#sunny scully

[rexlottie]

its oc silly o'clock

[resurrection-trait]

[catholic-character-tournament]

Bonus Rounds

(Just for fun, will not affect anything)

[heavenwontbethe-same]

are you more hitchcock or scully?

[murkyhazed-is-archiving]

tag drop 4 of idk

[brawlite]

some horror fic recs for october 👻

i wanted to put together a rec list of my favorite horror fics for the spookiest month. there are a bunch of different flavors of horror in here as well as a number of different fandoms, so hopefully you can find something that tickles your fancy (though ngl i would still rec reading these bad boys even if you don't know the fandoms at all).

i tried to tag tumblrs when/where i could find them, but if i couldn't, the author name links to ao3.

a reminder as always: this is horror—please read all the tags.

thanks for reading and i hope you find something to enjoy!

also, pretty please feel free to reblog and add your favorite horror fic recs.

👻👁️🎃🔪👻👁️🎃🔪👻👁️🎃🔪👻👁️🎃🔪👻👁️🎃🔪👻👁️🎃🔪👻👁️🎃🔪

the ghost apple tree by @thefearofcod

10k words, rated m song lan/xue yang/xiao xingchen (the untamed/mdzs) summary:

Fixing up a decaying house in the woods is the same as addressing your problems. (sxx is haunted)

brawls' notes: i think about this fic a lot; i'm haunted by it. this is by far one of my favorite horror stories i've ever read—the vibes are off-the-charts and horrific in a very visceral, tense way. made me feel weird (positive). i hope it makes you feel weird too (this is a threat).

—

convergence by @astrophyllitely

33k words, rated e lan zhan/lan xichen, lan zhan/jiang cheng (the untamed/mdzs) summary:

Lan Wangji regains consciousness in a crashed spaceship on an unfamiliar planet. He is not alone; Lan Xichen is there. He is not alone; Jiang Wanyin is there. But never both at once.

brawls' notes: space horror? check. psychological horror? check. uneasy and tense alien vibes? also check. beautiful push and pull of the narrative, paired with an an intense feeling of claustrophobia. there's a particular moment that had my heart right in my throat. stunning.

—

mockingbird by MarInk

82k words, rated e stiles stillinski/peter hale (teen wolf) summary:

Stiles works tirelessly to keep the roof over his heads and longs for a proper challenge for his brains. Peter chafes under his sister's authority and nurses big, bloody dreams. One day, the two are connected by a mistaken text message. One never knows who is on the other end of a wrong number. Sometimes it's somebody one will come to cherish and adore. Sometimes it's a ruthless, unapologetic monster. Sometimes it's both.

brawls' notes: sometimes you read something and are just blown away by it, forever altered. that's what this was for me. want a type of monster-au you've never seen before? this is it. also: ostensibly a wrong-number au, but don't be fooled. (i was.)

—

never meant by nonhicsumus

3k words, rated m alex krycek & dana scully (the x-files) summary:

Sometimes the past isn't worth digging into.

brawls' notes: whump and psychological horror? plus alex krycek?? my favorite. every word of this is perfection—i instantly wanted to read it again for the first time. you can.

—

fais do-do by @moku-youbi

18k words, rated e will graham/hannibal lecter (hannibal)

summary:

“Nothing is so painful to the human mind as a great and sudden change.” ― Mary Shelley, Frankenstein (this fic does not have a summary, but begins with this quote)

brawls' notes: a different-meeting au packed with everything you need for the perfect horror story: violence, blood, a chase scene, and an unreliable narrator. delightful.

—

blackbird, fly by @acroamatica

19k words, rated m kylo ren/armitage hux (star wars: tfa)

summary:

One sunny afternoon in the mountains of Washington state, Ben Organa-Solo walked out into the woods. He never came home. Six years later, a journalist specialising in missing-persons cold cases decides to follow his footsteps and see where they might lead.

brawls' notes: a masterpiece of vibes. this reads so much like a spooky mystery novel, but with a creeping, anxious dread. perfect for the season if you want that true autumnal sort of chill. i've carried this fic in my heart for nearly a decade now—it has inspired me in my own writing so much over the years.

—

grey stars on the rise by @iodhadh

4k words, rated e song lan/xue yang/xiao xingchen (the untamed/mdzs) summary:

Xiao Xingchen comes back. Xiao Xingchen comes back wrong. It takes too long, maybe, for Xue Yang to realize something is wrong with Song Lan too.

brawls' notes: the exact embodiment of: be careful what you wish for. brutal and crushing and so deeply, utterly satisfying. absolute yi-city perfection: the vibes are wretched but strangely romantic (chefs kiss).

—

half your life you've been hooked on death by @whatever-you-can-give-me

4k words, rated m vash the stampede/nicholas d. wolfwood (trigun) summary:

Wolfwood is cornered in an alleyway. Things get worse before they get better.

brawls' notes: and what's a horror rec list without a little bit of gore? whump and blood and near-death-experiences—oh my. this is brutal and feverish and exactly the right flavor.

—

black rock mountain by @bokuno-jinsei

24k words, rated e will graham/hannibal lecter (hannibal) summary:

Will is a hitchhiker with questionable hobbies. Hannibal is a man who has questionable motives. When Hannibal drives by Will who just so happens to need a ride, things quickly take a turn from the questionable to the downright depraved.

brawls' notes: you know That Fic that is really the epitome of that pairing for you? yeah, this is it for me. perfect alternate first-meeting fic. lives rent-free in my head.

👻👁️🎃🔪👻👁️🎃🔪👻👁️🎃🔪👻👁️🎃🔪👻👁️🎃🔪👻👁️🎃🔪👻👁️🎃🔪

and hey, why not be a little self-indulgent: i can't help but rec a few of my own horror fics here, too:

old growth

21k, rated m song lan/xue yang/xiao xingchen (the untamed/mdzs) summary:

There’s something in the woods outside of their hometown. Xue Yang and Song Lan are going to find it.

brawls' notes: i tried something new with the formatting on this one and i think it panned out solidly and was a desperately fun way to tell the story. this is full of spooky, sleepless forest vibes.

—

what's real or isn't

57k, rated e kylo ren/armitage hux (star wars: tfa) summary:

Hux's new house is not haunted. It isn't.

brawls' notes: i honestly love playing favorites and this is one of mine. this was a load of fun to write—it's chock-full of vibes, personal experiences, local history, and love notes to my favorite horror stories.

—

acquiesce

16k, rated e original luo binghe/original shen qingqiu (svsss) summary:

After seeing the gentle and loving Shen Qingqiu of the other world, Luo Binghe returns to his own with a hunger that can only be satisfied by one thing—a Shizun of his very own.

brawls' notes: this isn't spooky or haunted, but it is psychological horror—packed with nightmares, flashbacks, dread, and manipulation. enjoy!

👻👁️🎃🔪👻👁️🎃🔪👻👁️🎃🔪👻👁️🎃🔪👻👁️🎃🔪👻👁️🎃🔪👻👁️🎃🔪

and that's it! hope you find something fun to read for this october 🖤

and again—please reblog and add your own horror recs if you are feeling so inclined!

[cecilysass]

Shine On (16/16)

Read on AO3 | Tagging @today-in-fic

Chapter 16: Crazy Diamond

Farrs Corner, Virginia February 25, 2015 Two hours later

It turns out that Bunny Man Bridge is just a bridge. And okay, it’s a little creepy-looking—a one lane road going into a yellowed concrete tunnel under a train overpass—but not very eventful on a sunny, late winter afternoon. There aren’t signs of apparitions, dead bodies, or even Satanic graffiti. Which Jackson finds kind of disappointing after all Mulder’s talk.

Mulder drones on about the telltale hallmarks of paranormal activity, but since most of them would have involved interviewing human witnesses, they don’t seem very promising to investigate. There’s no one around but Jackson, Mulder, and Scully. And interested squirrels.

Still, Jackson is enjoying the outing. He and Mulder scramble up to the top of the bridge and look around the railroad tracks for any clues. Scully watches from the road below, leaning against the car, smirking to herself. After a few minutes Mulder begins to call for the Bunny Man like a lost dog— “here, Mr. Bunny Man, come on, boy”—which makes Scully cover her mouth with her hand and laugh.

Mulder looks down from the bridge at her with this goofy little smile, a whole lot like he’s an eighth grader pleased with himself. Jackson tries hard not to shine the man’s mind, as he’s thinking a surprising quantity of inappropriate thoughts for an old guy.

He gets the basic gist, though—the important highlights. They’re back together.

Jackson can’t help but feel happy for them. Mulder’s hope is contagious. It’s everywhere in the man’s mind right now, even in the dirty parts. It’s inescapable, Mulder’s hope. Like an annoying mylar balloon that keeps floating into your face. Even shining him a little makes Jackson’s own emotions begin to feel lighter, too.

“Is the investigation over?” Scully calls up to them. “I’m hungry.” She cocks her head strategically. “We could go pick up fresh bagels.”

Jackson raises his eyebrows. “I could eat.”

“I think we’re just about wrapped up here,” Mulder calls back. “It’s going to be kind of a drive for bagels though. We’re in the country, Scully.”

She shrugs and smiles. From her pocket her phone starts to buzz, and she rushes to pull it out, sliding into the car to take the call. As Jackson understands it, she’s finishing up odds and ends of her hospital job before she goes back to the FBI.

Mulder regards Jackson seriously. “I’ve got to tell you, Jackson—I’m not noticing any classic signs,” he says, gesturing around them. “No change in temperature, no strange odor.” He points to the birds chirping in the trees around them. “I still hear local wildlife going strong.”

“Yeah,” Jackson says with a sigh. “Maybe the Bunny Man really does only show up on Halloween.”

Mulder’s eyes light up. “Well, possibly we could come back—” He stops himself, but it’s too late. Jackson knows exactly what he was going to say, and he knows exactly why he stopped.

They don’t know where Jackson will be at Halloween. That’s eight months away. He could very well be locked in a juvenile justice facility. That reality hasn’t gone away, however much Mulder and Jackson want to forget and play ghost hunter. Everyone keeps acting like Jackson is just going to stay here and play pretend son, but that’s just not the case.

Jackson has to turn away from Mulder now. Sometimes other people’s hope is painful.

They have to be careful on the way down; the embankment down the side of the bridge is steep. Jackson’s feet, skidding out of control, stumble the last few steps down, and Mulder grabs his arm to steady him.

“You okay there?”

“Yeah, thanks,” Jackson mumbles.

Mulder’s thoughts are a burgeoning swell of concern, and Jackson knows he’s probably been doing a little shining. “Listen, Jackson—”

“You’ve actually seen ghosts before, right?” Jackson interrupts. He looks around at the wooded area around the bridge, then back at Mulder. “Not just read about them?”

Mulder considers him a moment. “I have, yes.”

“Who were the ghosts?” Jackson asks.

“The ghosts themselves? You mean in life?”

“Yeah. Did you know them?”

Mulder thinks about his answer. “One time it was a couple,” he says. “A couple who died together on Christmas.”

Jackson thinks about that for a moment, a couple who died together and spent eternity together, too. It seems like that might be good. Not entirely unhappy. He gets little visual flashes from Mulder’s memories, but he pushes them out—he’d rather make up his own little story about these ghosts.

“You never met the ghost of anyone you knew when they were alive?” Jackson asks. He hesitates. “Like … your own parents, maybe?”

Mulder’s head turns sharply to him. His gray-green eyes are sorrowful, then shift infinitesimally into sympathy and pity.

“Jackson,” he says, his words subdued, “you won’t get your parents back by searching for ghosts.”

A bird trills nearby, and Jackson’s gaze follows the sound. “Yeah,” he says.

His eyes again fill with tears. This is one of those things he knows he should know better about. Something he can see is a delusion—an idea gullible kids hold on to— but he wants to believe anyway. He wants to think that one day he might see his mom and dad again. How stupid, to imagine friendly ghosts who might pat him reassuringly on the shoulder and tell him it’s okay.

They both stand facing the steep bank of trees, saying nothing.

A very clear sentence runs through Mulder’s mind. If he were staying with us, I would make sure he got a new therapist.

Jackson can’t help but smile, wiping his tears. “If I were staying with you, I’d probably really need one.”

“Yeah.” Mulder snorts a laugh. “You probably would.”

***

Back in the car, Scully is sitting in the driver’s seat, unmoving, waiting for them. The radio is on, turned down very low, a murmur of voices.

“No ghosts,” Jackson informs her as he slides in the back. “Mulder says we can try Gadsby Tavern in Alexandria next time.”

“You all done with your call?” Mulder asks her, giving her a curious look. “Was it the hospital?”

“It wasn’t.” Scully says in a strange voice. “It was Skinner. He had news.”

“Oh yeah? What kind of news?”

“There’s been new evidence in the Van De Kamps’ case. Apparently a … witness remembers seeing a man wanted in Colorado in the neighborhood that morning, leaving the scene.”

“What?” Jackson inhales.

“The charges against Jackson have been dropped. He’s considered a missing child now. The Rawlins police are having a press conference, so it will be hitting the media today at some point.”

“A witness emerges from nowhere?” Mulder asks.

“Yes,” Scully says, and Jackson watches her eyes latch on to his. “And Skinner says the name of this witness has been strangely hard to come by, even for the Bureau.”

“This is good news though,” Jackson insists. “Right? It means I’m free. It’s good.”

He looks from Scully to Mulder. They both turn to him in the backseat, their faces blooming in simultaneous smiles. They’re both holding something back, but they’re not insincere.

“It is, Jackson,” Scully agrees. “You’re right. It means you have a lot more options.” He senses her worry simmering underneath. Something wrong here. Another shoe about to drop.

“Maybe I can call people now,” Jackson says, his eyes darting hesitantly between them. “My friend Louis. Maybe my uncle Wyatt.”

“Probably very soon,” Mulder says, nodding. “I’d like to wait until we know … just a little more.”

“You’re both worried,” Jackson observes softly. “You think something is weird.”

There’s a silence in the car as Scully starts the engine.

“We’re cautious,” Mulder says. “Happy, but cautious.”

***

When they get home from their bagel pick up—and Mulder was right, it was kind of a drive to get to the place with good bagels—Jackson is washing his hands in the kitchen when he feels Rose’s tiny nudge into his mind.

Apparently she’s back at home now, wherever that is. She tells him to pass on some messages. He’s happy to hear from her. He badly wants to tell her his good news, but he thinks about what Mulder and Scully said, and he decides to wait a little.

Jackson can hear Mulder talking on the phone outside. Actually, he is apparently taking a break from talking to whoever is on the line to discuss something back and forth very animatedly with Scully. Neither one of them really holds back their opinion, he’s noticed.

He’s started to put together a few more pieces about them. For one, he’s been curious about how Mulder pays his bills. Jackson’s parents always were very careful about money—clipping coupons, thinking through monthly budgets—but Mulder thinks about money much less than most adults.

Jackson knows that Scully is a doctor, and Jackson understands that doctors make high salaries, which explains her nice car and nice clothes. But Mulder hasn’t seemed to have a regular job for years, and Jackson doesn’t think FBI agents make enough to retire decades early.

When they came home with their dozen bagels, Mulder and Scully went to call this lawyer right away, both of them very determined. From what Jackson can gather, it seems to be a lawyer associated with Mulder’s family. So, Jackson infers, Mulder comes from some kind of family money. He wonders why Mulder doesn’t use it to buy a fancier house or car.

As he selects another bagel, he wonders about Mulder’s family. Who were they? How did they get rich? He wonders about Scully’s family, too. What’s her mother like, the one who is still alive? He could probably ask them all of these questions now that he isn’t a wanted man. Maybe he could even meet the mysterious grandmother now.

Outside Mulder and Scully still seem deeply invested in talking to the lawyer, so Jackson plops down on the couch with his cinnamon raisin bagel.

Chewing silently, he remembers what Scully said about the media getting the story soon. He searches around for the remote and turns on Mulder’s TV, pressing buttons to find a news channel.

When he does, he can tell instantly: the story is public.

A blonde reporter clad in a bright blue coat stands on a snow-covered street in downtown Rawlins, with the words “New Development in Wyoming Murder Case: Police Apologize to Runaway Teen” sprawled underneath her. Jackson is so shocked to see the familiar storefronts of his hometown on the national news he can barely focus on the words.

“...police believe that the victims’ son fled out of fear, and they hope Jackson Van De Kamp will be found safely.”

One of the police officers who’d been at Jackson’s school that horrible day—Davis was his name, Jackson remembers—stands in front of a microphone, looking gray and stricken: “We admit when we make mistakes, and this was a mistake. Mr. Van De Kamp is innocent of all wrongdoing. In all likelihood, he’s a scared and grieving kid. If you can hear this, Jackson, buddy, we want you to come home.”

Jackson stares at the screen open-mouthed, clutching his half-eaten bagel tightly. The rest of the report seems to slide right past him.

“Was that it?” Scully says sharply from behind him. The news has moved on to something else. “Was that the story about you?”

“Yeah,” Jackson says, his voice sounding like a small boy’s.

Scully walks around and sits down next to him on the couch. She picks up the remote and switches the TV off.

She peers at his face. “Are you okay, Jackson?”

“I don’t know,” he says. “The police … uh, begged me … to come home. To Wyoming.”

Scully’s eyes are so wide, so icy blue—exactly like Rose’s. They run all over him, as if studiously taking in every detail.

“Do you want to go back?” she asks.

“I don’t know,” he repeats, blinking.

She picks up his plate off of the coffee table, offering it to him. He sets his bagel down on it dazedly. She replaces the plate on the table.

“You have some decisions to make, Jackson,” she says, her voice gentle. “Not all of them right away. But you do have some decisions to make.”

Mulder appears behind her, his hand reaching for her shoulder. He’s watching Jackson closely, too.

“We spoke to the lawyer about the … custody possibilities,” Scully says. Jackson recognizes suddenly that she’s very nervous. He can feel fear starting to roll off of her in steady waves. “It’s most likely a relative has official custody of you now. Probably your uncle Wyatt?”

Jackson nods slowly. He can’t think of who else would.

“We can talk to your uncle about other possibilities,” Scully says carefully. “Living with us. Short term … or longer term. There are a range of options in the kind of relationship you could have with us. You could just do visits. We could have some kind of shared custody. There’s, uh, more permanent arrangements. Like legal guardianship. Adoption.” She swallows. Her fear is pulsing around Jackson now like a heartbeat. “I don’t know how your uncle will feel about any of this, but we thought we’d check with you before pursuing anything else. We want you to be the one … in the driver’s seat.”

Jackson reaches out his hand to rest on her arm. He doesn’t want her to be so terrified. It’s stupid. Unnecessary. Of course he wants to live with them. She stills at his touch, her eyes widening.

“Yeah,” he says. “I want to see Uncle Wyatt—like, for visits. He’s family. But I’d like to stay here. If that’s possible, I mean.”

Scully seems unable to suppress her initial reaction: she bursts into a pink-cheeked smile; she exchanges a quick, amazed look with Mulder. Her hand covers Jackson’s, and he can feel her intentionally calming herself down. “We’re happy you feel like that, of course. But that was … a fast decision. Are you sure? You can think about it. All the time you need.”

“Yeah, I’m pretty sure.” He tries to make his own tone sound casual, breezy. “Uncle Wyatt has too many dogs and goes to a crazy church,” he says with a shrug. “And I don’t think he’ll argue with you too much if you say you want me to live here. I broke his big screen TV once, and he thinks I’m annoying.”

Jackson doesn’t say everything he’s thinking. That he would actually really like to see what it would be like to be part of their family. That he’d like to know what love felt like, everyday, with them. That he thinks it would be easy, somehow—much easier than he might have expected. That he thinks he understands now that this new relationship with them has nothing to do with replacing his parents.

Mulder’s smile is so wide that Jackson suspects he eavesdropped. “We’d love to have you, Jackson,” he says.

“We’ll talk to your uncle,” adds Scully. “We can be more specific about your options after that.”

“Rose said she could teach you more about how to block me, you know,” Jackson tells them tactfully. “So you wouldn’t have to worry as much about… not having privacy. You know.”

Scully flushes, and Mulder hides a smile. “That might be nice,” Scully says.

“She also said there was a really good STEM high school in Alexandria,” Jackson suggests with more feigned disinterest.

“Rose is full of advice,” Mulder observes wryly.

“Yep,” Jackson agrees. “I got a message from her, by the way.” He eyes the bagel on his plate again. “When you all first went in to call the lawyer.”

“Really?” Mulder says. “A … psychic message?”

“That sounds kind of overdramatic,” Jackson says, rolling his eyes and picking his bagel back up. “But yeah. She said she was home.”

“Good,” Scully says. “That’s good.” She throws Mulder a glance.

“She also said to tell you something, Scully.”

“She … did?”

“She said to tell you that they listened to her.” He looks at Scully to see if that’s meaningful, but her face looks blank. “Rose said that … she told them what she wanted, and they listened.”

He shrugs, deciding it doesn’t matter that much, and he takes a big bite of the bagel. Scully has a point about getting them fresh, he decides. They taste so much better this way. You could only get bagels in a bag at the grocery store in Rawlins.

A plummeting feeling from the pit of Scully’s stomach makes him look up.

“What?” Mulder asks her. “What’s wrong? Are you okay?”

Scully’s face has lost color. “No. I just …”

“Who listened to her?” Mulder insists. “What does that message mean?”

“I asked her … if the Walled Garden leaders listened to her,” Scully says in a low voice. “If they respected her.”

Jackson swallows part of his bagel so he’s able to talk. Through a mouthful: “You think she asked the Walled Garden for something she wanted?”

Mulder stares at Jackson, and then turns back to Scully, his eyes widening. “You think she asked them for something she wanted,” he repeats in a low voice, realizing. “Oh wow.”

“This morning, she said she was going home to take care of something,” Scully whispers, her eyes on him.

Jackson swallows his last mouthful. “What?”

“So she goes home,” Mulder says in disbelief to Scully. “And within a few hours…”

“Is it possible, Mulder?”

Jackson finally gets it. “You think she asked the Walled Garden to make sure the charges were dropped against me. Don’t you?”

Scully and Mulder are still looking hard at one another. “It happened so fast,” Mulder says. “All in less than six hours. If it was really the machinations of the Walled Garden…”

“They have an alarming amount of power,” says Scully. “Over multiple entities of government. An amount of power comparable to…”

“The Syndicate.” Mulder sits next to them on the couch, puts his head in his hands. “Can this be true? I don’t know what to make of an organization like this. They’re not even… strictly human. But they may be involved in… it’s overwhelming.”

They don’t say anything for a moment, looking dazed. Jackson watches them both in profile, unsure what to say.

“What do we do, Scully?” Mulder says.

She looks away, towards the window. There are entire worlds—entire universes—in Scully’s eyes. Jackson feels weirdly like his shine is lost in something enormous.

“I guess it’s fortunate there’s an investigative unit of the FBI qualified to keep an eye on them,” Scully says slowly and resolutely at last.

She turns and picks up Mulder’s hand. He lifts his head out of his hands and meets her stare.

“And keep an eye on Rose, too?” Jackson says incredulously.

“Yeah,” agrees Mulder, a strange finality. “And keep an eye on Rose.”

A fierce undertow of worry from Scully. But is Rose on the right side? How could we convince her? What if Rose were involved with something fundamentally wrong? What about any other members of the Walled Garden Mulder might feel connected to?

They’re frighteningly powerful anxieties, and Jackson doesn’t even understand some of them. They’re shot through with the stinging, luminous heat of her love. But weirdly he doesn’t feel himself getting drawn into these anxieties right now, even though he’s prone to worrying himself.

It’s just the more overwhelming emotion coming at him right now is what’s coming from Mulder. This ridiculous hopefulness. Bigger and more buoyant than ever. It fills up, expands and crowds out all competing feelings.

Jackson isn’t sure if Mulder is essentially being like a gullible kid—if he wants to believe things that aren’t true just to comfort himself. If that’s true, he is much, much better at it than Jackson. Because every cell in his body seems to be singing the same song: somehow, this will be okay. Somehow, what's wrong is going to get better. Jackson decides Mulder feeling like this is a good thing, even if it's not an entirely logical or sane thing.

As Mulder draws Scully into his side, and suggests they watch his favorite movie—some old movie about space that Scully protests vehemently—Jackson notices the influence of Mulder’s hope beginning to work on her, too. She’s arguing back, but she’s starting to relax, too. She’s got this little smile on her lips. Her anxieties are receding, falling into the background.

Jackson pulls his knees up at his end of the couch and stops listening to their good-natured argument. He wonders how it would be received if he asked if his friend Louis could come visit some time. He has a brilliant idea about splashing red paint around the inside of the Bunny Man Bridge and freaking the shit out of Louis. It would be hilarious. Also, he’d just like to see Louis. He misses him.

Mulder and Scully want Jackson to be the tie-breaker in deciding the movie. They both look over and ask him, with curious faces, what he wants to watch.

He doesn’t hesitate. “Finding Nemo,” he suggests at once. “Or The Incredibles.”

“Aren’t those kid movies?” Mulder asks suspiciously.

“Not ... entirely,” Jackson says.

“What are they about, then?”

Jackson considers his answer a minute and lands upon the right words. “They’re about doing crazy shit for your family.”

He wins.

***

Y'all, thank you so much for reading. I’m truly grateful for all of your encouraging, supportive notes and tags. You have no idea what they mean.

[brf-rumortrackinganon]

A Roundup of the Kate Conspiracy Theories from Twitter

So you don't have to go down the rabbit hole. Some of them are dark; I'll put those at the end below the cut so anyone who wants to scroll away can scroll away.

(My favorites in bold)

She had a BBL (Brazilian Butt Lift).

She's Banksy.

Botched cosmetic procedure, needed urgent fixing.

William cheated with Rose again and she left him, taking the kids with her.

Hysterectomy + tummy tuck = botched.

Bad haircut/dye job.

Kept a pregnancy secret, delivered by c-section.

Diana's revenge

William lost his temper and beat her so badly that they're keeping her hidden till the bruises/broken bones are healed.

William kicked her out because he doesn't want her to be Queen.

Divorce of the Wales Part Two because William cheated

Bottom surgery

Kate grew a conscience so they had to kill her and are now replacing her brain with AI.

Shelly Miscavige'd

She abandoned and fled to a tropical beach.

She quit the royal family and is touring Britain in a converted transit van, selling dreamcatchers made from her own hair on Etsy to make ends meet.

Kate donated a kidney to Charles in return for becoming Queen soon.

Boob job

She went through a cosmic wormhole and left the Milky Way Galaxy.

Female 007

She's the one with cancer, Charles is faking it so everyone leaves her alone.

Took the kids and moved to Scotland

Growing out bad bangs

Meghan's karmic revenge

They're building a robot clone of her so she doesn't have to work anymore.

Trying to reach the end of YouTube shorts

Coma from botched surgery

The press knows but are under a gag order/injunction and can't report

She was never in the hospital.

William threw something at her, it hit her in the face, needs corrective surgery

Complications from pregnancy and on bed rest

Cholecystectomy/gall bladder surgery

Spontaneously combusted

Tragic accident a la Diana, better cover-up this time.

Charles actually died, it's just an actor walking around until the Waleses are ready to take the throne officially.

Botched BBL using her own stomach fat.

Rehab for alcoholism

Being reprogrammed to accept mistresses

She's playing Celebrity Big Brother

IVF transfer and first trimester HG recovery

Banished/handled by Camilla

Facelift

Bad botox/filler, waiting for it to dissolve

Put out to pasture by the royal family because she's finished having children.

Abducted by aliens

William didn't want to start his reign married to someone he hated, so he left her and is forcing a divorce.

She ran away to Italy

Argument over where George would go to school, William made it physical, she tried to leave

She's in the Princess Protection Program

At Chili's chugging margaritas

Binged too much at Christmas, now trying to lose weight

She wandered off during the Glasgow Willy Wonka Experience and is stuck to the ceiling after drinking the fizzy lifting drink and they can't get her down.

Smuggled to America

Mental breakdown from William's cheating

Inpatient treatment for eating disorder

Complicated miscarriage

CPTSD breakdown (complex post-traumatic stress)

All the people that Twitter suggested we need to call to investigate Kate's whereabouts:

Sherlock Holmes (Benedict Cumberbatch edition)

Scully and Mulder (X Files)

Captain Olivia Benson (L&O:SVU)

Charlie from It's Always Sunny

Nanny Jo Frost

Steve and Blue (Blue's Clues)

Sergent Catherine Cawood (Happy Valley)

Rustin Chole (Matthew McConaughey from True Detective)

Harriet the Spy

Luther (Idris Elba edition)

Trevor Rainbolt

Jaz Singh (British Traitors edition)

One final reminder: The really dark theories about Kate are below the cut here.

William went into a drunk alcoholic rage and killed her.

Staph infection/sepsis from the trampoline injury that caused paralysis/amputation

Family annihilation by William

Severely injured in shooting accident at Sandringham shortly after Christmas when an ambulance was rushed to hospital from the royal estate.

Suicide attempt and mental health treatment

William beat her into a coma

[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.”  

[slippinmickeys]

A storm is raging outside the Unremarkable House. What’s going on inside?

It only took five minutes before the power failed. One minute it was sunny, and the next the sky darkened and a thick gray cloud rolled in, tucked up tightly into the one in front of it, neat as hospital corners. Two bright flashes, one roll of thunder, and that was it: it all went dark.

Mulder had talked about having a generator installed, but they hadn’t gotten around to it and they found themselves in the dull dim, forks poised halfway to their mouths, the old oven clicking as it cooled, vegetarian lasagne congealing quietly on the table in front of them.

Mulder banged around in the kitchen, looking for lighters, for candles, while Scully calmly glugged a little more Syrah into her wine glass, tranquil in spite of the tempest outside the unremarkable house.

A harsh low swear word, and she leaned forward, elbows on the table, a crumb biting into her skin.

“Leave it Mulder,” she said serenely, "it doesn't matter. There’s still enough light to see by. Sunset’s not for another three hours.” The wine had made her loose limbed and sedate, all airy and warm bones, her body slow to react to the thunder shaking the house.

Mulder slowly erected himself to standing where he was hunched over the kitchen junk drawer, giving her a frank assessing look. “You’re drunk,” he said, not quite accusing, not at all upset.

She shrugged and took another sip of wine, letting the liquid roll over the back of her tongue, the dry tang of leather and tobacco, currant and jam filling her senses and warming her belly.

“I’m just saying, let your rods and cones adjust. You’ll be able to see enough to eat.”

He crossed his arms, leaned against the countertop behind him. Despite the dim, she could make out the delineation of muscle in his forearms, the dark spray of hair over the skin. She may or may not have touched the skin below her throat.

“What about the leftovers?” he asked. “I can’t see enough to clean up. Power might not be back up until tomorrow. Should we get this in the fridge?”

She pinned him with her stare. “You open that refrigerator door and I’ll take you out at the knees.”

He didn’t seem to be entirely intimidated by her threat, instead looking intrigued, and played a little with the neck of his shirt.

“There may not be enough leftovers to save, fine, but what about all the veggies?” He’d put together a small serving of greens, and the sideboard was still piled with lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes. “I’d hate to see it all go bad.”

Something about the way he was fingering his collar made her a little warm under her own. She set down the wine glass, leaned forward.

“You don’t win friends with salad,” she said, and despite the shadows that enveloped the room, she saw something sharpen behind his eyes.

“Oh?” he said, shoving off the countertop and approaching her slowly. “How do you win friends?”

“I actually read a book about this,” she said, as if he weren’t intimately familiar with every book on their shelf.

“And what did it say?” he asked, and he was looming over her by the time she started ticking off things on her fingers, wind buffeting off of the shutters, rain tinking into the glass.

“Don’t criticize,” she said, touching a finger. “Give honest and sincere appreciation,” she continued, touching another. Mulder licked his lips and his eyes seemed to flit over her face. “Arouse in the other person an eager want,” she went on.

He leaned forward slowly, gripping the arms of her chair until they creaked under his hands.

“Arouse,” he repeated slowly, “an eager want.” A flash of lightning cut across the sky, illuminating, for less than a split second, the rough weft of his beard and the dark round void of his pupils.

“Mm-hmm,” she said, losing her train of thought.

A fresh wave of rain began to pound on the roof.

“I believe,” Mulder said, leaning down into her space, “that my rods and cones have adjusted.”

She leaned back. “And can you see enough to eat?” she asked primly.

He lowered himself slowly to his knees, joints popping as he settled himself in front of her. “I think you’re right,” he said, reaching for her fly, “I don’t think light is going to be a problem.”

Her blood fizzed and pooled low in her abdomen.

“You forming any criticisms?” he asked, lowering the zipper of her pants one rough tooth at a time.

She shook her head, reached out to fan her fingers through the dark pelt of his hair.

“Only honest and sincere appreciation,” she said, and the storm raged on.

[randomfoggytiger]

Hi! I’ve read many of your meta and analyses (and loved them all really) so I was curious to know what your thoughts are on Reyes as a character cause I remember reading some on Doggett but I’m not sure if you’ve ever talked about Reyes

TLDR; Monica Reyes is a sunny but FBI-tempered version of Melissa Scully (with just enough cynicism and drive to differentiate them.)

Monica Reyes doesn't really have a distinct character-- in Season 8, at least, where I park canon. Haven't seen Season 9, but from what I've read it's pretty similar.

Reyes was even more one-dimensional in the scripts-- shoutout to boggsfiles's website-- depicted as sunshiney and cheerful (so much so she endeared Mulder to her pushy ways) and less able to control her expressive feelings (displaying more obvious fear during Scully's labor and delivery.) Annabeth Gish gave her a little balance, I think: her sunshine is more stable, mature; and, though she's FBI-trained, investigator pushy, it's not to the same degree as Melissa-Scully-barreling-past-all-signals-known-to-man pushy. She slots very nicely into Scully's sister's niche... which reminds me.

I'm pretty sure CC meant her to be a Melissa 2.0.

In poking about canon with a fine-toothed comb, I found it was CC who refused to let Mulder and Melissa hit it off romantically (a wise choice), CC who chose to kill Melissa off, and CC who, apparently, brought her constantly back. For whatever reason, he really connected to her character or her connection to Scully's character. Which is great-- it gave us many moments that addressed, instead of ignored, the impact of her death on Scully. But back to Reyes.

Monica is directly compared to Melissa in Existence, is given her "powers" or "vibes" or whathaveyou, is able to stand up to and annoy Mulder in the same breath (and in the same way), and is "Melissa Scully right" about her intuitions. She is introduced to all as a friend, not a romantic option (which changes in S9, I guess.) However, she's also not an outright believer-- not quite buying Scully's alien abduction theory in This Is Not Happening, but not not buying it-- although that's likely because the FBI trained her to be wisely skeptical instead of breathlessly accepting. And she, unlike Melissa, likes poking around in the unresolved. Melissa prefers acceptance and closure, asking Scully to access her repressed memories not to get to "the truth", but in order to move past her experience. Monica, meanwhile, requires in-depth exploration, reopening Luke Doggett's case and investigating behind Doggett's back with Mulder to get to the heart of the matter-- more hard-wired to seek the truth with a capital T.

I need to dive deeper into This Is Not Happening because that's the episode where her character is depicted (if I recall correctly) with nuance... despite the large chunk of time on-screen during Empedocles and Existence (a problem S8 had with length of time vs. depth of writing.)

What I will say: she beats to her own drum, more so than Melissa, more so than Mulder. While Scully is interconnected for praise and strength, Mulder is interconnected for trust and support, Doggett is interconnected for companionship and loyalty, Skinner is interconnected for protection and duty, and Melissa is interconnected for love and caregiving, Monica is interconnected for alliance and forward progress.

[rexlottie]

500 million references for artfight

[catholic-character-tournament]

Catholic Character Tournament

Current Bracket

All polls here (tagged #cct polls)

Round 5 (16 nominees) is Wednesday July 5 12 PST

Character Submission List:

(Note, not in the order in the bracket. They were randomized for the bracket) (crossed out means dead-dead)

*707/Luciel Choi (Mystic Messenger)

*Abuela Alma Madrigal (Encanto)

*Akane Kurashiki (Zero Escape)

*Amon from (Tokyo Ghoul)

*Angel (Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel the Series)

*Asia Argento (High School DxD)

Aslan from (Chronicles of Narnia)

*Aymeric de Borel (Final Fantasy 14)

*Aziraphale (Good Omens) (Disqualified) The Volturi

*Belizabeth Brassica (Dimension 20's A Crown of Candy)

*Bishop Raphaniel Charlock (Dimension 20 - the Ravening War)

*Blake Langermann (Outlast 2)

*Brother Cellanus (The Completely Unerotic Adventures of Brother Cellanus)

*Caesar Zeppeli (Jojo's Bizarre Adventure)

*Carlos Reyes (911 Lone Star)

*Carrie White (Carrie)

*Catherine of Aragon (SIX: the Musical)

*CC (Code Geass)

*Chrollo Lucilfer (Hunter x Hunter)

*Chuck E. Cheese

*Claude Frollo(The Hunchback of Notre Dame)

*Crowley (Good Omens) (Disqualified) Vanessa Ives replacement (Penny Dreadful)

Dana Scully (the X files)

Doomguy  (Doom)

*Double (Skullgirls)

Doug Jones (The VelociPastor)

*Dracule Mihawk (One Piece)

*Duo Maxwell (Gundam Wing)

*Eddie Brock (Venom)

*Emilio Santoz from The Sparrow

Enrico Pucci (Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure)

*Farnese de Vandimion (Berserk)

*Father Alexander Anderson (Hellsing)

*Father Brown (Father Brown)

Father John Mulcahy (MASH)

Father Paul (Midnight Mass)

*Felicia Hardy/Black Cat (Spiderman)

Firestar (Warrior Cats)

*Flayn (Fire Emblem Three Houses)

*Frank Castle (Marvel)

Friar Tuck (Robin Hood)

*Gabriel (Ultrakill)

*Galahad (The Mechanisms)

*Gerard (Unholyverse)

Gloria Maria Ramirez Delgado-Pritchett (Modern Family)

Harrowhark Nonagesimus (The Locked Tomb)

*Helena Bertinlli (DC comics)

Hell boy (HellBoy)

Homura Akemi (Madoka Magica)

*Hot Pants (Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure)

*Ibara Shiozaki (My Hero Academia)

*Inori Yamabuki/Cure Pine (Fresh Precure)

Jason Todd (DC Comics)

*Javert (Les Miserables)

Jean Valjean (Les Misérables)

*Jeanne d'Arc (Alter) (Fate/Grand Order)

*Jesus (Jesus Christ Superstar) 

*John "Soap" MacTavish (Call of Duty)

*John Gaius (The Locked Tomb)

*John Ward (FAITH)

*Johnathan (Shin Megami Tensei IV)

*Junk Rat (Overwatch)

*Justin Law (Soul eater)

*Kawabuchi Sentarou (Kids on the Slope)

Kaworu Nagisa (Neon Genesis Evangelion)

*Kirei Kotomine (Fate franchise)

Knuckes the Echidna (Sonic)

*Kristen Applebees (Dimension 20's Fantasy High)

*Kuroe (Magia Record)

Kurt Wagner/Nightcrawler (X-Men)

*Ky Kiske (Guilty Gear)

*Kyoko Sakura (Puella Magi Madoka Magica)

*Lady Rhea (Fire Emblem: Three Houses)

*Leliana (Dragon Age)

*Leon (8:11)

*Lestat de Lioncourt (The Vampire Chronicles)

*Libra (Fire Emblem: Awakening)

*Link (The Legend of Zelda)

*Louis de Pointe du Lac (Interview with the Vampire/The Vampire Chronicles)

*Luis Serra Navarro (Resident Evil)

Mac McDonald (It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia)

Maddie Fitzpatrick (Suite Life of Zack and Cody)

*Marcy Park (The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee)

*Mark Heathcliff (The Mandela Catalogue)

Matt Murdock/Daredevil (Marvel)

*Mello (Death Note)

*Mercedes (Fire Emblem: Three Houses)

*Michael Carpenter (Dresden Files)

*Michael Corleone (The Godfather)

Miles Morales/Spider-Man

*Nate Ford (Leverage)

Nicholas D. Wolfwood (Trigun)

*Nico di Angelo (Percy Jackson)

*Ocean O'Connell Rosenberg (Ride the Cyclone)

*Pastry Cookie (Cookie Run Kingdom)

*Patton Sanders (Sanders Sides (Web Series))

Pope Pinion IV (Cars)

Puss in Boots (Shrek)

Quasimodo (The Hunchback of Notre Dame)

Remy LeBeau/Gambit (X-Men)

*Rin Okumura (Blue Exorcist)

*RoboCop (RoboCop)

Ronan Lynch (The Raven Cycle)

*Ryker (Roleslaying With Roman)

*Saint Citrina Rocks (Dimension 20's A Crown of Candy)

*Sasuke (Naruto)

*SCP-166 (Just a Teenage Gaia) 

*Seeley Booth (Bones)

Shadow the Hedgehog (Sonic)

*Shiro Fujimoto (Blue Exorcist)

Simon Belmont (Castlevania)

*Sir Keradin Deeproot (Dimension 20's A Crown of Candy)

*Sister Mary (The Young Pope)

Sister Michael (Derry Girls)

*Steve Rogers/Captain America (Marvel)

*Tammy Edwards (Legoland by Jacob Richmond) 

*Tatsumi Kazehaya (Ensemble Stars)

*Temenos Mistral (Octopath Traveler 2)

The Derry Girls (Derry Girls)

*The Penitent One (Blasphemous)

*Tobias Schneien (Ghost Eyes)

*Valeria Garaz (Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 reboot)

*Valery Michailov (Goncharov - 1973)

*Vector the Crocodile (Sonic the Hedgehog)

*Vito Corleone (The Godfather)

*Wesley Hailoh (Rhyme and Reason)

*William Murdoch (Murdoch Mysteries)

*Zakuro Fujiwara (Tokyo Mew Mew)

[the-bitterest-breakups-poll]

Bracket!

Its done! 64 competitors on this.

its so small I will put the mashups under the cut, but know that the first 8 polls, Round 1 A will release on Sunday, August 20th, 3pm EST, and will last 1 week.

If anyone has ANY specific photos they want me to use for anyone here, please send them to me. (Also if you see anyone on this list you like, feel free to send n more propaganda for them because I may put it in their poll and some people here don't have any lol)

Round 1 A

Edgar and Fay from Dolls of New Albion vs Obi Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker from star wars

Catra and Adora from She ra vs The doctor and the Master from Doctor who

Jekyll and Lanyon from The glass scientist vs Chell and Wheatley from Portal

Colm Doherty and Pádraic Súilleabháin from Banshees of Inisherin vs Chalres Xavier and Erik Lehnsherr from x -men

Jesus and Judas from Jesus Christ Superstar vs Rogue and Gambit from x- men

Grace and Simon from Infinity train vs kim Wexler and Jimmy from Better call Saul

Evellyn, Luel, and Sahar from Luna Story picross/coloring book apps vs Andreth and Aegnor from Silmarillion!

Anna and Hans from Frozen vs Kirk and SPock from Star trek

Round 1b

Ruth and Debbie from GLOW vs Agent Curt and Owen Carvour from Spies are forever

aziraphale & crowley from good omens vs Nastya and Aurora from Mechanism

John Doe and Arthur Lester from Malevolent vs Kotetsu and Barnaby from tiger and Bunny

Fitz and the fool from Realm of the Elderlings vs HeathCliff and cathy from Wuthering Heights

Akeelah and Dr.Larabee from akeelah and the bee vs Arthur and Guinevere from Arthurianna.

Peery the platypus and Dr. Heniz Doofenshmirtiz from phineas and Ferb vs Skull and vintage from Spatoon

Hil and Tavek from Girl Genius vs Vrisrezi from Homestuck

Harry Du bois and Dora Ingerlund from Disco Elysium vs Blake Belladonna and Yang Xiao-Long from RWBY

Round 1c

Jackieshannua from Yellow Jackets vs Addek from Greys Anatomy

Eddie and Shannon from 9-1-1 vs Mercymorn the First/Augustine the First/Emperor John Gaius from The locked tomb seris

Junpei and Skane from Zero escape vs Lea & Isa / Axel & Saïx from Kingdom hearts

Scooge MC'Duck and Goldie I'Gill Ducktails (2017) vsCavendish and Dakota from Milo Murphy's law

Rebecca Bunch and Josh Chen from Crazy ex-girlfriend vs Sophia and fitz from keeper of lost cities

Cherry and Adam from sk8 vs Dazi Osamu and Nakahara chuuya from Bungo Stray dog

 Shen Qingqiu & Yue Qingyuan from Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System vs Igor Grom and Sergey razumovski from Major Grom: Plague Doctor 

Jack harness and John Hart from Torchwood vs Yuma Tsukumo and Vector/Rei Shingetru from Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal

Round 1d

Powl and Mesothulas (trantulas) from transformers vs Jason Mcconnel and Peter simmonds from Bare: A pop Opera

Cappie and Even from Greek (2007) vs Junnana from Revue Starlight

The band Amatelast from Show By Rock! vs Mac Macdonald and Dennis Reynolds from Its always sunny in Philadelphia

Mulder and scully from x-files vsRosho and Sasara from Hypnosis Microphone!

Yoo Junghyuk and Anna Croft from omniscient reader vs Archie and maxie from Pokemon

sherlock and Watson from Blackeyed Theatre's Valley of Fear vs Anna, Sasha, and Marcy from Amphibia

The two boys from Bokura from Bokura vs Rom and Tammy from Parks and recs

[lost-technology]

Vash's Toma Adventures Yeehawgust Day 19 - Barbie Horse Adventures Save for a Graduation Barbie I got for my high school graduation year stuck in my closet somewhere, I do not currently own any Barbies. I rather miss the Holiday Barbies I used to have that I gave to family members... What I DO have is a collection of geeky little action figures and this toma that I made out of Sculpey and various bits and bobs years ago (which normally hangs out on my bookshelf next to an Epona I made and a dragon modeled after a species in one of my original novels). I decided to do something a little different for this challenge and instead of trying to draw things in a "Barbie" style, to do a photo-comic with my action figures, because they're kind of like Barbies, right? Vehicles for imagination and fun. [IMG ID: A series of photographs of action figures and a fanart sculpture of a toma / riding dinosaur-bird from Trigun taken against a wooden porch. 1st photo: Vash is standing next to the toma. Vash: "What a wonderful, sunny day, right Buttercup?" Toma: "Moo." 2nd photo: Wolfwood shows up with his cross punisher in wrappings. He is leaning against it. Vash: Wolfwood? What are you doing here? Wolfwood: Warnin' ya ta run, Spikey. 3rd photo: Mulder and Scully of The X-Files action figures show up. Mulder and Scully: "Hello, we are Special Agents Mulder and Scully of the FBI. Mr. Vash the Stampede, we are afraid that you are a wanted man. Please come with us." 4th photo: Wolfwood turns to face Mulder and Scully while Vash chases his fleeing toma, now with a kuroneko / black cat on the saddle. Wolfwood: "I'll hold them off." Vash: "Don't kill them!!!" Wolfwood: "Keep your pants on, they'll be fine." Vash: "Where did that cat come from? A cat just hijacked my toma!" 5th photo: Vash is chasing the toma with the cat on it. Vash: "Buttercup! Come back!" Kuroneko: "Nyao." / END IMG ID.]

[every-character-ever-poll]

WEEK ONE ENTRIES

Thank you all for your entries so far! Here is our current lineup, in chronological order of submission, along with their fandoms (according to the submitter). I have placed it under a cut, as the list is... much longer that I thought it would be when bulleted.

The polls will begin being posted on Sunday the 16th of July, and be regularly scheduled after that until this week's group has finished. "Weeks" will start on Sunday because that's the day my laptop calendar considers the beginning of the week.

Elias Bouchard - The Magnus Archives Podcast

Barren from the Baronies - Fantasy High (Dimension 20)

Philza Minecraft - The Dream SMP/Quackity SMP/Origins SMP

Jo Chastain - In Her Skin

Kaidou Shun - The Disasterous Life of Saiki K.

Jill Valentine - The Resident Evil game series

Edward Teach - Our Flag Means Death

Stede Bonnet - Our Flag Means Death

Karkat Vantas - Homestuck

Dave Strider - Homestuck

Donatello - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (specifically, Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles)

Susie - Deltarune

Koichi Haimawari - MHA Vigilantes

Dark Pit - Kid Icarus Uprising

My Melody - Sanrio

Alfur - Hilda

Kass - Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Labrys - Persona 4 (specifically, Persona 4 Arena)

Rinzler - Tron

Mitzi Mozzarella - The Rock-Afire Explosion (Showbiz Pizza Place)

Corvo Attano - Dishonoured

Kevin - SynthV

The Outsider - Dishonoured as well

Miyamoto Usagi - Usagi Yojimbo

Tomoe Ame - Usagi Yojimbo

Cassandra - Tangled: The Series

Shu Kurenai - Beyblade Burst

Stanford Pines - Gravity Falls

Vinnie Dakota - Milo Murphy's Law

C!Wilbur - The Dream SMP

Adam - Hunt Down the Freeman

Ukiyo Ace/Kamen Rider Geats - Kamen Rider Geats

Eremiel - Beyond the End

C!slimecicle - The Dream SMP

Tubbo_ - The Dream SMP

Hong Lu - Limbus Company

Joe Hills - Hermitcraft

Haruto Keats - 86

Lynnette Tarkington - The Final Girl Support Group

Dana Scully - The X-Files

Lalnable Hector - Yogscast Minecraft RP

Natural Harmonia Gropius - Pokémon: Black and White

Eric "Cat" Chant - Chrestomanci

Red - Pokémon

Alice - Alice

Evil Magician Trent - Xanth

Tannim - SERRAted Edge

Killashandra Ree - Crystal Singer

Kim Dokja - Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint

Ed'Rashtekaresket - Young Wizards

Shana - Elvenbane/Halfblood Chronicles

Sayaka Miki - Puella Magi Madoka Magica

Kirio Ami - Welcome to Demon School, Iruma!

Accelerator - A Certain Magical Index

Chara - Undertale

Shadow the Hedgehog - Sonic the Hedgehog franchise

Moon Knight - Marvel Comics

Scaramouche (Wanderer) - Genshin Impact

Donato Porpora - Tokyo Ghoul

Solf J Kimblee - Fullmetal Alchemist

Ness - Earthbound

Kelsier - Mistborn

Nayc - The Smile Alchemist

Raoden - Elantris

Honjo Rika - Tenkuu Shinpan

Juo - Tenkuu Shinpan

Arkady Patel - The Strange Case of Starship Iris

Bain - PAYDAY: The Heist and PAYDAY: 2

The Fool/Beloved - Realm of the Elderlings

GLaDOS - Portal series

The Knight/Ghost - Hollow Knight

The Hollow Knight - Hollow Knight

Hornet - Hollow Knight

Xion - Kingdom Hearts

Dennis Reynolds - It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia

Zara - Disney Princess Enchanted Journey

Alistair Ash - Fantasy High (Dimension 20)

Phone Guy - Five Nights at Freddy’s

Anna Kwemto - Five Nights at Freddy AR: Special Delivery

Cure Lovely - Happiness Charge Precure

Kaz "Dirtyhands" Brekker - Six of Crows

Fubuki Clockford - Master Detectives Archive: RAIN CODE

Oliver Beebo - Detective Beebo

Leafy - Battle for Dream Island