China (X-Files story)

You may be looking for China, the X-Files/Highlander story by torch.

Fanfiction
Title:	China
Author(s):	Punk Maneuverability
Date(s):
Length:	4800 words
Genre(s):
Fandom(s):	The X-Files
Relationship(s):
External Links:	China @ AO3
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China is an The X-Files story by Punk Maneuverability.

Author's Notes

Acknowledgements: "This was originally supposed to be a corollary to my Mulder/other "Venture Forth." Not a sequel, just the shoe on the other foot. So to speak. I started writing this, god, a long time ago. It was supposed to be longer, but it'll just have to be shorter and unfinished instead. Unfinished in the sense that I just now, after six years, slapped an ending on it. It's perhaps a little abrupt, a little ragged, and I'm not sure it's the ending it deserves, but I hate reading things that just stop. This is one way it could have gone. Posted as part of wip_amnesty on LiveJournal."

About the Ending

From Punk's LJ: "The last scene is the part I slapped on. I honestly don't remember where I was going with this. I remember a vague plan to have Richard call her from work and her not being there. I don't know if she was going to leave or not, or if she was going to say goodbye if she did. I just had to put some kind of closure on it though, otherwise we would have ended with Richard feeling sulky about the fruit shopping. *g* At the most, Scully might have told Richard that Mulder needed her for a case or was trying to get her to come back to the FBI. The reader probably wasn't going to know any more than that because we can guess, not the specifics, but we could easily come up with a reason or two (He needs her for a case!/He can't live without her!/He loves her!), and then choose our favorite."

Reactions and Reviews

I can see what the author means about the "ragged" ending; it begins as though it will be a much longer fic and then just kind of slides to a halt. It's an interesting character piece. I enjoyed the development over the story of the main character's (Richard's) voice.I think Scully's obvious dissatisfaction with the life she's made for herself is interesting too, but I cannot see her making the move she does at the end of the story. We've seen her be withdrawn emotionally; we've seen her have difficulty expressing herself. We've never seen her chicken out of a difficult confrontation, no matter how hard she may find it. I think if she was going to leave her husband, she would tell him herself.

Full disclosure - I adore Punk. That being said, I adore this story. Why? Because it's not easy. It's not clean. It's not simple. Nothing gets wrapped up in 44 minutes. Our heroes don't end up looking too damned heroic.I think what this story exemplifies how little you can actually know about someone you love, and it reinforces the old adage that says, "Where ever you go, there you are." Wherever Scully goes, it seems, she's there, too.

After reading it, I'm still not sure I know what's going on, but in a good way. The story raises more questions than it answers. And the end? My first thought was that Scully had been taken. She hadn't just "disappeared". That maybe Mulder had come to warn her, not to ask her to come back. It seems like it could go either way ...It seemed like Mulder went out of his way to be personable in the story. He charmed Jules and Mark, and was pleasant to Richard. Richard expects some posturing, and comments that he didn't get the macho grip from Mulder that he expected. Scully is the one who appears completely unreasonable. And, as if she realizes that Mulder made a good impression, she tells a story that puts him in a bad light. As if she's trying to convince herself that she made the right decision. It is an interesting character study and as Punk says, the ending is one way it could have gone. I do wish there was a bit more of it.

Actually, I liked the ending, in a sense. TBH, it reminded me of what I see as one idea in One Breath that I really really liked - yes, I know, think of it as an analogy, I guess. I'm not going for a direct similarity here ;) I felt the part of One Breath that really did it for me was the resolution of the X thread, so as to speak. Mulder either spends the night with Scully, or he goes after those people who put her on that respirator. He doesn't have two options about it, and it shows. One thread gets left hanging, undeveloped, or shrivelled: he goes back and finds his apartment trashed, and that's just it. Period. We never ever get to see anything along that line again. And that's something I find interesting/that I liked about the ending in this one. To me, anyway. And that's that it felt like we were on the edges, alienated, watching Scully make a choice. And once that happens, endings don't happen *neat*. There aren't clean resolutions. Bits are left hanging there, and we don't really know what happens, but in the end, it all leads back to some resolution that we (guess?) that Scully might/might not have reached.

If you like stories which can can be read many different ways and you're comfortable with having to do a lot of the work at the end, well, this is certainly the story for you. Leaving aside the problematic ending, what is interesting to me is what no one has yet addressed: what led Scully to this place in her life. Given everything that happened to her, why did she choose to leave then? What was the tipping point? Why did she choose Richard? And why did he choose her? Was she really just using him? Are relationships between adults ever that simple? Or is there more going on here than Punk got around to writing? I can imagine Scully walking away from the FBI and Mulder at this point in her life. The last six months have been crap. She was abducted (again) and nearly died (again). Mulder ditched her (again) and nearly died (again). She nearly loses Skinner. Diana and Spender still had the X-Files. She and Mulder were on indefinite shit duty, and Mulder wasn't doing anything that led her to believe that would change. And then she gets shot, in the abdomen and nearly dies (again!). I'm not sure anyone who hasn't been through something similar can appreciate how painful that shooting must have been to experience and to recover from. My sense is she's still not recovered from it, at least emotionally, at the time this story takes place. Scully and Richard have been together a year, more or less, when Mulder comes knocking at the door. Afterward, Scully reveals to Richard at least the immediate reasons she left and tells him she just couldn't do it anymore. She goes on to say she doesn't like to talk about it because she misses it, meaning she misses her work and misses Mulder, too, probably. Maybe. She probably feels guilty, too, though she doesn't say that to Richard. Richard has some issues of his own: a bossy twin sister and a fairly recent nervous breakdown, to name but two. If china's fragility is the dominant metaphor here, you could say he's been broken but he's put himself back together, plus he's smart and funny and wields a mean vegetable. And he's used to catering to difficult women, that much is clear. I don't see Richard and Scully's relationship as healthy exactly, but perhaps it could be, if they were both committed to it. It's clear to me that he is, but as it turns out, maybe she isn't. Or maybe something else is in play here? After hearing what Mulder came to say, she wakes up the next morning and tells her lover she's not going in to work, which is so unusual that he's taken aback. When Richard comes home, everything is still there--except her.

One of the reasons I like this story is that there is as much we don't know as we do. Why did Mulder come, what did he say that made Scully leave? (I don't go for the abducted scenario...her behaviour was more indicative of one who was mentally distancing herself, the evidence feels pretty conclusive). And indeed, why was she with Richard in the first place? Was it her attempt to find a "normal" life? The story she told Richard, was that true? Maybe she was undercover and torn about having treated Richard so badly? But if so, what was so nefarious about Richard and his family that she needed to be so deeply undercover in the first place? But really I think Scully did leave the X-files, did make great efforts to find her normal life, but Mulder's arrival - and maybe whatever he said to her too - unravelled all of that. Scully is terribly upset because she knows she cannot make her "normal" life work, however lovely Richard might be. It's her coldness and emotional distance from Richard which is the most hurtful for him, her leaving was just the inevitable conclusion that doesn't surprise even him. It is uncharacteristic of Scully, to a point - the abandonment without a word is, but not her reserve, her lack of explanations and sharing. It's who she is taken to the extreme. So Richard is the hero of this story, not Scully and Mulder is a catalyst to Scully's actions, an all-pervasive presence more in the abstract than in reality. Not the usual XF fanfic. It's daring and it's intriguing, but given all of that I can see why it might have been hard for PM to find an easy resolution to it, hence the hanging threads.

Wow. I really like this story, and found it more satisfying than "Inventing the Mulders." The personal preference is a little mystifying, as they are both extremely well-written. I think it's got such a zingy originality, presenting one of those trouble-under-the-surface party scenes with off-center characters, almost like an undiscovered Noel Coward. Well, no laughs. Maybe normaled-down Pinter. Whereas ITM has only the lugubrious tones of Mulder and Scully disagreeing. We *know* that Mulder and Scully disagree and will continue to, but we shippers are easy to figure out. We contend that they are in love and will end up together. And so far as I can see, Punk gives us that option. The title is a super one, having the shimmer of multiple connotations. But there are story problems. Scully is quite cruel here, being tormented by her own bad decision, and that's extreme--as in Iolokus--but I can roll with it. The shape of C is odd, with much attention given to a character who is essentially deserted by his girlfriend, the writer, and all us readers. He deserves better, but damn, we know Mulder has the charisma. This is almost an extended reworking of that Scullydate in The Jersey Devil. Scully tries the normal and it bores her. But hers is a destructive mistake and now, whatever happens, she will carry the guilt. I mentioned the shape. The whole sequence of Richard describing the restaurant and buying fruit and placating his sister: it felt like a setup for a novel. That, I think, is why many feel that the ending is ragged; so many things are described to no particular point. The restaurant stuff almost had a Marysueish quality. Well, I liked it anyhow. Punk's prose is always agile and fast and captures the imagination. And I have developed a theory that writers who excel at comedy are capable of genuine pathos. All I have to do is line up Punk Maneuverability, Jess Mabe, and Kel. Can we think of others?

I like Punk too but... I don't see any evidence of a happily-ever-after ending in the making here. So Scully leaves her boyfriend because Mulder has charisma? Everything is jolly except Scully feels guilty and why shouldn't she? She is cruel. That sounds like your ending. Not Punk's. The problem with her ending is we don't really know what happened. All we can do is guess. It's like an XF fanfiction Rorshach test. Sure. Fine. Whatever.

I have admitted to many reservations about this story, including the unresolved ending. I don't see how "drove the plot off a cliff" differs substantially with "so many things are described to no particular point." You say the reader is left with work to do. I suppose you're right, in a way, but I don't feel compelled to do it; mysteries are mysteries. Scully's inner life is as hard to penetrate here as her spiky, enigmatic demeanor and I have no problem with the eerie feeling it leaves us with. There is, after all, always more fanfic. I didn't say "happy ever after," just "end up together." As for charisma--there, I think we bump up against the unique nature of fanfic. Mulder looks like David Duchovny; what does Richard look like? I realize appearance isn't *everything*, but in tv/film fanfic it is powerful. Plus, to the polite cypher that is Mulder in "China" we can add the rich history of canon, with all the genius jumps, jokes and neuroses that make up this iconic character. (I too am sick of the word "iconic," but, darn it, I'm thinking The X-Files owns it.) While patient Richard has a twin sister, a breakdown, a restaurant and a deteriorating grasp on a difficult lover. He seems like a good guy, though there's actually not too much evidence. He's probably a better bet for long-term than Mulder. But this is *Mulder,* this is *the X-Files,* and this is *fanfic*

So Punk's fic gets a pass here because of the unique nature of fanfic? Because David Duchovny is a hunk? Because we all love the show? So how come no one else gets one? The difference between driving the plot off a cliff (a pop-cultural reference to Thelma and Louise, see--I watch movies, too) and describing things to no particular point is that you are complaining about the little details not adding up, and I'm bitching specifically about the ending. Although I admit these two issues are not unrelated, I don't think the problem with the ending is the fruit or that Richard is insufficiently characterized, I think it's the ending itself. The whole point of a mystery is to solve it, elegantly and completely, and in such a way that the reader thinks, of course! I should have seen that coming! The mystery can remain unsolved for poor Richard--but the reader should get more consideration.

It did lack resolution, but despite loose ends the ending felt natural (and quite effective) to me, because it signalled the end of Scully's attempt at a "normal" life, and presumably her return to the work. And since the entire story was based on the premise of her having left the X-Files, having her return to them feels like a logical place to leave things. It gives the story a bold, simple arc. The only loose thread I object to is that Scully left nothing at all to indicate she left of her own volition....On the other hand, there are things I do like about the seemingly pointless Richard exposition - even though I agree that it is a flaw over all. I like that it gives his character legitimacy in his own right, and makes his POV feel intriguing, rather than like a flimsy device. His relative solidity keeps me seeing Scully from the outside, as he sees her, without slipping into her character. And the more I learned about his life the more I got the eerie feeling that Scully was terribly out of place, which struck me as the main tension of the fic. I kept seeing her in a sever black suit throughout the fic, a dark presence, even though I know she was probably dressed in something casual. I think inside she was still black-suited as ever.