Story 211: “In the Bleak” by Teanna

[amyhit.livejournal.com]

Our next fic is a relatively short colonization apocafic. To my knowledge, Teanna is a largely unknown author in the XF fandom. She only ever wrote three short XF fics, but her writing is spare, intelligent, sharply observant, and poetic without being wordy. She unflinchingly explores the characters and how they cope with fear, grief, and failure. I should definitely warn everyone that this story is, as the title suggests, bleak. Teanna warns readers that it’s "not a happy story," but at the risk of spoiling everyone, I should probably warn you that major character death is strongly implied and death in general is pretty ubiquitous in this story. This is the apocalypse portrayed with more grim realism than usual.

I hope some of you will read it anyway. There’s plenty in this fic to discuss, and I think summertime is probably the best time to read it, so that those of us who are particularly susceptible to gut-wrenching fanfic can shake off the darkness with a healthy dose of sunlight afterwards.

Read In the Bleak.

Comments

[wendelah1]

We don't know much by the end of this story, do we? Maybe if amyhit gets a chance to weigh in here she can give us her interpretation of the facts.

You're right, I can't tell if he's making moves on her every night or if he tried a few times was rebuffed and now he keeps his hands to himself . I'm inclined to the latter, in which case, I can't blame Mulder for having sexual fantasies. Sometimes fantasies of something better than grim reality are all that keeps you going, and like dreams, they aren't something you choose, are they? I think of (and experience, I should clarify) fantasies as waking dreams.