#Went through multiple collections (did not go in a logical order). Finally found The Dress. Set about finding fabric.

[aw-bean-s]

For anyone else who has been capital O obsessive over Wednesday's prom dress it's Alaia's 2020 fall ready-to-wear collection specifically look 8. If you were wondering.

[tatooedlaura-blog]

Out of the Car

This third series reads as follows:

Shattered … Desolation … Determination … Us and Ours … Ratty Towels … The Sleepover … Skinner and the Punch … Oregon … Impossibilities ... Something from Nothing

@today-in-fic 

&&&&&&&&&&

Waking them from a sound sleep at 3am, Mulder struggled to sit up, found Scully settled on top of him, searched blindly with his hand to find the cell phone, no idea if it was his, hers, who cares, knocking over the half-eaten bag of M&Ms in the process. Rainbows scattering across the floor, rolling in every direction, he groaned in frustration when he still couldn’t find the phone on the coffee table. “Scully? Scully, you gotta move.”

In response, she rolled, thinking she was in bed, realizing she wasn’t, landing on her hip and left hand, the carpet soft but the three candies she crushed in the process not so much. Still 95% unconscious, she sat there, wondering which way was up while Mulder shifted, finally finding the phone on it sixth ring, “call me back when it’s daylight.”

“Then you don’t care that Stanley Cartwright is missing?”

He may not have been able to remember his own middle name in that second but he recognized Stanley Cartwright’s, “he’s what?”

“Gone from his cell, gone from the prison grounds, gone from the face of the Earth at the moment and if his last words mean anything to you, he’s looking in a phone book right now for your address.”

“How did he get off death row?”

Skinner, attempting to gather wallet and keys in silence so not to wake Maggie, “if we knew that, we’d have him back in custody. I’ll meet you in my office.”

Finally gathering his faculties while he watched Scully shake her head, stand, pick up squashed candies from the floor, “wait. Come here. If he’s out there, I don’t want him to run me off the road or worse.”

“Good idea. I’ll be there in 15.”

Looking down at Scully, tired, confused and above all else, carrying his child, “call me when you get here.”

&&&&&&&

Skinner arrived at the apartment, sense of paranoia building with each mile he drove. Once in the front door, locking regular and deadbolt behind him, he walked up the stairs, following Mulder to find Scully dressed, ready to go, bullets strewn across the counter, clips filled, multiple guns in various stages of assembly, “um, should your boss really be seeing your arsenal?”

“The government approved this arsenal and I plan on taking half of it with us while Scully keeps the other half.”

Skinner looked at the pair, both ready, steady, able and prepared to kick ass, “half?”

&&&&&&&&&&

Skinner would be 15 minutes and after explaining to her what had happened, Mulder stared as she rubbed her eyes, slower to wake up than usual. Flashing back on a conversation, his breath caught as he snagged her elbow, throat tightening in the clarity of the moment, understanding heavy in his heart, “this is it.”

“What’s it?”

“This is when you get out of the car.”

It took a fraction of a second to remember. Understand. Feel cold reality numbing her fingers and twisting her stomach, “are you getting out with me?”

The longest pause in the history of infinity happened over the next four seconds, with Scully already knowing the answer but needing Mulder to say it, “I can’t. Not right now.”

“Then we need to get ready.”

He saw the set of her jaw and knowing arguing would be futile, he waited, allowed words and logic to penetrate, assemble, order and prevail …

Both dressed, unearthed weapons, double-knotted shoelaces, tied back hair, stuffed wallet and badge in pockets, breathed deep, tightened holsters …

And his phone went off, signaling Skinner’s arrival, “he’s here.”

Mashing down fear at sending him back into the night alone, she swallowed her pride in name of their child, “I’ll work background if you take Skinner with you. I won’t leave the station so you won’t have to worry about me.”

Mulder ignored the phone, enveloping her face in his hands for a moment, kissing her lightly, “we will make this work.”

“Of course we will. Now go let Skinner in before he takes down the door.”

&&&&&&&&

“Scully’s going to work the case from the station. You’re going to be with me.”

Feeling they were about to slip into frenzy agent mode where there’d be no talking to them at all, he picked up one of the guns, holding up a finger to pause the prepping, “I need two minutes, all right. Tell me why you’re splitting up? You told Maggie you were feeling fine earlier.”

Suddenly just wanting to get on the road and find this asshole so he could come home again, Mulder tightened his jaw, “Scully’s pregnant and we are not reliving Pfaster so she is staying safe while you and I go do this thing.”

Non-plussed as he could possibly be, Skinner looked to Scully, “that will be explained in the car, please and do I get a vote in this election as Mulder’s new partner?”

As Mulder made his way past, stuffing handcuffs in his pocket, Scully shook her head, “not really.”

&&&&&&&&&

Stanley Cartwright, who made Gerald Schnauz seem like the pleasant neighbor next door, made the Peacock brothers look tame, scared the living daylights out of Mulder in 1991 and downright terrified him now. Cartwright had a thing for living brain dissection, a thing for family members and a thing that made Mulder’s sphincter clench up tight, even 8 years later.

It took nearly four days to track him down, the three of them ending up in South Carolina, Mulder and Skinner catching Stanley while Scully sat quietly in the station, gnawing on the corner of her thumb, praying the location she’d given them, sifted from two days of anonymous tips and careful reading on his prison ramblings, panned out.

The moment the call came through that she’d been right and Stanley Cartwright was well and dead in his third cousin once removed’s childhood bedroom, poor, unsuspecting Janice Appleton’s scalp already peeled back, twilight sleep thankfully keeping her from realizing Mulder could see grey matter, she felt her heart slow for the first time since Skinner woke them up nearly 96 hours earlier.

How in the world was she going to make it through nine months of this?

She needed liquor and to give Mulder a very long hug.

Finding Skinner and Mulder in the lobby of the hospital, leaning on counters while they waited to hear how the victim was, she ordered them to sit their asses down and eat the granola bars she’d bought. While Skinner gratefully unwrapped and began devouring his first food in two days, Mulder gave her a look, calculated something or other in his head, then, holding her hand, led her back into the parking lot, “what’s wrong?”

“Will there ever be one damn day where you can’t read my mind?”

“I’ve been in there before, remember? I know how it works and I know that when your mouth does that little twist, you’ve got something churning. What happened?”

Momentary pause to collect the proper words, she pulled her lips tight, conciliatory and apologetic, “I’m just wishing for a cup of Punch and that you really were the bookkeeper of my donut shop. I’ll be fine as soon as we can all get some sleep.”

“You know I don’t believe you, right?”

With a deep inhale, “it’s just this is the first time I’ve had to watch from the outside in a really long time and I don’t enjoy the view but that’s how it has to be sometimes and I’ll get used to it.” Finally turning a sheepishly seductive smile in his direction, “but at least we have a few more ways to deal with the stress now.”

“Without Skinner, I assume?”

Seduction turned squeamish in an instant, “really? Did you really have to go there?”

Finally collecting the hug he’d been thinking about since he saw her come in the hospital doors, “love me for who I am, Scully.”

“Sure. Fine. Whatever.”

[fishylife]

Multiples of 3! :)

Thank you

3) List your fandoms and one character from each that you identify with.

I’ll just list the fandoms where I’m currently “active” (as in, I’ll search the tag from time to time).

Bleach: I never thought about this, but I think I would identify with Soi Fon. She acts logical and tough but you can’t say she doesn’t think with her heart sometimes. 

Hockey: In this case, “character” would just be a real person. Josh Leivo maybe? In a “feeling stuck” sort of way. 

Final Fantasy XV: Maybe Luna. She has a strong sense of duty, but I also admire her because her sense of duty is her strength.

DC: DC characters have such comprehensive backstories that this is going to be tough. Maybe Kon-El from Young Justice? I mean, I’ve sort of been permanently ragey lately, so I feel you, dude. 

6) Are you religious/spiritual?

I wouldn’t say that I am either. I’m pretty cynical.

9) Are you an artist?

Uh…I dabble? I definitely wouldn’t call myself an artist, but art definitely interests me. I used to try to write, but I got really busy this year. I started trying to draw a few weeks ago though. Nothing fancy, just drawing along with the Sketch Daily subreddit whenever I have some time. I am trying to get some more sewing in, though that might have to wait until I’m more settled down and have more time on my hands to try new patterns. I have this elephant pattern I’ve been dying to try but it seems daunting and I need some time to figure it out and might need to buy some more supplies. 

12) Dog person or cat person?

I think I’m a cat person. Not to say I don’t like dogs though. Dogs are a delight to this world. I’ve just been in contact with some dogs lately and they are definitely tiring ^^;;

15) Five most influential books over your lifetime.

This is going to seem like such a generic collection of books lmao. 

- George R. R. Martin - A Game of Thrones - When I was in high school, I would still read a lot, but I never really found a book that I would say I loved. In my first year of university, I had to take a writing tutorial. The TA told us that if we weren’t reading, then we weren’t reading the right things, and that really encouraged me to go out and find books that I thought I would like, rather than books I thought I should read. This was the first book I read after that tutorial and I just blazed through the series. 

- Ken Follett - The Pillars of the Earth - I loved the political thriller aspect of this book, but also really admired how much research Follett put into the history and architecture in order to write this book. I didn’t even know that he was a thriller writer until a while after, but it makes sense considering how exciting the political aspects of the book are. I think this book also inspired me in terms of worldbuilding. The Pillars of the Earth and World Without End are set in a real historical period, but Follett really did put a lot of research into the time period to write this book. 

- John Steinbeck - East of Eden - I was surprised the first time I read this book, because I never knew it was possible for someone to convey the kinds of feelings that the characters felt throughout the book. They were very real feelings but the way Steinbeck portrays them was so accurate that it surprised me. 

- Donna Tartt - The Secret History - I’ve literally been raving about this book for over a year because this may have been the best book I had read in 2016, and I haven’t done much reading in 2017. Once again, it’s always the thrillers in unlikely situations that I love, and this was such a page turner. After I finished the book, I just had to digest it for a few weeks because so much had happened. The characters were each so deep and the way the story ended for each of the characters just felt so realistic.

- John Knowles - A Separate Peace - After I read this book, I went online to look at analyses and it seems like this is one of those books that everyone would hate because you had to study it in school. Truth be told, I probably would have hated this book too if I had to study it in detail at school, but I read it in my own time and I actually really enjoyed it. It reminded me of East of Eden, in that it portrayed relationships and feelings in a way that felt very real and unique. 

18) What’s your patronus?

Pottermore tells me that mine is a lioness, which is pretty badass, if I do say so myself.

21) Do you love easily?

I don’t think so. I’m kind of a hater, to be honest. Which is why I try to keep my blog positive. 

24) Have you ever felt like you had a “mind-meld” with someone?

Having met up with some friends from high school and university recently, it’s strange to see how different we’ve become. We used to have the same experiences and yet now we do such different things (especially those who didn’t study the same major as me). I do have one friend though, who was in the grade above me in high school, and we also studied the same major at the same university. Sometimes we joke that we have the same brain, because our thoughts and reactions tend to be very similar, but we really seem to “get” each other. I guess it’s because we have similar personalities and have also gone through very similar experiences and are roughly the same age. 

27) Do you feel like your outside appearance is a fair representation of the “real you”?

Erm, I think so. I dress pretty conservatively, also because of the type of job I have. And when it comes to real life situations, I like to avoid conflict. 

30) Pick one of your favorite quotes.

I used to have time to write down my favourite quotations in my notebook. There were probably way more in my old notebook but I just opened up my current notebook and was surprised to find some in here. But since I can only pick one, let’s not go with a sad one.

“But it ain’t about how hard you hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward; how much you can take and keep moving forward.”

- Rocky Balboa