You want it darker, we kill the flame.

Michelle, 50-something, Canadian, X-Files, Outlander, hiking and surfing, apparently.

[scapegrace74-blog]

X-Files Fanfiction Masterpost

It’s almost the second anniversary of my very first fanfic post on October 1, 2017, so here’s how I’ve frittered away an ungodly amount of time since then.

Drabbles

Driving - Mulder and Scully in the car, Rated G

Flashlight - Why doesn’t Scully like candles anymore?  Rated G

Basement - A character study of a different sort.  Rated G

Motel - Scully escapes an untenable situation.  Angst.  Rated G.

Pistol - Mulder meets his gun.  Rated G.

Cigarettes - Teenage Dana Scully wants to rebel.  Rated G.

Slideshow - How does Mulder do it?  Rated G

Guilty Party - Where do you go when you can’t go on?  Angst.  Rated G.

Suits - Even Mulder has to suffer the indignities of aging.  Humour.  Rated G.

UFO - Mulder and Scully’s first flight.  Rated G.

1013 Words - A compendium of adjectives describing Mulder.  Rated G.

Faith - A glimpse into Mulder’s inner dialogue. Post-ep for Revelations.  Rated PG.

Winter - Scully has dipped to the lowest point in her horizon.  Angst.  Rated G.

Family - Scully is Mulder’s chosen family.  Rated G.

Run - Meditations on a word.  Rated G.

Unnamed - Mulder’s thoughts during Pine Bluff Variant.  Rated PG.

Help - Mulder wants to be a father.  Rated G.

Travel - See the world, join the Bureau.  Rated G.

Unnamed - Smut biscuit.  Rated NC-17.

Detour - thoughts on the motel room scene.  Rated G.

Walking After You - Scully’s thoughts on the ice in Antarctica.  Rated G.

Unnamed - Mulder’s mind reading in The Sixth Extinction.  Rated G.

Unnamed - Christmas at the Unremarkable House.  Rated PG.

Mobius Strip - Mulder’s thoughts as he drives to South Carolina in My Struggle III.  Rated G.

None at this time - Mulder muses on Scully’s bucket of priorities in Jersey Devil.  Rated G.

The Things We Never Say - Mulder plans for the future.  Angst.  Rated G.

Knock Three Times - nobody does head games like Mulder and Scully.  Set during Plus One.   Rated R.

Inferno - my breakout hit of the summer.  A post-ep for Ghouli in which Mulder comes to grips with the events of that ep.  Rated R.  

Cinders - a post-ep for The End.  Angst ahoy, with a side of dubcon.  Rated R.

Love is to Die, Love is to Dance - the six stages of falling in love with your partners.  Rated R.

A Proposal - how it might have gone down, the first time they broached the subject.  Rated G.

Oxytocin - Mulder has an unhealthy habit.  Rated NC-17.

The Ocean Breathes Salty - Mulder being a douchebag, set around Three Words.  Angst.  Rated G.

Stalemate - Mulder being Mulder, set around The Blessing Way.  Angst.   Rated G.

Dressed to Suppress - Mulder muses on Scully’s evolving sense of style.  Rated G.

Two Weeks - a third person POV angst-o-rama, set during the Revival era. Rated R.

Fic trope mash-up prompt for Survival/Wilderness and Unexpected Virgin.  Post-colonization.  And its sequel.

Fic trope mash-up prompt for Summer Camp AU and Erotic Dreams.  Humour.  I sorta love this one.

Fic trope mash-up prompt for Green Eyed Epiphany and Hair Brushing / Braiding.  Angst.  

Fic trope mash-up prompt for Airport AU and Bathtub.  MSR.  

Fic trope prompt for Royalty AU.   MSR in medieval Russia.  Trust me.

Linguiphilia - dirty talk in the bedroom, MSR-style.  Rated NC-17.

Allotrope - romantic anal sex?  Is that a category?   Rated NC-17.

Prompt response - five times Mulder and Scully got caught kissing.  Rated PG.

Pandora’s Box - prompt response to Scully accidentally finding an engagement ring Mulder bought her, but prior to any relationship.   Rated PG.

Slightly Longer Fics

Files - Mulder thought he was in the doghouse.  Rated R.

Unnamed - Anger and lust - they’re two sides of the same coin.  Rated NC-17.

Hospital - How many times has Mulder been admitted, anyway?  Humour.  Rated G.

Last Full Measure of Devotion and its sequel We Take Increased Devotion - in answer to a prompt asking about Mulder and Scully’s first date.   Rated NC-17.

Detour - the road not traveled. AU for what would have happened if Mulder had stayed and drunk wine with Scully during the ep.  Written for the 2018 X-Files Pornbattle.  Rated NC-17, obviously.

Even Now in Heaven - a pre-XF fic in which Mulder and Scully have a one-night stand before meeting at the FBI.  Written for the 2018 X-Files Pornbattle.  Rated NC-17.

Fuchsia - written for the X-Files Pornbattle prompt “dry humping / frottage, both come”.  I’m such a classy lady.  Rated: NC-17.

No One Falls in Love Under Fluorescent Lights - early season sex, maybe?  Inspired by the Stars song of the same name.  Rated R.

Jude - sometimes healing and insight come from the least likely places.  Petfic! Set during the Revival separation.  Angst.  Rated G.

Sabine - a fic written for the XFilesFicExchange.  Amor Fati post-ep AU.  Mulder’s past catches up with him.  Angst and MSR.  Rated G.

Stories

Unnamed - Scully and Mulder hook up. Scully POV.  Rated NC-17

Unnamed - Mulder and Scully hook up.  Mulder POV.  Rated NC-17

The Wraith - Hallowe’en story.   Rated PG.

Severed - what happens when the ties between them are severed?  Angst. Housed at AO3.  Rated NC-17.

Vacationland - written for the 50 States of Sex collaboration.  I chose Maine.  Set after the failed IVF.  Angst and smut.   Housed at AO3.  Rated R. 

Cardinal Sins - a four part story (plus Epilogue) that explores the possibility of early season sex evolving into something more substantial. West - Lust.  North - Envy.  South - Gluttony.  East - Wrath (trigger warnings for dub-con apply).  Epilogue - Pilgrimage.  Rated NC-17. 

Perushim - a WIP series of one-shots about Fox William Mulder, and what makes him tick.   Housed on AO3.  Ratings vary by chapter.

Novel Length

Second Side of Light - housed at AO3.  A historical AU in which Mulder and Scully meet while crossing the Oregon Trail.   Rated PG for the most part, with exceptions marked in the chapter headings.  A sequel is in the works.

Seventeen - housed at AO3.  A romp through Fox Mulder’s past in search of what makes him tick, one sex partner at a time.  It’s a lot less libidinous than it sounds, but still, Rated NC-17.

Black and White and Red - housed at AO3.   A historical AU set in the 1950s (with flashbacks to World War 2) inspired by the genre of film noir.   Fox Mulder is a heretical photographer.   Dana Scully is a desperate woman.   This is what happens when they meet.

Coming Soon!  Saorsa - an Outlander AU novel.  Sorrynotsorry for jumping fandoms.

[scapegrace74-blog]

We went to Guadeloupe. Some fun was had.

[solarpunkfool]

What if we win?

What if the children go to schools unafraid of tear gas and bullets?

What if the birds come back, and the bees are healed, and every species moves from endangered, to threatened, to thriving?

What if the rainforest ADVANCES?

What if every parking lot had solar panels? What if every structure had solar panels? What if we built climbing gyms and terraced gardens in the skeletons of old coal power plants?

What if you baked your neighbor bread, and they shared their home-grown blackberries?

What if every person who needed a home, had one? What if every person who needed healing was healed?

What if every body was treasured for what it was, not what it should be?

What if every trans child's parents attended their graduation, their wedding, their new-name-day?

What if every warehouse became a closed-circle repair station? Goods flowing out, and back, and out again? What if landfills started to SHRINK?

What if the water and air were clean? What if there was enough public transit that the cars dwindled, leaving the streets safe for kids on bikes, evening deer, midnight cats and foxes?

What if we win?

How would you win?

[aetherograph]

And we've won a lot already, mind you.

The condors are back. The whales are saved. The sea turtles are no longer endangered. The cranes are back. The bees are recovering. The air in LA and Tokyo and London is clean again. The aquifers in the LA Basin are refilling.

Children are kinder than previous generations. Parents are stopping the abuse cycle. Being trans and queer is more acceptable than ever on a ground level.

It's hard to see if you're young, if you don't know how to step back from social media and the news. But remember--bad news sells, and the algorithm knows despair keeps you scrolling. It's a skewed lens.

We are fighting and we are winning against this adminstration's bullying. We are coming together against the bullies and they are running away scared because they don't understand that we will do that.

People are working hard every day to find ways to make sure fewer animals get hit by cars and planes and rockets.

Maker spaces are more common than ever. Solar and wind are more common than ever. Coal plants are shutting down every day.

Unprecedented numbers of acres are being bought back or given back to their rightful stewards, and the world heals because of it. People are working hard every day to learn how to help a forest recover faster.

We are not at zero. We are at decades of effort to heal the world. We've come SO far.

In 1982 there were only 22 California Condors left in the world. In 1992, when the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), with its public and private partners, began reintroducing captive-bred condors to the wild. In 2001 the first wild nesting occurred in Grand Canyon National Park since re-introduction. In 2002 there were only 8 pairs of wild nesting birds population-wide. In 2008, for the first time since the program began, more California condors were flying free in the wild than in captivity. Today there are nearly 500 – more than half of them flying free in Arizona, Utah, California, and Baja Mexico.

When I was born, there were no condors in the wild. I'm 37 now, and there are over 250 condors flying free.

When my mom was born in 1955, there were days when she wasn't allowed to go outside to play, because of the air pollution. When I was born, that never happened anymore.

When I was born, humpback whales were critically endangered, and people thought they were going to go extinct. Today, they've recovered to exceed their recorded numbers. Other whales too!

We fixed it.

We CAN fix it and we ARE fixing it and we DID fix it.

[overmocha1068]

There is a light at the end of the tunnel.

It's still far from our reach.

But it's there.

[hope-for-the-planet]

Believing that things can get better is not blind hope or optimism--it is based on hard data that many things have consistently gotten better over the arc of history.

In addition to all that was mentioned above:

The likelihood of dying in infancy or childhood--or losing a child--has plummeted just in my lifetime. The likelihood of dying in a natural disaster is the lowest in recorded human history. Yes, even with the uptick in natural disaster intensity from climate change!

Humans alive right now are more likely to have access to healthcare, electricity, education, birth control, clean water, and nutritious food than at any other point in human history. There are so many diseases we can treat now that were a death sentence for 90% of human history.

This is not by accident. This is because generations of humans put in work to make life better for their communities.

Some of our solutions had the side effect of creating other problems--better access to electricity that ultimately made people's lives easier and safer led to pollution and climate change, for example--but we are tackling those knock on problems too. Our generation's solutions to our current problems will probably create their own less-bad side effects for the humans after us to deal with.

Is it silly and naive to believe we might actually be able to make things better? Not at all. We have many times before. We are doing it right now.

[fluorescent-iridescent]

Collective psychosis. Full cultural reset. Everybody is coming to the cottage I guess.

[violaobanion]

SEAN RAFFERTY STRUTTING AROUND THE GUINNESS WEDDING FEAST house of guinness // episode four

for @harrisonforded 💕

[violaobanion]

James Norton as Sean Rafferty in HOUSE OF GUINNESS (2025-) episode one

for @harrisonforded 💋

[scapegrace74-blog]

I took a solo hiking and photography trip to Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia over the Canadian Thanksgiving long weekend. Definitely a destination that lives up to its billing as one of the most beautiful places on Earth.

October 9 - 13, 2025

[scapegrace74-blog]

David Duchovny confirms he married partner Monique Pendleberry — Entertainment Weekly

The actor, producer, and writer tied the knot with the florist in February.

Are people talking about this? Because it seems noteworthy.

[scapegrace74-blog]

I read a story today that I didn’t particularly like. Generally I’d be fussed about the time wasted, but I was composing some constructive criticism to the author in my head (which I would never share directly, because I’m not a dick), and suddenly the time wasn’t wasted at all.

Here’s what I would tell them:

The who, what, when, where and how of writing is the skeleton. It has to be there, but the reader doesn’t need to be conscious of it. But every good story is good because it gives you a credible why. And it doesn’t just tell you outright “this is why this character did suchandsuch”. It makes you hunt for it by leaving subtle clues. So when you arrive at the last sentence you understand the reason behind the story, and you think you understand it because you figured it out yourself. You could write a story about a sentient strawberry on Mars, and as long as those two conditions were met, I would enjoy it.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have some plot reworking to do…

[scapegrace74-blog]

Greetings from Canada, where winter was too beautiful for words.

January to April, 2025

[scapegrace74-blog]

Power is something you can lose. Wealth can be stolen. Dominance can only be won by taking it away from someone else. There’s a reason people who crave and worship those things are forever weak, forever on the defensive. They are chasing something inherently impermanent, like trying to climb up a rockslide.

Decency. Kindness. Humility. Compassion. You never hear someone say “‘my goodness was stolen from me” or “I lost decency today”. No-one can take them away from you. You have to willingly give them up.

Everyday, but especially these days, don’t you dare give away something that is yours to keep forever.

[hope-for-the-planet]

Has China already reached peak oil?

The country’s demand for crude seems to be plateauing sooner than expected. The implications are huge

From the article:

[T]here are now signs that China’s thirst for crude is reaching a peak sooner than expected, a development that has sent shockwaves through the oil market. This week, China said its oil imports had fallen nearly 2 per cent, or 240,000 barrels a day, to just over 11mn b/d in 2024 compared with the year before, the first decline in two decades barring the disruption during the Covid pandemic[...]. [T]he decline stems from longer-term trends too. There was a boom in trucks switching from diesel to liquefied natural gas, and, most importantly, the rising number of electric vehicles helped to depress sales of petrol and diesel. Sales of both road fuels peaked in 2023, according to China National Petroleum Corp, and will now fall by 25-40 per cent over the next decade. In December, Sinopec, China’s biggest refiner, brought forward its forecast for crude oil consumption to reach a peak to 2027, compared with the range it previously gave of between 2026 and 2030. The implications of China hitting peak oil are enormous. If Chinese demand is reaching a plateau that would fulfil projections by the IEA of global oil demand peaking before 2030. The forecast sustains hope for the world to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050."

[metaborderlines]

THX, fanfic writers [repeating myself, end of year]

Inspired by the post from @saygoodnightlove about fan fic recommendations, I want to know as @juli-81 asked, “Whatfics made you fall in love with Outlander in a new way this year?” My first answer was “Power Jam” by @isthisclever and I’ll stick with it, because of the way this writer uses detail to make things new, especially the love story that never gets old, Jamie meets Claire, this time at a roller rink in Edinburgh. The other nine, in no particular order, sprinkled I see with many WIPs: 

#2, “Wee Herbs” by @jesuisprest. OK, I have a problem with feisty Jenny, always barging in to “protect” Jamie. In “Wee Herbs,” Jenny is none too pleased to find that her brother has married the proprietor of a weed shop [it’s medical marijuana,Jenny] in California, and that California Claire has a child (Fergus, age 6, blooming nicely in West Coast soil). Claire fights fire with fire, beats Jenny at the primal battle of “family first.” WIP. 

 #3 “Lovers in a Dangerous Time” by @sassenachthroughtime. Is there a more romantic scene in fan fic than the one in this story when Claire, unwilling trophy wife to Fronk in oppressively staid South Carolina society, helps new next-door neighbor Jamie with clean-up after his housewarming party and he whispers, Scottish burr on fire, “Dance wi’me?” WIP.

            #4 “Game Changer” by @the2ofusnow. Jamie’s the rookie of the year with the NY Mets; Claire is the team doctor, written with emotional intelligence. WIP. 

            #5 “Atonement” by @smashing-teacups, for its quiet scenes in the hospital when horribly-injured Jamie and compassionate-nurse Claire get to know one another. The writer gets the most out of dialogue, small moments like the one when Claire washes Jamie’s hair.

            #6 “Market Price” by @desperationandgin. Both Jamie and Claire are witty and strong, despite (of course) having weathered some life-challenges, and they’re funny and sweet, unable to keep their hands off one another. 

            #7 “Saorsa” by @scapegrace-74. Jamie escapes Black Jack by touching the stones, lands in the midst of WW II at Lallybroch whose chatelaine is a pregnant widow, Claire, the legatee of the Randall estate. The way the two come together, inevitably, is told with grace and verve—a description that fits “anything by” @scapegrace-74, especially the stories in the “Metric Universe.” Thanks also to @scapegrace-74 for pointing to a perfect novella, “The Stars Will Sing for Us” by @fallofrain. No drama, just strong characterization when Dr. Claire moves to Broch Morda and falls in love with, guess, the sweetest, hottest guy in town; he’s good with horses too. No bland inevitability: the writer allows the reader to discover the characters as they discover one another. 

            #8 “Loving Jamie” by @JillianK, an 18thcentury story in which Jamie has lost inheritance when he’s rendered mute from an axe blow (Dougal?) The MacKenzie brothers arrange a marriage to Claire. The story has a fairytale quality leavened with humor, e.g ch 7 when Jamie wonders if his new wife loves him and Clarence nudges him not to get maudlin. “Christ. Now he was taking life lessons from a mule.”

            #9 “Something to Believe In” by @caitrinwrites.  Claire is a chef in Santa Fe and when a Scottish distiller turns up to purvey his wares at her resto, he very much resembles her daughter Brianna, age 5. WIP. This story of introducing Jamie to his lost child shows signs of rising to meet the top of the class in the genre, “Downhill” by @wickedgoodbooks (who can forget five-year-old Willie on “The Puffin Trip” with his reunited parents, Claire and Jamie?) and “Flood My Mornings” by @bonnie_wee_swordsman (Jamie’s observations about the mores of America in the 1950, all the tut-tutting about working mothers, and his comment about how the Pope can just get out of women’s way when it comes to reproductive choice). And “Written in the Stones” by @lenny9987, one of the best father-and-child reunion stories in which Jamie arrives at Craig na dun and reclaims Claire and ten-year-old Brianna, in part when she teaches him to bake chocolate chip cookies at Mrs. Graham’s house during a thunderstorm. 

More than a top ten, I can’t omit “One Summer” by @missclairebelle, the glorious variant on Jamie and Claire as a bantering couple who would give Hepburn and Tracy a run for their money in their heyday. And “Jimjeran” by @betweensceneswriter, which manages to convey new love in the most heated yet nuanced fashion. Jamie and Claire are Peace Corps volunteers on a Pacific island, which shows among other things that this story is truly universal. And then there’s “In My Daughter’s Eyes” by @preciouslittleingenue, Jamie as a riding therapist to autistic Faith, four-year-old child of Claire and Fronk, who rejected his “imperfect” child. And You’ll Be in Mo Chridhe by @CrossingInStyle. Claire goes to Africa with Uncle Lamb and meets Tarzan, who is, guess … Another good one by this prolific writer, “First Time Here?” Jamie is a bartender in Inverness who asks the question of Claire on her sequential bad dates. Nice past-present cross-stich. And “Back to You” by @balfeheughlywed. Claire is Leery’s roommate at Edinburgh U…but the writing is good. Jenny is the Worst. And “Queen’s Gambit”by @AbbeDebeaupre. Lord John is private eye, Jamie trains polo ponies… And the “Basia Mille” series by @JRC10…

 This list is threatening to exceed top 20, so many good stories. Thank you, writers!

[scapegrace74-blog]

Thanks as always for your support, @metaborderlines. Some excellent recommendations in there!

[scapegrace74-blog]

Back from an amazing 10 day trip to stunningly beautiful Scotland.

October 18 - 28, 2024

[scapegrace74-blog]

I had another of those amusing bilingual moments this week when my MIL used the French word sous-entendu, meaning something inferred or implied, but not explicitly stated. It’s an amalgam of the word sous, meaning under, and entendu, the past participle of the verb to hear, but also having the meaning of having understood something, not just heard it.

So in French, an unspoken inference or implication is literally under-understood, which I’d like to petition be added to the English language as well.

[scapegrace74-blog]

If you’re feeling stressed out, watching this on loop will likely help.

Bonus: listening to the below at the same time.

[scapegrace74-blog]

Every fall, I try to make a point of spending one or two nights in Mont Tremblant National Park. I donate a few pints of blood to the mosquito gods, a few litres of sweat to the hiking gods, and I leave feeling lighter for completely different reasons. This year was no exception.

September 2 - 3, 2024