Story 93: "Moment of Inertia" by Pteropod

[wendelah1]

It's been a long time since my last entry here, for which I apologize. I've been very preoccupied with the impending closure of Geocities fan sites. In any case, this week's story was nominated by amyhit. For those readers who are utterly uninterested in season 8 fic and wish we would just get on with it already, that's okay. Just nominate something else and we'll move on, I promise.

"Pteropod's might be the best if you're looking for fics that get into the nitty gritty dynamic of S8 in terms of Doggett's presence and how that stirs things up," was amyhit's terse yet intriguing description of the fic. That sounds good to me, so let's go read it, shall we?

She is alive, fecund, fertile as springtime and burgeoning
with life, a miracle mother-goddess with baby-soft skin and
hair that needs cutting every three weeks. She waxes rotund
with life but the watering can sits empty under the sink,
halfway hidden behind the dish soap and a box of Brillo pads.
She watches her plants die, day after day, and sleeps on the
sofa more nights than not.

- - -

He reads through the X-Files in a weekend, and finds them
full of bullshit, absurdity, brilliance, and death.

He feels entitled at first, reading files about garbage
monsters and brain-sucking teenagers as if they were written
just for his entertained eyes. The cases are ridiculous,
impossible, documented in ass-covering reports with words
like 'allegedly' and 'postulate'.

He reads file after file without connecting them to his
world, and then he reads about Dana Scully getting shot in
the gut by Special Agent Peyton Ritter.

He drops his head to his hands and thinks that she'll want a
new partner no more than she wanted to lose the old one.


"Moment of Inertia"

Here is her site, way-backed: Pteropod's X-Files Website. Since this story is not at Gossamer, I'll archive it myself at Fugues Fiction Archive, where Fox Estacado has made me a co-maintainer, as soon as I can figure out how to work the interface.

Give feedback to the author, if you can find her, that is, then let us know what you think.

Comments

[wendelah1]

Why are you embarrassed? You nominated Pteropod's fic before you had even read "Yellow Balloon." I love the little excerpt I posted. You have excellent taste and I'm sure the story is good.

I think there is a lot more of season 8 fic to cover but it might just be you and me doing the reading. People like the AUs better, which is understandable, but I don't feel they quite get to the heart of the problem, although they do make me feel better. I was thinking about posting one of Prufrocks' season 8 AUs, maybe "The Thirteenth Sign," or "Inventing the Mulders," both of which I already have posted somewhere in case she lets her site go down. (shhh...don't tell)

I just finished a season 8 story by Marguerite, "How Glory Goes" that I ended up disliking intensely by the end. It was positively painful to read because it felt so voyeuristic and intrusive in its handling of Scully's grief after Mulder's death. I felt like the author was just wallowing in it. Ugh. Plus the whole Skinner is in love with Scully theme is nearly always an annoyance to me. Do we always have to approach characters that way? Is there no way to write adult relationships in fandom that doesn't involve bringing love and/or sex into the mix? What about portraying friendship and respect for a fellow agent, or how about empathy for another human being? Oh well. Rant over.

I'm going to read this fic, then all of the other little fics you recced and maybe post mini-comment reviews here.

*sigh* the only thing more neglected than S8 fic is S9 fic. not that i'm not a major neglecter myself.

Except for post-eps for William, which sometimes seems like the only episode people watched that season. I've never seen it; in fact, I've avoided watching most of season nine.

[bardsmaid.livejournal.com]

Do we always have to approach characters that way? Is there no way to write adult relationships in fandom that doesn't involve bringing love and/or sex into the mix? What about portraying friendship and respect for a fellow agent, or how about empathy for another human being? Oh well. Rant over.

Well, for my money you can keep on ranting, because IMO there's not nearly enough recognition of this point. The fact that fic nearly always veers to sex/romance is the reason I read so little of it. Human lives--including those of well--rounded fictitious characters--contain many beautiful facets, not all of which are centered around the aforesaid focuses. What a pity to put on blinders and neglect all those other gems.

As for Pteropod, she writes beautifully. And like Zuffy and Littljoe, she was another denizen of the Cave. Seeing this rec has made me all nostalgic.

[wendelah1]

Well, for my money you can keep on ranting, because IMO there's not nearly enough recognition of this point. The fact that fic nearly always veers to sex/romance is the reason I read so little of it. Human lives--including those of well--rounded fictitious characters--contain many beautiful facets, not all of which are centered around the aforesaid focuses. What a pity to put on blinders and neglect all those other gems.

It is a pity. There just is never enough gen fic in fandom. But people write what they like to read. I'm just burned out on it myself. I'm like the movie reviewer who's seen too many movies. Sometimes I worry that I can't give romance, whether it's het or slash, a fair reading anymore.

[amyhit.livejournal.com]

Well, for my money you can keep on ranting

yes, rant away. i do like the presence of attraction and/or sexual love in a story, but it's a shame that any fic which doesn't cater directly to this aspect often seems to be fighting an uphill battle to find an audience at all.

Plus the whole Skinner is in love with Scully theme is nearly always an annoyance to me.

for me i think it all comes down to the complexity of the way it's being portrayed. it's not so much the over abundance of sex and romanticism that is annoying, but the tendency for people to act as though a feeling is only the one thing: Love, Desire, like saying 'apple' or 'banana'. i can certainly believe that skinner may be attracted to scully as a physically attractive female with admirable qualities, and even that he may be jealous of mulder and scully for have such an intimate and enduring relationship with each other (who wouldn't be jealous of that?) - but to slap a stamp on an entire situation and call it nothing but a one word emotion is kind of silly and cheep, and i see a lot of that happening in fanfic. i haven't read that marguerite fic (yet) though, so i'm not talking about it directly.

As for Pteropod, she writes beautifully.

she was one of the first fic writers whose work i read in this fandom, and Atomic Split is still, i think, my favorite Post Orison fic. the fact that I adored last weeks fic so much doesn't change how lovely Pteropod's fic is. i regret making it sound that way.

is she a Yes Virginian? i used to have a list of YV's noted for myself, because on the whole their fics are so dynamite, but i've lost the list.