Story 204: "El Quinto Sol" by Onemillionandnine

[wendelah1]

I'm feeling a wee bit obsessed with season seven at the moment. I already know what most people's favorite season seven story is (and don't get me wrong, I like "Parabiosis," too), but this one is mine.

Summary: An explanation of Mulder's sudden belief in "miracles." Arthur C. Clarke's second law in action. A bit of Mytharc in the guise of a case file. But in the end it's all about sex. Then again, what isn't?

I can't think of anything to add at the moment. The link is to her old site, now at reocities, but if you want to read an old-skool text file, the entire fic can be read or downloaded at onemillionnine's Author Page at Gossamer.

If anyone has suggestions, especially for season seven stories, feel free to leave them in the comments or the suggestion post. And good, bad, or indifferent, please let us know what you think.

Read "El Quinto Sol".

Comments

[amyhit.livejournal.com]

No one has handled the sexual act in this fandom with such a mixture of intensity and cool, factual description. […] Nothing protects us here.

I might not describe the way OMAN writes sex quite this way, but I do agree that nothing about it protects the reader. Because of this, I’ve never found OMAN’s sex scenes consistently arousing, but I do find them very interesting as plot/characterization pieces (something that certainly can not be said about most fic smut).

The way she writes sex isn’t coarse, really, but it is very physical – a series of gut reactions and desires. When the characters have sex in her fics I feel like I’m watching them mate. It’s mammalian – an influx of urges, impulses, and satiation responses. It’s slightly uncomfortable for me to view sex that way, because I always tend towards a very thinky and even symbolic brand of eroticism. So I usually find myself staring at my screen like a wide-eyed youth who’s just discovered something very explicit indeed.

Oddly, I’ve always kind of wanted to commend OMAN on this aspect of her writing. It’s very distinctive, very unique, and it makes a strong impression.

Norse mythology, hippy covens, women reappearing from Mulder's past who also knew Scully's sister.

I’ve been rather hard on EQS in my comments up-thread, and I feel that I should acknowledge that these elements are all pretty cool. It’s a very spunky, spirited story. There’s a lot of energy behind it, and a lot of fun (and smart) elements, which I do enjoy about this fic. They just don’t quite hit the mark for me. I end up considering the writing and thinking, “That last paragraph was really cool – I wonder what the next one will be like” rather than slipping into the actual experience of the fic.

Yet this fic strikes me as essentially a very “experiential” fic. Everything has a “vibe”. By that I mean it’s full of strange, intense sensory experiences. The characters go from one new environment to the next with each one being quite distinctive and unusual (at least compared to what they’re used to). The ideas and the people involved are also described in a way that makes them feel like part of an almost overwhelming experience. Mulder and Scully are urged onwards through a heady procession of impressions and concepts and peculiar details. I think I’m babbling at this point. It’s just hard to explain. It’s both something I like about the fic and something I don’t. I basically go back and forth by the page.

It's horror novel stuff reduced to graphic novel images.

Wow. That a very interesting and - IMO - accurate description.

[estella-c.livejournal.com]

I think your second-paragraph description of the sex and your later summary of the "vibes" of the story are excellent, and both of them expand what I said, or thought I said, or intended to say.:-) I am also somewhat in sympathy with those who find edgy, unpleasant aspects of the M/S relationship confusing and off-putting. For me it's the strange mixture of desire and contempt that simmers inside Scully, the sense of hopelessness that she will ever make fruitful contact with a man of so many tics and vulnerabilities. She doesn't want to be saddled with an immature and needy manchild, and she seems to fear that. I'm not sure how much of this attitude is obvious in EQS, but it does come through in OMAN's work as a whole. And I don't like it, which is not to say it's not an arresting and defensible character concept.

Yet it seems as though Scully actually did need a good, hard fuck to resolve all. Of course, there were chakras involved. Tantric coitus triumphs. (BTW, there's a fic called Tantric; I advise against it.)

I'm beginning to sound sarcastic. Forgive me. I really, really like El Quinto Sol.

There's a short piece by OMAN--some sort of mythological title and I should look it up--on the subject of Scully requesting Mulder's seman. The vibe there is very bitter.

[dryadinthegrove]

BTW, does anyone remember that Kel and a co-writer did something involving Norse myth personae years ago? Backtracking was the title.

Is that Bone of Contention, written with Michelle Kiefer?

there was a problem *caring* about it.

Oo, nail on the head.

It's horror novel stuff reduced to graphic novel images.

This is a great way of putting it. And I like graphic novels, and yet I still wanted more connect-y bits.

I do like the raw quality and the some of the antagonism between our Heroes. For me it becomes too much antagonism at times, to the point where I was grimacing as much as I was smiling (getting off on Scully's leg? Mm, no.),

[estella-c.livejournal.com]

No, as I said (without ital) the title was Backtracking and I think she wrote it with Scetti, who subsequently disappeared. (Kel, what did you do with the body? Ha, ha. Autopsy humor.) It was long, a bit of a beginner's piece (as I recall), with a whole lot of charm. It's at Gossamer.

OMAN also seems to have a thing about Mulder's penis (not in itself unusual, I guess). She thinks it is so huge as to make sex almost impossible and it induces premature childbirth in one story. Only our Mulder could have a big one that functions as a curse.

[estella-c.livejournal.com]

Since I brought up another OMAN title a few minutes ago, the name is Prestidigatation. I confused it with Persephone. Well, who wouldn't?