Story 198: "five things that never happened to dana scully" by threeguesses

[amyhit.livejournal.com]

The next fic was nominated by lightlack and enthusiastically seconded by myself. It’s written by threeguesses, who is one of my favorite writers to come out of the pre/post IWTB era. Her writing in this fandom was not prolific, but her stories have always stood out (at least for me) for their powerful concepts, enthralling emotional currents, and the deceptive simplicity of threeguesses’ writing. Undoubtedly you know how "five things" fics work, in which case you also know the title of this week’s fic tells you just about everything that can be revealed about it without spoiling the sense of discovery that comes with each new segment.


five things that never happened to dana scully

The author is still around and writing up a storm (though sadly not in this fandom), and I’m sure she would appreciate feedback. There’s lots to say about this fic, so please do let us know what you think. And, as always, the nomination post is open for new suggestions.

Comments

[amyhit.livejournal.com]

Aaaaaand I have no idea how to tag this fic. I feel like the tags alone constitute spoilers (I don't know, do they?), but then what's the point in having tags if you don't use them where applicable, right?

I suppose I could use this, my confusion over the tags, as some kind of a jumping off point for talking about the nature of "five things" fics. The way revelation is such a huge part of them. What's changed? What's different? When and how will you be shown? Will it be a fast reveal, shockingly abrupt, or a slow reveal, the creeping sense of understanding, of an idea taking shape? The "five things" fic is inherently imbued with it's own kind of tension; one is entering into a story in which anything could happen, from which closure cannot be expected, in which there is always, for the reader, a sense of loss, and the real question is what the nature of that loss will be - how much bitter will it contain, and how much sweet?

Okay, well, that's a start.

[littlegreen42.livejournal.com]

I do always like these "what if?" type fics, and this was enjoyable to read. As usual, I'm not completely sure what I want to say about this, but I'll try my best to comment on each section:

1 - While I'm not the biggest fan of domesticated Mulder and Scully, the fact that they're both still working on the X-Files (at least, I'm assuming they're still on the X-Files, Mulder was only "on loan" Violent Crimes) while living together and raising a family made me like this. I don't like to think that they can only choose between one of the two, living a "normal" life, or working on The X-Files (though I suppose that Mulder would have to greatly tone down his reckless, risk-taking behaviours upon becoming a "family man" -- though that's probably something he should do, anyway, ha ha).

2 - I liked this one, but I'm not sure if I buy the idea of Samantha basically being a female version of her brother.

3 - The problem is, Scully doesn’t really know how to be someone’s mother; she’s never been very good at hugs; she’s rubbish at make believe. She only knows how to tie her shoes one way (and it doesn't involve bunny rabbits). But she tries. She goes through the motions; bath time and band aids and hold hands to cross the street. She does it again and again and eventually it becomes… well, if not natural, at least second nature.

This is pretty much how I'd imagine Scully would approach motherhood.

4 - I find it very believable that Mulder would start out rambling on about some random supernatural topic before jumping in to tell Scully his feelings. It's like he had to make himself feel comfortable at first by beginning to talk about the kind of stuff he feels most at ease discussing, before doing something he probably feels a lot less comfortable doing.

5 - Short, but effective.

[edisto0304.livejournal.com]

Oh, this is a fantastic fic. Can't believe I never thought to recommend it before.

"5 things/times/ways" are one of my two favourite types of fanfics (along with 100 word drabbles) and this one is by far my favourite of them all!

I love how understated and, as the OP said, simplistic it seems at first, but then you realize it's really not. And there's the last one, the shortest of all, but also the one that stands out the most and makes for the perfect conclusion.

The first time I read the last one, I gasped out loud, felt like someone had punched me in the stomach and had tears in my eyes, because it reminded me of how different my own life would have been, if this show had never been made, been made in a different way or if somehow I had never started watching it or if anything else along the way had been different and it wouldn't have had the impact it has had on me.

Those three, down to the point, lines evoked a lot of thoughts in me and that's the beauty and shows the true brilliance of threeguesses' writing for me.

[zinnia-rose.livejournal.com]

JADFKLAJDLDSKLKJ I love threeguesses' fic for The Good Wife and now that I know she wrote for XF too, I might have to ask her to marry me. :p

I loved all of these, but #3 broke my heart (in the best possible way) and #5...wow. It said so little but so much.

[estella-c.livejournal.com]

I liked this very much. I kind of like "five things" stories because they expose so many life and character-changing possibilities and encapsulate for me the appeal of the ever-expanding landscape of fanfiction. If I don't like one fic event I can go to another. It's the ultimate freedom of the reader to play with action figures in the brain. It must be an excellent training regimen for writers.

I liked the happy stories best, natch, but the unhappy ones didn't hurt too much because... moving on. The Samantha Mulder one was not to my taste. She is not her brother. Still, why not? As long as you keep moving.

I of course loved the "happy ending" pillow talk, and I do think it carefully thought and shapely. Mulder, in rambling about ghost lights, is actually implying that he may have been lured astray and would rather come back to the human mundane. "I always wanted you to marry me" is such a poignant truth, so cut-to-the-chase. ( It seems to me that someone--Alelou--had Mulder saying something like that before the two had even kissed. Played for laughs, that one.)

Great head-butt ending. The possibility of no possibilities. Like edisto0304, it made me wonder how not just Scully's but my life would have changed as well.

These are beautifully done; threeguesses is a good writer. But I wonder--how to say?--if we get how close to meta they are. They are really like improv, practice, hinting at events that can't seem mortally serious because they "never happened." They make us think of the ephemeral quality of fic, but more regretfully of the let's-try-this hodgepodge of the last years of show canon. The X-Files was a cunning experiment in series tv and an enduring influence. I'm thinking if CC had treated it less like a "five things" hobby, it would have been a proud epic for whatever of the tech entertainment age we have left.

[badforthefish.livejournal.com]

Aw, damn I missed "Get Up Mulder"! I've been so engrossed in the "Hunger Games" trilogy that I haven't taken the time to read anything else or do anything else outside work for that matter. *hangs head*

So, as much as I loved threeguesses Gardening InTropical Climates I'm quite underwhelmed by this one. And it as nothing to do with the writer's skills. I just don't care for the "Five Things" format at all. I find it...a bit...I don't know...pointless? Maybe because each section - short as they are - leave you with a frustrating taste of "wow, that could have been a great AU story." if they're good, or eye rolling "Phew, I'm glad this did not happen" if they're not.

The only one I really liked in this was #5, because it's a perfect way to end this kind of story. And who hasn't wondered what would have happened if Scully hadn't been well, Scully?" (and please nobody says "Cynthia Nixon" or I'll shoot. )

#1 made me cringe, but it's no secret I have a terribly low tolerance threshold for sweet and cuddly baby fic.

#2 Interesting idea but this Samantha sounds too much like a dude with her "Pretty girl like you and a place like this." and not a very subtle one at that. Plus, making this Samantha gay feels sloppy to me, because this means the writer doesn't have to make too many efforts to make this character sound like her brother - being all flirty with Scully. The real challenge here would have been to keep this Sam straight and still manage to convey the thing (you all know that thing) that sparks between M&S. Now there, I would have been impressed. As it is, meh. ( And just to be on the safe side in case anybody decides to get offended for the wrong reasons, I have NO issues with Sam being gay or Scully being gay. Their sexual orientation is not what I'm talking about here.)

#3 See, I don't buy Scully not knowing how to be a mother. We've seen many times that Scully is great with kids. As much as I loathe baby fic I do see why people would want to write about Scully with kids in tow. She's got this all emcompassing compassion and kindness coupled with this no bullshit attitude that is the trademark of great motherhood. And besides I don't buy her losing touch with Mulder, not like this. So to me, this "what if" just feels pretty pointless.

#4.Nothing much to say about that one. It's not bad, it's just not very original is all.

So yeah, it's definitely well written, and I love this author's lean writing style and effortless humour, still, I don't think this one is anything much to write home about. But since I don't really care for the genre this kind of story is always going to be a hard sell. *shrugs*

[nailseabelle24.livejournal.com]

“They are really like improv, practice, hinting at events that can't seem mortally serious because they "never happened." They make us think of the ephemeral quality of fic, but more regretfully of the let's-try-this hodgepodge of the last years of show canon”
 
My thoughts exactly. I enjoy these 5 Things type of fics because they are experimental and inventive (and pure fantasy). Looking at the larger picture, the whole show is a fabulous fantasy. Chris Carter was no respecter of what his characters could or couldn’t act like (see Scully in Seasons 8 & 9 as an example); so in my mind at least 3 of these alternatives could potentially have been canon (except the last one and the Samantha one, given that this type of show would never have got the green-light in the early nineties without the potential for man/woman sexual tension. And hetero sexual tension sells better than the alternative, I would guess).  As always, I feel very comfortable reading this type of fic because, thankfully CC and others didn’t go down any of these five paths. I can relax in the knowledge that the version we saw on TV is immutable, allowing me to enjoy the thrill of the AU rollercoaster without fear.  Sorry about the long ramble!

[amyhit.livejournal.com]

First off, I love this fic. I loved it more the first and second times I read it, because of how incredibly much there is to discover in it (five whole worlds!) but I still love it now. It’s one of my favorite of threeguesses’ XF fics. I love her style, how clearly and precisely she states everything, while beneath the clean factuality of her words there’s such a complex and surprisingly delicate array of emotions. I love the psychology behind each of these realities, the way threeguesses seems to understand what a situation means to the characters who are in it, the way it changes them.

I absolutely do not mind the fragmentary nature of each of these realities. In fact, I feel that part of what makes the writing so effective is the way threeguesses seems to know exactly what to reveal and how much to reveal and how exactly to reveal it, with precision and sensitivity. Each reality feels distinct and believable and emotionally coherent.

As for how a fic like this is meant to be considered, I don’t know. The way I think of alternate realities, however, is as simultaneously theoretical and real. Each alternate reality is a theoretical experiment for the author, but once created they become “real” in the same way any fictional reality is real. Once written, I consider each of these realities to exist in full. It’s just that only a small window is open for us to see into them.

As for favorite realities, mine are two and five. I think five is absolutely brilliant. It’s one of the more psychologically profound ideas I’ve come across in fanfic. After leading us down the rabbit hole and through the ever-shifting maze of realities, the last one simply, unflinchingly erases every trace of the story as we know it. Canon, the story that served as our door into this thought experiment, is written out of existence. There is a feeling of intellectual vertigo. Every reference point vanishes.

Reality two, on the other hand, is a universe I wish to explore at length. Existential conflict is so deliciously, painfully inherent to this reality. Is Samantha effectively her brother? They’re similar, certainly, which is only right given the circumstances of his/her upbringing, but I’ve always felt it’s more than that – more than mere similarity. It’s as though the universe is trying to restore order, as though Samantha’s character were liquid poured over a surface already shaped by her brother’s identity, so that her character can’t help but begin to shape into an approximation of her brother. Or maybe not. It’s far more interesting if that question is left up in the air – a feeling one gets, an intangible suspicion. Which is exactly what I feel about part two of this fic.

I also think there is something interesting about the things that seem to be different between Scully and Samantha because of the gender switch. Sam touches Scully in intimate ways that Mulder wouldn’t. They seem to be a bit more casual with each other, being able to pretend sex isn’t an issue, in a way that Scully could not have done with Mulder.

Plus I find the last line of part two heartbreaking, though I’m not sure why. I think it’s because of that inherent conflict between realities. It feels as though neither Scully nor Sam quite had a choice about ending up here. For all that they’ve done, it was always going to come to this, which is terribly unfair.

I have some thoughts about the other parts too, which I might get to a little later. Right now I’m off to read the many comments for this fic which I haven’t yet read.

[lightlack.livejournal.com]

As usual, I haven't commented because I'm a terrible person, but I'm just taking a moment to be impressed that a fic I nominated somehow managed to get so many comments on it.

[estella-c.livejournal.com]

You know, I also believe that it's never too late to comment on a fic. I think we should establish some kind of, um, board convention or tradition whereby someone can say, "I think the third chapter of this fic fails on account of blah, blah, AND...by the way...I've added an interesting take to the fic two discussions back, so everybody rush right over!" Or words to that effect. Because if it doesn't get mentioned it won't get read.

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[bmerb.livejournal.com]

Jumping in, in defense of number 2. Sam doesn't actually start with the comment about pretty girl in a place like this. In a twist on Mulder's initial statement ("nobody here but the FBI's most unwanted") we get the following:
“Samantha Mulder,” the woman holds out her hand without looking up, “one-way ticket to the dead end of your career.” There is a pencil in her hair and ink stains on her fingertips.... Samantha finally swivels to look at her. “Dana Scully,” she drawls (and Scully has never heard her name said with that many l’s), “Why on earth are you getting on this train?”

It's only after this exchange, which feels sarcastic and defensive to me, but not specifically dude-like, that Sam says the pretty girl in a place like this line in response to Scully's confusion. I read this as a sort of throwing out of a shared reference, aka, "this is a shithole dead end for your career, how did you end up here?"

Did Mulder ask Scully who she had ticked off to get stuck partnered with him? Is that canon or fanon or just my head canon? Well whatever it is, this Scully/Sam interaction reads very similarly to the canon one, although perhaps with the added friction of Sam's reputation inside the bureau (if Fox Mulder was "Spooky" I can only imagine what a woman with similar credentials would be called but I can guarantee you it would be more derogatory, particularly if there was even a whiff of rumored homosexuality).