xf_book_club | Story 164: "Human Credentials" by Scarlet Baldy

Recently, while reading Human Credentials for the first time, I had such a strong desire to discuss it that I knew immediately I was going to post it here at some point. Then, while going through our recs page, I was pleased to find it had already been recced quite some time ago by

tiger_bay.

Human Credentials picks up after FTF, in an AU season 6, when a mysterious lead prompts Mulder, Scully, and Diana to set out on an adventure that will challenge their humanity and take them to the ends of the earth, possibly in more ways than one. The fact that this fic is over 400K tends to suggest it's a story with a fair amount going on. That's an understatement. There's not a lot that isn't going on in Human Credentials. It incorporates the mytharc in a way that makes a powerful and surprising amount of sense, and it makes excellent use of nearly every major secondary character from the show, as well as bringing in at least one intriguing original character. On top of that, it has the kind of dark, controversial Mulder and Scully characterizations that are sure to spark discussion. And there's a fair amount of hot sex too.

Human Credentials

A Few Specifications and Caveats:

Regarding Diana Fowley: Her role is mainly in the first third of the fic, so if you aren't a fan of her character and you just can't see yourself making it through 400K of her presence, don't write this fic off! Human Credentials does give Diana her due, but it's still very much Mulder and Scully's show.

Regarding the sequel: There is one, and it's called Lendemains. It's an unfinished WIP, and it was written about a decade after Human Credentials. You may discuss it in the comments if you want to, but the 'official' rec is Human Credentials only. It's just easier that way.

Regarding our schedule: Because this fic is so long, we might spend more time on it than usual. If discussion is still going on after seven or eight days, or if people start posting saying they fully intend to comment but they need a little more time, then

wendelah1 and I will hold off on posting a new fic for a few more days.

Regarding the content warnings: Heed them. Characters do some very troubling things in this fic. Things that will make excellent points for discussion, I think, but I don't want anyone getting blindsided.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Okay, why is it so much easier to criticize articulately than to praise articulately? Why do I like HC? For all the reasons I said in the main post:

It has a fantastic plot. I think this is by far HC's best quality. What it does with the mytharc is just fantastic. Multiple alien colonizations over hundreds of millions of years! A really awesome explanation for the black oil! (it's actually oil!) Aliens triggering human evolution in order to use our bodies as hosts! Except for the part where we're all screwed because really they only want more evolved individuals like Gibson Praise! (we actually get an explanation for Gibson Praise!) Sure there are many loose ends HC doesn't incorporate or clear up, but that's because the mytharc was a huge mess that never had any real consistency or continuity. CC just threw out plot twists like spaghetti at a wall and saw what stuck. HC manages to grab onto a few of the most interesting and important elements of the mytharc and piece them together into something that A. makes a lot of sense, and B. is REALLY SCARY. Which is another item at the top of my list of Things I Love About This Fic: it's genuinely horrific. It kind of crept up on me - something's not right, something's really not right - and then the scene in the oil reservoir revealed so much more, and humanity was suddenly so much more fucked, than I was anticipating. And the great things is, I actually believe it - unlike on the show, where I was most often incredulous and underwhelmed by developments in the mytharc.

Another thing I really love is that in HC the mytharc has a more organic feel to it. The focus isn't on high alien technology, it's on something pervasive and primordial. That's a big part of what makes it believable: we're not doomed because the grey's are going to come and slice our high rises in half with laser beams. We're doomed because, essentially, they're infinitely more virulent than we are. I mean, does it get creepier than the thought that Darwinism has been engineered to lead us to enslavement and slaughter? That every human alive is an instrument of their own defeat?

It uses the secondary characters very well, but it's still all about Mulder and Scully. Any fic that delivers TLG, Krycek, Marita, Skinner, and a really interesting original character, and actually gives them interesting things to do - without taking my attention away from Mulder and Scully - earns major point in my book. Just because all secondary characters are essentially tools working for or against Mulder and Scully, doesn't mean they have to be poorly written. They can be people while they're being tools. (Oh, is that insensitive? *g*)

Yes, I left Diana out of that list of characters. I admit, the thought of she and Mulder together makes me gnash my teeth. But aside from that, I don't think HC handled her character all that well. More than ever, she seemed like a plot device to stir up trouble between Mulder and Scully. And I don't like the amount of cattiness between she and Scully. Rather than validating Diana's character, it just seemed to drag Scully down with her to see who could out-bitch who. Plus, as happy as I was that her role was mainly restricted to the first part of HC, it felt quite lopsided that she played such a large role in the beginning, and no role in later chapters. It made me wonder if perhaps Scarlet originally planned to involve Diana more, but got sick of working her in during the first part and just decided to write her out.

There's a fair amount of hot sex. As terrible as this sounds, when Mulder and Scully are characterized the way they are in HC, as people who spend a lot of time hurt and angry with each other, it's kind of vital that they also be screwing a lot, and that the sex is hot. Because it's basically the only way the reader has of gauging that when push comes to shove, Mulder and Scully are still a united front. True, it's dysfunctional, but there's just something deliciously cathartic about two people who can be furious with each other and still want to fuck each other.

1. It does have a fantastic plot, one of the best ever conceived in this fandom. That HC was her first posted fic is pretty amazing. She does far more with the myth-arc than 1013 ever managed. I mean, does it get creepier than the thought that Darwinism has been engineered to lead us to enslavement and slaughter? That every human alive is an instrument of their own defeat? No, it doesn't. I don't know why TPTB didn't stick to that concept, why they thought they had to come up with anything else. The show should have ended with Requiem, followed by a movie in which Scully rescues Mulder and saves the world. Okay, Scully rescues Mulder and together they save the world.

2. I like her use of secondary characters, too. I like her Diana much better than I like her Scully, actually. Her Diana seems pretty grounded in canon, and I guess canon matters in a story like this for me. Her sympathetic portrayal of an unfairly reviled character is probably my favorite part of HC, apart from the brilliant plot. This shipper argument that Diana was a plot device simply doesn't make sense to me. Come on. Everything that happens is a plot device! So she was introduced to make trouble between Mulder and Scully! It worked, it made for some incredible television, and it gave us some fascinating Mulder back-story! We are never going to agree on this point, so I'll move on.

3. I don't find the sex in this fic all that hot, which considering my propensity for doomed ships is surprising. But as we've established, that's a matter of taste. I think it's the language, more than the setting or character motivation, that's throwing me out of the scenes. Again, what one likes in a sex scene, more than anything else, is personal.

I just wish Diana hadn't been portrayed by Mimi Rogers. But I did try to give her a fair deal in this story. She was supposed to come back later on. But it didn't happen.

I don't find the sex in this fic all that hot,

*laugh* Actually me neither. I hate writing smut. It's the most tedious thing to write.

Story 164: "Human Credentials" by Scarlet Baldy

Okay, now the positive stuff, mostly.

Re: Okay, now the positive stuff, mostly.

Re: Okay, now the positive stuff, mostly.