Story 195: "Every Sparrow Falling" by Alloway

[wendelah1]

What a nice response we got to "Oak Leaves in October." It's good to remember that there is more to this fandom than just the canon ship.

"Every Sparrow Falling" is a case file that is also an x-file. This is Mulder and Scully doing what they do best, investigating the paranormal. It's been some time since I last read this, but I remember being scared out of my wits. There is no summary from the author so here's the one from Raiders of the Lost Fanfic, Maybe Amanda's old rec site: "Casefile, paranormal, religion, madness. And hot dogs, peanuts, and Cracker Jack."

For Special Agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully, it began with a sparrow.

More precisely, with a flock of sparrows. Or, as Agent Mulder had put it, a *fall* of sparrows.

"Clever turns of phrase aside, I imagine this must have been quite painful," Scully murmured, hunkered down by the body. The dead man was sprawled out peacefully, save for the bloodied mats of hair and the bird feet dangling out of his skull. Scully surmised she'd find the rest of the bird buried within. "Looks like it fell beak first, but still...given the impact, the rate of speed had to have been tremendous."

"Indicating a long fall from a high point of origin," Mulder agreed. "Consistent with the recent evidence of lights in the clouds, odd humming noises--"

"Mulder--" she protested.

"Come on, Scully, this isn't the first unexplainable 'deadly rain' recorded," he argued. "You've seen the reports. Hell, you've *written* the reports."

She nodded. "Frogs, rocks, crickets, seas of blood, and the inexorable sacrifice of the first-born..." she trailed off. Mulder was first; Samantha had been second-child. "No, Mulder," she said. "This rain is man-made. Or at least sent by aliens with terrible penmanship."

"What?"

Latex-sheathed fingers plucked one of the birds from its chosen spot of ground. "It's been stuffed," she said. "Hardened with a shellac-like coating. And Mulder--the writing is a dead giveaway." She rotated the bird to face him. Ignoring the blind, dead eyes, he focused his attention on the scrap of fabric sewn to the sparrow's chest.

"Wife beating," Mulder read. Scully could almost hear the gears grind as Mulder shifted from alien-chaser to manhunter. "Scully, pass the gloves."

Read "Every Sparrow Falling", then come tell us what you think.

The link is to IOHO's archive, but if their bandwidth runs out, you can also read it on her old site via the Wayback Machine or at Gossamer.

Comments

[badforthefish.livejournal.com]

Isn't caring about the characters a given?

Well yeah, up to a point. I don't know...IIRC I cared more for the M&S of Lacadiva's 'Type 51', which is not a relationship story either. I guess I found these M&S lacked substance. They do their jobs following the clues and that's about it. Or maybe I was distracted and missed all the under currents, which again would not be a remote plausibility.

I used to read lots of horror stories so this kind of atmosphere is not particularly new and exciting for me - even if I have to admit it was indeed a creepy tale.

I still think it's a good, well written story, but it didn't really grab my guts.

[wendelah1]

I've never read "Type 52," and since it's a cross-over with "Night of the Living Dead," I am pretty sure I never will. LOL. It does say "Mulder/Scully Romance" on the header so I'm presuming there will be romance at some point. This is not a selling point for me, unfortunately. I like that there is no relationship development in "Every Sparrow Falls." I like that's it's gen, and that it's a casefile/x-file. I only wish there were more stories like this.

I know what we should read. "Pillar of Salt" by Nascent. She revised it and submitted it to Gossamer last year. It's a casefile/x-file and it's gen, and not romantic at all, but I bet it has enough relationship stuff in it to satisfy the shippers.

[badforthefish.livejournal.com]

Ah, I was one type wrong. *G*

I can't remember there was much in terms of romance in "Type 52", I thought it was more UST than anything else. But as I have just proved with LoTF, my memory isn't an accurate tool, so I could be wrong.

There does not need to be a romance to keep me interested in a story, but there needs to be some depth to M&S, some emotional resonance to their interaction whatever the nature of it is, otherwise you might as well have cardboard cutouts playing the roles. I'm not saying it was the case to this story but I don't know...they felt a bit 'meh'.

[estella-c.livejournal.com]

Night of the LD??? Count me in!