I hardly ever get any time to myself because I do have a somewhat high position in the government, which can be stressful in and of itself, but what makes my job uniquely difficult is that I am in charge of several special agents, but while that also can be difficult, within my supervision are two special agents investigating strange phenomena, and while both are highly intelligent, it seems that their favorite thing to do is putting themselves in extremely dangerous and life-threatening situations that often require my help. Their explanation for what happened often involves the crazy one saying it was something called a fluke man and the one with a Ph.D backing his claim. Whenever they get too close to a top-secret government conspiracy this chainsmoker just appears in my office and says something cryptic about how I must contain them for the greater good and how it’s above my pay grade to know why. The first time I took a day off was to move all my stuff into a new apartment after my wife divorced me, after which I proceeded to get framed for murder. The second time I took a day off was because I had gotten a life-threatening disease that would have killed me in 24 hours.

txf + text posts (6/?)

More X-Files + Guide to Troubled Birds

Do you think the other agents in the FBI knew about the movie being made about Mulder and Scully? I have to imagine word got out, which would have been SO embarrassing, especially because they would obviously go out of their way to see it and probably laugh at them the whole way through and make teasing remarks back at work. At a certain point Skinner would have to forbid anyone in the building from mentioning it, and probably sheepishly apologize to Mulder and Scully 😅

Aaaaaand now I wish there was a fic about this

lmaooooo one of my favorite things is to imagine people’s in-universe reactions to that movie, like there have been rumors about these two for seven years and then this movie comes out which is allegedly based on them, except i guess not so allegedly bc they didn’t even change their names!! the fbi betting pool must’ve had a field day when they saw that movie and it would’ve been even more embarrassing for mulder and scully bc they weren’t together yet when the movie was being made, but by the time it comes out they’ve gotten together and so they’re sitting there watching it like 😳 so much for keeping our relationship under wraps, our asses are never beating the allegations

also slight sidebar but what i really think about the most is csm’s reaction to the movie… like imagine he’s just sitting in his crummy little apartment minding his own business flipping around the tv, and suddenly the trailer for the lazarus bowl comes on and he sees fake mulder and scully squaring off against a very familiar looking chain smoking villain, and he’s so utterly and completely shocked he immediately chokes on his cigarette and dies

x files + moderately accurate alignment charts

CSM and how the lies destroyed the Mulder family: a headcanon

I have a complicated and maybe personal image of CSM that to me makes more sense than whatever they tried to do with his character (since they changed minds so many times).

The focal points of his character are his envy, obsession with control and inability to love.

I think he really envied what Mulder Sr. had with his family, even before Fox and Samantha were born. He had a wife who loved him and above all he did his same job (more or less) but that hadn't turned him evil or selfless. I like to think of William Mulder Sr. as a decent and kind person, at least when he was younger.

Obviously, his life wasn't perfect and he and Teena probably fought a lot because of the secrecy of his work. I think that was the real first struggle about the truth that the Mulder family had (1°). Bill couldn't be honest with his wife about what he was doing and that created a distance. CSM may have taken advantage of this situation, growing closer to Teena maybe while Bill wasn't there for her.

Deep down in the headcanon tunnel from now on, I like to think Teena and CSM didn't have an affair but just a one night thing. Teena probably never forgave herself for that night and never told Bill about it (2°). Bill never asked, but understood what happened (3°).

At this point, CSM wants to have a relationship with her, but she refuses him and just wants to forget what happened. He's insistent and she starts hating him.

Soon after, Teena and Bill's relationship gets better and Fox comes into this world. Now. I'm not sure what to believe (pun intended) on CSM's being his father. Because, in this logic, he could but so could Bill. Surely CSM thought to be Fox's father and thought to have rights on him, no matter what Teena could say about it.

CSM marries Cassandra, they have Jeffrey, he tries to have what Mulder Sr. has but doesn't work. He can't love. His wife starts hating him, his son is a delusion for him. In the meanwhile, Samantha Mulder is born.

When the time of the abductions is closer, Bill and Teena get to choose which one of their children to "sacrifice" (4°). They painfully indicate Fox, because he's older and stronger, but CSM don't even give them the luxury of the choice. Fox is his son, so Samantha will go. That's the moment where the Mulder family irremediably shutters. Teena divorces Bill and Fox will never know anything about this from his family (5°).

Maybe after the abductees' return, CSM goes to Teena, offering her a possible life with him (this could be why he took Samantha and she wasn't returned). She doesn't believe him and swears to never talk to him again.

Samantha starts living with CSM, he has now what Mulder Sr. had, but again, he can't love. She understands that he constantly lies to her and hates him, so she quickly becames useless to him and he uses her for experiments.

His fixation on the Mulders keeps going, because he thinks Fox is his son, but above all because he likes him as a person. He challenges him, has a goal, a conviction, doesn't care what the others think about him. Maybe he thinks they are similar and that's why he sometimes protects him. But again, he doesn't know what love is, so if there's something more important, he's ready to sacrifice him.

He thinks he knows Mulder and tries to get him on his side more than once, but he fails. Mulder was loved and is loved, he knows what love means, he's kind and decent, even more than his father William.

He thinks he knows Scully because of his own past, but he understands nothing about her or their relationship, because it's the complete opposite of what he's ever experienced. ("You'd die for Mulder but you won't allow yourself to love him" he says to Scully in En Ami, while they're already in a relationship.) And he lies, lies, lies, the thing that made him advance in his life. At the cost of love.

What could really have saved the Mulder family, was the truth, that will become Fox's reason of life. If Teena told Bill about her moment of weekness, if he ever asked her instead of acting like nothing ever happened, there could have been hope. Hope to forgive, to go on. But what they did was the opposite, letting Fox enter in these net of lies. Hiding everything from him "for his own good". But that's not what he wanted and accepted ("The truth will save you, Scully. I think it'll save both of us").

cahoots

How I’m feeling on my rewatch of txf

The X-Files, behind the scenes

The X-Files - Redux II by Kim Manners, Chris Carter.

Honestly CSM’s failed novelist career is so relatable. Like when he’s all ready to quit his day job (as head of a global syndicate conspiring with extraterrestrials to colonize the planet) because he’s getting published for the first time only to find out it’s in some junky magazine (that apparently Frohike reads) and that they changed his ending. So he has to rip up his resignation letter and go back to the grind.

i mean.

if anyone is immunocompromised and needs a mask, it's cancer man, i suppose

“if they come down with so much as a case of the flu” well scully came down with literal CANCER and this plot point was apparently completely forgotten lmao

Spender: I need praise and attention 🥺

Scully, Skinner, & CSM: Ew. Gross. 🙄

Mulder: I need praise and attention 🥺

Scully, Skinner, & CSM: Of course 🥰 Whatever you need, king 💖