Story 213: "Undying" by Elanor G

[wendelah1]

This story is told from Tooms's POV and it's just as creepy as that suggests. Elanor G is better known for her well-plotted casefiles, and they are excellent too, but this story is darkly original. The author rates it R but I would give it no more than a PG-13 for violence

Comments

[bardsmaid]

Really nicely done! And I like the tie-in about Scully's immortality at the end. Thanks for picking this.

[mogster495]

They never really developed the Tooms character in the series, and somehow he is a huge part of XF lore. I like stories that explore previously unexplored avenues. I particularly liked the part where he was laughing at Nosferatu. It makes sense that he would find the consumption of blood weak and trivial compared to his hunger for livers.
Not sure about Scully being undying though. I've always thought Clyde Bruckman was referring to her not dying of cancer. I never been a fan of Tithonus, I just thought the writers were being lazy with that one.

[badforthefish]

See, I loved Tithonus, I thought it was a very creepy tale , and I think Scully's 'death' is one of the most potent scene I've seen on the show. I mean you can see the life fading from her frikkin' eyes! How does an actor do that???

This said I agree that the ending smacked of lazy writing and I agree with your Clyde Bruckman's theory. That he would mean she survives her cancer makes sense.

But I'm glad this "Scully is immortal" trope exists, because if it hadn't, Penumbra wouldn't have written Fathoms Five, which is amazing stuff.

[mogster495]

I love Penumbra but I hated disliked Fathoms Five. Scully would never even attempt to kill herself, she is Catholic and we just don't do that. Even if you are not officially apart of the faith, once you have been a Catholic you never consider it (suicide).

[badforthefish]

Are you telling me that no Catholic has ever committed suicide? If this were the case there wouldn't all those issue of being buried in unconsecrated ground.

I know Scully's attempt to kill herself is one of the most controversial point of this story.

I myself find it plausible that Scully would not want to live forever, that the burden of eternal life would be too much for her to bear.

However, I have a hard time buying that she would try to off herself while young. But at the same time it looks like she's experimenting - what a bullet through the head will do to her. She hopes she's going to die but deep down she *knows* she's not going to.

[badforthefish]

Eeep, I'm still reading "Fish for Fallen Light"!

[mogster495]

I caught that too. I wish it was the cross though, would have been cooler.

[infinitlight]

Yes good. I liked that we got a little more about Frank Briggs, who I always thought was an interesting character.

I think that the cross and crucifix were meant to be symbolic? Also given that he mentions the vampire movie. They're symbols that ward or kill vampires. The wooden crucifix was something he took at the beginning of his life, and the gold cross at the end (of course I have to disregard the fact, like badforthefish said, that he didn't actually take her cross necklace, but another one (I suspect the cross necklace didn't have a long enough chain for him to plot-point it from around her neck without her noticing, or they would have used it)).

[badforthefish]

Was Scully even wearing that golden cross this early in the season?

[infinitlight]

Yep, she wore it in the pilot and in Deep Throat.

[badforthefish]

Oooh, well remembered. *claps* Awww, baby Scully.

[estella_c]

I liked this story, though "liked" is as far as I can go. It's fairly original by X-fic standards, but not by horror standards.

Specific things that I liked. It's well-crafted. Frank Briggs. The ambiguous perceptions of Scully and Mulder at the end. It might have been a reference to S's immortality, but M is mentioned too. Maybe it's that "shining" of hers, the sensing of the weird that made up to a minor extent for the way the writers kept her away from actual supernatural events during the first seasons. They should have done more with it. Shoulda, coulda, woulda. Sometimes it occurs to me that we're discussing ancient history. Not Roman Empire ancient, but still...

[infinitlight]

I always thought they were going to do more with Scully's intuition-thing. But then, I always thought they had an amazing Samantha story up their sleeves too, and we saw how that turned out.

[badforthefish]

The way they messed up so many potentialy awesome storylines is staggering. The Samantha arc being one of many. Which is why when people say CC is writing for X-F3, I want to shout: "For Christ sake man, yes you created those characters but you suck at plot writing. Give the job to someone more talented, call Ridley Scott or Joss Whedon, or call back Vince Gilligan or Morgan and Wong. Chris, face it, you're a crap story writer!!!"

Rant over.

Aaah, that's better. *g*