Writer's Block: The X-Files Birthday
Sep. 10th, 2008 05:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wytchcroft[Error: unknown template qotd]
"It's a vacation Mulder - some of us have them."
Dana Scully looked at Fox Mulder and hoped the expression of irony on his face would fade.
Fox Mulder looked at Dana Scully, clad in an over-size lumber shirt and a pair of steel spectacles and he thought -
"Mulder?"
Fox grinned, leaning against the brittle metallic wall of the Trailer, one hand in the pocket of his jacket and the other behind his back. He looked like a school boy with a frog, about to scare his sister.
"Can't a guy just visit an old..." (Scully stiffened) "..colleague?"
"Ex-Partner," she reminded him.
"Your words Scully, your words."
Fox grinned again - but Scully was not smiling back. "And it's good to hear them," he added quickly.
Scully didn't respond, didn't react - didn't invite him in.
Fox turned away and looked through one of the small windows - he could see only more trailers and a washing line with its ragged clothes fluttering in the wind.
"You ever think about - back in the day, Scully? Huh?" He was talking almost to himself.
"You ever sit back and replay it all? You ever..."
There was a dress on the line outside, unexpectedly pretty it caught his eye as it moved,
as it danced. He could almost see a woman in it, the twirl and kick - cryptic gestures.
He turned back from the window.
"You ever say - that was the ONE, Scully? That case, that was the one - we did that - and that was as good as it gets."
"It was a long time ago Mulder."
"But we were good."
What kind of - what was he trying to sell her on now? Scully sighed. "And what Mulder? I'm supposed to be grateful you just decide to drop in and out of my life, and to tell me what?"
So many 'whats' suddenly.
Fox opened his mouth - then closed it again. But his eyes were still...
"You've grown accustomed to my face?" Scully finished.
And that easy smile of his, always. "Well that's true. But actually," he said, "I..."
"What 'actually'?"
Mulder brought his hand out from behind, he was holding a slim black bag, the kind that gave Scully a familiar sinking feeling.
"Vacation huh?" Fox started again. "You know - camping can be murder." He waggled the bag. "These places - they have history Scully."
"Homicide?" Scully was offended. "Mulder, I checked all that before I came out here. You think I wouldn't? There is no homicide case here."
It didn't take the momentary pause to tip Dana to what was coming - she knuckled a hand inside her shirt sleeve.
"You're right Scully, there's no Homicide case here... Because it's an X-file."
He was leaning in now - watching her eyes, her mouth, the tiny flashes of reaction.
"An X-File? Wait - I would have, we would have... how do you know Mulder?"
There. That was the reaction, that was the response.
"And it was one of us Scully." Un-zipping the bag, Mulder pulled out a folder - with some documents, mostly cheap print-outs, inside. "Take a look." He slipped the folder across the table, being careful not to knock anything. She ever notice the little things like that? It was idle thought but...
"But this girl, Mulder," Scully was peering through her glasses, peering through the file, "this IS a homicide." Mulder waited. Scully pulled a vic-pic out from the file and studied it under the glare of the lamp, shaking her head. "This is routine CSI stuff... I've learned that lesson, Mulder." She looked back at Fox for a moment. "We shouldn't investigate those kind of -"
"It's been investigated already Scully."
Scully's mind had moved on again. "Uh-huh?" She was re-examining the photo.
"Special Agent - "
"One of us?" Scully repeated his phrase.
"Two of us." And Mulder corrected it, with typical and irritating pleasure.
Was everything just a card trick to him?
No, that was unfair - they'd been through too much. She'd seen him smug and patronising before - sure - but also desperate, heroic, broken, punished and -
"Investigated by whom?" She may have opened a file - she didn't have to open anything else.
"Special Agent Desmond - Special Agent Stanley. I met Stanley once, nice guy. Hoop Player."
"But then this is their case," Scully brushed back her hair with a pale hand, "unless it was signed off on..." She began to root through the folder again. Fox put out a hand and placed it on top of hers, he felt it twitch.
"They ARE the case Scully."
Another pause
Dana Scully held herself for a moment. She was good at that; trained, well before the FBI, her family had -
"Why are you here Mulder?"
The man said nothing - just waited on her.
"Why here - why now?"
Just waited.
"You got something didn't you?"
It was barely a nod but it was clear. Fox reached into his jacket, pulled out a crumpled envelope. "You a Sherlock Holmes fan?" He asked.
"Huh?"
"You know the number of times the story hinges on the things that come through the mail - strange deliveries, mysterious packages?"
"No, I don't -"
"Person that sent this does - it's signed Livanov."
"Russian?"
"Sherlock Holmes."
Scully gave a sour pout but Fox was already opening the envelope, weird - she could still feel the pressure of his hand. The look she flashed at her own, still on the folder, that look would have tipped any agent, any time, psych 101.
Mulder meantime had fished out an object and was holding it up. A cold glitter, reflections from the lamp. It was a ring.
He held it out towards her.
She gave a slow blink. "So this is why..."
"With this ring..." Was he laughing at her?
"Are you - is this some sort of..." She was lost for words now. Something was happening.
"Take the ring Scully."
Her hand moved - her hand had moved - she hadn't told her hand to move. And now he was holding it.
"Scully - this is an X-File, us, here, now - a strange case - no answers, just you, me, a folder and a ring."
She was looking at him - it stopped her looking at her hand... and his.
"WE are an X-File, Dana. Don't you believe that?"
It was as if a switch had clicked in her head - in her mind - clicked to 'ON' and the signal flowed down the wires carried by her blood into her heart and what was there - a light, a thousand times brighter than the lamp on her desk, so bright she could barely see - see the trailer, see Mulder, see the ring as he slipped it onto her finger.
"Don't you want to believe Scully?"
But she heard herself say, "I do."
"I do."
And she heard him say -
"Let's Rock."
**********************************
Coda.
"You missing a trailer?"
It had been that kind of a morning. An uneventful drive
- past the kind of leafy trees, abandoned food-dye factories and busy logging plants that had him convinced he was heading into a Douglas Coupland novel -
had not prepared him for the creepy sense he got from the small town when he arrived.
First he'd nearly run down a crazy James Dean type on a motorbike, (And what was that shtick - Indy 4? That movie sucked for crying out loud!) and then he'd been yelled at by some incoherent guy at a stoplight - before he finally cleared the town and made it to the trail park, where he hoped to rest his weary city critic's head.
Go fishing maybe
Maybe. First person he'd met was a woman carrying a log who told him to go home.
Second person was the owner - half drunk and ragged and on some Paris Texas kick.
The fact that the place the owner showed him to held nothing but a circle of ash from some over-enthusiastic hippy bonfire...
... well it was enough to turn you into Robert Downey Jr.
Stating the obvious was a pretty civilised reaction he thought.
"You missing a trailer?"
The owner rubbed his face with wind tanned twitchy fingers then gave a sudden sideways look.
"Yeah... " he said. "I guess so."
.
"It's a vacation Mulder - some of us have them."
Dana Scully looked at Fox Mulder and hoped the expression of irony on his face would fade.
Fox Mulder looked at Dana Scully, clad in an over-size lumber shirt and a pair of steel spectacles and he thought -
"Mulder?"
Fox grinned, leaning against the brittle metallic wall of the Trailer, one hand in the pocket of his jacket and the other behind his back. He looked like a school boy with a frog, about to scare his sister.
"Can't a guy just visit an old..." (Scully stiffened) "..colleague?"
"Ex-Partner," she reminded him.
"Your words Scully, your words."
Fox grinned again - but Scully was not smiling back. "And it's good to hear them," he added quickly.
Scully didn't respond, didn't react - didn't invite him in.
Fox turned away and looked through one of the small windows - he could see only more trailers and a washing line with its ragged clothes fluttering in the wind.
"You ever think about - back in the day, Scully? Huh?" He was talking almost to himself.
"You ever sit back and replay it all? You ever..."
There was a dress on the line outside, unexpectedly pretty it caught his eye as it moved,
as it danced. He could almost see a woman in it, the twirl and kick - cryptic gestures.
He turned back from the window.
"You ever say - that was the ONE, Scully? That case, that was the one - we did that - and that was as good as it gets."
"It was a long time ago Mulder."
"But we were good."
What kind of - what was he trying to sell her on now? Scully sighed. "And what Mulder? I'm supposed to be grateful you just decide to drop in and out of my life, and to tell me what?"
So many 'whats' suddenly.
Fox opened his mouth - then closed it again. But his eyes were still...
"You've grown accustomed to my face?" Scully finished.
And that easy smile of his, always. "Well that's true. But actually," he said, "I..."
"What 'actually'?"
Mulder brought his hand out from behind, he was holding a slim black bag, the kind that gave Scully a familiar sinking feeling.
"Vacation huh?" Fox started again. "You know - camping can be murder." He waggled the bag. "These places - they have history Scully."
"Homicide?" Scully was offended. "Mulder, I checked all that before I came out here. You think I wouldn't? There is no homicide case here."
It didn't take the momentary pause to tip Dana to what was coming - she knuckled a hand inside her shirt sleeve.
"You're right Scully, there's no Homicide case here... Because it's an X-file."
He was leaning in now - watching her eyes, her mouth, the tiny flashes of reaction.
"An X-File? Wait - I would have, we would have... how do you know Mulder?"
There. That was the reaction, that was the response.
"And it was one of us Scully." Un-zipping the bag, Mulder pulled out a folder - with some documents, mostly cheap print-outs, inside. "Take a look." He slipped the folder across the table, being careful not to knock anything. She ever notice the little things like that? It was idle thought but...
"But this girl, Mulder," Scully was peering through her glasses, peering through the file, "this IS a homicide." Mulder waited. Scully pulled a vic-pic out from the file and studied it under the glare of the lamp, shaking her head. "This is routine CSI stuff... I've learned that lesson, Mulder." She looked back at Fox for a moment. "We shouldn't investigate those kind of -"
"It's been investigated already Scully."
Scully's mind had moved on again. "Uh-huh?" She was re-examining the photo.
"Special Agent - "
"One of us?" Scully repeated his phrase.
"Two of us." And Mulder corrected it, with typical and irritating pleasure.
Was everything just a card trick to him?
No, that was unfair - they'd been through too much. She'd seen him smug and patronising before - sure - but also desperate, heroic, broken, punished and -
"Investigated by whom?" She may have opened a file - she didn't have to open anything else.
"Special Agent Desmond - Special Agent Stanley. I met Stanley once, nice guy. Hoop Player."
"But then this is their case," Scully brushed back her hair with a pale hand, "unless it was signed off on..." She began to root through the folder again. Fox put out a hand and placed it on top of hers, he felt it twitch.
"They ARE the case Scully."
Another pause
Dana Scully held herself for a moment. She was good at that; trained, well before the FBI, her family had -
"Why are you here Mulder?"
The man said nothing - just waited on her.
"Why here - why now?"
Just waited.
"You got something didn't you?"
It was barely a nod but it was clear. Fox reached into his jacket, pulled out a crumpled envelope. "You a Sherlock Holmes fan?" He asked.
"Huh?"
"You know the number of times the story hinges on the things that come through the mail - strange deliveries, mysterious packages?"
"No, I don't -"
"Person that sent this does - it's signed Livanov."
"Russian?"
"Sherlock Holmes."
Scully gave a sour pout but Fox was already opening the envelope, weird - she could still feel the pressure of his hand. The look she flashed at her own, still on the folder, that look would have tipped any agent, any time, psych 101.
Mulder meantime had fished out an object and was holding it up. A cold glitter, reflections from the lamp. It was a ring.
He held it out towards her.
She gave a slow blink. "So this is why..."
"With this ring..." Was he laughing at her?
"Are you - is this some sort of..." She was lost for words now. Something was happening.
"Take the ring Scully."
Her hand moved - her hand had moved - she hadn't told her hand to move. And now he was holding it.
"Scully - this is an X-File, us, here, now - a strange case - no answers, just you, me, a folder and a ring."
She was looking at him - it stopped her looking at her hand... and his.
"WE are an X-File, Dana. Don't you believe that?"
It was as if a switch had clicked in her head - in her mind - clicked to 'ON' and the signal flowed down the wires carried by her blood into her heart and what was there - a light, a thousand times brighter than the lamp on her desk, so bright she could barely see - see the trailer, see Mulder, see the ring as he slipped it onto her finger.
"Don't you want to believe Scully?"
But she heard herself say, "I do."
"I do."
And she heard him say -
"Let's Rock."
**********************************
Coda.
"You missing a trailer?"
It had been that kind of a morning. An uneventful drive
- past the kind of leafy trees, abandoned food-dye factories and busy logging plants that had him convinced he was heading into a Douglas Coupland novel -
had not prepared him for the creepy sense he got from the small town when he arrived.
First he'd nearly run down a crazy James Dean type on a motorbike, (And what was that shtick - Indy 4? That movie sucked for crying out loud!) and then he'd been yelled at by some incoherent guy at a stoplight - before he finally cleared the town and made it to the trail park, where he hoped to rest his weary city critic's head.
Go fishing maybe
Maybe. First person he'd met was a woman carrying a log who told him to go home.
Second person was the owner - half drunk and ragged and on some Paris Texas kick.
The fact that the place the owner showed him to held nothing but a circle of ash from some over-enthusiastic hippy bonfire...
... well it was enough to turn you into Robert Downey Jr.
Stating the obvious was a pretty civilised reaction he thought.
"You missing a trailer?"
The owner rubbed his face with wind tanned twitchy fingers then gave a sudden sideways look.
"Yeah... " he said. "I guess so."
.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2008-09-10 06:25 pm (UTC)I once planned a story where the invited FBI special agents were David Duchovny and Jillian Anderson... ;) Maybe, I'll accomplish it one day. I love X-files and love ufology.
Noticed one typo:
"It was along time ago Mulder."
no subject
Date: 2008-09-10 06:29 pm (UTC)As for your story idea - you write it, i'll read it!:)
no subject
Date: 2008-09-11 01:34 am (UTC)I'd better stop now *GRIN*
no subject
Date: 2008-09-11 02:14 am (UTC)and a big *GRIN* right back at ya!:)
no subject
Date: 2008-10-03 06:26 pm (UTC)gen/het ???? sounds like a parade instruction.
NC-17 - isn't that The Enterprise ????
etc etc.
How would you introduce this fic using the common system?
when you have a free moment!:)
no subject
Date: 2008-10-03 06:55 pm (UTC)Gen = General fiction, which generally means not a romance/relationship piece, just story
Het = Heterosexual, meaning straight relationship
Slash = well, originally this was meant to denote sex between two characters from a show who weren't actually having sex in canon (i.e. Mal/Inara) but now a days it refers to gay sex/pairings, usually male, but I have seen it used for female as well, when they don't use...
Femslash - lesbian sex/pairing
UST = Unresolved Sexual Tension
RST = Resolved Sexual Tension
OTP = One True Pairing
OT3 = One True Threesome
Then you get into all sorts of acronyms that are often fandom specific. CSI in Firefly Fanfic for example refers to Crazy Space Incest, which means Simon/River sex/pairing fic. MSR in X-Files refers to Mulder/Scully Romance. You pretty much just have to pick them up in each fandom, ask specifically to find them out
As for the rating system, it's just like the movies.
G for general audience, safe for anyone to read
PG, safe for 10 year olds
PG-13, some mature themes and/or violence/language
R, mature themes, violence, language, but generally not explicit sex
NC-17, explicit sex, and sometimes for extreme graphic violence etc.
I would probably classify this fic as Het, Mulder/Scully pairing, PG rating. The Het I find a bit redundant if you're posting in a forum that's devoted to the fandom, as everyone will know who Mulder and Scully are and know that that is a heterosexual relationship, up to you :o)
I don't generally use the het or gen tags, but I would use slash or femslash or ... multiple? group? threesome? for something more *shrug*
Some communities have a specific structure, and include keywords and categories... it really just depends, but the ones above are most of the general ones that I can think of off the top of my head.
Any clearer? :o)
Thanks!:)
Date: 2008-10-03 07:11 pm (UTC)i'm not planning to post anywhere except HERE really, but in case i get the urge... and this seemed a simple example to pick.
Wow, thanks again - i actually DO understand now:)
Re: Thanks!:)
Date: 2008-10-07 11:54 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-10-15 05:04 pm (UTC)wow thanks!!:))
Date: 2008-10-15 05:14 pm (UTC)sometimes i'm just frakkin dumb!!:)))
thank you so much for reading this - and i'm glad it raised a smile!:)
complicated plots
Date: 2008-10-15 05:23 pm (UTC)some of us still have them - and we take hits for it too.
no subject
Date: 2008-11-11 03:20 am (UTC)Did you ever see The Straight Story?
wow - thanks for reading this already!:):):)
Date: 2008-11-11 03:33 am (UTC)i like the straight story very much - although i know some folk that don't.
as for chet desmond - in the lodge seems about right.
have you seen Inland Empire? i haven't got my head round that at ALL. But i loved Mulholland Drive and Lost Highway.
oh and my timing on this thing was lousy - two days later i saw the latest movie and realised it sorta nixes this... but ah, what the hell! And i really liked trying to write Scully's voice - that was a lot more fun than i'd figured.
Re: wow - thanks for reading this already!:):):)
Date: 2008-11-11 03:52 am (UTC)Re: wow - thanks for reading this already!:):):)
Date: 2008-11-11 04:35 am (UTC)then again the newer tv series aint perfect but ah hell, i love em all really!
this icon is from chldren of dune.
i'm a big fan of the first three dune books - and guess i will never see a 'perfect' version coz that's in my head from reading the novels.
Re: wow - thanks for reading this already!:):):)
Date: 2008-11-11 04:38 am (UTC)it gave me a sense that i could try and push M/I a bit more... i hope!
Re: wow - thanks for reading this already!:):):)
Date: 2009-02-24 07:04 pm (UTC)No, it's not cause I'm a red head too...that would be creepy.
Re: wow - thanks for reading this already!:):):)
Date: 2009-02-24 07:41 pm (UTC)and creepy - maybe, but also lots of potential comedy, bluffed your way into the office yet?? :)))
Re: wow - thanks for reading this already!:):):)
Date: 2009-02-24 08:36 pm (UTC)Re: wow - thanks for reading this already!:):):)
Date: 2009-02-24 08:43 pm (UTC)Re: wow - thanks for reading this already!:):):)
Date: 2009-02-24 09:24 pm (UTC)Re: wow - thanks for reading this already!:):):)
Date: 2009-02-24 10:13 pm (UTC)Re: wow - thanks for reading this already!:):):)
Date: 2009-02-24 10:35 pm (UTC)Besides, the Scully comparisons get old after a while. While I have red hair and geek going for me, I get squicked at the sight of blood, and my degree is in History, not in the Sciences.
no subject
Date: 2009-02-24 07:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-02-24 07:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-02-24 08:33 pm (UTC)Cause really, that's how my relationships in real life seem to go anyway. Well, save the getting abducted by aliens part.
no subject
Date: 2009-02-24 09:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-02-24 08:41 pm (UTC)i'm not sure some of my relationships didn't end with alien abduction.:)
as for shippage, i enjoy reading it (read a good X-men one recently with Rogue) - but i just can't write it, tried, couldn't get there.