Story 86: "Al Dente" by Spooky247

[wendelah1]

It has been suggested that perhaps we need a break from angst, so the planned Tesla three-parter has been postponed that we may clear our heads. We can tackle it next week. This week I bring you Pasta!fic. The author says it's babyfic written to sounds of the Breeders' "Last Splash." I have no idea what that means but if estella_c thinks it's worth reading, that's good enough for me.

"Al Dente"

That link is "reocitied" now; if it goes down, let me know. Or you can find it at Gossamer.


Read, give feedback to the author, encourage her to move her site, give us suggestions for next time. Did I leave anything out? Oh, that's right. Was it good for you, too?

If you just have to have something else to read, try "Kinesthesia". It, of course, is not on her author's page, it's misfiled under Amy, her real name (or is that another fandom name?). Whatever. Gossamer works well until it just doesn't. It's a casefile, NC-17. Yes, of course, I'd like to know how you liked that one, too. Enjoy!

Comments

[leucocrystal]

Ooh, I'll have to check these two out! I only have one story of this author's bookmarked ("Grave Goods"), but I really enjoyed that one, so I'm intrigued.

[mosinging1986.livejournal.com]

Oh, this story brings back memories! I love it because it is a more realistic picture of Life With Baby than you normally see. Too bad CC & Co. didn't think ahead to this reality when they wrote a baby into canon. I mean really, what audience wants to see (and hear) an hour's worth of an infant shrieking? Because that's what reality would've been.

It's hard to maintain the M&S I know in a situation like this, but this story manages to do it.

And it reminds me why I don't have kids, LOL! Oy, I could not handle that screaming. It was hard enough reading about it!

[sixpences.livejournal.com]

I really enjoyed this one: it's very well titled, delicious yet a little chewy. While the take on the S7 relationship isn't one I share it feeds well into the weird M&S dynamic of late S8, which again is brought out in the story. It probably says a lot about babyfic that I love this for not portraying life-with-baby as full of magical unicorn sparkles, in that Will is both adorable and a maddening little sod, and that his presence doesn't magically transform Mulder and Scully into mush-brained pod people (unlike in canon, ahem) with the perfectest relationship that ever was perfect.

I also really liked the description of the cooking. I just graduated from university so I am very familiar with the cooking of pasta, and this really felt the way a kitchen does when it's filling up with steam (though Scully is clearly an inexperienced cook for not starting off the water in the kettle... much easier).

I read Kinesthesia a while back and really enjoyed that one too; it's a bit silly but it's certainly an original casefile and was a good read, though I got a bit confused over which original character was which and who was related to whom once or twice. Very hot sex too, if I remember correctly.

[estella-c.livejournal.com]

This fic is just as charming as I remembered. Mulder and Scully (and Will, of course, no matter how heartlessly CC dealt with him) trying to be normal in an abnormal, interplanetary-war-shadowed universe. Hey, if Chris Carter can ignore an innocent little human baby, ficcers can ignore the end of the world.

Mulder and Scully are having relationship difficulties because they don't communicate, which is not only quite canon-compliant but also something a *lot* of readers can relate to. Will is causing so much anxiety that he really might as well have alien DNA, but it amuses me that he calms down just as his frantic parents work through to an understanding. Maybe he has inherited a little of his mom's shining, or maybe he's just...normal.

Scully working out anger and feeling power by chopping eggplant is so real. Been there, done that.

Pacquin wrote a story called "Up All Night," the idea being that aliens would never kidnap Will because they couldn't cope with human child-rearing. It's not as ambitious as this one, but it's cute.