#mulder and scully are little freaks

[scullysbagelbites]

These tags specifically:

Doctor/Agent Dana Scully inspecting Agent Fox Mulder.

[bisexualfbiagents]

THE X FILES | Excelsis Dei (2.11)

[wiklm]

another crossover im DEVASTATED that basically nobody has harnessed rhe potential of. x files/gravity falls. COME ONNNNMNN

[cryptic-queer-cryptid]

one of my favourite x files tweets but about icemav

[penisbrigade]

its so funny to me watching any sort of mystery or crime show when they have to ask a professor or scientist of some sort about some mythical or supernatural concept, because they make the expert of the subject (whoever they may be) a huge denier and super confused and questioning as to why someone would ask about this. like i know the reason they're doing it is the same reason someone smoking weed is super paranoid everyone knows they've been smoking, coz we as the audience know whats going on and we think the expert might catch on. they wont, they'll at most just assume our main character is researching for a paper or a book, and they'll probably be more excited to share their theories and thoughts with someone who also has enthusiasm on the subject. we forget that these people are just massive fucking nerds and probably cannot WAIT to explain why and how an ancient greek summoning spell would work or whatever. but god forbid we show people deemed as high intellectuals being anything other than the stereotype of pristineness and pompous intelligence we've set for them. "you do know this is...fake...right?" if i was trying to write a book concerning elements of ancient egyptian mythology and i asked about that bitchass heart and feather scale and some professor hit me with that stupid fucking question, i might genuinely throw hands like are you serious just give me the answer. in fact, more of these mfs need to start just saying they're writing a book about it but nooooooo they all just ask stupid questions and pretend to be students or something, come on you little freaks have INCENTIVE

[mytardisisparked]

Every day I open my Libby app ~30 times to see if my hold on the first X Files audiobook has updated yet like an obsessive little freak.

[cecilysass]

When I Think About You, I Touchstone Myself: Fic Recs for the Biogenesis/ Sixth Extinction/ Amor Fati trilogy

I thought it was time to do some fic fixes for these important episodes for a few reasons.

First, Amor Fati is an episode I can’t ever stay away from; I both love it and have big issues with it. I love the tribute to Last Temptation of Christ, a film I admire, but I also find the identification of Mulder as a Christ figure to be problematic, or at least to raise questions the show doesn’t really address. I love the touchstone speech and the boy on the beach sequence; I find a lot of the real-life dialogue (e.g. between CSM and Diana) to be clunky.

And honestly, I find it kind of irritating that Diana's death happened off screen, too. Deep Throat, Spender, X, CSM, Well-Manicured Man, Blevins — their deaths were all dramatized onscreen, so it seems weird that Diana’s was not, doesn’t it? Anticlimactic and odd. To me, it's the straw that broke the camel's back for the Diana arc, really raising the question of whether she was ever really written intending to be an important character to the mytharc plot at all ... or whether she just really was a cardboard cutout character there to generate jealousy.

But I digress. What I mean to to say is: I always want to talk more about Amor Fati.

Second, I particularly enjoy me some psychic Mulder fic, and there are some great examples below. How well does he read minds? Does he read Scully’s? Her every thought? How long does it last? Readers want to know.

Finally, if you believe season 7 was the season of secret sex, or even if you just hold to season 7 as the “sometime consummated” season, these 3 eps have to be a crucial turning point. Some people maintain that Mulder got the affirmation to move ahead with MSR when he heard Scully's thoughts. Possibly. Either way, though, by the end, through the events of Amor Fati, they both validate the other’s point of view in a way we don't really see before. Plus, you know, maybe you heard? They’re one another’s touchstones. So this is a crucial MSR trilogy, too.

So I have a (NO DOUBT INCOMPETE) selection of fic recs below. I’m mixing up the fic recs for all three episodes, but I try to note if a fic is really more about one ep than another.

Fic Recs:

Before the White Noise - Nimz12peekaboo Scully goes to see Mulder inside his padded cell in Biogenesis. This is sweet and canon-attentive, if not quite compliant.

A Less Certain World - Sarah Segretti This is really only post-Biogenesis and goes AU after that; it’s the author’s AU Sixth Extinction, I suppose. Mulder is much more affected by the trauma to his brain and body than in the show, and Scully is scared for him. Amazing fic.

Temporary Shelter - Gwendolyn Also a Biogenesis post-ep, this fic imagines that Scully springs psychic Mulder from the hospital and then takes him back with her to the Ivory Coast. They stay in a cabin (with only one bed!) that was once occupied by another couple affected by the artifact. This is rich in plot (and in MSR.)

Stunned - Vickie Moseley This is, by description, what happens in the commercial breaks in Biogenesis. And let's just say that it’s kind of a lot. This fic focuses on Scully coming to calm Mulder down at the hospital, on their trust between one another. There is a little Diana wrap up, too.

All the Places - Ambress A lovely, lovely take on Mulder’s ability to read minds. I cannot recommend this highly enough.

Out of Our Minds - Sarah Segretti and haphazard method This is specifically post-Biogenesis, written before season 7 began. It focuses on the rather realistic idea that Scully would be freaked the fuck out by Mulder being able to read her mind—like, existentially freaked out. Both characters’ POV here; both characters have your sympathy; angsty and extremely true to character.

Disonance - suilven This piece is kind of a classic in my own little personal world. It just such a satisfying concept. It delightfully doesn’t take the canon implications of Mulder’s telepathy seriously, like, at all, which is why we love fanfic. Mulder, Scully, and Diana get stuck on an elevator just as Mulder’s starting to realize he can read minds. Delicious set-up.

the things they say in the dark - MonikaFileFan Missing scenes for Amor Fati, this piece helps us see the two moving closer and closer together while still having the invisible line between them. There is hurt/comfort here with Scully caring for Mulder, and a little light mind reading. So sweet and well done.

how to tell your lover you’ve seen all their secret gardens - 0666666 While Scully is taking care of Mulder after the events of Amor Fati, he tries to think of how to tell her he heard her thoughts. Very good.

Woven Deep by Maureen B. Ocks This is a really smart little Amor Fati post-ep with sharp dialogue / banter throughout. Mulder is in recovery, and they have a chance to talk about his experiences. It’s Mulder POV, but Scully is written very well here.

up and down the east coast by skuls When he’s still supposed to be recovering from Amor Fati events, Mulder asks Scully to go on a road trip to look for Sasquatch. She agrees. This one isn’t about psychic Mulder so much as the little guarded steps the two take towards acknowledging their feelings. Extremely sweet.

Synesthesia by haphazard method On a case shortly after the events of Amor Fati, Scully is still coming to terms with the role she plays in their partnership. An excellent conversation.

Petrichor by Aloysia Virgata. A lovely gem, a fandom classic. A one-chapter case file set directly after Amor Fati. Mulder and Scully’s relationship is offkilter and unsettled; Mulder is troubled by dreams with messages from a familiar ghost; the plot riffs on Anglo-Irish folklore. The spot-on banter and exquisite writing one expects from this author.

Eli Eli by Marguerite Mulder is recovering physically post-Amor Fati while Scully tries to cope with the crisis of faith her experiences in the Ivory Coast provoked in her. Skinner sends them to a beach house in Galveston to rest and heal.

Silence Waiting by JET Scully is struggling to cope with the implications of what she saw in Africa as Mulder heals and worries about her. This is intercut with the story of another telepath, Gretta, who grows up only reading the thoughts of one boy in her town, Frederick. This fic is lovely in every way and makes me weep.

The Boy on the Beach - me me (cecilysass) Yeah, I include my own fic. I just know it best, you know, lol? I include this one specifically for this theme because it was really written in part to engage with Amor Fati, specifically with the implications of Mulder’s Last Temptation of Christ-inspired dream sequence. But I'm the author, so you know, grain of salt.

Let me know what I missed!

[upperstories]

Y’all I’m so normal about Dandadan… Momo and Okarun are such little freaks. Abd they are friends. The anime is so good I need to read the manga TODAY

I’ve been rewatching X-Files lately. I could draw… X-Files AU…

Okarun and Momo as Mulder and Scully…

[mulders-too-large-shirt]

s4 episode 13 thoughts

before we begin: i’m gonna be upfront with you. this is another episode i did not like. this was scully’s 3, if you catch my meaning.

but i made a post announcing that i did not like this episode after a mere 10 minutes of viewing, and received some comments saying that others were big fans. as always, this is a place where i welcome discussion! PLEASE tell me what you think. you can try to talk me into liking it! tell me how you see it, and how it makes sense to you, and why you enjoyed it; maybe you’ll sway me. maybe not. maybe i’m cool and different for not liking things other people like, or maybe i’m basic because other people don’t like it as well. i have no frame of reference, which makes this blog so fun!

frankly, there are some things that i as a viewer just don’t want to see. i am not a fan of misogyny or watching THE hetbait of all time kiss other people.

here we are! so, i have been informed that in the timeline of canon, this episode i’m about to watch actually takes place BEFORE the last one. which i have noted. although it will be hard to distract myself from knowing what i do know now, i’ll do my best. 

(author's note: yeah i see why that clarification is important)

okay, the episode description. mulder? vacationing? i don’t believe it for a second. 

oh god, i don’t wanna see scully pine for some random guy. maybe there will just be an intellectual attraction here. i just don’t want to see it. i’m not sorry!!!!

okay. let’s go. still not believing in vacation mulder, but i’ll give it my best. 

some guy named jerse is getting divorced. wait. wait no. i recognize that name from a fanfic i read. NO.

i couldn’t remember what the hell this dude’s name was (jerve? juss?) because he only popped up BRIEFLY in a fanfic i read that had no seasoning relevant warnings. but because of this, i know what he is here to do. DAMN IT. let this be a lesson: read fic that is marked by the season!!!!

jerse is getting divorced. he is kinda handsome, i won’t lie. but he looks like a sick freak and he’s being weird to this bartender 

oh god, he has kids. scully STAY AWAY FROM THIS MAN- I’M NOT GONNA ASK AGAIN. pulling out a photo of him and the kids at the bar. a pathetic individual.

he burned himself out of the picture with a cigarette?? this is clearly well-adjusted behavior 

now he’s drunk outside a tattoo shop. in the rain. looking at a tattoo of a cartoon woman. and now he’s home? he has a tattoo he doesn’t seem to remember. ah. the cartoon woman. drink can do this to a man.

now he’s crawling on all fours? what do you want me to do about that. 

gooood, i know what’s coming because of that fanfic that accidentally spoiled me, and i’m gonna be so pissed. has my hater energy been distracting you lately? is this blog still enjoyable? be honest. but not too honest. i will cry.

mulder and scully are talking to someone about a UFO sighting, someone who is talking about explosions but no sound. she’s busy looking at the vietnam war memorial. NO there’s a little car that someone left for their dead brother :( she picks up a leaf and takes it with her…. i bet she is thinking about her own brothers and the sister she lost

back to jerse. he’s on the phone trying to sell stocks to a random woman who is fighting with her kids. 

oh. a disembodied voice calls him a loser. well, do it again for me. so he’s hearing things, including laughter.

OH no….. he’s blaming some random woman in the office for calling him a loser and confronting her. she was LITERALLY BUSY! leave her alone. he’s throwing stuff around. very professional (heavy on the /s). and he gets sent home which is good because i was scared, they were scared, we were all scared. 

scully is in mulder’s office, holding his name tag. awwww.

oh, my suspicions about mulder were correct- he did not want to go on vacation, but he was forced to! he is taking piles of x files with him. and he’s suspicious that they’re trying to get rid of him.

“gotta pay the rent” <- your dad had like 3 fucking houses i do not believe that for a SECOND you need this job to put food on the table mulder

“why don’t i have a desk?” she asks <- LMAOOO... i miss you s1 scully desk we saw that singular time that i always assumed still existed but i guess no longer does

(this seemed like a funny throwaway line to me at first, hence my lmao, but i later understood that this line was said with a Seriousness. however, i like to leave things as they were so you can really get a feel for my mind, all the wrong conclusions included)

AWWW he says we can get a desk and they can be really close and we can play battleship... LMAOOO i think….? i can’t tell if he’s being genuine and wants to help, or catty because he’s pissed he has to take a vacation 

OH! he’s pissed. what does he want her to keep an eye on? “that contact that we met last night at the wall, who had the distinction of being present for a first- that being you abandoning me during questioning” OHHHH he went there!!! damn! slim to no empathy when he is in alien mode.

“in the future, i’ll make sure that all those people being interviewed provide you with a multimedia laser show to keep your interest maintained” <- WHAT THE FUCK MULDER? DO I LAUGH OR WANT TO SLAP YOU? she looks so gagged. clearly something is on her MIND, you insensitive dolt.

so this guy they were talking to is named pudovkin, he’s from russia, and he has a doctorate in astronautical engineering, which is a term i have never heard before.

scully still seems distracted… but she asks if pudovkin’s reports on UFO crashes are for sale. which mulder confirms, but they are at a high price.

mulder tries to give her the assignment, and he made all these arrangements, but she says NO!!! LMAO (?) she says that russian guy they spoke with was recounting the plot of a cartoon. okay, queen is well-versed in her cartoons! i see you

oh my god, what is the tone of this episode…?

“so you’re refusing an assignment based on the adventures of moose and squirrel” “refusing an assignment? that makes it sound like you’re my superior”

oh, that pissed him off… “do what you want, don’t go to philadelphia, but let me remind you that i worked my ass off to get these files reopened. you were just assigned. this work is my life” <- HEY BUCKO. let us take a deep and calming breath. let us choose our words with kindness when talking to our friends.

“and it’s become mine” <- oh my GOD... that motif.... her getting pulled further and further into this...

so i can tell you right now, with confidence: i do not like this episode. why is he being mean? she is clearly thinking about something. i thought he was teasing at first, but clearly now he isn’t. if i were him i would say “hey, you seem distracted. is everything alright?” IS THAT HARD? IS THAT SO FUCKING HARD TO DO?

and it would still make for compelling TV!!! hey listen, i hear you saying "if they didn't have problems, there would be no plot" to which i say: there has been plenty of plot in the past when they have treated each other with kindness, no?

she says she is losing sense of her life- “this isn’t about you, mulder, or maybe it is in an indirect way”- and he says “maybe it’s good that we get away from each other for a while” <- WHAT IS GOING ON???

he seems so shocked to hear that the x files aren’t her whole life……… baby boy, let’s use context clues... yes, he is in ahab mode....

he says he’s going on a spiritual journey to discover something about himself…. and she sets the leaf she found from before on his desk. hmm. hmmmm.

back to jerse. he’s on the phone again. begging for his job back. doesn’t seem to be going well. oh my gosh, he just beat the phone. smashed it over and over again. i am frightened.

the evil tattoo is taunting him. so he is crawling on all fours to see if it’s coming from the floor below, which simply has a lady and some birds! those poor birds! 

(is this tattoo supposed to be a representation of mental illness? if so, which one? is it supposed to be insecurity? placed upon him by society? toxic masculinity?)

he’s talking to some missionaries who are trying to tell him that his downstairs neighbor is not involved in a plot to drive him insane…..

oh my god he broke into the bird lady’s apartment. OH MY GOD???????????

soundtrack this episode is killer though, i’ll give it that. put more music in my monster of the week content.

oh my god he’s like. dragging something. hard to tell because the screen is almost ENTIRELY BLACK. yes. he is putting a box in an incinerator. that presumably contains bird lady. real charming fellow, this jerse. 

(this is kinda like if little shop of horrors involved a tattoo instead of a plant. the tattoo says no one will hurt him again. sure, man. i’ve seen how that musical ends)

mulder is wet. on the road, outside his car. very wet. calling to see how scully is doing. he wants to know where she is!!!! but there is no answer.

scully is in philly, looking at the files about the russian space guy, watching him. she’s tailing him now into some convenience store. he is fighting loudly in russian and exchanging money……. hmm. that’s not promising. 

is he going into the tattoo shop? so goes the scully, in that case.

oh no. jerse is in there. he’s asking a separate russian guy who is the tattoo artist to cover up the cartoon tattoo…. 

oh god, he gets scully involved. “you like this, on his arm?” and now it’s winking. it has changed its design.

she says the coloring is nice (very thoughtful response to being sucked into a strange situation), and the russian tattoo guy is talking about how he learned how to tattoo in prison, while the creepy voice in jerse’s head is commenting on his new undying love for scully. but the actual russian space guy is in the back!!!

god, i don’t want to watch thiiiiiiis. but i must. i am a journalist, after all. she lies and says she’s visiting her aunt. and that she wishes she was impulsive sometimes. 

she says she’s leaving- but he gives her his number. god, is this gonna be a multi-episode thing???

OH MY GOD, MULDER IS CALLING FROM GRACELAND “i’m at that special place and i wanted to share it with you…. did you know elvis bought all of his furniture in just thirty minutes?”

wait. hold on. that’s cute. he wanted to share it with her. but also how DID he know where she was? it’s their usual spot… “i knew you wouldn’t abandon me” <- AWWW why were you mean earlier!!!!! you are being sweet now :(

(again, i ask: what IS the tone of this episode?)

she says there’s no case, no x file, the russian guy is involved in gangs and fraud and whatnot. she's handing it over to the philly bureau and that is that.

she is very pissed that he is ordering her around as always (well, i support that!) and he pulls his “what, do you have a date or something?” card. and then CONSPICUOUS SILENCE.

oh my god he’s STUTTERING “you’re-you’re kidding” (he sadly returns to graceland and makes some elvis moves) (we can hear the sound of his heart breaking)

jerse’s tattoo is still talking to him while scully looks at his business card. she says her flight is cancelled and that she can pick him up!!! oh my god. oh my gooood.

jerse is huffing his cigarette and also trying to burn out the tattoo with it. more concerning behavior. it's like when seymour throws the rat poison in audrey ii.

the jehovah’s witnesses are strategically knocking on the door of the now dead bird lady. and scully is here with jerse. she’s entering his apartment. 

you know what? this motherfucker looks like jeremy jordan. just an observation. sing, newsie boy.

she’s saying she doesn’t go out much…. but she noticed he’s bleeding. and also she says she’s a doctor. feels like that is relevant information to reveal before a date. don’t you want to know what a potential date does before you go out with them? well, i guess that is highlighting her desire to be impulsive.

oh god, she also finds the photo of him and the kids…. while he’s in the bathroom bandaging his wounds. 

she wants to go to the crummy bar??? okay. get out your inner rebellion i guess.

he says that this is a good place to go when you’re down, because everyone here looks like they have worse problems than him. fair enough. except for also NOT fair enough... because he killed a woman!

scully says she goes around in a circle when an authority figure comes into her life, and part of her wants it, needs the approval, but then… 

(it seems she is making a pointed reference to mulder here...? is that what he is to her? an authority figure?)

now she’s talking about her dad….  she would sneak out of the house and smoke the cigarettes. yes, i remember this from beyond the sea!!!! she did this because she knew that if he found out he would kill her.

he says the tattoo marked him never going back. SHE TRIES TO SEE IT AND HE GRABS HER???????

what the fuck what the FUCK. are we going to witness violence.

SO NOW SHE’S GONNA GET ONE TOO?? on her back???? the ouroboros she was looking at before! yes, the never ending cycle.

what the hell… i am deeply uncomfy. he’s watching her get a tattoo and it’s like erotic or something??? to him. and she’s breathing all weird. and then. there is a tattoo.

(this scene only reinforced my previous conclusions from earlier today looking up "am i asexual" quizzes)

god, is she gonna stay here with him? he says the weather is bad and he wants her to be safe and that he’ll sleep on the couch.

she says she feels different now after the tattoo. and he’s taking off the bandage. says it looks alright. but he’s bleeding again. and she’s taking off his shirt…..

the tattoo starts TALKING??? “you kiss her, and she’s dead” HEY WHAT

oh god……………………. the door shuts

pause. y’all. i don’t think i’m cut out for this.

okay, back to the FBI. mulder is here. trying to find scully. and he cannot reach her!!!

he sees the leaf she left on his desk…. and these two are waking up the next morning. his tattoo is still bleeding. dude, you should probably make some sort of appointment about that. 

scully’s in his giant shirt as she shows the detectives at the door (!!!) her badge. they want to talk about the disappearance of the bird lady. they are not taking her seriously, because she is in some random guy’s shirt in some random guy’s house. but she’s jotting some stuff down. 

things are clicking in her mind, about the disappearance. oh my god dial up noises! wow, that’s loud and annoying. shoutout to people who had to deal with that in the 90's.

she seems to be realizing that she has made a grave mistake. 

THE STUFF THE RUSSIAN GUY MADE THE TATTOO INK OUT OF WAS IN THE KILLER’S BLOOD????!!!

she grabs her tattoo because like. now it’s in HER blood too. oh my god the tattoo ink had DRUGS in it????

scully is trying to call mulder…. who runs to his phone. but she hangs up on him!!!! now why would you do all that? oh, because jerse approaches.

she tells him to sit down. very seriously. and she straight up says she thinks the blood the detectives found was his. well i guess honesty is sometimes a good policy.

so they might hallucinate stuff now from the ergot. and they might be dangerous. they need to get to the hospital now. 

he confesses to hearing things now…. “she talks to me. she hates women. my wife, my boss, you” ohhhh my god. i wonder how she is feeling....

she says they need to go to the hospital now. together. 

the tattoo's voice is talking to him about who she called…. and he presses the redial button…. and….

HOLY FUCK, HE’S ATTACKING HER. i mean, i knew it was going to happen eventually, but like. doesn't make it any more enjoyable to watch.

oh man, they are really going at it…. he knocks her out….. and he wraps her up to take her to the incinerator……………. ???????

but she stabs him with the scissors… and she’s trying to tell him to take control. so he BURNS HIS ARM OFF???!? to get the tattoo to shut up. 

BUT NOW THE MUSIC FLOURISHES OVER HER TATTOO???

girl if she has a demon in her now............. i need a cigarette

she’s coming back to the office with bruises on her face. “congratulations for making a personal appearance in the x files for a second time” says mulder. well, that’s gotta be a record. and that is exactly what he brings up next!

he’s trying to make a joke, but she’s grabbing the leaf on his desk………

he thinks this is his fault…… “not everything is about you, mulder. this is my life” “yes, but it….” (sighs)

end episode.

okay. so. what am i thinking. 

well. i am thinking many things. first of all- what is that tattoo supposed to represent? was it supposed to represent how misogyny poisons men’s minds? and turns them into people they aren’t deep down? is it about male insecurity, and how it turns into violence? and if we are taking that interpretation- doesn't that kinda just blame women for the scourge that is misogyny? like "look how you divorced that guy, guess you can't blame men for hating half of the population" because if that was what they were going for. i find issues with that.

second. i’m glad scully had her growth moment. if i were her, i would have told off mulder a long time ago for being too domineering. i don't think he intends to do it- i think he gets too caught up in his own quest for answers- but intention does not make his actions any less hurtful. and she clearly needed to have that rebellion moment. i’m glad she had it, even if it went terribly, at least she survived.

but the agents' dynamic felt… mean-spirited. i couldn’t tell what was joking and what was below the belt, and i’m not sure i’m supposed to be able to. he does take advantage of her, and i certainly don't oppose her pointing that out. i oppose him being mean to her- or at least, i find it hard to watch. i understand that the whole project does mean the world to him because maybe, just maybe, it will bring his sister back- but still. it is an infuriating characteristic of his, how little attention he pays to others.

and i don't necessarily think that aspect of him is written consistently, either. what about that time they were so incredibly close to answers and he let them go because he wanted scully to be able to see her sister again? what about every single time he's risked his neck for her?

i guess what i'm saying is, his fury at the start of the episode felt like it came out of nowhere, and was directed at her questioning his authority- and was over nothing beyond her tuning out one time. i find that idea of mulder as this authority figure that scully is chasing approval from in a manner akin to her own father (!!!) hard to reconcile with the mulder who held her in irresistible, who pummeled the doctor who maybe possibly might have hurt her in one breath, who runs every theory by her, and so on. you see what i'm saying? it felt as if this episode cast the whole series in the retrospective light of him only wanting her around so he can have a loyal henchman, and not that he valued her as an actual person- which we know he does. she zones out one day and he snaps on her? she goes on a rant about how she is always chasing authority's approval shortly after? i'm just not buying it. it felt like the rift era again. you could argue that it is scully's grief that is distorting her view of him, but even entertaining that possibility from a narrative perspective made me feel like i needed a bath. so... sleazy.

bullying aside- for an episode about breaking free from mulder’s influence, he seemed to really care for her and try and reach her, if we ignore the terrible things he said and just focus on his actions. on vacation and at work, he wanted to make sure she was okay. and it was sweet, but when cast in the light i mentioned earlier- in comparison to her father- it felt, like, paternalistic, which made my skin crawl. which is an understatement.

she needed to have that important character development, don’t get me wrong. it seems she’s worked so hard her whole life and has never made time to break some rules, except for when she was a kid. she needs to rebel at some point- but it was the framing of their dynamic that icked me out. and maybe i'm interpreting something in a different way than everyone else does. honestly, i hope i'm misunderstanding something. please feel free to correct me.

there was clearly something on her mind that distracted her from one interview, and the episode is trying to show us that her life isn’t just the x files like mulder's is. they’re different. maybe they spend too much time together. maybe they needed time apart, and maybe she needed to do the things she never let herself in the past. but… you can tell from reading this post that while i agree with some of the character choices- scully confronting him for being too controlling, letting herself let loose for once- i think they made sense in theory but less so in this particular execution. 

and yeah, there’s me the viewer who doesn’t want to see that shit happen, be it scully being attacked or sex outside the slowburn that gave us the term "ship". you can’t blame me there. i am a mere mortal. but also…… damn. something about the way jerse said he hated women and grabbed scully made me feel sick. 

i think that scully has a lot of grief and anger, and i think she reached a boiling point in this episode. and i think she won’t do the things she did ever again. but it still felt so out of character to see her do those things. and was she implying, with her whole speech about her father, that she seems mulder as this controlling force in her life? that their dynamic has been entirely unequal from the beginning? that he acts like a boss to her, and whatever the fuck it is they have going on (because it can’t be described in words, we both know that) has been an imbalance of power this whole time? that makes things feel…….. less warm and fuzzy, in retrospect, don’t you think? the idea that mulder only keeps her around as a foot soldier and doesn't really give a damn about her?

(again. it could be her grief talking. grief is not rational. but i had never seen it like that before, and it casts everything in a different light)

i think this episode had clear commentary on misogyny. the way that jerse’s thoughts were poisoned to hate women, how we explore mulder inadvertently taking the upper hand throughout their relationship, the way the detectives wouldn’t believe scully at her word when questioning her about the blood. i think it explored scully's frustration in being in a male-dominated field, and feeling like she always has to be perfect. but other than that, i'm not sure what i'm supposed to take away from the whole thing, unless i am to think that whatever relationship it is they do have is nothing more than one of uneven control. because that's the vibe i was getting from this one.

it felt out of character, and not just in the purposeful subversion of how we normally see scully- their whole fight felt off. and the tone was all over the place. first we're joking, then we're arguing nasty style, then we're joking, then sexy, then fight time violence against women, then joke? unresolved ending feeling i cannot explain? what do i make of this?!

idk. i don't feel like i'm wording my points well, but i'm not sure i want to really keep trying either. and i feel that if i did my usual thing, which is watch an episode, take notes, think it over for a day, and THEN edit the notes, i might be able to have a more coherent thought process- but given potential controversy, i want to get this out tonight.

i want to really hear your thoughts- if you ride or die for this episode, walk me through it! did you also not like it? is it mid to you? i'm listening. i want to know. i have no ill-intent, and i feel bad that i've been a bit harsh lately. let us discuss. it is all peace and love over here.

[ferdieinceladoncity]

I keep replaying and replaying the ending scene of Amor Fati.

The way he cradles her face: the way he always cradles her face in their most intimate scenes, and how often he gently brushes the sides of her face with his thumbs. I mean, I get that there's not much else to do with your hands leaning down into the face of your 5'2 partner but ever since season one and him gently cupping her cheek in Beyond The Sea, it's obviously his go-to to provide comfort to her.

The way he says "there was one thing that remained the same- you were my friend." the way he says friend in such a tender way: they are friends. It's beautiful. I mean, it's no secret that I ship them, and would love nothing more than for them to make out sloppy-style all over his basement desk, but so much more importantly than that, that's his friend- his "constant" his "touchstone." Their lives are intrinsically connected. In ways I do not think he can define nor do I believe need concrete defining she is more important to him than words. Can we get three cheers for catastrophic mind-bending levels of codependency? and the way she says "and you are mine" in return, it feels like a little confession, almost, coming off the back of all the vague revealing of her feelings in season 6, the way she says it and he looks at her and nods.

The forehead kiss, UGH. Every single time these freaks kiss each other on the forehead, which is often, and I'm glad for it, I just melt into soup. He bends down into it too, let's himself be comforted by her, leans into her kiss. Allows fully for himself to be in this moment of vulnerability. He has just received news of a devastating loss- because as much as I dislike Diana Fowley's character, as double-crossing as she was and as much as I believe Mulder would have chosen Scully over her always in the end, despite what his ""dream life"" may have suggested (and the whole point of the dream life was that he wasn't living a whole, real life, as the aliens were destroying the world around him) but the news of her death would hurt, of course it would, because of course he DID care for Diana. Scully realises his hurt. She could never take away his pain completely, they could never do that for each other due to the scope of their individual trauma, but it is enough to kiss him on the forehead and put his cap back on his bandaged head, because she is there for him, and she loves him.

oh, yeah, and the way her fingers linger on his lips when she *eventually* pulls away from him. ha. hahaha.

[pookie-mulder]

September 2024 fic roundup

(View past months here)

Tbh I didn’t read as much fic this month, and I wasn’t super great about adding to the list as I went. However, I did read an actual real life book for the first time in (checks watch) many moons, so that’s something, I guess.

Anyway, this one goes out to the sweet anon who told me they look forward to these posts every month!

🥧🌾 Amish Country by lolabeegood

Mulder and Scully go undercover in an Amish community. It’s like a historical AU, but not. It was super interesting to get to know a different culture! Plus, the undercover nature of the assignment was very reminiscent of our beloved Arcadia (but with more RST).

🐎🧲 Broken Things by @mldrgrl

Another Wild West historical AU! This time featuring my favorite trope: marriage of convenience. Watching these two slowly fall in love was so darn sweet it nearly melted my heart.

👻🩸 The Summoning of Nikola Price by @alienqueequeg

This spooky tale is perfect for Halloween! It’s a dark and atmospheric ghost story with plenty of UST and tension. Plus, it’s the perfect length — long enough to feel fleshed-out, but short enough to read in one sitting.

🏥🦠 Gates of Hell by @alienqueequeg

Another scary story to get you in the mood for spooky season! This one is deliciously creepy, with some good old fashioned UST to RST to URT (unresolved romantic tension). Perfect for when you want a chill down your spine and a fire in your heart!

❄️🌨️ Keep Christmas With You (All Through the Year) by @leiascully

Snowed in at a motel? They have to share a room?? Oh no, whatever shall they do??? 😏 This one-shot is so unbelievably sweet and tender and cozy! The banter was unbelievably adorable.

This is where I stopped being diligent about adding to my draft post (oops), so here’s a rapid-fire list:

Circumnavigation by Suzanne Schramm: A nice little wilderness survival one-shot for when you want the forced closeness without the heavy angst.

Dark Water by Suzanne Schramm: Casefic meets a nice trip to the forest meets jealous!Mulder.

Dryad by Aloysia_Virgata: M&S take on an intriguing case while being the world’s best parents to William. This is canon in my heart.

HEMNES Where the Heart Is by @enoughslices: idek what’s going on with the whole POANGverse, but I love it. I’m obsessed with post-revival MSR being domestic and embarrassing and getting their freak on.

Slippery Slope by Rachel Anton: The most ridiculous premise for smut, but it works. A fandom classic!

I read so many one-shots and drabbles on tumblr this month, too! Anything in my fic tag without “tbr” is something I’ve read and enjoyed.

[slippinmickeys]

The funfetti universe please oh please more! William vs the bullies, Mulder encouraging going lower, repercussions of William losing control when he's upset, Scully just getting to have her life with her boys I love it!

The mudball hit him right in the neck, sending little droplets of gunk into his ear. After the initial shock wore off, he turned slowly around. 

“Hey William, you’ve got some dirt on your neck. They not bathe out in Farrs Corner?”

William sighed. “What do you want, Logan?” He already knew the kid didn’t want anything. Just to inflict pain. 

“Nothing,” Logan said. “Just wanted to let you know you’re a freak.”

Will was so sick of this crap he could spit. He looked at the three other guys who had come over with the bigger kid; Winter, Cole and Liam, who up until now had always been nice to him.

“Noted,” William said, eyeing Liam directly, whose face at least registered a bit of shame. William turned back around, hoping they’d go away. 

Thwak! Another mudball, this time catching him on the butt. God, it was going to look like he’d crapped his pants. 

William thought about his mother’s advice. His father’s. He’d love to knee the guy in the nuts, but not with all that backup. Still. If he walked away, all he’d probably get out of it was another mudball to the back. 

He turned around, took a step toward Logan and his goons. 

“Why do you keep picking on me Durwood? There not enough enrichment in your enclosure?”

The confusion that crossed the kid’s face was amusing, at least. You had to be smart to get into this school, but Logan Durwood was legacy. His test scores probably didn’t reach William’s knees. It took him a minute to figure out the insult. 

“Are you calling me an animal, Mulder?”

William gave him a pitying look. “You can’t figure out what I called you?”

Winter and Cole both turned to look at Logan’s face, clearly worried he’d snap. William was worried he’d snap too, but it would give him a reason to hit the guy. Or something. 

“Shame,” Will went on, shaking his head. “And you, an intellectual.”

At this, Liam snorted in laughter and that was all it took Logan to turn sort of a reddish purple and start marching toward William, who watched him approach, holding his ground. 

William glanced back toward the big old barn that housed most of the school’s classrooms. There wasn’t a teacher in sight. 

It had done nothing but piss rain for the last three days and the field surrounding the old farm  was saturated. Logan’s footsteps squished as he approached, and the boy leaned down on the way and scooped up another mudball. 

“I’m going to make you eat this, freak,” he said menacingly. 

Winter and Cole were a couple of steps behind him, but Liam hung back, watching and looking nervous. 

“Actually, I think you’re going to eat it,” William said with confidence. 

Logan had just gotten up to him, and pulled his arm back to fling it or punch William with it or something, but instead, when his arm swung forward, his elbow bent and he ended up shoving the mudball into his own face. Logan froze, bewildered, and all five boys stood there in stunned silence. A glob of mud fell from the boy’s chin onto the ground at his feet.

“Geez Logan, I was only kidding,” William said, feeling the bright thrill of conquest, and an even keener thrill of power. His power. The kind no one else had.

Logan spit out a mouthful of mud, his eyes all rage. “Get him,” he instructed his two friends. 

***

Mulder and Scully escorted William out of the office of the head of school silently, squelching across the school lawn and into the parking lot. 

William kept throwing worried looks at his mother, who was walking quickly, her face a steel mask of what Mulder knew to be anger. Anyone else looking at her might just assume RBF, but Mulder–and more importantly William–knew better. 

When Mulder unlocked the car, Scully ducked quickly into the passenger seat and William slunk onto the back bench like a man headed to the gallows. As soon as Mulder turned the ignition, Scully whipped her glare to her son. 

“That was incredibly dangerous what you did,” she hissed. 

“But I didn’t get in trouble!” William said, defending himself. It was a childish answer, and they all knew it. William was a kid, but he was a smart one. 

“Will, you know what your mom is talking about,” Mulder said, flicking his eyes to his son in the rearview mirror as he pulled onto the county road on which William’s school sat. 

Mulder had actually been at least a bit amused by his son in the principal’s office. The boy had pointed at the remains of mud on his neck and ass, pointed out that his hands were perfectly clean and claimed perfect innocence. One look at the other three kids (all but the kid Liam, who appeared to have run into the school to grab a teacher once the muddy melee started in earnest) covered head to toe in mud so thick that the whites of their eyes stuck out, and the head of school had no choice but to proclaim William a victim and send he and his parents on their way. 

“But they were going to beat me up!” 

“That’s no excuse for using your powers on other people, William. On other kids!”

“They didn’t know it was me,” William said, growing a little sullen. “I only made them throw the mudballs at each other a couple of times, once they started, they kept doing it, it wasn’t me.” At this, he looked at his dad in the mirror, and Mulder suspected the last bit of his story wasn’t entirely accurate. 

“I saw the look of confusion on their faces, William,” Scully said. “They may not have known it was you, but they damn well knew it wasn’t them.”

“They’re not exactly the brain brigade, Mom,” William said, slumping back on the seat. “They look like that all the time.”

Mulder had to suppress a laugh.

Scully sighed. “You should have walked away.”

“I tried.”

Mulder flicked his eyes to his son again. “Will, if anything like that happens again–if you show someone–anyone–your powers, we’re going to have to move. Change schools,” he said.

William heaved a breath out and Scully seemed to calm. 

“It’s not just about the school,” she said. “And it’s not just about letting other kids see what you can do. William, you can’t draw attention to yourself like that. If the wrong people find out about you…”

The boy’s lip wobbled. They hated having to tell their son that he could be taken away from them, but he had to know the risks. It was a far more dangerous world than anybody realized.

That sat heavily between all three of them for several long moments. 

“So I’m just supposed to let them beat me up?” William finally said, sniffing.

Mulder exchanged a look with Scully over the center console. 

Scully sighed. “What if Dad teaches you a few moves?” 

William’s countenance lightened at this and he sat up. “FBI moves?”

“Yes,” Scully said evenly. “FBI moves.”

“Yeah, okay! Cool!” 

“But they’re only to be used in self-defense,” she clarified. “Only if someone actually touches you first.”

William nodded enthusiastically. 

“And if anybody asks who taught you the moves, tell them it was your mom,” Mulder said. “Nothing will come back on us, then,” he went on, stealing a look at Scully. “Everyone is scared of your mom.”

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

All Eyes Lead to the Truth | Bad Blood (5x12)

As frustrated as he was with Ronnie, he found it hard to really blame the kid. If he was going to deviate from the recommended bovine diet, drinking from a tourist wasn’t the worst idea. But Ronnie was rash and the wrong person saw. Now he had to deal with government intervention.

“Now, uh ... that can't be what it looks like, right?” Lucius asked, trying to add a nervous quiver to his voice while Agent Mulder prodded the bite marks. He found that in these situations, addressing the idea of vampirism right off the bat would help ease his nerves. The investigator would usually roll their eyes and offer a more rational theory.

“You mean like a vampire? I wouldn’t be so quick to dispel the idea, Sheriff. Vampires have always been with us, in ancient myths and stories passed down-”

If his heart was still beating, it would have given out right about now. He felt his knees buckle as he cleared his throat, the metallic taste of his breakfast lingering in the back of his mouth. This guy was onto him.

While Agent Mulder blasély listed off details about the Hartwell’s ancestral tree, he tried furrowing his brow and nodding along enthusiastically, as if this was the first time he was hearing about them. Luckily, Agent Scully didn’t seem to agree with this theory. If anything, she looked a little bored. She was still paying attention, but she sent Lucius a polite smile, as if she appreciated him indulging her partner. 

“-but some might say this was the work of ‘Satanic Cultists’,” he finished, sending a pointed look to Agent Scully.

Now that was a new one. “What satanic cultists?”

The woman furrowed her brows at Agent Mulder before explaining. “While vampires are often brought up in these types of cases, there is a more logical precedent of youth in small towns fixating on different forms of media to the point of obsession. I think that we're looking for someone who has seen one too many Bela Lugosi movies. He believes he is a vampire, therefore…”

“They act like one. Yeah. Yeah. That makes a whole lot of sense,” he nodded. He remembered the teens in the ‘30s going wild for Bela Lugosi. Nowadays, they were all about Interview with a Vampire and Buffy ; the local covens had even reported an uptick in teens pretending to be vampires. They had no class, no decorum. They just gave vampires a bad name. If he could get Ronnie out of this while dragging one of those Brad Pitt-loving freaks down, that would be perfect. “I think she's right.”

With a disgruntled sigh, Agent Mulder replied, “What about the fang marks?

Lucius hoped that showing solidarity with Agent Scully would divert them from the vampire theory, so he slowly walked around the table and chose to stand closer to the woman, which unfortunately posed a problem all of its own. 

Seemingly oblivious to the threat in front of her, Agent Scully smiled up at him and stepped closer to him as she elaborated. “Well, there is a psychological fixation called hematodipsia which causes the sufferer to gain erotic satisfaction from consuming human blood.”

His salvatory glands were working in overdrive between all this blood-talk and the assault of her intoxicating scent. It was taking his full concentration to keep his fangs from dropping into place. 

Th-thump, th-thump, th-thump.

He couldn’t help but follow the noise, his gaze dropping to the pale white expanse of Agent Scully’s neck. The thin, porcelain skin covering her pulse point was thrumming in time with the beat of her heart. The juicy tendon of her neck was plump with warm blood, and all he wanted to do was grab her and take a bite. She would look so beautiful with his fangs buried inside her. He could only imagine how she’d taste on his tongue.

“Erotic,” he murmured softly. “Yeah.”

He heard a faint, dissatisfied grunt that broke his focus, and realized his appraisal of Agent Scully hadn’t gone unnoticed. The scrutiny made him anxious, and he realized his teeth had slightly shifted forward in his mouth to make room for his fangs. Trying to be discreet, he quickly covered his mouth with the palm of his hand, as if really focusing on what she was saying, while his teeth shifted back. 

“I think you’re absolutely right,” he affirmed. He dropped his hand and offered her a wide smile, hoping Agent Mulder would notice and think anything he saw before was his eyes playing tricks on him, but the man had already focused his attention elsewhere.

“Wanna know who else gains erotic satisfaction out of drinking human blood? Vampires,” he deadpanned, causing Lucius’ smile to drop. Now that was just racist.

Then, out of the blue, the man asked, “Have you noticed that this man's shoes are untied?”

God, he’d been trying so hard to ignore that. The sight made his palms itch with the need to knot the laces. “Yeah, they sure are,” he replied, cringing at how strained his voice sounded.

The agent nodded enthusiastically. “I’m going to need you to take me to the local cemetery, Sheriff Hartwell.”

“Can do, sir.” Getting some alone time with Agent Mulder would be useful, in one way or another.

With trepidation, the man had placed a gentle hand on his partner’s lower back and murmured, “Scully, I need you to conduct an autopsy.”

Learning that this woman could do autopsies came as a pleasant surprise. She would make such a great addition to the coven: smart, beautiful, fearless, she was all Lucius could ask for.

He continued staring at her, even as her partner exited the morgue. When she noticed, her frustration seemed to abate which only made his hunger grow.

“Ma'am,” he greeted in a charming drawl.

As he turned to leave, he inhaled her piquant, heady aroma once more, running his tongue over his cuspids in wait. “Hoo, boy,” he murmured under his breath.

Read the rest of All Eyes Lead to the Truth on Archive of Our Own!

@gaycrouton

[oohnotvery]

Hand To Your Heart (Chapter 5)

Tw/cw: pregnancy content in author’s note

Holy freaking shit, I have never experienced nausea like this in all my life. I don’t remember being sick at all with my daughter, but this time, the nausea has been debilitating. I can barely get out of bed, can’t stomach anything except Jolly Ranchers, and I’ve had to resort to playing Doctor-Patient with my toddler so I can just lie on the floor while she covers me with blankets for “playtime.” Lolololol.

I want to finish this story so badly, for myself and for all of you. I hope and pray that my condition improves as the weeks go by. In the meantime, thank you for your patience these days :)

As she stares down at the set of unearthed coffins poking out from the mud of an ancient graveyard, Scully isn’t quite sure why Mulder insisted she come here today. Before he left her apartment last night, he gave her the address of an old church and told her to meet him in the back by the graves. He’d mentioned a body he wanted her to look at, but all she sees right now are a few decaying tombstones.

And to her irritation, there’s no sign of Mulder . . . or Diana.

With a frustrated huff, she glances once more around the empty churchyard before advancing towards the cover of a shady oak tree. When she left her apartment this morning, the day was sunny, if not a little overcast. Once she crossed the border into Maryland, however, tall pillars of dark clouds began to pile up on the horizon, and before she even reached the church, rain started pelting her car. After frantically searching her backseat and trunk for an umbrella that didn’t exist, she threw on a spare trench coat, but it did little to protect her hair, and within minutes of entering the graveyard, she was completely drenched.  

She’s about to duck under one of the tree’s largest branches when she hears a shout.

“Scully!”

She whips around, stringy wet hair slapping her cheeks, and sees Mulder and Diana striding towards her purposefully, two matching black umbrellas raised high. Scully fights the urge to fix her dripping locks as she takes in Diana’s perfectly styled curls, which seem to be completely resistant to the weather.

Mulder gestures for her to meet them in the spot where she was standing earlier, and grumbling to herself, she starts marching back out into the rain. Mud squelches under her boots and chilly water trickles past her jacket collar and down her spine, sending goosebumps up her arms. She’s about ten feet from the suspicious set of coffins when her foot catches on a partially-exposed tree root. With a yelp, she flings out her arms, trying to catch her balance, but her other foot slips on the wet surface and she goes down, landing with a splat in a thick, oozy puddle of mud.

Before she can even assess the damage, she hears a bright peal of feminine laughter ring out over the rain. Heat flames across her cheeks and she digs her fists into the slick mud to push herself to her knees. She glances down and curses when she sees that her entire outfit, from jacket to undershirt to trousers, are brown and slick with filth. Tugging her hands out of the sludge, she tries to rake some of the thicker, goopier chunks off her shirt, but it’s a futile endeavor. Her clothes are almost certainly ruined.  

The rain pelting her face suddenly lessens and she glances up, seeing Mulder standing over her, his umbrella shielding her from the storm. Their eyes meet and she can tell in the mischievous glint of his gaze that he’s holding back a laugh.  

“Hey, Scully, you’ve uh, you’ve got something . . . right . . . there,” he says with an impish grin, swiping his finger across her cheek, gathering mud as he does. Mortified, she dabs at her face with the back of her hand, realizing in horror that it’s not just her clothes—her entire face is coated in mud.

Humiliated, she dips her head as angry tears well in her eyes. Even when Mulder hoists her to her feet and gives her grimy arm a tentative squeeze, she can’t bear to look at him. In her peripheral, she watches him furiously shake mud off his hand like some sort of wet dog, grimacing when he can’t seem to get it all off.

“You okay?” he asks quietly, all joking gone from his voice.

“Fine,” she says past a thick swallow. She squints towards the coffins, ignoring Diana, whose face is practically gleaming with delight, and clears her throat. “Is there somewhere in the church where I can get cleaned up?”

Mulder dips his clean hand into his pants pocket and pulls out a set of keys. He slips them into her jacket pocket, being careful to avoid the mud coating her clothing. She looks up at him in question.

“Why don’t you head to the motel and take a shower?” he suggests instead, guiding her away from the graveyard. “I’m in Room 4. Take a shower, clean up, and we can try again later today.”

Forehead crinkling, she shakes her head. What motel? “No, Mulder, I’m here now. Let’s just get this over with—”

“I can’t take you seriously with mud all over your face—”

“I didn’t ask your opinion,” she snaps irritably. “I just need ten minutes to get cleaned up, and then we can get back to work.”

“Scully,” he sighs, taking a step closer, but not close enough to risk coming into contact with her ruined clothes. “I’ve known you for five years and I’ve never seen you this filthy.” He briefly seems to reconsider this. “Okay, maybe, maybe the time we got covered in shit when I was hunting cockroaches. But this is a new level of mess, Scully. You’re not going to be able to work in these conditions. I’m not going to be able to work in these conditions.” He reaches out as if to touch her hand and then pulls away, thinking better of it. “Go take a real shower.”

It’s illogical to argue with him and she knows it. She herself is disgusted by the way her clothes are sticking to her skin, humiliated by the brown wash of dirt all over her nice blouse and trousers.

A few moments pass in silence, the only sound the pitter patter of rain on his umbrella. After a minute, her eyes climb to meet his. “Why did you book a motel room?” she asks suspiciously. “We’re only forty-five minutes from your apartment.”  

He shrugs casually, his eyes flickering towards Diana. “We plan to be at this case a while. Figured it was easier than driving back home every night.”

At his words, a light bulb seems to illuminate in her mind, and something akin to horror begins to creep into her chest. She parts her lips, wondering how to ask. Wondering whether she should ask.

She clears her throat. “So did you stay here . . . last night?” Did you drive to D.C. last night to fuck me, and then turn around and drive back to the motel to be with Diana? The thought is so chilling, she shudders.

Mulder swallows, a frown creasing between his brows. “It’s easier than fighting traffic every morning,” he shrugs.

A non-answer. She purses her lips tightly. “I see.”

He shakes his head. “You see what, exactly?”

But she won’t dignify him with a response. Turning her shoulder, she gestures defeatedly towards her car. “You’re right, Mulder. I’m too filthy to work this case right now. I’m just going to go home.”

“Scully,” he growls, irritation flickering across his face, “no. I asked you here for a reason. I know you have a change of clothes in your car. You always carry at least three different outfits, I’ve seen them myself. Go take a shower, chill out a little, then come back here. I need you.”

Her spine stiffens. I need you.

She inhales sharply, wondering when this particular catchphrase became so painfully loaded. “Which motel?” she asks after a moment, not meeting his gaze.

He replies with the name of a place that sounds as if cockroaches are its primary inhabitants. With a cursory nod, she turns on her heel and starts walking to her car. Mulder jogs to catch up with her, pointlessly holding the umbrella over her head as if she weren’t already soaked to the bone and caked with mud.

He opens her driver’s side door, gesturing for her to take a seat. Grimacing, she peels off her dirty coat and tosses it into the passenger floorboard before lowering herself into her always-impeccable car. Mulder rests one hand on the roof, ducking his head to meet her eyes. She glares at him from underneath her brows.

“I never thought I’d say this, Scully, but I think I have a thing for women covered in mud.” He gives her a cheeky wink and she whips her eyes towards the dashboard so that he can’t see the outrage building in her gaze.

He probably thinks he’s being cute, she realizes with a clenched stomach.

He taps the hood of the car before shutting the door, and she makes sure to peal out as fast as possible so that her tires sling some mud onto his expensive trousers. It’s petty, sure, but when she catches his outraged look in the rearview mirror, she almost smiles.

Almost.

**

The motel is only a few miles down the road and Scully finds Room 4 easily enough. She lugs her go-bag into Mulder’s room and dumps it on the unmade bed, then retreats into the bathroom, where she cringes when she catches sight of herself in the mirror.

It’s worse than she imagined. Dark clumps of mud hang from the wet strands of her hair, and thick brown streaks cover her chin and cheeks. Underneath the grime, her face flames red with mortification. She thinks about all the dozens of humiliations she’s faced in the past two days and curses: Mulder showing up to bed her out of some warped sense of obligation; discovering that he’s very likely fucking Diana, a woman who blatantly disdains her; and getting a graveyard’s worth of mud shoved up her throat in front of that woman . . . .

She strips down, peeling off layers that will undoubtedly need to be thrown away. Her coat and shoes she’ll try to salvage, but she shoves her pants and shirt into the plastic bag of the bathroom trash can and ties off the bag before starting up the shower.

She steps into a blast of shockingly cold water, yelping as goosebumps ripple up her spine. Furiously, she turns the knob until the water starts to grow gradually less frigid, but it remains cool throughout her shower. Gritting her teeth, she decides she’s just going to have to get this over with fast. It takes four passes with the soap bar to get the initial mud off her arms, face, and neck. The bar grows stubby and useless by round five, and she growls in irritation when she discovers remnants of mud lingering behind her ears. Finding none of Mulder’s own products in the shower, she lathers up her hair with motel shampoo, rinsing and repeating three times for good measure before finishing with some motel conditioner. Only when the water finally starts to run clear at her feet does she decide she’s clean enough.

By the time she’s stepping out of the shower and into a fresh towel, she feels slightly buoyed. She slips into new underwear and a fresh pair of pants and a work blouse before running out to her car to clean the crusted mud off the driver’s seat. Once she’s finished cleaning, she retreats into the bathroom to run a blow dryer through her hair, frowning at the way her hair poofs up when not tended with her own products. She makes a mental note to stock her go-bag with better toiletries.

She’s finger combing her hair into place when she notices something that slipped her attention earlier: there’s a connecting door in Mulder’s room. And it’s open, just a crack. A sickening knot of dread forms in her stomach, but it’s not enough to dampen her curiosity. She takes a few steps towards the door, then waits quietly for a few beats to ensure the room’s occupant is not in. When she’s sure the room is empty, she pulls the door the rest of the way open.

This is, without a shadow of a doubt, Diana’s room. The bed is crisply made and two pairs of sky-high heels stand primly in front of a set of dresser drawers. An odious perfume lingers in the air, one with which Scully is vaguely familiar, one she’s sensed in the basement office and in the Hoover Building hallways . . . and maybe even in Mulder’s apartment.

So . . . Mulder is sharing a connecting room with Diana. Scully thinks back to her conversation with him from a few days prior, how he told her Diana has been consulting with him for the past few weeks. How many times have the two of them spent the night away from home? And how many times have they booked adjoining rooms?

Swallowing thickly past a wave of confusing emotions, Scully starts to back out of the room when something catches her eye. There, on the bed.

How did she miss it on her first pass through the room?

Sitting right on top of the duvet, almost like a pair of prizes, lay Diana’s bra and underwear. They’re in full view, which Scully assumes is purposeful—just in case Mulder steps inside for a chat. Despite her better judgment, she takes a step closer. The bra is a sexy, lacy thing, black with red ribbons interwoven through the fabric. The underwear is even more scandalous, just a scrap of fabric that can’t possibly cover anything Diana’s hiding underneath her clothing. In a fit of maniacal self-sabotage, Scully wonders whether she should inspect the underwear for traces of Mulder’s semen.

Her cheeks blaze at the thought, but it sets off a new train of suspicions. Mulder’s products were missing from his shower. What if . . . oh, God.

With ringing ears, Scully slips into Diana’s bathroom and shoves back the shower curtain. Her eyes furiously scan the bottles lining the shelf and her heart stutters to a complete stop when her gaze lands on a familiar bottle.

That’s Mulder’s shampoo. And that’s Mulder’s soap. In Diana’s shower.

If she wasn’t sure about the state of affairs before, she is now. She’s a sucker for hard evidence, and this is pretty damn close to confirmation.

She bolts out of the bathroom before she can find any more incriminating evidence that will inevitably break her heart. It makes sense, she realizes as she grabs her go-bag with shaking hands, intent on abandoning the case and heading straight home. She’s not a believer, not like Diana is. She’s not sexy, not like Diana is. She doesn’t own lingerie, not like Diana does.

Oh, shit, she winces as she replays memories from Mulder’s late-night visit. What kind of underwear was she wearing when he went down on her? It definitely wasn’t a sexy lacy scrap of fabric. She doesn’t even own anything like that. More like something white and cotton and comfortable and . . . oh, God, could she be less appealing?

She’s so caught up in her thoughts that she almost doesn’t see the person stepping up onto the sidewalk right in front of her. With a yelp, Scully swerves out of the way, tripping over herself as she manages not to knock down the other person.

A cool laugh floats through the air as Scully rights herself.

“Be careful, Agent Scully,” comes Diana’s voice. “I would hate to see you fall twice in one day.”  

[aloysiavirgata]

Hello! A prompt: affection, paperback, daughters.

They’re on the beach at Quonochontaug. They could sell the house for a fortune, Mulder’s finance guy is always cajoling, but they want the house more than the money. They have enough money. Peace has been scarce.

Scully’s half-dozing on the blanket, a straw hat with a brim like the rings of Saturn tugged down over her face. A dog-eared, split-spine paperback of The Poisonwood Bible rises and falls with her breath.

Mulder tosses a piece of popcorn at her nose.

“They’ll never find your body,” she murmurs, not flinching.

He watches her with deep warmth, with a reverent affection that she is still so lovely and clever and haughty in her fifties.

“Scully?”

“Shhh.”

“Come swim.”

“No.”

He’s bored. She could come and play but she won’t, just sprawls temptingly with her book and her hat and some kind of fringed wrap around her hips. Despite her pheomelanic looks, Scully always appears at home by the sea.

“What was it like,” he asks, “to be the Captain’s daughters?”

She tips her face up at this. “Mmm?”

Her freckles absolutely kill him. “You and Melissa, when you were small. I mean I can guess what it was like for Bill based on how he turned out, Charlie is a statistical outlier, but you and Missy. How was it?”

Scully looks thoughtful. “Well, we had to be well turned out. I rarely was, Missy was always fresh as a daisy. Kept her white church gloves clean. I was…well. I was more the Jo March of the pair, I guess. Worms in my pockets, magnifying glass in my little purse.”

Mulder grins at her. “And then you grew up into an anal retentive control freak. Go figure.”

Her grin is rueful. “Ahab appreciated my love for science eventually, you know. Despite my lack of traditional femininity. I tie a damned fine knot and gutted a fish faster than anyone.”

He scoots over to kiss her lightly. “It’s incredible and unsettling,” he murmurs.

She presses her thumb to his lips. “I used to love meeting my dad at the ship when he came home,” she reminisces. “Missy and I, Captain Scully’s girls. Always on my best behavior, even when Bill was being a little shit.”

“Good thing he grew out of that,” Mulder says sweetly.

She rolls her eyes. “You of all people judging a man for being protective of his sister is pretty fucking rich,” she scoffs.

This is fair. “Tell me more,” he says.

Scully sets her book aside, hands resting on her flat belly. “He put me on his shoulders once, let me wear his hat to the car. Charlie was a newborn so I was about three I guess. But I remember it so well. I was so proud.”

He kisses her shoulder, her neck. He is grateful she has never asked what it was like to be Bill Mulder’s boy.

“Either of you ever want to join?” he asks, knowing they hadn’t.

She weaves her fingers through his shaggy hair. “Missy wanted to join the Peace Corps and I was sick of wearing a uniform.”

He drops his head to tongue her shallow navel. “But you look so good in them. Mmm, remember that time we had to go undercover with NYPD? God you looked incredible.”

Scully laughs. “Definitely wasn’t part of the med school track I had laid out.”

He bites at the waistband of her bikini bottom. “Wasn’t the Captain’s daughter,” he mumbles into the saddle of her hips, “but come on inside and I’ll tie some mighty good knots.”

[casuallycryingoverbooks]

Okay so after kind of a long break cuz i felt like i burned through most of season 8 waiting for Mulder to get back i just started watching s08e19 Alone. Here are my thoughts

Aaaaahhhhh i love Dogget he’s grown on me so much. He and Scully actually care about each other as friends

Mulder taking an active role in Scully’s pregnancy after being justifiably distant since he’d been returned makes me melt

“Agent doggets a big boy, he can tale care of himself. You have to worry about the little boy. Little girl? Little boy? Or little girl?” AH BARK BARK

No dogget’s spent too much time with Scully he’s touching unidentified goup with his bare hands

Dad!skinner telling Scully she’s not aloud into the office. Skinner acting like Mulder and Scully are the two children he never wanted but begrudgingly loves anyway is my everything

Scully you should mot be autopsying that body and everyone knows it except for you apparently and btw put a goddamn mask on

Mulder is concerned about his son and his wife, partner (girl?) friend more than any x-file

When tf was it confirmed that the baby is mulder’s?

I was so distracted by Mulder and Scully I forgot 8 was supposed to be worried about Dogget what’s going on

When x-files agents drop random history lessons>>> please tell me more about the prohibition

Skinner: mulder your not supposed to be out here. Mulder does what mulder wants

A “walk in the woods” or “nice trip to the forest” has never gone well for this man

“I didn’t catch a name agent-“ “kersh.” HAHAHAHA agent mulder is not a field agent but he doesn’t have to be if he’s not agent Mulder

Mulder looks really good in this episode

Nah dog (random evil biologist guy) get away from my new son (dogget)

Agent Harrison pisses me off, girl no way you read all the reports and went “i wanna do that!!!” And THEN you were freaked out. Like do i love the xfiles? Yeah! Is a career path im considering with an intelligence agency like the fbi? Yeah. Would i ever want to work on an xfile if they were real? Nope nope nope

MULDER SCULLY FACETIME CALLS ARE BACK HELLLLLLL YEAHHHHH

Skinner reprimanding Mulder is back can i get a waahooo?

“You re-gifted my apollo medallion” yes and i wish she fucking didn’t

ENZYMES THOSE ARE ENZYMES (ha, i was right)

“Talk about the blind leading the blind” man-

Rut row raggy

Yes, let’s shoot a firearm when we can’t see anything! That’s a really good idea!

Bad mulder! That is not something we say and then hang up on our wife, partner (girl?) friend

That is a big fucking lizard and I’m getting the feeling i was already supposed to know about it but wasn’t paying attention

Mulder bby they are not your colleagues you are unemployed

“It’s alright, it’s just me” Ahhhh soft dogget

Can Dogget and Mulder be bros please

Mulder you absolutely fucking moron ❤️❤️❤️

“Aim at me” “No!!! I’ll shoot you” “your not gonna shoot me”x4 Haha i cant believe that fucking worked

MULDERS HAND ON SCULLYS BACK AAAAH

Mulder giving Dogget the medallion ahhhhh

I’m very articulate rn

She’s such a fan hahaha

“It was never actually proven it was a spaceship-“ “it wasn’t?” + more bickering “you were frozen and then I hugged you untill you were not frozen anymore” THATS CANON NOW