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

[amyhit.livejournal.com]

I went and found where Punk had posted China on her LJ, to see if she said anything revealing about it in the comments. She did say a couple of things, though not overly revealing. In case anyone else is curious I'm going to post those bits below. If you don't want to know, or just don't care, don't read on.


"The last scene is the part I slapped on. I honestly don't remember where I was going with this. I remember a vague plan to have Richard call her from work and her not being there. I don't know if she was going to leave or not, or if she was going to say goodbye if she did. I just had to put some kind of closure on it though, otherwise we would have ended with Richard feeling sulky about the fruit shopping. *g*"

"At the most, Scully might have told Richard that Mulder needed her for a case or was trying to get her to come back to the FBI. The reader probably wasn't going to know any more than that because we can guess, not the specifics, but we could easily come up with a reason or two (He needs her for a case!/He can't live without her!/He loves her!), and then choose our favorite."