Miss Scully,,,

miss scully,,, <3

and they were the best of friends forever

Due to...life circumstances this question is suddenly very relevant to me, and I'd like to get Tumblr's opinion:

🍌 Please reblog for a larger sample size 🍌

Yeah sure we’ve all binged a long fic, but have you ever read a WIP and followed someone’s life?

Tidbits of information - (“I graduated today!”) - and small joys (“It’s my birthday!”) and you get to be there to say “This chapter made me cry, happy birthday, thank you for gifting us this”.

I remember reading this fic of someone at the end of high school, older than me then. They seemed infinitely wise, spoke of their future career and getting into the college they wanted. I remember them posting on days they felt like nothing could bring them down - and on days the whole world did and it’s the aftermath of a hospital visit. Cancer, I think it was, their father. I got to the end of the story, I know their father was fine, but also they got to finish their WIP. I graduated three years later than them, still dutifully wrote thank you notes in every comment. I wonder if they remember me, or just the collective of people reading the story as it updates.

Four years ago I was into my first year of university, my first year of figuring out being out in public spaces. I made excuses as to why my name didn’t match my paperwork and read a fic on the train, the same five chapters over and over again for the next years as I thought the story abandoned. It updated this week after such a long hiatus, I left another thank you comment.

There’s an author I love, they update their stories like a clockwork. When they don’t, I check their blog, just to see if their doing alright, not because I feel like they owe me, just to ensure whether I better get out my laptop to write that really detailed university level essay chapter analysis to get them smiling when their day sucked.

And then, once, when I was 17, I read a fic that hadn’t updated in over a decade. I wasn’t even in primary school when it started posting. On the last chapter, I left a comment that, in retrospect, was horribly rambly and most likely full of grammar mistakes. The author replied and though I couldn’t see their face, I thought of them crying. They were married now, had children, and hadn’t thought about this fic in years. They went through their files again, found another half written chapter and an outline. I got two new chapters to read that year.

And then, recently, someone told me they got back into writing original fiction because of my comments. I get to read nearly weekly chapters.

I love binge reading a finished fic, but nothing is ever going to top the feeling of anticipation of waiting for a chapter, the pure joy when someone tells you I was done with this, but you made me think of it again, so this is for you.

Anyway, I think we should romanticize reading WIPs more, growing up alongside the authors writing the stories we love.

People complaining about how how apparently msr isn’t relevant but keeps getting all these votes are just so funny to me because the X files fandom is very alive for a 30 year old show. Maybe it doesn’t have as many fics in ao3 compared to others but that’s because it predates ao3.

Every day gifs are being posted, fics are coming out, art and fancams/edits are being posted on every social media site. Hell I’ve even been involved in drama on Twitter so I feel like that’s a signifier than the fandom is still relevant and alive

The x files fandom is very alive, you just have to know where to look.

So I’m waiting at the bus stop when a car pulls up of a dad and a little girl. She’s about 2 or 3 years old, the window is down, and she just looks me dead in the eyes as the car rolls to a stop. I look back and smile. She then proceeds to wave hi and I of course I wave back.

After the day I had I needed that. 😭