krycek's dreams. In particular I liked this:

She woke vomiting diesel fuel and feeling black iridescent sludge pouring out of her eyes. She laid for a long time, choking and sobbing, before she realized what she was lying on and hurled herself away from it. The concrete space was nearly black; she could only just make out the shape of the alien ship that pulsed like a living thing. Above her, it was dark, and the ceiling was so high as to be invisible.

When she understood that she'd been sold again and left in this place to die, she started to scream.

Later, so hoarse she thought her vocal cords must be bleeding like the fingers she'd used to claw at the door, she curled up on the floor and shook. The ship whispered hideous things to her.

Eighteen storeys up, North Dakota settled in for winter.

I wasn't offended by the S/K pairing. I've been able to lose myself in slash, and even in M/O and S/O. This one didn't click for me.

[wendelah1]

I'm working on a theory about why Scully comes to trust Krycek. I think it has to do with the dream sharing. I'll have to get bsck to you with it as I am at work and have no time to theorize, just to work.

I always appreciate it when people comment on an entry--especially when they don't like a fic.

[estella-c.livejournal.com]

Yes, thanks for posting, counterphobe. I disagree with you on most counts, but that's the chance you take.

I don't think of this fic as smut, though it's very explicit. I think of it as a study in forced communication, sex being the least important. There is something touching to me about Krycek's suffering and Scully's comprehension of it. Can't we all get along? Obviously not. It would involve experiencing each others' worst fears and then fucking. And even then...

People talk about the "loose canon" of The X-Files, all the confusing nooks and crannies that fanfic was invented to fill. I think that Krycek is the character who cries out loudest for creative explanation. Employed in a number of ways by a number of writers, he was sympathetic, evil, desperate, enigmatic, evil again, etc. Lea did his best, and was fortunately a real cute guy, so we stayed interested. A lot of people have decided to hate Krycek. I don't. Well, he's so cute.

"Eighteen stories up, North Dakota settled in for winter." That's good. I mean *really*.

[wendelah1]

I agree with you, EC, I don't think of it as smut, either, even though it is NC-17. It is a carefully developed character piece. You are right, Krycek is one of the big pieces of "loose canon." This story creates empathy for him, through Scully's sharing his dreams. Weirdly, I think Mulder has to do with this, too but I haven't got that part figured out.This is a complex psychological journey for her and Krycek (and for the reader). Clearly not all of us are going the distance, but I think the story works.

[counterphobe.livejournal.com]

Yeah, smut was the wrong word. All I meant to say was explicit sex. After years in the fandom one forgets that smut is a loaded term.

[wendelah1]

I think of smut as stories for which the plot is secondary to the sex scenes. These sex scenes seem plot-driven, unusually so, for fannish writing. "The Airport" is my classic example of a smut fic. The plot is contrived solely to create the sex scenes. Not that this is a bad thing, it just isn't your thing. Or my thing, either, lately. Don't tell anyone, but the truth is, I'm a little burned out on porn.

Surprise, Surprise, Part One

[wendelah1]

I reread "Half A World Away" just for this community, because I certainly wouldn't have done so on my own. Here is a little excerpt from a discussion from the first time around.

I couldn't even make myself finish it, I hated it so much. I like to think I have an open mind. Clearly, I am kidding myself. I just kept thinking, he killed your sister, you stupid fool. He tried to kill YOU. I don't think it is possible to write a Scully/Krycek story where she loves him and has SEX with him that I would believe, let alone enjoy. I guess everyone has some hard limits and this is mine. I do not care if he has hidden depths. He is slime.

I am taking deep breaths now and going to my happy place.

I think HAWA is one of the first stories I read back in the day, like maybe 2006, when my love for the show was still new and I was flush with both adoration of and over-identification with Dana Scully. I have read a lot more XF fic since that time, including some stories with Scully/Krycek that I loved. Still, no one is more surprised than I am how much I liked it this time around.

The set up for the story is a bit confusing for me, but briefly, Scully has been kidnapped and beaten up when Krycek rescues her. They go on a journey to escape recapture.

Abruptly, she demanded, "Why did you come for me?"

"Are you in love with Mulder?"

That stopped her. "I don't know," she said.

"Well neither do I."

We never do find out who these thugs are or why she was taken but we do find out eventually why Krycek rescued Scully.

Like all of the stories I love, "Half A World Away" is ultimately about transformation, and eventually about redemption, or at least partial redemption. In a way the story is reminiscent of another famous story that explores the same themes, but instead of Scrooge's Three Spirits, Scully is visited by a series of vivid dreams, dreams she discovers she is sharing with Krycek.

The dreams are all nightmares and they go from bad to worse. The first dream they share is about the time before Scully's abduction, back when he was still Mulder's partner, on the case that brought him into Mulder's orbit in Sleepless.

This was long ago and far away. Mulder was talking to a killer and he had nothing to defend himself but his own voice. Mulder was insane. She was his partner; she had to protect him.

This isn't even a stretch for Scully, is it? Been there and done that. Still, now she knows that back then Krycek was trying to save Mulder, not destroy evidence, whatever conclusion Mulder might have drawn in hindsight and even shared with Scully about the incident.

Krycek's second dream starts with being beaten up by Mulder in Hong Kong followed by his being possessed by the black oil, imprisoned and left to die in the missile silo in North Dakota by the Smoking Man.

Each dream is followed by more revelations about Krycek: that he killed five men to save her, that he didn't enjoy it, and of course, the major revelation: the loss of his arm. At first Scully doesn't know the how or why but then she has the dream about Tunguska, about the forest and the knives and the pain and suffering. Being forced into that kind of intimacy must have been a shock to someone as self-contained as Scully. In the aftermath of the dream, she reaches out to him tenderly, kissing his scars. The sex that follows is angry and brutal. Krycek doesn't just bring her to orgasm with his fingers, he fucks her. He is almost fisting her by the end, even drawing blood. If this isn't enough, he then has rough, if consensual, anal intercourse with her.

Why anal intercourse? Why from behind? I think Krycek wants it that way to restore the balance of power between them. She has just learned his deepest, darkest secret, something so intimate that I imagine he had never planned to share. Plus he's angry at her, at Mulder. He's lost so much, his position in the F.B.I., his partnership with Mulder, even his job as a consortium fall-guy. And if you think it about it through his eyes, it's all because of them. He did what he was told by leading Duane Barry to her, he got in over his head and his bosses yanked him out of what must have to him looked like a promising (if villainous) career path up the Syndicate ladder.

Surprise, Surprise, Part Two

[wendelah1]

The more complicated question for me is why Scully, as Khyber once eloquently phrased it, "gave up the ass" for Krycek. The credibility of the story kind of stands or falls on this point for me. Reading over the scenes leading up to it, I think it was just a series of steps, not one conscious decision she made. She began having the dreams, which made her more open to him, she was powerfully attracted to him, no doubt in part because of how much he reminded her of Mulder(well, physically at least.) She gets into a headspace, what I would describe even as an altered state, that just leads her to accede. Not unsurprisingly, the next dream she shares with him is one of his healing, following the amputation.

The story's emotional climax is the beautiful scene where they dance and kiss in the rainstorm. Everyone who loved HAWA knows the scene by heart, and anyway it was quoted by merrycaepa in the first comment. After that Krycek gets to feel what it was like being Scully, bound and gagged and in the trunk of her own car, being taken God only knows where by a madman. For further balance, St.Clair gives us the more tender sex scene, but while I didn't find it gratuitous, I didn't think it necessary.

The scene at the end where Mulder decides on very little evidence that Scully is dead does feel forced, like an afterthought or even an aborted sequel.

So why did Krycek rescue Scully? Okay, so we don't find out exactly why. My theory is that he did it for two reasons: first, he did it for Mulder, because he had taken Scully from him once before; second, he did it for her, to even the score. She had saved him once from Mulder's bullet. Now that he has saved her, order in the universe is restored.

"Run," she said. "You aren't forgiven yet."

Damn straight, that bastard did kill Melissa.

Re: Surprise, Surprise, Part Two

[estella-c.livejournal.com]

Wendy, thank you for taking us step-by-step through your appreciation. That was a lot of work. I agree with every point (and thought your Dickens reference was tres cool).

Except the final sex scene is, in my mind, very justified. It's just a bit over-extended.

Krycek is a continuing problem. There are some flippant and defiant stories about him as a sex object, lots and lots of slash, and a few somber and thoughtful things like HAWA. Not enough though. Yet he's too interesting a character to write off as Mr. Evil.

The show was at fault. Krycek was, as the episodes progressed and devolved, portrayed not just as ambivalent and mysterious but as a grumpy sidekick. Then they killed him off and brought him back as a semi-sympathetic ghost. Please, Mr. Carter, pick a pov! Nah, too much trouble. So we can't really love him or--as Wendy has discovered--really hate him either. That's a big emotional gap for any writer to cope with.

He did kill Melissa. But he was sorry.

[sangria-lila.livejournal.com]

The problem I had with this story wasn't so much the writing, which was good, but the fact that the Scully characterization felt so off to me. I can't imagine Scully letting Krycek get under her skin that quickly, or not doing everything in her power to get the hell away from him as quickly as possible, beat up or not. Also, she seems to forgive him for killing her sister awfully quickly. The Scully I've come to know from the show hates Krycek unequivocally, and I can't imagine her kissing the stump of his arm without first feeling satisfied that he went through lots of pain. Someone mentioned Stockholm Syndrome, and while I agree that this could be used to explain Scully's actions, I think we needed more to show the change from Scully hating Krycek to giving in to him, and for the record, I think it would take a lot for Scully to give in to Krycek.

[estella-c.livejournal.com]

The show certainly gave Scully reasons to hate Krycek, and most viewers share those reasons intensely.

I guess I'd just say that: give me a story this good and internally consistent and I'll take it over canon any day.

Plus, Scully mentions the word "compassion." Scully is compassionate. It is built into her religion (so often foolishly misreferenced in canon) and it is built into her character. I find it believable that she would feel it for Krycek, who is a tormented individual if ever there was one.

The fact that she had sex with him is symbolic, but not necessarily in the way that many would assume. People have sex for many reasons that have nothing to do with being in love.

Bad link

[bmerb.livejournal.com]

Sorry another one!

Re: Bad link

[wendelah1]

It's fixed. No need to apologize. I appreciate you letting me know.

It's amazing how many links have broken since the last time I checked them.

RE: Re: Bad link

[bmerb.livejournal.com]

Yeah I bet! Ive been zipping through and commenting on quite a few fics as I work my way through chronologically, and I'll be sure to let you know when I encounter broken links!

[bmerb.livejournal.com]

Also, what is dub-con?

Here you go:

[wendelah1]

https://www.quora.com/What-does-dub-con-mean

You could also look it up at Fanlore.