#like that's how they act with scully

[phannibal]

even just seeing mulder’s mouth form the word bitch raises my blood pressure

[ladystardustinblackjeans]

i gotta respect the grind. mulder is immediately on his alien bullshit, and its always well thought-out too.

[harmonicabisexuals]

another thing that bothers me about making donnie pfaster a demon in “orison” is that making him human plays so much better with the show’s overarching themes of fate vs. free will. if he was a monster, it’s basically fate that he would be evil, would kill all those women. the show even explores that concept earlier in the season in “hungry” where the monster can’t help his urges to kill people, even if he doesn’t want to, seemingly accepting his fate at the end by saying “I can’t be something I’m not”. however, pfaster being a human shows that evil is something that can be chosen too. in the x files, monsters are not afforded the luxury of free will, but humans are. which is precisely why a human villian who chooses to be evil, like pfaster, is much scarier.

it just makes the end of the episode that much more interesting as well. scully, a archetypal “good” person (which is probably also how she see herself) is just as capable of something “evil” (cold blooded murder) as someone like donnie pfaster. this realization bothers her, which is why at the end she says she fears that it wasn’t god working through her in that moment, that her human capacity for evil overwhelmed her overall desire to be good. however mulder, as someone who loves free will, immediately understands that one “evil” or immoral act does not outweigh all scully’s other actions that overwhelmingly make her a good person. of course he offers to lie for her. it isn’t exactly true that she “didn’t have a choice” but he understands that choice and decides that she is worth his love and protection regardless. 

[thethief1996]

I love how physical attraction is such a minimal aspect of mulder and scullys relationship like they're both extremely hot but they're never like astonished by how good the other looks or something. The lingering glances are always because they said something smart or excentric

[spookycooper95]

Look, I know The X-Files wasn’t intended to be binged the way we can now. I get it. But can we talk about how much funnier it makes it that Scully is seeing a woman floating on a ceiling with her own eyes one episode and that like two episodes later she’s back to acting like Mulder’s some weirdo for believing in aliens?? Girl is compartmentalizing and gaslighting herself at the speed of light

[cecilysass]

Sexualizing Scully (in Never Again and the whole series)

I’ve been thinking about CC changing the original Never Again script because he was worried about sexualizing Scully, and I’ve been trying to get inside his head on this issue. Ready for a long essay no one asked for? Okay.

CC’s decision to eliminate the sex scene from Never Again reveals a pretty absolute mindset from him at the time — hanky panky for Scully takes her into a titillating area, which is not okay, because the show doesn’t sexualize Scully. According to ep co-writer Glen Morgan, CC said “every other woman on television was jumping into bed, and they had worked very hard to differentiate Scully from other female television characters.” So button up, Dana.

I admit that like many others (including possibly GA), I have always been frustrated by this particular kind of “we don’t want to sexualize Scully” logic from CC, because it really seems to be confusing sexually objectifying a female character with depicting her acting from sexual motivations which is really only confusing if you’re a straight cis man who is used to thinking any combination of women and sex as somehow being about men’s tastes. In other words, it doesn’t seem problematic to show Scully acting sexually if you’re thinking of a female character as a subject and not as an object.

CC is often credited as being a pioneer in his commitment not to sexualize Scully. Everyone (CC, 1013, media, fans) frequently claims the decision not to emphasize Scully’s sex appeal was rare for TV at the time. This is kind of true, if maybe a little overstated.

By the time Never Again aired, in 1997, primetime TV also had Captain Janeway, Buffy Summers, Murphy Brown, Elaine Benes, Anita Van Buren. These are not “de-sexualized” characters necessarily, but also not at all accurately described as oversexualized stereotypes. Some of those characters predated Scully.  It was a less common choice to deemphasize a female character’s sex appeal on TV, but it’s also not really fair to say it was all Baywatch babe caricatures all the time. I think we can say this was something that was actively changing in the 1990s that would continue to evolve in the next decades. I do think it’s worth observing that some writers of the time had figured out how to write complicated female characters … who also sometimes had sex.

One quibble I have with the “1013 was special because they didn’t sexualize Scully” claim is that … they did sexualize Scully. All the time? No. But sometimes? Absolutely. 

Some of this I just don’t really think is debatable. If this had been a series starring DD and Nicholas Lea, would Krycek nervously take off his clothes in the pilot to show Mulder his bug bites? Well, of course we would have written outstanding horny fic about it if he had, but come on: NO WAY. (Because 1993, heteronormativity, etc.) As it was, they knew they were sexualizing the female lead a little and exploiting both leads’ sexual chemistry as a tease to get audiences interested in their pilot. Come on. They knew. This isn’t rocket science. They had a little show on Fox, and they were trying to get people to watch. 

(There was an interview years ago when GA said something to this effect, too. Something like: the bumps could have been anywhere on my body, but they had to be a place I had to take off my clothes.)

As many have pointed out over the years, Scully was also semi-regularly a focus of male sexual fantasy. Sometimes this was pathological and violent (see: Donnie Pfaster, twice). Other times, this was benign and played for gentle laughs (see: Frohike, Pendrell). Sometimes, the fantasy was quite vividly enacted on screen (see: Philip Padgett, Guy Mann). Please note that I’m not saying this should or shouldn’t have happened, only that it did. 

That said, I think Carter did take pains to avoid sexualizing Scully as an overall principle, and I think this was effective. He emphasized her intellect and her professional motives. We love Scully for this. It’s part of what makes the character who she is. Credit where credit is due.

Unfortunately, he did seem to believe that Scully being seen as a serious character meant not having sex at all. I don’t want to erase asexuality, and I sometimes hear people saying they recognize that in Scully. If this works as representation for people, it’s positive. But for me, I just don’t see Scully written as ace. I think she was being written, by men, as embodying an old trope about women not having sex or being too overtly sexy to be seen as trustworthy or taken seriously (see: Madonna-whore complex).

Now mind you, Mulder’s sexuality was a problem for the show, too. For sure. As with Scully, they wanted him devoted to the quest / platonic partnership only, which means he couldn’t really have an outside romance as a competing motivation for him.  I’d argue this did eventually paint the writers into a MSR corner, because both characters’ energy and emotions were really only focused towards one another as an extension of their quest. But they did let Mulder have porn, lots of suggestive talk, sexually aggressive exes (see: Phoebe, Diana), several ambiguous possible sexual encounters (see: Marita, Diana), and one unambiguous one night stand (see: Kristen). 

Scully does eventually get an ex who directly comes on to her—and notice who gave him to her. She also gets a vibrator in canon—also a female writer—but that takes decades, people, decades. Mulder’s been carrying on with that porn forever by that point.

I think this relates to my cynical idea that Carter’s insistence on avoiding sexualizing Scully is really about his protection of Mulder as his hero / protagonist, not Scully herself. More on that later.

One of my least favorite pieces of “Chris Carter deemphasized Scully’s sexuality” evidence is Ye Olde Story About The Busty Baywatch Network Scully. If you look at any number of interviews with Carter dating back to, say, 1994-1998, he often tells the same story about the network wanting to hire a leggy busty actress to play Scully and him insisting on Plain Jane Gillian Anderson instead. Often Pamela Anderson, the lead actress of Baywatch, is specifically mentioned in the story, or sometimes it’s just a “Baywatch type” actress. 

The repetition of this story is kind of gross, for two big reasons. Reason #1 is that it frames Carter as a hero for ... what? Rejecting the network’s toxic beauty standards to hire absolutely stunning GA, who, yes, is short, but isn’t exactly a radical rethinking of what’s attractive? I understand that Gillian Anderson isn’t “a Baywatch type,” but it’s not like she wasn’t a woman considered sexually appealing by MANY people. Including, incidentally, Chris Carter, who outright admitted Scully was his type. 

It is absolutely good we got GA. No one questions that. But in my opinion Carter got way too many kudos for choosing this supposedly non-sexy actress for Scully. Because honestly. “non-sexy GA” can’t even be said with a straight face. Even DD eventually started saying in 1996 that this story was weird and overdone, although he said it in a kind of an awful way: “That’s overblown. You look at Gillian, and she’s a beautiful woman. And how often do you see Scully in a bathing suit? Gillian’s not 6 feet tall and doesn’t have what’s-her-face’s tits, but she’s got as nice a face as any of them.”

Reason #2 is that Carter’s story seems to remind GA at every turn in those early years that she wasn’t hot enough for success if it weren’t for him insisting on her. This has an especially icky residue given her struggles over body image and equitable salary. (If you don’t think it had the potential to have that effect, just take a gander at DD’s quote when he was probably sincerely trying to be supportive above, and try to get into the toxic 1990s mindset of how people talked about women’s bodies.) 

Finally, one more complication regarding the sexualization of Scully: jealousy. I’d argue the jealousy trope was a kind of sexualization. The show has no issue with jealousy for vaguely sexual / romantic motives coming from Scully, even though the “hot women jealously bickering over the male hero” is a trope that seems pretty clearly derived from straight male sexual fantasies, too. Scully shows jealousy of female rivals for Mulder’s respect or trust early and often. Again, not saying this should or shouldn’t have happened: only that it did. (Actually, if you know me or my fanfic, you know I’m pretty down for some jealousy stories lol.)

In earlier seasons, Scully’s jealousy is played for laughs and is more ambiguously motivated, mixed up with professional jealousy. For example, she’s threatened by Bambi Berenbaum not only because she’s a hot woman who has Mulder’s attention, but also because she’s a competing scientist.  By the Diana arc, Scully’s jealousy is tightly tied to plot and is angst-ridden. It’s also much harder to explain, at least in late season 5’s The End, without romantic jealousy as some sort of driving motive. We can say in One Son there is a professional explanation—she thinks Diana is dirty and Mulder is being disrespectful of his partner—but why on earth is Scully sitting heartbroken in that car in The End if not for personal reasons?

And then there’s this, some cut dialogue from Sixth Extinction that has Scully and Diana arguing over Mulder. Here both characters are written managing to reference one another’s physical appearance in a way that has absolutely no relevance to their ostensibly professional conversation.

There’s no universe in which you can convince me this is in character for Scully (or for Diana really), and it frankly shows objectification of both female characters. But this dialogue was cut, so maybe someone felt similarly at 1013. 

Mulder is not shown as being jealous in the same obvious, overt way, and I don’t think Carter would have let that happen. This is where I start to suspect that the whole “Scully isn’t sexualized” claim of Carter’s is actually more about his protection of Mulder’s character than Scully’s. 

Carter didn’t want to sexualize Scully because he didn’t want Mulder to be seen as the kind of male character who would seriously be distracted by lust for his co-worker and partner beyond easy, low-commitment jokes. He wanted Mulder to be seen as pure of heart (porn aside) and entirely devoted to his quest. He wanted him to have a partner he wouldn’t be thinking dirty thoughts about, especially because 1013’s writers often seem to have a worldview in which desire and respect can’t coexist. And he wanted Scully to be uncomplicatedly devoted to supporting him.

So Scully is jealous of female attention of Mulder because it’s consistent with her devotion to the work, and Mulder is equivalent to their work. But Mulder’s not going to be shown spinning too much about male attention to Scully because he’s gotta stay single-mindedly devoted to the quest. (Until it is a threat specifically to his work, as when it’s Doggett replacing him on multiple levels.) 

Of course, by creating characters who only are interested in this mutual quest and in supporting one another— and then by casting constantly-handsy Duchovny and longing-eyed Anderson and presumably directing them to keep all that shit under control all the time — CC definitely created the perfect hothouse conditions for MSR. Apparently directors were telling them to dial back their performances of scenes all the time. And honestly, that feeling of constant restraint reads in the final cut. Even when they are just sitting there talking about a corpse they always look like they are holding back and buttoning in all these feelings. It’s constantly sexually charged. Desire and respect appear to be sharing space all the time. It’s a textbook case of getting the opposite of what you’re ostensibly trying to do.

I know I’ve touched on some hot button issues here. I welcome discussion if you’re so inclined.

[xf-cases-solved]

i fucking love how watching xfiles in order gives you such insane emotional whiplash

like for example, s1 you have ice, this amazing "the thing"-esque thriller, immediately followed by space, which is probably top ten least memorable episodes in the world. beyond the sea has so many emotional beats and insane levels of acting skill, immediately followed by fucking gender bender lmfao. the absolute mindfuck of having the duane barry/ascension/one breath trio interrupted by the 14 year old emo kid's vampiric wet dream that is 3??? unparalleled levels of unhinged decision making in that production room

anyway, i just watched colony/end game, and it ends with that poignant scene between mulder and scully in the hospital, after she put on such a demonstration of loyalty and love by ignoring his wishes and going after him and saving his life, and mulder finishes the scene by talking about how he has renewed faith in his search for truth despite his heartbreak, and it's beautiful bc in the end, isn't loyalty, love, and faith what this show is all about? -cue credits-

then "watch next episode" pops up and

it is the one with the invisible gorilla

this shit sure does keep you on your toes, huh?

[queeenpersephone]

what's really insane about the x-files is that nearly every show that's somewhat followed its formula (bones, lucifer, castle, etc) keeps some amalgamation of mulder and scully as its main couple, but they feel the need to supplement that main couple with an ensemble cast that are in nearly every episode. mulder and scully are pretty much it for the x-files. of course there's skinner and the gunmen, but they don't appear even in a majority of the episodes (and certainly not in a major way). there's probably a lot one could say about why, but i think the reason it works is because scully and mulder are so rich with characterization. for me, they're the closest movie/tv gets to real people, even if their connection to each other is beyond what any of us could have in a normal relationship. they're so multi-faceted, so complex, so contradictory. like, mulder's incredibly empathetic but can be a jerk. scully's by the book but she'll be held in contempt of congress for what matters. even something like scully's relationship with her father is so complicated in a way that it churns out episodes like never again or beyond the sea. the way david duchovny and gillian anderson act against each other on screen is heart-stopping, enthralling. even when they're a trainwreck, you can't look away. it's just so interesting to me how, even when shows are blatantly pulling from the x-files (and are good in their own way!) they're too afraid to really do the x-files. y'know?

[the-necromancer-wife]

Skully J. Graves and a personal reflection about what respect should be really about:

(And also a not-so-small slightly anthropological analysis about the importance of the work of cultural promotors)

This person was here long before I came to NRC...

A graduate of hundreds of years ago.

Before, Halloween was a minor event, but now it's known all over...

Hes said to have laid the foundation for today's Halloween

His name is Scully J. Graves.

Known as... "King of Halloween"!

(Translated by: @MostroLoungeVIP on twitter - X)

I was wrong. Since the very beginning when i thought Skully was neurodivergent, and also when i wrote about a possible traumatic event. Nothing of it was depicted in the event story and even if my expectations were very high, i am not disappointed. I would like to share my thoughts with you:

Hundreds of years ago, before all of us were born, there was this person known as Skully J. Graves. A young man with a unique perspective, one that no one knew where it was originated.

But a valid perspective nonetheless.

You see, sometimes we don't really know why a person thinks and acts in certain ways. We don't know why people do what they do.

This is what happens with Skully. The truth is that we don't know what happened to him or where his opinions came from. Certainly we can make theories and imagine everything we want. Was it that he was raised in a secluded and conservative enviroment? Was he neurodivergent? Did he lost someone by his own hand on Halloween's day?

Every point of view is valid and we don't really need to know the whole truth to acknowledge how valid his feelings are. Personally, I didn't understand him very well at first and that's why i wanted to justify his actions so badly. Skully was feeling alone, left out and rejected for his different opinion, and my only question was "Where this opinion originated from?" instead of "How can I understand what he stands for?" and ultimately, of course, accept him as he is.

I realized I was trying to make him fit into the reasons I would use to explain myself if I had that opinion.

And Skully himself has (had) a similar conflict. To his eyes, things had certain purpose and that purpose had to remain unchanged. Halloween was about fear, thinking about oneself's actions in silence. There was a post here on tumblr that explained how his idea of a perfect Halloween coincided with different festivities.

But all this was not about Skully only. It was also about every single NRC student that couldn't respect Skully's opinion. About a bunch of people that the first question they asked themselves was "What is wrong with him?"

The same question i was asking myself before, trying to find a source for his "quirkiness" as if there had to be an explanation for his different opinions. Even the act of calling him "quirky" was a mistake itself because i labeled as such based on my own judgment.

This was a story about a kid that learned to see beyond his own judgment and teached others to do the same. Skully teached me a valuable lesson that will be useful to me for the rest of my life. I learned how easy it is to dismiss others even if I think I'm being respectful.

Respect should be about understanding, not about justifying.

Otherwise, I'm just being condescending.

And that's the reason why I was not disappointed in the end, even if i was waiting for things to end differently.

...

When I saw Skully's portrait in the end, I noticed his glasses were missing. I read that they fell after Sebek and him fought. Skully himself was upset about the tainted glasses broke, as anyone would be when their opinions are being judged. But we were able to see his eyes and he was able to see beyond his nose. I mean, it was the moment he snapped, but also what I think it is a very subtle metaphor on changing oneself's point of view.

And this was the Skully that was known years later, hundreds of years later. When there was nothing left of him to remember but the fact that he was the one responsible for making Halloween a world-wide known celebration.

Yes, a celebration.

Another valuable lesson this event taught me, was how crucial are those people with different points of view, historically and culturally speaking. Skully's beliefs were different, yes, but he was also extremely passionate. And that passion was what impulsed him to dedicate his life entirely to promote Halloween culture everywhere he went.

He traveled and learned and shared and ultimately popularized Halloween. If he hadn't, Halloween would be a forgotten celebration, like many others. This happens even in real life. Different cultures, small cultures often struggle as the time passes to keep their traditions alive because there is no one there to pass the knowledge to the next generations. There is no one to promote them outside of the small town where they were originated.

In Twisted Wonderland, is safe to assume Halloween Town was the origin of Halloween. And it was a small town. So small, even the name Jack Skellington dissolved in the modern world.

But Skully's name remained, and was even known as "King of Halloween"! And even if his ideas were a bit (a lot) different from modernity, you can't deny the impact he had on the popularization of Halloween.

Twst managed to explain a very complex historical process that involves not only cultural promotion, but also appropriation. As Halloween is celebrated in many many forms depending on the time and place. A lively halloween or a quiet halloween or a Samahin, they're all valid and unique! And they were all possible thanks to the work of Skully J. Graves, as well as the work of Jack Skellington before him, and many others before and after them both.

It is heritage, cultural heritage.

And seeing this event from that perspective, it is clear the amount of respect we owe to historical figures. Even if their thoughts seem a bit...archaic (or barbaric!!! as Jamil refered).

Revolutionary ideas in the past are often considered normal and "the obvious" in the present, as well as many "barbarics" (yes, Jamil, i'm looking at you) acts in the past are now considered well...just that.

And the reason why modernity is able to see some points of view as archaic /obvious is because those were thoughts that evolved by being constantly analyzed, criticized, modified and/or teached to newer generations.

So, yeah, thank you Skully J. Graves.

There was something breathtaking about his portrait: A young man with a unique perspective, one that no one knew where it was originated. But one that impulsed him to preserve and spread a celebration...

...hundreds of years ago, before all of us were born.

[leiascully]

Fic prompt: Scully tells Mulder that he's her best friend. Bonus points if it's Season 5 or earlier.

Good news: it's season 2.

When Mulder wakes up, Scully is sitting beside his bed. She smiles and it’s like the sun has come out in his windowless hospital room. She balances an issue of JAMA on her knee and rests her pen on it.

“Hi,” he rasps.

“Hi,” she says, passing him a plastic cup of water. It’s room temperature and vaguely redolent of chlorine, but he drains it dry. The cup makes a hollow noise as he sets it back on his bedside table, his movements a little clumsy. The simple act of drinking has exhausted him. He sags back into the thin pillows. The mattress is stiff and uncomfortable underneath him. But he’ll be all right. Scully’s here.

For a moment, he just basks in the glow of her smile. He doesn’t know what time it is, but Scully has brought the golden hour with her. He would swear he can feel the warmth of her fond regard on his chilly skin. He turns toward her like a sunflower, his head heavy on his neck.

“You need to rest,” she chides gently, but she hasn’t picked up her pen again. That’s the sign of a serious Scully who’s no longer willing to entertain her convalescent patient. He knows her hospital-based tells rather better than he’d like. A specific crook to her brows means he isn’t out of the woods yet; a particular twist to her lips means she’s sick of his shit. But today he’s getting this smile like sunshine. Radiant.

She turns her head to look at something. Abruptly, he feels the weary cold striking out of his bones. The blanket covering his bed is pilled and worn, and the sheet is a little scratchy. He longs for the thick blanket he keeps on his couch. His toes are so chilled that they ache. He wants a duvet to wrap around himself and a hot water bottle for his feet, like the ones he had at Oxford, and he wants to sit in front of a roaring fire and drink a hot toddy while Scully explains the latest developments in medical whatsits and theraputic thingamabobs. Her voice is as warming as whiskey.

“Remind me where I am?” he says, just to hear her talk.

“At the military hospital at Eisenhower Field,” she tells him. “You were airlifted here after your shenanigans on that submarine.”

“Shenanigans?” He snorts. “That’s a weird way to say ‘crucial mission of international or possibly intergalactic import’.”

“Shenanigans,” she says in a firm dry tone. “I blame it on your antic disposition.”

“I can tell a hawk from a handsaw however the wind blows,” he says.

“Hmm.” She studies him. Heat blooms across his skin where her eyes touch him. “That’s not what your performance reviews say.”

“Those are confidential, Scully.” He pretends to glare at her.

“That’s why they put the ‘I’ in ‘FBI’,” she quips, and he can’t help grinning at her. His dry lips pull, the skin flaking a little. She pours him more water from a pitcher and passes him the cup. When he’s finished drinking, she pulls a tub of Blistex out of her bag and offers it to him. He dips a finger into the hollow her fingertip has made and smears the paste over his mouth. His lips tingle. It’s the medicated formula, with its whiff of camphor. He hands the little pot back over and she caps it and drops it back into her bag.

It strikes him, like a sliver of light has lodged in his heart, how precious she is to him. How glad he is that she’s here in this strange cold hospital room. It’s been so long since he’s known someone well enough to share lip balm with them. It was probably Samantha, a twist-up cherry Chapstick jammed in his pocket for when they were chapped by the sea air. But Scully shares her things, her thoughts, as easy as breathing.

“What did I miss?” he says.

She looks at him with mournful eyes. “I wish I didn’t have to be the one to tell you, but….” For a moment he tenses, uncertain, but the hint of a smile in her eyes tips him off to the joke. “Mulder, you missed the Super Bowl.”

He relaxes back into his insufficient bed. “That’s fine. I’ll just borrow your highlights tape.”

She laughs softly. “Missy was so mad about that. She didn’t understand at all.”

“I don’t think she likes me.”

“She likes you,” Scully objects, but she’s too honest to leave it unqualified. “Mostly.”

“I should have brought bonbons, huh,” he says.

“A nice amethyst crystal would have been more up her alley,” she tells him. “Maybe one of those singing bowls.” She shakes her head ruefully. “She gets protective. You’re not easy to explain.”

He tries to pretend nonchalance. “What did you tell her about me? Least favorite rental car chauffeur? Most dramatic slide show reveal?”

She ducks her head and shakes it from side to side. “I’ve had worse chauffeurs. I tried telling her you were my partner, but I don’t think she understood. It didn’t make sense to her, the things you did while I was in the hospital. The way you sat with me. Colleague didn’t seem to cover it. Not even partner.”

“So what did you say?” His mouth is dry again.

“I told her you were my best friend,” Scully says in a quiet voice. There’s some depth he can’t plumb in the way she says it, but she’s smiling like she’s holding something close.

“Good,” he says. He reaches out and taps the edge of her journal with one fingertip. “When you spring me from the joint, we can go down to the boardwalk and get those puzzle piece necklaces. And some salt water taffy.”

“Now that’s a worthy welcome-back gift,” she teases. “A little out of season, unfortunately. I don’t think it’s boardwalk weather today. Not in this hemisphere, anyway.”

“Remind me in the summer,” he tells her. “I owe you.”

They chat for a while. She makes him sip more water and sees him helped to the bathroom. She checks his temperature with the backs of her fingers and prescribes him another blanket, promising to return in the morning. He senses the potential for contraband rations: an Egg McMuffin concealed inside an innocent handbag, maybe even a hashbrown if she feels sorry enough for him in his refrigerated state.

He catches at her hand as she turns to go. “Scully. You didn’t tell me who won.” It’s a flimsy excuse, but it’s all his muddled brain can manufacture.

“The 49ers beat the Chargers.” She rubs her thumb absently over his knuckles. Probably some kind of diagnostic, like when she pushes her fingers through his hair. He wonders what secrets his body reveals to her. “Good night, Mulder. Get some rest.”

He slides quickly into sleep once she’s gone. His mouth still tingles like the kiss of a salt breeze. The creak of the bed reminds him of gulls calling in the distance, and he follows them down into a dream of summer sun glinting off Scully’s hair and making her eyes crinkle. Her fair skin is the color of the sand; her eyes are the sea and the sky, an endless blue horizon that calls him out of his body and into some blissful eternity. In his dream, her lips taste like taffy, and they are both healed.

[bunnwich]

A bit of controversial post maybe??? (feel free to skip)

Not to be controversial but I keep seeing how ppl are reading the “Leona is kind to Sally” situation and just thinking how my perspective is bit…different.  (if you don't care about my opinion ofc you can always skip)

SPOILERS FOR EVENT

When I saw it, these were my thoughts:

"Oh I love this so much!! It's adorable for one, and I’ve been saying for years that Leona is only mean to ppl he doesn't like/finds annoying or doesn’t care about. Like he HAS the ability, like everyone else to be polite and nice but we only see him interact with ppl who annoy him etc. Which is...um most of the cast. AND we rarely get a peak at how he would be with someone he likes.

I hope that this helps ppl see that he can be gentler to act toward someone he's SUPPOSED to like as a friend or even like romantically. 

Banter is one thing but I don’t believe he'd ever act straight-up rude to someone he was true friends with, dating or had a crush on?" 

So, a lot of ppl loved this scene I DO TOO! However…

This whole “Leona said men ain’t shit” joke is worrisome. Like…do you guys think that Leona would in fact be ruder or less gentle to a masc or nonbinary S/O vs a femme one? Some of these remarks…feel uh not really nice to those who have nonbinary/masc pairing with him.

He grew up in a matriarchal society, he respects women NO DOUBT.

I just think it would be nice to for us to be kinder in how we phrase things like this. I know they are jokes but still Yumes and ships mean a lot to ppl and I think it's just another catalyst for masc and masc-leaning fans to feel further alienated in the fandom space, yk?

Do I believe he respects women OFC, but much like those who had the “consent king” take about the voiceline of him being offended at Scully kissing the MC's hand I ONLY agree to an extent. WHY? Bc Leona is a big-ass hypocrite! Leona, for all I defend him, is not always keen on physical boundaries himself and can be quite rude. I think that line is more him being annoyed at Scully than genuinely worried for anyone's virtue, yk?

And to bring it back to the Sally/Leona thing I think it's not just bc Sally is a woman he is nice to her, bc she is SMART and cunning and was quickly underestimated by the rest of the cast. She was able take care of herself. He liked that about her. I really don't think it was just cause she was girl by itself.

Idk thats all I have to say, this is just my opinion as usual but it just didn’t sit right with me from a fandom perspective and I genuinely feel the “Leona is the feminist king of all time” is not a full reading of the character when we’ve seen him be nice to others and neutral to other women. Plus, he’s IS a hypocrite about the manners thing! The cast even call him out on it.

Leona is still flawed just like any other character in twst and I don't think him “bowing down at every women's feet” is something I subscribe to. Not in the way some ppl are acting anyways.

And frankly how some ppl are wording themselves in their tags and reblogs of these posts about Leona “drinking respect women’s juice bc he dislikes men” feels alienating toward those who have nonbinary/masc ships with him.

This is meant as no offense to anyone's fun I just thought I’d give my perspective on it. 

TLDR: I do think that it is genuinely funny and endearing to see the juxtaposition of how Leona treats everyone else VS Sally HOWEVER I don't think it is purely a gender thing and making that just doesn't sit right with me.

[greyyson-but-no]

piece of shit

; she/her reader ; googled die hard references ; swearing? but it's the title so you can assume LMAO ; 16+

charles boyle had been a piece of shit and a pain in the ass.

while jake had been trying to get the squad back to new york in time for holt's commissioner meeting, boyle had constantly been hinting at something between you and jake. to jake's face. in order to get him to confess or something? he wasn't even sure at this point, all he knew was that they were driving long the motorway in a camper that definitely wasn't about to explode and they had one mission: get holt back to new york.

first it had been at the funeral, when you'd walked into the room in that dress and jake couldn't take his eyes off you. charles had noticed and wouldn't shut up about it for the whole time the funeral ran.

the second time had been when they stopped at nakatomi plaza and jake had murmured something about you being holly gennaro. in his defense, he didn't think anybody had heard. again, charles brought it up even more than the last occurrence.

the third time was at the airport. someone had suggested acting like someone was pregnant, and boyle had brought up how "easily it would be for jake and y/n to look like a couple". it had earned him a not-so-subtle elbow in the side from jake and furrowed eyebrows from the rest of the squad.

a lot had happened since then. all the flights had been cancelled, scully had faked a heart attack and now they were all sat in a hired camper, taking turns to drive halfway across the country in it.

it had been around 6 hours. jake had just gotten off his second shift of driving and went to sit next to you in the seats along the back. it was clear you were tired, it made sense you were. earlier in the day, you had confided with jake about your lack of sleep, which was now catching up to you.

you really had meant to listen to him as he spoke, but god, you were so tired. he had just started talking, complaining about something or other, moving quickly onto his excitement for the captain.

but soon enough, your tiredness had caught to you and you slowly drifted off into a deep sleep.

against his shoulder.

jake gulped when he realized, feeling your cheek against him, following the soft up and down movement of your chest as you breathed softly, how soft your face looked as you slept.

then how comfortable you must have been to fall asleep against his shoulder. god, he better not wake you up. you needed nothing more than this sleep right now. what if his shoulder wasn't comfortable enough and you would wake up? what if the trailer went over a speed bump and it woke you up? suddenly, the detective was very nervous.

as this happened, a certain charles boyle walked out from the bathroom in the trailer, wiping his hands with a wet cloth, dropping it as his eyes locked onto you, asleep of jake's shoulder.

"shush..." jake made charles promise, index finger pushed to his lips to enforce his message. "don't say a word."

boyle moved into the booth opposite the two, leaning against the table between them. "this is so sweet!"

jake shook his head. "what did i say?"

"sorry..." charles murmured, clearly not actually sorry as he grinned at the two. he lowered his voice. "so... you gonna tell her?"

"tell her what?"

boyle scoffed, gesturing to the two of you. "that you like her, ask her out, the whole shebang. you know, we all know she likes you back, she is literally asleep on your shoulder."

jake shook his head. "i can't."

"why not?"

"charles, i don't really want to go into it. it's too complicated."

boyle shrugged, sitting back in his seat again, still looking at the two of them but letting jake pull out his phone to check something. but there was an odd silence. it was clear jake wanted to talk about it, he was just in denial and trying to pretend it wasn't a problem. the detective put his phone away again, moving to look back at charles.

he cleared his throat softly, turning to look down as you shuffled slightly in your sleep, resting your legs up on the seat and somehow leaning further into him. "alright then." he shook his head when charles grinned at his reply. "what if it doesn't go right? okay, yeah, she might like me back, but if we go on a couple dates and it doesn't work out the squad will be ruined. we have such a good friendship going, i don't wanna risk that."

charles shrugged, leaning back in his eat and looking between the two of them. "or, you don't ask her out and you lose a chance at a really good relationship, one that could be perfect. how many arguments have the two of you worked out over the years? it's not gonna go wrong, it's whether you believe that or not."

jake hummed.

the two detectives sat in silence for a minute, jake following the cars out the window, charles watching as rosa went up to talk to the captain.

after a bit, jake looked down at her again, sighing. "i have to tell her, don't i?" charles nodded. jake had made his decision.

they had just dropped holt off at one police plaza for his meeting, the group all deciding to go their separate ways after the tiring last 48 hours they had had. jake wasn't even planning on telling you he liked you yet, opting to wait for the perfect moment.

instead, it was you who went to find him, calling after him as he walked off in the direction of his own place. "jake! wait up!"

he grinned when he saw you, pausing in his place to let you catch up, hands shoved in his pocket. "what's up?" he spoke, voice far too cheery for the past days they'd had. he definitely couldn't wait much longer to ask you out.

laughing, you shook our head. "i, uh, can't actually remember a lot of what happened these last couple hours. i tried to ask santiago but she had no clue either. did i- uh-?"

"you alright?" he could tell you were a bit out of it. he understood, but it was still a bit odd. "you can ask, what's up?"

"did i fall asleep on your shoulder in the camper?" you laughed at yourself, as if the concept was impossible, or otherworldly. jake didn't quite know how to handle what you had just asked. he decided on honesty, just exactly what happened.

he nodded. "you did, for like, 2 hours or something?"

"fucking hell." shaking your head, you let your head fall into your hands. "that's really embarrassing."

jake shook his head, eyebrows furrowed at you. "it's not embarrassing, don't worry." he lightened up a bit, smiling at you. "hey, maybe i just have really comfortable shoulders."

tilting your head, you shrugged. "i mean, a 2 hour nap in a rickety old trailer? seems like i owe it all to your shoulders..." you faded off, realising how weird that would sound. even though he had tried to reassure you that it wasn't embarrassing, you still felt weird because of it. christ, you'd had this massive crush on this guy for ages and now you'd fallen asleep on his shoulder without like, asking or anything?

you didn't quite know how to deal with the situation, but jake was laughing so maybe it would all be okay.

"hey listen." jake started, voice going soft, oddly soft for him, but you shrugged it off as he spoke. "i know we've just spent over 48 hours joined at the hip in some form of transport, but did you wanna maybe get a drink together at shaw's tonight? just us for once?"

you smiled softly, nodding. "yeah, i'd actually love that."

"great." he mirrored your warm smile. "i'll pick you up at 8 then?" and he didn't even give you time to respond before he turned on the heels of his shoes and walked off back home.

you had gone to speak but then realized there would be no point. he had just asked you out on a date tonight, right? shaw's was a regular hang out spot, but normally with everyone.

oh my god, he had just asked you out on a date.

[slippinmickeys]

Funfetti prompt: how did Mulder propose? My sincere apologies to whoever asked for this prompt. I wrote down the prompt, but neglected to write down the name of who asked for it and it's been a couple of weeks now. Please call yourself out in the tags or in the comments on AO3 and I'll rectify my mistake!

He is buried in the cradle of her hips, a briny haven, deep as the Vineyard Sound; a place he has only been a handful of times. 

Scully, nine weeks out from a natural birth in a dusty day bed in Georgia, makes a groaning, satisfied sound, her thumb hooked into his cheek. He crimps her knuckle delicately with his teeth, feels a surge of affection for his partner. Tenderness. It is an echo of what he feels for his son, sleeping several feet away, his mother’s cupid bow lips in a soft, round face. 

“Marry me,” he says into the flesh of her chest, swaying and heavy with milk. 

The copper cap of her hair is draped over one eye, and the other pins him briefly. 

“What?” she says breathily. “No.”

They haven’t really discussed this, though he’s tried to bring it up. His paternal leave was up a week ago and he’s come to her apartment every night after work like Ward Cleaver, tie loosened, Scully in the kitchen or nursing on the bed. He sits and takes off his penny loafers and asks to hold his warm son in the crook of his arm and wonders how life has deposited him here; a ticking stripe chair, a new nine-to-five Bureau gig, a contentment he has never before felt, never chased. 

“Marry me,” he says again, more earnest this time, and he feels her thighs tense where she’s straddling his lap.

“Are you always this talkative in bed?” she asks, lifting herself up only to sink back down. 

He is still learning her body, and she is relearning this new version of it, twisting her hips in a way that makes them both groan. Their first time sleeping together again after William was born was shy and tentative, Mulder afraid he’d hurt her and Scully half dazed with remembered sadness and longing. 

“I don’t remember,” he husks. 

“Me neither,” she says on a sigh. 

Her orgasm comes on quickly and she seems surprised by it, her mouth rounding into a little O that has him finishing not far behind her, sinking back into the pillow in relief. She climbs off of him half a minute later and pulls the sheet up and over her shoulder. 

Mulder rises and removes the condom he wore on the advice of her OB-GYN, and comes back to the bed, stopping to look into the bassinet before sliding in beside her. 

“Were you serious?” she asks, her voice small. 

His pillow smells sweetly of breast milk, and he finds an errant burp cloth rolled under the corner of it, which he tosses gently onto the bedside table.

“I was,” he says, turning back to her, surprised to find it's the truth. 

“Are you asking out of some sense of responsibility or…” 

She’s looking at him like she’s trying to figure him out, reconciling the man who had been her partner with the man currently laying beside her. 

It has been hard-fought–reconciling those things himself–won out with one look at his newborn son after several months of not knowing where he fit in, who he was anymore. He now only feels a rightness, a sense of peace. And it’s only by Scully’s side, by William’s, from which that rightness flows. 

“I’d be lying if I said that wasn’t part of it,” he says. 

Scully looks at him with a look he’s come to recognize as hope. “What’s the other part?”

“I’m irredeemably in love with the both of you,” his voice cracks. “And I want to bind you to me in every way I possibly can.”

She turns her head so her cheek is resting on her hand.

“The way you bound yourself to Diana?”

The comment stings, but not sharply. She has a point. 

“Diana wanted me under her thumb. Marrying me was an act of control, not devotion.”

“How come you never told me?” 

“I was embarrassed. There’s a reason I asked for an annulment rather than a divorce.”

Mulder thought of the ring, which he’d thrown in the Potomac. It had been made of gold. A soft metal, malleable. Easily bent. If Scully agreed to marry him, he was doing it with platinum. Titanium. Steel. 

“And you’d rather have a family than the Truth?” Above the constellation of her freckles, her eyes burn with the blue of a driftwood flame. 

“I think they’re one in the same,” he says honestly. Fuck everything else, he thinks. He wants them both knit to him like Pan’s shadow.

Her flower petal lips creep up into a smile. 

“Is that a yes?” he smiles back. 

“It’s not a no,” she purrs, and a lightness zips through him. From the bassinet, his son awakens with a happy babble. 

He’s going to get her the most obnoxious ring he can find. It’ll catch on sweaters and in the craw of Kersh’s secretary. It’ll make Tara blanch and her mother smile. She’ll only pretend to hate it. 

He’s going to marry her. 

[aloysiavirgata]

Ahead Into Gallilee

Summary:  For the anon prompt “Five Times A Character Didn’t Die”

Title: Ahead Into Galilee

By: Aloysia Virgata

Rating: M

Category: MSR

Timeline: Pilot - Requiem

Notes: Thanks to @slippinmickeys for the read-through!

***

For the anon prompt “Five Times A Character Didn’t Die”

I.

She isn’t an innocent like Scully’s mother. His mother knows about clones and viruses and labs where horrors are created. He bets she knows about Emily but by god Emily’s name will not pass his lips in front of her.

Scully has apologized for her older brother, but Bill is a tyro’s practice next to Elizabeth Kuiper Mulder.

“A baby,” she sniffs. “With your…partner. It’s a bit déclassé, Fox. And an Irish Catholic girl, really.”

He doesn’t bother acting offended. “Sorry, I don’t have a blonde WASP secretary and the nice Jewish mothers won’t let their daughters talk to me since Jenny Silverberg’s Sweet Sixteen. Biological clock was ticking and Scully is the best I could do. You’ve a grandchild on the way. Mazel tov.”

Teena regards her son for a long moment. “You had your first marriage annulled. I suppose the Vatican will let her marry you, Diana aside. You can have the wedding at the Vineyard if you want, my expense of course. I’ll give you the house as a wedding present, though heaven knows your father’s estate left you a bundle. Not that you act like it, Fox. Still in that awful apartment; have you even sold his house? The lawyers say 2.2 at least.”

Mulder coughs out a mouthful of lemonade. He imagines Scully in some silk taffeta meringue gown, his mother’s garden club friends trying to shame her for knowing mid-century military aircraft.

“Mom, really, we hav-“

She holds up a veined, beautiful hand. “Fox, it’s time you stopped running around with a gun.”

Mulder gapes. “You and Dad are literally the reason I run around with a gun, are you fucking kidding me with this shit?”

Teena purses her lips. “Watch your language, Fox William. I’m still your mother.”

He sighs. He sighs and he understands that he has a child coming and that his mother loves him in the terrible, unconscionable, best way that she knows how. He understands his own inamorata is a very new sort of woman.

“Sorry, Mom,” Mulder says. Refills both their cups of lemonade and leans back in his Adirondack rocker.

“How was Bellefleur?” his mother asks at length.

He stares. “What?”

“I’m trying to make conversation. Nothing too eventful, I hope? Not for Agent Scully, with a baby coming?”

Mulder narrows his eyes. “No more than usual. Made contact with a few old…connections. Why?”

She smiles, just a little. Just a softening at the edge of her upper lip. A curl of a patrician nostril. “I made contact with a few old connections too, Fox. Remember this conversation sometime down the road. Your sister was a dandelion clock, no matter what I tried back then.”

He asks for answers. Begs.

She dismisses him as ever.

“Mom, please, this baby, Scully and I need to know things.”

Teena says no more and he drives home, furious.

***

II.

Fellig disappears into some new alias and it’s not worth tracking him down.

Ritter is put on leave and Mulder finds him in a parking garage. He beats the living shit out of him and it doesn’t fix anything, but it feels pretty good. He cries for a while after that, in the darkest corner of a terrible bar on M Street.

Ritter, with three broken ribs and his jaw wired, has the good sense to say he was mugged by two unidentifiable assailants.

Mulder resigns, effective immediately. He throws his phone into the Potomac. He doesn’t go to her funeral. He doesn’t go to Margaret Scully or his apartment or his office ever again.

*

He goes to his father, with two vials of genetic material. “You owe us both,” he says, in a voice like granite.

*

He calls his newborn daughter Sylvia Charlotte for no reason other than finding it pretty. The names have no intrinsic meaning, no history to him. She has a dense thatch of black hair and her mother’s eyes. She has plump, dimpled hands and feet like Parker House rolls. She has impeccable government documents.

Mulder is smitten immediately. He holds her to his bare chest. He dances with her at 2 AM, he reads to her, he buys preposterous baby gear and tiny clothes far more stylish than his own. He is certain that she is, at minimum, the most exceptional baby of all time.

Sylvie toddles behind him along Lake Tashmoo, dragging lobster pots. Sylvie does his makeup and puts his hair in barrettes. Sylvie has both her first piano recital and her first tee-ball game at five.

*

“How come you don’t have a mom?” Kate asks her while they build a sand castle together.

“I’m adopted,” Sylvie says, sticking little pebbles onto the top of the castle. “My dad picked me out himself, so it’s just us.”

“Cool,” Kate says. “That’s lucky to get picked out. I was just borned.”

“Yep.”

They return to their work, Sylvie’s dog Queequeg keeping watch.

***

III.

“Fucking Christ. Sit still if you don’t want me to screw up your remaining hair.”

She sits still, a baby sister always. “Don’t make it too brassy, Miss. You know I can pay you, right?”

Cancer thin and white and brittle as Bernadette of Lourdes. But even Bernadette said she’d seen ghosts and Scully could never, could not ever -

Missy scoffs, offended. “Hey, Danes, are you fucking your partner? Charlie says yes and Bill says you wouldn’t. I’ve got $250 on this, so be honest with your only sister.”

Scully (she’s always Scully now, but she’d never tell Missy) jerks back, aghast.

Missy lightly slaps her hollow face. “Be still.”

“Then don’t ask me questions like that!” Scully knows her cheeks are hot. “Do you guys actually have a pool?”

Missy, lushly tressed and curvaceous and cinnamon-sugar alive, laughs. “Dana Katherine Scully, are you engaged in unconsecrated sexual congress with your FBI partner? Please note, for the court records, that I know about your cardiology professor and your FBI instructor so like…?”

Looking-glass Scully watches her sister do something complicated with a clip, with foils and a tiny brush. Watches her own Lenten-rose face, a Jabbereock, with eyes of flame.

Scully is quiet for several more seconds. She wishes she could explain the hot verging energy of the basement. The way science and conjecture and cryptozoology entangle in unholy alchemy along the margins of her education into… them.

The way it feels to have the emperor of all maladies raise a scepter in her sinus; the king of terrors claim a throne in her heart.

I’m dying, Missy, I’m dying, the oncogenes, they….p53, I … dead already, Missy, please…

“Dana? Bear in mind I’ve seen him and smelled him and I would fuck him silly myself.” Missy, fresh as a peach, clips back another section of hair.

Scully sucks in air like an Everest climber at the Death Zone. 500 more feet and she’ll make it. 100. Top of the world, the ice and the oxygen forgotten, she-

She can win, she can be the best, she can summit, she -

(Green Boots, still desiccated and unidentified up there.)

“Yes,” she breathes. Someone should know the truth at her grave.

“Good girl,” Missy says. Kisses her sister’s concave temple. “And no, we didn’t have a pool, little sister.”

***

IV.

The endless halls are painted a washed-out sea green that is somehow the opposite of color. A suffocating silence that is more than the absence of sound.

She flashes her badge to the sentry who squints, then nods, then lets her in.

Roche propped up in the narrow bed. He’s even thinner than he was when Mulder shot him, even grayer.

“Agent Scully,” he says, affable as ever. “I thought those were your footsteps. Forgive me for not getting up.”

He grins at his own joke. His face looks like an animated skull.

Scully settles into the hard vinyl chair. She sees that Roche is handcuffed to the hospital bed, which seems a very pointed kind of gesture.

“Mr. Roche,” Scully says. “You’re looking well, considering.”

“Turns out your partner is a shit marksman, who knew? Where is Agent Mulder, by the way? Didn’t he want to come see his handiwork?”

“No,” Scully replies. “He’s not like you.”

“Mmmm, I wonder. You know, they say it’s a miracle I can breathe on my own with this kind of C4 damage. Plus I can move three fingers on my left hand.” Roche waggles them slightly.

Scully pulls a yellow legal pad and a good pen from her bag. “I guess basketball is out for a while.”

“I guess. Other than the breathing and half the left hand, I’m completely paralyzed below the armpits. My lawyers are going to have a field day.”

She smiles politely. “I don’t think so.”

Roche laughs. “No? You don’t think the ACLU will be all over this?”

“No. I really don’t. You were shot because you abducted a little girl after escaping federal custody. And Agent Mulder was able to preserve your life. No one cares about you, Mr. Roche.”

She draws out a little curlicue in the pad, so it looks like she’s writing.

Roche’s face hardens. “And the sucker punch from your partner?”

“It was reported. Disciplinary action was taken.” She doodles a series of cubes.

He scoffs. “I doubt it was even the proverbial slap on the wrist. Why are you here, really?”

Scully looks up, eyebrows raised. “I’m a doctor and an FBI agent. My partner shot you. I thought a follow-up was only appropriate.”

“Cut the bullshit,” Roche snaps. “God, it must gnaw at you that he missed.”

“Why is that?”

Moves those three fingers again, Roche does. “You were a nice little Catholic girl once, weren’t you? Little kilt, little blouse. You haven’t changed much, though you’re rather too old for my tastes now.”

Roche leers and she knows, knows, that she is right. But she’s not ready to end this. Not yet.

“I was.” It takes so much to keep her voice conversational when she longs to give him what she is certain that he wants.

Roche tilts his head. “I don’t believe in god. I believe that before we are born is nothing and after we are dead is nothing. I’m not afraid of dying. But you? You believe I’ll pay for all of this again and again. You believe there is retribution after this…mortal coil. Don’t you want me there now?”

She does, she does.

Scully shrugs. “You’ll get there in time. I won’t see what happens, it makes no difference to me.”

He laughs, a genuine laugh, and it’s horrible in his cadaverous face. “Keep lying like that and we’ll end up in Hell together.”

“That’s for God to decide.”

Here it comes, she knows. Here it comes. She stays steady.

Roche’s face suddenly sly. “Perhaps you are His instrument, Agent Scully.”

She feigns confusion. “Mr. Roche, I-“

“Kill me,” he says. “You can finish what Mulder couldn’t finish himself, though I bet you do that for him all the time.” Roche winks lewdly as he goads her.

“Primum non nocere,” Scully replies, prim.

“A doctor, as you say. You’d get away with it, Scully. Come on, a little air bubble between the toes. For old times’ sake.”

He’s trying to sound light and chatty, but she hears the panic in his voice. She’s his only chance to escape mindless years in soiled diapers, parked in front of a flickering television. A blank wall. Night.

Scully fixes him with a long, cool stare. The one even Skinner doesn’t like. “I should think our prior interactions made it clear that I would never harm a prisoner duri-“

“Ahhh, but you want to,” he cajoles. “Come on, Scully. All those pretty hearts. The little girl you saved is going to be fucked up forever. One more kiddy-diddler off the taxpayers’ dime, Dana.”

She shakes her head, chuckles a bit in spite of herself. “They were cheering outside Bundy's execution. The taxpayers will love knowing you’re suffering. We’re savages at heart, I’m afraid.”

“You knew I’d ask,” Roche hisses, dropping the act. “You’re eating this up, you fucking bitch. You fucking cunt. You’re nothing to Fox Mulder, you realize that, you’re a piece of ass to him so you might as well do one real thing in your worthless life.”

She prays her voice will be steady. “I’ve already had you put on extended suicide watch; told them to check the staff. I told them you’d ask.” She holds up a mini tape recorder.

His eyes go black. She sees now what those little girls saw in their last moments, the genial salesman mask removed.

“I swear to your fucking coward god that I will walk again just to rip your fucking heart out of your fucking whore throat,” Roche spits, face contorted.

She rises. “Thank you, will there be anything else?”

A choked howl of rage that follows her out into the hall.

“Fucking BITCH!” Roche roars after her. “I swear to-“

The door closes.

Her heart soars.

***

V.

A storm outside and mosquito bites on her back and shame still fuchsia on her face. She’s wearing the best robe she could afford, the color of poison apples. She bought it at a Macy’s sale with her first credit card.

The scent of hot wax in the cheap, oatmeal-colored room. The overlay of the scents Mulder favors.

“Tore the family apart. No one would talk about it. There were no facts to confront, nothing to offer any hope.”

She thinks of her three siblings, her rowdy cousins, and her chest clenches. What would she be without her sprawling, tumultuous family?

“What did you do?” she breathes. The dark is so tender and velvet-soft. Frames her partner’s long lashes and good cheekbones like a Rembrandt. Chiaroscuros

(Dana no. Dana, didn’t you learn anything after Jack?)

“Eventually I went off to school in England, I came back and got recruited by the Bureau. Seems I had a natural aptitude for applying behavioral models to criminal cases.”

Scully gazes down at Mulder with a tenderness she hadn’t expected in this impossible assignment. In this unfair humanistic trial.

“You’ll find him, Samantha,” she says. She strokes her partner’s fall of inky hair. She feels so alive.

[pookie-mulder]

March 2025 fic roundup

(Previous months here)

💒😷 half-sick of shadows by pookie_mulder (yours truly!)

Gotta shout out my first xf fic! I wrote it in my head when I couldn’t sleep, texted @skelavender about it, and got convinced to write it irl. (Thanks everyone for being so encouraging!)

If you like cancer arc angst, unconventional marriage, and shameless platonic flirting, give it a shot!

⛈️😴 Coming Back by Karen Rasch

This one is for the hurt/comfort fans! Scully needs some TLC dealing with the fallout of her abduction. Very sweet and heartwarming!

🦷💚 Petrichor by @aloysiavirgata

I’ve been reading a lot of casefics that deal with fairies recently. This one takes place post-Amir Fati and deals with a Mulder and Scully who spent a single night together and went back to ignoring their feelings (can anyone say RST to URT (unresolved romantic tension?). It’s flirty and adorable, and the case is super interesting!

🍸🥴 Good Vibrations by lysandra31

While taking care of a drunk Scully, Mulder discovers she has a… “collection” of her own. Seriously, this fic is as hot as it can get without being outright smut. What I wouldn’t give to be a fly on the wall the next day….

🪦💀 What We Do in the Trees by @wtfmulder

I love a good southern gothic vibe, and this fic definitely fits the bill! It takes place during the cancer arc, and the way the case makes Scully ponder how Mulder will mourn her is a wonderful gut punch.

🏜️🌵 Doorway to the Gods by @wtfmulder

Gah!! I don’t want to say too much about this fic — it’s best if you go in mostly blind. Suffice it to say it’s deliciously captivating, the writing is delectable, the smut will break your heart, and the character arcs it explores will make you want to lay on the floor and stare up at the ceiling. I want more of it!!!

🌲⛰️ Acadia by rivkat

You know what? @fine-nephrit wrote an excellent review of this fic that convinced me to read it. Just go read their post if you want to know what makes this one so amazing!

👦🏻🧥 Lacuna by @aloysiavirgata

Another casefic. This one is less about the case and more about Scully’s psyche. It delves deep into her desires for the future, her frustration with her situation, and conflicting feelings about Mulder. It’s wonderful and fascinating!

👨‍🌾🤰 A Thin Veneer by Analise

This post-colonization story is more of a casefic than anything else. Mulder and Scully are living in a small community of cabins in the middle of nowhere, just trying to survive. Mulder returns from a supply-gathering mission to a stranger at the camp and has to make sense of what he saw out in the world to keep his growing family safe.

It’s super fun to put the pieces together as more information is revealed! The stakes are high, the writing is compelling, and the OCs are interesting. Definitely recommend this one!

👽👯‍♂️ All the Mulders by Alloway

This short fic is undeniably weird (in a good way). It’s probably unlike any other fic you’ve ever read. It deals with one aspect of post-colonization life I’ve never considered and makes you ponder what makes a person a person. Anyway, give it a try!

🛋️🧠 Normal Conversations by Soronia

This is an author I just discovered who deserves way more attention in the fandom! Their writing style is so unique, and their fics had me giggling like a schoolgirl.

In this one, Mulder goes to Kersh-mandated therapy, acts like Josh Lyman in Noel, and absolutely ravishes Scully. In that order.

The dialogue is punchy, the psychoanalysis is brutal and cutting, and the smut is unbelievably hot. Please, do yourself a favor and read this fic asap!

⚾️🧢 Home Base by Soronia

The Unnatural is in my top 3 favorite episodes, so this was right up my alley! The flirting and banter and teasing are soooo well-done. Plus, M&S make good use of Mulder’s desk at the end, so there’s something for everyone.

💉🔥 Later by Soronia

After being exposed to a mysterious drug, our favorite agents suddenly can’t keep their hands to themselves. It’s hot, but also has such a great understanding of their relationship. I especially loved Scully’s POV; it was such a refreshing take on her feelings for Mulder. (Also, the final chapter is probably my favorite version of Skinner I’ve ever read! Somebody buy that poor man a drink.)

⏰📰 The Sin Eater by Jane Mortimer

This time-travel fic is short, but so interesting! Scully experiences missing time and must put together the pieces of what really happened. I don’t want to tell you any more than that — just go read it!

🪨🎨 Ever After by Jill Selby

This fic features time travel like you’ve never seen it before. Caught between two times and gravely injured, Scully must figure out what’s happening before it’s too late. It’s positively riveting, and every detail that’s revealed makes you yearn more for the full picture!

🛁💌 Clinical Detachment & Journey by Zuffy

(Clinical Detachment is the prequel — honestly, you can take it or leave it.)

In Journey, Scully must disappear to ensure her safety. I don’t want to tell you any more than that — it’s so fun to see the pieces come together and wrap your mind around the logistics of what happened.

———

P. S. I’m always happy for recs! You guys know by now the type of stuff I love, so if you encounter anything you think I’d like, send it my way!

[agent-troi]

mulder and scully’s season 6 dynamic is interesting because in some ways they’re more joined at the hip than ever before. this season has the highest concentration of shippy episodes, including an explicit love confession, getting mistaken for a married couple three times (not including the time they pretended to be married on purpose for a case), a baseball date, scully going feral when mulder gets lost in the bermuda triangle, mulder begging scully to investigate x-files with him even when it’s not their job anymore, mulder tagging along in the background the whole time scully gets sent on an x-file without him, their secret handshake in the hospital afterwards. “agent scully is already in love.”

the only times they really don’t get along are when diana actually appears in the episode (side note: diana only gets mentioned once in the episodes in which she doesn’t appear, a fact which intrigues me to no end. it’s like when she’s not there she doesn’t even exist, and in fact i have actually forgotten she existed while watching some of these episodes lol).

i think their schism in the beginning is partly due to mulder being petulant because scully couldn’t/wouldn’t back him up at the opr hearing after he put himself way out there earnestly insisting with his whole chest she was about to present proof of alien life. it’s not that he suddenly doesn’t trust her anymore, he just feels (somewhat irrationally) like he was let down, and this occurring simultaneously with the reappearance of someone else who not only listens to him but appears more inclined to believe him (which almost never happens) naturally led him to act out, but in the very next episode (drive) they’re a team again, using his intuition combined with her science to figure out what’s going on with crump. the fact that they couldn’t save him wasn’t their fault, and is almost incidental to what this episode really illustrates, which is not only how well they work together, but that they still can work together, and the past five years between them haven’t been erased just because diana’s back in town.

another thing: every time scully gets injured/goes to the hospital, mulder goes absolutely apeshit and starts accosting doctors and demanding answers. when diana got shot, his reaction was to hang out with scully and wait for secondhand info on her condition. we don’t even know if he ever went to visit her. when he finds out she’s taking over the x-files, he’s hurt and accuses her of stabbing him in the back. also in terms of endearment, we find out he’s going through spender’s trash to find x-files that he shredded so he (and scully) can investigate them, but if he really wanted to he could just talk to diana and ask her to slide him some cases when no one’s looking. the fact that he doesn’t shows that he doesn’t necessarily trust her blindly (or at least that he doesn’t want to get involved with her again).

i’m kind of rambling and not really sure where i was going with this, except i think people sometimes overestimate the impact diana had on their relationship. i think she was definitely a catalyst for them to examine some of their feelings more closely, but she was never gonna drive a permanent wedge between them. the closest she came was in one son, and even then they manage to pull back from the brink of destruction. scully asks for mulder’s trust, and he gives it by going to look for proof that diana really has betrayed him. if it had been the other way around, if diana had accused scully of working for the syndicate, he would have dismissed the idea immediately and never even bothered to consider it (actually hold on that’s a great fic idea, maybe diana overplays her hand and mulder catches on a lot sooner to what she’s doing).