Story 18: "Oil" by Eodrakken Quicksilver

[emily-shore.livejournal.com]

For those of you who are tired of all the shippiness, here is some gen courtesy of bardsmaid. "Oil" offers a fantastically original look at one corner of the X-Files universe.

Title: Oil
Author: Eodrakken Quicksilver
Feedback: eo@morosophy.com
Website: http://www.morosophy.com/sun/
Spoilers: "Piper Maru" and "Apocrypha"
Rating: G.
Summary: A possession. A nightmare. A love story. A different point of view. Post-"Apocrypha".

Comments

[idella]

I really enjoyed this fic! The writing is lovely. And no, I don't think my favourite lines can be quoted too many times:

Truly, this is the water's world, you thought. It walks the whole of the Earth, perfectly mated to every form, every being. And the Earth crumbles beneath its touch: a slow, ages-long swoon.

My favourite lines that aren't about the water are this bit, which I love for the image and for the glimpse at the oil's past,

You didn't mind riding in the airplane. The rapid ascent, the changes of pressure, and the false sense of stillness and suspension -- they reminded you of how it feels to travel between the stars.

and this one, which is nice in and of itself and gives us a bonus Krycek story.

On the far side of the water there were animals drinking, sitting on the surface. Their long necks curved sadly, and their calls echoed, short and rough. You looked for their name in the host's memory, even though you didn't need to know it. The host had seen them in the snow, and he'd seen them in the sky, flying in formation. When he was a child, he'd tried to feed one, and it bit his hand. The memory of the serrated ridge in its mouth -- the memory of the pain -- spilled out unbidden. Canada geese, the animals are called.

(I thought it was interesting how relatively hard it was for the Oil entity to get one animal name of of its host and yet the water gives up any number of such names after the entity uses Krycek to dive into it.)

(Krycek jumping into the water is my single favourite part, plot-wise. The Cigarette Smoking Man's reaction has to be second.)

I like how this fic has intelligence and originality working for it. I like how there's not many (any?) wasted words, yet it still manages to contain so much in such a small space.

And, okay, there probably aren't a lot of fics about the consciousness of the oil (though now I'm convinced there totally should be), but even if there were, I think this one would still be insinuating its way into my personal canon.