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xf_book_club2011-09-21 04:24 pm
amyhit.livejournal.com) wrote in xf_book_club2011-09-21 04:24 pm
Entry tags:
- au,
- msr,
- post episode,
- r,
- season 7
Story 181: "The Waterskiers" by Khyber
Well everyone (I'm not sure how numerous you are at the moment, but I'm going to be bold and say 'everyone'), we've reached the end of the road - the point where the narrative pavement turns to gravel turns to a beaten dirt path trailing off narrowly into the uncharted wilds of the great and sometimes terrible WIP territory.
By waybacking Khyber's website we get what seem to be conflicting accounts of what the future of KvsS7 was to be. In early 2008 there were five fics meant to follow "The Waterskiers," three of which were to be "full episodes" and two were to be vignettes (as seen here). This outline complies with Khyber's notes for "Amnesia" which he judged to be the "late beginning/early middle" of the story. Yet by late 2009 the titles of four of these five fics had vanished, and only the one titled "Parabola" remained. It was initially indicated to be planned as a vignette, but later seemed intended to have been a full episode.
In summary, the fate of the KvsS7 universe remains largely a mystery, and anyone participating in the comments thread should feel free to speculate on the future of the story, as well as share their thoughts about the fic itself.
TITLE: The Waterskiers (Mod note: You may have to c/p the URL, or find the fic on Gossamer.)
AUTHOR: Khyber
E-MAIL: khyber@khyberfic.net
DISTRIBUTION: Ephemeral, Gossamer, please ask for anywhere else.
RATING: R for mature content.
CATEGORIES: XR KEYWORDS: Withheld.
SPOILERS: Pbbblffft.
SUMMARY: Missing scenes... okay, a LOT of missing scenes... from "Hollywood AD."
Author's Notes: This story is part of "Khyber Versus Season Seven" and takes place during "Hollywood AD," specifically, following the end of the famous bathtub scene. The rest of the episode takes place a week or more after the end of this story.
Remember that the premiere of "The Lazarus Bowl," according to the episode, is "eighteen months later," sometime in late 2001.
Sadly the summer is over. That does, however, mean a return to something resembling a normal posting schedule at some point in the near future. Remember the old days (July) when a new week meant changing up the plot, style, and characterizations with an all new fic? Well those days are returning along with coats and scarves, so if you have any suggestions for fics you'd like to read this fall the recommendations page is always open.
By waybacking Khyber's website we get what seem to be conflicting accounts of what the future of KvsS7 was to be. In early 2008 there were five fics meant to follow "The Waterskiers," three of which were to be "full episodes" and two were to be vignettes (as seen here). This outline complies with Khyber's notes for "Amnesia" which he judged to be the "late beginning/early middle" of the story. Yet by late 2009 the titles of four of these five fics had vanished, and only the one titled "Parabola" remained. It was initially indicated to be planned as a vignette, but later seemed intended to have been a full episode.
In summary, the fate of the KvsS7 universe remains largely a mystery, and anyone participating in the comments thread should feel free to speculate on the future of the story, as well as share their thoughts about the fic itself.
TITLE: The Waterskiers (Mod note: You may have to c/p the URL, or find the fic on Gossamer.)
AUTHOR: Khyber
E-MAIL: khyber@khyberfic.net
DISTRIBUTION: Ephemeral, Gossamer, please ask for anywhere else.
RATING: R for mature content.
CATEGORIES: XR KEYWORDS: Withheld.
SPOILERS: Pbbblffft.
SUMMARY: Missing scenes... okay, a LOT of missing scenes... from "Hollywood AD."
Author's Notes: This story is part of "Khyber Versus Season Seven" and takes place during "Hollywood AD," specifically, following the end of the famous bathtub scene. The rest of the episode takes place a week or more after the end of this story.
Remember that the premiere of "The Lazarus Bowl," according to the episode, is "eighteen months later," sometime in late 2001.
Sadly the summer is over. That does, however, mean a return to something resembling a normal posting schedule at some point in the near future. Remember the old days (July) when a new week meant changing up the plot, style, and characterizations with an all new fic? Well those days are returning along with coats and scarves, so if you have any suggestions for fics you'd like to read this fall the recommendations page is always open.
ohai (2)
Yes, Scully is being difficult about the ship and getting a rough ride of it. Scully's basically attempting to yank the only remaining chain she has in her life to assure herself that she still has some agency somewhere. When Scully's doorbell rings at the end of WIEAYB, we know that the doorbell is either Mulder, or something I invented, because Scully has no zany-but-wise gay neighbour coming to drop off his Yorkie for Scully to watch overnight, no friend from work coming over to watch a movie because the kids are with her ex this weekend. There is *no one*. She may as well be going home to a wall-mounted charger that she plugs into until it's time for something else in which Mulder is largely central.
Mulder's already been through this and come out the other side, I think-- he's kind of the "grownup" here in some ways. S7 Mulder is no longer tortured-- that, I think, is canon. Whatever his "life" consists of, and I have invented a bit of a life for him, he's pretty much good with it and to some extent he's intentionally trying to drag Scully out of her "comfort" zone (our comfort zones are often very uncomfortable, but they're what we're used to).
I would answer Wen by saying that Mulder is a lot less neurotic by S7 than he was in the past, and that he's come to terms with a lot of things that Scully still struggles with. Some of that's personality, some of it has to do with gender and expectations, and some of it has to do with Mulder having reached some symbolic resolution and closure on some of his "quests."
This is one thing I regret about not finishing the series because the very last story, a post-ep for "The Unnatural" called "Come and Go With Me", kinda teased this thread out of the episode. Mulder's got baseball. I don't mean baseball itself, but his appreciation of smelly balls and a nice piece of ash (as expressed in the ending of that episode) as a symbol of him having a sense that he's got a place in the universe that he's more or less good with. Scully doesn't have baseball. She doesn't have jack. A big part of KvS7 is about her finding that, and the last story was supposed to kind of close that circle (or open it, I guess, since it was the beginning.)
Waterskiers:
"Waterskiers" is basically a big sloppy love letter to "Hollywood AD", which is one of my favourite episodes-- XF goes goofily, insanely meta and does it with a tremendous amount of nuance, heart and humanity. I go off on my own meta-tangent as well, obviously, regarding whether it's still XF if you're writing about Mulder and Scully going on holiday. No, it's not, but that doesn't mean XF never existed.
And, yeah, it is dark, but not in a confronting-evil kind of way, just... life sucks sometimes.
Wen, remember M and S get suspended during the episode after their murder victim turns out to be not dead-- noli me tangere, baby.
Re: ohai (2)
Yes, Scully is being difficult about the ship and getting a rough ride of it. Scully's basically attempting to yank the only remaining chain she has in her life to assure herself that she still has some agency somewhere. When Scully's doorbell rings at the end of WIEAYB, we know that the doorbell is either Mulder, or something I invented, because Scully has no zany-but-wise gay neighbour coming to drop off his Yorkie for Scully to watch overnight, no friend from work coming over to watch a movie because the kids are with her ex this weekend. There is *no one*. She may as well be going home to a wall-mounted charger that she plugs into until it's time for something else in which Mulder is largely central.
Her personal life in canon isn't great but you've made it much worse by having her family disown her. Why would you do that, by the way? From where I'm sitting it looks like it was to justify her pissy behavior toward Mulder, while you invent a life for him and let him be the adult for a change.
I would answer Wen by saying that Mulder is a lot less neurotic by S7 than he was in the past, and that he's come to terms with a lot of things that Scully still struggles with. Some of that's personality, some of it has to do with gender and expectations, and some of it has to do with Mulder having reached some symbolic resolution and closure on some of his "quests."
Is he really less neurotic? He wasn't acting any less neurotic to me. Is there any evidence of that in canon that you can offer? My position is that Mulder doesn't change from the pilot episode to the end of IWTB. Scully is the character who grows and changes.
In canon, Mulder does find out what happened to his sister. I think the plot for "Closure" is ridiculous and badly written but it's not merely a symbolic resolution. He gets closure, real, stupidly conceived closure. With the death of his mother, his family is gone, leaving only Scully. But in canon, Scully still has her mother and her brothers and sister-in-law and her nephew. Except you decided to take them away in this series for some reason. And Scully still has her work. Maybe Mulder's quest was only about finding the truth about his sister, but after her abduction and her sister's death and the deaths of the other Mufon women and the loss of Emily, I think Scully's quest was about justice. I'm unwilling to accept that that has changed for her, which is one reason why I dislike IWTB.
And, yeah, it is dark, but not in a confronting-evil kind of way, just... life sucks sometimes.
Look, I know this is your baby but that makes no sense in the context of this story. You have Skinner and the Smoking Man escorting refugees to "safety" who have been part of a Chinese program that experimented on human beings to what end? To create a viable human/alien hybrid? Fight the future? Find a vaccine for the black oil/virus/whatever? That sounds like a bigger problem to me than just "life sucks sometimes," even in XF terms. It's also a dropped plot thread, assuming you had no plans for it.
Wen, remember M and S get suspended during the episode after their murder victim turns out to be not dead-- noli me tangere, baby.
Right. Sorry, Hollywood AD was not one of my favs and I didn't get inspired to rewatch it this time.