(NB: I should mention I'm using "Caseyverse" generically for all MoF-universe fic, not just fic about the universe Casey comes from. It's just a shorthand for keeping everything together. Hope that makes sense.)

Title: They Fight Crime!
Author: Amal Nahurriyeh
Summary: The consultant and his handler reach a detente. And save the world.
Genre: Gen
Rating: PG
Universe: Mulder-containing.
Timeline/Spoilers: Begins post-Five Times Mosely Drummy Wishes He Never Met Fox Mulder, and continues through to post-Machines of Freedom.

A/N: Written for MaybeAmanda, for her generousity during the help_haiti fandom telethon. Many thanks to wendelah1 for the beta, and for encouraging my OC problem. Many more thanks to Isk Nahurriyeh, for allowing me to crib all the dialogue in the fourth scene from my daily life.

( Mo let the phone ring. )

Title: Daddy's Girl
Author: Amal Nahurriyeh (amalnahurriyeh, amalnahurriyeh@gmail.com)
Summary: She wondered if it was her fault, if maybe she even did it a little bit on purpose: if she made her daughter into Mulder.
Pairing: MSR/Gen
Rating: PG (sadness)
Angst Level: High
Universe: Mulderless
Timeline/Spoilers: Spoilers for Machines of Freedom; set post-12/21/2012, in the Mulderless universe.

A/N: Written for underthere12 for her donation to my continuation of the help_haiti auction.

Posted as a part of 14valentines for today's theme, reproductive rights/motherhood. Now, there is lots of other fic that could be written in the XF universe about reproductive rights and motherhood; oh, hey, I've done that before, huh? But I do think figuring out how to keep going after the loss of a co-parent is a valid thing to think about in this context. Um, plus, I had this written.

Scully references two pieces of children's pop culture in this. Your Personal Penguin is a book by Sandra Boynton; it's been turned into a song, so you can hear the words here. Nine Bowls of Soup is a song by They Might Be Giants; you can see the video here.

( Scully didn't admit it to herself until Sadie was nine. )

I realized that I haven't done this in a while.  So, my name, again, for thems who haven't heard it before.

Arabic is my favorite language in the world. 

( Read more... )

The original title of this post was WENDY YOU ARE A CRAZY LADY, but on reflection I thought that was a bit harsh.

Like all the cool kids many other folks, I offered my services to the help_haiti auction, to support disaster relief in the aftermath of the earthquake in Port-au-Prince. Bidding is still going on, until noon EST on January 20, but, well, a certain someone has paid well above what I believe a free-market would bear in my case.

However, there are still plenty of other auctions that are fairly reasonable; you can check out Dasha's post to see if anyone you know is still at a price you can afford, or trawl the links by fandom or any of the other master link posts to see if there's something out there calling for you.

In addition, I want to make a little offer. I'll write a story for anyone who matches the top second-highest bid on my thread. I can't promise 1500 words (though I'm unlikely to write below 1000 words), and I can't promise to do it by...I thought I saw a deadline of Feb 14 for the official comm thing, but I'm not seeing it now. Anyway, I can't promise short turn-around, but I will write you a story. I'll write just about anything that I normally write: I'll write MoF outtakes and Caseyverse, I'll write angst and porn and UST and humor and cracktabulous things. You know. Things I write.

So, come on. Go buy some fic or some cookies or something. Support the incredibly important work that disaster relief organizations are doing right now in Haiti. It's not everyday you get to do those two things at the same time.

Title: Memories Made
Author: Amal Nahurriyeh (amalnahurriyeh)
Summary: Leaving the bunker is harder than you would think.
Pairing: Casey/Monica
Rating: R (language, sexual references)
Warnings: Not a one.
Angst Level: Moderate (heartbreak, relationship drama, life transformation)
Universe: Mulder-containing.
Timeline/Spoilers: Timeline alternates between post-MoF and missing scenes from it.
Disclaimer: Intellectual property is a capitalist fiction designed to oppress the working fic-writer. That said, I don't own them either. You know what? Fuck it. Casey's totes mine, and Mónica Graciela Reyes Acosta has been abducted from canon. If you want to play with my action figures, you have to ask nice.


Author's notes:

A LJ notification little bird told me that it was just idella's birthday. This is for her.

Many thanks to memories_child for superspeed beta. Y besitos a Isa for fixing my white-girl Spanish. (He laughed a lot while he was doing it. Bastard.)

All quotes are either from Heartless or The Coldest Winter, both by Kanye West, on the album 808s and Heartbreak. Download 'em here. Emo!hip-hop ftw.

This story is substantially bilingual, and plays with language. To note:

• The difference between Monica and Mónica is, though not crucial, relevant to the story.


• In part 2, Casey uses International Phonetic Alphabet transcription to make a point. It's not essential to the plot, but you can use this and this to figure out what she's saying. Shut up, I'm a frustrated linguist-wannabe.


• In parts 3, 5, 6, and 7, part of the dialogue is in Spanish. If you don't speak Spanish, you can either a) run the lines in question through Google Translate, and get an approximation of what's being said or b) click through to this post which has my translations.

I should post this to mulder_reyes. LOL.

Imma stop being cracky now and get to the lesbian angst.

( Monica sat at her desk and tried to resist the desire to strangle someone who wasn't even there. )

Continue to Part Two

Title: Memories Made
Author: Amal Nahurriyeh (amalnahurriyeh)
Summary: Leaving the bunker is harder than you would think.
Pairing: Casey/Monica
Rating: R (language, sexual references)
Warnings: Not a one.
Angst Level: Moderate (heartbreak, relationship drama, life transformation)
Universe: Mulder-containing.
Timeline/Spoilers: Timeline alternates between post-MoF and missing scenes from it.
Disclaimer: Intellectual property is a capitalist fiction designed to oppress the working fic-writer. That said, I don't own them either. You know what? Fuck it. Casey's totes mine, and Mónica Graciela Reyes Acosta has been abducted from canon. If you want to play with my action figures, you have to ask nice.

Author's notes in Part One.

( It was the same dream, the one she'd been having for twelve years. )

Translation for my story Memories Made. Click through to see the relevant parts. These are snippets from their sections; don't forget to go back to the story to read the rest of the scenes.

Thanks again to Isa for betaing these.

( English translation for scenes 3, 5, 6, 7 )

Title: Chasing Ghosts
Author: Amal Nahurriyeh (amalnahurriyeh)
Summary: "Seems as if we're circling/for very different reasons/but one day the Eagle has to land."
Pairing: MSR
Rating: PG
Warnings: Not a one.
Timeline/Spoilers: Early S5
Disclaimer: Intellectual property is a capitalist fiction designed to oppress the working fic-writer. That said, I don't own them either.

A/N: Written for xf_santa, as a gift for colebaltblue. Hope you enjoy!

This is (I'm vaguely embarrassed to say) songfic, inspired by Wednesday, by Tori Amos, from the album Scarlet's Walk. You can download the song here, read the lyrics here, or see it performed on YouTube here.

The Landmark Motor Inn is a real place, where I have had the pleasure of staying several times. The first time I stayed there, I turned to my wife and said, "Oh my God. Mulder and Scully totally stayed here." I've been waiting for a chance to insert it into a fic for a while. Seriously, Mulder would love this place. It's got this creepy sculpture of someone reading up about the Saratoga races by the office. And lawn jockeys on the roof.

Champ lives in Lake Champlain. Or does he?


( There are a sum total of five restaurants in South Glens Falls, according to the helpful padded binder provided by the Landmark Motor Inn. )

...when you're considering defriending someone on Facebook because his current status is about how the only good thing that came out of it is that they're rid of Tennant.

I won't lie. I cried. Pretty much from the knocking moment on. There might have been some sobs, even.

Also, I cannot get Handlebars to download (how to make a link download in Firefox on a Mac, anyone?) and it would be rude to stream it on repeat all night. But that's basically what I want to do. Oh, Doctor, my Doctor.

Title: Triptych with Luggage
Author: Amal Nahurriyeh (amalnahurriyeh)
Summary: Hopes, dreams, and Samsonite.
Pairing: None.
Rating: PG/PG-13 (language)
Warnings: Not a one.
Timeline/Spoilers: Season 1, from Pilot through to post-Erlenmeyer Flask
Disclaimer: Intellectual property is a capitalist fiction designed to oppress the working fic-writer. That said, I don't own them either.

A/N: Written for xf_santa, as a gift for wendelah1. Happy New Year, dear.

Thanks to Leigh for the initial beta ("Honey? Would you take a look at my story?" "The one you left open on the desktop? Yeah, I fixed your typos already."), and to amyhit for excellent thoughts on exactly what young!Scully would sound like.

( She lets herself smile for the first time all day. )

Now, I know I talk a lot about myself as a philosopher on these here intarwebs. I talk about myself like that because it's the work I do that's most relevant to the work I'm doing here; there are a lot of connections between my theoretical interests as an academic and my theoretical interests as a fan. But, as I'm sure most of you know, in practical terms my real field is Middle Eastern studies.

I attended very recently, for work, an event I was documenting. I'm leaving out all the details, but it was a political event that involved advocating for a Middle Eastern cause. In the course of the event, there was a period where participants were using a slogan to attempt to communicate with non-participants about their goals; this slogan used a proper noun, as most slogans do.

Far and away, the most common response I heard from non-participants was a confusion about what that proper noun was. Not only did they not know what it meant, some of them were unsure whether it was a person, place, or thing. This is not an obscure mountain range in Yemen, folks; it's a noun that I would think anyone who has, um, listened to a news broadcast sometime in the last decade would have heard at least once. It does not strike me as advanced-level knowledge of the Middle East, or, frankly, of the world.

Now, I laughed bitterly at these moments. And then I got pissed off, and had a little what-is-the-world-coming-to sulk. And then I remembered. I'm a teacher. It's my job to fix this sort of thing.

Now, I wasn't going to stop and explain to every person who didn't know what this proper noun was, and what its political significance was, and why they should know about it. Because, if I had, I would still be out there, possibly in the first conversation. But I realize that it's not just random people on the street who don't know things that I think are so terribly obvious, or should be so terribly obvious. It's otherwise very well-educated people who just haven't encountered the region, or haven't really thought about it. It's everyone and anyone potentially.

So, on the off chance you, dear readers, have areas of confusion or question with regards to the Middle East*or Islam**, here I open myself up to being a resource. I don't know everything, but, seriously, if there's something that confuses you, or something you don't get, you can ask. (And, if you're embarrassed that you've never figured out the difference between Palestine and Pakistan, anon commenting is turned on. But don't be embarrassed. People miss things.)

I don't want to sound pedantic. Or superior. Or anything like that. I apologize if I come across that way. I just...want to do what I can to alleviate some of the stupid in the universe. Because it gave me a headache, and that's never fun.


*"Middle East" is a highly contested and ill-defined term. When I use it, I use it to mean the Arabic-speaking countries of Southwest Asia and North Africa, along with Turkey, Iran, and Israel, who are tightly enough connected to the Arab states to be able to be said to form a unit. I do not mean Afghanistan or Pakistan by it; I do know a reasonable amount about Pakistan, but that's because I've studied South Asia (the region of India and its border states, minus China). I guess if you have burning confusions about South Asia I could give it a shot. Alternate words for "Middle East" include "Near East," "SWANA [South West Asia and North Africa]", "MENA [Middle East and North Africa]", "West Asia," and "Places Where People Eat Hummus."

**OK, let me say this as quickly as possible. Islam ≠ Middle East. Not all Arabs are Muslims. Very few Muslims are Arabs. I know about both of them. I know most about them at the same time (i.e., Islam in the Middle East) but I also know about the non-Muslim Middle East and the non-Middle Eastern Muslim world. I can disaggregate further if desired.

That's not the whole title, but it's a reasonable fascimile. Real title, header, and story under the cut.

Welcome to the Caseyverse, y'all.

( She wants to know him. )

Highly relevant icon is highly relevant. As are the tags.

Imagine that a person were about to post a story in an ongoing universe. The story's title itself is spoilery for the end of the previous story, which many people have not yet finished. There will be future stories in this universe.

1) Things to do with canned tuna besides tuna melts, tuna salad, tuna noodle casserole, and feeding it to Lance Kabira and Seghira? We have a glut of it in the cabinet, and methinks the animal-consuming member of our household needs to make some progress in that department. (Well, OK, the baby consumes animals, but I'm not letting him eat tuna--too much mercury.)

2) I know some of you hang out in West Wing fandom--can you think of any essays, metas, whatever about TWW and RL politics? Either the "Bartlett is my president" meme, or about anything else. I'm teaching, in my last week of class, on a theme called "politics is everywhere," and I'm looking for essays about pop culture and politics to round it out. TWW is an obvious example.

Or, frankly, if you can think of essays/metas like this for any fandom--I've got BSG covered, so I'd like some different ones.

1. Dear Sweet Jesus, why did I not remember to put this song on the MoF mixtape?




Fencing off my little piece of heaven
Polishing up my AK-47

The worst part is, it was actually a part of my thought process for writing. True story: in the original head!draft of MoF, ( spoilers through, err, chapter 8ish )

2. Because I am a giant egomaniac, this page makes me deleriously happy. An entire page of people using spoiler bars to talk about my stupid internet novel. (And then a TWoP Mod has to step in and impose discipline. Awesome.) EPIC WIN.


3. Anyway, I'm thinking enough of my flist has read MoF by now, so I can post this poll. I'm going to write more in this universe, but I'm looking to gauge interest in what sorts of things other people would be interested in reading--because, you know, I'm happy to keep things in my head.

The poll below the cut is spoilery for the entire fic, so don't click through if you haven't finished. (I think you could go right to comments if you wanted to, though, without seeing the poll; but there'll be spoilers in comments.) In addition, if you have specific prompts, put them in comments; no promises, but I'm interested in other ideas. The presence of something on this poll means I've at least contemplated writing it; my responses (if you click through) indicate things I'm already actively working on.

( Spoilery Poll )

If you'd be interested in beta-ing pieces from this universe, let me know, so I don't bug people who aren't interested.

( POLL-RELATED ETA )

ETA Again: Guys, you are really pro-ponies.

1. Because I'm one of the mods, and you like me. (Not that I think my modding--which is really only going to take effect after my semester ends--is going to influence your experience of the event. But Still.)
2. Because presents are good. Everyone likes presents. Sign up, and you get presents.
3. Because the more awesome people who sign up, the more awesome presents are given, and then there is more awesomeness in the universe. Come on, awesome people.
4. Because, as great as it is that you're doing Yuletide, that's not gonna eat up 100% of your writing time between now and January, is it?
5. Because xf_santa is responsible for The Ledger, and for Pretend We're Married, and How A Resurrection Really Feels, and other truly remarkable things, and don't you want to make sure more truly remarkable things get made in our fandom?
6. Because the X-Files fandom is beginning to shrink back to the size it was before IWTB, and this is not acceptable to divas like me who came in at the height of movie euphoria, OK?
7. Because xf_santa is one of those things that makes us more like most other LJ-based fandoms, and helps cement us in people's minds not as a relic of the far-off days of atxc and plaintext, but keeps us a living, vibrant community that needs to be considered as a part of the landscape of contemporary fandom. YES, I'M A FANDOM ETHNONATIONALIST, SHUT UP.
8&9. I don't even have an eight and nine, Mulder. Four hundred and forty-six million dollars.
10. Because I told you to, OK?

Is here, for those who aren't comm members.

Whoo hoo fucking hoo.

"Men have dreamed of liberating machines. But there are no machines of freedom, by definition."
-Michel Foucault: Space, Power, Knowledge

Title: Machines of Freedom
Author: Amal Nahurriyeh (amalnahurriyeh, amalnahurriyeh@gmail.com)
Illustrator: Scooly (scooly42, welost9minutes)
Summary: The end of the world is coming. And they're doing everything in their power to stop it.
Pairing: On the gen/MSR border, with mentions of slash pairings.
Rating: R (non-explicit sex, language, adult subjects)
Warnings: None for major triggers, but includes some descriptions of violence (in a R-rated movie kind of way). There are also people under the age of 15 in this story; be forewarned.
Timeline/Spoilers: Post-IWTB, seasons 8 & 9 compatible; exists in my post-IWTB universe, which also includes Whiteboard, The Keeping of Secrets, and Five Times Mosley Drummy Wishes He Never Met Fox Mulder, but not necessary to have read those first.

Written for xf_bigbang 2009.

Amal says, "I want to thank idella, my trusty beta, for falling as in love with this story as I did over the past four months, for helping me keep it on track, and for convincing me Consortium is a proper noun; Aloysia Virgata, who did an late-stage second reading that was very helpful, and also for permanently changing the way I think of the word "swipe" in the context of the X-Files; and for bravenewcentury and scullyseviltwin, for helping to make up for my lack of knowledge about sports with bats in them. Also Scooly, to whom I have proposed marriage no fewer than four times over the course of this collaboration."

Scooly would just like to say that this was the coolest fandom project she has taken part in so far.

There are three ways to read Machines of Freedom. First, it can be downloaded as a PDF, with both text and illustrations. To do so, click on the image below.



Second, if you've got a slow connection and want to minimize bandwidth, etc, you can download Amal's text as an RTF file here, and check out Scooly's illustrations separately, here.

Finally, the text is posted as as 12 separate posts on Amal's Livejournal, with thumbnails of and links to Scooly's illustrations.

Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12

Author's Notes
Illustrator's Notes (at welost9minutes)

Machines of Freedom: The Soundtrack