Old School X Is A Project Interviewing X-Files Fanfic Authors Who Were Posting Fic During The Original

Old School X is a project interviewing X-Files fanfic authors who were posting fic during the original run of the show. New interviews are posted every Tuesday.

Interview with bugs

bugs has 40 stories at Gossamer. They mostly focus on Mulder and Scully, but there are also some goodies featuring Reyes and Doggett. I’ve recced some of my favorites of her fics here before, including The Link. She also co-ran WhyIncision, a fun, smart X-Files mailing list that dissected fics like a book club. Big thanks to bugs for doing this interview.

Does it surprise you that people are still interested in reading your X-Files fanfics and others that were posted during the original run of the show (1993-2002)?

Not really. While I was still in high school, I started watching the then 20 year old OG Star Trek and became a Trekkie of a sort. Starlog magazine, James Blish novels and the other novelizations, and while I was working as a library page, I found fanfiction one day among the periodicals.  Who knows how fanfiction ended up as part of a library’s materials, but there it was, this tattered mimeographed collection. The fic that had the most impact on me was one where Nurse Chapel wrestled a giant alien snake to save Spock’s life.

So when I got into XF, one of the first things I did was look for fanfic, knowing somewhere out there, Scully was wrestling a big snake for Mulder.

That experience showed me the power of fandom, that even without the internet, how the second generation of Trekkies joined the original group to advocate for the franchise to be revived. I remember sitting in the theater for that first awful Star Trek movie, choked up with what we’d done.

Tragic backstory way to say, no I’m not surprised that a well-produced show like XF would beget future generations of fans, and that they’d be chewing their way through the fanfic archives still being maintained.

What do you think of when you think about your X-Files fandom experience? What did you take away from it?

I’m so grateful to the fandom. Literally formed the life I have today through the confidence it gave me. Many of my friends to this day are ‘pocket friends’ from the various fandoms I’ve been in, and the longest friendships were formed in XF. I learned how to write, both technically and finding my voice. I learned how to think analytically, more than any college courses.

The two most important things I took away were, write for yourself first and always, and shit ain’t that damn important. In the end, it’s a TV show.

Keep reading

DARTH VADER’S LAVA CASTLE OF BULLSHIT AND SADNESS IS THE FUNNIEST THING, A SUMMARY:

- He built Dramatic Bullshit Castle so that his meditation spot could LOOK OUT OVER THE SPOT WHERE OBI-WAN BROKE UP WITH HIM, the spot of where their duel ended:

IMAGINE BEING SUCH A LEVEL OF EXTRA THAT YOU BUILT AN ENTIRE FUCKING HOUSE ON THE SPOT WHERE OBI-WAN KENOBI BROKE UP WITH YOU.  SO THAT YOUR MEDITATION SPOT LOOKS OUT OVER THAT EXACT POINT AND YOU CAN BE MAD ABOUT IT FOREVER. IMAGINE BEING ANAKIN FUCKING SKYWALKER WHO IS THAT FUCKING DRAMATIC BECAUSE HE IS. - Dramatic Bullshit Castle had to be built NINE SEPARATE TIMES because it kept getting destroyed when they tried to activate it, each time with Anakin losing more and more of his patience and murdering people in his rage, JUST IMAGINE TELLING DARTH VADER, “No, no, I think we’ve definitely got the right ENTIRE CASTLE DESIGN right this time!” AND YOU’RE ON ATTEMPT NINE.  OF BUILDING UP AN ENTIRE CASTLE.

AND EVERY TIME YOU GET IT WRONG, HE MURDERS YOUR CURRENT HOST BODY IN RAGE. ALSO LOOK AT THOSE DESIGNS.  THEY ARE HIDEOUS.  I LOVE THEM. - There are not one but TWO ENTIRE CASTLES IN THE BASEMENT OF HIS DRAMATIC BULLSHIT CASTLE. BULLSHIT CASTLE IN VADER’S BASEMENT #1:

So the brief summary of this is:  Long ago, Mustafar was a beautiful green world and this Lady and Lord lived there, but he died and she couldn’t stand it, so she stole the heart of the planet, built a shrine to her ambitions to bring him back to life, but stealing the heart made the planet into a lifeless husk, and this has been lurking for untold number of years in Anakin’s basement, just chilling down there, waiting for him to find it to try to bring back his own dead wife.  It goes as well as you’d expect. LITERALLY ALL OF THE ABOVE IS TAKING PLACE IN ANAKIN’S BASEMENT. BULLSHIT CASTLE IN VADER’S BASEMENT #2:

Brief summary:  Anakin is trying to rip open the Force itself to go back in time and save Padme, so he builds his entire Dramatic Bullshit Castle like a giant tuning fork for the Force, including an entire shrine in the basement. One of the funniest things is, when part of the ground gets ripped open because of all of this, you can see BULLSHIT CASTLE #1 IN VADER’S BASEMENT getting wrecked along with everything else. All of this also goes about exactly as well as you’d expect it to go. ANAKIN SKYWALKER:  NOT CONTENT TO HAVE A BASEMENT SHRINE WHERE THE ENTIRE HEART OF THE PLANET WAS SUCKED AWAY, NO, HE ALSO HAS TO HAVE A SHRINE THAT IS GOING TO RIP OPEN THE FORCE ITSELF. HE NEVER DOES THINGS BY HALVES, I’LL GIVE HIM THAT. - There’s a magical seeing stone just chilling in a room by itself, which allows Vader to hear voices from the past and you can spy on him listening to Padme tell him she’s pregnant, while Hayden Christensen’s voice screams in agony because he does this WITHOUT HIS HELMET ON, JUST FOR THE DRAMA.

AND YES THAT IS ANAKIN SCREAMING IN RAGE AND DESTROYING THE ROOM BY HAVING A GIANT FUCKING TANTRUM AGAIN. - He has this room where there’s pretty much nothing in it except a lightsaber on a pedestal that’s meant to be bait to lure in Force-sensitives of a specific bloodline.  Because, sure, why not.

And, I mean, it doesn’t not look like SOMEONE FAMILIAR’S LIGHTSABER:

(Obi-Wan Kenobi’s second and third lightsabers.) - THERE IS A ROOM THAT IS DEFINITELY NOT A WEIRD SEX DUNGEON HOW DARE YOU THINK SO.

THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NOTHING ABOUT THIS THAT WOULD LEAD TO STRANGE THOUGHTS, IT’S TOTALLY NORMAL TO HAVE A SPECIAL ROOM IN YOUR BULLSHIT LAVA CASTLE WHERE YOU STRAP PEOPLE DOWN OR HOLD THEM IN CAGES. THE POOR LADY WHO HAD TO DESIGN THIS THOUGH:

SHE HAD TO ASK DARTH VADER IF HE WANTED A WEIRD SEX DUNGEON. SHE HAD TO LOOK AT THE LIST OF DEMANDS FOR THAT ROOM AND THINK ABOUT WHAT DARTH VADER GOT UP TO IN HIS FREE TIME. THAT POOR LADY DESERVED A MEDAL. ANYWAY, LAVA CASTLE OF BULLSHIT AND SADNESS IS MORE AND MORE HILARIOUS WITH EVERYTHING WE LEARN ABOUT IT.

black lives matter and pride are intrinsically linked. the black trans community have done so much for us, we owe it to them to not forget their movement this month. without black lives, there would be no pride. black lives matter, today and always

This is one of my old “Back in the Day” passions. I highly recommend Prufrocke and Dawson E. Rambo in this grouping, but do check out the other fics, as well. 

I will do this with other fics and writers I can recommend, too. This is a great start, though.

👽 X-Files Fic Rec Roundup 2021, Part 1

Here is a master list of all my new X-Files fic recs from the last month. These and all my earlier recs can be found under my fic rec tag, where you can also read why I recced each story. This month I also newly posted the themed lists below. Enjoy!

College AU fics

Fics involving “The Field Where I Died” past lives

Fics with Scully on her period

“Providence” and “Provenance” fics

Also related to fic, last month I continued the Old School X project where I’m interviewing XF fanfic writers from during the show’s original run. New interviews were with:

Circe Invidiosa

Dawson E. Rambo

nevdull

Piper Sargasso

The Art of Reading by prufrocke (MSR - 4,793 words - Not rated) But Ourselves by Marguerite (Tithonus - ~15,100 words - PG-13) The Ghosts of Thurmere Hall by Stephen Greenwood (Season 7 - 35,549 words - Teen and up) Heaven in Hell’s Despair and Lower Heaven by Meredith (MSR - ~4,850 words - PG-13/NC-17) Listening to Mountains Grow by cucumberspy (Pusher - ~4,850 words - R) wander’d mony a weary foot by @we-mad-guys (New Year’s - ~850 words - Not rated)

*Ugh*

Tumblr loves River Song WAAAAY too much. 

*blows a kiss up to space* for carrie 

*has a bad brain day but pushes through* for carrie 

*refrains from harshly critiquing myself when i look in the mirror* for carrie 

*fights the patriarchy* for carrie 

*is unapologetic about who i am and what i stand for* for carrie