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

[wendelah1]

Naturally, I'll be interested to see your reaction.

[bmerb.livejournal.com]

i read it all, thoroughly enjoyed (as others already said) all but perhaps the pacing of the last chapter. i particularly loved NOT knowing what was going to happen, wtf was going on with samantha/stephanie, the deal with the smoking man, etc.

Syntax6 writes some awesome casefiles, with a deft feel for characterization and dialogue that feels *right* with canon (or at least the seasons/parts of canon that i care about at all), and as you have said, sex scenes that don't make me cringe.

i'm a bit like a platypus, part noromo and part shipper. or rather, i'm a shipper but i'm interested in the big picture, so stories that revolve around sexytimes drama aren't particularly gripping, but stories exploring the complexities of interaction along with casefiles are fantastic (hence my ability to thoroughly enjoy Iolokus and Tikkun Olam despite ALL THAT SEX).

so yeah, i certainly enjoyed this, despite the pacing of the last chapter, and as i already said somewhere, i'd like to know what happened to Mulder's other nephews/nieces, the children of Samantha (Annie) Milgram, and why didn't he pursue a relationship with them as well? I *liked* Ruben, wouldn't mind knowing what happened to him more too.

off to read more sytax6 fiction, now that we've moved cross country! apparently there is a "perfect" one called Scavenger?? its not on her website so where could I find it?

[wendelah1]

I have not read this fic since it was posted so I'll need to do that before commenting further.


The only place I've been able to find "Scavenger" is here: http://spookyawards.blogspot.com/p/2002.html

Scroll down to WIPs. It won third place(?!) for Outstanding Work in Progress in 2002.

Failing that, email me (my user name at gmail) and I'll try to locate my copy to send you. I have it saved... somewhere...

[wendelah1]

This was a gripping mystery/casefile--and until the very end, I would have counted it as one of my favorites. After rereading it, I still don't understand why Syntax6 felt like Mulder killing his sister was the right conclusion for the story. And I still don't think it would have been as easy as Syntax6 makes it look for either of them to get over the trauma and resume their normal lives.

Think about it. Mulder killed his sister. The sister for whom he had searched relentlessly for over twenty years. The Mulder I recognize from earlier in the fic would have felt grief and even acute depression. Scully would have felt guilty, and probably some trauma as well, having nearly lost her life. I can believe Mulder getting back the X-Files and I can even buy that Scully would return to Washington. The absurdly romantic ending complete with a gratuitous sex scene irked me even more the second time around.

I'm not sure I buy Scully taking out her chip, either. She takes it out because Diana wants to study it? Since when does Scully give two hoots about Diana. How do they know Diana is even still alive? Then Scully tells Mulder that she removed it because otherwise she couldn't return to the X-Files? Huh? It's not even a problem with pacing--it is simply too neatly and quickly wrapped up to be credible. In an earlier story, "Bait and Switch," Scully also removed her chip but in that case, the chip and its affect on Scully are an integral part of the plot. When she does finally decide to remove it, it makes sense for her to do it. In that story, the reader is prepared to accept her actions, and the conversation that Mulder and Scully have about why Scully took out the chip is as real and moving as anything Syntax has ever written.

Which leaves us with the Greek Tragedy ending to sort out: Stephanie Jameson's children with the CSM turn out to be Mulder's half brother and half-sister. (That part I can well believe--it might even be canon, whatever that means in the post-season ten X-Files universe). The clone who was murdered by Stephanie also had kids, but apparently Mulder only chose to pursue a relationship with the children of the sister he killed. That seems kind of hinky and Syntax doesn't explain why one set of Mulder's relatives gets ignored while the others are pursued.

Any attempt at realism just gets thrown away at this juncture. Why would the courts allow the man who killed these kids' mother access to them at all? How is that in their best interest? Why would the couple who now had custody not know the circumstances of Stephanie's death, or of her husband's murder? Wouldn't something this sensational have made the newspapers? A triple homicide with three different killers?

Eventually those kids are going to find out the truth, the whole truth. They're certainly going to find out that their half-brother killed their mother, his own half-sister! Is Mulder going to tell them first? Or will someone try to blackmail him by threatening to tell them? The more I think about it, the more ridiculous it all becomes.

If Mulder had talked his sister into giving up the knife and letting Scully go, messy as that aftermath would be to sort out, at least he wouldn't face a future in which he'd have to tell these kids the truth. He and Scully wouldn't have to deal with the grief, the guilt or the trauma. Minus some of the baggage, eventually, I can picture M&S attempting a romantic relationship, and perhaps succeeding. Ignoring all of the ramifications of Stephanie's death and forcing a happy ending made this an unsatisfying conclusion. Considering how carefully crafted the story was up to that point, I felt disappointed, even let down.

[bmerb.livejournal.com]

Still stuck trying to figure out what Mulder's relationship to the two kids would be. Half siblings through CSM (just like Samantha is to him), and then, ummm... 1/2 uncle to them via Samantha/Stephanie? So, some bruncle? Oh yes, very very Greek. And you are right about the final chapter for a number of reasons. I pretty much blanked it out since it was dissatisfying, particularly after such a gripping read the rest of the way through. HOWEVER, that said the rest of the story made up for that final chapter IMO, so worth the read!

[wendelah1]

If I had read it all in one go, instead of waiting five years for the last three chapters, I might have been less disappointed. I'm still glad to have reread it, even though doing so reinforced my original conclusions.