Story 163: "China" by Punk Maneuverability

[amyhit.livejournal.com]

Punk Maneuverability is one of the X-Files fandom's long-time authors. A quick scroll of her Gossamer page tells me she did most of her writing for this fandom in 1997, but she continued to write XF fic for close to a decade. China, posted in 2006, is one of the last XF fics she's posted to date.

It's a short AU in which Scully has made a drastic change in her life, one that has left both she and Mulder's lives torn asunder. I don't want to say too much more about the plot, because part of what makes this fic intriguing is the way the reader doesn't immediately know exactly what's going on. I picked this fic because, though they are very different fics, the central tension of China is very similar to that of last week's rec: Scully's discontent and her desire for a "normal life".

China by Punk M

You can also find the author at runpunkrun, and you can find our recommendation page over here.

Comments

[zinnia03.livejournal.com]

After reading it, I'm still not sure I know what's going on, but in a good way. The story raises more questions than it answers.

And the end? My first thought was that Scully had been taken. She hadn't just "disappeared". That maybe Mulder had come to warn her, not to ask her to come back. It seems like it could go either way.

infinitelight said: I cannot see her making the move she does at the end of the story. We've seen her be withdrawn emotionally; we've seen her have difficulty expressing herself. We've never seen her chicken out of a difficult confrontation, no matter how hard she may find it.

That's what makes me think she may have gone unwillingly, or perhaps expected to be back before Richard got home. But she's obviously changed since being in the FBI; it sounds like she has lots of fights with Richard:

We were fighting about our upcoming vacation when the doorbell rang.

It was one of the more pointless fights we'd had, but I was determined to at least make it a memorable one.

It seemed like Mulder went out of his way to be personable in the story. He charmed Jules and Mark, and was pleasant to Richard. Richard expects some posturing, and comments that he didn't get the macho grip from Mulder that he expected. Scully is the one who appears completely unreasonable. And, as if she realizes that Mulder made a good impression, she tells a story that puts him in a bad light. As if she's trying to convince herself that she made the right decision.

It is an interesting character study and as Punk says, the ending is one way it could have gone. I do wish there was a bit more of it.