Belphegor’s Prime

Fanfiction
Title:	Belphegor’s Prime
Author(s):	prufrock's love
Date(s):	2013
Length:	64K / word count: 33,000+
Genre(s):	R, NC-17
Fandom(s):	X-Files
Relationship(s):
External Links:	Belphegor's Prime, Archived version
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Belphegor’s Prime is an X-Files story by prufrock's love.

Synopsis

"Synopsis: When someone wrote Time Travel for Dummies, the guidebook should include a chapter titled “Love as a Form of Self-flagellation.” Or “She’s Your Touchstone, You’re a Stranger.” Mulder’s old files documented time travel, parallel universes, and wormholes. Back in the day, he’d been a regular G-man with a hot partner, a hazy job description, and a plan to thwart an alien invasion. Then the world ended. Scully vanished. And none of his X-files offered any guidance on romance in a time of pleated pants and shoulder pads." link title

Reactions and Reviews

We always feel like we need to send out a mass ***RED ALERT!!!*** whenever one of our favorites posts a new fic. OF COURSE we want to share it with you all as soon as possible, but we also want at least one of the two of us to have read each and every story from start to finish to be sure before we rec it that it’s worth your time (and that we aren’t missing any trigger warnings the author perhaps may have missed).

Philes, we can pretty much guarantee that each and every fic rec from this writer is going to be worth a read, and their newest is no exception. To try to pigeon-hole it into a specific genre was difficult for us. It’s a casefile, and it’s an alternate universe, plus, it’s got time travel and a post-colonization backstory, and yes, that’s all in one fic.

Leave it Prufrock’s Love to weave all of those elements together into a story that kept us entranced from start to finish, and good heavens we were captivated until the very end. Today’s story diverges from canon somewhere during Season Seven, during the IVF/Per Manum arc, straps us in for one hell of a ride, and doesn’t let up until the last few words.

Have fun with today’s newest from PL, lovelies. We sure did.

X-Philes have been discussing and recommending fic by Prufrock’s Love for as long as I’ve been a part of this fandom. Love it or hate it, the author’s take on Mulder and Scully in ’90s stories like “The Wasteland” and “The 13th Sign” is foundational to the community; a vital part of its history. Prufrock’s influence hasn’t stopped there, however, because after returning to the fandom around 2013, they’ve published several new works, including “Belphegor’s Prime.” A time-travel adventure that seemingly diverges from canon somewhere in Season 7 around the IVF treatments, this terrific fic wowed me with its characterization of both Mulder and Scully.

While the partners have matured and settled into a more domestic life as parents to two children (a daughter, Rebecca, born from the IVF treatments and a younger son named William), they haven’t lost the essence of who they’ve always been in canon. In fact, Mulder must confront the ways he’s changed (and hasn’t changed) in a literal sense when he time-travels back to 1993 in a desperate attempt to rescue modern-day Scully, who vanished without a trace several months earlier. Seeing 2009 Mulder interact with 1993 Scully is weird and thrilling in equal measure. Once again, Prufrock has written a piece destined to be analyzed for years.