Story 270: "Finding Rokovoko" by prufrock's love

[wendelah1]

"Queequeg was a native of Rokovoko, an island far away to the West and South. It is not down in any map; true places never are."
- Moby-Dick; or The Whale, by Herman Melville

Fanfiction, both reading it and writing it, has been off my radar entirely these past few months. You can easily guess why. I even forgot the xf_book_club's anniversary date. Sorry

Comments

[zinnia03]

I just tried to post something and LJ timed out on me. Curses! Of course, the original post was much better than this one

[bmerb]

So excited to read a new one, and better yet that it's season 4 (good cancer arc fics are a guilty pleasure of mine, everything is so... honed somehow)! Wheee! I'll comment when I finish. Real love from has been dumping some awful on me for the past couple months so yeah, new fic like this is a treat for sure.

[bmerb]

OMG this was awesome. So much disturbingly good fun. Just the right kind of horror, I cannot say how much I loved the road that led to nowhere, the creepy giggles and little hands, the deja vu (or whatever PL called it), and how smoothly the story integrates later canon into this AU world (Mulder's dream) and changes other bits of later canon (the chip) to meld into this universe. And yes, the dialogue is right spanking on, particularly Scully's scientific and medical spouting, and pretty much all Mulder characterization. Oh so good! The time warp, the tie in to the Eves, to Victor Klemperer, and the creepy as all hell ghoulish haunting and time warping... *sigh* satisfied customer.

[keslei]

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: I love the way prufrock's love writes Mulder. I also enjoyed the weirdness and creepiness of this story, with the road outside of space and time (I've driven middle-of-nowhere roads in the Florida Everglades area and they're pretty much the perfect setting for this sort of isolation scary story), and the asylum with all its various horrors (I'm not sure if the ghosts or the Adams were more disturbing, honestly). And although I sometimes get annoyed by stories with Mulder saving an incapacitated Scully, I liked this one, probably because up until the last bit in the asylum, Scully is still poking holes in Mulder's theories about squallies and figuring out what happened to the children and basically playing her usual role as the voice of science and reason.

Yassss

[anonymous]

Sweet fancy Moses I needed this.

Re: Yassss

[anonymous]

Now that I've devoured it, I'm back with a few thoughts. I'm know I'm late to the game (which is what I get for taking so long to check the book club, sorry) but I can't read this and *not* comment.

As always, prufock's love crafted a wonderful plot. I especially love Mulder and Scully in seasons four and five. They've been together long enough to form a solid partnership and know one another thoroughly, yet they're still a little more formal and reserved.

I am often wary of AU stories, because they can veer into sappiness and inauthentic characterization, but of course that was not the case here. This was an AU that I really liked. The banter was spot-on and the AU actually folds beautifully back into cannon in the end.

There were lots of little lines and moments that are were inspired and so very beautiful. It was the right balance of tough and tender, and definitely requires re-reading the future. Thank you for posting it!

Re: Yassss

[wendelah1]

Sorry I'm so late replying to this. You're welcome. Theoretically, it's never too late to comment, though I doubt you'll see my tardy reply.

Without a LJ account, it's difficult. Anon comments are screened.