Story 114: "Blue Patches" by Maybe Amanda

[wendelah1]

There is still time to go read and comment on "Fathoms Five."

"Blue Patches" is a post-Requiem short story, a vignette, really, so I hesitate to say much about it for fear of giving away the entire plot. Her summary: Mulder, returned. Thanks again to lurker "Tiger Janet" for the nomination. I like how it creates a mood of tension and uncertainty, and sustains it all the way to the ending.

Please give feedback to the author, and then let us know how you liked the story. Suggestions for next time can be made at the nomination post.

"Blue Patches"

Or read it at her Author's Page at Gossamer.

Comments

[bachlava.livejournal.com]

I quite liked this fic; I don't think I'd read it before. I usually ignore anything remotely dealing with the "Requiem" arc, but I loved how this worked through the day-to-day recovery. Avoiding procedural details - what happened? when? how? - was, I think, an excellent choice on the author's part. Those really tend to jar in an emotion-driven, vignette-like piece. We know that Mulder was gone, it was awful for them both, and now he's back and they're muddling through; anything beyond that would be a distraction. It's good to leave some mystery around it.

The emphasis on small details, both by the author and within Mulder's frame of reference, was also effective for me in terms of the poignancy. Mulder and Scully in one sense seem very much themselves: he wants answers, answers, answers, to know and understand everything; she's more pragmatic, focused on dealing with the situation at hand. It's obvious that they've both been profoundly affected, but they haven't gotten personality transplants: it really is them, still soldiering on as best they can.

Plus, plums and sex? ...Okay, okay, no wonder I loved it.

[hlbr.livejournal.com]

What astounded me was how Maybe Amanda introduced the concept of he not feeling Scully was Scully--so subtly, that I only realized in the end that, though Mulder had been named--Scully hadn't, until "He was telling the truth now, so he couldn't look at her, whoever she was, couldn't call her 'Scully', though he knew he was supposed to."

His whole detachment with the present is subtly presented--though it marks stuff like "She smiled, sounded relieved." She sounded so--not was so. It created, for me, an uneasy sort of feeling, even though I didn't realize 'til the end that he was doubting his surroundings and why.

It's a very cool story--if somewhat uncomfortable and sad. (Also, there's hope by the end and that makes it (almost) OK.)

eta: deleted and reposted for html tag fail.

[maybe-amanda.livejournal.com]

Find the ugliest sentence ever written and win a prize!

No wait, don't.

A

[wendelah1]

You're welcome! (pets)

Hey, while you are here, go say something scintillating about "Fathoms Five."

[estella-c.livejournal.com]

This is a very intense small vignette, without any noticeably ugly sentences. Mulder is disoriented. We sympathize.

But I think what makes it memorable is the possibility that--Mulder is right! Maybe he isn't back. Maybe he is in a hallucinatory captivity. Maybe Scully is part of the hallucination. Or maybe she is in collusion with his captors, which is why she doesn't want him to think. Maybe she loves him. Maybe she just feels sorry for him. Maybe they were plums or maybe they were peaches. Maybe someone is watching!

This is paranoia talk. But we know, and God knows that Mulder knows, that paranoids have enemies. (They *make* enemies; think about it.)

Of course there are any number of lines that cast my theory into doubt, but the ambiguity runs right through. And I love that. It gives the story a sinister shine, a kind of oily iridescence, that makes it hard to wash out of your mind.

Since MaybeAmanda is around somewhere, she can tell me how wrong I am. But I like my notion and I like "Blue Patches" for its edgy tone. "How could she do that, threaten with no shift of expression, promise with no change of inflection."

And where are the Gunmen? Really?

[wendelah1]

But I think what makes it memorable is the possibility that--Mulder is right! Maybe he isn't back. Maybe he is in a hallucinatory captivity. Maybe Scully is part of the hallucination. Or maybe she is in collusion with his captors, which is why she doesn't want him to think. Maybe she loves him. Maybe she just feels sorry for him. Maybe they were plums or maybe they were peaches. Maybe someone is watching!

This was my theory, too. Thank God! I was beginning to think I was making it up in my head, this sense of uneasiness that reading this piece gives me. It's a little puzzle that isn't meant to be solved. For me, even the last line, which if the speaker is Scully is heart-breaking, isn't enough to convince me beyond a shadow of a doubt that Mulder isn't right. Maybe he is trapped somewhere.

What is even sadder is that he is trapped either way. This is a special X-Files edition of No Exit. Even if he is home, he'll never be home. This isn't the kind of amnesia that goes away. Maybe it wasn't intentional, or maybe it was; either way, this is a mind-wipe, with a freebie thrown in to correct his color-blindness, courtesy of whoever took him. Frankly, the possibility of him still being in captivity is more hopeful, because then at least he might be able to escape. This is a symptom of a type of brain injury, the name of which is escaping me at the moment.

[estella-c.livejournal.com]

There's an older story "Blue Patches" reminded me of, and of course I haven't a clue. Mulder and Scully are having a quiet recreational evening playing...chess? And suddenly there's a fire in the fireplace and Scully is secretly telling someone that it's a mistake. The whole scene is a set-up. But then there's kind of a happy ending.

Can someone remember? Or must I go and pester elsewhere?

[estella-c.livejournal.com]

Answering myself. It's "No Place like Home" by Barbara D. And it was parcheesi.

[bachlava.livejournal.com]

I will admit to a certain level of willful blindness to the less sunny possibilities of this fic. I like that they're in it, but - and this is from someone who's not a fan of ultra-happy fic - at a certain point, I will sort of cover my ears and go, "LA LA, Mulder's back and he's fine and I CAN'T HEAR YOU!" It's much more enjoyable with fic than with canon. ;)

[wendelah1]

It's much more enjoyable with fic than with canon. ;)

That's what fic is for. The worse the canon is in this series, the better the fic. I should elaborate, but I have to get up at 5:00 am.

That's probably true for most series, but it seems especially relevant for TXF, probably because canon goes so far off the rails from Requiem on.

[heartequals.livejournal.com]

Maybe they were plums or maybe they were peaches.

All of a sudden my heart is broken for him. Even as I was cooing for Scully's attempt's at making him feel at home, there was this underlying uneasiness in the fic that I was unnerved by. I ended up as disoriented by Mulder in the end. You explain it so perfectly.

[bmerb.livejournal.com]

Oh man I love this one. So unsettling, so unnerving, so sad. Honestly I never read it as anything BUT Mulder stuck in a headfuck situation, which is tragic enough. Rereading it with the thought that perhaps he really is back home and she really is scully, gah that's even more tragic, a la Night Giving Off Flames. So if course I love it. Love the mind screw over the peaches and plums, the perfect shoelace that she just happened to be carrying... and of course the quilt. I suppose aliens might restore color vision somehow but being as it's a genetic condition not the result of damage, I read it as more likely to be an error in the matrix (if you will). Anyway I see the author commented all those years ago when this was posted, would have loved to hear her thoughts!