#Redux in Repose

[garnetrising]

Seeking Beta Testers!

Hi, everyone!! I've been working on a build project to make completely modular beds. This means the frame, mattress, blankets, and pillows are all separate objects. I'm starting with the base game beds and the ModPod set is just about ready for extensive testing. (I've done basic functionality testing and it seems to be working fine so far.)

Please shoot me a message if you're interested in helping a girl out.

[simspaghetti]

Ancient Modernity Makeover DOWNLOAD

Hello!! I had a few requests to put this build up for download, and since I just recently hit 800 followers (eeek!! Thank you so much 😭😭) I figured this was a good gift to show my thanks!

Disclaimer: The original version from Gen2 of my Random Legacy uses a ridiculous amount of CC but this is a stripped-back model to make it more accessible for most players, if it looks different that’s why!

Tour Pictures:

Download & more info under the cut! ⬇️

Basic Information:

Price: Furnished = §85,896 / Unfurnished = §48,259

Lot Size: 40x40

2 Bedrooms / 2 Bathrooms

Furnished for 2 Sims (A Couple), 1 Baby/Toddler and 1 Dog 

Potential to turn the upstairs fashion studio into a bedroom as well

Expansions Needed:

World Adventures / Ambitions / Supernatural / Late Night / Seasons / Pets / University Life / Generations

I appreciate that this build still uses quite a bit of CC, so for my minimal CC playing folks, I’ve also made an unfurnished shell version, which uses much less!

Unfurnished Shell CC:

BlamsEAStore:

Casually Corrugated Wall

Plants: Lovely Lupin / Bird of Paradise / Swiss Cheese 

Dolly Door

Posture Glass Double Door

Greenhouse Window

Muntin Window

Other Creators:

AA6x7 Halved Progress Industrial Chic Window (Only the ‘top’ version)

(Solar Redux) A Sensible Panel 

Additional CC for Furnished Version:

‼️You also need everything from the 'Unfurnished Shell' CC list‼️

Blams EA Store:

Bedside Cabinet-Ish End Table / Tropical Leaves of Repose / Murano Retro & Ripe Fruit Bowl / Alvar Vintage Chill Well Refrigerator / Grandmother’s Cooktop / Dirty-No-More Changing & Bathing Station

AroundTheSims3:

Ilona’s Kitchen Cabinet / Bree-KEA Kitchen Cabinets (Just the Normal version & the shorter version) EcoLiving Power Generator / Summer Festival Stylist Station

Other Creators:

Basimcly Simple Curtains Mutske (TSR, sorry!) Florence Curtains ChasmChronicle (MTS): DIY Curtains, Blinds & Shutters - Only the 'Medium rolled up blinds' are needed! Twinsimming: Curtain Call - Both Billionaire’s Curtains & Fashion Forward - Trending Style Board (final) / Industrial Clothing Rack / Clothes by MLys (without dress) KandiRaverSims: Cats&Dogs - Bella Curtain (Both sizes) & Laundry Day - Ironing Board / Shelving Essentials

TOU: Don’t reupload or claim as your own, tags on posts aren’t necessary but are definitely appreciated :) - Feel free to modify or refurnish the build however you want!

➡️ DOWNLOAD IT HERE

(Simfileshare Folder with both Furnished & Unfurnished versions included)

These are library files, so they go in your The Sims 3 -> Library folder

Alsoo this is my first time uploading a build, so please let me know if you encounter any issues!

Have fun using this build in your game! I’d love to see pictures of your sims using the build if you do tag me, and thank you again for 800 followers - it's bananas that I've hit that number, I'm so thankful to all of you!! :D

[benoitblanc]

top 5 X-Files episodes??

okay i'm cheating and doing top 10 because every time i thought i was done i went "but what about THIS one???"

"pusher" (3.17) forever and ever and ever

"clyde bruckman's final repose" (3.04)

"irresistible" (2.13)

"beyond the sea" (1.13) + "paper hearts" (4.10) i'm keeping together because they're a fucked-up little two-parter in my heart

"nisei"/"731" (3.09/3.10)

"ice" (1.08)

"redux ii" (5.02)

"ascension" (2.06)

"wetwired" (3.23)

"colony"/"end game" (2.16/2.17)

ask my top 5/10 anything!!

[bitchboynasty]

I’m trying to convince my buddy to watch the xfiles with me bc I desperately want to be mulder to his scully for Halloween. This is my shortlist of xfiles episodes I think everyone who wants to watch the x files but doesn’t want to watch the whole thing should consider. You’ll notice there are some episodes on here missing the second part of their two parter. Thats because watching one half of an episode is sometimes better if you’re watching a show that hates to explain its own lore. You’re not gonna get catharsis from the x files u stupid slut.

UFOs are episodes relevant to the plot. Stars are my favorite episodes.

Season 1:

- 1.01 the pilot 🛸🌟

- 1.05 the jersey devil

- 1.13 beyond the sea

- 1.17 e.b.e 🛸

- 1.24 the Erlenmeyer flask 🛸

Season 2:

- 2.05 Duane Barry 🛸🌟

- 2.06 Ascension 🛸

- 2.14 die hand die verletzt

- 2.16 colony 🛸

- 2.17 end game 🛸

- 2.25 anasazi 🛸

Season 3:

- 3.04 Clyde bruckmans final repose 🌟

- 3.15 piper maru 🛸

- 3.16 apocrypha 🛸

- 3.24 talitha cumi 🛸

Season 4:

- 4.01 herrenvolk 🛸

- 4.02 home 🌟

- 4.06 sanguinarium

- 4.17 tempus fugit 🛸🌟

- 4.20 small potatoes 🌟

Season 5:

- 5.01 redux 🛸

- 5.02 redux 2 🛸

- 5.05 post modern Prometheus 🌟

- 5.11 kill switch

- 5.12 bad blood 🌟

- 5.19 folie a deux

- 5.20 the end 🛸

[harmonicabisexuals]

okay so bc it's the 30 anniversary here's my favorite twenty x files episodes bc it was impossible to choose a top ten lmao

Pilot

Ice Beyond the Sea Ascension/One Breath Paper Clip Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose Pusher Quagmire Wetwired Paper Hearts Never Again Memento Mori Tempus Fugit/Max Redux II Bad Blood Folie a Deux How the Ghosts Stole Christmas Field Trip Sein und Zeit Je Souhaite

[tucker-077]

I love Paper Hearts! I really enjoy the angst it gives us and the suspense of the case was cool to see play out. I always really like the episodes that focus a lot on how the case affects the characters.

My favourite epsiode is Bad Blood. That one is just so funny to me. The first night I saw it, I watched it twice lol. A close second is Triangle because I love time travel as a concept lol and seeing Mulder aboard a Nazi ship while in real time Scully’s badass walking the FBI halls trying to recruit a team to go out and save his ass is just so entertaining!

Favourite seasons I would have to go with 3, 4 and 5. Season 3 has so many classic episodes like Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose, Grotesque, Jose Chung’s and Quagmire. I love the angst of S4 (okay I admit I’m a sucker for Mulder angst lol) and we get to see a lot of our characters growing closer together. And S5 is just so awesome. It’s got my fav Bad Blood and so many other classics which I love like Detour, The Pine Bluff Variant, Folie a Duex and Kitsunegari. Also for what it’s worth, Gethesame, Redux 1 and Redux 2 is such an awesome three parter. It really throws you for a loop.

Nice to meet you Kate!

Hi I’m Tucker. I saw your ask post lol. What’s your favourite episode of the series?

Oh hi!! Oh I’m glad you saw haha it’s nice to meet you 🥰

Oh my goodness, I could never choose just one 😂 I’ll say that most recently I was struck by how much I love “Paper Hearts” and that I think the seasons with the greatest number of favorite episodes are S3, S6, and S7! What about you?

introduce yourself to me

[chavisory]

Because apparently the comments got locked on that gifset?

I don’t think the fact that Scully is immortal detracts from the fact that she survived her cancer. She wasn’t yet when that happened. She didn’t lose her mortality (if we accept that interpretation of events) until “Tithonus” in season 6. She could’ve died from the cancer. If she couldn’t have and we seriously thought that, the power and anguish and stakes of the whole arc are greatly diminished, but she could have; the danger was totally real that she was going to die.

But that gifset touches me a lot, because it does make me wonder...at any time when she was fighting her cancer, did she look back on that conversation with Clyde Bruckman and wonder? Find comfort or hope in it? Especially when things were looking really bad in “Redux/Redux II,” that maybe, just maybe, she was going to survive it?

I rewatched “Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose” recently, and something that struck me about it that didn’t the first time is just how much he wants to tell her what he does, just how gleeful it makes him to get to tell her that, when this ability of his is so unwelcome and unwanted in virtually every other circumstance, like it represents a really serious intrusion on his ability to live his life (indeed, he takes his own life).

But just this one time, it makes him so happy. And I wonder if Scully ever thought back on it and found comfort.

[droogiesanddiscourse]

"Hellfire."

Pairing: Monsignor John Pruitt x F!Reader

Summary: You are called first to receive everlasting life from the angel's blood during Easter Vigil.

Warnings: Spoilers for Episode 6 of Midnight Mass and all the content that comes with it. Language. Taking some liberties with how the angel's blood works uhhh hehe. Millie who's that AU. Going off of the stream of consciousness / dream-like writing I am trying so hard to stay out of my head and just write what comes.

"Brothers and sisters,” Monsignor Pruitt concludes. “On this most holy night I come to you with good news. Not only the good news of the resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who arose to forgive us of our sins after three days in the tomb. But, also the resurrection of ourselves."

He clasps his hands together in makeshift prayer, eyes sparkling an unfamiliar orange glow that you've never seen before. That of a feral black cat's eyes bouncing back light. The ones that hunt on the outpost of the island, all teeth and heat and hunger and sex and wild and and and--

Visions of nocturnal holiness.

"I ask you. Trust in me. And God will reward your loyalty heavily. Know that I would not ask of the ultimate sacrifice of your life if I did not have utmost faith in our God for the miracle he is about to bestow tonight."

The silence within the church is deafening. Not a soul rises for his offer, parishioners stunned to their seats. His eyes scan, searching for a familiar face. Finally focusing on yours.

“Please. [“____”]," his voice like liquid honey calls to you, echoing through the church. "I call upon you to take the plunge first, my sweet child. Show the good people of Crockett Island that there is nothing to fear. That there is paradise waiting for us all tonight."

He leaves his pulpit, descending down the steps towards you. His arm reaches out, using his slender fingers to beckon you to him with a "come hither" motion. White vestments flowing, covering his human visage as he moves, billowing out like an angel's wings.

Devils were once just fallen angels. Symbols of purity be damned.

He notices your trepidation.

"One moment of pain, perhaps. But an eternity of youth and love and worship in His name. We have been given a tremendous gift, sister ["____"]. Be brave.”

Beverly Keene remained tucked in the upper corner of the church, stirring the choice of death for this evening. She's always been a witch in your eyes; now the harsh comparison rings true more than ever as she concocts a deadly potion of sickeningly sweet liquid.

The smell reminds you of too hot summers and running against the shoreline as the waves lap against your ankles and buying popsicles at the general store and sticky raspberry juice running between your fingers. Familiar memories and tastes intermingled with rat poison.

“And so Jesus rose from the tomb, trampling down death. As will we. I am with you, and you are with me. There is nothing to fear."

Don't drink the kool-aid, the old adage goes.

But you wonder how vanilla and raspberry taste mixed together.

Jonestown redux is standing before you, with his hand outstretched for you to take; his body backlit by the illumination of hundreds of candles. You look up at him through your lashes, lips slightly parted. Your eyebrows upturned and eyes reposed.

"Monsignor. Forgive me, but I cannot," you swallow hard. Back yourself from that cliff, you have one leg dangling over the edge now! "For I have not taken communion as my sins have been too weighty, too difficult to ever be forgiven. I believe I did not deserve the body and blood of Christ at that time, which is selfish of me. Forgive me.”

John almost considers this for a moment, his thick eyebrows furrowing together as he stares down at you.

"There is no resurrection for me. I will die,” you state bluntly. Your words are finally registering. 

Back away back away, make distance between the cliff.

But he smiles, against your expectations. A tight lipped smile, his eyes kissing at the corners when his cheeks raise. Missed by the miracle of reversed age, not reaching the crows feet that reveal only when he's truly happy.

"My angel. You've taken more than enough of my seed in your womb, and down your throat. The blessing is already inside you."

His hand grazes your cheek, and Hellfire reigns down as the finality of his reveal sets in across the room. Hot and prickling at the back of your neck. High pitched buzzing of bees in your ears. Whore of Babylon comes to Crockett Island. Mary Magdalene weeps. Hundreds of eyes descend upon your form, fragile and ready to break at a moment's notice.

Hell has a special place reserved for you for tasting the most unholy fruits. You wear guilt like a halo.

John positions his index fingers and thumb underneath your chin, tilting it upwards. Your eyes dart away, unable to face him. For sure your very skin would burst into flames if you stared too long.

"Look at me," he demands. "Look at me, angel. Do not be ashamed.”

Oh, you’re more than familiar with this position.

Your eyes tilt back, big and yearning and scared yet wanting more. More of John, more of his smell on your bedsheets, more of his fingers in your mouth more of the salty bitter taste of his skin more breaking the boundaries between heaven and hell more more more more flesh more blood no sin no death no guilt.

Hell has a special place reserved for you in due time.

But real hell is living without him. You slip your hand into his, rising from the pew.

The church is silent, conversations about your unforgivable sin now hushed to murmurs. Somewhere in the distance you hear the gentle song of night crickets that intermingle with your delicate footsteps across decades old wood. A resounding creak and moan of the floorboards that echoes through the small church that makes it become an entity of its own, ready to swallow you whole.

Someone is crying, quietly muffled pathetically behind a cloth. A woman blesses herself using the sign of the cross as you pass.

A dead girl walking, and this is the sound of your funeral march.

Your toes bump into the first step leading up to the chancel. Guiding you by your waist, John spins you to face the congregation. Expressions of the crowd are unreadable.

Are you Joan of Arc or a witch about to be burned at the stake?

Blasphemy, blasphemy stood before your friends, family, acquaintances.

A light. The vision of John blocks you away from their watchful eyes as he stands before you, cupping your face within his hands. Your eyes lock together. Gently, he presses a chaste kiss to the center of your forehead. Lips just barely ghosting over your flesh. You tremble before him.

Bev stands behind you, both arms outstretched forward, bent at the elbow. You’re smart enough to realize she’s ready to catch you for when you involuntarily start seizing, your body putting up its final fight against the poison coursing through its veins.

Life. Death. Rise. 

A sob starts in your larynx, unable to burst fully to the surface The warmth of his hands removed from your face, now reaching for Bev's as he takes the small plastic solo cup of juice from hers into his.

"I am with you," he whispers as he holds the cup up to your lips. "As you walk through the valley of the shadow of death I am with you, and you will come out on the other side anew. Whole. Pure as a reward for your devotion to Him."

Raspberry and vanilla threaten to break the seal of your lips, the cup tapped against it. His other hand snakes his way up your back, weaving his fingers within your hair. The digits tug against your locks slightly, tilting your head back.

"Open."

Saliva gathers at the back of your throat.

You can't, you can't, you can't.

You cannot dare to lose the chance to miss another one of those too hot summer days where the children of Crockett island throw their books haphazardly into their backpacks basking in their first hours of summer vacation and the salty water clinging to your hair making it curly and sticky raspberry juice dripping between your fingers–

But oh the visions of him with and the way he whimpers into your neck when he thrusts into you, his hot mouth on your pulse point, the way his hand pin down your wrists forcing you to stay still. Murmured praises and bedroom hymns whispered as the moonlight coats both of your bodies in a ghostly blue glow. Was it truly ever living without him? No more hiding no more secrets you are his and he is yours. A boundary death cannot even cross–eternity is a beautiful thing to imagine.

A tear slips out of your eye, rolling down your cheek. The pad of John’s thumb gently rubs it away. Sympathy for the condemned.

"Drink."

And you do.

[gaycrouton]

The Best and Worst Rated Episodes of The X-Files according to IMDB - a breakdown ✨

To kick things off, here’s a chart of the ratings for all 218 episodes in the series

Season One (1993-1994)

Highest Rated The Erlenmeyer Flask (9.0)

Lowest Rated Space (6.2)

Season Average (7.67)

Season Two (1994-1995)

Highest Rated Anasazi (9.1)

Lowest Rated Fearful Symmetry (6.5)

Season Average (7.84)

Season Three (1995-1996)

Highest Rated Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose (9.2)

Lowest Rated Teso Dos Bichos (5.9)

Season Average (7.99)

Season Four (1996-1997)

Highest Rated Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man (9.0)

Lowest Rated El Mundo Gira (6.6)

Season Average (7.95)

Season Five (1997-1998)

Highest Rated Bad Blood (9.2)

Lowest Rated Schizogeny (7.0)

Season Average (8.08)

Season Six (1998-1999)

Highest Rated Dreamland (9.0)

Lowest Rated Alpha (6.4)

Season Average (8.12)

Season Seven (1999-2000)

Highest Rated Requiem (8.6)

Lowest Rated Fight Club (6.0)

Season Average (7.61)

Season Eight (2000-2001)

Highest Rated Existence (8.7)

Lowest Rated Surekill (6.8) Salvage (6.8)

Season Average (7.77)

Season Nine (2001-2002)

Highest Rated The Truth (8.3) The Truth II (8.3)

Lowest Rated Lord of the Flies (6.9)

Season Average (7.47)

Season Ten (2016)

Highest Rated Mulder and Scully Meet the Weremonster (8.0)

Lowest Rated Babylon (6.4)

Season Average (7.38)

Season Eleven (2018)

Highest Rated The Lost Art of Forehead Sweat (8.2)

Lowest Rated My Struggle III (6.4)

Season Average (7.47)

Films ✨

Fight the Future (1998) | 7.0

I Want to Believe (2008) | 5.9

Averages Ranked ✨

Season Six (8.12) Season Five (8.08) Season Three (7.99) Season Four (7.95) Season Two (7.84) Season Eight (7.77) Season One (7.67) Season Seven (7.61) Season Eleven (7.47) Season Nine (7.47) Season Ten (7.38)

Series Average (7.81) IMDB Series Rating (8.6)

Top 10 Highest Rated Episodes

Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose (9.2) Bad Blood (9.2) Anasazi (9.1) Dreamland (9.0) Redux II (9.0) Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man (9.0) Paper Clip (9.0) The Erlenmeyer Flask (9.0) Small Potatoes (8.9) Jose Chung’s From Outer Space (8.9)

Bottom 12 Lowest Rated Episodes

Nothing Lasts Forever (6.6) Signs and Wonders (6.6) Teliko (6.6) Fearful Symmetry (6.5) My Struggle III (6.4) Babylon (6.4) Alpha (6.4) 3 (6.3) Space (6.2) First Person Shooter (6.1) Fight Club (6.0) Teso Dos Bichos (5.9)

[IWTB is also rated 5.9]

As of March 2023, The X-Files is the 110th Most Popular TV show on IMDB.

Unlike the Nielsen Ratings, these scores aren’t set in stone. Anyone can make an IMDB account and contribute their ratings, so if there’s anything you disagree with on the list, go represent your opinion!

All statistics from IMDB, all graphs created by me ✨

The data was obtained in March 2023, since IMDB ratings are subject to change, these findings may not be accurate in the future

However, with each episode currently having around 5k ratings, it’s likely not to vary too much.

Trends and Points of Interest✨

Season Three had both the highest rated episode (Clyde Bruckman at 9.2, tied with Bad Blood) and the lowest rated episode (Teso Dos Bichos at 5.9)

Despite being very high on the Nielsen charts, El Mundo Gira is one of the least popular episodes.

Season Three was the most featured on the “Most Popular” list (731, War of the Coprophages, Jose Chung, Paper Clip, Clyde Bruckman)

Despite being a beloved season, Season Four appeared the most on the “Least Popular” list (Teliko, The Field Where I Died, El Mundo Gira, Kaddish)

Here’s the full breakdown for anyone who’s curious to see where their favorite episode lands!

I hate math, but as far as my calculations go-

Mean: 7.81 Median: 7.8 Mode: 7.3 Range: 3.3

Anything that shocked you?

1) I can’t believe Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man is so high

2) People are sleeping on Nothing Lasts Forever (it has one of the best MSR scenes!)

3) I know this is an unpopular opinion, but I don’t hate Fight Club. I’ve always liked Kathy Griffin

[wannaliveattheholidayinn]

hm, well, a lot of liking the x-files is about personal preference of the viewer and not everyone's gonna like everything. that said

the mytharc episodes (the alien stuff) of the first two to four season aren't bad imo. from there out it can get a little dicey though there are still episodes i like just fine

generally though most people that i've seen and interacted w seem to prefer motw

episodes from each season i've seen i'd personally recommend just based on what i like and rewatch (i'd look into trigger warnings for a number of these)

1 - deep throat, squeeze, the jersey devil, ice, fallen angel, eve, beyond the sea, darkness falls, tooms, and the erlenmeyer flask

2 - little green men, the host, duane berry, ascension, one breath (those three are pretty essential), firewalker (mostly i just like bradley whitford), red museum, aubrey, irresistible, die hand die verletzt, colony, endgame, humbug, soft light, our town, anasazi

3 - the blessing way, paper clip, dpo, clyde bruckman's final repose, war of the coprophages, pusher, jose chung's from outer space, wetwired

4 - home, unruhe, the field where i died, sanguinarium, tunguska, terma, paper hearts, leonard betts, never again, memento mori, tempus fugit, max, elegy, demons, gethsemane

5- redux 1&2, unusual suspects, detour, christmas carol, emily, kitsunegari, chinga, kill switch, bad blood, the red and the black, the pine bluff variant, folie à deux, the end

not an episode, but the x-files: fight the future (1998)

6 - drive, dreamland 1&2, how the ghosts stole christmas, terms of endearment, the rain king, tithonus, monday, arcadia, alpha, trevor, the unnatural, three of a kind, field trip, biogenesis

7 - the sixth extinction: amor fati, millennium, the goldberg variation, the amazing maleeni, chimera, all things, hollywood ad, fight club, je souhaite, requiem

8 - within, without, roadrunners, redrum, via negativa, medusa, per manum, this is not happening, deadalive, vienen, essence, existence

that's all i can recommend having seen so far. anyone else who sees this, feel free to jump in and add more!

Thoughts on watching the X Files pilot for the first time, having never previously seen any of the X Files:

Ooh are we starting with spooky vampire aliens? Is that what's happening here?

That outfit is terrible on Gillian Anderson.

I very much feel that Gillian Anderson became a lot hotter with age but now I'm wondering just how much of that is because of the impacts of 90s fashion.

So Mulder has the full conspiracy theorist decor right from the off?

I know that Mulder = believer and Scully = sceptic but I don't know if there's ever a situation where it's a Scooby-Doo thing and Scully will be right.

Over 200+ episodes it would be weird if she was never right.

Mysterious bite marks means aliens is a bit of a leap on Mulder's part.

"You're not squeamish" - I mean, she's a qualified doctor, they usually don't get to be squeamish.

Wondering if this episode was sponsored by the Oregon tourist board. Those woods look lovely, if you ignore all the murdering.

Even with the world's most open mind, it feels like a bit of a leap that Mulder goes straight to alien abduction and not, say, alien virus, or witch's curse, or any one of a bajillion other supernatural or otherworldly things that could be explaining all of this.

Ah, a pervy scene of Scully undressing. Oh, the 90s. Got to make sure we see the lead actress's bum in the first episode.

I have to say, this set up is gripping. Mulder's backstory, the growing closeness between Mulder and Scully already, the idea of a massive government cover up? So good.

Ignoring that they're standing by an open grave, the scene of Mulder and Scully laughing together in the pouring rain is very cute.

And then they hold each other gasping after Billy recovers? I mean, I know about the shipping, I haven't been living under a rock, but there is already even more of a vibe there than I would have anticipated.

A massive sinister warehouse in the Pentagon full of evidence! Nice.

And that's the end!

Well, that was a lot of fun. I'm not up for another 200+ episodes (and even if I was, my husband isn't), but I'm wondering if only watching the ones with an imdb rating above 8.0 would be viable. Any thoughts, X-Files fans of tumblr?

[baronessblixen]

Hi Anika! What are your top 10 or top 20 favorite TXF episodes? If you have time, maybe you can briefly say why you like them? I love hearing your thoughts.

Hi anon! There are so many good episodes. I have a few core favorites and a few that seem to change around a bit. They're in no particular order - and my thoughts are basically "Mulder and Scully are hot/cute/adorable" 😁

The Pine Bluff Variant - it's so good. I feel like it's underrated. Mulder trying to keep a secret from Scully! Mulder running! Scully setting his finger! Her following him!! It also has the whole "evil government" aspect to it.

Wetwired - another underrated episode! It's a monster-of-the-week episode but with mytharc elements. Scully being affected and becoming paranoid is amazing. And Mrs. Scully is in the episode too, of course!

Bad Blood - I mean that's a given, right? I like the comedy of it and I love the whole he said/she said spiel. It's a very fun episode.

Rain King - another fun episode. As a huge rom-com fan this one has to make my list. It's cute. I love Mulder and Scully being mistaken for a couple by *everyone*. Not to mention the room sharing and Scully's speech.

Pilot - I think this episode sets the show up so well. Mulder and Scully as baby agents meeting for the first time and bonding and clashing immediately. What's not to love?

Redux 2: I can't tell you why I love this episode so much. Or the whole three parter really. All I know is that for a while when I was a kid I watched it almost daily. It's Mulder crying at her hospital bed and both of them fighting their own fight and Scully going into remission.

Colony/End Game - I often forget about this episode but the mytharc in the early seasons was really good. Fake Mulder hurting Scully and then real Mulder choosing Scully over (fake) Samantha is so much drama and I LOVE it. The whole Mulder and his family part is heartbreaking.

Anasazi/The Blessing Way/Paper Clip - I cannot tear these episodes apart. They belong together. From Mulder being drugged to Scully shooting him and driving gim across country, being a total badass, to thinking he died and then losing her sister. There's so much here.

Squeeze - I just enjoy season one so much. They're all comfort episodes to me (except Space. That episode can fuck off). I love the case, I love Scully's answer when Colton asks her whose side she's on. Scully saying Mulder is territorial. I know it's not a two-parter per se, but I have to mention Tooms here, too, cause technically I like that one even better (that MSR moment in the car alone!).

Memento Mori - it's as heartbreaking as it is brilliant. Gillian is amazing in it and Scully choosing to fight is everything to me. As is that hug at the end. And Mulder watching her walk away. That one's just sad.

Demons - one of my absolute favorites. Yes, psrt of it is Mulder being a burrito at the beginning and him being insanely hot in jeans and a white t-shirt. But I also like seeing how far he's willing to go for this quest. Scully being worried sick (and she IS sick in late season 4 😭) is a bonus.

Je Souhaite - another fun episode. No one is dying. Well, Anson Stokes dies, but he doesn't count. Scully and her invisible man are so precious. The ending of course. Mulder being a sweetie, asking for world peace and then looking for Scully.

Detour - I love the case and suspense with person after person going missing. The beginning with them and the other two agents in the car is so funny. The singing of course and the whole raining sleeping bags thing. My personal favorite though is Mulder jumping into that hole to be with Scully.

I'm gonna stop here and do a few honorable mentions: The Jersey Devil, Dreamland 1+2, Jose Chung's From Outer Space, Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose, War of the Coprophages, Ice, Pusher(!) and Aqua Mala.

This got long. This show has way too many good episodes! I know I forgot several that I love.

[scenes-in-between]

Masterlist (current through Sep. 11, 2020)

Here’s hoping that a new school year and return to routine will help me keep this series updated more regularly again. ;) Updated through the first part of Trust No 1.

Season 1

Pilot Deep Throat Squeeze Conduit The Jersey Devil Shadows Ghost in the Machine Ice (and bonus ficlet!) Space Fallen Angel Eve Fire Beyond the Sea Gender Bender Lazarus Young at Heart E.B.E. Miracle Man Shapes Darkness Falls (A Darkness Falls-Tooms Interlude) Tooms Born Again Roland The Erlenmeyer Flask

Season 2

Little Green Men The Host Blood Sleepless Duane Barry Ascension 3 One Breath Firewalker Red Museum Excelsis Dei Aubrey Irresistible Die Hand Die Verletzt Fresh Bones Colony End Game (bonus drabble series!) Fearful Symmetry Dod Kalm Humbug The Calusari F. Emasculata Soft Light Our Town Anasazi

Season 3

The Blessing Way Paper Clip D.P.O. Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose The List 2Shy The Walk Oubliette Nisei 731 Revelations War of the Coprophages Syzygy Grotesque Piper Maru Apocrypha Pusher Teso Dos Bichos Hell Money Jose Chung’s From Outer Space Avatar Quagmire Wetwired Talitha Cumi

Season 4

Herrenvolk Home Teliko Unruhe The Field Where I Died Sanguinarium Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man Tunguska Terma Paper Hearts El Mundo Gira Leonard Betts Never Again Memento Mori Kaddish Unrequited Tempus Fugit Max Synchrony Small Potatoes Zero Sum Elegy Demons Gethsemane

Season 5

Redux Redux II Unsual Suspects Detour The Post-Modern Prometheus Christmas Carol Emily Kitsunegari Schizogeny Chinga Kill Switch Bad Blood Patient X The Red and the Black Travelers Mind’s Eye All Souls The Pine Bluff Variant Folie a Deux The End

Fight the Future (Sidetrips drabble)

Season 6

The Beginning Drive Triangle Dreamland Dreamland II How the Ghosts Stole Christmas Terms of Endearment The Rain King S.R. 819 Tithonus Two Fathers One Son Agua Mala Monday Arcadia (bonus!) Alpha Trevor Milagro The Unnatural Three of a Kind Field Trip Biogenesis

Season 7

The Sixth Extinction The Sixth Extinction II: Amor Fati Hungry Millennium Rush The Goldberg Variation Orison The Amazing Maleeni Signs and Wonders Sein und Zeit Closure X-Cops First Person Shooter Per Manum Flashback #1 Theef Per Manum Flashback #2 En Ami The Gift (bonus journal entry) Chimera all things Brand X Hollywood A.D. Fight Club Je Souhaite Requiem Mulder’s Journal

Season 8

Within Without (Part one) | (Part two) Patience Roadrunners Invocation Invocation-Redrum Interlude (three drabbles) Redrum Via Negativa Surekill Salvage Badlaa The Gift Medusa Per Manum (Part one) | (Part two) | (Part three) This Is Not Happening (Part one) | (Part two) | (Part three) Deadalive (Part one) | (Part two) | (Part three) | (Part four) | (Part five) Three Words (Part one) | (Part two) | (Part three) Empedocles (Part one) | (Part two) | (Part three) Vienen (Part one) | (Part two) Alone Essence Existence (Part one) | (Part two) | (Part three)

Season 9

Nothing Important Happened Today (Part one) | (Part two) Nothing Important Happened Today II | (Post-Ep) Twelve Days Daemonicus 4-D (Part one) | (Part two) Mulder-on-the-run Fictober Drabble Series (on AO3) Bonus Mulder/Gibson Dialogue Only Ficlet Lord of the Flies Trust No 1 (Part one)

[benoitblanc]

top 5 scully episodes?

i need to clarify that this is ONLY based on the episodes i have currently fully watched, which is everything up until hell money. there are quite a few later eps i've seen bits and pieces from, but i don't think i can pass a full judgement on any of them yet because again, it's mostly just been bits and pieces. (except for redux ii, which i... have seen most of. and do adore as both an episode and a scully episode. i love emotional pain)

top scully episodes up through 3.19:

"irresistible" (2.13). sometimes... chris carter... he gets it i'm afraid to say...

"beyond the sea" (1.13) is i think probably going to be the only episode i will be unable to rewatch, because my relationship to grief is a lot different now than when i first watched it, but it captures the inherent contradictions of scully so well. she's a medical doctor with a bs in physics practicing forensic pathology. she's a fully qualified fbi agent who's escaped death multiple times. she's a lonely young woman falling in love with her partner. she's a devout darwinist. she's a skeptical catholic. she's starbuck, doomed to devote herself to a mad captain. she's just a little girl who loves her dad

"pusher" (3.17) JUST for the russian roulette scene. those like seven minutes are the thesis of the ENTIRE series

i have to go with "pilot" (1.01)... cutiepie...

and i'll give a tie between "clyde bruckman's final repose" (3.04) and "war of the coprophages" (3.12). all hail darin morgan. i love that clyde bruckman really shows her compassion and shakes her skeptic foundations a bit, and war of the coprophages just makes me giggle. she was so hell-bent on staying put in her house eating ice cream out of the carton and giving queequeg a bubble bath UNTIL mulder mentioned dr. berenbaum and then she immediately started PACKING. i love her so much

my bonus here is the anasazi three-parter, because it's really the first set of episodes in the mytharc when scully starts to get some proper agency (even if it was at the expense of missy, rip). i also love how often she accuses poor skinner of trying to kill them with absolutely NOTHING to back this claim up. she's more paranoid than mulder is i'm obsessed with her

ask my top 5/10 anything!!!

[orangegreet]

No Minor Miracles | Chapter 5

War-Front Redux

A little reunion, a little madness, a little passion on the heels of a brush with death.

Aleksander saw the Inevitable now. He understood it. At least, partially.

When he grasped the tether that evening after hours spent collecting himself and setting his own expectations, it was with deliberate calm and confidence.

He pulled.

She didn’t answer.

He waited an hour but she still had not responded.

He poured himself a drink.

Standing at the window of his study, shoulders straight and head tall, he pulled again.

Minutes passed. Then several more.

No response. No twinge, even.

He swallowed the rest of his glass and set it down.

Cracking his neck to ease the tension, he straightened the buckles of his undercoat and then gave a real tug.

Nothing.

Nostrils flaring, his tossed the empty tumbler. It shattered in the fireplace.

Something flared inside him and looked around.

“…Alina…” his voice loses it’s commanding edge thanks to a wayward hopeful-uplift at the end of her name. He rolled his eyes at himself, his fingers rubbing against the skin of his forehead.

The raw and reopened hollow in his chest pulsed and he searched it for what he knew was also there. That imprint of her. Perhaps she would not come but her feelings were not as easy to hide away from him.

Could he sort out her emotions from his? He had never properly tried.

Seating himself back in the armchair he prepared to search the depths of his soul for the loose scraps of her.

He found an anger there. It was…odd to acknowledge. Anger he knew intimately, but the flavor of this was different. He could not place it.

It must be hers, nevertheless.

She was not coming.

He repeated this fact to himself over and over, forcing himself to come to terms with it.

The disappointment he felt was tempered only by his determination to meet her in a collected manner.

He resolved to give her space.

He tried again the next week. A hardy pull to the line as he leaned against his fireplace.

She did not answer.

Even if he tried he could not have stopped the whip of fury he hurled deep into their connection.

He burned for her to feel his displeasure. How dare she hide herself from him now?

She was hoping to drive him back into insanity, no doubt.

Aleksander forced a deep breath.

He would not succumb. She wanted to play him for a fool.

The continued silence he endured from her still had an added taste of her rage returned.

This was puzzling. Not having seen her for years—what could he possibly have done to earn this disdain?

Redirecting his efforts into war was reflexive. Months were spent wiled away on the war front.

The General was gifted in the field. The ability to think on his feet, to act with precision and merciless retaliation was honed by years of ugly lessons hard-learned.

His best ideas were born from the chaos of the destruction of battle.

It made sense that one such flash of brilliance would be sprung from this environment; his mind constantly worked in the background to resolve this issue with his petulant Sun Summoner.

How would he get the attention of a woman whose whereabouts were utterly unknown to him? One who refused to answer his commands and who responded to his displeasure with her own stubborn anger?

Pleasure. Raw and unrefined desire. Pressed into her very being by him. He would weave a Siren’s song into their connection and lure her to his side.

Honestly he was remiss for missing the obvious sooner. He had direct access to her emotions—enough that he could channel his own into her and light her up like a little lamp if he wanted.

She could ignore his summons as she pleased. Ignore his wrath.

She would not be able to ignore his lust.

It was a risk. Revealing the depth of his lust and his desire was admitting to an obscene vulnerability.

However, he had exhausted his options. He could not very well send her the debilitating ardor and affection he felt for her. She would hold that over his head for eternity.

He would not be dominated in that way.

A twitch of a manipulation to her emotions was not a bad concession. She desired him as well, anyway. Whatever ambivalence she wished to convince him of at this moment, he had experienced her craving for him in return. Had she not once gripped his hair to the point of pain while he drank from her trembling little cunt? He remembered with a surging heat through his body exactly what her lust-filled moan tasted like on his tongue.

This was simply a matter of reminding her.

In the safety of his tent and long after his men retired, Aleksander reclined on his bed.

Alina would not deny this, could not block it nor see it coming. She expected his rage, his resentment and wrath. She would not be equipped to guard against his lust.

He drew on the memories he had of her. Of her lips, of her fervor, her legs clamped around his waist, her thighs against his cheeks, the silk of her wrists enclosed in his hands when he pinned her to the forest floor and placed a tongue to her throat.

All those recollections folded into the same space which stored his future designs. The ones predicated on joining his body into hers and staying in her as long as he pleased. Stripping her down and filling her up again with himself, his body, his power.

Internally, he was accumulating his own ball of light as he knitted memory and fantasy into a single globe that cast tendrils of heat into his limbs.

The swell in his pants begged for attention but he ignored it for the moment, holding his concentration.

When he thought the thing potent enough, he released it, forcing it along his end of the tether and into their shared connection.

He did not need to wait long. When it hit her, he knew. The tidal wave of desire returned to him and on the heels of it, more fury than he had ever felt from her before.

Aleksander tugged. An incessant, needy pull at their connection.

She did not respond.

Under his direction, the Second Army took out camps across the enemy line, the Fjerdan permafrost was painted with wolf blood to draw out their masters and then drüskelle and Fjerdan soldiers alike were slaughtered with the ease of a plow anointing a field.

The dark mood harbored by the General made him vicious and on more than one occasion he left the confines of his tent to enter the battlefield where he personally ripped flesh from bone with disquieting pleasure.

Ivan and Fedyor monitored their General. Hesitant to challenge or even acknowledge the new state of his disposition.

Eventually the lack of intervention caught up with them.

The General, newly emerged from the blackened night with blood and victory splattered across his face, grunted in surprise as a Fjerdan wolf leapt from the shadow and latched to his shoulder. It was Ivan who stood in a panic-induced shock, frozen in place as he watched the attack.

Ivan, who lifted his hands to stop the beast, determined to crush the heart inside it’s savage chest.

Ivan, who in an inexcusable moment of complete ineptitude, forgot that his powers did not work on animals.

A sickening crunch came from the spine of his General before Fedyor stepped into the brawl to sink a blade into neck of the wolf.

Healers were called. The General lay quite motionless with a thready heartbeat. The wolf had snapped his spine and when the Healer knitted the bones back together, his eyes shot open.

Ivan watched as his superior stared into the empty snow beside him. He was muttering though Ivan could not make out the words.

After a few moments, his eyes closed again.

When the General woke, it was to a flurry of people around him.

Healers made their assessments, declared him mostly recovered and assigned him to bed rest. He fell in and out of sleep.

Ivan and Fedyor took turns keeping vigil.

Alina was there sometimes, sitting by his feet. His eyes closed.

When he opened his eyes next she stood at the end of his bed. He blinked a greeting at her. Something inside him warmed in her presence.

Though he could not keep himself awake. Again his eyes closed and he only hoped she would be there when he woke again.

A couple days passed before he had the stamina to keep his head held up and his eyes open. He found her seated on his bed, her hand inches from his.

At the sight of her, a smile twisted his face against his will.

He dismissed his lingering guests. Soldiers filed out, unsure if they should follow his orders given the state of him.

Everyone was gone save his sunbeam and the warmth was back. His eyes caught on her lips and he thought if he did not speak he might try to pin her down before she could disappear. He would capture her like a lightning bug in a jar and keep her as a trophy on his nightstand.

“My little Saint has come to call at last. Or…is this still a fever dream?”

He began to edge into a seated position and groaned. She glared at him.

“Are you in pain?” She asked.

He shrugged cautiously and adjusted his pillows for support. “Mostly healed now, I imagine. The rest will pass.”

When his eyes met hers, he found a fire in them. He could not hold her gaze; his brow furrowed.

He fiddled with his bed clothes, eventually pushing them off himself and stacking one leg over the other in repose, hands clasped in his lap to contribute to the picture of ease he was arranging.

“To what do I owe the visit, Alina?” He asked, business-like.

She scoffed. “You do not—I felt it, you fool. You. On the cusp of death. I figured I should come check you kept your pulse.” She spoke with derision in her voice. As if it was appropriate to arrive furious next to someone’s sick bed.

He sneered and looked away.

“Thoughtful of you to pay the courtesy then. However, I am very much alive as you can tell. If that is all, you can run along now—“

She cut him off, “In case you are too dense to pick up on this, I find your latest attempt to get my attention entirely deranged. I am disgusted by it.”

His composure dissolved into disbelief.

“My latest attempt?” He raised his voice at her, “You think I would cut my line at the edge of death just to lure you to my side?”

Her smoldering glare was unmoved. Plainly, she did.

“Am I so desperate for your company that I would gamble my life on a battle field in hopes that I could—what? Endure another five minute row with you across this—“ he gestured between them, “measly connection only to be abandoned by you for a few more years?”

Someone stirred at the tent flap at the sound of his raised voice.

He cast a wall of shadows around them, dense enough to muffle his sounds.

“Forgive me for thinking you would stoop to such depravity.” Alina stared at him, her tone dry, “Your prior attempts at getting my attention were quite dignified, after all.”

Then as if she could not stop the words from flying out of her mouth, “Constant attempts to pull me over, to force me to bend to your commands. And then when I did not answer—it was pathetic to think I would fall prey to some burst of carnal lust for you. As if what you have to offer me is so special.” The fire in her eyes flashed, “Your cock and your mouth are entirely replaceable, I assure you.”

He seethed through the sting of it. “Let us leave my cock out of it considering you have not yet sampled it yourself. And let it be known I tried appealing to your good sense and you would not comply. Was it so wrong to try and tempt your baser instincts?”

“I will not be called on like a dog. Beckoned to your side when you’re bored and looking for someone to torture.” Alina hissed.

He his anger tinged with confusion.

“I was not aware you found me so wholly undesirable. Forgive me thinking it, I must have been misled by all your physical advances in the past.”

She clenched her jaw and looked away. He thought he saw tears and felt even more bewildered.

Alina brushed her hands down her dress and began to get to her feet.

“Now I’ve satisfied myself of your survival, I’m leaving.”

“No.” Aleksander’s hand reached for her shoulder before she could stand. “Stay a little longer. Alina—”

She tried to yank out of his reach, her collar rolling away to expose her skin in the process.

His eyes caught on a cluster of yellowing bruises around her neck. Unmistakable in origin.

She stared at him with a flash of worry, pulling her collar back in place.

His breath seemed to have left him for a moment while his heart ramped up into a jarring pound.

He pushed a short breath through his nose, a rueful smile hung on his face. “Squirreled away a lover, have you? Adorable.” His tone was dangerous.

“You do not own my pleasure, Aleksander—”

“Enough of this. Whoever it is. Him. Her. I don’t care. End it.”

She doubled down, tipping her jaw up at him. “You do not own me, Aleksander.” She repeated.

“You gave yourself to me—“ He shouted, “You were made for me. I endured centuries waiting for you—“ They were both on their feet and his words were snarled as he shook her by her arms.

“I was made to be your balance,” she shouted back. “Not to be your pet. And centuries have done wonders for your maturity—behaving like a petulant child who sets aside his toy and then acts surprised that he’s lost it.”

Alina’s voice trembled with her anger and tears collected in her eyes again. “As if you remained some celibate monk in honor of me these last few years.”

He said nothing.

She shoved his chest, “Well? Have you?” She was screaming at him, eyes blazing and he was sure if they were together right now her light would burn him.

She pushed him again and he gripped her wrists. His chest throbbed and he squeezed his eyes shut against it.

Something clicked into place.

The pounding in his chest when he was with Inna for the last time. The pounding that was foreign to him after years of disuse.

Alina tried to jerk her wrists back but his grip tightened and he kept them, palms still pressed to his chest.

“Answer me—” she demanded, pushing him again where she had leverage.

Aleksander fell back a step. “You were there.” The change in volume made the words practically a whisper to her ears.

“Yes.” Alina growled at him, savage as the wolf who broke his bones, “Thank you, by the way, for inviting me to watch as you fucked some otkazat’sya woman as if your fucking life depended on it.”

Her breath was hot on his jaw even as he backed his head away from her challenge. “Was it good for you? Saints, you were desperate for it, I could tell.

“Then you insult me by trying to bring me back to you the next night after? You are pathetic. Petty.” She spat in his face.

He didn’t respond. He didn’t let her go. She struggled.

She could leave at any moment if she wanted. He tried to cling to the fact that she still had not left.

“Alina.” He held her palms to his chest with one hand and pulled her body into his with the other arm wrapped around her waist.

“No—“

“I swear I did not know. I did not mean to—”

She turned her head away and screamed again, “I don’t care I don’t care! I will burn you from the inside out when I see you again, Darkling. I will fill your eyes with the light of a noon-day sun and I will not stop until it comes bursting out of your mouth and scorches your tongue,” She promised. Her hands tried to conjure but he would not let go of her wrists and it would not work over their connection.

They both knew it would not work. She tried anyway.

“You will wish that wolf had snapped your neck and your back a thousand times over while I set your live body on fire with my power. You will burn up like a dry leaf and I will be the one who feels all the pleasure. Just me. Only me.”

Tears were streaking down her face and their eyes were locked and he did not let her pull away.

“I did not know, Alina—I would never have—” His voice was cooling to her temper and he kept a steady gaze on her, willing her to gentle.

The passion she contained never failed to surprise him. That she spoke with ease about eviscerating him should have unsettled him. Instead he found himself drawn deeper into her. The Light within her could strike him anywhere she pleased and he would reform again at her back. He would surround her greedily, his Shadow unable to do anything except press itself to Light. It could not detach. Shadow did not exist except at her mercy. He could accept this now.

“Do not lie to me, Aleksander. I saw with my own eyes. I saw how you touched her. I cannot stop seeing—”

“Wait. Please, wait.” His hand held tight to her wrists, keeping her in place as he crossed spotted his discarded kefta, still crusted with his blood. With a furtive glance at her, he reached for it and sorted through the pockets.

When he stood in front of her again, he held up the blue and gold scarf for her inspection.

“That is mine.”

He nodded.

She touched it and then dropped her hand.

“This means nothing to me. This is a distraction.”

He closed his eyes and sighed. “For a little while these last years, I did a thorough job of shutting you out. Letting you go again. It was not easy but it made not being with you more manageable. The day I called out to you—though, I swear I did not know that I did, this was returned to my room.”

Alina flicked her eyes to the scarf and back to him, distrust stubbornly clinging to her face.

“You must have left it in your room at the Little Palace. Seeing a real piece of you, proof of you after years of pretending you did not exist, undid me. What you saw—though I did not and would not ever have willingly invited you to view it—was me trying to shut you back out.” He shook his hair back and met her eyes.

“It did not work. Clearly. I will no longer pretend that it is a possibility, never again. You know what I am. You know what I want. I will possess you as I am doomed to be possessed by you and I will not be satisfied until I stake my claim for the world to see.”

Alina leaned in to him, eyes blazing in want as her fury was cooled by his words. He delighted in how quickly she whirled through emotions, delighted in persuading her.

“You will not skirt your punishment.” She said.

He leaned into her ear, pressing his lips there and whispered, “My punishment only promises your body will be next to me again.”

His hands wrapped around her hips. “I would take your fire and let it consume me if it brought you a hint of ecstasy.” Palms moved up her ribs and his thumbs brushed the sides of her breasts.

“There is nothing I would not do to bring you pleasure, Alina.” His lips moved to her neck. He grazed his teeth over her pulse.

His hands were closing in on her breasts; fingers long enough to curl around her ribs even while his thumbs circled over her clothed nipples. A soft moan fell against his chest. Her hands fisted into the black linen of his shirt and he smiled.

“You own my body.” He spoke into her jaw, “I will own yours and you will never want for anything.” Cheeks brushed against each other as she nodded. “I do not share, Alina.” Her hips pressed into his involuntarily. “I will keep you sated to the point of recklessness, insanity. This is my vow.”

His eyes looked into hers and as he sat on the bed, pulling her into his lap. The rigid peak of his clothed cock met her cunt and they both hissed. Aleksander watched as she rubbed herself over him in a slow slide.

He still had not kissed her. As if realizing it in that moment, Alina glared at him, grasping his jaw in her hand and reigning her lips upon his. Her hands kept his shoulders in place even as he fell back on the bed.

He matched her intensity, pulling at her face with his hand while his other adjusted her position back over his cock. The moan she exhaled into his mouth spurred him to lick at the seam of her lips until they opened for him.

They wrestled, rolling over each other a couple times before settling on their sides. Her hands explored his body and his sought the wetness between her legs and when his fingers slipped into her they shared a groan. Her mouth never left his. Aleksander pulled back only far enough to watch her eyes squeezed shut in blunt ecstasy while they panted.

She squealed and quieted and he kissed her lips and slowed his fingers, wiggling them in a test of her sensitivity. The answering smile was lazy.

When he brought his fingers to his tongue, she watched with half-lidded eyes as he made slow laps.

It was not prudent to tell him that she would have to re-do this orgasm when she returned to her body. She stored the memory of his fingers, covered in her slick and cleaned with his tongue.

The promise of insanity did not seem so objectionable.

“This is new.” He brushed his fingers over the glittering scales clasped around her wrist.

She blushed and withdrew her hand. He did not know for certain what it was but he had a strong suspicion.

“A gift, only.” She looked away from his eyes and kissed his jaw. The lie burned between them but he did not mind it. He played on her guilt, calculating that she would be reluctant to lie to him twice in a row.

“Alina, how is it possible that no one yet knows about the Sun Summoner? You bandy about using your powers—presumably anyway because rumors do emerge about you yet no one proclaims your existence with any certainty. It should not be possible.”

Alina shrugged with a secret smile and pressed her lips to his neck. “People believe what suits them best. You know this. The commoners want for a savior so rumors are born. Those in power want to keep it and therefore will not acknowledge a threat even when the evidence is delivered to their doorstep.”

It was casual, brisk even, the way she spoke of herself as a threat. Aleksander could not hide the surge of heat it brought on and descended to her ear where nipped and pulled like a hungry beast.

She laughed. A breathy, delighted thing and he smiled against her cheek. All else forgotten.

“Let me come to you. I need your skin against mine. I need your power twisted in with mine. I will have it.”

Her breasts pressed against his chest under the force of his hand at her back. The way her breath quickened was sign enough that she wanted it too. If that weren’t evident, the pull on their tether was so tight it was almost uncomfortable. His forehead fell to hers.

“N-not yet.”

He growled and she placed consoling hands to his face.

“We are dangerous, you and I. And I’ve told you before, I have business to take care of before I can come to you. I will in the end. I swear to you it is in sight, just…be patient for me. Believe me when I say you are mine and I am yours.”

A rumble answered from his throat as his nails scratched at her yellowing love bites. Placed there by some unworthy set of lips and teeth.

Her answering laugh was uneasy.

“They are nothing, Sasha. Nothing to me. You will see.”

He forced himself to change the subject. Even speaking of someone else, someone who had access to the taste of her skin began to spin him.

“We are dangerous? You said just now. Because of the threat we make to the throne. Because together we are the rightful rulers of Ravka. You do mean for us rule in the end?”

She glanced away and he smoothed a thumb through the crease in her brow.

“Not just threats to the throne, no. Not just rulers of Ravka.”

He waited while she weighed her words.

“We are a threat to the world. I am a threat…”

Aleksander watched her lips, waiting for her to continue. She looked small and fearful.

He imagined her as a child, waking in the night from a bad dream.

“I have felt it…when we were together. The only time we were together,” she amended, glancing at him apologetically.

“Within my powers—when they mingled with yours, it was like…like a kind of certainty that if I wanted—” She twisted her face to look at him with the full force of fiery gold eyes, “If I wanted, I could break the whole world open.

“Split everything and everyone and the whole of the universe apart until all that was left was Light and Shadow. Just us. Left in the quiet of it all.”

His heart was racing.

Or perhaps it was the tether vibrating on the frequency of a humming bird's wings?

Both of their breaths became heavy and they sunk closer into the empty space between them.

Alina’s eyes rested on his lips and her voice was breathy again.

“It is ridiculous, isn't it? Thinking I could do that?”

He shook his head, surprised at his inability to string coherent words together.

“Not if you want it, no. If you want it, then it is simply a fact. A truth.”

“It is not what I want.” She whispered.

He nodded in understanding, sinking further into her.

“Is it what you want, Sasha?”

A smirk twitched on his face and then he claimed her mouth again. When he pulled her body over his, running his hands over the backs of her thighs as they opened around his waist, he thought he would not mind it.

If centuries of walking the earth taught him anything, it was how expendable everyone and everything could become, given enough time.

Her Light was creation itself. It lit up within him because where there was light, the shadows would cluster around it; to smother or to worship, he could not be sure. Though he knew it was her Light that began it all.

It would be fitting for her Light to finish it.

His little Sun, expanding around him, swallowing up the whole of the universe in her Light then falling back on him where he could surround her like a cooling Shadow shroud until she decided to burst forth to create something new again.

[dreamingofscully]

This may be a tricky question, but what's your favorite episode of The X-Files from each season?

s1 - Beyond the Sea (2nd: Ice) s2 - Irresistible (2nd: Anasazi) s3 - Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose (2nd: Pusher) s4 - Memento Mori (my #1 ep) s5 - Bad Blood (2nd: Redux II) s6 - Milagro (2nd: Rain King) s7 - all things (2nd: Je Souhaite) s8 - Um. Per Manum maybe? IDK. (Nothing else exists for me after s8.)

Thanks for the ask  💙

[ghostbustermelanieking]

hello! I want to rewatch some of the x files (keyword being some, like a couple episodes a season. I don’t have time for 9 seasons and 2 movies lol) but I’ve only seen the show once and was wondering if you or anyone who sees this ask had certain episodes to recommend from each season that would capture the essence of the show/overall plot? thanks!

hi! i might be the wrong person to ask for this lol because my view of the show is so varied. if you're looking for mostly plot stuff, you could always stick to mytharc, but i personally think some of the best episodes are NOT mytharc. so i'm gonna make a very subjective list of the episodes i think are most important--some because of mytharc and some because they're just fun. i'll put a * by mytharc stuff and bold some that are my personal favorites, but i'll really try to stick to the standouts. anyways!

season 1

pilot*

deep throat*

squeeze*

conduit*

jersey devil

ice

fallen angel*

eve

beyond the sea*

lazarus

e.b.e.*

darkness falls

tooms*

erlenmeyer flask*

season 2

little green men*

the host

duane barry/ascension/one breath*

firewalker

irresistible

die hand die verletzt

colony/end game*

humbug

anasazi*

season 3

the blessing way/paper clip*

clyde bruckman's final repose

oubliette

nisei/731*

war of the corprophages

syzygy

piper maru/apocrypha*

pusher

jose chung's from outer space

quagmire

wetwired

talitha cumi*

season 4

herrenvolk*

home

unruhe

tunguska/terma*

paper hearts

leonard betts*

never again*

memento mori*

tempus fugit/max*

small potatoes

elegy

demons*

gethsemane*

season 5

redux i/ii*

the unusual suspects*

detour

christmas carol/emily*

kitsunegari

kill switch

bad blood* (just bc it's fun!)

patient x/the red and the black*

all souls*

the pine bluff variant

folie a duex

the end*

fight the future**

season 6

the beginning*

triangle

dreamland i/ii

how the ghosts stole christmas

the rain king

tithonus

two fathers/one son*

monday

arcadia

milagro

the unnatural

three of a kind

field trip* (i think it's an important episode emotionally)

biogenesis*

season 7

sixth extinction/amor fati*

millennium*

orison

sein und zeit/closure*

x-cops

all things*

hollywood a.d.

je souhaite

requiem*

season 8

within/without*

roadrunners

per manum*

this is not happening/deadalive/three words*

empedocles

vienen

alone

essence/existence*

season 9

nothing important happened today i/ii*

trust no 1*

provenance/providence*

scary monsters (cause i think it's fun)

jump the shark* :(

william* :( :( :(

the truth*

i want to believe*

season 10

my struggle*

founder's mutation*

mulder and scully meet the weremonster

home again*

my struggle ii* (if you don't mind it all being regressed in the next ep)

season 11

my struggle iii* :( :( :(

this

plus one*

the lost art of forehead sweat

ghouli*

kitten*

rm9

familiar

nothing lasts forever*

my struggle iv* (if ya want)

this is extremely subjective, and i included some episodes i hate for plot reasons, but anyways! sorry this is convoluted and if u have any more questions hmu