#the immortal files

[earlyeveningskylight]

an inquiry

This is outside of my usual posts, but I was doing a bit of research on an author I used to avidly read in middle school and high school that I cannot find a single piece of information on.

If there's anyone who has read any of Robert Liparulo's books (Dreamhouse Kings series, The 13th Tribe/The Judgement Stone - The Immortal Files series), does anyone by any chance know what happened to the author??

His last facebook post is from 2020, and his website no longer works. There's nothing else updated about him or anything from even the last 4 years. This is absolutely a long shot, but I was obsessed with his Dreamhouse Kings books as a kid and I always excitedly looked forward to him continuing the story.

I just hope nothing bad happened to him. If he retired from writing then good for him, I'm just so curious where/why he disappeared the way he did with no word.

[heph]

Unstoppable Force VS Immovable Object

[hotcinnamonsunset]

x files socks ft my favorite bit of frequent dialogue because the below screenshot simply would’ve been too long👽

[itty-bitty-sunshine]

Sun my dude can you pick one

[unhetalia]

Recently I saw a few posts that really re-wired the way I thought about Alfred. Initially, I had given him a large group of friends, but even looking back on a few of my older posts (Alfred being touch starved is one of the main ones - note that I've already edited this to take out prev. mentions of him having a large group of friends, though the rest of the reply is the same.) it really did feel like I was writing an Alfred who is incredibly lonely.

This led me to thinking about my headcanon about Kiku's unrequited love for Alfred. I'd always thought about it as 'being in love with your best friend, but not wanting to change the relationship you have with them', but now I keep thinking of Kiku deciding to distance himself from this person he loves so dearly because he knows they don't feel the same. He spends more time with Italy and Germany, with England, with Taiwan. He makes excuses to stop going over to Alfred's, and to stop Alfred from coming over to his.

He does it to protect himself, and then he realises one day that he and Alfred are no longer friends. It's been fifty years since they've been alone in a room together, and Alfred's confused hurt has transformed into polite indifference. They've gone from being as close as best friends to nothing.

Kiku regrets it, and he realises, horribly, that not seeing Alfred doesn't make him not in love with him. It just makes him miss him on top of that. He's made a mistake he can't fix.

Meanwhile, Alfred doesn't have an Italy or Germany. He's always been alone until Kiku came along, and then all of a sudden he doesn't have him anymore.

Alfred gets used to being alone again. He has an instagram filled with his travels around America and the rest of the world, and his follower count goes up and up as his beautiful photography gets traction around the internet, but people comment on him always being alone. "I hope you're being careful traveling alone, Allie!" a comment reads. "Aww, don't worry," he replies back. "I'm used to it!"

[cubbihue]

OUGGUGH. JERMYYYYYYY

IF THERES ONE CONSTANT ABOUT JEREMY ITS THAT HES A SHITTY COWORKER TO BE PAIRED WITH

PLAINTEXT OF IMAGE TEXT BELOW READMORE

Haunted Bones Jeremy: A human who died one day at his job. Trapped by NDA contracts and immortality, he’s the primary guinea pig for Fazcorp. Somehow, Jeremy is at a constant risk of being fired. Jeremy suffers from work-related stress and prolific memory issues.

Requiem Jeremy: A human who used to be real. Unable to recall himself or return home, he’s the first contact all travelers meet in Fantaos. Somehow, he lost an entire location while on duty and was demoted to paperwork duty. Jeremy is going through an ongoing existential crisis and prolific memory issues.

Our Ghosts at Graveyard Shift: A human who is certainly alive and real. Considered a shitty coworker and “quirky” individual, he’s living a rather well-adjusted life for a supernatural entity. Somehow, Jeremy keeps running into the same co-worker no matter the decade. Fritz Smith suffers from work-related stress, an ongoing existential crisis, and prolific Jeremy issues.

[starcatching]

ATEEZ | SEONGHWA 230617 Immortal Songs 2

[randomfoggytiger]

All Things: Fellig's Fate, Scully's Immortality, and Waterston's Healing

I never subscribed to the "Scully is immortal" theory, but... there might be evidence pointing to, perhaps, a momentary brush with eternal life.

CLYDE BRUCKMAN'S FINAL REPOSE

"All right. So how do I die?"

"You don't."

Two infamous lines from an infamous episode.

Setting aside Darin Morgan's thoughts on the matter (that this was a kindness on Bruckman's part, not foreshadowing), the show has, thus far, provided no through line for immortality to be considered a possible end goal.

Until Season 6.

TITHONUS

Fellig was cursed with immortality after callously hoping Death would take the life of an innocent-- one who was trying to save him-- in his place. The episode showcased his barren existence and empty, unending eternity with a punctuated, nihilistic statement: "Seventy-five years is enough. Take my word for it. You live forever... sooner or later, you start to think about the big thing you're missing and that everybody else gets to find out about but you....  Love lasts seventy-five years, if you're lucky. You don't want to be around when it's gone."

But Fellig was not blessed, nor did he bless others, with love-- an endeavor of sacrifice and respect-- while he lived. More rotations around the sun hadn't worked on that deadened part of himself until he put aside his own goals (quite literally setting his camera aside) to humanely address the tragedy unfolding in front of him (Scully dying.) Even then, not without selfish intent-- hoping to pry the jaws of Death from its newest victim and turn them onto himself.

This leads us to the crux: was Scully given immortality?

Let's presume yes, for this theory. In that case, Fellig's expressions while Death stood over her, her expression after Mulder's rationalizations at her bedside, and the lessons she had yet to learn before all things add up to a grim picture that neatly mirrors her personal journey.

Fellig stopped taking her photograph because he saw an opportunity previous victims hadn't "offered": Death had taken an unusual interest in Scully. Fellig's face changed as he lowered the camera, demanding "Did you see him?" until Scully gave a dazed acknowledgment of some kind-- implying that Scully, like Fellig, saw Death as she lay dying; and Fellig knew it. (But did Scully see Death? That appears to be left up for interpretation-- did she write off what she saw later, or was she blind to Death's presence and thought Fellig was projecting his perceptions or delusions onto her?) Obeying the photographer's instruction (because she believed him, which she half-confesses in the hospital), Scully closed her eyes and lived while Fellig, finally, died.

At Scully's bedside she admitted to but brushed aside her immortality concerns ("You know, Mulder, I don't even know how I entertained the thought. People don't live forever.") However, Mulder's assertion-- "No, I think he would have. I just think that, that death only looks for you... once you seek its opposite"-- destroyed her rationalizations and leaves us, the audience, with similar, unanswered questions.

Death seems discriminatory. But why?

Since Emily, we've known that Scully fears attachment to others-- to life, in a own way-- because of her disruptive childhood. Tithonus pointed out those correlating factors between herself and solitary, loveless Fellig: although his form of detachment is ruthlessly different than hers-- considering human attachments a drag rather than a source of comfort or strength-- both model a form of distancing self-preservation.

If that be the case, the immortality theory could be viewed in a new light: that Death teaches lessons hand-in-glove with Life. Life would give others the chance to attach and learn and grow together while Death would be the respite from those lessons and pains and griefs. And, more importantly, that Death would deny itself to those who haven't learned and grown in Life. Perhaps a concept not dissimilar to Scully's Catholic purgatory, or perhaps one that aligns with the return of restless or reincarnated souls. Perhaps both.

ALL THINGS

all things is the culmination of Scully's advance-and-retreat to life, addressing her choices, doubts, coping mechanisms, and relationships. And while I posit it was necessary for her and Mulder to have started a romantic relationship in order to kickoff the episode's moral crisis (post here), I concede that Tithonus and its ripple effects would still echo behind each step she took regardless of the status of her partnership.

Not only that, but all things also smacks of the more personal aspects of Mulder's and Scully's cases littering Season 6. The episodes following Fight the Future address the irreparable bond of their partnership, from The Beginning to Field Trip; but, more importantly, Season 6 wove Fate-- others' and their own-- into each case: those who were doomed to its inevitability and those who accepted its inevitability in order to change it. Monday's Pam is the prime example of inevitable Fate, but Drive's doomed Crumps and Triangle's lost crew members and Dreamland's disrupted men-in-black and How the Ghosts Stole Christmas's cursed ghosts and S.R. 819's controlled Skinner and One Son's burnt conspirators and Agua Mala's isolated Dales and Arcadia's terrified neighborhood and Alpha's lupus-ed Berquist and Trevor's superpowered Rawls and Milagro's heartless Padgett and etc. all fill the spectrum between Pam's helpless victimization and Fellig's self-victimization. Mulder and Scully were directly affected by these victims: Tithonus was to Scully what Monday was to Mulder; and The Unnatural through Amor Fati was to him what Amor Fati through all things was to her.

We know that Fate has its fatal way with Mulder and Scully's life. Mulder often states (during moods of higher inclination) that their quest is fated, and Scully often saves herself or her partner from various impossible situations. (If one subscribes to The Field Where I Died, she also releases them from a reincarnation cycle-- post here.)

all things itself draws a fated comparison between Scully's choices and Mulder's presence, even in absentia. He is the choice she must make; or lose him, and herself, forever in the annals of some forgotten record book in some secluded library remembered sparsely every few decades. And Scully is deeply afraid of losing herself (to Mulder's quest or through her own choices), at first incorrectly hiding from that fear in Daniel's comfort and their rose-colored past.

In that light, this episode achieves quite a few aims under the umbrella of personal freedom. Scully is enlightened, leading to her spiritual and personal freedom; that enlightenment leads her to embrace life, honoring the choices she made with regards to the men of her past and present; and that embrace allows her to break the chains Fellig passed on to her. She is ready to live-- "death only looks for you once you seek its opposite"-- and die.

A SECONDARY SPECULATION: PASSING ON IMMORTALITY

I have one last thing to posit: Death found in Fellig what Fellig discovered in Scully; and Scully purged herself of that element-- and her immortality-- whilst saving Daniel Waterston's life.

Fate, again, comes to the fore: Mulder sent Scully on an errand for his case-- a loop to Never Again's disgruntled feelings and "orders"-- but that informant taught Scully how to heal herself and "let go." Scully was subsequently drawn to spiritual healing, and brought in a healer to save Waterston before he succumbed to his heart condition.

Spiritual healing, in this case, becomes another word for Death's lesson: thwarting Fate by accepting it. Fellig threw away his life and his happiness by first sacrificing someone else's, Scully was given immortality through Fellig's sacrifice, Colleen Azar saved her own life from self-destruction; and Daniel Waterston is given a second chance because of Fellig, Scully, and Colleen's shared lesson and redemption. And thus, we arrive at the moment of Daniel Waterston's recovery-- or, rather, the moment Scully's immortality is passed on to Daniel, miraculous healing included.

all things ends on the conclusion to Scully's arc, not Waterston's; but reconciliation and change loom largely in the form of his daughter Maggie. If Death is giving Daniel Waterston a second chance, it's up to him to turn it from a curse to a blessing.

However, there's a hitch to this theory: the nurse held Fellig's hand, and Fellig held Scully's hand while immortality played hot potato from one person to the next. all things lacks a scene where Scully passes along her immortality by touch to Daniel Waterston (except their brief contact before his cardiac arrest and after his spiritual healing.) However, the immortality exchanges in Tithonus differ in the minutiae-- the knowledge of the people involved, the health of the people involved, the cooperation of the people involved-- and leave us without any concrete "method" point to. Other than, of course, the reality that Death and Fellig were playing their own game with its own rules; and that Scully's immortality only fits into their picture if she is able to play the same game and beat it. Daniel Waterston squeezes into the final rounds only by a technicality; and his entry could still be debated to the end of time.

POSSIBLE STIPULATIONS

Death, in Tithonus at least, appears to be an impartial agent, passing immortality to the person currently avoiding his eyes. In that case, he would be a neutral-- even malignant-- figure rather than one teaching Dickensian ghost lessons. Death takes life and leaves decay without mercy, burying both the nurse and the photographer eventually.

Yet, we are given this perspective by Fellig himself, a man who views Death as a toying entity.

Separate from Fellig's observations, Death is depicted as a fair but clever judge, one who spares and punishes lives equally. Further, Mulder's examination of Death's motives implies one dark and one redemptive side: "death only looks for you once you seek its opposite" would be inconceivable to a man like Alfred Fellig but could be understood and changed by a woman like Dana Scully.

Fellig's brush with Death began with the barter of one woman's life, bringing to light the cold, calculated part of his personality. He continued to exist in that darkness until one unselfish act foisted his curse upon another woman. Scully, by comparison, internalized the lesson her predecessor avoided most of his unnatural life, and saved herself and another embittered man in the process.

If coincidences are coincidences, why do they feel so contrived?

CONCLUSION

Immortality in The X-Files is either a curse or a kindness, a multidimensional consequence of one's choices and fate.

Fellig, a man consumed by his own motives, viewed it as a cruel, cyclical punishment of Death's. Scully used it as a tool to break her own cycles, save Daniel Waterston, and set herself free. Daniel-- perhaps now similarly cursed-- might have used it to move beyond his own moral failings; or succumbed, again, to the cycle of his own making.

Death, Life, and Fate are the essence of The X-Files's existence, the tools by which its world and characters are shaped. Those who wish to circumvent them are chastised. Those who work alongside them are rewarded. And those who persevere with righteous action and truthful intent despite them are awarded a new path forward.

Thanks for reading~

Enjoy!

[stargirlshojo]

What is the immortal Scully theory please explain (I’m new here)

hii!! i’m also relatively new (started watching in september) minor spoilers for s3 and s6

the theory originated from s3 episode “Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose” in short, this guy knows exactly how everyone will die. scully asks how she dies, and he simply tells her she doesn’t.

this would’ve been a one off, but in s6 episode “Tithonus” scully is informed by an immortal photographer, that he escaped death during the spanish flu epidemic by refusing to look death in the eyes, a nurse taking his place, leaving him unable to die. he can see when people are about to die, he sees this in scully, tells her to look away, and takes her place. her gun wound is then miraculously healed. assuming she would receive the same fate as him, this would leave her immortal.

some people think this may have something to do with her pregnancy but i just started season 8 so i can’t say if i agree or not. there are apparently some references to this in season 10 and 11 but i haven’t gotten there yet so i can’t speak on that. this was confirmed canon by chris carter but he did admit the season 3 episode was supposed to be a one off joke later made canon so some people take this as a reason not to believe the theory but personally i like it sooooo i choose too

[deadcrayons]

So you guys know The X-Files? Dana Scully Fox Mulder love of my life? Do you guys also know that Dana Scully is absolutely 100% immortal?

Like do me a favor and Google "scully immortal tithonus" right now. Take a peep at those results. It's mostly people on various forms of journalism websites DECONSTRUCTING REALITY over the INDISPUTABLE FACT that DANA SCULLY IS IMMORTAL. (tldr in the episode "Tithonus," this guy describes becoming immortal by "giving" Death's gaze to someone else at the moment of his death. And at the end of the episode he "takes" Scully's chance to look at Death by telling her to close her eyes after she's shot. So... how else am I supposed to read that. She's immortal bro. She came down in a bubble, Doug)

This "plothole" has obsessed and consumed me ever since I first watched The X-Files in 2017.

So I wrote it.

It's called X-Tropy.

Mulder comes back as a ghost because there's no way in hell that man is "moving on" without her. You cannot even begin to fathom the levels of BURNING ANGST AND YEARNING that this generates.

I've already written the whole thing. I'm just posting it one chapter at a time. This is risk-free on your part. I've done all the work. You just get to sit back and GO INSANE. FOR FREE. ON THE INTERNET!!!

Anyway here's a picture from a real photo shoot of Scully and Mulder posing as dead bodies in a morgue because that's just how canon this fic is I guess

À demain, à la prochaine!

[girlboss-malewife-gauntlet-melee]

ROUND 1 MATCH 30: TATSU/MIKU VS. SCULLY/MULDER

NOT HATSUNE

Tatsu/Miku Propaganda: "I think Tatsu kicked off tumblr's adoration for malewives tbh. He's such a malewife that he kicked off a whole malewife movement"

"They're just a really nice married couple with a sweet and wholesome relationship and funny individual personality quirks."

Scully/Mulder Propaganda: "this is the slash your mom was into"

[swan2swan]

People: "But--but he can't be that old, his age was revealed to only be sixty-five in Donald Starr's 2008 novel Crash Point, and reaffirmed in the 2012 Guide to the Jedi Order and Chronology of the Clone Wars guidebooks!"

Me: *pointing to medal on my SW Fan uniform* "Do you see this? This was awarded to me for surviving the Spaarti Clone Cylinder Retcon of 2002. Rushed clone production without yslamari was canonized, Kamino became the planet, and Boba Fett is now a clone. Note the Jaster Mereel pip. They awarded these back when retcons were truly upsetting. To children."

[linaxart]

A drawing I made for an AU idea with @ignisentis a while ago 💚

[mariocki]

Elisabeth Sladen, credited only as Policewoman (but named briefly in dialogue as Vera), does some sleuthing in Public Eye: Many a Slip (6.3, Thames, 1972)

[mediumsizedwildcat]

i've only had Taliesin for 2 hours but if anything were to happen to him... well.

[miscgallery]

Lmao hiiii I'm sending my answer to your Q via ask about Shivani's thoughts on Labyrinth, Lamia, and the Immortals because uh my blog is mostly for my writing work and I dont wanna confuse the people there since the ask is out of context to them. 😭

You can answer this or not btw idm.

Shivani doesn't really have any comment about Labyrinth. Like, yeah, android cleaning maid, not much to dissect really because wowzers it's mostly metal parts (and she mostly doesn't want her scalpels to break 💀), but she does think she's really sweet. Lamia, however, is an interesting case for her, because what do you mean that Sinner mimics fish biology. She's just so baffled that such a person can even exist and she does want to find out what Lamia's body is even made off/mutated into and if Lamia has gills somewhere on her. Shivani was probably shoved into the detention room a bunch for having questioned Lamia a bit too much about her biology. 💀💀

For the Immortals (minus Hestia because that is a baby and Shivani has a strict code against the kiddies), she most likely heard of their mutation through whispers and stuff or maybe even asked Chief one day out of curiosity once she learned about them. I think she'd be constantly asking the Immortals about their body and how it feels to have the Mania just being a part of them physically. Like does it hurt, does it hinder them in any way, etc,. Though I think she'll be REALLY fascinated by Mantis and how her arms and legs are just insectoid now and how freely Mantis can just turn her arms into claws then normal human ones then back again.

honestly the reason i brought up laby in the first place were these two performance in serving term entries-

-like what do you mean an entire human brain is in there . are there human nerves in there too . girl wtf and HOW tf 😭

lmao rip lamia 😭 i can see her being polite and stuff the first few times shivani asks but it eventually gets to a point where she uses her ability on shivani and peaces out 🚶‍♀️ if not in the detention room shivani would probably just be collapsed and hallucinating on the floor KSHJFJGKSK

given what you said maybe she'd get along with vanilla also ... idk much about dreya but like vanilla is pretty used to taking notes on herself & her equipment so idt she'd be too hesitant to share

mantis also but she can't communicate with shivani at all kshdjfjdk. maybe they'll have to schedule a meeting w/chief or smth