Rerun Request: "To Carthage Then I Came" by Annakovsky

[wendelah1]

Thanks to all who voted in my poll re: story reruns. Although the turn-out was low, the trend seemed clear enough: the vast majority of voting members were fine with reruns. If you feel differently, now is your time to let us know. I'll leave the poll open until I figure out how to close it. Ahem.

Originally suggested by emily_shore, we first discussed "To

Comments

[heartequals]

ACQUIESCE

[heartequals]

actually i do have something to say re: the "why doesn't he (at least) tell the elder samantha?" issue. someone suggested in the last post that perhaps it was because samantha 3 was so different from the samantha he knew? i just can't see that though. it's fox mulder -- he's so bloody-minded that any samantha is samantha. the author does a great job of showing that single-bloody-mindedness as well.

i'm sorta unwilling to delve into what it means about mulder that he wouldn't tell his clone sister that she is in fact his sister but i'm fascinated and in love with the idea. i agree that it is a bit ooc but i was not put off by the issue at all.

[wendelah1]

it's fox mulder -- he's so bloody-minded that any samantha is samantha. the author does a great job of showing that single-bloody-mindedness as well.

Which is why one is forced to wonder if on some level he must have known it would, or even wanted this to happen.

i agree that it is a bit ooc but i was not put off by the issue at all.

By not put off, I assume you mean you didn't find the story offensive. I didn't either but this story still feels like a tragedy to me.

[heartequals]

In some way I guess this story merely is the examination of obsession. When the object of his life's searching becomes, very literally, the only thing in his life.

[infinitlight]

Oooh, I remember this story--in fact I reread it recently.

I really like the way Scully is "used" in this story, even though she's not actually in it ("my wife Dana" and then "my sister"). I always wondered if there was some kind of link between Scully and Samantha (in the early seasons of the show I had a whole conspiracy theory about this worked out, but it's been a while), so thought the kind of transposition Mulder does of them in his mind is interesting.

I also like the way this fic plays with a fic cliche--Mulder as this happy, suburban family man, and turns it OMG HORRIBLY WRONG. Not at all an inaccurate observation of him, I think ("He wonders if all this time, he's wanted this."), but definitely disturbing.

[enj412]

Highly disturbing idea for a story and definitely a disturbing read. I am going to go re-read some of my favorite sappy MSR stories now to try and forget that I read this.

I will give the author credit for her creativity, but this story is simply not to be liking and I find it very OOC for Mulder (not to mention disturbing, as I already said).

[heartequals]

ooc how?

[enj412]

I think it's highly OOC for Mulder to sleep with someone he believes to be his sister, or a clone of his sister. Maybe that is just IMHO, though. Because I am a hopeless romantic and think Mulder is completely, irrevocably in love with Scully and wouldn't want anyone else.

[hlbr]

I'm not reading it again right now (have re-read it a couple of times, when for some reason I'm in the mood), but what I remember of this story, apart from the fact that it was tightly written was that it was probably so disturbing because it was horribly plausible. I'm not even sure why--I don't quite get Mulder's motivations on the whole not telling them thing--but it just works in context, and fuck, it's disturbing.

Also, a beautiful story. Prose wise, I mean. The ending phrase just kills me--it could work very well for just canon Mulder, too.