weatherdesk

[bakedbakermom]

txf + text posts (14/?)

[allthngs]

We’re in Love by boygenius / The Field Where I Died, 4x05 / Herrenvolk 4x01 / Paper Heart 4x10 / Pilot 1x01

first part of the song is here <3

[randomfoggytiger]

"You Know My Memory Isn't What It Used to Be"

Fictober, Day 4

*-*-*-*-*

Inspired by @cecilysass's prompt: Scully observes Teena and Mulder interacting and has some kind of reaction (angry, protective, frustrated?) to that she feels she can’t fully express to him.

*-*-*-*-*

Mulder's cellphone rang while Scully was rifling around his kitchen, opening cabinets she pretended she was tall enough to reach. Her feet were about to elevate off the cold apartment floor in a grotesque exaggeration of en pointe when the mechanical amalgamation of alert, alert trilled in her partner's coat pocket. The British are coming, she thought childishly, the British are coming.

Paul Revere rose from his couch, wordless, and walked towards, not away from, his doom. He fiddled with his coat, fingers too clumsy to dive and surface artfully; and finally gave in, gripping and scraping the coat rack aside in increasing frenzy. Scully was halfway to his side before Mulder triumphantly put his prize to his ear, answered on a shaky, "Hello? Yes, this is Fox Mulder."

It was the hospital. She knew it would be; knew he knew it would be. Drifting closer, Scully stood, alert, prepared to guide his head back to her shoulder if the call ended in tears.

Instead, he gasped-- a violent, squelched little inhale. "She's awake?"

Both his hands shot up to the phone, steadying it as a means of steadying himself; and Scully shamelessly edged closer, shocked and disbelieving and trying her hardest to hear the nurse on the other line.

"Her vitals are good," Mulder relayed, left hand over the receiver, overwhelmed. "Her doctor wants to speak with us right away." He was already shoving on a pair of sneakers-- unlike the scuffed and damaged dress shoes he'd ruined that morning-- and expecting her to do likewise.

"Okay," she agreed, setting aside a small, dark distrust in medical improbabilities, "let's go."

*-*-*-*-*

Scully hung back while her partner peeked into his mother's room, listening to his whispery, "Mom?" and Tena Mulder's answering, "Fox!" with an eavesdropper's guilt. A chair scraped across the floor; and the hospital sheets crinkled as, she assumed, Mulder's arms came to rest on top of them. This was a private moment; and she leaned away, opting to give mother and son space.

"Dr. Scully?"

A nurse flanked her right, clipboard and bouncy, cheerful smile on hand. "Mrs. Mulder said you were there when she came to last time."

"Yes. How is she?"

"Doing very good-- remarkably well, actually. Dr. Standozer will be here shortly, but the patient gave us clearance to let you look over these."

How... unexpected. Tentatively, Scully took the nurse's chart and watched her trot away, a sense of unease beginning to take shape. Glancing down, she couldn't shake the feeling as she skim-read, slowed, then skipped a few passages. The expected, authorized answers were there in professionally typed print; but something nagged.

She combed through again, flipped back to an older record; and found it. The numbers, Scully was certain, were different. The date remained unchanged, perhaps even the time; but Tena's blood pressure, pulse rate, heart rhythm-- everything-- had been adjusted to more reasonable, recoverable levels.

*-*-*-*-*

Both Mulders were softly chuckling, radiantly lit by the carefully moderated hospital lamp, when she entered. Her partner's eyes were shining, wet in the corners; and his mother's were crinkled and gentle.

And distraught, Scully thought, watching Mrs. Mulder chase her son's hand around the bed if it dove too far for another blanket or reached away too long towards the door in greeting. Caught Tena glancing at the clipboard and tightening her lips until they were white. Mulder was too busy gleaning hope from her expression to notice his mother's; but he wouldn't be ignorant for long, if either woman didn't distract his attention.

"The prognosis is excellent," she admitted, straightening on reflex as both pairs of hazel eyes turned her way. Ignoring the prickling chill creeping down her back, Scully flipped through the reports audibly, watching Mulder scoot forward and Tena shrink back. "Exceptionally so. I don't know what your doctor will decide, but I doubt you'll be here for very long, Mrs. Mulder."

"That's good, thank you." Genteel yet cautious, saying neither too much nor too little.

Mulder began to fidget, excited and frayed and impatient. "Mom was telling me what she remembers, about her stroke."

"I don't remember much--" Mrs. Mulder stipulated, adjusting her position against the pillows, "--just that I was at the summer house; for what purpose, I don't recall. I must have had a stroke and fallen. I woke up here, or in another hospital room, and...." She paused, sighed, scrambled for an answer. "I think you were here with my son, Ms. Scully. And for that, I am grateful."

Tena Mulder looked from her boy to her visitor, placid and coolly controlled. But Scully, standing there with a cover up burning in her fingertips, had the distinct impression Mrs. Mulder wanted to speak with her, alone.

"I'm going to see if Dr. Standozer has arrived," she said, and left before Mulder's trusting nod and Mrs. Mulder's drooping shoulders could sear her conscience irrevocably.

*-*-*-*-*

"Excuse me--" Scully asked, flying as discreetly as possible to the nurse's station, quietly flagging down the attention of a different attendant, "--can you pull up the medical report for Tena Mulder, please? I think this," she held up the chart, a rite of passage, "has a few errors; and I'd like to cross-reference them."

"I'm sorry," said Nurse Two, crinkling her brows across the desk. "Are you her--"

"I'm Dr. Scully-- Dr. Dana Scully. She wanted me to review these reports earlier."

"I'm sorry, Dr. Scully, but only her medical power of attorney is allowed to access Tena Mulder's medical history."

"I'm with the FBI," she snapped, displaying her credentials hurriedly. The impending Dr. Standozer loomed omnipresently in the shadows of her paranoid periphery. "I need to see those reports as soon as possible."

"Again, I'm sorry Dr. Scully. Her husband stated earlier that these reports weren't to be handed out unless--"

"Her husband? Mrs. Mulder has no husband."

Nurse Two took a step back, subtly stretching the strain in her legs. "He was here earlier, with a visitor. I don't know...." She stopped abruptly, smiled over Scully's shoulder, and changed the topic. "There's her doctor now. If you need to ask him any questions, I'm sure he'd be willing to oblige."

"No, thank you." Standozer, she presumed, was there-- salt and pepper hair, stethoscope and superiority stepping from the elevator. "But do you know if Mrs. Mulder is expected to make a complete recovery? A complete recovery of her memory, for example?"

Puzzled, Nurse Two cocked her head and stared. "Mrs. Mulder doesn't have memory difficulties, as far as I'm aware. Are you, perhaps, mixing her up with another patient?"

*-*-*-*-*

Dr. Standozer was approaching, was passing.

Scully followed him back into the room, stood in the corner by her partner, and pretended she didn't notice Mrs. Mulder's troubled, searching eyes.

*-*-*-*-*

Thanks for reading~

Enjoy! 

Tagging @today-in-fic and @xffictober24.

[anders-hawke]

[california-112]

I'm not convinced that dousing yourself with gasoline is the smartest plan Mulder

[all-eyes-lead-to-the-truth]

All Eyes Lead to the Truth | Season Four Master Post

Season four is one of the most beloved seasons of The X-Files, and we had a lot of fun exploring the background characters that helped make it so special!

Check out this thread to see all the characters we got to meet this season!

Herrenvolk (4x01) | X

No one would remember him, and if they did, they would struggle to remember a name they were never told. The memory of his existence would remain occluded by the shadows he lived in.

Home (4x02) | Sheriff Andy Taylor

For protection, his father had said, as he pressed the unfamiliar cold metal into Taylor’s warm hand. To keep your family safe.

To keep your home safe.

He shuts the drawer. He isn’t ready for this reality, not now. Not yet.

Teliko (4x03) | Special Agent Sean Pendrell

With them, it was never something simple. It was a computer chip so fragile he could barely study it. It was a complex string of numbers and letters tracking a smallpox vaccination program for reasons he couldn’t even begin to fathom.

This was what he went to school for.

Unruhe (4x04) | Gerry Schnauz

Gerry knew she needed his help the moment they met. There was a howler inside of her head — a black mass invading her body and mind.

The Field Where I Died (4x05) | Melissa Rydell Ephesian

Melissa struggled with the idea of reincarnation, but dared not show it. And as it turned out, a broken link in the chain of her faith led to more broken links.

When she first saw Vernon hurt a child, the chain shattered.

Sanguinarium (4x06) | Dr. Theresa Shannon

The face on the computer had looked just like Jack, but that had to be impossible. The science of surgery hadn’t come that far. To spread the eyes further apart, change features completely… and besides, she knows him. Knows the person he is…

Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man (4x07) | Albert M. Godwinkle

All Albert M. Godwinkle wants today is to read a halfway decent manuscript that puts a smile on his disgruntled face. Today is not that day.

Tunguska (4x08) | Alex Krycek

If looks could kill, Alex would be a dead man. But he thrives off this, off making Mulder squirm. It’s just so fucking easy.

Terma (4x09) | Senator Albert Sorenson

He was a staunch proponent of holding insubordinate witnesses in contempt when the court was not being respected, and no one, not even a government employee, was immune to that.

Paper Hearts (4x10) | Addie Sparks

The little girl he loves is gone, and she is never coming back.

Just like me.

El Mundo Gira (4x11) | Migrant Worker

At the simple mention of El Chupacabra, the shack erupted in a cacophony of worry, as if merely saying the name might summon the beast.

Leonard Betts (4x12) | Michele Wilkes

Even through the panic she felt screaming through her that nothing about this was okay, she felt a moment of relief wash over her. Maybe it had all been a dream. Maybe her partner hadn’t died while she was at the wheel.

Never Again (4x13) | Ed Jerse

Deadbeat. Loser. Failure.

He’s heard it all, and he has had enough. No one humiliates Ed Jerse anymore. No, not now. Never again.

Memento Mori (4x14) | Kurt Crawford

What is destined for a creature borne of fluid and test tubes, guided by the hands of cruel men?

Kaddish (4x15) | Ariel Luria

Someone else’s hatred had taken her true love away. Just like that, in an instant, like it was nothing. But it was not hatred that led her to the gravesite that stormy night.

Unrequited (4x16) | Special Agent Kent Hill

Hill slides in his earpiece, watching as their eyes lock. His wife would call it eavesdropping, but as he steps closer, tilting his head just right to better hear their hushed voices, Hill simply calls it satisfying a long-standing curiosity.

Tempus Fugit (4x17) | Bartender

The man tried to fluff the pink ball back into shape after presumably squashing it in his pocket. “The woman I came in with— it’s her birthday, and she loves these things. I was wondering if there was any way you could ask someone in the back to put it on a plate and bring it out to her?”

Max (4x18) | Sharon Graffia

Sharon Graffia isn’t a liar. She’d only done what she needed to in order for people to believe her. All she’s ever wanted was someone to believe her.

Synchrony (4x19) | Jason Nichols

Naïveté and a complete lack of understanding of the consequences of their work had been their downfall. But how could they have known?

Small Potatoes (4x20) | Eddie Van Blundht

It didn’t take him long to realize he’d initially misread the situation when he saw them at the clinic. Based on the look Dana Scully shot him when he tried to hold her hand at the airport, he knew he was navigating territory Fox Mulder had yet to conquer.

Zero Sum (4x21) | Billy

He slowly twisted his neck to the right, and was horrified by the sight before him. In the next bed over was David from his class, his face covered in gross red bumps. He looked dead.

Billy didn’t know what else to do. He started crying.

Elegy (4x22) | Lauren Heller

She had an exam in the morning. Her mother’s birthday was the following weekend. She had plans.

Demons (4x23) | Amy Cassandra

As she speaks, the deep wound in her skull throbs, reminding her that that was true, until weeks ago when she’d traded the nightmare of one penetrating drill with the reality of another.

Gesthemane (4x24) | Father McCue

Her faith had come from God, yes… but it had also come from another, less expected source. Perhaps it still did.

Stay tuned for more perspectives coming in Season Five!

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5

We spend so much time deliberating and chatting about who to use in a given episode or where certain characters would be best utilized in the series, and we'd love to hear any opinions or predictions you might have! Do you have a favorite minor character? What episodes do you think would be best for our favorite recurring characters? Your feedback is one of the most enjoyable parts of this project (and sometimes hearing other perspectives can help inform the decisions we have to make). - @admiralty-xfd, @fridaysat9, @monikafilefan, and @gaycrouton

[carefulfears]

thinking about herrenvolk this evening

this is so scully...

eyes out on the world. trying to just slow him down, to keep him close, to keep the door in between them and the loss he’s facing, shut tight

but she can't. he’s always going to keep straight ahead. he’s always going to “bear north," as she will remark over 20 years later.

so she gives him what she can, whatever she can find.

she bears witness

and she accepts the actuality of his suffering, she doesn't look away, she pulls him in closer.

[icedteainthatbag]

them in “herrenvolk”

[agent-troi]

ok why didn’t the stabby stick kill the alien bounty hunter in herrenvolk, was it just a shitty prototype or what lmao and if so it’s kind of funny how everyone was fighting over it and saying how it was just so so important

[chavisory]

"A group of genetically controlled children were raised and monitored on a compound in Litchfield. The boys were called Adam and the girls were called Eve."

Love the parallel set up later with the farms populated entirely by the boys called Kurt and girls called Samantha!

[x-files-scripts]

The X-Files - “Herrenvolk”

Written by Chris Carter

July 26, 1996 (GREEN)

Mulder does not stop for Scully’s ministrations...

Mulder is fuelled by Scully’s passion, “the passion that has always fuelled her.”

Introducing Marita Covarrubias: “It is not romantic or sexual attraction. It is an understanding.”

[thexfilesbracket]

Drive - A man tormented by a piercing sound that could make his head explode unless he heads west as fast as possible takes Mulder hostage to drive for him, while Scully rushes to find the cause of this affliction that also killed the man's wife.

Herrenvolk - With his mother on deathbed and the alien bounty hunter in pursuit, Mulder decides to put the alien healer in mortal danger for a chance to finally uncover the whole truth behind the alien conspiracy. Meanwhile, Mr. X's cover is blown.

[tanadrin]

the fact that the israeli construction industry was dependent on cheap palestinian labor and is currently at a standstill is one of those facts that learning it just makes you want to scream in frustration. there isn't any especially unique historical circumstance at work here. it's all always the same material incentives all the way down, for which the ideological justification (whatever its origin) is now just a fig leaf for a profitable status quo.

[randomfoggytiger]

How Scully Taught Mulder to Hug

I've noted once before what a profound effect Scully has on Mulder's emotional journey with healing and grief (see here how One Breath transforms him and his emotional outlet); but there is a key part of that healing process that is just as important.

Fox Mulder is known for his softer side: a masculine man comfortable with feminine displays of affection and empathy. However, even though it was always his nature-- reaching out to Scully often, pulling at her necklace, smoothing her hair, engaging her eye contact-- Mulder never physically comforted someone in their distress or immense grief before Scully.

I broke down his dynamics with his mother (see here) but, in short, he was her caretaker since Samantha's disappearance: tucking her in, speaking calmly and gently to soothe her nerves, and other minute mannerisms that bled into his other human interactions. But there was always an affectionate distance.

It wasn't until Scully that he learned how to sweep a vulnerable, distressed, or grieving person into a comforting hug.

TLDR

Scully is used to exchanging physical affection with her family and friends, and she will usually reach out to Mulder first to change an aspect of their relationship: a hug, a hand grip, letting Mulder sweat over root bear, pining in Season 2, hinting at genes in Season 4, and bringing a cheese plate for recovery fun fun times in Season 5. (It's why she was so shocked in The Little Green Men, Small Potatoes, The Unnatural, and Millennium: she doesn't expect Mulder to make any moves.)

Mulder is, despite being a physically affectionate person, stunned by her abrupt hug in the Pilot, having maintained an emotional distance from others for a long, long time (even from his mother and father-- despite being his mother's emotional and even physical caretaker, the two Mulders were not volubly affectionate.)

The MOST PIVOTAL hug is the follow-up in Irresistible-- Mulder shadows Scully the whole case, but it's she who finally cracks and burrows into his coat, needing comfort. The tenderness they've both cultivated in the aftermath of Duane Barry is kicked up a notch; and there is no going back for Mulder. From now on, he will repeatedly body-shield Scully: from literal danger (in the very next episode Die Hand Die Verletzt) and from very intense fear or grief.

In fact, that part of Mulder has been blown so wide open that he swoops in to greet his father with a hug in Colony, kicking himself when he remembers that the Mulders don't hug.

The first time Mulder reaches out to hug Scully is in Paper Clip while she struggles after her sister's death. It's a full-on, no-holds-barred hug that envelops and fully comforts. This is when The Mulder Hug TM is born; and Mulder will use this for the rest of his life, finally able to comfort and cheer and grieve openly.

Because Scully, his human credential, taught him how.

Housekeeping now firmly aside:

Pictures and In-Depth Analysis Below

The First Hug

In the Pilot, Scully is terrified of malicious looking bumps on her back, knocking on Mulder's door and begging him to figure out if they are nefarious or not; and when he good-naturedly assures her they're just mosquito bites, she whirls around and clings to him.

It's demonstrated multiple times in the series to be second nature to Scully to hug her loved ones (returning her father's bear hug in Beyond the Sea, letting Maggie cling to her in Memento Mori, greeting Bill Scully in Gethsemane, etc.); but the opposite is shown for her new partner.

Mulder is shocked by her hug, frozen in his former gregarious reassurance as he processes what just happened.

Finally, Mulder's face shifts to bewilderment, snapping back his head in confusion-- he hasn't had a real hug in how long... why now?

More warmth seeps in, wonder and concern rising to the top of his conflicted emotions as he asks "You okay?" tenderly, beeping his nose into her hair.

He tries to reassure his new barnacle-to-a-hull clingy partner, awkwardly (and this makes me laugh) patting her on the shoulder as if she were a baby.

When Scully pulls back to collect herself, Mulder dazedly focuses on her, tracking her eyes and blandly noting "You're shaking."

Scully helps herself to his seat with Mulder unfazed and telling her to take her time, poking out an arm so she doesn't ram into the chair. He then sits across from her, studying this new (ab)normal specimen, trying to puzzle her out.

This leads Mulder to share his vulnerability over Samantha's abduction, a quid pro quo if you will. It's not private information since he's already categorized her as an X-File; but the revelation is not his trauma : it's his neck-on-the-chopping-block move he makes, revealing how much he knows about the upper office shenanigans and what they've been doing to stop him ("You're part of that agenda. You know that.") Scully honors this , asking for his trust.

(An aside: this is referenced later in Anasazi when Mulder screams over the phone about her betrayal: "Look, you have my files and my gun. Don't ask me for my trust.")

The Second Hug

There isn't another hug until Irresistible. Although Mulder is far from distant, he only ever goes so far with his physical affection (a hand at his partner's back while walking, sitting as close as humanly possible, dragging her away from dangerous scenarios, etc.), leaving it up to Scully to cross the lines between them (tending to him and camping out in his hotel room in Fire, "I wouldn't put myself on the line for anyone but you" in Tooms, petting his hair in Little Green Men, etc.) Mulder yearns to be closer, but he is the one drawing the lines, another self-protective measure (like talking in riddles, keeping few friends, sleeping on his couch, and running so he never has to stop.)

But their S2 separation and Scully's abduction followed so closely by her near death in Firewalker leaves a space for Scully's increasing vulnerability. Her anxiety and stress continue to heighten as Pfaster's case hits closer and closer home; and, by the end of that disaster, she is a wreck. When Mulder and the police rescue her from her newest kidnapping, Scully vainly tries to hold onto her control until the dam bursts, Mulder's empathetic chin-touch undoing her.

She slowly steps closer, seeking a hiding spot to fall apart in; and Mulder just as slowly scoops her up, facing the middle distance briefly to assess what this moment means for Scully (who strove to be unbreakable after her abduction) before turning his focus back to his partner.

When a cry escapes Scully, Mulder instinctively pets and cradles her head for the first time (to my knowledge), transforming from an empathetic but awkward partner to a fully-fledged comforter.

It's here when he links his ability to convey love through touch with his soothing, calming presence: by holding another person, he can wordlessly offer both. This changes everything for Mulder-- he now engulfs Scully, TLG, his family, even other victims in hugs, unlocking that side of himself that he'd never tapped into before.

Scully worms in closer, too far gone to care about preserving whatever scrap of dignity she has left; and Mulder, who gets it now, swarms her in a tighter hug-- his hand stretched to its fullest and his arms wound in a stronger grip.

Mulder then steps it up a notch: he focuses entirely on her (briefly closing his eyes), trying to empathetically collect all of Scully's pain and fear like a dreamcatcher and shield her from all the negative emotions and traumas and nightmares that will plague her. Despite the torment on his face, Mulder's assurance is measured and strong: "It's alright." Simple, but powerfully reassuring.

The very next episode, Mulder throws himself over Scully to protect her from being shot first in the Die Hand Die Verleztz shower, a first for him and one he doesn't flinch at. Of course, he has always been protective; but there is no uncertainty that sometimes lurked when he'd previously hovered around her like a nervous fly.

And this new unlocking of himself led to his aborted hug in--

Colony

When Mulder arrives at his father's, he runs up to the house and almost misses Bill Mulder in the shadows. He steps over, opening his arms for a hug... and is promptly greeted by Bill Mulder's hand.

I already have a series detailing Mulder's complicated relationships with his family (The Mulder Family In-Depth Series is found on this master list); the importance here is that Mulder is so caught up in his new mindset that he forgot the barriers that existed between himself and his father.

Two theories that don't mean anything really:

#1. Mulder had broken down a huge psychological barrier; and he naturally included his father in this change... which was promptly rejected. His face registers an "ah, of course" expression instead of shock or grief, meaning this is an established habit of his father's. Just because he's changed, Bill Mulder has not (yet. See post here.)

#2. Mulder's father has hugged Mulder before, since it's a go-to greeting from his son in this time of crisis. He was a doting father at one point, so maybe he reverts back to his warmer behavior in exteme times of celebration or trouble? Who knows.

Whatever the case may be, this is the first hug Mulder has ever initiated for comfort (not counting bro-hugs or hello-hugs)... and it was rejected. Mulder being Mulder, though, never gives up.

Paper Clip

Paper Clip is the turn of the tide.

Mulder has learned how to marry his unending empathy and true compassion with his natural way of bonding, physical touch. This is when he gives it all back to Scully, the woman who showed him the way. In a demonstration of "I owe you everything, Scully. And you owe me nothing", Mulder stoops down to listen to Scully's heartrending pain about Melissa Scully's murder, giving her as much courage and hope as he can. When Scully cracks, he leans away briefly to better balance himself-- which makes his partner grab for his hands in a panic (2nd pic)-- before scooping her up into a tight hug, allowing his human credential to cry onto his shoulder.

Scully sweeps her arm around Mulder as well (you can see her hand on Mulder's left shoulder.)

The last piece of Mulder's puzzle comes in Herrenvolk:

Herrenvolk

I've discussed this episode in depth here, but it's important to comb back through with this context in mind.

Mulder's mother is on her deathbed, and he has failed to bring back the one person who could heal her. In tatters, he stumbles through the hospital in shock, relying on Scully to get him to Tena (or Teena) Mulder's room. At her bedside, Mulder crashes. For the first time, Mulder leans into Scully, indirectly asking her for a hug. Scully reads his body language and makes the first decisive move, showing Mulder that his emotions won't be rejected. He then falls apart, sobbing into her shoulder.

The last barrier for Mulder's emotional distance has melted away; and Scully is there to give back the comfort he always gave her.

A Summary and Mini-Analysis on Future Hugs

Finally, this aspect of Mulder's emotional journey has come to a healthy completion: from now on, he and Scully give and receive hugs freely, leaning in for affection and anticipating each others' needs and varying moods.

Season 5, interestingly, is filled mostly with hugs-but-not-hugs moments-- i.e., Scully didn't hug Mulder in the woods, they cuddled for warmth; and Mulder didn't hug Scully in All Souls, they whispered with arms in the police station.

But Scully does hug Mulder after the files burn down, since he is too emotionally hewn to reciprocate. FTF is an addendum to that moment, with Mulder proving to Scully that she does, indeed, mean more to him than his life's work (she is his life.)

Sseason 6 is sparing on hugs, though filled to the brim with romantic overtones (subtle they are not); instead, it gives Mulder two kisses that are not from Scully: Triangle's spy Scully and One Son's manipulative Diana Fowley. It's not until Arcadia that the two agents full-on hug-- multiple ones at that-- which is befitting for a season that practically shoves them together while baiting the audience.

(Note: Sometime around Seasons 6-7 there are the events of Per Manum, featuring very huggy Mulder and Scully. I set this sometime before Two Fathers/One Son; but do as you wish.)

The hugs really pick up significant meaning after the episode tag-team of Milagro and The Unnatural. There is no going back now; but whatever deal they struck in those episodes (whether RST or a new understanding between them) is solidified after Mulder's spiritual experience in Amor Fati.

From then on, hugs become casual side pieces to the main affection: Millennium kisses, unabashed flirting, comfort after maternal suicides, familiar and familial habits and routines, and farewells in hallways and hellos from old friends.

The last hug (as of S8 where my X-Files journey stops) is given by Frohike embracing Mulder on his return.

Mulder arrives at Scully's apartment, glad to see his old friend; but he immediately sticks his arm out to shake hands, an unfortunate shadow of his own traumatized father Bill Mulder. Frohike, fortunately, is having NONE of it, sweeping his friend into a tight, firm hug. Mulder is delighted and touched, zinging out his first quip devoid of bitterness.

Grateful and overwhelmed, Mulder gives his friend a back pat (and many happy Mulder noises) as well, harkening back to his first awkward hug with Scully.

A fitting conclusion to Mulder's hug arc.

Thank you for reading~

Enjoy!

[marinetti-dinner-party]

the most compelling thing about the october 7 exhibit is the merch they're selling

people who follow this blog (first of all: WHY?) know my deep affection for fascist merch. mma lifestyle clothing brands. teas. seasoning. soap. now you can visit a burnt up car (who burnt the car? uhhhh hamas of course DON'T ASK QUESTIONS) and buy a bucket hat to show your love of america's favorite military base/nation of genocidal spoiled children.

[california-112]

EVERYTHING DIES