Story 252: "Six Times Someone Learns About William" by bugsfic

[wendelah1]

This was recently added to the nomination post by rainatlas and seconded by badforthefish. Written and posted last year for xf_is_love month, this story might have been used as an example of darkfic in our recent discussion. I read it when it was first posted and liked it a lot. It begins well and has an equally strong finish.

Summary: Certain important moments were missing from the William arc. My attempt to fill them in. The rating covers adult language and situations.

At 18,000+ words, it's not a short story, but it's divided into six easily consumed chunks.

You can read it at two places.

Bugsfic at FF.net

Links to Parts 1-6 at her LiveJournal.

She actually started a sequel which hasn't been updated in awhile. Maybe if we flood her with feedback...
As always, come back and let us know what you think, and please leave your suggestions in the nomination post.

Comments

[rainatlas.livejournal.com]

Well, if no one is going to bite, I'll have to be the first to comment on my own nomination.

First of all, I love this story. I love the structure and how it allows us to view Scully's pregnancy/William's existence through the different lenses. There's so much that's already been said concerning the William arc, and discussing it seems like opening a can of worms. BUT, I think one of the reasons I really enjoyed this story and wanted to discuss it was because it brought so many loose ends together for me that I actually felt soothed by reading it. Plus, it's a canon-compliant fill-in-the-gaps kind of fic and that's my favorite kind. This plot really needed some gaps filled.

This is not exactly literary commentary, but here are some things I love: Part Two - The scene in Maggie’s kitchen. Beautiful. Part Three - John and Monica! Their voices are so strong, I think bugs captured their characters perfectly. Part Four - Floating in and out of the present with Mulder's memories. Love this and reminded me of "Per Manum" but with better details. It also made me feel just a little bit better about Mulder’s grumpiness after coming back from the dead, and his departure after William’s birth. Scully taking the baby straight to the lab before heading home - priceless.

Part Five was totally creepy.

Something else that really struck me about this story and might be worthy of discussion is the religious theme. Of course there are religious themes all throughout The X-Files, especially with the William arc, but it was very much in the forefront here, particularly in Part 6 with Bill Mulder. I’d be interested in hearing other’s reactions and thoughts about this aspect of the story and also this version versus how it played out on screen.

[wendelah1]

Thanks for breaking the ice. I'd like to think no one is commenting because they're all preoccupied with xf_is_love.

I will be back with a better comment as soon as I find time to reread this fic, which is quite worth discussing. Now I have to get all my ducks in a row.

[badforthefish.livejournal.com]

I intend to comment on this thread, but I just don't have the time to do so right now. I need to reread the story first and my deadline for XF is Love is approaching wayyy too quickly.

[estella-c.livejournal.com]

This is a really ambitious piece, and I give full credit for the writer's courage. I personally found the time-bouncing confusing; some spacing hints might have helped.

The dialogue is better, I think, than the metaphoric connective tissue. Bugs' prose edges into the purple zone. It's hard to forgive certain lines, IMO. I will find an example of the thing I mean. I tend to obsess over style.

It's a noble effort, but frankly I'm so angry about William canon that I doubt anyone could make me accept it. Why would giving up the child keep it safer? Most fans suspect that CC just wanted to get rid of the kid, so justifying that motive is virtually impossible.

I like ghosts, and I like William Mulder's ghost. (After all, the baby was named for him. It was quite necessary to specify this, as we had more Williams on deck than we needed.) As far as religion is concerned, I happen to be a believer, but I think the subject is best treated fictionally as what it is: the greatest of mysteries. Don't start talking about the throne of God and stuff. But I do love ghosts. I've done three (4?) fics, and two of them are about dead people. Weirdness, to quote Frohike.

Hey, it's almost Halloween! A hint to our moderator.

[estella-c.livejournal.com]

Follow-up. "Shadow puppets on the wall; melded hands forming one body from two bodies but incapable of creating a third, so returning to two clenched fists." First sex, ick. Bugs is a mean plot mistress, quite no-nonsense, but this kind of fanciness undercuts her virtues.

[bmerb.livejournal.com]

Gotta say I really enjoyed this one. I dropped off the earth midway through season 7 and am probably the only devoted xf fan that has seriously NEVER seen an episode past All Things. Nonetheless I've heard enough horror stories about seasons eight and nine that I have a fairly decent grip on the basic plotting (andstill cannot stomach watching them, and I've been actually trying!) so this story fits nicely into my headcanon without having to overcome CC's misery. With that in mind I may be missing things, but I like it and I'll stick by that!

Soooo