#and maybe a bit more than talk

[scully-xo]

Beautiful Collision

aka they finally talk about what happened in Mulder’s hallway over peppermint tea

My fic for the @xfilesfanficexchange Secret Santa! 

Read on AO3 - Rated T - 2183 words - @today-in-fic 

Prompt: What does the rest of the night look like after “How The Ghosts Stole Christmas” by @arrowgirll13

“You got somewhere to be, Scully,” he whispered. “Mmm, here. I gotta be here, Mulder.”

***

What a change. Only about an hour ago, he’d been sitting in front of his TV, Maurice’s words sinking further into his mind. Taking root. Making him believe them, as much as he denied it in the house. He was just as stubborn as Scully, refusing to see what was in front of him—he was alone. On Christmas.

But then she’d shown up.

Not just the one person who put up with him. She was Scully. She was everything. The only one that mattered. The one person he wanted to be with on the holidays. And after last year, well, he was hoping she wanted to avoid family. But everything bad that happened in her life was his fault, wasn’t it? Why would she choose him?

But she was here.

Their empty mugs of peppermint tea sat on their new coasters on the coffee table in front of them, funny messages scrawled on their surfaces. A joke gift, but from her it meant everything. The way she blushed when he ripped open the package and laughed would sink in his mind forever. He was trying not to think too hard about the one she’d chosen for her mug: ‘Naughty is such a strong word, how about we go with Nice-ish’. He’d had plenty of dangerous thoughts about naughty Scully, especially since he’d almost kissed her. Who was he kidding? Since their first goddamned case.

His gift to her was his usual schtick. Something cheesy that reminded him of her, a sparkly ornament she could hang on the tree, though it didn’t fit in with all of the other decorations. She misinterpreted its meaning, because he didn’t tell her. But that was part of the gift. He wanted to know what it meant to her. That was the important part. It was selfish, but that’s who he was, wasn’t he?

The gurgling of the fishtank and ticking of the clock on the wall filled the comfortable silence as she dozed next to him. He thought she’d have left already, with dawn and presents and her family waiting for her. This time together, as short as it had been, would make the rest of his Christmas bearable, at least.

He still couldn’t believe she came over. And stayed.

She was facing him now, eyes closed and face soft in sleep. Her head had rolled over in sleep from where it had rested on the back of the couch, wisps of her hair barely touching his shoulder. Selfishness reared its ugly head. He could let her sleep. He could keep her here. He wanted to—but he wouldn’t.

Touching the tip of her nose with the side of his thumb, she let out a little yawn-moan and stretched next to him. He couldn’t help the smile that drifted on his face, and tried not to think about hearing her sleep-sounds in another context. Too late. Blood rushed to his groin and his eyes fell, catching the patch of skin between her button holes of her shirt and across her stomach as she raised her arms.

“You got somewhere to be, Scully,” he whispered.

“Mmm, here. I gotta be here, Mulder.” The words were rough and slurry and with her eyes nearly closed he wondered if she was still half-asleep. Still, it made his heart constrict, thinking that at least to him, this is where she belonged.

“Want me to drive you?” he asked. “You look like you could sleep for a week.”

“Mmm, thanks for that. But no.” She yawned again, and shook her head, blinking away the remnants of sleep. She didn’t get up, though, and he’s a weak man. He didn’t remind her of where she was supposed to be again.

“All of that… it happened, didn’t it?” she asked, as she chewed on her lower lip. “I felt the gunshot. The blood on my skin. But then it was gone, and…”

“It happened, but it didn’t.”

He can tell she doesn’t like the feeling of their night being a Schrödinger's kind of experience. She likes neat lines, things she can explain and file away. Things she can put in a box.

“Well, you’re real. And I’m real. We’re here. That’s something,” he conceded.

“Yeah.” She paused. “Mulder?”

“Yeah?”

“A few months ago. In your hallway. Before… before I got stung. I remember things, but I’m not sure if they happened or if it was a strange dream…”

“It happened, Scully,” he said, voice low and gravelly. He cleared his throat and rubbed the back of his neck. His mouth went dry just thinking about how close they’d gotten. And now… were they actually going to talk about it?

He heard her wet her lips and the sound of her throat as she swallowed. He could picture what she looked like in his mind but he didn’t look. Instead, he stared straight ahead at the television, the blurry apparitions of their own faces barely visible in the dark screen. He remembered what he’d been watching before she came over. The smile on Ebeneezer’s face. The words he’d just said flashing through his mind. I don’t deserve to be so happy.

“Did you mean it?” Her voice was so soft and quiet, like he’d imagined the words. And there was something else. The fear that oozed from her pores in the haunted house tonight had returned, though there was a subtle quality to it now. A vulnerability.

He turned to her then, watching her profile, her eyes glued to the same blank TV. “Of course I meant it, Scully.”

She took a shaky breath. “I thought, maybe… if it was real, that you only said it to make me stay.” Her voice was so small, and he really saw her then. How everything that night had been seemed to her. She peered at him out of the corner of her eye. “So we could continue your work.”

“Our work, Scully.”

Her eyes filled with familiar skepticism, though tinged with something else now. Sorrow? Regret?

Mulder laid his arm across the back of the couch, facing her fully. “There is no work without you, Scully. Of course I wanted you to stay. Of course I need you for all of that.”

She nodded. She looked so damned small right now. It always took him aback when he was confronted with that fact. He always forgot because she loomed so large in his mind.

“Is that why you were going to kiss me?” she asked.

He sighed, closing his eyes at her words. At the memory he tried so hard to remember and yet at the same time to put it out of his mind. It tormented him—thinking that he’d come so close to something he could never have. He was such a fucking idiot. All this time he’d thought, perhaps, she wanted to forget that moment between them happened. That she was scared away, and moved back to the comfortable place of poking holes in every damned theory he came up with. It had been infuriating, after all they’d seen, that she’d backslid into the woman who pretended that the fantastical things they saw together never happened.

He never even considered she wasn’t sure any of it had happened. That she didn’t know his reasons for it. He was crazy about her. Not just as a partner or a friend. As the only person in his damned life. His other half. She was… she was Scully.

“I didn’t want you to leave. I—”

“I wasn’t going to leave, Mulder.” She touched him then, laying a small hand on his knee. That tiny bit of contact, innocuous and light, sent a lightning bolt through his leg, straight up his spine. He wouldn’t be surprised if his hair was standing on end. Scully as his very own Van de Graff generator.

“Uhh, what?” he asked.

“I was leaving the bureau, not you.”

I am such an idiot. He wanted to smack his forehead, but that would mean moving his hand from behind her, or from its place a few inches from her own. There was no way he was moving away from her right now. So, he closed his eyes and cursed at himself silently instead.

When he opened them again, things had shifted. Gone was the vulnerable, small woman who’d made a rare appearance only a few seconds ago. She was back to herself. The Scully he knew, but somehow more.

And she was looking at his lips with curiosity in her eyes. Hunger, maybe. He hoped it was hunger.

He swallowed.

“Is that the only reason you wanted to kiss me, Mulder? You wanted me to stay so we could work together?”

It sounded shitty. Egotistical and narcissistic, just like Maurice had told him. But it wasn’t just about the work. Of course it wasn’t. He’d dreamed of those lips: of pressing his own into their plushness, learning how she felt, how she tasted. It haunted his dreams. After the bee interrupted things, and she’d gone back to her old self, he thought it was a sign. That it wasn’t meant to be. He was destined for loneliness. For unhappiness.

He couldn’t lie to her, though. “It wasn’t the only reason.”

She tilted her head, her eyes sliding up to meet his. Definitely hunger. He swallowed again, and his hand shifted next to hers, his thumb grazing the side of her pinkie. He was suddenly very aware of how close their hands were to his lap. To his crotch. These damned jeans were growing tighter by the second.

Shifting slightly to adjust himself, he leaned in a bit closer. “I’ve wanted to kiss that pretty mouth for a long, long time, Scully.”

Her pupils blew open, and her mouth dropped. He smelled peppermint on her breath. Not for long though. He crossed the rest of the distance and finally let his mouth land on hers, and he tasted it instead.

She stiffened for just a moment, then reacted: meeting him with matched fervor, as he always knew she would. Her hands wound around his neck, scratching through his hair and sending little shocks trembling over his skin, straight to his groin. Their tongues met, their teeth and noses clashing together until they found a rhythm. Like they always did, right from their very first meeting.

As he tasted her—memorizing the ridges of her mouth, the sharpness of her teeth, the sounds she made—he couldn’t help comparing this kiss to the images of binary stars he’d seen in a recent report from NASA. They’d crashed together by some yet unknowable force, making something bigger and more wondrous than what they’d had separately. And while this magnificent collision had now taken physical form, he knew it originated years ago, back when she’d first walked into his office. Wearing her prim suit, wide eyes and a smile, she took every strange thing they encountered in stride even though he knew it shook her to her core. And he knew—knew—he couldn't have done it without her. He’d be stuck in that basement, chasing leads that led nowhere.

He fisted her hair, maybe a bit too tightly, but she moaned into his mouth when he did it. She was above him, now, sitting in his lap, grinding herself onto the growing stiffness in his jeans.

Was exhaustion another kind of intoxication? He didn’t want her to regret this once she had her head on straight. With every ounce of willpower, he leaned back, pulling their mouths apart.

She made a cute little whine in protest, and his cock jumped.

“Jesus, Scully.”

“Taking the Lord’s name in vain on his birthday?” Her mouth tilted upwards. He stared at those gorgeous swollen lips, even more plush and kissable after he’d sucked on them for who the fuck knows how long. Too long. Never long enough.

“You need to go to your family’s.” He rubbed her back. It was something he’d done before, dozens of times. But every touch felt different now. Electric. Monumental. A prelude.

“Come with me,” she said, peppering kisses over his face.

Mulder sighed, feeling his protests melt away with every graze of her mouth on his skin. “I don’t want to intrude—” he said meekly.

“My mom invited you.” She pulled back, a guilty look on her face. “I didn't know you didn’t have plans. You shouldn’t be alone.”

“I’ll be okay, Scully. Just me and Scrooge. He’s like a kindred spirit.”

She looked at him for a few long seconds, her fingers doing something delightful along the muscles of his shoulders and neck. Then she nodded, her mouth set in a line. “You’re coming.”

He waggled his eyebrows at her.

She giggled, then pressed her mouth against his in a soft kiss. He liked this, too. He wanted to discover every kind of kiss, every touch. Every sound and sigh. What he could do to make them.

As she stood and pulled him up with her, he thought, perhaps, he’d get what he wanted this year. Or maybe he already had.

End.

[chloesimaginationthings]

Pit Bonnie learns being a FNAF parent is hard…

[biblically-accurate-dca]

substitute

[s0fter-sin]

soap's whole deal being sniper and demolitions gets me going bc on the surface they sound so different but when you get into it, you realise it's bc soap's smart

sniping is all math; calculating distances and wind interference and bullet drop. something i think people overlook is he was listed as a sniper first so it can be implied that he's better at it than demolitions. he does more sniping in both campaigns than demolitions work; in capture or kill, ghost specifically calls on him to take down the aq snipers

and demolitions is math with a hit of chemistry; knowing what mixes with what, knowing how much to use, recognising environmental factors and adjusting accordingly. it's not just about the boom; so much work goes into contained/ planned explosions. especially when having enough power for a breacher charge and not bringing down the whole building is the difference between mission success and failure

the chemical bombs he makes in alone can't just be any old cleaners, they have to have the correct reaction to each other; he just knew off the top of his head what would mix with what to create what reaction. he would also potentially have to recognise them by sight/smell bc they would’ve been written in spanish

soap would also have to know architecture; recognising structural integrity and weak points so he knows exactly where to plant a charge to bring it down and how it'll come down

he has an incredible soldier's mind people just forget that bc he's sociable which itself is a skill

we know he tends to buck against orders he doesn't agree with like when he pushes back against ghost in capture or kill and shepherd when he tells them to release hassan

he gets closer to people and sees if he can trust them and that's when he follows them without question. really think about how he talks to alejandro and rudy; he asks about their home and alejandro's family and rudy's relationship with him. those aren't questions you ask a stranger after a few hours of knowing them. that's not even touching on his relationship with ghost

he also deliberately brings people of higher ranks down to his level; talking informally with ghost and giving him a shoulder punch, addressing alejandro (a colonel!!) by his first name and rudy by his nickname despite literally just meeting them. he personalises all of them and it’s in direct opposition to the reason most characters do that; it’s not due to insubordination or lack of respect, the more he respects and trusts someone, the more casual he is with them

he digs into people; he wants to know what makes them tick and that determines if he can one, trust them and two, follow their orders. once he decides that, he's the ultimate soldier; he bleeds loyalty which makes him vicious when that loyalty is taken for granted

he isn't naive or bubbly or insecure; he's an incredibly smart and aware soldier. he's aggressive and bloodthirsty and loyal and intuitive and i love him so much

[ash-and-starlight]

modern au and esen’s honkers are haunting the instagram feed

[dailyloopdeloop]

loop and mirabelle. That's it that's the ask

DAY 84: enrolled in the gossip wars

[surreal-duck]

live drama adaptations part 2 (prev)

cast reveal and girls movie night 🔥

[son-of-crows-and-rats]

I've rambled about this game before in tags and while I have a lot of complex thoughts on Curly as a character and what he should have done and how fandom responses and discussions have had good and bad takes (and it's all complicated and has layers which is a core point of the game!) one take I've never seen explicitly said for "Curly should have xyz" which I'm surprised to not see is "Curly should have asked Anya what she wanted". We don't know how much he would have listened or if her plan would make sense, but I think it says a lot about how the game's POVs (and some of the fandom) show Anya with little agency and someone who things happen to not someone who does things, and the men on board as the ones who make decisions and decide the course of the narrative for better or worse. I've seen people saying Anya should have been able to get angry and kill Jimmy, and people saying not all victims want violence and it's okay if she just wants to escape and move on. There's also arguments saying Curly should have reported Jimmy, shot him, put him in cryostasis, etc. and arguments saying Curly wasn't being malicious and that he was worried about things like their pay being docked, being locked with that conflict for months, not understanding the situation, etc. And it is complicated! But part of that male-centric view the game critiques (and fandom is against but accidentally perpetuates at times) is saying that it should have been Curly's choice at all. We don't know if Anya would have wanted to have shift scheduling and where she stayed and who spoke to Jimmy changed so he's kept away from her and to leave it at that. We don't know if she would have wanted to report him directly to the company's HR. We only see her when she's at her breaking point and even then her goal is to defend herself and prevent Jimmy from harming anyone. Anything past that is speculation. Obviously certain plans like a murder suicide or something like that would make sense for Curly to be against, but he never bothered to check. He said he would do anything, but didn't ask what that "anything" should be. Not all victims are the same, and not everybody has the same priorities. Part of getting rid of that male-centric toxic rape culture is letting women and victims have their own voices and decide their own paths, and framing the ideal situation as "the man in charge should have decided to protect the woman in xyz way because that's what she needed" instead of "the man in charge should have asked the woman what she needed and protected her that way" is still ultimately one man having control of everything. And we know from the game that doesn't work, even if he's a "good man that means well" and thinks he's inferring what's best. The only way to make sure victims get the support they need is to ask

[hipsternumbertwo]

Some things to look forward to? (Help decipher this)

Every Episode – Monologue, Expert ?, City of the Week, Hot Goss, Chanse jumps over a car, Sketches/Commercials, Character Call in ?, Musical Guest ?

Recurring – Cover Stories, Weird Product ? , Man on the Street, Fan Comments ?, Debate, Today I'm Mad About ?, ???, ???

 Sporadic – ???, ???, ???, Debrief From ? , Day Jobs, Reunions, Find a Culprit, Couples Therapy, ???, Movie Stunts ?

One Off- ???, ???, Game Show ?, What would you do ?, Talent Show ?

Topics – Energy Drinks, Situationships, Scams, Cults (Silly), Famous Beef, ???, Fanfiction?

Elements: Teleprompter Game ?, Personal News ?

Tone: Youtube/Internet, Characters

*? means "it looks like that word, missing a word", ??? means "I gave up, figure it out"

Special thanks to @gazebo-components for helping out! :)

*Reddit deleted the post relating to this so I'm thinking this is really real. Thank goodness the social team forgot Tumblr still exists ignores Tumblr.

[natjennie]

I love that no matter how many fucking times alison gestures to exactly where the ghosts are mike will still look up in the air for them. the fact that he makes an attempt to interact directly with them instead of just always looking to alison is so charming. but also adhd king.

[psudopod]

Snufkin quotes for the tumblrtrolls

[unfortunatelyilikebnha]

Thinking about the KaeyaJeanDiluc friendship where they grew up together and they were CLOSE & sure maybe Jean felt like Diluc & Kaeya were closer since they were brothers & sure maybe Kaeya felt like he had to keep secrets from the two of them bc they would never understand but they were like. A trio! A team!

& then Diluc’s 18th birthday comes around and everything goes to shit and Diluc LEAVES so they’re no longer KaeyaJeanDiluc but just Kaeya & Jean & in some ways Kaeya and Jean get closer because of it but there’s also a pronounced DISTANCE where Jean doesn’t know how to reach Kaeya anymore & Kaeya is even more determined not to tell Jean anything & they both lose themselves in their duties to Mondstadt while also missing Diluc and ALSO, despite everything, offering each other unconditional support

& then Diluc comes BACK & in addition to Kaeya & Jean there’s the shaky reestablishment of Jean & Diluc and Diluc & Kaeya but it’s not THE SAME. they’re no longer KaeyaJeanDiluc; Jean & Kaeya are knights and Diluc will never be a knight again & they all changed while Diluc was away & none of them know how to talk to each other anymore AND YET there’s still an undercurrent of trust!! Not fully, especially between Kaeya & Diluc, but Diluc still calls on Jean during the archon quest, trusting that she will keep their secrets even though as the acting grandmaster she should probably not. Jean says in her about Diluc voiceline that she understands why Diluc hates the knights & is working hard to make them an organization he can trust again. Kaeya covers for Diluc’s darknight hero escapades & fondly reminisces about their childhood in front of him. Diluc invited Kaeya to dinner at the winery & (afaik) never told anyone about Kaeya’s origins. Kaeya tells the traveler that they need to give Jean their full support and planned a birthday party for her. Jean left Kaeya in charge of Mondstadt when she went to the golden apple archipelago! On some level they recognize that their goals still align!! There’s still trust and love there but there’s also this gap between them that none of them know how to cross and I just!!!

[katblaze]

silly guys I'm obsessed with

I took massive inspiration from oobbbear's fiddauthor rendition of this template !

[flamedoesart]

I feel like people tend to forget that the reason children are on websites they really shouldn't be on, like Twitter for example, is because there are no spaces on the internet anymore specifically designed for children, unless it's for babies or toddlers.

The death of Flash also meant the death of thousands of games and websites specifically designed for the 9-13 demographic. Now granted, several games died long before Flash did (like the Holy Disney MMO trio - Pixie Hollow, ToonTown and Club Penguin) but there were other websites designed around what kids would enjoy. Sites like Kongregate, Sploder, GirlsGoGames and others were designed with kids in mind.

These sites were special in the sense that it gave fun games for children to play without even really needing to interact with other people directly. They could play the games and have fun. If they wanted to make friends they could, and oftentimes these sites had moderation to prevent kids from having full control over what they could say so as to prevent bullying and potential cyberstalking.

But now Flash is dead, and there's barely any hangout spots for that demographic anymore. I think the last remaining game you can play that doesn't require Flash that was a major part of the 2010s game nostalgia was Wizard101, but that game comes with the flaw of membership programs, similar to all the other MMOs that existed at the time.

Needless to say, the next time we ask in annoyance why there's so many 12 year olds on Twitter and Tik Tok, remember that it's because there's literally no online spaces anymore solely for them and only them, that majority of adults wouldn't step foot into anymore.

[sysig]

So much experimenting to be done, where to even start (Patreon)

[ninyard]

Hellooo i saw that you were asking for asks (that sounds funny) and I wanna know some of your hcs on Kevin and Allison being besties/ kevjean relationship

This is my chance to finally share some Allison/Kevin hcs so I'm gonna seize this opportunity with both hands and give you this total MESS of a brain dump

- Allison is the only fox that doesn't make fun of Kevin's eating habits. Kevin KNOWS his relationship with food is fucked up because of the nest and Allison knows it too, so she refuses to make bets or make fun of the way that he eats. Kevin only realised because she once tried to quietly tell Nicky to knock it off when he was pushing Kevin to have dessert or making fun of what he'd decided to have instead.

- Kevin also knows not to talk about the numbers or macros in front of her, too. They have a weird unspoken mutual respect RE: food and they both appreciate each others efforts on that front without ever actually mentioning it. they also have a gesture for each other that's code for "i want a snack do you have anything" and they'll throw each other protein bars if they're out/on a long bus journey etc.

- they are the BEST drinking buddies. Whenever the team starts drinking/partying/clubbing more together post-TKM, they are literally CHILDREN when they're drunk together. Kevin gets tired of the monsters being boring when they go out and there's only so much dancing he can do with just Nicky and Aaron alone. So Allison pulls him up to the bar one night to do a tequila shot, and they literally have the most unexpectedly fun night ever. Kevin loosens up a whole lot without the threat of Riko etc post tkm, and when I tell you he is such a fun drunk. now he doesn't really drink THAT much during the season but off-season? oh he's a party animal. I could write thousands of words about him and Allison getting drunk together and becoming literal best friends as soon as they have a drop of alcohol in their systems but here's some things I think they've done drunk

stole a shopping cart and sat in it as they pushed each other down the road in it (and fallen out of it and laughed so fucking hard) ((but were bruised up as fuck the next day because of it)

he's sat her on his shoulders - while dan sits on matt's - as the two girls try to push the other one off

he's really easily convinced to do things by her. another shot? sure. and another shot IMMEDIATELY after that? alrighty! karaoke? well, okay. jockeyback? stealing traffic cones? pulling pranks and fucking with the other foxes? acting like actual teenagers? okidokie!

she's probably the only person in the world who has successfully convinced kevin day to sing

he holds back her hair if she has to puke

she convinced him to let her do his makeup once. full glam. like a serious look, fully beat, full coverage look. there's a picture out there somewhere of it that she saves for blackmail.

fucked. make out sometimes. strip poker. they dance together :)

he never lets her walk alone anywhere when she's drunk. if she can't find one of the girls to accompany her to the bathroom at a party she'll take him.

she's taught him full dance routines

she was joking that there's no way the raven warmups could be that different to theirs, and bet him that she'd be able to do them without breaking a sweat (he won)

they've both ugly drunk cried in front of each other (but they never talk about that sober)

she's pretty light so he's bench pressed her before

- They know each others drink orders/favourite shots

- if Allison is out, say she's with her friends and not with the foxes, and she has to wait alone for a taxi or walk somewhere alone, she'll call him and he'll stay on the phone with her until she's safe

- They make fun of each other and bully each other like there's no tomorrow (affectionate). the whole "Allison hates Kevin" thing WAS true for a while, but once they get closer, she just pretends to hate him. he's like an annoying brother to her

- Allison is really easily frightened, and Kevin thinks it's funny to scare her. she's never safe walking around a corner or into a room if Kevin is there and in a good mood.

- they're not BEST FRIENDS. like they're not in each others pocket all the time and laughing and joking ALL THE TIME but she can read him like a book. she knows when he's having an off day, or thinking about something too much.

- She also knows when he's being serious and when not to joke around. She knows when he doesn't want cheering up or to joke about something and knows when to back off. The same with him - he knows when she's having a mood that requires being cheered up, or a mood that requires him to leave her the fuck alone.

- He's a big reason why she puts a whole lot more of herself into Exy post tkm. She's always been invested, but once they talk more, and they consider each other friends, she listens to him talking about Exy and it really clicks for her. his dedication. and also how fucking talented he really is. She doesn't do the night training with him but they'll occasionally go to the gym together or start practice a half an hour early to run some basic raven drills.

- They're iconic when they get together to do press after games. they bounce off each other like nothing else. they're just so funny. and he's also like andy murray in that he will ALWAYS defend her, dan, and renee's talent if interviewers start to focus more on him instead of the girls. he'll step in if an interviewer says something shitty or misogynistic. she LOVES directing objectifying and misogynistic questions his way.

- She calls him a bitch and makes fun of him for being a nepo baby. He calls her an asshole and makes fun of her for being a rich kid.

- Have gone to banquets as each others date.

that's just a few random thoughts off the top of my head but yes. Allison and Kevin. Literally the only Two Pretty Best Friends ever to exist.