Gift for: Discordia

[badforthefish]

Title: South of the Lake
Author: badforthefish
Rating: PG
Summary: The Gunmen go to Area 51.
Timeline: Season 5. Somewhere between Christmas Carol/Emily and All Souls.
Word Count: 4000.
Disclaimer: Frohike said it was okay to use him in any way I wanted. I don't think this is what he had in mind.
Thanks: to samincittagazze for kicking my pidgin English's ass into

Comments

[badforthefish]

I'm so happy you liked it! It was my first time writing the Gunmen, and I wasn't sure if I would get their voices right.

I wanted Frohike to realize that he'd crossed some kind of creepy boundary by calling his van after the object of his crush. Seeing the clones, such obvious symbols of Scully's objectification drove this point home.

I've always had a soft spot for Frohike. It was fun to write him.

My original ending had Frohike simply driving off, the girl kind of wormed herself in the ending during final tweaks.

What is the girl doing here? Well I could tell you but then I'd have to kill you. And I don't wanna because you write too damn well.

[maybe_amanda]

I love the Gunmen. This is them in a nutshell.

And the story itself is at once touching, creepy, plausible, and all too familiar. Good stuff.

[badforthefish]

Thank you for this lovely feedback. :)

They were so much fun to write, and clones are always creepy. After seeing Christmas Carol/Emily it seemed logical that Scully's DNA would be used for all kind of experiments.

[estella_c]

I don't believe you know what the girl is doing at the end of your story. But I believe you'll figure it out, and I'll be there.

Really great job. But didn't Frohike visit Scully smashed after one of Mulder's deaths? So of course she knows he drinks. Though I may have fouled the timeline.

Thanks for another visit with the Gunmen. We can't let them go, can we? And why should we?

[badforthefish]

Ahahahah! Of course I know. The girls from Nevada found out about their mother and they got curious.

Damn! You're right. That'll teach me not to double check my eps. I thought the "Do you recycle" scene happened later, during the "Dead Alive" time, but no, it was during the Blessing Way! I will have to modify that line when I post it on my journal. Mulder, you die too damn much, it's confusing! I think this means it's really time for a rewatch.

There are no reasons in the verse to let them go.

[idella]

This is fantastic. It's so good to see the Gunmen again, especially when they're so themselves: comic relief until they're not. What was done to the girls was properly chilling. I loved Frohike going to see Scully, and not being entirely sure why, and the discussion they have. I love your description of the desert sky. And your very TXF-episode ending. This is so much like one of the good mytharc episodes, really. I enjoyed this a lot, and I'll be coming back to it, I am sure. Well done.

[badforthefish]

Aww, thank you very much. The balance between comedy and drama for the Gunmen was a good exercise in fine tuning.

I saw the girls as the initial defective results of cloning experiments. It's an idea I've been toying with since Christmas Carol/Emily.

Frohike and Scully, their dynamic was really interesting to try and fathom. I think that despite his outwardly lecherous attitude, Frohike has a lot of respect for Scully.

A good mytharc episode? Okay now I'm blushing.

*Hugs*

[bugsfic]

Like others, just love the van being called Dana. Such a lovely detail. And those boys were such good friends. I think that's what killed me about their deaths; they were so damn *true* and faithful, and you captured that perfectly.

And then to have Scully want to protect Mulder from the truth...That's pretty true and faithful as well. The price they all pay for the cruelty happening in this universe is captured in this story.

[badforthefish]

Wow, thank you! I'm so psyched you enjoyed this. :)

Killing the Gunmen was so unecessary and one more reason why I have such a huge beef against the train wreck that were S8/9.