Field Reports

runpunkrun's Living with the Dreaming Body left me feeling rather sorrowful -- which in some ways is as it should be, given the pairing. I want Scully to be happy, to not suffer anymore, but sometimes stories that give her comfort in Mulder do the exact opposite for me, as a reader. Because there are all these issues of blame and indirect fault and single-minded pursuits and dreams that maybe make more emotional sense as dreams, and outside of those, there is Punk's summary: "the heart is an involuntary muscle." I want Scully to have choices here, and yet she moves through this story which such sadness and emptiness in her heart that it seems like taking comfort in a relationship with Mulder isn't a choice. It's an inevitability.

But hell. Love is pain, sometimes, and it's especially pain when it's these two.

Zyllah's lovely, lovely Yellow Balloon makes me remember why I'm so grateful to have started in X-Files.

Thuvia Ptarth's gift for breathing life into minor characters (and major -- see her X-Files fic Subaqueous) in many ways captures the spirit of why we write fanfic to begin with. Her prose is beautiful, but more importantly, is always on the mark. After a few short paragraphs I feel like I know the people she's writing about. Especially recommended: On the Way to Grandmother's House (Buffy) and The Daughters of Abraham (my first West Wing fic, for those keeping track).

One of my favorite X-Files stories, for sheer escapist value, has always been Jasper's Last Thought by MD1016, which gives Mulder and Scully some peace finally at the end of a long hard road.

Best Intentions by J.S. Michel is a well-meditated what-if kind of story for the future of the X-Files. I especially appreciated the intelligent Doggett characterization, although all of the familiar faces were finely drawn.

If you've seen Buffy the Vampire Slayer at all you may have noticed Spike. You know, the sexy blond gaunt-cheeked vampire with the English accent? The one I'd jump in a split second if Annie Sewell-Jennings didn't get there first? And if you're an X-Files fan, you may remember that episode "3" which, despite the lack of Scully, featured an equally sexy Fox Mulder and -- dare I say it, vampires? Well, folks, it's our lucky millennium, because Annie's cooked up a hot little number featuring these two fine specimens of the male gender. Check out Smoking Shadows.

Lysandra's Not Close Enough was a welcome breath of fresh air in the midst of so much X-Files Season 8 fic. I liked going back to the post-Anasazi trilogy mindset, with all the bitterness and fear that engendered. The smut was great, but what I enjoyed most was getting inside Mulder's head again, and remembering all the good stuff about him that this season has made me forget.