The Ten Greatest X-F Fanfics You've Ever Read

[badforthefish.livejournal.com]

Have you ever struggled whenever you've ventured inside a new fandom to find the really good stories?

With the Revival attracting a whole new generation of fans, I thought it would be a good idea for us to list the X-Files fanfictions that made our hearts beat faster, the ones that blew our minds, those stories we never forgot, the ones we've kept coming back to, or remember fondly because they were SO DAMN GREAT.

Our fandom is blessed with so many talented authors, but with more than 35,000 stories on Gossamer (and these numbers date from 2007), more than 4,000 on AO3 and around 8,000 on FF.net, plus God knows how many floating about on Tumblr, how can newcomers be expected to find the truly good stuff?

The rules are simple: list a maximum of ten fics you love the most followed by a short explanation of why you do.
Is it the plot? The writing? The characters? Something else?
You can list less, but not more.
No "everything by [insert author's name]" please, we're looking for specific stories here.
Let's rec!
ETA: you don't have to pick different stories if they have already been mentionned by someone else. Your list is *your* list.

Comments

Recs 1-5

[discordantwords.livejournal.com]

This is a tough one for me, because I've been reading X Files fanfic off and on since I was about thirteen years old. There are quite a few stories I can remember absolutely LOVING for some reason or another, but I can't really remember the specifics. So this list may wind up being less about the stories that I liked best and more about the ones that really affected me, the ones that took up residence in my brain and never left.

Here goes. In no particular order:

The Other Man (http://http://keyofx.org/fiction_jess%20m-the%20other%20man.txt) - Jess M
"So you want to cut something out of my neck that may not even exist, then fly out to Idaho and break into a military base in order to rescue someone who may also not even exist?"

One of the most unsettling stories I've ever read. The author takes a "what if?" idea from the end of Deep Throat and follows it through to a horrifying conclusion that still makes sense within the context of the show. This is the kind of story that doesn't wrap up neatly, it has consequences. Regardless of how you view Scully's actions at the end, neither she nor Mulder will ever be the same for it.


The Second to Last 7-Eleven (http://archiveofourown.org/works/4580) - V. Salmone (Punk & Sab)
Scully wanted acknowledgment, she wanted fear. She wanted Charlie locked up and she wanted to go home.

While I'm sorry the show never introduced us to Charlie Scully, it does mean that he is a completely blank canvas-- something many fics have taken advantage of. I love this version of him that we glimpse: paranoid, dangerous, fragile. He's a serial arsonist who claims aliens made him do it, and Scully is trying to catch up to him before he gets himself killed. The ending, with the photograph, is a gut punch.


Strangers and the Strange Dead (http://archiveofourown.org/works/625190/chapters/1128881) - Kipler
They gave me their names and I tried to lay them on top of the dozens of other names I'd been given that day, but they slid down and away. So my brain catalogued them as the FBI agents: big, dark-haired, handsome man and slight, red-haired woman.

Told from an outside POV, this story plays beautifully with your expectations.


The Soft Embalmer (http://archiveofourown.org/works/1774645) - Scarlet
"For this to work, we have to learn to be monsters"

Like "The Other Man," this story plays on the idea of identity-- who are you, if not the sum of your memories, and what is that worth if someone can get into your head and manufacture new ones? For the folks working in this particular consortium lab, it's just another day at the office. The matter-of-fact approach to the horror of it all is what makes this story so unsettling and unforgettable.


Night Giving off Flames (http://jetfic.livejournal.com/3178.html#cutid1) - JET
"What do you get when you cross a snowman with a vampire? Frostbite."

This one induces ugly crying. Just like many of the stories I'm drawn to over and over again, Night Giving off Flames looks at the aftereffects of the kinds of experiments the consortium/aliens have conducted. Beautifully written and heart-wrenchingly sad, but with just enough hope to keep the end from being utterly crushing.