#softnow

[audiofanficpod]

this haunted house we used to call our home by @softnow

Read by Annie

Please leave the author a comment if you enjoyed their story 😘

[softnow]

i just took a dance class taught by theee vincent rodriguez iii??? and we learned don’t be a lawyer choreo????? 2018 holl is screaming

[asifyoudidntknow]

All Time Favs

I began reading fanfic in my teens during the original run of the show. There were lonnng breaks from it, but coming back to the fandom in 2017 reignited my interest. I now keep a spreadsheet as well as a "to read" list. I already have almost 600 logged (not including 5 years), so I wanted to share my top favorites. Divided into my 4 favorite genres (AU, casefic, angst + romance, and smut + romance) and in no particular order...

*Alternate Universe*

I used to wonder why someone would choose to read AU. Then I read one of these and was completely blown away.

Katherine of Ireland by Jenna Tooms (gossamer)

Katherine, princess of Ireland is married to Walter, king of Angora. When Walter is killed during battle, Katherine is taken by the enemy, FitzJames. William is FitzJames right hand. When FitzJames orders her to be beaten (even after discovering her pregnancy) William devises a plan to save her, heal her and get her back to Ireland. Will William always be seen as the enemy or will Katherine come to see him for who he truly is?

By the dim and flaring lamps by @sunflowerseedsandscience (ao3)

Civil war AU’s are my jam and this was one of the first ones I read.  When Mulder discovers (disguised boy) Scully bathing in a waterfall by darkness and realizes what he is dealing with will remain etched in my brain forever.

In darkness by DKSculder (ao3)

What if Scully was married to Daniel?  What if Daniel was a serial killer?  What if Mulder was a VCU agent still?   This is an unfinished work, but the idea is unlike any other I’ve come across.

Blinded by the white light by DashaK (ao3)

Need I say more?  When Mulder and Scully find each other after colonization, will they remember each other and will they act on it?

The second side of light by @scapegrace74-blog (ao3)

Oregon Trail.  Mulder is leading scully and Melissa across the trail when Melissa dies.  They end up getting very close to one another on the journey.

Paracelsus by profuckslove (ao3)

Another amazing civil war AU.  When Mulder goes looking for his lost son and comes across a pregnant scully what will happen to them?

Hiareth by profuckslove (gossamer)

Wales 1215.  Scully escapes the king by marrying Mulder, the prince of wales.  Marriage leads to love and fighting off dangerous men.

Paracosm by @softnow (ao3)

This is an unfinished work.  College AU.  Mulder has a crush on the library girl, will she return his advances?

A companion unobtrusive by @slippinmickeys (ao3)

A college AU where scully is looking for a roommate and Mulder is looking for a room.  Melissa introduces them and the rest is history.

Qui Si by Trixie (gossamer)

After accepting an offer from a gypsy to go back to a life with Samantha in it, Mulder, a child psychologist, helps Scully, a PhD, get over her past.

You he did not fail by extraordinarily_ordinary (ao3)

Scully abruptly leaves TXF after surviving cancer and moves to LA to start anew.  She is dating when Mulder is assigned as a profiler to a case she is working and they have to deal with things left undealt with.

Five years and a lifetime by @monikafilefan (ao3)

Mulder is a Peds psychiatrist. Scully is a Peds neurologist. They meet at a conference and have a one night stand.  What happens when they come to work together 5 years later and Scully is a single mom?

Amish country by lolabeegood (gossamer)

Mulder and Scully go undercover in Amish country trying to catch a serial rapist while navigating very traditional values and roles.

You and me by lolabeegood (gossamer)

Mulder leaves his wealthy parents to serve under Scully’s father in the military.  In order for her to stay safe, fed, and clothed she needs to marry.

The mountain man by aka Jake (gossamer)

Scully is sent from nyc (where she was becoming a doctor) to Montana at her father’s wishes.  He wants her to marry a lieutenant under his command and not practice medicine, but she becomes intrigued with a local mountain man.

The countess/the earl by @slippinmickeys (ao3)

When scully is to be married to an old duke in order to save her family from financial ruin, a strange, alluring earl steps in to save her.

*Case*

There is nothing quite like a casefic. It's classic x-files and I am here for it. Writers in this fandom are so talented with their abilities to create a fic that rivals/trumps actual episodes.

Perchitor by @aloysiavirgata (ao3)

A little girl goes missing in the mountains with the superstition of Jenny Greenteeth to blame.  Mulder and Scully investigate while navigating a new physical relationship.

Omens by @lepus-arcticus (ao3)

I read this one as a WIP and was anxiously checking for an update every night.  There were several lines in this fic that made me gasp.  Cancer arc angst. Give me it alllll.

XII by fragilevixen (ao3)

A killer that romanticizes every victim.  His next target?  Guess who.  *coughSCULLYcough*

Hearts desire by malibusunset (ao3)

While in a small town scully runs into an old BF and starts wondering why she doesn’t prioritize her dating.  She decides to go for it.  The author makes me like Scully’s old flame.  That says something.  When the MSR convo finally does come, I thought I’d die from the slow burn.

Resurgam by opheila_interrupted (ao3)

One of the most xfiles like cases I have ever read.  Remains unsolved at the end and has our agents investigating ghosts near Mulder’s hometown while dealing with their own (Emily & Teena).

Universal invariants/laws of motion by @syntax6

Scully is engaged to Ethan throughout the first season while her and Mulder’s relationship is deepening and then consummated right before she is abducted.  How do two guys in love handle Scully’s abduction and what happens when she is returned?  

All the way home/head over heels by @syntax6

Mulder is pulled into a past unsolved VCU case of a killer with a shoe fetish while navigating a new physical relationship with scully.  When scully is targeted, Mulder has to gamble with his personal feelings while working to find the killer.

Queens gambit by Suzanne Schramm (gossamer)

Under Kersh, Mulder and Scully are assigned to a VCU case Mulder worked in Utah in 89’.  The killer was put to death and then revenge began.  Local mines and children involved.

*angst + romance*

This is my crux. Angst in any way, shape, or form. Add in some slow burn/ust and finally the rst *chefs kiss* particularly fond of Ethan fics and cancer arc.

Contact high by penumbra (gossamer)

Still feeling the residual effects of the spores post field trip, our agents try out Mulder’s new waterbed.

Early on by @sunflowerseedsandscience (ao3)

10 vignettes set during season 1.  Our baby agents are becoming close, but Ethan is still around.  How does scully navigate her relationship with Ethan while working with Mulder?

Center Mass by @kateyes224 (ao3)

Another Ethan fic set in season 1.  Mulder and Scully make an effort to get to know one another… in more ways than one.  And when Mulder gets aroused at Scully’s marksmanship it’s all over for me. 

One blue line by sarie_fairy (ao3)

IVF arc.  Scully is defeated by a negative pregnancy test.  When Mulder tries to comfort her, she suggests having sex.  I just remember wondering if I was reading or actually doing the act myself considering how detailed it was.

Salt by anjou (gossamer)

I remember reading this and being like WTF is happening to only have it all make sense at the end leaving me speechless.

Triptych by @iconicscullyoutfits (ao3)

My favorite FTF, post bee, how the f*ck did they get out of anarctica fic.

Snowbound by malibusunset (gossamer)

After missing their flight and being snowed in their rental on the side of the road, discussions lead to their relationship.  Once they’re recused they are put up in an inn with 1 room.  Dun, dun, dunnnn.

The ache by @storybycorey (ao3)

1999 Mulder has a visit with 2015 Mulder to urge him to get help with his depression and not lose scully.

Love bites by living_underground (ao3)

A review of vampirism cases throughout the years.  Hickeys from Ed.  Love bites from Mulder.

Goshen by bonetree (ao3)

Mulder and Scully are in a car accident where their car can’t be seen.  Major injuries lead to near death experiences and visions of Emily.

All that our senses can perceive by wonderland (ao3)

Mulder’s POV looking over Scully’s transformation from girl to woman and how all of his senses perceive her.

Caught in the Act I by parrotfish (gossamer)

Although the whole series is amazing, the first part is my favorite.  I love when scully lays into the review panel about being sexist.

The things she carries by @edierone (ao3)

One of my favorite cancer arc fics.  When Mulder confronts Scully 3 years later on the porch I literally stopped breathing.

Red valerian series by dashakay (ao3)

Scully looks to skinner for comfort during a grueling case, starting a 6 month affair.  Will scully ever love him or will the buried truth prevail?

Sex and Loathing by malibusunset (ao3)

Scully takes a drunk Mulder home after Roche.  He makes a move and they have terrible sex.  After 2 years of poking at each other they face things head on after Mulder almost dies in PBV.

Snakebitten by @onpaperfirst (ao3)

Set throughout season 5.  My favorite season. Say no more.

Five years and one night by Shalimar (gossamer)

When Scully transfers to LA and Mulder finds more babies like Emily, can they work together again to get to the bottom of this conspiracy?

The letter by Shalimar (gossamer)

Post TFWID, scully goes searching for more clues to her and Mulder’s past lives when she comes across a letter in a local Apison museum she sent to Mulder.

*smut + romance*

It's hard to have just smut when it comes to MSR, am I right? these two idiots are so in love that my smut category must also be romantic.

Undercover swing by 2momsmakearight (ao3)

What if Mulder and Scully go undercover as a married couple interested in swinging?  Can they both keep their jealously in check?  

Be kind, rewind by OnlyTheInevitable (ao3)

To help catch a suspect, skinner requests our agents watch porn together.  While watching, conversation leads to critiques about the performance and comments about personal preferences.

Girl 77 by mojo

A stripper is found dead with Mulder’s card on her.  She looks exactly like Scully.  Scully notices and confronts Mulder about it.

Dropped call series by @phillippadgettwrites (ao3)

Phone sex, but make it “not them”

December 31, 1984 by @phillippadgettwrites (ao3)

When Mulder saves an unimpressed scully from some jerk on NYE, they end up at her apartment having a one night stand.

Damsels by @sisterspooky1013 (ao3)

Scully is sent undercover as a stripper to find a missing woman.  Mulder is kept in the dark regarding her case, but pieces together where she is and what she’s doing and sets out to find her.

The Shirt by Audrey Roget (gossamer)

Skinner reconciles with Sharon leading to a vow renewal celebration. Skinner asks mulder and Scully to stand with him as his best agents. After slow dancing together, mulder bolts out of the celebration before scully catches the bridal bouquet and he crosses a line. When they end up in an accident while driving in a storm, things come to a head in an Elvis inspired motel suite out in the middle of nowhere PA.

[louistonehill]

"university of maryland, 1982. fox mulder is in love with the library girl."

Obsessed with the energy in Paracosm on AO3 by @softnow

[cecilysass]

Please write more of these, never stop

I love original fanfic ideas so much, but also: I could read these particular contrived scenarios told again and again and again, and I am not ashamed to admit it. Okay, I'm a little ashamed. But not very much.

Marriage of convenience (like Nuptiae Sub Rosa by @xfmaweezy and @sisterspooky1013 or All That Is Dark and Bright by @malibusunset-xf-blog). Absolute gold in every way and I will read every variation.

Scully pretending to be Mulder's 900 number girl (done recently in Dropped Call by @phillippadgettwrites)

The awkward first descent into phone sex in general, including and especially calls from the fertility clinic. This is done in an especially brilliant way in Vox Mulder: Wired and Fired by @darwin-xf.

All Milagro post-eps that force them to address "Agent Scully is already in love" without being too obvious

Almost all DeadAlive and Three Words post-eps period, because those eps just are fertile ground, no pun intended. I have a whole discussion about that and recs right here.

M&S have sex for non-romantic reasons (like, they're trying out friends with benefits, or they're trying to conceive a baby, or some other ridiculous reason). This obviously is a delightful way to show repressed feelings.

Mulder's psychic fics. I feel like there could be so many more of these. This one (Dissonance by suilven) has a killer set up and I revisit it a lot, but we should have more riffs on this concept.

All right, yes, jealousy fics, I know, very basic of me, but I just really like these. I personally like them when the angst goes really, really far. Like you want to die it hurts so bad far. That one moment in Pilgrims Creeping Towards the Dawn by @softnow where Scully hears Diana say “Fox” in the background on the phone? Inject that into my veins.

Contamination shower fics. Yeah. Enough said.

There are more than this, because actually I get wasted on tropes all the time. What do y'all like? And more importantly, DO YOU HAVE RECS FOR ANY OF THESE?

(The fics I mention here are linked here on my favorite fics doc, if you want to find them. If you haven’t read some of these, DO IT.)

[anders-hawke]

Do you have favorite fics that you always go back to because they’re so good?

Absolutely! (They're all smutfics, and I suppose that could tell you something about me, haha.)

Thigh Highs by @freckleslikestars

Oh My God by @storybycorey

the best that i can by @softnow

Normal Conversations by Soronia

[rethreadzandmore]

Check out this listing I just added to my Poshmark closet: 2 Throw Pillow Cover 18 x 18 Sofa Pillowcase Accent Chartreuse Green Plaid.

[lilydalexf]

👽 Random X-Files Fic Rec

A sweet morning with Mulder and Scully while they're stuck at home together thanks to a snowstorm? And Dirty Dancing movie-watching is involved? YES, PLEASE!! Title: thirty-six Author: softnow (@softnow) Summary: scully gets a year older. Length: 2,184 words Classification: snowed in, birthday fic, all the fun stuff Rating: Teen and up Spoilers: Season 7 Favorite line: He is the only tether she needs. Read the story!

[audiofanficpod]

AFP Top 3: Christmas Fics

Grab some hot cocoa or egg nog, pop in some earbuds and listen to @red2007, @msrtheatre0223, and Annie count down their top 3 Christmas fics. Plenty of fic recs and podfics to fill your holiday season.

On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres by @bluesamutra PODFIC

una via by @bluesamutra PODFIC

Mistletoe Madness by @syntax6

Unexpected Gifts by Emeraldsoleil PODFIC

Facing Forever by @jessahmewren PODFIC

white winter hymnal(s) by audries PODFIC

Snow and Sparrows by @suilven19 PODFIC

Fairies, Skip Hence by @slippinmickeys PODFIC

Amassing Memories by @red2007 PODFIC

Honorable Mentions:

merry by @softnow PODFIC

Christmas Eve and Other Stories by @rationalcashew

Christmas Eve by @icedteainthebag

Evergreen by @aloysiavirgata PODFIC

Reborn by freshtart PODFIC

Worse than Rush Hour on the 95 by @fridaysat9

Staff Christmas Party by @sarie-fairy PODFIC

In silentio veritas by kena

Wearing Icicles by Annie Sewell-Jennings

A Midnight Clear by @syntax6 PODFIC

Merry Little Christmases by @spooky-nerd

miles away @ghostbustermelanieking

Spencer's Christmas Gift by @msrafterdark

Miracle at Charlotte Douglas International Airport by @msrafterdark

A Christmas Tale by @baronessblixen

Be Brave by @baronessblixen

Cookie Love by @baronessblixen

(Do It On My) Twin Bed by @gaycrouton

A Little Love by @gaycrouton PODFIC

[frangipanidownunder]

Prompt: Mulder & Scully make a wrong turn on the way back from a case and end up somewhere cool.

City of Souls: fic

What a great prompt - thanks! I’ve never been to Colma so all mistakes are mine. Set late season 6, before The Unnatural.

He spits a seed outthe window and turns to her. He’d rolled his sleeves up hours ago, flung histie over the back seat. It might be the end of a California summer but the heatis unrelenting. Sweat prickles at the creases of his elbows. Immaculate in herseat, Scully’s still all business. Whole and upright.

           “When was the last time you worejeans, Scully?”

           She doesn’t answer. He hates thesilence.

           The sign reads ‘It’s Great to Be Alive in Colma’. He waits for her reaction. Nothing.He drives. On each side there are cemeteries. She’s drinking water and lookingout at the rows of uneven headstones.  Thereare hills behind them, scratched brown from too much sun. Withered. He makes amental note not look back too often.

“Scully, do you prefer Gunfight atthe OK Corral, the 1957 classic western starring Burt Lancaster and KirkDouglas or Tombstone, the 1993 remakestarring Kurt Russell and Val Kilmer?”

           He hears the creak of gristle in herneck as she turns towards him. There’s a tiny kink in her lips. Upwards. He letsout a slow breath.

           “I haven’t seen either, although Iunderstand the cast of each movie was stellar. Maybe you can invite me over fora classic western movie night, Mulder. We can drink beer in our Levis and talklike John Wayne or Clint Eastwood.” She’s teasing him. And his skin stipples inappreciation.

           “I see you with your hair tuckedunder a Stetson riding over the plains, outrunning and outshooting the outlaws,Sherriff Scully.”

Another cemetery looms ahead. Padgett is still a fresh nightmare. Herblood-soaked shirt stayed behind his eyes for weeks, a metallic tang taintedeverything he ate. He felt empty. Hollowed out, just like the bloodied chestsof the victims. Life scooped from them. Ribs yawed open, bones like gravestonesin rows. When she is quiet, he still feels empty.

He blinks away the image and turns to her. She relaxes into a smile,plays with a strand of that glorious hair. Now, he sees autumn sun, tastes theburnt edges of pumpkins, feels in his limbs the strange looseness of holidaysto come.

“Maybe we can spin our guns or crack our whips?” She’s still playing thegame and his heart thrums. And then she laughs. God, he loves that sound. Likethe pop of a vintage champagne cork, a surprise followed by perfection.“Mulder, why have we driven so many miles in the wrong direction?”

There’s another sign. Arrows to the town mall and the primary school andthe Cypress Lawn – Nobel Chapel. He turns towards the chapel.

“This is the City of Souls, Scully. Colma. Population 1500 livingresidents and 1.5 million  souls. In1900, the city of San Francisco declared the land in the town too valuable forburying the dead. In 1914, they sent eviction notices to all the cemeteriesordering the dead to be removed and relocated. Colma was chosen as the ‘end ofthe line’ so to speak. And now there are 16 cemeteries here, including a petcemetery.”

She leans towards him, adjusts her seatbelt. She’s still holding on tothat smile. But he’s holding on to it tighter. Her cheeks are pink. “But whyare we here?”

He doesn’t tell her he feels like he’s lost his soul and in some improbableway he imagines that staying here will fill him up with new life, will give himback some of what he’s given away this year. Just like that psychic surgeonstealing away people’s beating hearts, Diana has sucked the very core out ofhim with her unending support and her sly smiles. He feels her grip chafing athim, marking his skin so that Scully sees betrayal like a scarlet letter. Hedoesn’t tell her anything like that, although he should. He should declare hisguilt to her so she can flog him with her righteousness. He doesn’t tell her,though.

“Haven’t you ever wanted to see where Joe DiMaggio is buried? Or Frank‘the crow’ Crosetti? Wyatt Earp? Levi Strauss?” Her fingers rub across herplump lips. “I see you aren’t quite as into this as I am,” he says and shebestows a gentle shake of her head on him, one that’s accompanied by a quietchuckle.

“I can’t say I am, Mulder but if you feel that visiting the graves offamous sports people or cowboys, is something you need to do, then knockyourself out. I’ll be happy with a cold beer and a steak. I’m hungry. And thistown is making me crave dead meat.”

He laughs then. She’s funny, his Scully. She metes out her jokes inincrements, measuring out the time between each beat so it’s not too long, nottoo short. She’s good with her timing, like that. Knows just when to step in, whento step back. He hasn’t learnt that yet. But this business with Diana hastaught him that jumping in blindly, just for support of some kind, is not whathe wants anymore. Not what he needs.

He turns into the cemetery, feels a shift in the air. It’s not mournful.There’s something serene about it, a quiet calm. It’s in the cooling of theharsh sun, it’s in the shush of the leaves, it’s in the melodic birdsong. Thedead enjoy the longest rest, but the living can come here and reset.

She’s out of the car before him, shucking off her jacket and shieldingher eyes from the lowering glare. California Scully is brighter in every way,he decides. Kaleidoscopic despite her penchant for black work-wear. Everythingelse about her is a melange of soft colours. He takes her in.

“Walk with me?” she asks and offers an elbow for him to hook his armthrough. He wonders if she understands the irony of promenading around acemetery while the dead lie still beneath them. He’s sure she does, but Scullydoesn’t mind irony. She doesn’t like duplicity. She just doesn’t like beingtaken for granted.

He watches their shadows pass the headstones, long thin versions ofthemselves stretching out in some ghoulish representation of life. He needs tolook back at her, see the tangible partner on his arm.

He tips his chin towards her. “Those who couldn’t pay the $10 evictionand relocation fee left their loved ones to be piled into mass graves.”

“It’s a cruel and undignified story,” she replies. “But death is oftenugly.”

Her shirt was wicking bright red as quickly as her skin paled. Hehesitated because in that moment he was sure she was gone, and he had let ithappen. His fucking arrogance had led her to the terror of a death like that.Her beating heart stolen from its hearth right there in his own home.

The warm surprise of her fingers clasping through his shook the pictureaway, dissolving the stark of red death into the muted tones of Scully’ssmiling face. She nods to a plaque on a large sculpted rock. He reads thedetails.

“When you were in that travel agency, with Duane Barry, I used thisman’s case to highlight the potentially dangerous misreading of the situation.It’s one of the clearest memories I have of that time.”

He takes in the information as she speaks.

“The Gage Accident. Phineas Gage was working on the railroad at Vermontwhen a tamping iron blasted upwards and pierced his skull from cheekbone totop.” She touches the spots on her own face and he watches the grace of herfingers. “Miraculously, he survived but his behaviour changed so much that hewas no longer the same man.”

It might not have taken an industrial accident to change him, butScully’s ferocious charge for justice, right by his side, has been just as redhot. She has stayed on the same damned path, never deviating, while he’spinballed from belief to doubt and all the while dragging her along with him.Exposing her to horrors. How has she remained the same? Fuck, he loves her forit. He loves her sameness, her unwavering Scully-ness. You know what you’regetting. You get what you see.

“I remember you talking about him,” he says. “I thought it would be goodto see the memorial. And we really weren’t that far away. It seemed the rightthing to do.”

She tucks her chin to her chest. “Well, it’s a very ‘us’ kind of thingto do, isn’t it? It’s a graveyard. It’s macabre. I’m only surprised that it’snot raining. It would be just the kind of after-case date we would indulge in.”She looks away quickly, licks her lips. “If this were a date.” The words arebreathed out, low.

He looks around at the graves, thinks about the dead beneath them, lyingsilent in repose. Souls departed, bodies left behind. Bones desiccating toashes. He thinks about Phineas Gage and Levi Strauss and Jo DiMaggio, how theirlives are still known. He looks back at Scully and she’s waiting for him tospeak. He can’t find any words to tell her how much he wants her life to beknown for centuries to come. There’s a glint of sunlight off the brass of theplaque and he squints as it flashes in his face. He shivers but lets the sensationwarm him, like heat from the inside, filling him.

“There’s a 50s style diner not far away,” he says, looking back at her face, where he sees hope, forgiveness and he feels his soul settle back inside. “Let’s get that steak, Scully.”

[leiascully]

softnow replied to your post “What would Mulder and Scully be reading right now?”

scully being into outlander is accurate and true. i feel like mulder also reads a lot of history books, but ones about weird events.

100%  It’s all Roanoke and Bermuda Triangle and the Angel of Mons and the Mary Celeste and the Battle of Los Angeles.  Weird stuff only, but weird stuff from reputable publishers.

[peppered-imps]

4 & 17 / Mulder & Scully 💘

4. Best places to kiss on their bodies

Mulder. His perfect, perfect lips (sumptuous, plump, delicious, ripe). The mole on his cheek. The lines segmenting his abs. The top of his head. The gunshot scar in his left shoulder. His neck, just below his ear. All over his chest. His long fingers. The ball joints of his shoulders. The slit of his cock. The bruises she finds after a case.

Scully. The freckles on her shoulders, chest, elbows, knees, shins. That beautiful Roman nose. The soft curve of her belly below her navel. The little hollow where her cross rests. Her forehead, between her eyebrows. The nape of her neck. Her mons (and lower, yes, definitely lower). The delicate bone of her ankle. Her inner thighs. Her scars. And, of course, her pouty little mouth.

—

17. Regrets

Mulder. Not kissing Scully until 2000. That brief stint with a mullet in 1985. Not shooting that cigarette smoking son of a bitch between the eyes the first time he had the chance. Not knowing exactly who he was married to the first time around. Making his mother cry. Dropping that advanced art class in highschool (because he actually really liked to draw). Not allowing himself to enjoy the little things. Not having the strength to simply let go. Calling Scully a spy. Letting go of Duane Barry before his hyoid bone snapped. Telling his parents he didn’t want a baby sister. The look in Scully’s eyes when he caused her pain. Not punching Krycek more. Leaving his family for the New Mexican desert and a hollow Truth. Not telling Scully how much he loved her more often.

Scully. Telling Mulder to stop looking for his sister on one of their early cases (she didn’t realize what it meant then, but it doesn’t stop her gut from twisting when she remembers). Not following her intuition more. Not going on more road trips with Missy. Not making the first move with Mulder. Telling her father she hated him when she was 14 because he wouldn’t let her go out with a boy in her class. Not being honest with her feelings. Not being able to read much anymore. Refusing to ask for help when she was overwhelmed. Losing touch with Charlie. Not standing by her son

send me a character and a number and i’ll tell you my headcanons for it.

[littlefoxywrites]

Big Sky Country (Montana)

A/N- Set this whenever you want. Early seasons, later seasons, reboot, I saw it around season five-ish. The store’s been there since before I can remember, and while it’s not known for ghosts, the Pollard and the Smith Mine site are. Sorry for taking so long, lol. This morphed from a Thanksgiving story, to Christmas, to New Year’s, to Valentine’s, but at least it’s not a St. Patrick’s Day story. I’ll leave that to someone else (;

“Scully! Come here.”

She walked over to her partner, raising an eyebrow in the process. “What?”

He nodded towards a building across the street. “I think should investigate. It’s old enough to be the home base of the paranor-“

‘A candy store, Mulder, really?” She ducked away from a wildly waving flag. The main street had been lined with American flags and decked in pine boughs.

“Yeah!” He adjusted his collar and grinned at her. “Come on, Scully. It’ll be fun.”

She sighed and looked across the street. Red Lodge was cold, snowy, windy, and- apparently- the source of most of Montana’s UFO activity. She thought the X-Files had moved past unsubstantiated UFO sightings and onto more concrete conspiracies, but Mulder had insisted upon a weekend of ghost hunting and sky searching in the snow, and someone had approved the estimated budget.

Montana Candy Emporium.

“Sure.” She pushed a flapping flag out of her face. “Fine. Whatever.” Anything to get out of the sleet. Her coat was warm, but it wasn’t meant to be frozen and soaked simultaneously, and neither was she. Mulder offered his arm as they crossed the street. It was icy, and the snow was coming down faster than the plows and grit trucks could manage.

He had been so excited to come. He’d shown her slide after slide about the Smith Mine and the Pollard Hotel and the ghost stories that came with them. There had been countless accounts of UFOs rising over the Beartooth Mountains, and a few old cases of unexplained disappearance that Scully put down to early cowboy justice.

So here they were, mere weeks into the new year. The candy store had a wooden front like an old theater, complete with the billboard. She pulled the door open and warm air gusted out, defrosting her nose. Mulder reached over her head and held the door, waving her in.

“Look, Scully!” Mulder picked a jar of pastel candy up from a shelf and rotated it so she could see the garish label. “It’s a sign."

“Fizzy UFOs?” She began peeling her chilled gloves off.

“Or. . . you know, hold on.” He moved further into the shop, easing past a group of teens in Carhartt crowding around a glass cabinet. The hardwood creaked under his weight. “How about this?” He had a box of bubblegum cigarettes. “Doctor approved?”

“I doubt your dentist would agree.”

He could see the amusement in the fine lines of her expression, even as she fought to clamp it down. She looked down to shove her gloves into her pockets and unbutton her coat. For all the cold outside, the shop was warm, bordering on tropical, filled as it was by students and tourists alike.

The bubblegum was forgotten as Mulder’s gaze caught on a large display of European candies. “Scully, you’re not gonna believe this, but I haven’t seen this stuff since I was at Oxford. Salted liquorice. . . Fox’s. . .”

“Foxes?” Scully stepped forward to see the packet, expecting a fox-shaped candy.

“Fox’s Glacier. They make mints and fruity hard candy. I mean, it’s the same kind of thing we have here, except for the blackcurrant ones. For some reason, I guess America never really got into the blackcurrant thing.”

Scully listened to him ramble about blackcurrants and Montana huckleberry, an apparent local favorite. Mulder’s nose was red with the cold, his hair damp with melting snow. She resisted the urge to reach over and brush it off. Instead, she unwrapped her scarf and fluffed her hair with her fingers, melting the last of the hoarfrost that had formed near her face. 

“Scully?”

She looked up and found a curious expression on his face.

“Nothing,” he said quickly. “Just, you drifted off.”

“It’s been known to happen.”

He grinned. “Sure, whatever.”

“Sure, fine, whatever. You missed one.”

“Can’t have that.” He peered over her, back out the window. “Tell you what, let’s cut out early today. We aren’t going to get anything done in that.”

She turned and looked back out the window. Sure enough, the snow was coming down harder, coming sideways harder, if she were honest. “I expected more from the New Englander.”

“It wasn't windy like this out East.”

She rolled her eyes. “Hmm. That seems like a flimsy excuse, Mulder.”

“Would you rather be in a warm candy store across the street from our hotel or out there ghostbusting near the mines in negative temperatures?”

When he put it that way. “Let’s see what they have back here.” She let her fingers tangle with his as she led him through barrels of taffy. Here, in Montana, nearly two-thousand miles from DC, and several dozen from the nearest field bureau, she didn’t mind the public gestures. Their black wool coats and leather shoes marked them as outsiders, but beyond that, no one knew or cared.

They wandered the store slowly. Mulder picked up a brown paper bag and was filling it with a wild variety of processed and dyed sugar as he recounted ghost stories. Candy corn in January, cow-tails, the squirrel nut zippers that Scully vividly remembered from her childhood, huckleberry jelly bears, and two of nearly every flavor of taffy.

“How about this? Extra hot taffy. Should I bring some back for the Skinman, or do you think we spice up his workdays enough already?”

Scully shrugged. “Capsaicin is said to reduce blood pressure in high enough quantities.”

“In that case-“ Mulder was about to plunge his hand back in the barrel when Scully stopped him.

“I’m talking high quantities as in thousands of ghost peppers’ worth of capsaicin.”

“Oh.” He grimaced. “I’m no longer interested in the health benefits of capsaicin.”

“Sex lowers blood pressure, too. Orgasm in women releases oxytocin, which-“ she paused and cleared her throat as Mulder glanced over in surprise. “Lowers blood pressure via vasodilation,” she finished quietly.

“Is that where your mind wandered to earlier, Agent Scully? Sex?” He grinned at her, slightly bemused by her sudden self-consciousness.

She shrugged again, looking down at their joined hands. “No, Agent Mulder.” She added the same emphasis on his title. Two could play that game. “I was thinking along lines somewhat more germane to our investigation.” 

“Yeah?” He couldn’t quite tell if she was bullshitting him, but he suspected she was.

“We’re primarily here to investigate the disappearance of a Lutheran pastor, are we not?”

“Yeah, technically. He disappeared from his apartment over this shop-“

“In 1956, Mulder.”

“Yeah, but I showed you all those reports of electrical issues and noises from upstairs. They’re ongoing. That apartment hasn’t been rented out since-“

“1994, I know, and it’s locked. The realtor told me over the phone. She hasn’t give the key to anyone, and she has the only copy as far as she’s aware, and she’s out of town this weekend.” Scully fingered a coconut long-boy. “I was thinking, there’s probably a stairwell going from the back of this place to the apartment. At one point, that apartment was intended as the shopowner’s home, and it only makes sense to have an internal entrance.”

“The back. . .” Mulder looked up at the striped curtain drawn across the wide hallway to the back rooms of the emporium. He glanced towards the front again, where the employees seemed to be busy with the Carhartt kids and a new group by the fudge window. He set the brown bag of candy down behind a basket of Atomic Fireballs. “They probably don’t want merchandise back there,” he said calmly. “C’mon, Scully.”

He led her with purpose. Over the years he’d found that acting like he owned something- a stolen ID, a crime scene- got him further than asking. He flipped back the curtain, high enough for Scully to pass under, and then dropped it, enveloping them in darkness. 

“Scu-“

There was a click and her face suddenly lit up with an eerie glow. She lifted her flashlight away from her chin as he jumped back. “Gotcha.” She smiled, then cast the beam around them. “Doesn’t look too exciting.” There were more barrels, cardboard boxes with confectionary labels, and a cramped folding table.

Mulder stepped up to the table and Scully let the light follow him. “Cards, maybe a. . .” he flicked something across the table. “A little bit of Mary-Jane.” He wandered away and Scully followed, smiling. There were rows of boxes on shelves, sealed tight. She watched as Mulder ducked behind a tower of boxes and pushed a shelf to the side to tap a door with his knuckle. “Nice call, Scully. It doesn’t look like this has been moved in ages.” The wall behind the shelving was darker, the wood varnish unfaded. The glint of the doorknob in the torch light must have caught Mulder’s eye, she realized.

“Mm.” She stepped up to the door and twisted the knob, then pulled it open. The shelf blocked it from opening more than a few inches, but it was enough for her to squeeze through. She paused partway, braced herself on the doorway, and shoved it open a little further. “Come on in, the water’s fine, I think.” She swept her light over the area behind her. There was just a dusty staircase that looked utterly untouched.

Mulder eased in behind her and looked up. “Hey baby, you wanna?”

She snorted. “Sure.” This time, she led the way up the stairs. There was another door at the top, unlocked, and Scully’s hopes fell. It probably dumped out outside the apartment, in the entry hallway. She tried it nevertheless, and blinked in the bright light that flooded in.

“Scully?”

“I think we’re in the apartment. The door-” she turned to look at it. “It’s disguised to look the wall. I can see how someone missed it with all the grooves in the wood panelling."

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.” She clicked her flashlight off and stepped into the small living room. “It’s stopped snowing.” Her heels clicked on the floor as she crossed to the window and drew the gauzy curtain back slightly. The sun had cut through the clouds and the snow had slowed to a vertical descent once again. “It looks like diamond dust in the air.”

“Beautiful.”

She glanced up at her partner, who was decidedly not looking out. “Muld-err.”

“I mean, yeah, the snow’s nice, too.”

She dropped the curtain and stepped back. “Hm.”

He cupped one cheek with his hand and let the other fall to her waist. “Are you still cold?”

She wasn’t, not really. “Yes.”

“Hmm. Gotta do something about that.” He kept his hands on her and walked her back to the sofa he’d spotted among the furniture that had all been pushed to the wall.

She reached up to begin unbuttoning his trench, working on his shirt at the same time. “Here? Really?”

“Well, someone’s got to keep the local ghost stories going, and what better way than mysterious noises from locked apartments?”

She snorted. “Not the best pick-up I’ve heard, but one of the more unique ones.”

“It’s better than the one I told you right before Skinner walked i-“

“I’ve blocked that from my memory. Shush.” Scully rose on her toes to press her lips to his, stopping the flow of words. When she dropped back to her heels, Mulder began stripping her outerwear off in earnest. 

She yelped involuntarily as his cold fingers brushed her ribs. “Jesus, Mulder!"

He paused long enough to grin at her. “Payback for all those times you stuck your ice-block feet between my calves.”

He certainly wasn’t joking about the mysterious noises, she realized. There was some jostling as he gathered her up in his arms, then balanced her between him and some covered furniture. 

“We’re going to have the shopkeepers up here if we keep this up,” she mumbled into his mouth. 

He broke the kiss. “I think we’ll hear ‘em coming up the stairs. They were kind of creaky.”

“Mm, so are you.” She thought about unbuttoning her shirt, then merely pulled it up from her slacks. Mulder’s hands ghosted up her sides again, and he slipped his fingers past her underwire. He could feel goosebumps rising on her breasts, from cold or arousal he didn’t know. 

She tightened her legs around his waist. “I hope your shirt isn’t dry clean only,” she mumbled. She kept one hand on his neck and ran her free fingers through his hair. 

Mulder pulled back, and for a moment she thought he actually was worried about her slushy boots on his hips. “Scully.”

“Hm?” Her hips jerked forward against him involuntarily. She could feel her gluteals tense, and fought for control again.

“We’re in a haunted apartment, Skinner’s nowhere in the vicinity, and you’re worried about my shirt?”

She laughed aloud. “I see your point.”

He leaned in again and kissed her quickly. “What if we headed out of here?”

“Mul-der!” 

He cocked his head to the side and stared at her. Her hair was wind-whipped, cheeks wind-chapped, and she had a damp glow from the snow that had melted in her hair and collar.

“What the fuck?” She was cross enough to swear at him for having interrupted.

“Exactly.” He leaned and kissed her again. “I don’t want us to cross Montana off up against a wall.” The map with the little star stickers was in his desk drawer. The locking one. “Not-“ He moved lower, butterflying kisses along her jaw. “When we have a-“ He licked the edge of the thick muscle on her neck. It had some long name that he never remembered. “A beautiful hotel room in a haunted hotel.”

“Oh my God,” she muttered in frustration. “Of course.” She shivered as he nipped her collarbone. “Ah!”

He glanced up in time to see her eyes roll back slightly. She reached between them and fumbled his free hand back out of her pants. 

“Mulder, you can’t keep doing that and then stop and ask me to walk back outside. It’s worse than a cold shower.”

He chuckled then. “Well then, let’s go, because I want to keep doing that, as soon as possible.”

She huffed in mock annoyance, but unlocked her legs from his waist and slipped back down to the floor. She didn’t bother fixing her rumpled shirt, merely buttoned her coat over it. A few moments later, Agent Scully, MD, had re-emerged. She reached up and rubbed her thumb against the corner of Mulder’s mouth. “'Toast to New York' isn’t your color.”

“Are you sure? Maybe we should check again.” 

She rested her hand over his lips with a smile. “If we start that again we’ll never get out of here. We can check the color when we’re back at the Pollard.” She dropped her hand to his chest and began fastening the buttons on his own coat. Wary of the lipstick, she rose on her toes to kiss him again, then pulled him towards the door of the apartment. They descended the stairs quietly, and slipped into the dark back room. Mulder pushed the shelving unit back in front of the door as Scully slipped her damp gloves back on. No one noticed them sliding past the curtain between the private and public parts of the store. If anything, there were more people crowding into the sugary warmth of the shop than before.

“Scully?”

“Hmm?” She raised one eyebrow curiously.

“Can we stop to get the candy?” Mulder actually looked completely serious.

She chuckled. “And here I thought-“

He looked down, flushing slightly. “Yeah, I know. I actually do miss Fox’s-“

“Sure, Mulder. That’s fine.” She caught his grin and smiled back. “Whatever.” He laughed. “Tell you what. Since we’re going to get held up in the line, we might as well pick up some fudge. It’s apparently made in house, and I bet it melts if it makes skin contact for too long. It’s real chocolate and butter, not your nonfat tofutti." He leaned over to whisper in her ear. “I can think of all sorts of things to do with real-“

She fought the flush rising on her cheeks. “Mulder!” She snuck glances at him as they waited in line, then finally sighed and gave in. “Fine. Just pick something that won’t permanently dye my skin.”

“No M&Ms then.”

“No,” she said firmly.

He scans the window, examining slabs of fudge like she does specimen slides. “Does this one look like Elvis to you?”

She raised an eyebrow. 

"Maybe not red velvet, either, then.”

“No.”

“Aww, Scully,” he muttered half-heartedly, before glancing back at her. “Tell you what. Classic milk chocolate for a classic girl.”

She laughed aloud and didn’t bother hiding her smile. “Okay, Mulder.” She paused, remembering how they were in Montana, in a snowstorm, hundreds of miles from anyone of import to her, then reached for his hand and laced her fingers between his. When he looked down in surprise, she shrugged. “I don’t want the sequel to begin with your icy fingers.”

“Cold hands, warm heart?”

“From a physiologic standpoint, I’d have to say no, but I appreciate the effort.”

“Speaking of physiology, maybe we could continue the lesson across the street?”

She hummed quietly as he passed bills to the cashier and took their paper bags of processed sugar. “I was thinking we could move onto anatomy this afternoon, maybe you’d have better luck with the change of subject.”

Mulder swung their joined hands as they stepped back into the sparkling cold of the street. “I got an A in anatomy in high school.”

“Well, I guess we’ll have to see how much you remember.”

Mulder chuckled as they crossed the street. “Yes ma’am, Dr. Scully. Pop quiz at 1600 hours.”

“Mm, I was thinking more along the lines of an exam, a full-length exam.”

He drew his gaze slowly along her form and ducked a flapping flag. “It’s still going to be a short exam.”

Her mouth dropped open and she glared at him without any real heat. “I didn’t say which one of us would be the examinee. I was thinking it’d be a longer exam, to be honest.”

He held the door to the hotel open and they made their way past the taxidermied moose in the lobby. “I suppose it’s not beyond the realm of extreme possibility.”

Scully hurried up the stairs, taking two steps to every one of Mulder’s. “You know what they say, though. Seeing is believing. And-“ she bumped her shoulder against him. “I really should verify your report.”

The wind howled past the hotel, shaking the electric lines, and filling the big sky with biting swirls of snow. It would pass through Red Lodge, Mulder knew, before rising over the pass to the south, and gusting through the ruins of the Smith Mines. From there, it would tear through Bearcreek, with its supposedly world-famous banana cream pie, and then carry the cold down to Wyoming. Mulder turned his attention to his partner. The wind didn’t matter, nor did the ghost stories and the strange lights at night. He had Scully by his side, and that was the only truth that mattered.

Their ghosts could wait.  

[catty-words]

♧ if you're still doing these! (and if not, just know that ily and i hope you're having a swell day!!)

You’re my: you-went-where-i-could-not-follow mutual, but my love for you knows no bounds so. it’s fine. IT’S FINE.

How I met you: honestly, i still remember the day you dropped in on the crazy ex fandom so clearly, because my grandpa had just been transferred to a hospice facility from the hospital and my whole family was visiting with him and, like, i needed to not be so present for a bit so i opened tumblr on my phone and there you were with the most charming first post and EXCELLENT tags and i loved you right away

Why I follow you: because even though you ABANDONED ME, i think you’re a lovely, talented, creative person who puts positive things out into the world and i dig interacting with you and hearing about your life. 

Your blog is: full of x-files smut and dana scully appreciation cause you commit to your interests 110% and, like, respect.

Your URL is: i feel like you definitely explained this, but i totally forget

Your icon is: scully looking skeptical and/or fed up with men’s bullshit. as is her way.

A random fact I know about you: you’re currently taking some kind of religion course, but it’s not what you’d hoped for and is only serving to overwhelm you this semester? yes? i think i remember reading that? oh, also! you tend toward water-based imagery/metaphors in your writing. 

General opinion: cute! good! i love you! i love your brain!

A random thought I have: i hope sometime in the future we circle back around to having the same intense interest because i like. worship your writing. i wanna be able to fully engage with it again. i’m happy you found something to be invested in and that you have so much fun with the x files canon and the fandom, but i lowkey resent the show for seducing you away from MY current obsession. 

[cutelilcurtain]

alright girl gimme that sweet, sweet commentary on THAT ONE FIC. particularly the bit where mulder watches scully nurse william and then they have a family cuddle because that's just so unbelievably intimate and sweet and i'm still thinking about it. (it's what they deserrrrved but forever, not just one night!!!!) idk if that's 500 words or not, so feel free pick and choose as necessary.

Hi, I LOVE YOU. 

Okay so, “The Last Molly” was my first fic ( an irony I’m only just thinking of now ), but I am no newbie to TXF and MSR. ( shameless plug for my Dana Scully roleplay which can be found @dubitavero )

So I was nervous to handle such a thing as fanfiction because I’d never written it before, but also because MSR is SUCH an Established Thing that I didn’t want to mess it up. 

One of my favorite aspect of MSR and their relationship are the little moments of intimacy that are in odd contexts ( the bug bites with a side of “let-me-just-strip-half-naked-in-front-of-my-partner-who-I-just-met” in the Pilot, the COUNTLESS moment of infringing on personal space through the early seasons, “Genderbender” when Mulder walks in essentially on high/aroused Scully, the moments later during the seasons of friendship and secret sex like the Tofutti snatch of ‘99, stealing ur partners keys to make her ghost hunt with you, KISSING HER DOPPELGANGER ON A NAZI SHIP, watching her sleep on your couch and then *cough* conceiving your son *cough* but then Scully dressing and watching the giant nake man-child sprawl in bed while he sleeps )

I could literally go on forever and ever, these are just the ones that pop into my head now.

But these moments, I think, are especially exciting when they break new boundaries. When we see our favorite agents’ walls chipped away and torn down by the other for the sake of getting closer to the one they love. The “Millenium” kiss? They are CHANGED FUCKING PEOPLE after that kiss. Which, who wouldn’t be?

But my thoughts behind Mulder watching Scully breastfeed William follow this train. It is a subtly intimate thing to watch a mother breastfeed her child ( not in a weird way, but in a way that harkens back to the endlessly inexplainable bond between a mother and child ) Something tells me that Mulder is unfamiliar with Scully’s body after his abduction, regardless of her pregnancy. It’s not like he’s AT ALL familiar with the idea of her breastfeeding, but Scully obviously is- she’s the one doing it. To her, it is automatic, primal and instinctive in nature, and it’s something that she’s doing because it’s what her body was meant to do.

For Mulder, it’s an entirely new level of intimacy. He wasn’t there through the beginning of the pregnancy, he hasn’t watched his partner's body change and reshape itself to accommodate this tiny human ( which he’s also stunned about ) so to see Scully immediately so maternal, so nurturing, her body so soft and different, it follows suit with these moments of closeness that come seemingly out of nowhere. 

TL; DR, Mulder and Scully are wonderfully distant from each other and when they’re not, they get these beautiful moments of seeing into the other person in a new light, and it is ALWAYS going to be a beautiful moment.

Thank you, babe!

[myownsuperintendent]

skinner/clyde

why are there any other ships tbh