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carefulfears · 11 months

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so i really love whenever you call mulder & scully best friends. wanna talk about your top 5 favorite moments of their friendship?

DO I EVER

1/ little green men

they have a secret code. they have their own language.

when mulder gets to his desk that morning, the photo of samantha is tipped over, and he knows that this means to meet scully at the watergate. which, first of all, is unbelievably dorky. these two work in the same building. these two have cell phones.

but they have been split up and reassigned and it is not a phase you guys it is the end of the world!!!!

when he arrives in the parking garage, he asks what she wants, and she responds, "to know that you're alright."

they have a secret code and their own language and for nothing more than to check in.

(shoutout to the depression hair era, they are so funny for both getting bangs the moment they were separated. that's how you know things are really bad for the girlies.)

when he sinks down to the floor and tells her the george hale story, she crouches down next to him, listens, tells him not to give up.

you can tell that it makes her uneasy to see him defeated, to see him doubting himself and what he believes in. she's almost trying to convince him of aliens in that moment, telling him that he's seen so much and reminding him of samantha. trying to spark something in him.

they have a secret code, they have their own language, and when he leaves town, he buys the plane ticket under a name that only she will recognize. she cracks his computer password in three tries.

earlier, after skinner questions scully, he tells CSM that she's telling the truth, she really doesn't know where mulder is. "because if she knew, she wouldn't be so worried about him."

they aren't as hard to decipher as they want to believe.

PAUSE!!!!! this is the cuntiest thing he's ever done. the sunglasses, the denim, the boots, the dangerous lack of exit strategy...anyway

she interprets his clues, she follows without obligation, they go back together. hand in his hair, not giving up, just like she started the episode.

in the end, they have nothing. the hail mary trip resulted in empty tables and silent tape recordings.

one thing i didn't notice until i rewatched this one the other day is that it's not when he says "i still have you" that she takes his hand.

it's when he switches the tape from the record of his failed excursion to his actual assignment, hours of listening to slimy men talk about strippers.

she listens with him for a moment before shaking her head, and squeezing his hand. she does understand that this isn't what he wants to be doing, and that it's disheartening.

2/ tooms

i could list every season one episode here. i could do a whole other post just about season one. i could do a whole other post just about season one, and include every episode. but i guess i will settle for this one.

this is my favorite season, and this is my favorite MSR.

him waving the pine tree air freshener in her face when she said he smells 😭😭😭

squeeze was all about the choice between climbing the ladder and the "out there" but "good" work of the basement, with all of the ridicule and consequence that come with it.

its sequel episode is about the aftermath of that decision, what it means to choose the side of the victim, to stop reaching for personal success.

(this shot is so beautiful, her face through CSM's smoke)

tooms opens with scully in a negative performance review, skinner (in his very first scene!! we love you skinman) going over her reports, CSM lurking in the corner.

the two share a look, then warn scully against having too much of an open mind, telling her that it is her "responsibility to see that these cases are by the book"

"by the book" becomes the theme of the episode, with the phrase repeating multiple times throughout.

this isn't the first time that the show has explored this topic, with young at heart also centering a debate of “by the book” protocol, what it really means, and who it really serves. ending with this final dialogue:

SCULLY: Mulder, I know what you did wasn't by the book.

MULDER: Tells you a lot about the book, doesn't it?

“by the book” isn’t an easy order to follow when you have a partner who doesn’t believe in it, and you aren’t sure you do either.

it’s not an easy order to follow, for the navy captain’s daughter who worships authority.

she does try though, and she's initially frustrated with mulder's behavior in the case. she tells him that he "sounded so....." at the trial, and she's reluctant to pursue his methods without approval from the bureau.

ultimately, when she comes to bring mulder something to eat on his unauthorized stakeout, she tells him that what he's doing is not proper surveillance protocol, and he good-naturedly accuses her of peddling "the book."

she responds, "this is not about doing it by the book, this is about you not having slept for three days." and tells him that he is inevitably going to get hurt.

to her, it's not about following the rules or pressure from the bureau or respecting authority, it's about making sure he's okay.

when she tells him to go home, that she'll take over the stakeout, he smiles and shakes his head (it's almost the same look that he gives her years later in redux ii, when she tells him to lay it all on her. just less tears.)

and i know that we tend to focus on the next part of this scene, but this line stands out to me too, as he declines because he doesn't want her to get "in trouble."

he doesn't want her to break the rules or disobey authority, and he still believes she'll be head of the bureau someday.

it kinda makes me teary, this stupefied look on his face at her response. when she looks at him unflinching and says, "mulder, i wouldn't put myself on the line for anybody but you."

they are so kind to each other. they really don't care about official reprimands in files or welfare protocols; they each just want the other to get some rest, to have a bright future.

he relents, allows her to take over, on the condition that she calls "if anything happens. immediately. i'll be here." and suggests she catch the sports talk radio show

she bends down to give him one last smile and eye roll as she exits the car

and makes a joke to herself while walking back to her own. best best best friends.

3/ tempus fugit

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR SPECIALAGENTDANAKATHERINESCULLYYYYY

what better way to celebrate life than annoying the hell out of your best friend on her birthday?

the way he clearly gave the waiters her name and this snowball and sparkler and sang "special agent dana katherine scully" while they all sang "happy birthday dana" is one of his most embarrassingly extra moments and it never fails to make me laugh

she rolls her eyes at him, but the way she stares when he's not looking says so much. they both know why this year gets sparklers and song when last year didn't. they both know there might not be a next year.

he's literally never been more irritatingly overjoyed lmao. and he brought presents! ("oh, you've got to be kidding me" "just something that reminded me of you")

he said "i didn't know it was your birthday, scully!" with a wrapped gift in his pocket, always prepared with a smile and a cover story

he does this same thing in memento mori, after getting the call to come to the hospital, when his first words of the episode are "i stole these from some guy with a broken leg down the hall. he won't be able to catch me." about the flowers we watched him come through the front doors holding

he clearly puts thought into these gestures, but everything is so fragile. neither of them are comfortable with what too much sincerity would mean, how limited it all is.

but they find little ways to give to each other anyway, they hang out in bars and roll their eyes and discuss the meaning behind a keychain.

if this is the last birthday, maybe it's worth a little vulnerability (and annoying song and dance), that he did it up right.

4/ one breath

another Mulder Gift™️ entry. god, the sweetness here is just overwhelming. he is so strange and tries so hard.

this whole scene is one of my favorites of the series, but i love this little moment so much.

it's so inadequate, in the end. to see someone that you thought you'd lost, your most important person, who was gone for so long, and have nothing more to give them than a shitty VHS sports tape.

but what else can you do? he's so quiet and self-conscious in this moment. he raced to the top of mountains and stood on broken cable cars and choked a man and wore her necklace around his neck for months and wept on the floor. he had the strength of her beliefs, and he prayed. he held her hand by her bedside after they pulled the plug.

so much goes unsaid between them, because how can you say it in words? how can you do anything but smile and buy something stupid at the gift shop?

she makes a joke while he smiles at the floor, but it's not a joke, not really. he's there and he's giving her whatever he can and he's cracking jokes, and she knew there was a reason to live. that's it right there.

5/ detour

GO, GIRL!

this is a best friends episode. this is a "we survived that hospital and we refuse to spend our one wild and precious life at the annual FBI teamwork seminar, if you need us, we'll be lost in the forest" episode.

look at her trying not to laugh while he's making sarcastic comments at her in the backseat. can you imagine carpooling with these two? they are forever passing notes and whispering behind backs.

she is not making it to the teamwork seminar. she is not getting her wine and cheese, either. she is looking for mothmen in western florida.

they think they're so much better than that communication exercise, just to make vague innuendo in a motel room.

they tell each other all about native species and how ticks can halt their metabolism and the livestock that was killed in a town 30 years ago. she teases him about his filing system.

neither of them tire of bashing the hell out of that teamwork seminar.

they talk about death. about searching for meaning in life. about which flintstones character they relate to the most. they swap dirty jokes.

she fusses over his grave injury (a dislocated shoulder) and holds him. sings to him so that he'll know she's still there.

a few years down the road, she'll sing that same song to their baby, on one of her last days with him. she'll sing to him about this night, about his dad, about her favorite memories.

sitting there together in that forest in florida, they have already started to carry the weight of near-misses. of lost time, of almosts, of purposeful disease.

they have come a long way and taken on a lot, in the years since the parked car outside tooms' house and the garage at the watergate.

but they have yet to be separated longer than 90 days. they have yet to lose a child. they have yet to plan funerals and prison breaks.

there's something about that time, that ability to just sit in the woods and talk about everything, looking for mothmen, that is so precious and so special.

and when she tells him that night that she had struggled to find meaning, that's where it is.

#thank you for this #dream assignment #they ARE best friends #and it's my favorite #msr #asks #little green men #tooms #tempus fugit #one breath #detour #kae meta

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all-eyes-lead-to-the-truth · 2 months

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All Eyes Lead to the Truth | Tempus Fugit (4x17)

The Headless Woman’s Pub was crowded wall-to-wall with red-faced employees of the Federal Government who had traveled the measly few blocks after work— despite the fact that it was a Sunday. As far as Val could tell, these people never took a day off.

Before getting this gig, he always imagined the feds drank like they were in one of those film noirs, pulling a handle of whiskey out of their desk and mulling over it after a hard case. He thought being an FBI Agent must’ve been so cool and mysterious.

“Oh shit!” a voice slurred from the other side of the room.

Val glanced over and saw that kid from the Violent Crimes Unit wiping spilled beer off of his date’s lap.

After getting this gig, he realized everything he used to think about the feds was bullshit.

These were some of the most depressed fuckers he’d ever met. The ones that got the job for the glory would inevitably crash and burn, and the good ones would be haunted by the evils they saw. He couldn’t blame any of them for needing to indulge at the end of the day, but, Christ— J. Edgar himself would blush at the things these people said when they were drunk. He was starting to wonder if there was a single desk in that building that hadn’t been defiled. Though that was nothing compared to the guy who drank himself under the table because the ‘alien-guy’ stole his job. Val still didn’t know what the hell that meant, but he could still hear the way that guy kept muttering “fucking grey.”

“Excuse me.”

Glancing up, he saw a tall guy easing himself in between two people sitting at the bar. “Do you have a tab started?” Val asked.

“No, uh, I actually had a favor to ask,” the man clarified while his hands fidgeted against the bar’s wooden ledge.

Glancing around and seeing everyone’s drinks were full, Val stopped what he was doing and replied, “Shoot.”

Lanky started fumbling around with the pocket of his suit coat, and he began to worry the guy was gonna pull out his badge. They were too damn short-staffed to spare anyone for a twenty-minute interrogation about some drunk guy making a fool of himself after having one too many.

But agitation quickly made way for confusion when he was presented with one of those pink Hostess monstrosities. Ho Ho? Zapper? Chocodile Kazbars? Whatever the hell it was called, it should be illegal to put coconut in anything that was supposed to be called a dessert.

“I’m on a diet,” he deadpanned.

Ignoring his comment, the man tried to fluff the pink ball back into shape after presumably squashing in his pocket. “The woman I came in with— it’s her birthday, and she loves these things. I was wondering if there was any way you could ask someone in the back to put it on a plate and bring it out to her?”

Now that was a new one, especially for a shithole like this place. “Ya mean like Chili’s?”

“Well, hey, I certainly won’t say no if you have any sombreros hidden away in the kitchen,” he chuckled, looking over his shoulder as if to make sure his date wasn’t getting suspicious. Then, as if nervous Val would say no, he added, “They don’t have to sing Happy Birthday or anything. I know you guys are busy and—”

Interrupting the man’s rambling, he grabbed the pink cream ball. “What’s her name?”

“Scully.”

Val’s eyebrows rose at that. “She related to Vin? I was more of a Jerry Doggett fan myself.”

The guy exhaled a laugh, but then he shook his head. “No, and sorry, actually.” He spared another glance over his shoulder, and this time Val looked with him. It must’ve been the redhead who was glancing around, presumably searching for her boyfriend. He watched the shy smile that spread across her lips as her eyes met the man’s, and damn if she wasn’t one of the most beautiful women he’d ever seen. Her man must’ve known that too based on the nervous smirk that was on his face when he turned back around. “Dana. Her name is Dana,” he clarified, straightening out his tie.

It was common for Val to see men bring women from the office out for a drink in the hopes they’d get some. This might’ve been the first time he’d seen a fella do something thoughtful for his lady. Even if it was a 99¢ piece of garbage. “I’ll pass this to your waiter. I’m sure he can fix it up for Dana.”

“Thanks, I really appreciate it,” Dana’s boyfriend replied. Val watched as he slid a five into the tip jar and started to make his way back to the table.

“Hey buddy,” Val called out, causing the man to turn around. “Ya told her you were going to come up and get drinks, didn’t ya?”

“Oh!” he exclaimed with an embarrassed wince, rushing back to the bar. Across the room, behind the man’s back, the woman’s brows furrowed and her lips quirked into an amused smirk as she watched him fumble to retrieve his wallet. “Thanks. Uh, one water and one vodka tonic, please. It’ll go under the name Mulder.”

After he sent Mulder on his way, he watched him take long strides back to the woman who was digging into their shared appetizer. He must’ve said something funny because the redhead started laughing and shaking her head. Val was impressed with how suave the guy was being after how nervous he had just been.

“D-did that man say his name was Mulder?”

Val turned and saw a meek, blonde woman sitting at the bar, not far from where the man in question had just been.

Val shrugged while trying to flag down a waiter, “Yeah. Know him?”

She glanced at the couple over her shoulder before turning back to face him, nervously playing with the cuff of her sleeve. “He’s a friend of the family.”

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

@gaycrouton

Happy Birthday Dana Scully!

#all eyes lead to the truth #x files #the x files #dana scully #fox mulder #mulder #scully #msr #season four #s4 #tempus fugit #4x17 #snoball #x files fanfic #scully birthday

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agent-troi · 1 month

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happy birthday to me🥳🎈🧁

#x files #tempus fugit #fox mulder #dana scully #happy bithday to me

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icedteainthatbag · 7 months

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do you guys remember when mulder tried to outrun a truck in a scuba suit

cause what the hell was that

#the x files #fox mulder #tempus fugit

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whovianderson · 8 months

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We need to talk about Scully’s birthday scene in Tempus Fugit!!! I was a MESS, I couldn’t focus for the rest of the episode!!! Here’s why:

1) Mulder using Scully’s full name in the song

2) the running gag about him remembering her birthday

Edit: @limit-of-heat just reminded me that they thought this could be Scully’s last birthday… and now I’m going to cry, thanks for nothing! Put it into a whole new perspective for me - Mulder is celebrating her birthday for once because he knows he might never get another opportunity…

3) it was so funny!

5) Mulder got her a present!!! And he was soooooo excited to give it to her. (Of course, he was only that happy because it was her though…)

“Something that reminded me of you”

“What, an alien implant?” (No Scully, he cares about you outside of the X-files too!)

“Two actually, I made em into earrings” HE IS SO UNSERIOUS

Okay, look, I’m a lesbian BUT Mulder is so precious in this scene:

Like THAT’S MY COMFORT CHARACTER RIGHT THERE!!!

———

O…okay… Mulder’s just undressing in front of Scully… yeah I’m normal!!!!!!!!!

Also, Scully’s deep analysis of the present he got her, and then Mulder playing it off by saying “I just thought it was a pretty cool keychain” (as if he’s not the one always looking for a deeper meaning!)

#4x17 #tempus fugit #scully being embarrassed by mulder saying his theory always gets me #mulder's littol wave 🤏🤏🤏#am obsessed with the 🤏 emoji rn sorry not sorry #PLEASE tell me pendrell was not flirting with scully-#4x18 #max #scully’s smirk at the other guy when mulder said his alien theory I can’t #mulder: I’d go with you [to the mental institution] but I’m worried they’d lock me up #scully: me too #I MEAN THEY’RE NOT WRONG BUT-#pip watches txf for the first time and goes insane #the x-files

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solitaire--blog · 3 months

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SOLITAIRE.CO.UK

#osemanverse #alice oseman #heartstopper #solitaire #tori spring #michael holden #solitaite blog #tempus fugit #time kills

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deathsbestgirl · 5 months

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omg okay. never again to tempus fugit/max

i know i'm so annoying about this but i just love the progression of never again through the cancer arc.

like. in never again, scully's contemplating her life & her choices & where she fits on the x files. she's feeling invisible (where is she in his office) and inadequate (she didn't help him in paper hearts & disappointed skinner). and in her muddled explanation to mulder, and the way he didn't trust her judgment on the case repeatedly, she felt unappreciated.

in leonard betts, he does little things to show he did hear her even if he didn't at first & was kind of an ass, letting his own insecurities run rampant. (like even his phone calls were because he missed her and was afraid she wouldn't go to philadelphia, that she was tired of him & the x files...)

then in memento mori, mulder was completely there for her. she called him and he came running, with flowers. she was afraid to face it, and he took every step with her. he investigated, he called her mom & brought her things. he was so physically affectionate, gently prodding her to face it, guiding her to investigate when she wasn't ready.

then we get a little break with kaddish, but not really. it's all about love & loss, inability to let go and eventually having to let go. to grieve honestly. they don't really say it, but this is still about mulder and scully.

eventually, we get to tempus fugit/max and again. it's all about mulder & scully. they aggressively parallel max & ??

but what i care about here is the key chain. mulder acknowledges scully's birthday for the first time. he takes her out, gets them to sing happy birthday, with snow balls & sparklers and a GIFT. it's so corny and it's so him and scully is exactly right about what she gleaned its meaning to be. she knows how he appreciates her, how losing her will kill him. scully understood that in memento mori which happened so shortly after never again when they chose silence. they're still choosing silence, because acknowledging it aloud now would crush them both. but they know. they both know and it's why she stays silent for so long about her cancer. he knows it's there, but he can't accept that she's dying. and she's getting worse but she can't make him face that yet either. and she only makes him in gethsemane. when she refuses to follow him, with the news that her cancer as metastasized and learning her cancer was artificially given to her to make mulder believe. and even then, she doesn't blame him. and she would give anything she has to save him.

#mulder and scully #the x files #cancer arc #never again #leonard betts #memento mori #kaddish #tempus fugit #max #dana scully #fox mulder #txf txt

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mccallcompany · 1 year

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Memento Mori ☠️ Mini book with mini clamshell, both tooled with 24k gold and finished with marbled paper by Jemma Lewis

#miniature books #minibook #miniatures #mccallco #bookbinding #goldtooling #marbledpapers #clamshellbox #memento mori #tempus fugit

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villemel · 1 month

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#spilled thoughts #poetry #writing #poem #life #spilled ink #poets on tumblr #poemblr #original poem #time #memento mori #tempus fugit #time marches on #seize the day #seize the moment #carpe diem #in memoriam

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carefulfears · 8 months

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season four is just so unbearably heavy…so much of it really is like waking up gasping for air. and it’s too late. every realization, every appreciation, is something to mourn. scully standing in max fenig’s trailer after his death, remarking how similar he is to mulder…these complex, deep, passionate men. her small smile to the floor. the way her eyes tear up when skinner catches the blood on her sleeve, asks if she is okay, demands she go get checked out, despite her claims that she’s “fine.” how sharply confrontational it is, for that quiet truth to be acknowledged, by someone.

the look on her face when the waiters started singing “happy birthday” at the bar. the way she stared across at her partner, who has never once remembered her birthday in 4 years. who “refuses to believe” that she is dying. but whom, she realizes in that moment, knows just as well as she does, that it’s almost over. and they don’t talk about it. but it’s almost suffocating, in that moment, over a sparkler and keychain, because he does know, and he is thinking about it, and this is what he has to offer. one last birthday, just so she will have it. just so she will have been celebrated, would have been loved, would have been sang to.

that final moment, outside max’s trailer, when she says what the keychain means to her…this silly little commemorative keychain that she sees the whole entire world in, that she sees all of him in. and he’s just silently staring at her. and something in him is breaking. she’s everything, and she sees him, and she’s dying. they don’t talk about it. she’s fine. but they spend their evenings out at bars together. and they pick up on everything, everything reminds them of each other. they’re very kind to each other, overly cautious, but they won’t say it. maybe if they move, they’ll spook something. each other. the cancer. the blood is already in the water, and they just keep driving, keep moving. miss each other while they still have each other, grieve each other next to each other. they’re going through it alone.

#ignore her she just watched tempus fugit/max and wants to smash her brain into a wall #this isn’t even half of it honestly because there’s so much overrunning loss and grief in these eps as well #need to do a whole other post on max’s death but also agent pendrell’s as well #txf.txt #tempus fugit #max

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