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]

My first online fandom was Stargate SG-1 and one of my favorite writers was Cofax, the catalyst of "Life During Wartime" in this fandom. I'd run out of her fic and liked the apocafic genre so I figured I give it a try. I started watching the show on the scifi channel to get backstory for LDW. The next thing I knew I was staying up to tape it on late night TNT. I eventually got an idea for a fic, made my journal and five years later, here I am.

I don't think it's that uncommon for readers to follow writers they like into new fandoms. I read Maybe Amanda and OneMillionandNine's Sherlock fic before I had seen Sherlock. Frankly, I like it way, way better than its canon, which I think is highly over-rated by its fanbase. Anyway, I think what's different about what I did is that I went backwards to her earlier work, and then got totally hooked on a closed canon fandom. Well, presumably closed canon. I know there are a lot of fans out there who feel cheated by the lack of closure and want a third movie. I don't think they're going to get one.

The X-Files has a lot of long fic but I'm going to try to rec as much shorter fic as I can to keep people engaged here come fall. A lot of the membership is in school. Although, working full-time isn't exactly a walk in the park either...

[littlegreen42.livejournal.com]

I read Maybe Amanda and OneMillionandNine's Sherlock fic before I had seen Sherlock.

Just jumping in here to ask: where can I find this fic? I'm intrigued by the idea of Sherlock fic by X-Files fic writers.

[wendelah1]

I've recced it a couple of times in my journal. It's not Sherlock/John and it's not slash. It's also not canon compliant after season one. It's very, very long, like novel length, it's het fic, and it's NC-17 like whoa, but not kinky. The pairing is Sherlock/Molly. It's also brilliant. Everyone's in character and so beautifully written. The plot is complicated, exciting and ultimately life-affirming. I think it's supremely better than the series itself, at least in the second season.

Still interested? Let me know and I'll track down the link for you. It's at AO3 under Maybe Amanda.

[littlegreen42.livejournal.com]

Hmmn, I'm not really into novel-length fics and I tend to skip through sex scenes, but I might give it a try anyway.

[wendelah1]

Here you go: The Sustain Series. I think the first part can stand alone, part two is a cliff-hanger and part three is the resolution to part two.

Since I disliked the second series and don't ship any pairings and don't enjoy the kind of fic written for it (and yes, I have read enough to tell), I do not consider myself in the Sherlock fandom but I am in theirs forever more. I'll read anything they write anyway, but together, they're an amazing writing team.

I tend to skip the sex, too, but OneMil writes really great sex so I read hers. Anyway. Enjoy!

[obviousanswer.livejournal.com]

Ahhh that makes sense. Sorry if I ask some silly questions/ make naive comments, but I hope having some naive perspectives in the book club isn't a bad thing..!

I'm studying also, but in the southern hemisphere, I might ask you for some more long recs come summer.

[wendelah1]

No, no. Questions are always welcome, as are new people to fandom and The X-Files. New energy is what keeps fandoms alive. I have a Tumblr now and I've been getting so many ideas for stories. Not that anyone there will read them. or even know about them. The fandom is split up now. I wish I knew how to fix that. Anyway, the enthusiasm is contagious.

Southern hemisphere--so this is still winter for you and you're in school now. A good friend lives in Australia, which is many time zones ahead on the other side of the planet. I think it's already one in the afternoon on Sunday there and we haven't eaten Saturday dinner yet. Are you still on Saturday or are you also a person of the(my) future? LOL

[obviousanswer.livejournal.com]

Ah that's a shame to hear, about the fandom being so spilt up. I don't really understand tumblr, it seems like a much much prettier lj but shallower too...? As in, how do people actually properly communicate with each other on it beyond re-blogging, or am I missing the point? And a lot of lj has migrated across? I used to have a journal here a few years ago and it seemed a lot more active, lj was never very pretty, but some of the long posts or long conversation threads were amazing...

I'm a person of winter and the future too! 2pm Sunday here on the east coast of Aus.