Story 258: "SN 1572" by prufrock's love

[wendelah1]

I'd been thinking about posting this so when it was nominated by an anonymous lurker, I decided to go ahead. It's a major new work by a talented writer. Dear Anon, thanks for the suggestion. I hope you will join the discussion.

Title: SN 1572
Author: prufrock's love
Email: prufrockslove@yahoo.com
Rating: NC-17
Classification: Novel, Post-colonization, Angst, Dark MSR, Other
Summary: After colonization and Earth's devastation, Scully remains in one of the few safe, walled colonies, remembering the past and praying for some future with Mulder. Whatever the hell Mulder has become.
Author's Note: A reworking of Negative Utopia

This fic follows the general outline of "Negative Utopia," which we read many years ago. If you want to see that discussion, here it is, along with a working link to the story: Story 76: "Negative Utopia" by prufrock's love. The changes to her earlier fic are more than substantial enough to warrant the re-titling. I loved "Negative Utopia," and, to be honest, I wasn't sure how I was going to feel about this fic. I am happy to report "SN 1572" is also an excellent story, though not without its flaws.

Read SN 1572.

After you've read the story, please come back and let us know what you think. The nomination post is always open for your suggestions.

Comments

Re: somewhat spoilery response to story

[wendelah1]

I didn't go back and re-read the original story but I remember it as being relatively short, sharp, and having a fairly hopeless view of the future. I was new to fanfic and devoured pretty much everything in my path at that time, but "Negative Utopia" is one that stuck with me.

I did reread it and your memory of it is accurate. It was much shorter, told only in the present, and the post-colonization world it portrayed was bleak and hopeless.

I like this re-working of it for the way it fleshes out the post-colonization world. Also, it's unusual for Prufrock to write from Scully's POV - most of the stories I've read by her are Mulder POV. In them, Mulder often seems to view himself as somewhat inept and socially backward, so to see him through the filter of Scully - where she finds him almost as much of an enigma as he finds her -- is interesting.

I haven't read everything, but I always thought prufrock's love wrote an unusually competent version of Mulder. And I don't recall him being mystified by Scully either. In the non-colonization fics of hers I have read, the romantic obstacle has always been Scully's desire for a normal life, not Mulder's lack of persuasive charms. I haven't read "The Wasteland" or the historical romance novel trilogy. I assumed the shippers hated the former because it ends with Mulder and Scully with other people, but didn't mind that one or both of them ended up dead in the historicals, since at least they're together, and in love? Well, there's something else keeping them apart in her sequel to "The 13th Sign," entitled "7 Days in May," but in general, the way prufrock's love sees them, the ball is in Scully's court.

She does write mostly from Mulder's POV, which is probably a good thing overall. "Inventing the Mulders" is an exception. I could be wrong but think prufrock's love adores Mulder unreservedly. I don't think she feels that way about canon Scully, exactly.

I do like that she's fleshed out the post-colonization world they find themselves in. She has the characters making difficult choices for somewhat different reasons, too. I'm going to try to pull my thoughts together on that later today.