#oubliette

[bigskycastle]

the old cistern beneath the flood control system

[wicked-96]

That one x files shot

[martyr-inthedark]

Oubliettes are underused in Whump imo.

The cramped darkness, Whumpee not knowing if they’ve been forgotten. Not being able to stand properly, let alone sit or lie down, or even to tuck their elbows in. Their bare feet shuffle against something solid and they pray it’s not the bones of the last Whumpee who was left behind. Perhaps the grate above their head lets them see out the window, forcing Whumpee to count the days. Perhaps instead it’s pitch black and the only sign of life is their labored breathing. Pebbles crumble onto their head. Whumpee hears the echoes of passing guards as they march their rounds, but they cannot or will not hear Whumpee.

Rope burns are inevitable once they’re rescued, as are the scrapes and bruises from their weakened, pale body scraping against rough stone on the way up. It’s the only proof that they made it out. The sunlight and fresh air are overwhelming and Whumpee can’t help but shrink away no matter how overjoyed they are. Whumpee can’t sleep without a night light of some kind. They can’t walk without limping from the stress their legs went through trying to keep them upright. Whumpee never stops talking now, rapidly, and sometimes they don’t make sense. Almost to the point of annoying their friends. But, their voice is permanently fried from screaming and Whumpee does not speak on what happened to them.

[scullysflannel]

oubliette is the x-files at its most “as a brother of a sister” — a whole episode about mulder's empathy for abducted girls that doesn't seem to know scully has been abducted multiple times. this has been a post from 1995

[randomfoggytiger]

The Switch Up of Mulder's and Scully's Trauma Responses

Had a quick thought while writing a separate meta:

During the original run of the series, Mulder and Scully were both empathetic, protective, stalwart people. They both also had clear, delineated ways of dealing with challenging cases or traumas. Mulder internalized then acted out: running after the Truth, yelling, pushing in where he didn't belong. When traumatized, he leaned outward: crying for his sins alone (Conduit and One Breath) or over his dead father (Anasazi) or on his dying mother (Talitha Cumi) before finding a partner he could openly fall apart with (Herrenvolk, Paper Hearts, and Sein und Zeit.) Mulder may hold the dam in until it breaks, but his shimmering eyes, quivering posture, and faltering voice always gives him away-- followed very swiftly by loud exclamations and fraught, emotional outbursts. Scully internalizes then avoids: refusing to face her abduction and memories (The Blessing Way), boxing away her cancer until it's nearly too late (Redux II), and grieving for the loss of her fertility and daughter privately. Her eyes widen, her lip quivers; but she hides these signs away as quickly as possible-- a disguise her partner isn't afforded.

Over the course of seven (or eight, if one is feeling generous) years, we're given numerous traumatic experiences to examine their behaviors through. When Mulder faces a close-to-the-chest case, he personalizes: Conduit's Kevin as himself, Oubliette's Lucy and Amy as his sister (and himself), Anasazi's and Herrenvolk's and Paper Heart's and Redux II's failures as his own. "His" actions have caused these problems; he is responsible. He projects, then acts out. When Scully faces a close-to-the-chest case, her fears manifest as self-doubt. She doesn't project herself or her situation onto others: Scully is instead forced to face a similar or concurrent struggle she is currently avoiding. And when she is most shaken, it's by an undeniable visitation: her father's, a dead woman's, her daughter's, her dead partner's. While Mulder throws his own trauma into these cases, she maintains a healthy, professional detachment: one that sympathizes, respects, and quakes under a fear of failure; but one that keeps her perspective clearly delineated (unless directly involved-- and even then, will be kept at arm's length as long as possible.)

Which brings me to canon post-Season 9: the writers seem to have switched the characters' reactions, strangely.

In I Want to Believe, Mulder pursues a kidnapped case because it is the ticket to his (and Scully's) freedom; yet Scully takes up his old mantle of projection and lays his obsession at Samantha's feet while, at the same time, projecting her own son onto ailing Christian Fearon. In the Revival, it's Scully who sees herself (and her son) in nearly every case. Mulder, meanwhile, keeps a detached distance, pulling out his emotional side only when necessary to comfort his partner (or to remember William, once, in private.) Scully panics and runs into danger and falls apart visibly while her partner becomes the stronger head with his nose mostly wiped and his shoes mostly tied.

Which begs the question: if the time between I Want to Believe and the Revival was supposedly when Mulder and Scully separated and individually underwent treatment for their mental health, why did that possible therapy and medication swap their responses-- not substitute them for healthier techniques, but completely swap them? And again: why were their responses already switched up in I Want to Believe? If the switch up was a result of compounding trauma, why wasn't it already present in Season 8-- when Mulder had been abducted, killed, and resurrected, and Scully had to carry on in his absence while pregnant-- instead of years after the fact, with time apart? Or in Season 9 after William's adoption, or Mulder's death sentence? And if it is the result of compounding trauma regardless, effects as dramatic as switching up not only their coping skills but also their real-time responses would have been compared to past medical records and likely gotten them disqualified from FBI re-entry.

There also doesn't appear to be a consistent pattern indicating previous off-screen growth or change, because the Revival flips back and forth on the swaps, too. Sometimes Scully will internalize (Ghouli), sometimes she will project (My Struggle I, Founder's Mutation, Home Again, My Struggle III, This, Plus One, Nothing Lasts Forever, My Struggle IV.) Most times Mulder keeps a personal distance but sometimes he will fixate and reconnect (Mulder and Scully Meet the Were-Monster and Kitten.) These switches are applied haphazardly and never addressed except for a throwaway line (Mulder's "I feel like I've had to put that behind me" in Founder's Mutation, Scully's "I believed I could protect our son, and I failed. I believed that we could live together, and I fled. I gave up on that, too" in Nothing Lasts Forever) that are undermined either a scene or an episode later (Mulder's dream in Founder's Mutation, Scully's proclamation in My Struggle IV.)

To keep a (potentially longer) post short, I ask: Does the Mulder who openly wept over a drowned victim in year three of the series (Oubliette) seem the same Mulder who didn't shed a tear after his son's "body" was recovered (Ghouli)? Does the Scully who adopted out William for his safety seem the same Scully to internalize a metaphor about treating people/her son like trash (Home Again)? Does the Scully unconcerned with plastic surgery (Sanguinarium) seem the same Scully to care about her age deterring Mulder (Plus One)? Does the same Mulder who put William "behind him" seem like the same Mulder who, mere episodes later, declared, "What am I, if not a father?"

tl;dr: Either Mulder is on some heavy medication and Scully utterly transformed, or the writers (I fear) didn't try very hard to match their characters' reactions with established canonical history.

Thanks for reading~

Enjoy!

[grimvr]

talismans for cave dwellers

https://the-oubliette.com

[mtg-cards-hourly]

Oubliette

Artist: Jim Pavelec TCG Player Link Scryfall Link EDHREC Link

[amber-chickadee]

I'm god awful at making cool backgrounds, but oubliette inspired me to try and learn :D

@bigskycastle