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

Six Fic Pics

[zinnia03.livejournal.com]

There are some I would have recced that are already on lists here, so although I love them too, I’ll try not to repeat anything. Makes it a little harder to make a list, but also gives the reader more to choose from. These are all stories I've re-read recently, and I think they hold up well. In no particular order:

America’s Games by Sarah Segretti. Author’s synopsis: “Assigned to the bioterrorism squad at the 1996 Summer Olympics, Scully tries to make sense of confusing evidence, her baffling partner and her uncertain place in a world where the X-Files don't matter.” Set just post-Talitha Cumi and Herrenvolk. Sort of a fish-out-of-water story with Scully temporarily assigned away from Mulder and the X-Files, though of course Mulder can’t stay away long. Scully tries to puzzle out the information from files they found at Strughold Mining, and Mulder wants to investigate ginseng farms in Canada. Both are frustrated by their lack of progress, plus there's an undercurrent that is making them snipe at each other. High tension story that fits the mid-series tone.

Ninety-nine and 44/100ths Done by Sarah Segretti. Set post-Brand X. This would make a good semi-humorous episode, though it also has its serious moments. Mulder and Scully are called to Cincinnati for a mysterious case and while there, get involved in another one. Two casefiles for the price of one, and Skinner and Krycek too. Scully muses on what it would be like to be a part of a community as she observes in Cincinnati, and Mulder watches Scully eat Graeter’s ice cream.

Cunegunde’s Restoration, or The Best of All Possible Worlds, Really by Livia Balaban. it’s one way Mulder’s abduction in S7 could have been resolved. Though it’s implausibly happy, I got a kick out of it and enjoyed it so much that I emailed the author halfway through reading it. Morris Fletcher makes an appearance and he is spot-on. The author’s intent was to write the best possible outcome to Mulder’s abduction, however unlikely it was to happen on the show. I found it a lot of fun to read, especially the epilogue.

Failure to Die by Kel. Narrated by Jerry Luskin, who works with Scully and Mulder on a case involving a hospital, some wise guys, and if Mulder has his way, ghosts. Scully gets to be a doctor. I enjoy a good third-party observer story, and this one has an interesting case file, too.

Beginner’s Guide To Tightrope Walking by Kel. Agent Luskin is back, retired from the FBI and running a detective agency with one other investigator: Fox Mulder. However, Agent Luskin isn’t sure that Mulder is investigating what he’s supposed to be investigating. This is post-series but pretty much ignores anything that happens after Mulder’s abduction.

Flesh and Blood by Prufrock. Very early partnership story. Mulder doesn’t want Scully involved in a case featuring real-life snuff films, but Skinner makes him take her. It’s profiler Mulder, and Dr. Scully, figuring out how to work with each other. I love the touches of pre-XF background the author provides, including Scully’s erstwhile boyfriend, Ethan Minette.