#tww holiday season

[wannaliveattheholidayinn]

*records the entirety of the gaza arc*

[onekisstotakewithme]

Top five favorite stories you’ve posted this year

oh this is a good one! thank you anon. this is going to be a fun mix of fandoms, hope that's okay 💜 but also not me forgetting every story i wrote this year.

None of Us are More Than Caretakers (The West Wing) - I had so much fun writing this, I had the whole thing written in about six weeks, and I see it as sort of the transition-era story we didn't get... all because I was reading on wikipedia and saw that Gerald Ford died over the holiday season in 2006. Anyway, read if you enjoy CJ/Danny seekrit relationship, a story about transition of power, and taking care of the country (and each other). 66k.

Close to the Heart (M*A*S*H) - Okay, I know this one is ongoing but hear me out: I love writing about the dynamic between Hawkeye and the Hunnicutts. I love taking tropes and subverting them, turning ideas on their heads. Close to the Heart aka subverted noir AU does ALL of those things for me. It's fun to have canon echoes and twisted dynamics, and fun to keep the audience guessing. 💜 23.5k but still ongoing.

A Night to Watch (The West Wing) - It shows a tiny bit that this was one of my first TWW fics, but tbh I don't care, because it still has one of my favourite headcanons in it: Danny driving the seven and a half-ish hours from manchester to DC on election night because he thinks CJ needs him. 6.1k.

Perfect (M*A*S*H) - One of my favourite things, as stated previously, is subversion. I love the idea of Peg and BJ both wanting to make their anniversary "perfect" (and then of course realizing that they're together again so it is perfect). This idea of them growing post-war and slowly growing back together while also seeing how they've grown separately is just... chef's kiss. to me. love those two. 2.5k.

Off the Record (The West Wing) - One of my more out-there concepts: one missing (CJ/Danny) scene for every episode of season 1 of The West Wing. An out-there concept I compounded by also writing them for seasons 2, 3, and part of 4. I had SO MUCH FUN writing these, fleshing out canon and building on it!!! I think it added a lot to canon without ever trampling on it, but that's just me! 31k. + Bonuses (under cut)

6. its torment won't be through (M*A*S*H) - A tag to 'That's Show Biz' that I started a year or two ago, and I loved the opening dialogue so much that when I found it this year, I decided I'd rewrite it. I figured it was just an average beejhawk story, but I went back and reread it recently and it had grown on me a lot! 2.6k. 7. An Idea, Whose Time has Come (The West Wing) - Briefly hesitated about putting this one in, because I need to get back to it, but I love this fic so much. It's a fun, original idea, even if I need to do a shit tonne of research for every chapter (that + grad school is why it's taking so long!), but anyway, CJ runs for President in 2018. Hopefully will not be too relevant going into an election year... 14k (so far).

[peace-love-colbert]

The West Wing | 1x10 | in Excelsis Deo

[actuallylorelaigilmore]

and have yourself a merry little christmas now

[lilydalexf]

Old School X is a project interviewing X-Files fanfic authors who were posting fic during the original run of the show. New interviews are posted every Tuesday.

Interview with Audrey Roget

Audrey Roget has 10 fics at Gossamer, with some different ones at AO3, fanfiction.net, and her website. You might know her from her very good fics or as part of Musea, a collective that all wrote fic and posted X-Files fic recs. I’ve recced some of my favorites of her stories here before, including Three Times Dana Scully Didn’t Go to San Diego for Christmas and The Shirt. Big thanks to Audrey for doing this interview.

Does it surprise you that people are still interested in reading your X-Files fanfics and others that were posted during the original run of the show (1993-2002)? A little, yes. Not so much by folks who were around in those days. I sometimes go hunting for beloved stories from the early years, both those I read and loved, and those I never got around to. I am always delighted to hear that later generations of fans have stumbled across my stuff, especially since I haven’t posted anything new in a number of years. It’s fantastic that both years-long fans and new ones are out there continuing to rec fic from all eras, and to maintain archives for fans yet-to-be born. What do you think of when you think about your X-Files fandom experience? What did you take away from it? What did you take away from your experience with X-Files fic or with the fandom in general? It may sound corny, but the main thing I think of, and the thing that has ultimately been most valuable and lasting, has been the friendships. The feeling of having found a tribe – not just of TXF fans, but of other people who could be as enthusiastically engaged as I was (if not more so) with fictional stories and characters – was mind-blowing. Since I was a kid, I had often mulled over the books/movies/TV I loved and speculated internally about what happened off the page or off-screen, or created new stories for characters in my head. But, except for an elementary school phase where I and my two BFFs regularly played Charlie’s Angels, I hadn’t engaged in that kind of gleeful immersion in a fictional world with others until TXF fandom. My involvement in fandom followed pretty quickly from getting hooked on the show, so for me, it’s all one big ball of experiences. Even as my interest in/involvement in fandom has waxed and waned over the years, I’ve been lucky to remain friends with wonderful people who I originally connected with as fellow fans.

Social media didn't really exist during the show's original run. How were you most involved with the X-Files online (atxc, message board, email mailing list, etc.)? What got you involved with X-Files fanfic?

My initial entrée to the fandom was through fanfiction. I didn’t get interested in the show until mid-season 5. Around the same time, I read an article in a zine called Might (co-founded by Dave Eggers) about this thing called fanfiction that people would write and publish online. At first I thought it was satire or a joke – the fic cited involved Wilma Flintstone and a polished sabre tooth, as I recall – but then realized this was an actual thing. So I figured that a show then at the peak of pop culture must have fanfiction, and I went looking. Early on, I scrolled atxc on a daily basis and downloaded stories. But I didn’t engage in discussions about the show on Usenet, since I only knew how to access it with my Earthlink email client, and I didn’t want to post using my real name.

Later, I set up a pseud address with Yahoo and subscribed to a couple of email fanfic/discussion lists, and stayed subscribed to those for years. There was also a period in there somewhere – of maybe only a year or so, when I think about it – when I’d often nerd out into the wee hours with other fans via IM chat groups. That was around the time the small writers’ collective Musea was founded, and we were active for several years after the show’s initial run. In the early aughts, I followed many authors to LiveJournal and eventually set up my own account and stayed involved in fandom that way, until it mostly dispersed as well. What was it that got you hooked on the X-Files as a show? In a word: Chemistry. I had casually watched a couple of episodes during the first four seasons, but I’m not a huge sci-fi/horror fan at heart, and the story lines didn’t immediately grab me. But I happened to tune into The Red and the Black in 1998, and BOOM. For the first time, the intense layers of emotion and attraction between Mulder and Scully really struck me – and then of course, upon further viewing, I realized it was unmissable, an essential element in the fabric of the show. As a wise woman once said, a switch had been flicked. Mulder and Scully’s magnetism was like nothing I’d ever seen, and though I eventually came to appreciate the storytelling, humor, production values, and other components that made the series so successful, watching those characters interact has always been what kept me coming back. Were you involved with any fandoms after the X-Files? If so, what was it like compared to X-Files? I was part of a list-serv discussion group for The West Wing for a while, which was a fun melding of character and plot analysis with political discussion. Later, I got into the House, MD fandom, again mostly as a fanfic reader/writer. I was finding that other fandoms, unlike TXF, were more dispersed, the networks of people structured more loosely, if at all. There were fanfic and discussion communities on LiveJournal, and fanfiction.net was the other main hub for posting and reading, but if there was anything centralized like Gossamer, Ephemeral, or the Haven, I never found it. Within all those fan communities, as in TXF, there were partisans for various characters and pairings, and flame wars erupted over plot developments that outraged this faction or that. One main difference was that those other shows had larger, ensemble casts and more varied subplots. So on one hand, there was more opportunity to explore back stories and multiple perspectives. In House MD in particular, there were several entrenched rival shipper camps, which were about equally grounded in canon, rather than TXF’s central ship. I was less into TWW fic, but my impression was that readers were less militant about their pairing preferences than TXF or House fans. Who are some of your favorite fictional characters? Why?

I was deeply fascinated by Greg House for several years. (And the love-hate chemistry between him and Lisa Cuddy was a strong draw for me.) House MD came early in a wave of TV shows centered on anti-heroes, and Hugh Laurie brought amazing complexity and thoughtfulness to the character.

Philip and Elizabeth Jennings (The Americans) are a lethal pair of antiheroes. The inherent moral conflict of a sympathetic narrative from their POVs, and the global political conflict they embody was TV catnip for me. The internal struggles at the hearts of those characters were so exquisitely written and performed, they completely fascinate me.

The West Wing felt so much like a show created specifically for me. I’m especially fond of story arcs and scenes that centered on CJ Cregg, Charlie Young, and Josh Lyman. Though I loved Martin Sheen’s human portrayal of Jed Bartlet, the fact that he was the President always made him a little untouchable in my mind. But CJ, Charlie, and Josh were basically hard-working functionaries who were ambitious and idealistic and funny and flawed, and they spoke to me. What is your relationship like now to X-Files fandom? Do you ever still watch The X-Files or think about Mulder and Scully? Do you ever still read X-Files fic? Fic in another fandom?

I do continue to think about Mulder and Scully and watch episodes somewhat often. I’ll sometimes run a favorite episode as background when I want something comforting on. I read TXF fic pretty regularly, which can inspire me to go back and watch a particular episode or story arc I haven’t thought about in years. Just recently, I started listening to The X-Files Diaries podcast (@XFDPodcast, @admiralty-xfd), and that’s a fun dive into the characters, and how other fans react to and interpret episodes.

Every once in a while, a TV show or movie – and more particularly, the characters – will grab my attention and make me curious about how fanfic writers have interpreted the original material. Random example, I saw Singin’ in the Rain for the first time in a theatre a couple of years ago, and the chemistry of the three leads sent me to AO3 as soon as I got home. I also loved the first season of Mercy Street and found some well-done stories in that fandom. I usually peruse the Yuletide gifts every year and have been amazed by the sheer variety, creativity and cheekiness of the output. There are a bunch of other shows I’ve followed faithfully, and sought out fanfic – Broadchurch, The Killing, Agents of SHIELD, Elementary, The Good Wife. Although I’ve found some well-written stuff in those fandoms, I’ve rarely gotten the same charge from them as reading TXF fic. Do you have any favorite X-Files fanfic stories or authors?

syntax6 (@syntax6) – Universal Invariants/Laws of Motion. I’d also shout out to syn’s Hunter fics, too – well worth reading even for those who have never seen or particularly loved the show itself.

JET – I re-read Small Lives Awake every year around Thanksgiving time. Other annual holiday re-reads: Revely’s The Dreaming Sea and Jordan’s Through the Fire (both set at Halloween).

Amal Nahurriyeh’s Casey universe – the rare post-col fic that felt hopeful, made extra intriguing by a kick-ass original character. [Lilydale note: the series starts with Machines of Freedom and has lots of additional fics and snippets.]

Prufrock’s Love – Finding Rokovoko was genuinely terrifying and tender.

melforbes (@melforbes) – Seaglass Blue is a recent favorite, lyrical and bittersweet.

These are just a few (apologies to those that didn’t come to mind immediately). Fortunately for readers, there’s an astonishing number of authors who have written in TXF fandom whom you can depend on for a good yarn, insightful character study, and/or ingenious “fixes” where 1013 went awry.

What is your favorite of your own fics, X-Files and/or otherwise?

Probably the two set in my own (former) backyard of Southern California: Enivrez-vous and Ravenous. I’d first read the Baudelaire poem that was the source of the former’s title back in university days, so I was tickled to be able to use a few lines as an epigraph. Do you think you'll ever write another X-Files story? Or dust off and post an oldie that for whatever reason never made it online? It’s not out of the realm possibility. I’d meant for “Three Times Dana Scully Didn’t Go to San Diego for Christmas” to be followed up with “And One Time She Did.” In fact, the idea for that never-finished story was what inspired “Three Times” in the first place. I have a couple of scenes sketched out and – unusually for me – even know exactly how to end it. Every year, November rolls around, and I think I should finish and post it…maybe in 2021?

Where do you get ideas for stories? Sometimes it’s from my environment. “Enivrez-vous” and “Ravenous” describe places that I’m fond of, that made me want to place Mulder and Scully there. “What Not to Wear” has that element too – I set it in Memphis as a tribute to a great trip there with a sister Musean. But WNTW was also inspired by a kink challenge in a years-ago LiveJournal thread, so sometimes ideas come from fandom discussions or even other fanfics. In the House MD fandom, a fic by another writer made me want to continue the story, and the author kindly allowed an authorized sequel. What's the story behind your pen name? I wanted my pseudonym to sound like it could be a real person’s name – or at least, maybe like a romance writer’s pen name – rather than an online handle. I also wanted to use a slightly obscure fictional character, to amuse anyone in the know. I had long had a bit of an obsession with Whit Stillman’s 1990s film trilogy, which started with Metropolitan; the 3rd installment, Last Days of Disco, came out the same year I started down the TXF rabbit hole: 1998. The central heroine of Metropolitan – who is mentioned in or makes a cameo in the other two – is Audrey Rouget, a lover of Austen and, eventually, a book editor. I altered the spelling of the last name as a nod to every writer’s companion, Roget’s Thesaurus. Do your friends and family know about your fic and, if so, what have been their reactions? I have a few close friends – from outside TXF fandom – who know that I’ve written fanfic. I don’t know if they know my pseud; if they do, or if they’ve ready any of the fic, they haven’t said so to me. They are fannish sorts themselves, but not really TXF fans. A smattering of other friends and family members know or could intuit that I’ve been a fangrl on some level for years. My boss, whom I’ve known for about 3 years, recently mentioned off-handedly that she was really obsessed with TXF “back in the day,” and I am DYING to know if she got involved in fandom, but don’t think I’ll ever work up the courage to ask.

Is there a place online (tumblr, twitter, AO3, etc.) where people can find you and/or your stories now? Most of the X-Files stuff continues to be generously and steadfastly archived by Forte at The Basement Office. The House MD stories and some TXF things are at fanfiction.net; same for AO3. If ever post anything new, it will probably go to TBO and AO3. I really ought to get it all together in one place, one of these days…

(Posted by Lilydale on April 6, 2021)

[extasiswings]

random but i’ve started rewatching the west wing (up to ‘in excelsis deo’ my beloved) and ughhh mrs landingham 😭😭😭

ALWAYS love a TWW rewatch (that reminds me, I should continue mine, I think left off partway through S5) but god yes Mrs. Landingham is so wonderful and honestly??? They went so hard those first two seasons for their Christmas eps (In excelsis deo and Noel) and FOR WHAT but I actually really appreciate that they didn’t just go for “holidays are great and happy and fun times for all” with those and instead really did some meaningful storytelling 😭😭😭

[thxngam]

hey hey hey T!! i love your blog sm and i just saw in your bio that you’re tamilian— us queer indian tww fans have to stick together hahaha. anyway!! sorry to be weird, i hope you’re having a good holiday week! i’d love to talk about tww anytime, and let me know if you need any fic recs! what are your main west wing ships?

you’re not being weird, this ask made my whole week! I love your blog too, it cheers me up :). I am always open to tww fic recs, especially because this isn’t the most active fandom since the show came out over 20 years ago, though its relevancy has never decreased (dead candidate, Nevada, the first lady being mocked about the “Dr.” title, the list goes on lmao). My main ships I’d say are samjosh, though I will always love joshdonna (tbh the payoff for donnajosh was not that great, their banter in the earlier seasons was so much better than the payoff in season 7). then again, I am open to just about any romantic tww relationship except for leoxanyone (leo like a dad. nobody wants to think about their dad being romantic). what about you?

[fallenandrogyne]

What I want if there's a tww s4

(this is all just for fun and a place to put my thoughts. i’m not expecting any of this to be realized on the show)

- to see hecate wearing pants. she’s worn a blouse before so there’s no reason why she can’t wear pants with a blouse instead of a skirt. i just want her (and raquel) to be comfortable. same goes for pippa/amanda if she can hopefully return. pls stop with the skin-tight constricting outfits!!! and while we’re talking about clothing, bring back mildred’s fingerless gloves and her striped scarf.

- the actress who played teen hecate to return, so she can interact with a new teen actress to be cast as teen pippa so we can learn how their characters got their "pipsqueak" and "hiccup" nicknames. or really just learn anything about the time they spent together as kids.

- hecate explains to pippa why she didn’t show up to the display, and why she left her all those years ago. tells her everything about the confinement, indigo, possible fear of unrequited feelings that made it easier to let her go, I'm just saying...

- an explanation as to why pippa and hecate had such an emotionally charged reaction to both of them saying they missed each other. just how close were they when their friendship was at its prime? why did pippa so badly want to build a successful authoritative team with hecate? well, we already know why but it sure would be wonderful to hear them say they have love for each other!

- hecate visits pippa at pentangles's academy. I would prefer the entire episode to take place there with no B plot at cackle’s. If I had my way i'd never have hecate anywhere near cackle's again. mildred, and of course since no one would hear the end of it if she wasn't invited, felicity, can accompany hecate to penatangle's.

- ummmmmmm, perhaps hecate could buy a house, castle, cottage, or where ever it is that witches live in??? 'cause now that her confinement is over she's homeless during holidays, and in-between terms. or she could, you know, stay with pippa, I'm not picky~~

- morgana! it was lovely to see hecate holding tabby those few seconds, but i really want to see how she interacts with her own familiar.

- more dimity centric episodes/backstory. how she became star of the sky. an entire dimity centric season would be best.

- more dimity/Julie interactions. to have an arc where hecate chills on the adamant following of the witches code/traditional magic and learns to get along with julie, which i fooled myself into thinking we were gonna get in s3 with hecate assigned as her mentor. maybe hecate could see how much dimity has taken a liking to julie and asks dimity why she gives that woman the time of day. dimity could explain that she accepts people for who they are, regardless of things that are out of their control. that she saw something special in julie.

- gwen and rowan webb go off to retire to enjoy their married life together, allowing the school to once again return to having an all women staff. and while we're at it, have the great wizard be overthrown by an even greater, more capable witch.

- all 5 years of students and everyone on the teaching staff have a meeting where they're taught about consent and how certain potions/spells are off limits as they can take away the consent of the person that the magical outcome is intended for.

- since ethel cleared out hecate's entire potions lab, I thought it would be cool to see a potions class take place outside where everyone helps miss hardbroom gather new ingredients to replenish her inventory. of course Hecate could summon ingredients in half the time it'd take her students to gather them, but it's also her style to take the opportunity to teach her girls a lesson. as long as they all forage in somewhere other than hollow wood, of course.

- ethel to be humbled and finally face serious consequences. such as a suspension, and while she’s spending that time at home maybe she can fix her relationship with her mother.

- more hard-hitting topics like the gender inequality in the vespertilio episode. obvs my first choice would be lgbt represention in both the teachers and the students. for the teachers it would be amazing to have hecate and pippa’s lesbianism confirmed, and/or dimity possibly being bisexual or a lesbian as well (i’m just basing their sexuality on the majority of the fandom’s headcanons). and i know i’ve seen some people ID felicity as bisexual, which was practically proven in the spelling bee episode since she fantasized over miss pentangle, and the wizard competitor in the same dreamy inflection. so a way that could be explored could be her possibly having crush on drusilla (just for example because she transferred schools) without realizing what she was really feeling so she doesn’t know why she misses her so much. and they could have hecate/dimity/pippa accidentally overhear felicity saying how smart and pretty she thought drusilla, and how she’s confused why she misses her. and they could be thinking like, “wow girl are you really that oblivious??” but then they’d remember what they were like at that age and realize, yes, she really could be that oblivious. then that teacher could pull her aside privately and say they know from personal experience that it’s okay for witches to have feelings for other witches. s4 will be airing in 2020, there’s no excuse as to why lgbt characters shouldn’t be allowed on kids shows. but then again i don’t know if i want the writers showing sapphic women because i was just burned by w&g so they’d probably ignore hecate’s lesbian tendencies & her long-standing following of sapphic women outside of the show to confirm that she’s ‘’‘straight’’’ and make her homophobic, therefore ridicule a student potentially showing interest in another girl. and that.... is not something i can live with, the love potion episode was traumatic enough.

[hecateandhoney]

Pippa/Julie/Hecate, 1/10, TWW Winter Fluff Event 2018 Day 3: Mistletoe

Hecate, Julie, and Pippa are spending their first holiday season together as partners-- and Mildred's beyond herself with excitement. What could be better than Yule and Christmas all together under one roof?

[haaam-guuuurl]

Thank you for the tag, these are so much fun!

3 ships: Josh x Donna (TWW; the slow burn - it huuurts) / Ricky x Nini (HSMTMTS; they're so cute my heart bursts into fluff whenever they're together); Luke x Reggie (JATP; I do ship Luke x Julie, but come oooon! Look at them!)

Last song: A whole lot of holiday songs from various albums and artists / evermore by Taylor Swift (yes, the whole album, bc I've had it on repeat, on shuffle, all the time)

Last movie: Charlie's Angels (I think? It's what I'm remembering now. I watched Happiest Season (😍😢) and was in a Kristen Stewart mood)

Currently watching: Brothers & Sisters (binge watching bc nostalgia) / Every Christmas episode from every show I watch (holiday tradition 😁; rn I'm making my way through the DW specials 🤓) / even more shows I've stated binging but paused

Currently reading: The Lost Book of the White (loving it!! I've missed these crazy kids so much!) / Let It Snow (another tradition - can you tell the Christmas spirit is strong in this house?) / a lot more books I've started but paused that I'm not gonna name 'em all here bc this is already too long / too many fanfics to count

I'm tagging whomever sees this and wants to do it!

(I always have trouble finding ppl to tag and it's why I never answer right away and just months later, plus I always end up tagging the same mutuals. So I've decided to stop caring about it and here - free for all)

Rules: tag people who you want to know better/catch up with & then answer these questions.

thank you for the tagging me @timotheeholland! 

3 ships: Achilles X Patroclus , Jim X Pam and Percy X Annabeth

Last song: Terrence Loves you by Lana Del Rey

Last movie: I don’t watch a lot of Movies, but I watched Little Women last night (just to feel some emotions, you know what I mean?)

Currently reading: Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman, Call me by your name by  André Aciman (let’s not talk about it, or I’ll start ranting) and When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi

Currently watching: Grey’s Anatomy, Sherlock and I am also The Office (again)

I’ll tag some people, it’s alright if you don’t want to answer though!

@dead–poets @studyoutofspite @ilike-rain @papierback @whereforefartthou @jamespottersshenanigans @godspeed-peggycarter @inscrutablemooncakes @franciscoat

[peace-love-colbert]

The West Wing | 5x10 | The Stormy Present

[peace-love-colbert]

The West Wing | 1x10 | In Excelsis Deo

[peace-love-colbert]

The West Wing | 2x10 | Noël

This guy's walking down a street when he falls in a hole. The walls are so steep, he can't get out. A doctor passes by and the guy shouts up, "Hey you! Can you help me out?" The doctor writes a prescription, throws it down in the hole, and moves on. Then a priest comes along and the guy shouts up "Father, I'm down in this hole. Can you help me out?" The priest writes out a prayer, throws it down in the hole, and moves on. Then a friend walks by. "Hey Joe, it's me. Can you help me out?" And the friend jumps in the hole. Our guy says, "Are you stupid? Now we're both down here." The friend says, "Yeah, but I've been down here before and I know the way out."

[peace-love-colbert]

“The last two Christmases in this White House I've been accused of not being in the proper spirit. I was called names. Not this year!”

❄ Happy Holidays! ❄

[peace-love-colbert]

The West Wing | 1x10 | In Excelsis Deo

[peace-love-colbert]

The West Wing | 1x10 | In Excelsis Deo

BARTLET: Apparently I've arranged for an honor guard for somebody. TOBY: Yes, sir, I'm sorry, I... BARTLET: No, no. Just tell me, is there anything else I've arranged for? We're still in NATO, right? TOBY: Yes, sir. BARTLET: What's going on? TOBY: A homeless man died last night, a Korean War Veteran, who was wearing a coat I had gave to the Goodwill. It had my card in it. BARTLET: Toby, you're not responsible... TOBY: An hour and twenty minutes for the ambulance to get there. A Lance Corporal, United States Marine Corps, Second of the Seventh. The guy got better treatment at Panmunjom.