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deathsbestgirl · 6 months

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okay. writing about why never again should come before leonard betts is actually hard. because it's really just a few small moments in leonard betts make more sense if they're after never again, and it's so much better to go to memento mori right after the reveal at the end of leonard betts.

never again ends with silence. mulder cutting off his sentence. if it were going to happen, it would be then. but it doesn't, and so the silence persists.

leonard betts has a similar feel to arcadia, where they're trying to get on the same page, slip back into their roles. mulder uses humor at crazy moments, and scully pretends not to think it's funny and stays focused on the case.

in the end, she sits alone in the car in silence. waiting for mulder. he tells her she did a good job, she should proud. a verbal validation he doesn't often give, something she craves & loves, a little taste of something she wanted from him in never again. and she can't enjoy it because she's terrified. scully believes leonard betts and she just wants to go home.

it really strikes me the way there's no physical comfort. in paper hearts, scully was fierce. she tried so hard for mulder and failed. but in the end, he leans into her, they hug, she pets his head. in never again there was no comfort either. mulder was petty and he didn't understand. this time he's kinder when she was attacked, but there's a physical distance that isn't typical.

then in memento mori, she calls only mulder. scully tells him so tenderly. she has no idea what to do, and she know what this will do to mulder. he's with her when they go to skinner so they can officially open a case on it & investigate. when she doesn't explain it to skinner, mulder steps in for her. he tries so hard to be strong when they both know he isn't. but scully is being forced to face something she's left buried. now she can't.

in the hospital, she calls mulder to ask him to bring her stuff & call her mom. she writes letter after letter to mulder. begging forgiveness, telling him she'll only get through this because she knows he's out there, following his own path.

but their path is the same. he will follow her to her death.

they have never been as physically affectionate as they are in memento mori and the reduxes.

in elegy, she sees the ghosts, an omen of her impending death. when she finally tells mulder, he's hurt. he wants to be there for her. in demons, he believes she's dying and that he can't save her, and they both deserve answers. he doesn't want to live without her, he can't keep on his search for the truth without her. but he also won't ask her to follow him into this and he only calls her when he can't remember what happened, there's blood & he's in shock. she knows his suicidal tendencies, it's exactly what has her so worried. who will be there for him when she's gone?

mulder + scully know exactly what they have. scully will give him everything she has, even when it's only her dignity so that he won't rot in prison for something he had to do. mulder will follow her to end of the earth, to the grace without any hesitation.

small potatoes is so painful because of the unspoken agreement not to address their feelings. "mulder" shows up at scully's apartment, and she gives in. she's soaking up the attention she's always wanted from him. they don't kiss, she doesn't move to bridge the gap, she just waits. and then the real mulder comes crashing in and the pain is face is clearly visible. he knew exactly where van blundht was going. it wasn't even a question.

mulder isn't heartbroken that van blundht had a chance with scully and he doesn't, he's heartbroken because they chose silence and now she has a deadly cancer.

in detour, scully makes an attempt to open the door and mulder flees. he knew what was on her mind, but he still can't take it from her. she can't even be mad, but the silence persists and the gap grows.

there's nothing they won't do for each other, but leaving their feelings unsaid hurts them. to the point scully thinks all she's done is hold him back. and in fight the future, he finally says so many of the things she has desperately needed to hear. and she clings to her skeptic role because it still wasn't quite enough. their kiss was interrupted and they don't bring it up and fowley is present, driving another wedge.

from scully's perspective, mulder didn't trust her in never again, and then she lives it all over again because of diana. he doesn't trust her judgment, reduces it to jealousy because they both know her feelings. and she's still unsure of mulder's because of this, and the ever persistent silence. even after one son, he doesn't accept it. only after amor fati, when he was able to hear diana's thoughts and she consequently dies for helping scully save him, does he understand that scully's right. and once again, gives a beautiful speech. between all of this there's been "you're my one in five billion" and "i love you" and "you saved the world scully" and the hallway/bee scene and they play baseball & flirt. until he says to her, looking into her eyes, that she was his friend, his constant, his touchstone.

scully never hears what he says to diana about her. which could have helped her. but she only saw him holding her hand, clinging to diana's shared beliefs, because he knows her. and like in never again, she feels invisible. she feels useless. she's holding him back.

it isn't until the end of amor fati that the tension breaks. things become lighter when scully feels more secure. when he starts giving her the attention she has always wanted, when he lets her take the lead on cases, when she's allowed to believe sometimes without it turning their world upside down.

it's just a better progression. never again shouldn't be about scully's cancer diagnosis & impending death. it's about her, her patterns, mulder. it's about her struggles with what's expected of her, what she should want and the reality of what she wants & chose. her fear that mulder is an authority, and that she gives him that authority.

#well. maybe this is the post then #the x files #dana scully #fox mulder #mulder and scully #never again #leonard betts #memento mori #reduxes #elegy #small potatoes #demons #txf meta #txf quotes #cancer arc #i am so ridiculous actually

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whovianderson · 8 months

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Small Potatoes reaction: MSR edition

*inhale*

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

“Scully, should we be picking out china patterns or what? THEY’RE SOOOO MARRIED

Not-Mulder: we never really talk much

Scully: what, like really talk? No, no we don’t

Not-Mulder: what’s stopping us?

They’re finally acknowledging it! Ohhhh this is going to have a lasting impact on their relationship, because Scully is realising that she DOES want to trust him with that side of things now that she’s been given the opportunity…

“I’m seeing a whole new side of you Mulder, I like it” on the surface, that hurts, because it’s obviously not him she’s seeing. But to be honest, I think Blundt is just channeling what he’s observed that the real Mulder wishes he could be.

OKAY NOW THE MOST IMPORTANT PART ARE YOU READY

FUCKING

GOD

THEY WERE ABOUT TO KISS WHEN REAL MULDER WALKED IN

✨SO HE KNOWS SHE WOULD KISS HIM✨

LET ME REPEAT THAT

✨✨HE KNOWS SHE WOULD KISS HIM✨✨

I WANT TO THROW UP

IM FREAKING OUT

AWKWARD FOR SCULLY

BUT

HOLY FUCK

OBVIOUSLY I WISH IT WAS THE REAL HIM, BUT COULD I HANDLE THAT?? PROBABLY NOT

God, they could barely look at each other in the next scene…

“Treat yourself, god knows I would if I were you” MULDER LISTEN UP

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

#the guy at the fertility clinic thought they were a couple trying to conceive (foreshadowing?? 🙏)#mulder dinging the bell for scully’s attention #my guy #them bickering about eleanor roosevelt #mulder dumping the dressing gown on scully lmao she was unimpressed #scully: you’re not a loser 🥺#mulder: I’m not eddie van blundt either PLEASE IS HE TEASING HER FOR ALMOST KISSING HIM (or is he just insecure??)#yes I spelt blundt like that on purpose #pip watches txf for the first time and goes insane #4x20 #small potatoes #the x-files

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cock-holliday · 2 years

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Fox William Mulder

#fox mulder #txf #the x files #clyde bruckman's final repose #dreamland part 2 #small potatoes

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randomfoggytiger · 10 months

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Mulder and Stagnation, Scully and Autonomy

A bit I pulled from my next post on HTGSC:

“Where’s my partner?”

Lyda sidesteps the question: “He believes in ghosts?”

“Yeah,” Scully unflinchingly responds.

“You poor child. You must have an awfully small life, spending your Christmas Eve with him-- running around and chasing things you don’t even believe in.”

Well that’s a perspective that Scully does and doesn’t hold: yes, Mulder’s single mindedness can be infuriating at times… but does she come across that way to him? It hits on that old, nagging insecurity: Phoebe Green and Bambi Berenbaum and Diana Fowley (and eventually Karin Berquist) can feed his theories and take her place and sneer at her skepticism; and Mulder will cling to their validation because he feels (she thinks) rejected by her.

Does he feel rejected by her?

Again: Mulder’s walls are his insecurity and terror that Scully will pack up and leave him one day; and Scully’s are that Mulder would be satisfied to rot in stagnation in his molding basement, rooting her down with him (an interesting foretelling of the episode Field Trip.)

Her fear and equal confusion are twisted up with her warring belief and disbelief, too muddled for her to sift and resort her quaking emotions.

“I can see it in your face, the fear," Lyda continues, "the conflicted yearnings. The subconscious desire to find fulfillment through another.”

That part is true: Jack Willis to a degree, Mulder most definitely, and even more definitely Daniel Waterston. Scully eventually gravitates to Daniel because she feels unneeded by Mulder-- those doubts bleeding through since S1 into Never Again and into Milagro and finally concluding in All Things-- and her dutiful personality wants to be someone’s right hand man and the only twinkle in their eye. Mulder, for all his affectionate nature, forgets that Scully needs a moment after she loses her sister (talking about fate), her dog (moving on to his request), her rudder in the work (shuffling off to Graceland and giving her the wrong space) her Christmas Eve, and eventually her weekend. He almost loses her to men who need her to fix them-- Ed Jerse’s messed up life and crummy bar, Waterson’s damaged heart and broken relationships-- who have a way of crushing her rationality under the thumb of passion through obligation, who want to take the steering wheel of her life and turn it in their directions. It’s not until All Things that Scully realizes what Melissa meant by “life’s… just a path”: it’s one with a destination only you-- she-- can choose; and it causes her to fully take control of the reigns of her life and be at peace with her hands-off man Mulder.

It took Scully forever to start a relationship with Mulder-- whether that’s The Unnatural or Millennium or All Things-- because she was ingrained in her habits, waiting for him to take control. But Mulder’s no Eddie van Blundht (no Ed Jerse, no Daniel Waterston); and they both realized it would take a miracle for him to do what his shapeshifter-self did. So: Scully, miraculously healed from cancer, reached out for another miracle… and Mulder completely missed it. This shifted her back into Starbuck mode; which led to her quiet reticence of S5 and her self-blame in FTF and her hints and thwarted hopes in S6. The relationship stagnated until Mulder got a clue-- in The Unnatural-- and it shifted irrevocably from there.

#txf #meta #xf meta #mine #Mulder and Stagnation #Scully and Autonomy #Eddie van Blundt #Ed Jerse #Daniel Waterston #Jack Willis #S4 #S5 #S6 #S7 #HTGSC #The Unnatural #Small Potatoes #Never Again #All Things

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agent-troi · 9 months

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Fic prompt! Skinner's consternation and confusion while reading Eddie Van Blundht's report~.

eyyyy a second skinner fic from me in as many days! that poor man is overworked and underpaid😅

The Lesser Potato (383 words) by AgentTroi Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: The X-Files Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Characters: Walter Skinner Additional Tags: Episode: s04e20 Small Potatoes, Missing Scene, Introspection, Ficlet, Tumblr Prompt Summary: Skinner ponders the case report written by Eddie Van Blundht masquerading as Mulder.

#x files #x files fanfic #today in fic #ao3 fanfic #walter skinner #txf s4 #small potatoes #eddie van blundht

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thexfilesbracket · 6 months

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Small Potatoes - Five unrelated women in a small town give birth to babies with small tails. The prime suspect is a man who can shape shift into whomever he wants.

The Unnatural - Arthur Dale's brother recounts a tale about a talented alien baseball player who hid amongst an all-African-American team in Roswell, New Mexico, during the 1940s.

#txfbracket #the x files #txf #small potatoes #the unnatural #dana scully #fox mulder

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x-files-scripts · 1 year

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The X-Files - “Small Potatoes”

Written by Vince Gilligan

March 13, 1997 (PINK)

Have Mulder and Scully been together too long?

Fake Mulder gives his best Travis Bickle routine...

Eddie Van Blundht tries to kiss Scully... “and it looks like she might let him.”

Mulder and Scully are self-conscious and embarrassed the morning after...

#the x files #x files #scripts #txf #season 4 #txf s4 #txf bts #small potatoes #script #vince gilligan #david duchovny #gillian anderson #mulder #scully #screenwriting #tvwriting

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cutemothman · 9 months

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one thing about me is that i have knack for telling when an episode of the x files was written by vince gilligan. if it's bizarre but in a good way, without even checking i'm like yup that's vince and im always right

#he's written so many of my favorites #Pusher #kitsunegari #small potatoes #BAD BLOOD #paper hearts #folie a deux #also his characterization of Mulder and scully is always spot on #txf #the x files

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freckleslikestars · 2 years

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Five Times Mulder Asked Scully to Marry Him and One Time He Didn’t

does what it says on the tin :)

2016 words, read here on AO3

i. She’s bleeding the first time he asks. Thorns of agony pierce his heart as burgundy red stains her snow-white skin. She bleeds elegantly, holds her composure even as the life drains from her, and he hates her a little bit for it because if she can daintily hold his handkerchief to her nose and murmur quiet placations as she dies in front of him, he has no right to go to pieces. He’d joked just last week about picking out china patterns, but when the words leap from his mouth it’s not that kind of wedding he’s asking for.

She startles, freezes under his gaze, and only the tang of iron on her tongue breaks her from her shock. He sits across from her, eyes pleading, unsure how to explain that he doesn’t want to be shut out of her hospital room when they say ‘family only’ again. It seems he doesn’t have to find the words; she can read him like a book.

‘You’re my emergency contact, Mulder. You’ll always be the first to know,’ she neglects to tell him that she changed her emergency contact and next of kin to him on her medical records two days after she woke from her coma.

He gives a tight smile and a stiff nod. Of course, a much more rational workaround. Much more sensible. They spend the rest of the day in silence, a metallic, bitter taste lingering in each of their mouths.

ii. She’s lost everything. Her health. Her daughter. Her bodily autonomy. She’s in remission, hasn’t had a nose bleed in nearly two months now, but she still feels wraith-like; her skin still a sickly hue under fluorescents, her ribs a protruding xylophone beneath her suits. She’s trying to put on weight but her appetite is still fighting its way back.

A weekend away. Sea air. Peace and quiet. Just what she needs, just what the doctor ordered. No family – no squalling babies to remind her what she can’t have – no Mulder and no aliens. Just the wide, empty ocean and the hole in her heart.

But trouble and the darkness find her like a magnet, and she’s secretly relieved at the sound of Mulder’s voice on the end of the phone, the faux-nonchalant quality of it that reveals just how much he’s missing her.

She doesn’t know who she’s showing off to when she recites all she knows: the friendly local police chief or him. She tells herself it’s the locals, that she doesn’t need his approval or his help, but she blooms when she hears his awestruck voice, can hear the smile in his whisper.

It takes all her restraint not to blush, not to give away just how much she wants him to mean it. But Jack Bonsaint is looking at her expectantly and so she rolls her eyes and wonders briefly if he can sense her disparaging look in the tone of her voice.

iii. They’re drenched in Egyptian cotton, limbs tangled and lethargic. Two bottles of overpriced champagne charged to a bureau card. There’s a silver plate of fresh strawberries on the side table that they’re occasionally reaching over to, sharing bites and licking up trails of sweet juice.

They’re giggly and past tipsy and can’t keep their hands from wandering, not that they need to. There’s no case pressing down on them, and for the rest of the weekend, they’re free of all responsibilities, with nowhere else they’re needed other than right there in bed, in the bath and in the luxuriously large shower. He’s mulling over the idea of taking her to the Griffith Observatory tomorrow evening, but he’s not sure he wants to leave the bliss of her embrace.

She’s soft and pliant in his arms and he cannot fathom ever letting her go, so he does the only thing he can think of doing with three-quarters of a bottle of champagne swimming through his system, ‘marry me, Scully,’ pressed into her collarbone as he licked his way down towards the valley between her breasts.

She hums contentedly and smiles wide, raking her fingers lazily through his messy hair. She tugs him back up to her mouth, chases his tongue and nips at his plush bottom lip. Her eyes are dark and deep, and he might just drown in them if she keeps looking at him like that. She rolls him over and settles atop him, glows as she makes love to him with a wide, dopey grin.

Neither will admit to remembering it in the morning, and the observatory will be toured silently, hand in hand, but his request and her soft moans of ‘yes,’ will echo throughout both their minds.

iv. Ten fingers. Ten toes. Big blue eyes and a button nose. He’s perfect; perfect little ears and the perfect Cupid’s bow. There’s a soft, awestruck quiet that has settled around her apartment, and as out of his depth as he feels holding his son – their son – nothing feels more right than the sturdy weight of him cradled in his arms.

She’s sleeping beside him, her body curved around the mass that’s no longer there, and he can’t help falling even more in love with her. She stirs as if she can sense his thoughts, and for once he doesn’t think about opening an X file on it. Her face crumples when she props herself up on her elbow, wincing slightly at the tenderness, and he gently presses his thumb against the crease in her forebrow until it soothes out. William coos and she peers into the bundles of blankets, capturing one of his little, flailing hands and pressing a kiss to it.

‘I’ve been thinking,’ he murmurs quietly, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear, ‘I want to ask you something, and I don’t want you to feel pressured or anything.’

‘Okay..?’ her voice trembles with hesitancy.

‘I want to do this thing right. I want to be a good dad, and a good partner and...and I want to be a good husband. I want to be there for you and for William, and I understand if that’s not what you want, and I didn’t ever think it would be something I would want. I grew up with my parents in a loveless marriage that ended in a terrible, terrible divorce and I swore I wouldn’t do that, but then I met you and I cannot imagine spending my life with anyone but you. I don’t want you to feel pressured though. It’s up to you, it’s your decision and we can take it at whatever speed you want, I just wanted to get it out there as something to think about and-‘

‘Mulder?’

‘Yeah?’

‘My answer’s yes. I’d like that, very much.’

She reaches up as he bends down, meeting in the middle for a soft, sweet kiss. A knock on the door disrupts them, triggering a wail from William, and Mulder chuckles, pulling away, ‘you know, this is our life now, right?’

‘And I can’t imagine being happier,’ one more pecked kiss and they carefully transfer William into his mother’s arms and Mulder goes to answer the door, opening it to find a note left on the floor in the corridor.

He’s got just under two days to go into hiding. Their eyes are red and raw by the time he ducks out, the watery dawn grey barely filtering through the windows of her apartment, the warmth that usually fills it having cooled.

v. He has a scruffy beard, she has dyed hair, and they haven’t stayed in the same town for more than three weeks in over a year. Different identities cycled through just as frequently. There’s a stupor that’s hung over them, dark clouds concealing a sun that struggles to fill the sky.

They’re in a town somewhere on the border between Arizona and Nevada and she’s waitressing at a diner, picking up every shift she can. They have a duffle of money – Mulder had spent years squirrelling away caches of money across the country, just in case; five hundred dollars here, a thousand there - but it’s dwindling and, whilst Scully’s technically an accomplice, she’s less recognisable with her hair died, and so she’s the one picking up odd jobs when she can.

It’s all too much. They’ve spent nearly a decade with a very specific purpose together and now they’re freefalling, grappling with how to exist in a world without structure and, more importantly, without their son.

They have their moments, though, when the pressure increases to boiling point and they snap. The storm breaks and they explode, sometimes vicious words hurled with painful accuracy, sometimes an angry fuck against the door of their motel room. And in the aftermath, a peace reigns. It lasts maybe a week, maybe two, but there’s a clarity in that peace, a reminder that they’re still in love.

It’s one of these sweet times they find themselves in now, coiled atop scratchy motel sheets whilst the ancient air conditioner wheezes over them. She’s soft and supple, draped over him and running her fingers through the scraggly hair on his chest. ‘I need to get to work.’

His arms wrap tighter around her waist, ‘no. I want you to stay right here.’ She hums, content to stay a moment longer, content to exist in this moment of calm. He kisses the top of her head when she looks at her watch, pouts when she sighs and pushes herself up and off the bed. He watches as she dresses, fastidiously buttoning her blouse, pinning back each flyaway strand of dull, mousy brown hair. She takes her time covering her freckles and the little beauty mark above her lip, anything that could be used to identify her. ‘Scully?’

‘Hm?’ she locks eyes with him in the mirror.

‘Come ‘ere.’

She’s hesitant as she sits on the edge of the bed, careful not to wrinkle anything - some habits die hard, and she’s her father’s daughter: she may not be working in the office anymore, but wrinkles and tardiness are not something she would ever allow. His brow furrows and she runs her thumb over it, ‘what?’

He takes her hand, kisses her thumb and each finger, lingering on the fourth one a moment longer than the rest, ‘would you...’

‘Mulder?’

‘Marry me.’

‘What?’

‘Doesn’t have to be now, but...I don’t want to lose you.’

She shifts, looks away from him. ‘I’m not going anywhere, Mulder.’

‘Just...think about it.’

She’s at the door before he can blink, ‘I’m going to be late for work.’

vi. He’s a free man. Technically, they both are now, but she’s had a modicum of freedom for a while. It’s new to him. So, he meets her at the hospital, just to bring her lunch. He smiles at the stir they’re causing as Dr Scully walks through the halls on the arm of a man.

He takes her to the Bahamas and they spend their days on the beach and in the water, eating mangoes that spill juice down their chins and rowing out into the startlingly blue abyss of ocean. They hike across rocky shorelines and through dense forest. He applies sun cream across her back religiously, but she still burns, and her freckles darken.

It’s their last night on the island, walking barefoot on the sandy shore, the gentle lap of waves around their toes. The moon’s bright, the sky cloudless, and the night feels endless when she stops in her tracks, their linked hands tugging him to a halt too.

She smiles at him, a blinding smile, and pulls him in closer to her, the whisper of her lips across his quiet in the still night. ‘I want to ask you something.’

He’s bemused but nods with a hesitant smile, ‘anything.’

Her mind flashes back on all the times he’s asked, all the times she’s scoffed at him or turned her back on him, and has a sudden need to never let him feel the anxiety that’s bubbling within her ever again. ‘Marry me?’

Tagging @today-in-fic