I quite like this story, even though I question Scully's characterization. Personally I don't think there was ever a time when Scully would have left the X-Files, but that's just me. Still, the premise of her leaving makes for an interesting "what if" story, and I think S6 is one of the most believable times for her to have left, since that season was to full of disillusionment and discontent.
What really makes China work for me, in that context, is the way the story comes together in bits and pieces. I especially like Punk's choice to use Richard's POV. It makes the entire thing feel very foreign, knowing that we're seeing everything through the eyes of someone who is on the outside, and who is only now coming to realize he's on the outside. I really love that it's fragmentary, but that each little scene feels so vivid. And even though we're seeing through Richard's eyes, the normality of it all is surreal, as it must be to Scully.
Everything is so benign: Richard and his family and his nice kitchen and his fresh produce and REM on the sound system and a barbeque in the yard. There in the center of that stands Scully, with lots of less-than-benign baggage packed into the small space she takes up.
As to Scully's characterization, I find her behavior after Mulder leaves interesting. It gives me questions about how she's changed in the year (approximately) since she quit the X-Files. She comes back to the table smiling and laughing and rolling her eyes, which is strange. I'm used to Scully putting on a stoic face, but not faking a happy face, which is apparently what she's doing now. I find it eerie to see Scully faking it so blatantly, but not entirely unbelievable that she would, in her situation. By sharing the story of the cockroaches, it's hard to tell whether she's attempting to integrate her past life with her present one, or whether it's more of an attempt to make light of her past life, dismiss it, by joking about it. In any event, her levity has a backlash, and it's maybe the most poignant moment of the fic when Jules jokingly accuses Scully of 'scarring Mulder for life' and Scully crumples in an instant.
In an above comment someone suggests that maybe Scully was taken, rather than that she left. I never saw that in the story before, but this time reading it I thought that was a possibility. I still lean towards the "she left" explanation, but either way there are questions - small loose threads the fic leaves, that lead up to the big unanswerable dead end of her absence.
Richard lights the patio candle with a book of matches but realizes he's never been to the hotel they came from. Why would Scully be going to a hotel? To meet Mulder? Skinner? An informant? Who knows.
Mulder says he 'had to see Scully' - had to. What does that mean? He had to because he misses her? Or he had to because he needs her to help him with something important? Or he literally had to because people are after her? If the latter, then maybe she really was taken from Richard's house.
Plus we already know that she is paranoid about being spied on, because she goes on cleaning fits, evidently searching for bugs.
Finally there's the phone left off the hook and the hand print in the dust next to it. Does that suggest she was taken and that she tried to call for help? Or just that she left it off the hook because she didn't want Richard to be able to call and realize she wasn't there?
Then again, when Richard comes home the doors are all locked, which tends to suggest Scully locked them when she left.
I definitely feel there is an underlying creepiness about this fic, and I'm not sure whether it's because Scully's character is in a dark place, or because of the little hints that something else is going on. But I like that it leaves me guessing. Much like Inventing the Mulders, I'd read more of China if Punk wrote more, but I'm also happy with the fic as is.
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What really makes China work for me, in that context, is the way the story comes together in bits and pieces. I especially like Punk's choice to use Richard's POV. It makes the entire thing feel very foreign, knowing that we're seeing everything through the eyes of someone who is on the outside, and who is only now coming to realize he's on the outside. I really love that it's fragmentary, but that each little scene feels so vivid. And even though we're seeing through Richard's eyes, the normality of it all is surreal, as it must be to Scully.
Everything is so benign: Richard and his family and his nice kitchen and his fresh produce and REM on the sound system and a barbeque in the yard. There in the center of that stands Scully, with lots of less-than-benign baggage packed into the small space she takes up.
As to Scully's characterization, I find her behavior after Mulder leaves interesting. It gives me questions about how she's changed in the year (approximately) since she quit the X-Files. She comes back to the table smiling and laughing and rolling her eyes, which is strange. I'm used to Scully putting on a stoic face, but not faking a happy face, which is apparently what she's doing now. I find it eerie to see Scully faking it so blatantly, but not entirely unbelievable that she would, in her situation. By sharing the story of the cockroaches, it's hard to tell whether she's attempting to integrate her past life with her present one, or whether it's more of an attempt to make light of her past life, dismiss it, by joking about it. In any event, her levity has a backlash, and it's maybe the most poignant moment of the fic when Jules jokingly accuses Scully of 'scarring Mulder for life' and Scully crumples in an instant.
In an above comment someone suggests that maybe Scully was taken, rather than that she left. I never saw that in the story before, but this time reading it I thought that was a possibility. I still lean towards the "she left" explanation, but either way there are questions - small loose threads the fic leaves, that lead up to the big unanswerable dead end of her absence.
Richard lights the patio candle with a book of matches but realizes he's never been to the hotel they came from. Why would Scully be going to a hotel? To meet Mulder? Skinner? An informant? Who knows.
Mulder says he 'had to see Scully' - had to. What does that mean? He had to because he misses her? Or he had to because he needs her to help him with something important? Or he literally had to because people are after her? If the latter, then maybe she really was taken from Richard's house.
Plus we already know that she is paranoid about being spied on, because she goes on cleaning fits, evidently searching for bugs.
Finally there's the phone left off the hook and the hand print in the dust next to it. Does that suggest she was taken and that she tried to call for help? Or just that she left it off the hook because she didn't want Richard to be able to call and realize she wasn't there?
Then again, when Richard comes home the doors are all locked, which tends to suggest Scully locked them when she left.
I definitely feel there is an underlying creepiness about this fic, and I'm not sure whether it's because Scully's character is in a dark place, or because of the little hints that something else is going on. But I like that it leaves me guessing. Much like Inventing the Mulders, I'd read more of China if Punk wrote more, but I'm also happy with the fic as is.