Story 253: "Lucky" by Peggy Sue

[wendelah1]

Hi, everyone. Does anyone still want to read and discuss fanfic?

I found this story from a new recs community on Tumblr: MSR Archive. It's not an archive in the traditional sense but each entry does have a picture, the author's summary and a short excerpt, as well as the link. It's the only story they've posted so far that I haven't read, but it was good enough to get me posting here again.

But first, a warning. If you hate the William arc, this is may not be the fic for you. It is not a fix-it fic, and it's certainly not a happy family AU, which understandably is what the fandom seems to prefer.

Instead, "Lucky" is future-fic, set post-IWTB. It reminds me a bit of Mulder's extended dream-fantasy from "Amor Fati" about the ordinary life he didn't choose. In this fic, it's Scully who is dreaming of a different life, a life where she didn't leave the FBI to go on the run, a life where together with Mulder, she gets to raise their son, rather than giving him up for adoption.

"She hears a woman in the supermarket bragging into the phone about how her baby is talking at nine months one evening, and she imagines what it'd be like if Will could have talked, could have made noise when he puckered his lips together, trying for 'Ma.' She couldn't have handled that, she doesn't think. She probably would have run away with him."/ Post-IWTB.

Rated: Fiction T - English - Angst/Family - F. Mulder, D. Scully, William - Words: 1,966

Read Lucky.

Comments

[bachlava.livejournal.com]

Love it! I mean, it's *very* hard to watch, but in all the right ways. For me, some of the arcs that fit that description seem like fairly organic expressions of the Syndicate's horribleness and the price that Mulder and Scully (and others) face for trying to take them on. Other ones I'd put in that category are Mulder's essentially incurable trauma over Samantha and the salt that CSM likes to rub in the wounds and the Emily arc (which I know you hate). But for reasons that I can't fully articulate, for me personally the Mulder abduction arc and the William arc just feel like gratuitous character torture. That's a wholly subjective impression, mind you: there's no inherent reason why the arcs that do work for me are any less cruel. But for whatever reason, that's where the limit comes up for me personally. EMDV - everyone's mileage does vary.

[wendelah1]

That's true. I was curious because the next fic on my list is a story set during the cancer arc. It's not just about Mulder and Scully; there's a little back-story for the secondary characters: Bill Scully, Mrs. Scully, even Father McCue. I've been avoiding a rewatch of those episodes because the topic hits a little too close to home, but I feel ready now.

[snarkybando.livejournal.com]

It's not just you -- on my rewatch I couldn't get through season 8 because it jut seemed so dark and so unfair. I get that some of it was due to trying to write around Duchovny leaving (and the fact that they weren't expecting a renewal for season 8) but Mulder's death/resurrection, the retcon with him dying slowly of a weird brain thing and the IVF, seemed needlessly cruel and took a lot away from the characters I knew and loved.

(of course the implied sexual assault of Mulder by Fowley in Biogenesis was already pushing things)

I like to think that everything after Field Trip is a hallucination, personally.

[wendelah1]

Season 8 is an unmitigated disaster. Nine is worse.

How do you feel about cancer arc fic?

[snarkybando.livejournal.com]

I'm fine with it. I'm actually pretty sure I know the fic you're referring to, and I remember liking it. Will be interesting to revisit it.

[wendelah1]

Cool I'm just getting ready to post it.

[estella-c.livejournal.com]

My opinion of the final seasons is that they were tumultuous and uncertain from the moment of Scully's pregnancy announcement. It got them time, but no one really knew what to do with it. A lot of scrambling for a suitable arc combining with refusal to close the ones begun. William ended badly. Melissa ended badly--she certainly deserved more. The death of the gunmen was inexcusable. But I think tv in general has learned its lessons from these final confusions. They set their end games early now.

[wendelah1]

If I looked around I could find a quote from Chris Carter on writing that says something to the effect that what's important isn't so much how it ends as how you get there. And you don't want to get locked in too early because you'd miss learning things along the way.

Just because a series creator has a clear ending in mind right from the start doesn't mean it will be what the fans wanted. It certainly doesn't guarantee that it will be any good. The Battlestar Galactica reboot people knew where they were headed and most of the fans hated the ending of that series. The ending of Lost was pretty controversial. I thought the last season of Fringe was pretty terrible and season four wasn't much better. Farscape had a pretty terrible conclusion, which the after-the-fact miniseries didn't really fix.

Anyway, signs are good that CC and 1013 are going to get another shot at ending the series. Maybe this time, they'll get it right.