For ur send me an au: what do you think of werewolf!scully 👀
"She Seemed Pretty Upset Last Night"
Werewolf fic!
[Ao3]
*****
One second she was careening through the woods, flashlight refracting off the trees like a thousand panicked fireflies; the next she was on the ground, dazed.
Choking on a scream, chin slamming into the ancient dirt. Squirming, frantic, elbow splintering under primal force and blood-slicked claws. Pinned, breathless, by a snarling, vengeful form. Two rows of teeth-- fangs, detached reason noted-- sank just below the back of her neck with punishing impact.
It had missed the killing blow. The creature raged, worrying her body with an intelligence that would have terrified had she not been lost in the panic of spit and blood and foam.
"Mulder!" Scully begged-- her last words before a gunshot, two, three rang out.
Her attacker dropped in the dark, burrowing her under tacky fur and noxious sweat. She was unconscious before she could vomit.
*-*-*-*-*
Scully woke in sterile brightness, Mulder portside with twelve strands of unidentified animal fur in an evidence bag. His eyes told her they'd talked before. She didn't remember anything.
Except her dream: Lyle Parker crying over his dead father. Lyle, who Mulder insisted had been possessed with a Manitou spirit, spread across his father's cabin floor, mistaken for a wild animal.
Not a dream-- she'd sat at his bedside, too, and commiserated with his pain.
"The doctor said you're healing well," Mulder began, stretching his fingers lightly over her cast. "That it didn't...." He motioned towards the back of his neck, vaguely waved a semi-circle. "Disturb anything." The chip.
There was nothing to say, except, "What happened?"
"Marlon Zites is dead." Her neck itched, stung. "The local team stopped asking questions after they had a body and an easy explanation."
"But he didn't attack me."
Her partner tented his hands, buried his mouth and nose and stared with conflicted, undisguised worry.
"Mulder, you were there. Zites didn't-- whatever attacked me couldn't have been him."
He remained silent, jaw clenching.
He was withholding.
*-*-*-*-*
It was too bright.
It was too loud-- shrieks, shudders, cries, shots, screams, danger, dangerdangerdanger--
She was trapped, there were things around her, in her, on her. Clinging to her skin-- her raw, shredded, bruised, aching skin. They wouldn't go, they wouldn't give way, they wouldn't stop touching her, she needed to escape--
She fell over, clumsy, desperate. Charged upright, fled, fell into a corner, then another, then another. Banged against a more fragile surface. Returned, banged again. Escape, escape, escape--
Scully woke on the ground four nights later, bolted upright as the smell of blood saturated her senses. It was dark, too dark-- there was someone on top of her, she was wrapped in something. Lyle Parker, Marlon Zites, lycanthropy, Manitou, werewolves--
"Scully, Scully, don't move. It's me, Scully."
Mulder.
She stopped, sinking into the ache of suspended animation. Her body heaved and trembled. She hadn't felt this weak since....
He was quiet, holding her with gentle force as she began to cry, logical brain clinging to rational assurances, battered soul dissolving in exhaustion.
He continued shushing her until the woods lit up with voices, friendly calls swarming around their enclosed circuit.
*-*-*-*-*
"There was a full moon." Mulder carefully sat down, handed over a takeout container, kept his eyes trained on hers as she digested his theory. "The nurses said they heard an, an explosion from your room. Could've sworn an animal had broken in and couldn't get out. By the time they arrived, it had jumped back through the window."
"But that's not what you believe."
He set his cup aside-- a perfunctory purchase, to go with hers. "You said you don't remember what happened."
Scully looked down, slid a finger over her shredded nails. "No. But... Mulder, how could...."
"I think... I think you were bitten. And that you," he paused, shifted beside her, "turned."
Her body throbbed. She needed to scrub off organic forest matter from head to heel. She needed to retreat back to Georgetown, away from nervous glances and inescapable conclusions. "Mulder...."
I'm afraid.
Mulder exhaled, shuttled closer. For once, he had nothing to say.
*-*-*-*-*
Thanks for reading~
Enjoy!
Tagging @today-in-fic.
For headcanons:
Mulder will never be able to stash old or dirty laundry somewhere without her knowing about it.
Scully suddenly has an advantage in hand-to-hand combat.
Depending on the type of werewolf she is, she could either control her shape shifting like a superpower or be a victim to its-- or the moon cycle's-- whims.
I like the idea of Mulder turning her back into a person with an item of her clothing-- a gesture of love that reaches her humanity.
Scully will never live down the cannibalistic Queequeg comparisons.
Just dropping in to ask, as someone who’s only up to season 5 of txf, what exactly is it about season 9 that makes it as irredeemable as it is? I plan to go up to season 8 as this show has consumed my life and I’ve done nothing but think about it since I started, but unlike every other season including the revival and second movie, I’m yet to find so much as a good word about season 9 and am morbidly curious as to how they managed to screw the pouch so completely?
Feel free to ignore this one though I appreciate it’s not always fun to talk about the worst of something you adore.
So the thing about season 9 is just that it's not supposed to exist and you can tell. I think there was some pressure from Fox to keep the show going (I tried finding primary sources on this, but googling anything involving "Fox" and "X-Files" and expecting to get info on the studio is a lost cause), even though the season 8 finale was written to work as a series finale, and even though David Duchovny had already made it clear he was not coming back for season 9. The writers' hands were tied in some ways, because they had to work around not having Duchovny after they'd already used up the best excuse for his absence in the books.
But (a) I don't think that's an excuse for the way Mulder's absence in season 9 is handled, which is vague at best and out of character for him and Scully at worst. It's very "out of sight, out of mind" in a way that especially stands out considering how present he feels in season 8. If it's possible to make a version of The X-Files that isn't driven by Mulder (either in his presence or his absence), they didn't find it in season 9.
And (b) the writers also seemed to be writing like their hands were tied when they weren't. The vibe of some of the choices made in season 9, especially when it comes to Scully's story, is very Eric André holding a smoking gun saying "why would Fox do this." It's like, "well we weren't planning on this, but now we have to do it to keep the story going." And the thing is that they actually did not have to do it. There's a bizarre desperation to the way Scully's story is written in season 9. Almost everything they throw at her is traumatic, but also inconsistent and confusing, which makes it all come across as kind of soulless. And it all builds to the most egregious example of "Chris Carter tries to erase the consequences of a story he wrote, thereby creating even more devastating consequences, which he will also ignore" in the history of the show. He didn't have to do that! Scully could have spent a lot of season 9 just being Doggett and Reyes' deadpan pal who does autopsies and it would have been fine.
The thing that "works" "best" about season 9 is that it's theoretically a fresh start, with Doggett and Reyes running the X-Files office: two characters who weren't totally new faces but whose dynamic was mostly unexplored. And to be clear, I think John Doggett rules. The concept of assigning the X-Files to Just a Guy Who's a Very Good Person but Would Rather Be Watching NASCAR is hilarious. I don't think the writers had the same handle on Reyes, but the two of them are interesting together. I will also say I think some of the monster-of-the-week episodes in season 9 (the ones that focus on Doggett and Reyes) are cooler in theory than the motw episodes in season 8.
But it's so rare for those episodes to actually spark. Maybe part of the problem is that, again, the writers made the totally unforced error to focus so much of the mythology on Stressing Scully Out when they could have been deepening Doggett and Reyes' investment in the X-Files outside Scully, which would also liven up their characterization and their dynamic. Season 8 (which has a lot going for it) can skate by on uninteresting motw episodes because Scully's arc in that season is so all-consuming it drives the story forward and makes it meaningful. Season 9 doesn't have that same emotional clarity, so even the motw episodes that have promise feel lacking. (There's also the fact that even if the writers had given Doggett and Reyes better material, they wouldn't be Mulder and Scully. But better material would have helped.)
There's also literally 9/11. I'm this far down on the list of problems with season 9 and I'm just now getting to 9/11. The X-Files gets its edge from its mistrust of the government, but they sanded that down in season 9 because it was so out of step with the mainstream American audience. Until they finally recommitted to critiquing the government in the (original) series finale, the show didn't feel like itself.
It's not even like the problem is the way season 9 ends. The finale is a mixed bag (it's part clip show lol), but I love the final scene, and in most ways it's a more fitting send-off for the show than the final scene of season 8 is. It's just that getting there feels cursed at every step. No one made it out unscathed. There's an episode directed by Michelle MacLaren (her tv directorial debut!) and written by Vince Gilligan, a Breaking Bad partnership for the ages, and even that's bad. Better Call Saul's own Tom Schnauz wrote an episode featuring Aaron Paul and I will never ever watch it again. There's something in the water in season 9. It's just not supposed to be there.
show your 4 favorite ships and let your mutuals assume what your concept of romance is
I was tagged by @queerrocket, thank you very much !
So, mine are:
The Doctor (particularly 12) and River Song
Marisa Coulter and Asriel Belacqua (this gif not being representative of what their relationship is lmao)
Moiraine and Siuan
Arthur and Guenièvre
Florence and Antoine (thanks for le gif de leur petit coucou @hemerae-ramblings)
I couldn't choose between the last 3 so I put them all, but admitedly they change quite a lot depending on my current / most recent hyperfixation!
I tag, without any pressure : @bourbon-ontherocks, @hemerae-ramblings, @earanie, @gay-impressionist, @saecookie, @maikanna, @readingtheentrails, @corleyan, @imdefyingmavity and anyone else who wants to have a go !
