xfilesficrecs | Entries tagged with teen

MULDER: Listen to this. “I come in return to the beginning of the end to begin again the journey of souls … the godhead universal for whom there is no death only life eternal.”

SCULLY: What’s that from?

MULDER: Neech Manley, 1994. This stuff goes on for hundreds of pages. There’s references to the Hindu Atman, Prarabdha, the Rosicrucians, Zoroastrianism. The man was obsessed with reincarnation.

SCULLY: Being obsessed with it doesn’t mean you can do it.

Reincarnation, or as Neech Manley would refer to it, the transmigration of souls, is a recurring motif for The X-Files, used with varying degrees of success. It appears in season one’s “Lazarus” and “Born Again,” in season two in “Red Museum, and now in "The List.” Reincarnation will play a major role in season four’s “The Field Where I Died,” loathed by Mulder/Scully shippers everywhere. Someone on the staff of this series (or maybe several someones) is obsessed with reincarnation. But to paraphrase Agent Scully, being obsessed with it doesn’t mean you can write it.

( More about the episode )

FANFICTION RECS: I have one.

“The Best Lies” isn’t a post-ep for “The List,” but the episode’s claustrophobic atmosphere is echoed nicely in Julie Fortune’s fic, set in a Texas prison. Mulder and Scully get caught in the web of a serial killer from Mulder’s past, who’s currently sitting on death row.

“He was part of a two-man killing team that traveled through the South about eight years ago. His partner was Jesus Morales Perez. They were good.” That was shorthand for a lot that Mulder didn’t want to discuss; she accepted it with a nod of her head. “Perez died in prison about two years ago. Piper’s in Huntsville. He’s awaiting execution.”

“And you’re going to see him?”

“Not if I can help it.” Mulder looked down at his clasped hands. “The warden down there’s a friend of mine, and he says there’s a painting of Piper’s that I’ve got to see.”

“Painting?” she repeated.

“Of me.”

The Best Lies by Julie Fortune

There’s no rating, no summary, no keywords provided by the author. It’s not casefic, because there’s no case. I’d call it a thriller and I’d rate it Teen for violence. The link is to her old site, waybacked, but if you prefer plain text, The Other Side has a copy.

Fortune is a great storyteller, whose characterizations are so perfect that you’d think she was in the XF writing room. If she had been, the mytharc would have made a lot more sense.

Welcome to

xfilesficrecs. Most of these recs were originally posted at

201days0fxfiles during the global rewatch.

Mulder and Scully in the rain

Compared to later seasons, there wasn't much fic written for the first season of The X-Files. It wasn't yet a hit, and internet fandom was still relatively new. Here are a few of my favorites for the pilot.

Dana Scully's Senior Thesis (4521 words) by Athene.
Fandom: The X-Files
Rating: Teen
Warnings: None
Characters: Fox Mulder, Dana Scully, the Lonegunmen
Summary: "I need you to find me everything you can on a Dr. Dana Scully, a goddamned forensic pathologist out at Quantico. And I mean everything. I wanna know what kind of toothpaste she uses, where she gets her hair cut, and the name of her first boyfriend..." He slammed the phone down, leaned back in his chair, and fired off a Ticonderoga at the ceiling with a snap of his wrist. It had been a hell of a day, and the evening was not looking promising.

I love everything about this missing scene fic except for its implication that Frohike didn't think Diana Fowley was an attractive woman. "Good-lookin'" was the phrase he used to describe her to Scully in "The End." Whatever. Diana-haters are ubiquitous in this fandom. Regardless, it is a fine story, probably Athene's best. You can find her other fic at

athene1121 and at Gossamer.

Eight Things That Could Have Happened in Oregon (1264 words) by Stephen Greenwood
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: The X-Files
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Fox Mulder/Dana Scully
Characters: Fox Mulder, Dana Scully
Summary: Eight ways in which events in the Pilot could have differed.

These "what if" vignettes pack a wallop.

Untold (1300 words) by Thuvia Ptarth.
Fandom: The X-Files
Rating: G
Warnings: None
Characters: Fox Mulder, Dana Scully, Assorted Consortium Members and their FBI Stooges, and many of their victims.
Summary: Just names they'll never recognize, stories they'll never hear.

Technically a post-ep for the pilot, "Untold" is a series of interconnected vignettes about the Consortium, featuring some familiar names and places, and introducing a few new ones as well. It is chilling and unforgettable. The link is to AO3 but you can also read the story at Gossamer. Look under the title as the author has changed her penname.

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