"Oh, Isn't It Nice to Be Suddenly So
Highly Regarded?"
Fluffuary Day 2: ?
(Can you tell I disregarded the rules?)
[Ao3]
*-*-*-*-*
"Uncle Fox--"
He was an uncle now, five years after Bill Scully begrudgingly let him stick around that fateful Christmas. He'd barely met Matthew then, peach fuzz poking out through the zealous layers of first-time parents. Time had since broadened his baby features into stocky limbs and fearsome solemnity: he attacked the world with imaginary swords, fooled about in his aunt's carry on trying to find her gun.
This summer, Mulder was his latest obsession.
"They only had orange popsicles because some older kids bought the really good ones," the lieutenant reported, a placebo military cap flopping loosely over his precocious head.
"Did you say thank you?" That seemed an uncle thing to ask.
"No."
"No?"
"He doesn't like you."
"A lot of people don't like me." Mulder ripped both plastic sides open, handed them to his suspicious charge with ease. "Did you know if you slurp them really fast you'll get brain freeze?"
"Yeah." Matthew waited for more, lips pursing. I'm not a little kid written all over his freckled face. Kept waiting until his mentor took the first bite, then chalked up the discussion as a dead end. "You didn't ask why he doesn't like you."
The ice cream truck had already pulled around the street corner, tune dimming as it floated from one suburban neighborhood to the next. It wasn't a stretch to picture why a young guy strapped for cash and low on patience would dislike someone he never met-- Mulder was young and impatient once. "Maybe he doesn't know me well enough to like me."
That earned him an exaggerated snort. "He likes Aunt Dana."
Things were starting to get interesting. "Oh? He knows Aunt Dana?"
"No." One, two, three sticky fingers were thoroughly licked before the narrator continued. "But he gave me a free ice cream and said to give it to her. Mom said it's because he likes her."
Tara had always seemed kind, if reserved around him--it was surprising, then, that she might be in on this conspiracy. Mulder looked towards the backyard where music and conversation was in full summertime swing. "She said that about him?"
"No." Bill really needed to step up his 'No Saying No' game. "I said you gave Aunt Dana a free ice cream."
Ah. His nephew, it seemed, subscribed to the notion that a little lying wasn't so bad as long as it produced results.
"I think Mom's prettier." With a defensive swipe at his nose, Matthew scowled stubbornly. "But she never gets a free ice cream."
The chorus of Scullys laughed louder, his own Scully's giggle lingering while her mother's and Bill's blew down to more moderate tones. Tara's trilled in last, swiftly rising and falling before she began chattering about some other topic.
"Matt, here--" Mulder handed over his treat, rubbing watery fingertips against his cotton shirt. "Say the ice cream man gave that to her for free." Smiling at the boy's wide eyes, he insisted, "C'mon, run it to her before it melts!"
He was a young boy once, too-- Matthew ran off without another word.
Write a scene about:
Scully overhearing William (Jackson) telling her nephew Matthew that he wished that he could remember their grandmother, and asking his cousin to tell him what Maggie Scully was like.
Note: while you're welcome to set your scene during the holidays, it's not a requirement to do so
Please tag @mulderscreek when you post your scene on your own tumblr, post here on our submissions Tumblr, or send me a message with a link to your fic on Tumblr to reblog.
Hey! Maybe you can help me.. I’m looking for a fic where Bill ans Tara die in an accident and Mulder and Scully get custody of Matthew ?
This sounds like it could be one of these two stories. If somebody thinks there’s another X-Files fic out there that meets this description, please let us know!
The Future Isn’t What It Used to Be by TeaGirl42
Scully is heartbroken to find out the her brother and sister-in-law have been killed in a car accident...and shocked to hear that she has been named as guardian to her nephew Matthew. Some angst with a happy ending (of course!)
Waiting by Dreamshaper
Scully recieves one of the phone calls that no one ever wants to get...and she and Mulder are thrown into a situation they never expected.
X-Files Fic That Irons Out the Mytharc: Amor Fati (Fated Love) Chapter 18
If anyone wants the mytharc to make sense post S7-- supersoldiers, factions, green and red blood, etc.-- all you have to do is read Chapter 18 (here) @touchstoneaf's epic Amor Fati (Fated Love) series , an AU after William's abduction in S9.
It's masterful, stretching backward and forward, knitting in the two alien factors warring since the Consortium went up in flames into a coherent and frightening threat for the future: two titans out for each others' throats and catching the human species in-between.
As an aside, if you want an amazing fic series that blend old school X-Files mythology with the new-fangled stuff (that was too convoluted to make sense of), her four-part (and still going) series is THE read. Amazing characterization. Amazing plot. All the characters in voice. Intelligence through the roof. PTSD and acceptance for Mulder, alone and on the run; PTSD and acceptance for Scully as she becomes a lioness for her son and Mulder, reuniting them on the road and helping them forge a life together. The three of them have each other as they flee, all factions hot on their heels. Absolutely stunning body of work.
I mean, look at her cover art (it's adorable and makes me chuckle):
Her notes in between chapters are spectacular (and wittily tongue-in-cheek) as well~. I particularly love her Diana Fowley Llama-Faced Crack-Ho quip; but more seriously, I enjoyed this abstraction:
""Note: I checked the Latin, and there were three possible meanings for 'Amor Fati' for philes to choose from (probably to give us the chance to decide on our own). The phrase was originally used by Nietzsche to mean ‘love of one’s fate’ (as in to love all that had occurred in one’s life, good or ill, that made one who one is). Considering the many painful speed-bumps hit by our heroes, this meaning is particularly apt for our intrepid duo. The other form of ‘amor fati’, though, can be conjugated as ‘amoris fatale’; the fated love. Nuff said.""
Cannot recommend this series enough.
**Note**: I started reading Part 2, which focused solely on Scully already on the road (Part 1 was set the groundwork for the series and tied up all loose knots concerning the other characters, ex. the Scullys, TLG, Skinner and Doggett and Monica.) If you prefer to get into the meat of the story, start there: I've never watched S9 and found it was completely coherent without Part 1 as its primer.
Write a story in which Scully's nephew Matthew, who in your story is at least 10 and no more than 19 years old, reaches out to her and/or his uncle Fox when he finds himself in an eerie situation, way, way over his head.
Please submit your story or the link to it to [email protected] or post here on our submissions Tumblr - or send me a message with your fic on Tumblr to reblog.
Another from my ongoing reading about morality and our treatment of animals, found in Matthew Scully’s Dominion. The quote is from Ecclesiastes 3:19-20, and perfectly captures the humility and sense of connection we need to see animals as worthy of moral consideration: “For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts. Even one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so the other; yea,…
