Hey, long time no speak, weird question, but do you by any chance have a list of undercover in cult fics?
(Hope you’re well!!!!)
Doing great! :DD Hope you are, too.
Collector's Edition: Cults, Paramilitary Forces, and Post-Colonization Societies
Sort of yes, and sort of no. Included a choice variety; but I coulda sworn there were more fics....
Loose chronological order below~
Anjou's (Ao3) Speechless 01 (Ao3)
"So. I dug a little deeper. His family is originally from Northern Minnesota, where his grandfather and father were part of a Nazi sympathizing paramilitary organization during WWII. They are affiliated with the Church of the Lost Tribe, which has the same claim to fame as the Mormon faith, i.e., they believe that they are the lost tribe of Israel." He craned his head to see her face. "You know what kills me about all these guys? They all want to be the lost tribe, but nobody ever wants to be a Jew."
Scully arched an eyebrow at him.
"You know it's true,"he said placidly.
Post-Tithonus Scully, war-torn and discouraged, joins Mulder and other FBI teams to halt a suspected paramilitary group.
@onpaperfirst's Snakebitten
There were true believers. There were Max Fenigs and Cassandra Spenders. Tremulous and fragile, susceptible to being sucked into cults.
There were conspiracists. Underground groups operating on the fringes that communicated via mimeographed pamphlets and old school mailing lists.
The New Spartans were neither.
AU-- A retelling of Season 5's events leading up to The Pine Bluff Variant: Scully wants her own answers, and Mulder is pulled away through forced secrecy.
Wylfcynne's Imagine
The prisoners were shoved without ceremony into the backseat of one of the Taurus pursuit vehicles. Their cuffs were tied with clothesline to each other's and then their seatbelts were used to fasten them into their seats.
"Y' think the Assistant Director'll dock our pay when we don't show up at that stupid meeting tomorrow morning?" Mulder asked his partner.
She sighed, knowing what he was trying to do. "Probably," she agreed. "Not that I'll be sorry to miss another budget meeting."
"That goes without saying," he agreed.
AU-- Post-S. R. 819 Mulder and Scully discover a black oil cult while on Kersh detail.
@oohnotvery/the_eternal_optimist's (site) Unheard Of
Wiping at her cheeks furiously, Scully blinked rapidly to clear her vision, to make sure what she was seeing was real. To her relief and dismay, the man under the stairs, the person whose breathing was unnatural to the point of frightening, was Mulder.
His face was turned towards the light from her flashlight but his eyes stayed closed. He was naked except for his boxers, but his torso was so covered in mud and dirt and (Scully flinched upon noticing) blood, that she could barely make out his skin beneath. His hands were tied in front of his body with a thin, crude-looking rope, as were his ankles. A gash cut across his forehead.
She couldn’t remember ever seeing him look so . . . lifeless.
S6 Mulder vanishes into the woods; and Scully, a non-believer in his supernatural cult theory, treks out to find him.
She tells him on the bus. After Doggett is finished cutting the slug out of her, because she’s shouting that it needs to be cut out and Mulder wants to do it but he can’t. His hands are shaking too badly. So he holds hers, lets her squeeze the life out of them as she screams, as the cultists pound on the bus, as Doggett pulls out the slug and shoots it. The cultists are dismayed. Mulder can see the flashing lights through the dusty window of the bus. As Doggett runs outside to deal with it all, Scully collapses woozily against his chest. He presses a quivering hand over the bloody wound at the back of her neck, and he realizes only then that she is sobbing.
AU-- Roadrunners Mulder is returned early (whole, with minor amnesia); but finds Doggett, not Scully, in the basement office.
snow in april (chapter 1 of 8) (Ao3)
Scully had kept ahold of his wrist; she motioned him towards the closet in the corner. They got off of the bed carefully, feet hitting the carpet, and moved together into the closet. The scraping moved towards the door to their room. Scully tugged him hard into the closet and pulled the door most of the way closed - not letting it close all the way to avoid the click, he assumed. She let go of his wrist and wrapped an arm around his waist, leaning hard into him. Her right hand was pressed against her stomach. He moved his left hand down to her stomach, on top of her hand. The baby kicked; Mulder couldn't tell whether it was out of fright or excitement. Don't worry, kid, he thought. I'll protect you.
Outside the closet, the bedroom door slowly creaked open. Scully pressed her face into his shoulder, her hand wrapping tighter around the baby. Please, God, Mulder thought furiously, momentarily forgetting he didn't believe in God.
The strange, scraping footsteps continued across the room, the rug, the floorboards. There were multiple scarecrows; Mulder mentally took stock. His eyes were on the crack where the door hadn't closed all the way, he could see part of a bulky scarecrow arm through it. The baby was kicking furiously under their hands. Scully breathed shakily into his shoulder.
AU-- Post-Three Words Mulder is called beyond his will to a small, snowed-in town, trapping he and Scully in the mountains.
@dreamingofscully's (Ao3) Dreaming of Scully (particularly, Part III)
“You’re the worst liar, Mulder.”
His mouth tilted up, but he didn’t look at her or speak.
“Talk to me.”
“It looks like something I remember, but not exactly.”
“Remember from where?”
He traced his finger over the symbol. “You didn’t want to know about it, Scully.”
She exhaled, not realizing she’d been holding her breath. It was unusual for him to keep things from her. Usually, it was her that didn’t trust herself enough to open up. But Mulder? He shared everything. And the only reason he hadn’t been completely transparent about his work lately was because he’d been giving her space.
“The cult,” she stated.
“Yeah.”
AU-- Paranormal investigators Mulder and Scully are sorting through their own recent supernatural experiences while tracking down an old, earth-dwelling entity.
Zoonr's (Ao3) Mesabi Ferrum
Since their trip had started, William hadn't said another word. *He's listening,* Mulder thought. It was an intuitive guess, not unlike those he used to have when he was an agent assigned to the X-Files, and he had no real explanation for it. Mulder wondered just how much William already knew about them, or about himself.
Rob had nearly passed out the moment they started driving, in spite of Liam spending most of the first two hours on the road muttering his nonsensical religious rhetoric. He emphatically wanted Mulder to drive them back to his camp, to meet the other members of his group, which Mulder suspected was more like a cult, and introduce them all to William. Mulder asked Liam in which direction his camp was located. Liam said south; Mulder drove north. After about an hour of whiney protest, Liam had finally and mercifully fallen asleep, and the trip had gone on in silence.
AU-- Colonization begins, prompting Mulder and Scully to find and save their son, with Mr. Van de Kamp, Gibson Praise, Doggett, Reyes, and Jeremiah Smith to boot.
@slippinmickeys/SlippinMickeys/Slippin' Mickeys's North of Zero (Tumblr, Tumblr) and Prompt Drabble Collection - Chapter 47 (Tumblr)
Scully sat up, the coppery taste of blood on her tongue. She looked down at her shirt, which was still soaked red, a jagged slash where the super soldier’s hand pierced her torso. The previous few minutes were a blur of pain and confusion. She remembered trying to stop the soldier from the senseless killing of the cultist woman after they’d been brought aboard the ship, then pain, the cold knowledge of impending death, and then her son. He’d been with her in her mind, in her body and she-
“You healed me,” she said, pulling back from Mulder’s embrace and turning to William.
He gave her a small smile. “Yes.”
“How did-” she was at an utter loss for words.
“Hate to tell you this, doc,” said Mulder, rubbing a hand up and down her arm, “but you might be out of a job.”
AU-- Post-Colonization William, hunted by creatures he doesn't understand, follows his instincts into the wilderness, stumbling upon a small redhead and her partner in the woods.
Deadcanons's X-Tropy
“I met some young people outside the teahouse, who helped me get here,” Reyes went on. “By my assessment, they were the sort of people who are often targeted by cult leaders. One of them in particular, Ileana, was highly spiritual, quick to trust, and eager to help. That’s exactly the kind of personality profile that cult leaders seek out.”
Scully looked stunned. “This is the same woman I called to the house... What, almost 15 years ago?”
Reyes nodded. “If it’s any consolation, she probably wasn’t up to anything back then. Based on the recurring faces I saw at the teahouse, I would assume the cult has somewhere between 80 to 120 members. For an outfit of that size, she’s probably been doing this for four or five years. I doubt this cult could have survived for longer than a decade.”
Scully was silent for a long moment, processing this. “And Jasmine has been taking commissions from her. All this time...”
“What’s our next move?” Reyes asked.
“Monica, you can’t be serious. You’re 97 years old.”
“And you can’t go back home,” she retorted.
AU-- Immortal Scully leaves her apartment alongside Mulder, loses her partner, goes into hiding as the world and the people she knows age around her, and returns after an estrangement from her kids, a run-in with a cult, and multiple Mulder visitations.
BONUS
@writingwell/RocketMan/Darkstryder's (xffics) Holding Me (Gossamer)
"Get your gun out, Scully. I don't like this."
She nodded. She trusted his instinct. The gun slipped from her holster with a thick sound of leather; she checked that the safety was on and licked her lips. For the first time since her Academy days, it felt unnaturally heavy.
Then the whole world seemed to blink. Every light everywhere was gone for an instant and Mulder reacted at once, swerving the car to a stop and calling on the CB for backup.
Then he saw it, just in the rearview mirror. The set-up.
Cancer arc Mulder decides to put the moves on Scully right before their stakeout is busted.
The Way (01, 02, 03, 04, 05, 06, 07, 08, 09)
"When did you suddenly join a children's crusade?" she whispered.
"Since they could be yours . . ."
He heard her hiss and felt her jump from his fingers as if he'd stung her.
"Mulder, we have no proof of any of what she said. We don't even know if she's *real*, let alone telling us the whole truth."
"Scully."
"She could be some kind of clone sent to make you-"
"Scully." "
-think that something's going on, when instead, it's all an-"
"Scully."
"-elaborate hoax to get us shut down-"
His hands shot out and grabbed her hard, yanking her back to him.
She stopped breathing and stared up at him. His eyes were wide and his pupils dilated as if he had suddenly snapped.
"Scully. Either way. I can't let this go."
She sagged in his grip and he let her fall to his couch.
"I know, Mulder. I know."
AU-- Post-Redux II Mulder is rejected by Samantha; and Scully is haunted by his distance. She becomes plagued with nightmares, forced to lean on his help when her dreams lead them to their "mini me"s.
Dragon Kings Daughter (Gossamer)
He lowered his body to the floor beside her and laid his head close to hers, willing her to wake up and see him there, wanting to see her eyes as they opened and were unguarded with him.
It took but a moment, and soon her eyes were peering into his, a sleepy indifference making them seem deep and dark. "What'd you find?" she whispered, her voice still low from sleep.
He grinned in triumph. "Lots. How about you?"
Her eyes drifted shut for one last moment of unreality, then she sat up, pushing her hair from her face.
Post-The Red and the Black Mulder and Scully discover a connection to her past life.
eponine119’s Resignation
In some ways, life on the commune was a relief. It had become a strain on me keeping the chores done and the bills paid as my mom became increasingly dysfunctional. On the commune, everything was taken care of.
Granted, we were all required to dress in orange bell bottomed uniforms and shave our bodies free of hair. There were hours of prayer under the fevered eyes of the leader, and rarely did we have anything more than rice to eat. I didn't believe a word of it - I was old enough to know this wasn't normal. I was also old enough to know better than to rebel or argue.
Post-One Son Jeffrey's experience in Cassandra Spender's "cult."
Post-5x03 The Guy for This with some mailroom-era bookends. Rated M-ish.
She wore her little disguise and then thought she had the right to be offended when someone took it at face value.
Why’d he want to live out there? Didn’t matter. People lived everywhere. Bloom where you’re planted. Plant yourself wherever you’d like. And the lawyers would keep cutting up the land, deciding which parts were for people and which were for call centers and shipping logistics hubs.
She could still feel the dust on her, fine and soft.
And why’d she tell him? It was true, all of it, but she told him, because why? Because she wanted him to see that she understood, that they were the same, that she wasn’t one of them, not really, and yes, she told him because she thought he would be moved by her, that he wouldn’t want to deny her, Kimberly Wexler, erstwhile daughter of the plains, a single thing. That she’d earned it. That he should give up his home because she’d had to do the same thing, over and over.
She never told anyone anything about her childhood, was tightlipped at college, law school, the mailroom, every job she’d ever had. She didn’t lie, everything was factual: Nebraska. Small town. Didn’t really see her dad. Nothing much to the last one, how many people had said, “Oh, me neither” in response over the years? Even when she applied for college, she knew the financial aid office would see the Expected Family Contribution and know what to do with it. She wasn’t going to gild the lily with a personal statement sob story.
There was a general consensus you were supposed to strip your life for parts if you wanted to make sure to get everything you possibly could. She’d been sort-of-friends with a girl named Meghan, a second violin in the RCHS orchestra, who asked her to proofread her applications for Nebraska and Creighton and KU. Meghan had written about her great-grandma dying during her sophomore year. This was the worst thing that had happened to Meghan in all of her 17 years on earth.
You’re just like the rest of them.
Jimmy in his white socks on the balcony, doing bar tricks for her.
///
Read the rest at AO3! A million thank yous to @leucocrystal! :)
If you want to go on an emotional journey through season 5 - and you do - boy is this ever the story for you. "The Pine Bluff Variant" serves a bit like the story's anchor, but so many familiar events and people pepper this lovely, angsty tale.
Title: Snakebitten
Author: onpaperfirst (@onpaperfirst)
Summary: season 5. redux ii through pine bluff variant. a chip, a bridge, lies. / Sure, he said. We get along. I would tie a brick to my toe and jump off a bridge without her. We get along.
Length: 18,990 words
Classification: MSR
Rating: Mature
Spoilers: Season 5
Favorite line: Scully might’ve argued he’d been old enough to know better, except for the fact that she’d been twenty-nine when she met him, and that was possibly the least cautious thing she’d done in her whole life, blithely throwing her lot in with his.
Read the story!
I spent all last night while I wasn’t writing and all this evening so far catching up on everything that @onpaperfirst has ever written and honestly the best use of my time. Please go read immediately do not pass go do not collect Chris Carter’s misguided surfboy ideas.
“We would rather be ruined than changed.” – WH Auden
Scully sometimes paid lip service to the idea of wanting what she called “a real life,” but come on. Her mom’s friend’s daughter had invited her to join a book club. She said she’d go, then never did, because there was always something more pressing than some book about a Civil War widow finding love again. There was always a mangled body, an autopsy bay. There was always Mulder.
So. She shouldn’t have let him talk her into this, because it isn’t their job and it has nothing to do with anything and a crime hasn’t even been committed. No one is in trouble, danger is not lurking. But the prospect of being on the road with him, outside, even at the expense of her weekend, makes her feel like a trapped miner blinking and stumbling gratefully into the sunlight.
