Fandom: X-FILES/Casablanca
Pairing: Mulder/Scully, Pendrell/Scully
Author on LJ: N/A
Author's website: hereWhy this must be read:The movie Casablanca has become part of the cultural pool in which all ficwriters swim, and it strikes a chord for many of us, with its tragic romantic triangle, the desperate wartime circumstances, and the shifting loyalties of the characters. So it's no surprise that an ambitious X-Files ficwriter would take on the challenge of marrying the Casablanca structure to the X-Files characters, particularly given the common themes of love, trust, and loyalty that run through both works.
Loch Ness' 1997 novel
Letters of Transit posits a world in which colonization happened, Mulder and Scully were separated, and both went on to function as best they could in a changed universe. It's dark and tragic and sweeping, with familiar X-Files characters filling out roles you may or may not remember from the movie. It's a great story.
(For those who don't remember Pendrell or who never watched the first few seasons, Pendrell was a cute lab technician at the FBI who had a crush on Scully in the early seasons. In canon, he was shot and died during season 4.)
"Your boy Mulder has an appreciation of history," the smoker said.
"He's not 'my boy' anymore. And the Casablanca Club is about money, not history. He's making a mint, and technically, it's all legal. Nobody can touch him."
"Have you ever seen *Casablanca*, Mr. Skinner?"
He shrugged. "Not in years. I don't really remember much of it."
The smoking man nodded. "Mulder does."
He dropped his cigarette butt on the ground and crushed it out with his foot. "As long as he's still legal, you might tell him for me that it's a dangerous fantasy."
Skinner had no idea what he was talking about. The smoking man got in the car, then looked up at Skinner just before he shut the door.
"Mulder's got more lives than a fucking cat," the smoking man said. "But he's about used them up. And *Casablanca*--that fantasy's liable to get him killed."
Letters of Transit, Part 1Letters of Transit, Part 2 
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif){kind=small}
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
