Story 153: "Octopods" by Penumbra

[amyhit.livejournal.com]

What better way to finish up a fic marathon than with snippets by JET (go check out Friday's fic) and Penumbra? Octopods is first. I remembered it from the short time it was up on Penumbra's now defunct website. She took it down ("I'm not sure how polished it is," she disclaims humbly) but has kindly agreed to let me post it to the book club for our exegetic purposes.

Title: Octopods
Author: Penumbra
Author's Notes: Because April is the cruelest month.

---

It was a mystifying case involving a countdown, accumulating bodies, and octopods rampaging like orcas to a swimming moose, a case that was complicated by a side bet with Violent Crime and compounded by an upper-echelon medical banquet (for Scully), and the possibility of impending cosmic disaster (for Mulder). Mulder left a hasty police station interrogation, driving with his hand in a bag of Cheetos and a file opened against the steering wheel, reading at stoplights. It was nearly midnight as he jogged up several flights at the Georgetown University Library, and began to troll the metrical meandering stacks.

When he saw her down an aisle he halted abruptly, for she was standing in a little black dress with a narrow bottle of wine at her feet and a stack of books opened one upon the other in her hands like flying birds.

He walked forward slowly, and he felt shaken by the inky dress, by the enchanting glyph of her breasts beneath the fabric, by her sugary white skin phosphorescing in the dusty light. Her lips were a gothic valentine and he felt as though he no longer knew her, if he had ever known her; she was devastating, unknowable.

He picked up the bottle and sighed, and she put her finger in the weary Windsor knot of his tie, uncinching, and as he drank they revolved in a circle, or a camera dollied around them, books moving by on the shelves, Scully's eyes and the wine so dry it was like swallowing velvet, like drinking that dress. And Mulder forgetting the chase and looking a long moment into her eyes, thinking: this is actually what it's all about. Dana Scully, or the truth. If indeed they are two separate things.
________________

There was something called octopods. Life was wonderful, life was beautiful while something called octopods potentially existed. He rolled down the window and patted the warm flank of the car. Like love, mysticism came in a series of revelations. It was partly octopods and it was partly the vastness of the universe.

"Octopods, Scully," he said. "There is, of course, a precedent for this."

"Oh, really."

"Spain, 1968," said Mulder. " A strange craft landed, and creatures emerged. The farmer described them as 'octopus-like' and 'thoroughly disgusting'."

"Have you noticed that it's always a farmer?" Scully asked. "I mean, is it something to do with being down on the farm that turns you into a UFO nut? Or could it be that farmers are simply more observant of the natural world?"

"Maybe UFOs just like a big landing strip," said Mulder. "Those octopods like the wide open spaces. You can't fence 'em in."

"It's not octopods, Mulder," said Scully decidedly.

---



And because I didn't remember Octopods was quite such a tiny little snippet, I felt perhaps two such snippets were in order, so there's also a second, if you choose to partake, about which the author says:

Probably 'R' rated. In the good old days, we called this a smut biscuit. And because I insist on continuing to foster bad XF ff cliches, we'll call this one:

Going Down

Comments

[enj412.livejournal.com]

Those were amazing! Thanks for sharing them. I had never read either of them. Penumbra is a genius. I really, really loved the first part of Octopods. It has such a dreamy quality about it. And Going Down is ultra hot without being overtly hot- which is a difficult thing to do. I thoroughly enjoyed these. Thanks!

[luffing.livejournal.com]

Ooooo, previously-unread Penumbra. Thanks!

She continues to be, far and away, my favourite author. Layers upon layers.

[write-out.livejournal.com]

This was my first time reading "Octopods" too and I love it. LOVE it. Love Mulder and how he sees the world.

My favorite lines:

And Mulder forgetting the chase and looking a long moment into her eyes, thinking: this is actually what it's all about. Dana Scully, or the truth. If indeed they are two separate things.

There was something called octopods. Life was wonderful, life was beautiful while something called octopods potentially existed. He rolled down the window and patted the warm flank of the car. Like love, mysticism came in a series of revelations. It was partly octopods and it was partly the vastness of the universe.

I love this Mulder, so wide open.

"Going Down" is not new to me, but it's been a while since I've read it. Another wonderful little snapshot that says a lot without actually saying a lot.

Thanks for sharing these! "Contact High" is my favorite piece of fanfic, so to read something new (to me) by Penumbra is definitely a treat.

Also, I've really sucked at commenting on the last few picks, but I have read them. This run of short stories has been so great and I've enjoyed them and the comments a lot. Not to gush, but damn, it makes me super happy how there is still so much love for this show and these characters. To the mods- good job on choosing the stories!

[wendelah1]

Not to gush, but damn, it makes me super happy how there is still so much love for this show and these characters. To the mods- good job on choosing the stories!

All credit for the selection and the order goes to amyhit.

It makes me happy, too.

[amyhit.livejournal.com]

I agree with your favorite lines, write_out, though I love the entire thing so much it's verging on impossible to draw arbitrary lines through it and say, "here to here is where it's best". But there's no one else who writes What It's All About like Penumbra does, and those lines are such a wonderful example of that. Plus they capture what it is that makes Mulder wonderful and they do it more intelligently and more honestly and more openly than just about all other fics. I often feel like Mulder can be a selfish jerk, but I always want to give him the benefit of the doubt, because this is who he is, really, this man who knows that life is beautiful because it contains octopods and Dana Scully.

I wanted this to be the last short fic we read in the marathon because it's so definitive. It sums up so much in such a natural way. It zips between these very Tao/Zen/self-actualizing altitudes, to the exqusite sumptuousness of them in their formal wear, and Mulder just awestruck with Scully love, and then to them as we've always known them best, doing what they do, disagreeing over the nature of a phenomenon, living their lives.

Not to gush, but damn, it makes me super happy how there is still so much love for this show and these characters. To the mods- good job on choosing the stories!

Thanks! And it makes me happy too. Every time someone materializes out of the ether I'm happy all over again, like, "They love it too! they love it too!"

[write-out.livejournal.com]

I wanted this to be the last short fic we read in the marathon because it's so definitive. It sums up so much in such a natural way. It zips between these very Tao/Zen/self-actualizing altitudes, to the exqusite sumptuousness of them in their formal wear, and Mulder just awestruck with Scully love, and then to them as we've always known them best, doing what they do, disagreeing over the nature of a phenomenon, living their lives.

THIS. Sums it up perfectly.

[lolabeegood.livejournal.com]

it was my first time reading either of these stories and I absolutely loved both of them. esp liked the visual of scully in the library in a little black dress with books opened like fluttering birds. beautiful.

[zinnia03.livejournal.com]

When I read a Penumbra story, I can only gawp and say inarticulately, "she has such a way with words."

I'm so very happy to be introduced to two stories I hadn't read before.

[estella-c.livejournal.com]

Penumbra is one of my favorite writers, so it goes without saying that anything she posts is required reading. And everything, everything she posts is dotted with lovely images and quotable lines.

I *loved* "Octopods;" the lightness of the partner-spat combined with the lyricism of Mulder's happiness, as he appreciates the sexually powerful woman he has been given to spat with, is irresistible.

There are times, however, when the ruling tone of a Penumbra fic gets a bit out of control. "Going Down" is sexy enough, God knows the *situation* is erotic, but I found the treatment needlessly precious. "She roughed him up with a glower, chipping at the floor, her phosphene skin sharply contrasting with her rain-stamped hair." Really? How will they ever get through the verbiage required by coitus? Closely followed by, "She telegraphed a yen to settle his hash...." Full disclosure: I hate the word yen. Others may not object so strongly. But didn't the "phosphene" reference appear earlier in "Octopods?"

There's no question that Penumbra has a way with words. We might even call her a word-whisperer. I sometimes think, though, that she lets them run wild when they might perform better if firmly disciplined and separated into cages until they can play nice.

[wendelah1]

The conversation part of Octopods was delightful. I really could see Mulder rolling down the window and patting his car's flanks, like it was a horse. (!) I could feel his happiness and hear Scully's counterarguments.

Like love, mysticism came in a series of revelations. It was partly octopods and it was partly the vastness of the universe.

That's genius.

[wendelah1]

I liked the lines about the Japanese maples in "Going Down."

Behind Scully's closed eyes she saw the Japanese maple that lived along a sidewalk near her favorite supermarket. She liked things that never changed - places where there was just a mossy scrap of sidewalk and a tree that was always the same, every time she passed. She liked that you could rely on that.

"She liked things that never changed." That sounds like Scully to me.

I thought the little bit of dialogue at the end was cute, too.