A Scully Fest Challenge

[wendelah1]

I know it's only Thursday the 13th here in my time zone but since it's just after midnight in London and it's been Friday for hours and hours already in Australia, I am declaring scully_fest officially open.

The rewatch starts tonight in my timezone with "Beyond the Sea." Check the schedule post for your timezone and don't forget to cast your votes for the

Comments

Comment here with Questions

[wendelah1]

If you have questions about the challenge, comment here or PM if you'd rather.

Re: Comment here with Questions

[estella_c]

I guess my only question is, once again, could I do this? Why not? So short.....thinking...

Re: Comment here with Questions

[wendelah1]

I definitely think you could. Try it, you'll like it!

Re: Comment here with Questions

[estella_c]

I wrote a 155 vignette that clocks in at 260 or something. I really don't want to cut it. But it's cheating, isn't it? What will happen to me if I post it? Will I lose my security clearance? Should I send it to my beta and risk harsh words?

Scully in 155: "The Message"

[wendelah1]

He called her Starbuck; she called him Ahab. When home from sea, he read her Moby-Dick. The nickname meant she was special. Only the cautious chief mate argued against his captain's monomaniacal obsession with "that accursed white whale."

Starbuck had reason and God on his side, to no avail. Captain Ahab won't, can't, listen.

He gave her a copy on her tenth birthday, the one she reread every year. It kept them connected, even when-circumstances-made that otherwise difficult.

He'd been proud when she got into Stanford, disappointed when she accepted the FBI's offer. She felt hurt, yet ashamed of her need for his approval.

She loved this job. She solved mysteries and brought criminals to justice. It took brains and guts to do it well.

"He'll come around," her mother'd soothed. She was right-he had. His apparition's words were garbled but the message now seemed clear.

He was her father, after all.

Re: Scully in 155: "The Message"

[tree]

i already said it, but i'll say it again here: this is beautiful.

Re: Scully in 155: "The Message"

[wendelah1]

Thanks, dear.

I'm going to try to write one for each episode of the rewatch.

Wish me luck with the Bug and Pus episode.

Re: Scully in 155: "The Message"

[estella_c]

You could do a metafic and involve Bugs somehow. Or maybe just dedicate it to her.

Scully in 155: "Rewired"

[badforthefish]

The chill of the stone seeps through her gloved hand. She leaves it there. She deserves that cold. Her body should be the one still and decaying in that hole in the ground. She shouldn't be the warm one.

I miss you.

She doesn't say it out loud but the words fill her head. The emotion they carry take too much space within her chest. She breathes in deeply, painfully. Some visits are easier than others.

A warm hand closes on her shoulder.

She straightens up but does not turn around.

“I didn't mean what I said,” she tells him.

“I know. That's all right, Scully.”

No. None of this is all right. Her paranoid meltdown gave voice to the ugly things between them they never address. He didn't pull the trigger. Neither did she, and yet -

Her hand leaves the tombstone.

She catches his arm. “Let's go home, Mulder.”

Re: Scully in 155: "Rewired"

[wendelah1]

So good. So sad.

I would disagree with her assertion that she should be the one who is in the grave. Melissa didn't deserve to die but neither did Scully. But it works as an expression of guilt.

I always thought Scully might feel angry at Mulder because of her sister's death, even if she didn't want to.

Re: Scully in 155: "Rewired"

[badforthefish]

Thanks! It was the line "You killed my sister!" that triggered this image of Scully standing in front of her sister's grave with Mulder behind her.

Scully knew the bullet that killed Melissa was destined for her. Add to this the usual Catholic and survivor's guilt. She might think none of them deserved to die but I think she's very aware that her sister died in her place.

And I am convinced she blames herself as much as she blames him. This is what I meant with the line about not pulling the trigger. Maybe I should have made it more obvious that the trigger in question was from the gun that killed Melissa.

Re: Scully in 155: "Rewired"

[wendelah1]

Scully knew the bullet that killed Melissa was destined for her. Add to this the usual Catholic and survivor's guilt. She might think none of them deserved to die but I think she's very aware that her sister died in her place.

Yes, she is. They all are.

This is what I meant with the line about not pulling the trigger. Maybe I should have made it more obvious that the trigger in question was from the gun that killed Melissa.

I disagree. I think the hint of ambiguity works in its favor, especially in a story this short, adding in an extra layer of meaning.

Scully in 155: "A Woe that is Madness"

[wendelah1]

It was, she imagined, like coming down from a bad trip. Or waking up after a bender. The dry mouth, headache, muscular aches and pains.

The embarrassment and humiliation.

Afterward at the hospital, she could scarcely meet his eyes. It had seemed so real: the Smoking Man was talking with Mulder in the car. She'd seen them together, she'd swear to it. Except, everything Mulder'd done during the case she'd reinterpreted through the lens of her paranoia.

But there was a reason for that, a small voice insisted, which meant her distrust could not be so easily dismissed.

She didn't know which was worse, her loss of control or the residual worry that he still wasn't telling her everything. Why hadn't he said he was taking the transmitter to the Gunmen for analysis?

Would you have believed him if he had?

Her deepest fear was his betrayal.

And now he knew--and so did she.

Re: Scully in 155: "A Woe that is Madness"

[idella]

Ouch. This is so painful. What I mean is, fantastic job. This episode really shook me up, and your fic really captures the anxiety of the episode, IMO.

Re: Scully in 155: "A Woe that is Madness"

[wendelah1]

Thanks so much.

This episode is a real mind fuck, isn't it? Because he does keep stuff from her, about his sources, about what he knows about the Consortium, and even about her own body.

Mulder makes me so damn mad.

Re: Scully in 155: "A Woe that is Madness"

[estella_c]

If he were smart he'd pay attention to that. Write it.

Scully in 155: "Big Day"

[estella_c]

Wendy said to do this. Without Wendy there would be nothing. Wendy is another name for the Big Bang.

William loved bath time. Scully powdered and diapered him with care and put on the triceratops jammies he seemed to prefer. The evening after she put him down stretched endlessly, and when she tried to watch a classic movie her stomach churned.

She turned it off and went to bed. Hour after sleepless hour. She'd known that would happen. Twice she went to look at her baby. No drugs. She had to be clear. She considered a glass of wine. No, not that route. Please, she prayed to her saints and ancestors.

She remembered when she'd prayed to God.

When she fell into an early-morning fever dream she saw a small, vicious alien riding on William's mobile. She woke to sunlight and immediately had a photosensitive headache. She dressed William and sang to him.

What was that film. Citizen Kane. Mother of mercy.

At ten o'clock the social workers were at her door.

Re: Scully in 155: "Big Day"

[wendelah1]

This is excellent and so, so sad.

I have never forgiven 1013 for William, but that's a discussion for another time and place.

Re: Scully in 155: "Big Day"

[estella_c]

We can always find a time and place to hate on 1013. But not now. Thanks, Kiddo.

Re: Scully in 155: "Big Day"

[idella]

Citizen Kane would be an excellent movie to turn off right about then. D:

This is so good.