Story 228: "Original Sin" by Syntax6

[wendelah1]

She's back. "Original Sin" is syntax6's long unfinished WIP, abandoned in 2008 after six gripping chapters. To my surprise and delight, she has returned to fandom, and over the past few weeks, posted the remainder of the story. She updated her website, too, adding a half dozen or more stories in a new fandom. It looks good.

It's post Fight the Future, and Scully has moved to Utah. Unfortunately for her, the X-Files followed her there. She must not have noticed that the state emblem is a big old beehive. Poor Scully. When will she learn? Tags: NC-17, mytharc, casefile, M/O, S/O, MSR, chipfic, Samantha, horribly absent & hugely apologetic author.

If you haven't already, email her some feedback, then please come back and let us know what you think.

Remember, the nomination post is always open for your suggestions.

Read Original Sin

Comments

[estella-c.livejournal.com]

Wow, Syntax6 is back! Guess I must come back too.

This is a good, powerful story with great ideas and some pacing flaws, IMO. I'm not ready to say much more. Digesting.

One memory that fell over me while reading was that sense of iron-hard Greek tragedy achieved so successfully in "To Carthage Then I Came." How many Samanthas? How many warped compulsions? Will Mulder ever be free? This is a softer, kinder story but those twins: food there for confusion and argument.

It was nice to see CSM bleeding on the floor.

[wendelah1]

A softer, kinder story? To whom?

Both Samantha and her twin/clone end up dead in this story, one by Mulder's hand, which is a pretty cruel ending, imho. Way worse than mine. Worse even than "Closure," which was problematic at best.

As much as I love Scully, I wasn't sure I wanted Mulder to pull the trigger. I found myself resenting Scully for getting captured, and resenting syntax6 for putting Mulder in that position in the first place.

I have other issues, too, but I'll put them in a separate comment. But I agree, this is a good and powerful story, despite some flaws.

[estella-c.livejournal.com]

It may be reader's burnout, to which I am subject after twenty years of obsession, but I found OS a bit overly long and the ending, in particular, was oddly and hesitantly paced. Still, Scully and Mulder do end up together. And they have sex, twice, which I suppose is what I meant by "softer, kinder." But you must admit that anything would have been softer and kinder than FCTIC. Which is actually a fantastic story, but sheer horror.

I skipped the sexy bits. Burnout.

Mulder of course did what he had to do--what he had done on the bridge--and maybe the story would have been stronger cut off there, with a brief addendum showing the two together in the basement. The will-she-or-won't-she attenuation of Scully's decision struck me as a little soapy.

The most interesting part of OS was the creation of the tormented twin Samanthas: one the mother of CSM's children, one a self-destructive stripper. (In my mind, anyone who goes to Vegas is self-destructive.) Were they real or highly developed clones? If they were real, was the extra one adopted--and then married, yuck--by CSM? This story really does an interesting thing with our familiar old baddie: we see him (through Diana) in psychological free-fall, failed in his career, addicted to his hideous private sins, fully deserving of retribution. I had no compassion for him, but I felt very sorry for the Samanthas and for Mulder, confronted with such a situation and forced into such an act. Yep, it's a pretty tough tale. Samantha was better off "in starlight," even if I thought that an idiotic resolution.

Syntax6 continues to be a very entertaining line-by-line writer, and her secondary characters were first-rate. OS also is piquantly open-ended, leaving open the possibility that somewhere, doing something weird, is yet another Samantha. We may not want to meet her. Still--shades of Iolokus!

[wendelah1]

The twin Samanthas were a great twist. I think they have to be clones, albeit ones that had been allowed to become adults without being subjected to the experimentation that made them into hybrids. We know the consortium made multiples of her, used them for many different purposes. It's creepy to think CSM raised one and then married her. She must be the one Mulder met after he found the chip for Scully? It's hard to understand what happened to the Samantha who ended up in the system. How did the Consortium let that happen? Was it a social experiment of some sort? There were many questions left unanswered, but this is The X-Files. The answers always lead to more questions.

Her secondary characters are wonderful. They are one of the elements that set her apart from most fic writers. She takes great care in creating them to make them real. She's the real deal. There is no doubt in my mind that she could be published.

The other thing that sets her apart is how deftly she weaves together all of the elements of the story, including the romance. Most decent writers can do a character-driven romance or they can do a carefully plotted mystery. She can do both, plus the romance doesn't set my teeth on edge, which always comes as a surprise. I cannot tell you how many stories I bail on because they lay the UST on too thick. This might not have been her strongest ending, but she still sets the standard. I did think the second sex scene was gratuitous, although not by romance standards, of course. I thought the sex scene at the pool was both sexy and emotionally involving.

I liked that Mulder finally couldn't avoid telling Scully that he'd met one of the Samanthas before, the one CSM had the kids with, maybe? And I liked that she had him make an effort to connect with those children at the end. But the kids of the other Samantha, the one who'd married the FBI agent, wouldn't they be his relatives, too. I guess they weren't orphaned. Yet.

[estella-c.livejournal.com]

Do we know who killed Vegas Samantha? Did I miss it? Wouldn't be the first time.

I wanted to say that one thing I appreciated about this story is the honoring of that Fox/Samantha scene in the diner, which I considered a great, poignant scene. Chris Carter apparently didn't think it was very important. The guy never did figure out what he had.

Don't overthink my minor criticisms. Syntax6 is a top talent, and I'm thankful for her loyalty.

[infinitlight.livejournal.com]

Do we know who killed Vegas Samantha?

The other Samantha.

[estella-c.livejournal.com]

Lord, I guess I'll have to go back to taking notes.

[wendelah1]

She more or less confessed during the scene where she started cutting on Scully, before Mulder shot her. Then Mulder confirmed it in the scene where he's being questioned by the police about the three dead bodies with three different killers.

the OTHER, other kids

[bmerb.livejournal.com]

Yes, I also wondered about that too: "But the kids of the other Samantha, the one who'd married the FBI agent, wouldn't they be his relatives, too."

What happened to the two kids that Samantha "Annie" Milgram had with the FBI douchebag? those two would be Mulder's nephews/nieces too (whereas the two orphaned by the Stephanie/Samantha and CSM are both his nephew/niece AND his 1/2 siblings. 3/4 siblings? er, something anyways).

So yeah, no interest in connecting to the other two seemed a bit strange and grated against me while I read it.

[addison zella (from livejournal.com)]

What is FCTIC? I liked this story, but agree about the rushed ending. I also kind of skimmed over the supporting bits and stuck with the Mulder - Scully storyline. I found this paragraph particularly astute:
"He didn't say hello when he called because he fully expected her to keep up with the conversation, even if he was starting in the middle of it, and he didn't say good-bye, not when it mattered, because for Mulder things were never truly over.."