#and by golly does he seduce everything on sight

[chickensoupleg]

It'd be fun if, just as a silly side job, Eddie and the older kids all just play a spinoff version of DND. Essentially it's just DND except there is NO plan involved. Zero. Everyone is allowed to craft the story's progression to whatever they want, within reason.

Pulling everyone off script is totally allowed though, as long as it's interesting. It's a break from having to have a storyline to be following specifically. If they want to fight a dragon, they can totally fight a dragon, but it's not a preplanned Big Bad, just a dragon that someone put into the story so now everyone has to go fight a dragon. There's no single DM. Everyone is in control. Everyone is the judge, jury, and executioner. They take turns guiding the story.

Also there's no math. Dice rolling, yes, but it's just purely a game of chance. The stats are less solid and more like... You have to simply understand your characters capabilities like it was just another person, un-amountable to numbers.

Like, for example, Robin plays a Bard character, and she's about to reveal something special about her Trumpet. But she makes.... Oh I don't know, Nancy roll a die. Any by choice of Robin. A certain number or certain range gives what her Trumpet has. Maybe it has ice powers. Maybe it is actually sentient and Robin's character did not know. Maybe it is just a random trumpet and it's actually contained years worth of spit and now everyone has to listen to her describe her emptying the spit valve.

By all accounts it still satisfies the general ideal of DND, it's just less pinned between a DM who knows the lore and the players who get to explore and knowing what math is. It's just general fun, go ham it's not like the world is watching. Nobody knows what plot could possibly sprout up next, what romances or deaths or anything will progress. There's a story to be found, but it's crafted by the hands of many.

(Plus, everyone can play several characters at a time. If Steve wants to play 3 separate guys who are named after him there is... nobody stopping him. It's not like they're all in play at all times, just when the story allows him to reintroduce Stevon, or Steve Jr., or Stebby the Evil Vacuum Cleaner Robot.)

[fragilevixenfic]

How about 1-85-97 on the prompt list😉 you know where I’m going with this one😁

Good Golly, miss Molly...Tagging @country3living @reasonandfaithinharmony @kyouryokusenshi @karinanic @invisigoth-1013 @mulderscullyfiles @mldrgrl For a little extra love

Angst/FluffPrompt from Monika – I hope this one goes over well considering the controversythat this episode seems to inspire. (OMG, girl, this was better than I’d hoped)...

Title: Litost

Category: Angst/UST/RST/MSR/Post“Never Again”

Prompts: 1. “Ilove you, please don’t go.”,  85. “Don’tlie to me.” & 97. “It’s not that easy.”

Summary: “Litost”– Czek term meaning ‘a state of agony and torment created by the sudden sightof one’s own misery’. Mulder confronts Scully after their unfinished discussionregarding Philadelphia—pushing her to actually reveal what happened the nightshe went home with Ed Jerse.

  What have I done?With my heart on the floorI must be out of my mindTo come back begging for moreBut if you stayIf you just stay for the nightSwear that I'm yoursAnd I'll prove that I'm right

-XAmbassadors

  12:45 AM

Scully’sApartment

               Scully stood in the mirror,blinking slowly at the right side of her face that still resembled road rashabove her eyebrow and along her cheek, the bruising starting to deepen along inthe darker spots. She stared at the puffy spots along her waterline, theredness developing on her sclera in a pattern like shattered glass. Herphysical appearance was worse than when she went into the office but felt asbad as she did when she left, where the crying started behind the wheel andhadn’t stopped until minutes ago. Her thoughts were centered on the argument withMulder about her choice to go to Philadelphia alone, setting off a chainreaction that led to being face to face with the overprotective partner thatdidn’t seem to think she was capable of doing anything without him attached ather hip. She would’ve liked to have said that he wasn’t right but the gentlethrobbing along her cheekbone was more than enough of a reminder that there wasjust cause for his concern as she realized how hollow and pointless it allseemed that she had decided to go headlong without him, out of stubbornness.

              Shewas shutting him out and putting another wall between them, to keep herfeelings safely away from his overly aware, heightened profiling skills thatimpressed and irritated her in the same breath.

              I can’t. Not now. Not tonight.

             Itwas festering, in her veins, and it had become part of the growing number of thingsleft unsaid as she looked down at the three drops of blood in the sink and the partiallysaturated hand towel in her hand, the anger brewing as the realization surgedthrough her that no one knew. She was guarding it; as if it would miraculouslydisappear if she simply kept it to herself. Scully sighed at thepreposterousness of her own bullheadedness as she turned the hot water on,vigorously wiping away her own blood, soaking the towel in the process to rinseit as clean as it would allow.

               The three, solitary yetmoderately loud knocks at the door had her spinning at the sink, the small ofher back thumping against the front of it with enough exertion that she let outa low grunt and knocked her toothbrush, toothpaste, and soap dispenser into thebasin. She winced, gripped the edge of the sink and felt the vomit rising inher belly as she glanced toward the doorway, finding herself a little petrifiedto even move from the spot. Scully knew who it was and wasn’t ready to facehim, in so many words, nor did she want him to look at her when it was blatantthat the majority of her night had been spent cradling the same glass of cheap,dry Merlot, a box of tissues, and the remnants of chocolates from her mother. Shehad been keeping so more than the sickness from him and it had her reeling,ready to hide from him. She reached back and turned the water off, instinctivelywiping her eyes as she tossed the hand towel across the rack.

               “Hang on…I’m coming…” Scullycouldn’t keep being afraid of talking to him, even if she didn’t plan ontelling him more than what she wanted to, as she left the bathroom, crossed thekitchen, and unlocked the bolt and chain.

               She took another deep breath andtwisted the handle, while her knees buckled in spite of herself as she felt theresistance give as the door opened.

               “Scully, I just want to talk,”Mulder looked like he had been driven over by a truck as he stared at her feet,reticent to look her in the eye as he stood in her doorway. “Can I come in?”

               Scully nodded and kept adistance from him as he walked into her kitchen, in the dark, and closed thedoor gently behind him. “Maybe the caveat should be that you are allowed tocome in if you’re not here to lay into me again like I’m a child instead ofyour partner since that seems to be the pattern for you as of late.”

               Mulder swallowed hard andfinally made eye contact, his stare burning a hole through her and promptingher to put another couple of feet of distance between them as she backedagainst a chair. “I said I wouldn’t do it but it kept bothering until I finallyjust looked at it and looked at it again…I have been pouring over that Jersecase since you left the office, beating myself up over not being there to helpyou but one detail keeps staring at me, taunting me, putting a bitter taste inmy mouth that I just can’t shake. I must be the biggest idiot on the planet andyou must have thought it was a fucking riot when you did all of this, didn’tyou?”

               “Mulder, please, don’t do this,”Scully was already halfway to tears as she held a hand to the small of herback, grimacing as she stared at the floor, visibly pained. “It’s not thateasy…I don’t want to go into this, not now.”

               “I want to see it,” Mulderdidn’t want to yell at her but his voice was elevated and his stance was imposingas he encroached on her diminishing personal space, seducing a whine in theprocess without even touching her. “What? Did you not think something like thatwould be in the report?”

               “I had it removed already, itisn’t there,” Scully held her breath and crossed her arms, the blood rushing toher face as her cheeks turned bright red and set her neck ablaze as she resistedthe urge to cry or deliver one hell of a right hook to his jaw. “Why are youdoing this?”

               Mulder’s space invasion knew nobounds as his eyes stayed locked onto hers while his fingers grazed thebruising on her cheek and the solitary tear that had escaped, his right handagainst the chair next to her hip, his voice commanding and hypnotic. “Scully,turn around.”

               “Why is it so important to youto see?” Scully would’ve given anything to confess every detail of every littlemystery that had been carefully locked away from him that led to her pokingholes in the row boat that they had been sitting in, knowing they weredangerously close to capsizing.

               “It’s on you, it’s important,”Mulder’s voice was trembling but his eyes told another story as she could seethe fire burning behind those deep, hazel eyes as she became a little lost inthem. “Just do it.”

               The white flag had been waveddespite how badly she wanted to tell him to go fuck himself as she pushed hishand back and turned around, gripping the top of the chair as she felt the heatof him against her back. It felt like a sick and twisted game that Mulder wasplaying as she felt the back of her satin pajama top slide up, exposing herentire lower back to the air and his touch in unison, setting off every nerveending in her body. She wanted to panic and tell him everything in the samebreath—but bit down on her bottom lip as she felt the urge only rising,becoming overwhelming. She shuddered and swallowed the groan as the goosebumpssailed up her spine while he pulled a corner of the tape back, pulling on thetiniest hairs in the process. It didn’t last long as she felt the tape go backinto place and his hand let go of the material, cutting off the flow of air toher flesh but he stayed in that position, sighing against her neck.

               “I told you it was gone,” Scullyinhaled sharply as his breath sent another sizzling jolt down her body,re-invigorating the goosebumps all over again.

               Mulder could’ve knocked her overwith a feather with how close his mouth was to her ear as he spoke,intentionally moving the tip of his nose along her skin. “I just wanted to seewhat regret looked like.”

               “Does this make you feel better?Did you come here to make me feel worse than I already do?” Scully was caughtbetween sadness and indignation as the tears finally rolled down her cheekswhile she spun around to look at him as he retreated from being up in herpersonal space. “Why are you here? Really? Were you discontent with how roundone of arguing went back in the office?”

               “I came here because I want youto talk to me without wondering what you might be hiding from me, Scully, and Iknow that you know exactly what I’m talking about. You’ve been acting weird fora while and Philadelphia only complicated it, times ten,” Mulder could see herhands shaking and the tears down her face but he held it together, continuingwhat had been brewing since she got back to the office. “If you can’t be honestwith me now, I don’t know if I can ever trust what comes out of your mouth.Your choices don’t just affect you, they affect me as well, whether you give aflying fuck or not.”

               “There’s nothing to tell,Mulder, because nothing fuckinghappened,” Scully was emphatic and her hands were wringing as she shoved thechair back into place under the table, where it belonged, the thud of woodagainst wood echoing in the kitchen. “Nothing happened.”

               “Don’t lie to me,” Mulder wantedto throttle her as he recalled the reports from Detective Gouveia and Smith ofher answering Ed Jerse’s door wearing a man’s shirt, looking more than a littlecomfortable. “Just stop lying to me.”

               “Stop acting like you’re myFather, or worse, my fucking brother! I’m not going to be raked over the coalsany longer because you deemed my actions to be inappropriate,” Scully wasseething as she purposely placed herself between him and the door as he startedto turn away. “You told me you weren’t going to fixate on that file. Youpromised me that the moment I left you in the office tonight that you’d put itin the cabinet and leave it alone. You insisted that you’d let me bringeverything up on my own time, when I was in a better position to discuss it,not like this…not with my hands tied. You keep revisiting every little thing Ido to the point that I’m wondering how long you’ll be holding Philadelphia overmy head. You broke your word so you could keep throwing it in my face like someridiculous big brother with a point to make!”

               “Scully, you acted like I didn’tgive a damn about your place in that office before everything happened…then youproceeded to have a one night stand with a psychopath that, in turn, thankedyou for a nice night by trying to kill you,” Mulder reached for the doorhandle, turning his back on her completely. “That’s some fabulous taste inmen…on display for your gullible fucking partner, to see. I guess it’s shame onme this time.”

               “You’re fucking absurd,” Scullywanted nothing to do with this discussion but she could finally hear the hurtin his voice as he dropped the bomb on her that he had made his own conclusionsabout what happened with Jerse. “Mulder…”

               “I’m sorry but it’s prettyobvious that I made a colossal mistake in coming here,” Mulder had the door allof the way open as Scully’s shoulders slumped while he moved further into thehall, away from her. “Just forget it.”

             Scullyfelt wretched as she followed him into the hallway, tearing her heart out andsetting fire to the self-constructed structure around her soul as she calledout to him. “I love you, please don’t go.”

             Mulderstopped dead in his tracks and turned around, bridging the gap between them injust a few steps as he stayed in the doorway, eyes seeking more than justanswers as the confusion was evident. “I really don’t know how to take that butyou have the most God damn odd way of showing it, Scully…if you meant it.”

             “Ido mean it—and have for a while,” Scully’s tone softened as she pulled him inby his sleeve and shut the door, locking it all over again, realizing that theyhad captured the audience of Mrs. Young across the hall, who was standing inher bathrobe getting a first class view of their argument. “You really want toknow what happened that night? I was angry with you, you already know that, butyou didn’t know that I wasn’t okay for a multitude of reasons that I stillhaven’t quite gotten a grasp of, to this very second. I was desperate to forgetwho I was for a moment so I went there with him, drank with him, liked theattention from him, and I went home with him.”

             “Wait,no, Scully, on second thought, I don’t know if I’m ready to hear this,”Mulder’s stomach was rolling as he backed into her counter, nearly knockingover her coffee cup from earlier.

             “Letme finish before I turn into a big baby and hide it away all over again…itisn’t what you think it is,” Scully put a finger to his lips and looked up athim, tears still glistening down her cheeks, her voice meek, almost embarrassedas she recollected that night in Jerse’s apartment, even though she tried toforget it. “I tried to let go, forget myself for a night, and just allow it tohappen but the moment that I was there, face-to-face with the choice toproceed…I closed my eyes and all I could see was you. All I wanted, was you. Iput a stop to it out of a courtesy to the beating heart in my chest.”

             “Wait…areyou saying you didn’t sleep with Jerse? The report mentioned the shirt you werewearing the next morning…and used the words ‘men’s shirt’ to describe it,”Mulder was pink in an instant as his voice croaked, the tenor peaking just alittle as he coughed to clear it. “…Am I understanding that correctly, Scully?”

             “Youknow, you really are an idiot when you’re angry, Mulder,” Scully palmed herface with both hands, wiping away the remnants of tears as she looked up athim. “The one person that I wanted putting their hands on me wasn’t there—Icouldn’t go through with it. I told him I didn’t feel well and was tired, so itended and we slept in separate rooms. He was polite enough at that point to letme borrow a shirt to sleep in, but nothing came off in front of him and I keptit that way, for good reason.”

             “Thereare better ways of getting my attention, Scully,” Mulder tilted his head to theside and watched her backside bump against the chair again as she seemed alittle off kilter despite having more than a little bit of the control in thesituation. “Hell, there are better ways of getting me angry…”

             “Idon’t know if better is the word that you’re looking for,” Scully’s eyeswidened as she watched him inching closer, a certain boyish look in his eyes asshe watched the remaining vexation was becoming something else entirely. “Maybeyou mean less messy? Less difficult to explain without sounding completelymoronic?”

             “Stillentails that there were better ways of doing things,” Mulder had her maneuveringbackwards, nervously laughing at his response as she was almost all of the wayinto the living room. “Unless you want to argue some more.”

             “No,no I don’t think so,” Scully shook her head and finally met the back of thecouch, chewing on the inside of her lip for a moment as she was visibly anxiouswhile he narrowed the space between them. “That look on your face…what are youup to, Mulder…”

             “AmI making you uncomfortable, Scully?” Mulder tugged her forward by the elasticand drawstring waistband of her pajama bottoms, sliding his hands around her hipsuntil he could hear her gasp audibly and feel his own knee slip between hers.“I would’ve liked to hear you say you love me under different circumstances,for a better reason, without tears in your eyes that were put there out ofsadness. It might not be the moment you envisioned but I’m here and if you stillwant these hands on you…I’d like to.”

             “I’mvery curious about that expression you have,” Scully was keenly aware ofMulder’s knee between hers as she arched high onto her toes, tilting his chin downuntil she was able to graze his lips with her own, teasing him to the point helet out a low groan. “You’re breathing awfully hard there, Mulder, are you okay?”

             “Defineokay,” Mulder’s head was spinning over the blatant torment that Scully wasinflicting as he gripped her thighs, lifting her off of the floor and onto theback of the couch, guiding her knees around his hips to a point that he couldpull her closer, negotiating her arms around his neck, returning the same teaseto her mouth. “Driving me God damn crazy in your mother fucking purple satinpajamas, please tell me you’re wearing underwear.”

             “Ifyou stay, I might let you find out,” Scully couldn’t have been clearer withthat invitation or the action that followed as she slid her fingers through hishair and bit down on the tip of her tongue, eyes staring up at him as shetugged him closer with her legs. “Will you stay?”

             Muldercontemplated the question and the implications for only a moment as his fingersplayed against the delicate, soft material of her pajama top, realizing they’dbeen playing a drawn out game of hide and seek with their feelings for anawfully long time and she had made the momentous, brave step to say it—but hehadn’t said it back. He held his breath as her yearning only illuminated hisown within his gut as he thumbed over her lips, dragging them slightly apart ashis index glided along her chin while her eyes lulled to a close. Mulder knewif he met her in the middle, finished holding up that white flag with her andwaved it wildly, that he couldn’t go back to looking at her like the Scullythat simply mystified him but instead the one that had conquered his heartwithout actually seeking it out, without realizing how hard he had fallen.

             “Scully,if I stay, I can’t go back to the way it was. This can’t be a one nightexperiment that we forget about, even if something goes wrong,” Mulder laid aquick kiss along her bottom lip where his thumb had just occupied, inveigling agasp from her as she tried to equalize it. “I am and have been more than alittle in love with you for a very long time…and always will be.”

             Scully’seyes opened and her gaze met his, her heart thunderous in her chest like thesky had just cried out for him in hopeless refrain. There was so much left tobe said as she thought about the blood in the sink all over again but she heldher breath for a moment as she saw love in those eyes looking down at her andknew it could wait for tonight. She teetered on the back of the couch, movingforward just enough to feel his warmth radiating against her chest as she heldher hand to his cheek, caressing  in ahalf circle, unburdening some of her own woes as she scooted forward, tiltingup to his half trembling lips as their eyes closed in unison. Scully tested hisboundaries as she thumbed his bottom lip down until there was barely enough ofa spot for her tongue to slide across his teeth, meeting little resistance ashe let her in and inhaled her breath. Mulder’s hands sought out leverage andmore contact as they gathered her higher, pulling her off of the couch via her backside,stimulating a low moan that reverberated into his mouth.

             Scully separated her mouth with a resoundingpop and a gasp that had Mulder staring at her closed eyes as she breathedheavily, recovering that gaze as she slowly blinked. “Stay.”

             Theword echoed in Mulder’s bones as he felt the last of his trepidations fall likethe last rain from the sky as he carried Scully in the direction of the subtleglow of more than just her bedroom—but to knowing they’d never again have tolook back in regret.