#threads; scully

[ladiesandwitches]

@wiccawcnder sent: “Power. I have it. They don’t.” / vivi to scully!

While Scully couldn't deny that the statement, on its own, definitely held some truth-- she had seen for herself what dangerous people would do for power, how they would try and take it from others, and how the truth was the greatest power of all-- but coming out of a young woman, it sounded more like a statement of mis-placed confidence or even arrogance.

Either way, it wasn't an answer.

"Is that why those men were chasing you?" Scully asked, choosing to go along with the girl's 'explanation' for now. "Because you have power?"

[ladiesandwitches]

Scully could see from his expression that she had already lost him, that his mind was already full of ideas of what this creature might be, of finding it and having evidence of what he so firmly believed but had no proof. An affectionate smile pulling at the corner of her mouth, Scully shook her head a little, accepting her fate.

Mulder was undeniably brilliant-- their working relationship or their friendship couldn't have flourished as it had if he wasn't-- but that brilliance came at a price. And as much as his outlandish theories and beliefs sometimes exhausted her, she couldn't deny the search often intrigued her. After all, wasn't that the point of science? To discover proof and answers to things other people had only ever searched in vain for?

"A tranquiliser is probably a good idea," Scully agreed. Whatever this thing was, they needed to take it down fast. "If we use the same mg as for a leopard, or a lion maybe, it should work. I'm sure there's a wildlife service nearby if the officers don't have any."

"Did you find anything?" The sheriff asked as they came into sight, looking like he was hoping for the answer 'no', and Scully was forced to disappoint him.

"A body. We have reason to believe it's your missing hiker, Sheriff."

"Crap," the man cursed. "Do you know what happened to him?"

"Erm..." Scully looked at Mulder, feeling a little uncertain in her answer. "Well, it looks like an animal attack."

Despite the potential danger they were still in, Mulder allowed himself to fantasise for a moment about handcuffing a huge, terrifying panther-man and bringing him in for the FBI to witness. The evidence would be undeniable, finally vindicating the X-Files and all the work he had done on them, and everybody would be incredibly impressed by his monster hunting prowess.

Or, someone would try to explain away the beast. Mulder supposed they would claim it was a mutation, and the man was just a disturbed individual. It was frustrating how far people would go to deny reality, especially when it was staring them right in the face.

"Maybe we should try to tranquillise it," Mulder suggested. "You know, like they do with wild animals. Maybe the Sheriff has a tranquilliser rifle we could requisition."

And speaking of the Sheriff, he was pretty sure he could see the edge of the woods approaching. Mulder couldn't help breathe a sigh of relief. Despite what people may say about him, he wasn't insane; he had no desire to be stuck in a forest with a dangerous predator actively stalking him - and he wanted Scully to be put in that position even less! Unless something was about to jump out at them and drag them away, they'd made it back to safety, and they could gear up and go back in again more prepared for the threat they had discovered.

[lunaleste]

He was trapped in the building, and all he could think about was her. It was something sublime, something horrible, that he had never told Scully how much she meant to him; how much she had influenced his career and his thinking. Now - he probably would never be able to due to the bomb being set in motion and threatening his life with every second clicking away.

He heard his phone ring, and Mulder was afraid to even answer it. He was afraid to even move, mostly, because he didn't know what that would have in store for him once he did. However, the moment he saw Dana Scully's name across the screen; he knew that he had to answer it and make time - to risk his life even more, because he couldn't go without saying goodbye.

"Scully, I don't have much time - I'm sure you know what's going on..." He said into the phone, his eyes looking at the bomb, that dominated the room. He didn't know if he would be able to get through this without seeing her face, he didn't know if he would be able to get through this without hearing her voice - just one last time.

[ladiesandwitches]

@imjustanauthor for Mulder

Watching Mulder work, when he had an idea in his head or a determined theory, was almost mesmerising. The way he refused to be deterred, the things he'd find that a hundred other people wouldn't even look at, was, for all its fixation, something to be admired, whether it was a search for the truth or the search for a lake monster.

Or, in this case, proof of...actually she wasn't entirely sure. Mulder had been more than erratic in his fevered explanations that it had been a bit hard to pick up the details.

Finding herself smiling as he pushed papers around, she stepped forward to stop one folder falling from the table.

"No one could ever question your fire, Mulder," she told him with quiet affection, the smile audible in her voice.

[lunaleste]

He knew he was leading her into the unknown, something that he couldn't help - when Mulder saw something that caught his eye, he could never stop. It was just who he was. The male with the blue hues found himself running through the woods, not being able to slow down, not being able to breathe.

Mulder had never been so sure of something in his life; however, he knew that he had seen somebody that looked like his sister. In the female's eyes, he saw Samantha and he didn't know what that meant. He knew that chasing the female would only scare her even more, but he couldn't stop and he couldn't let her go.

He kept running, and he knew before too long that he would have to stop to catch the air in his lungs, and he finally did. Stopping by a tree, Mulder gave Scully long enough to catch up with him, his hand on the trunk of the tree as he looked at the red-head that was approaching him. He knew that she was confused, and Mulder couldn't explain it.

When he was sure of something, he was sure, and he never gave up. He was a believer, and he had always been determined, and that was the one thing that threw him to the wind when things became to unwind. He didn't know what to think. "I saw her, Scully. I saw her." He said softly. "I saw her." He finally mumbled.

[silo1013]

salvaged from the office fire in 1998

[ladiesandwitches]

@wiccawcnder sent; ❝ let’s go to the haunted house! oh, please, please, please, please?! ❞ // vivi to scully bc i JUST saw 'How the Ghosts Stole Christmas' and deeply believe it's more Halloween episode than Christmas. also love how she was *not scared* 😅

Scully frowned, unable to believe that Vivienne hadn't only found details of that particular night, and particular house, decades ago, but that now she also wanted to visit it.

"Well, aside from the claims, the urban legends, that the supposed ghosts in there only appear on Christmas Eve....it's not a haunted house," she told her. "There's no such things as ghosts. What happened to myself and Mulder in that house was..." She thought of the things she saw, of the couple she spoke to, the bodies under the floorboards, of how convinced she had been that Mulder had shot her, how stepping outside they had been fine, how fast they ran to their cars. "Well, I don't know what it was," she admitted. "But I don't advise going back."

[ladiesandwitches]

@imjustanauthor sent; ​❝ please, enough with the pumpkin spice. ❞ @ Scully, from Mulder

Undeterred and unaffected by Mulder's protestation, Scully lifted the coffee cup to her lips, sipping audibly while her blue eyes stayed fixed on him, defying him with every sip.

"I wasn't aware you had such strong opinions about coffee, Mulder," she commented with quiet amusement, holding the offending drink in her hand now, its seasonal scent trailing up in the air. "I wait eight months a year to enjoy this," she told him, having no intention to set it aside.

[ladiesandwitches]

"Or maybe they were with him as recently as they said they were," Scully countered, willing to give the parents the benefit of the doubt not just because these tragedies could happen, but if these abductors were really what she thought they were then no amount of attention from Marcus Trent's parents could have kept him safe.

Subconsciously, her hand went to her abdomen, remembering the baby growing in there and instantly worried about how to keep them safe, wondering if they'd be at risk from the same things. Would these things come for her child the same way they'd come for Mulder?

"You can do the check, but I don't think you're going to find anything. At lest, not any kind of traditional connection. Finding out if they military background, or government links might be useful," she added, thinking aloud, biting her lip a little as she debated how much to share.

"You said you're aware of the work on the X Files, of the strange cases we deal with," she began. "Well..." She paused, taking a breath. "I believe I know who-- or rather, what-- might have taken this boy. The only question is why."

𝐃𝐀𝐍𝐀 & 𝐂𝐀𝐒𝐒𝐀𝐍𝐃𝐑𝐀 @ladiesandwitches

Cassandra couldn't argue with that. She'd known that gas wasn't a viable explanation as soon as she'd said it. And with Agent Scully's scientific explanations, she was now sure of it. But that still didn't tell them what had actually happened.

She'd never seen anything like it in a Delta Green mission before, and frankly, she was stumped. But without doing some research, she believed it was no use trying to theorize an explanation blindly.

"Yes, good idea," she nodded. At least security teams could see the real faces on the video monitors. It wasn't ideal, but it was better than nothing.

"The child is called Marcus Trent," she explained, "he's 7 years old, brown hair, blue eyes. His parents swear he was with them seconds before the abduction. But I suppose that with the guilt..." A sigh left her lips. "I've seen it happen before. Parent recanting their testimony a few days later, admitting they weren't keeping such a good eye on their kid after all."

"I was gonna do a background check, see if anyone might want to hurt the Trent family. Grudges, old rivalries, enemies. Might take us to a lead."

[carefulfears]

we've both talked about how scully isn't jealous fire. what differences do you see between protective scully vs jealous scully?

yeah to me the main difference is that one is more external and the other internal. she gets very emotional when she’s jealous. in episodes like alpha (literally sitting that woman down and going “i’m watching you.” cracks me tf up. Dana nobody is taking your man.) and war of the coprophages, it’s kind of angry. it’s louder, but still something very vulnerable and true to her (hater-ism). in episodes like the end, it’s heartbreak. that’s one of the very few episodes where i think she was purely jealous, and sad. she usually understands what’s going on and i think she knew as soon as she heard him call diana by her first name that something was going to change. i think it hurt her feelings, that specific display of connection, usually reserved for her.

when she’s jealous she retreats. she watches quietly. she cries alone in her car. she needs a moment to herself.

it’s when she’s protective that you can’t shake her for anything. one of my favorite images in fire is her standing in the doorway while mulder and phoebe meet with the arson specialist. i didn’t even notice she was there the first time i saw it. she wasn’t invited. she’s just keeping watch. later, she’s standing in the hallway. after that, she’s in his hotel room, and doesn’t leave when phoebe comes in. says “are you okay?” the moment they’re alone.

people write off her behavior in this one as being “jealous” because she has a lil crush and there’s another woman there, but i honestly find that dismissive. sometimes people discuss scully through such a wide lens, not taking into account who she is. she’s really surprised throughout the time that phoebe was there. it’s that soft edge that still shocks to cruelty, that she never really loses. it’s what shocks in the pilot when the doctor hits mulder twice. what shocks in the following episode when the government agents punch him on the side of the road. (look at you you’ve radicalized scully). it’s what makes her wary of jerry lamana, even before he stole mulder’s work.

but phoebe is so cruel, and so personal, and has so much history. it’s not jealousy that makes scully linger in doorways. it’s not jealousy that spawns that folie a deux. no one else understands. no one else can be trusted. (which i do kind of think started in fire, i’ve said before). she isn’t jealous that he startles when he hears this woman’s voice.

and i know that’s a lot on phoebe as an example, but it doesn’t stop. she doesn’t stop keeping watch. she doesn’t stop shocking to cruelty. she’ll get loud. she’ll make plans. she’ll surprise herself. and it doesn’t come with jealousy’s mortifying intimacy.

(don’t have much else to say but i found this from an old post of mine and wanted to share: “scully has that kind of protectiveness towards him that you have towards a child that hasn't been touched by the world yet. it's very 'the world is at least half terrible, though i keep this from my children.’ 'good bones' by maggie smith. scully in the beginning is like......there is something here that should have broken by now. and she wants to watch him be able to walk into every room with the most hopeful answer and a hand out to every stranger.”)

she shares him with the world only reluctantly, Etc etc

[loubetcha]

hi <3 like that wetwired post right now I am thinking about s6 angst and how it wasn’t really about Diana, not really, but about every lie Mulder has ever told her and Scully’s greatest fears. We know that Scully fears that Mulder will choose his quest over her; Wetwired tells us that her greatest fear is him allying himself with the people who were responsible for her abduction and her sister’s death— that he is lying to her. And in one fell swoop, with his callousness, he manages to confirm all of these.

It’s only her faith in him that keeps them together. Agh.

OUCH????

but you’re so right it wasn’t about jealousy or neglect it was about that by putting his trust in someone else who was exceedingly untrustworthy, it ultimately felt like the trust they held so close was shattered. “sleeping with the enemy” so to speak doesn’t imply jealousy on those who see it, but betrayal.

[ladiesandwitches]

A Scully starter for @maggicktouched who liked the thing

A mixture of both her FBI training and her experiences on the X Files, things that had even haunted her after she left the bureau, in her work as a medical doctor, all the way back to her return to investigating the strange and hard-to-explain with Mulder all these years later, meant that she heard the noise instantly, as quiet and almost unnoticeable as it was.

Someone was in her home.

Already dressed for work, Scully quietly stepped over to her bedside table, silently removing her gun from where it lay in its holster, her every movement careful so as not to alert the intruder. Even the safety was turned off with a near-silent flick of her thumb.

While she kept her gun aimed at chest level, she used her free hand to gently nudge her bedroom door open, quietly walking down the hall into the main room...where she saw an unfamiliar, and young, woman going through her things.

"Turn around," she ordered, gun steadily aimed on them. "Slowly." She waited until they were facing her, so she could see the stranger's features. "What are you doing in my house?" She demanded, her mind already filled with William, with Cancer Man, with viruses and alien DNA. "What are you looking for?"

[ladiesandwitches]

@maggicktouched sent: "How many snails can I get in my room?" From a very small Beck to Scully.

"Snails," Dana repeated, a quiet confusion, and disbelief, in her expression as she looked at her daughter. "Well," she began to answer carefully, "as a general rule that would be none. Snails don't belong indoors, they live outdoors. Usually in gardens." Scully paused as something occurred to her. "Beck, do you have snails in your room?"

[littlepikmins]

So I'm not a fan of Titans character Bernard Fitzmartin because he just doesn't seem like comics Bernard at all. But @the-shark-is-a-mammal informed that the irl actor for Bernard in Titans, James Scully, seems more like Bernard Dowd since he's a fun dude and wears lots of fashionable outfits! I looked at James Scully's Instagram and gathered some pics of outfits I could definitely see Bernard Dowd wearing!

[gwuisin]

" those stars may be dumb, enormous balls of gas, but they're smaller than my love for you. " @6tasis.

[ladiesandwitches]

"You're over fifty?" Scully repeated, an eyebrow raised as she judged the age for herself. She certainly wouldn't have thought the woman was in her own age range, in fact she would have estimated that she was much younger, and it was certainly more than being a case of looking good for her age. Which was a harsh reminder of the fact that Scully, while she might look good-- she didn't always hate what she saw in the mirror, at least--she certainly didn't look in her twenties anymore.

"Well, I'll cross that bridge if and when I come to it," she reasoned with a slight eyeroll. If she really was immortal, if she couldn't die, then she knew there was one way she could change all that. If taking that implant from her neck once before caused her cancer, taking it out again would do the same. If she was brave enough to do it.

"Okay, say I believe that what you can do is due to some...chemical alteration of your body, that it's more than mere manipulation, how can you ever be sure that what anyone does around you is their own free will? How can you be certain of anyone? How..." she sighed, looking at Kara with a sad sympathy in her eyes. "...how do you live with that kind of power?"

Huh. Well, that was an interesting confession. That was the big secret? Possible immortality? She had to admit, she could relate, but that didn't seem like the secret one would be keeping.

"For the record, I am immortal, or at least, functionally so. I don't look it, but I'm over fifty at this point, and my body regenerates any wound. Same with my father actually. So I definitely understand the whole watching everyone around you age or die. But admittedly, I'd be more worried that if you're immortal, you're not ageless, because if you still age, then you'll end up trapped in your own body."

Totally not a depressing thought.

"Now, as for possible, my powers are the real deal. Everything I've told you thus far about them is the truth. You can try to ignore them all you want, but I can keep proving it to you as many times as you demand it."