#ct snippet

[thequibblah]

✂️

At this they all, one by one, turned to look at Mary.

She blinked. "What? Why are you— Oh, look, all the wizards I've been with have used Muggle protection anyway."

"Black used a—?" Doe began, then clamped her mouth shut with a gasp.

Germaine's eyes were the size of saucers. "Black, as in Sirius?”

"No," Mary said, deadpan, "as in one of his inbred relatives who wants me to fuck off and die."

[garbinge]

Clean Cut

Tim Bradford x F!Nurse!Reader

Warnings: Mentions of bullets, war, shrapnel, anxiety, worry, car accidents. Slightly angsty. 

Word Count: 1.2k 

A/N: Okay so I just caught up with all The Rookie seasons and I’m just LIVING for Chenford. Like LIVING. buuuuuut I noticed there wasn’t much Tim x Reader fic out there soooooo I figured why not! This idea came to my head at some point when I was watching and I also have like a whole story of their life beyond and before this moment but enjoy this little reworked snippet from 2x08. 

The Rookie Taglist: @drabbles-mc @justreblogginfics​

It had felt like a long day already and you had only been clocked in at the hospital for two hours. You still had 10 hours left in your shift and it felt like you experienced a whole day’s worth already. Being a corpsman for a Marine squad prepared you for a lot but sometimes the uniqueness of LA and the people who resided in it and tended to need your RN medical services at St. Stevens ran you for your money. 

Currently, you were updating patient charts during the lull that was likely to last all of two seconds but it beat staying an extra hour to finish your paperwork likely unpaid because the hospital rarely approved overtime for RNs. 

“Wanna tell me why it’s so crazy for a Tuesday?” 

The statement from your coworker caused you to look at them over your shoulder and let out a laugh. 

“I wish I had an answer to that, but I also feel like anything I say will jinx it even more.” You pushed the computer cart against the wall and moved over to your coworkers cart. “You’ve got like 15 pages here, what is this?” You picked up the manila folder that was larger than your normal ER patient folders. 

“Police car accident. There’s a few of them in the ER right now, these things always include tons of paperwork. Everyone needs to cover their asses.” 

Your heart started to beat faster at the mention of a police accident but what really caused you to go into panic mode was seeing your husband's name on the report. 

Before you could even answer your co-worker you were moving down the stairs, knowing the elevator would take too long. You knew the elevator would probably be quicker but the thought of standing still while you waited for and in it would drive your mind crazy so rushing down the stairs was the better alternative. 

Tim was sitting on one of the ER beds, the scene of it caused you to stop for a minute. It wasn’t the first time you’d seen Tim hurt waiting to be treated. In all honesty this was probably the tamest medical treatment scenario you two had been in together. He looked fine from afar, but that didn’t stop the worry from boiling in your gut. 

“What happened?” You were next to him within seconds, the worry being the fuel of moving you from the staircase entrance to his side in seconds. 

“I rear ended a civilian.” Tim knew better than to try and calm you down with pleasantries and relaxing mantras. 

“Jesus.” Your hand moved to your pocket in search of your pen light. Quickly, you flashed it in front of his eyes, searching for his eyes to constrict and then dilate when you moved the light away. 

“They already did this.” Tim’s voice was neutral, but you knew he was annoyed. 

“Humor me.” Your head tilted, now your own annoyance was clear to him. 

His eyes softened as they met yours and he nodded which gave you the okay to keep running through the trauma checklist in your head. 

“This isn’t like you.” Tim said after a few minutes of silence between you as he humored you by lifting up his arms as you pressed down on his ribs and checked his reflexes. 

“In what way?” You talked as you continued to look him over. 

“I’ve come home and told you I’ve gotten shot at and you barely react, I tell you that I got into a car accident and you’re acting like I have internal bleeding.” Tim’s eyebrows raised. 

“Did they do a CT scan? You could have internal bleeding. Especially if the airbags went off.” 

“Doc.” The use of the nickname only 13 people in the world knew you as caused you to stop your examination of Tim and stand in front of him, slightly defeated. 

“If I worried about every close call you encounter everyday, I’d be dysfunctional. This.” You pointed towards him and the bed, “This is tangible. This actually happened.” 

Tim nodded and a smirk slightly filled his face. 

“You doubtin’ me, Sarge?” You frowned as you asked him, using your own nickname for him. 

“No,” Tim let out a chuckle and shook his head before looking back up at you. “I know better than to ever doubt you.” 

“Smart man.” Officer Lopez walked up to the two of you with a smile. “How’s he doin’?” She looked between the both of you. 

“He’s fine. No signs of a concussion,” you looked at Angela and then back at Tim, “and no signs of internal bleeding.” You smirked at him knowing he was going to give you one back. 

“Give us a minute, Lopez?” Tim stood up and ripped the hospital bracelet off his wrist. 

“Yea, just wanted to let you know the break lights were cut in the car you hit, foul play, you’ll likely be in the clear.” She explained while looking at the both of you, relief coming as a sigh from both you and Tim. “I’ll be in the lobby.” She nodded at him and squeezed your arm to say goodbye before leaving the ER. 

“We goin’ back to the conversation we were having or a new one?” You asked Tim as he towered over you. 

“You pulled shrapnel out of my abdomen in Afghanistan and you look more worried checking me for a concussion.” Tim said with his arms crossed. “What’s going on?” 

“Nothing.” Your one worded answer wasn’t convincing.

“Don’t lie to me.” Tim said more seriously than any of his other statements. 

You sighed, “Like I said, this is tangible. In Afghanistan, we weren’t exactly given the space to worry. Here, I feel like it’s all I have to hold onto. But again, if I held onto every worry I’d be dysfunctional. I know you can handle yourself when bullets are flying, when shit goes sideways, it’s these out of your control scenarios that just get me flustered.” You explained moving your hands around as you talked. 

Tim brought you in for a hug, knowing nothing he’d say could change anything. “You do realize, I’m the one that rear-ended the civilian, not the other way around, right? Totally in my control.” He teased you. 

“Not according to Angela.” You corrected him and he chuckled. 

“I’ll see you tonight.” He placed a quick kiss on the top of your head. 

“See you tonight, I already texted Angela all the concussion signs in case we missed anything.” Letting your last bit of worry out. 

“You haven’t missed a single diagnosis or injury since I met you, Doc!” He called out from a few feet from you. 

“You know, I’m technically not a doc, anymore, Sarge!” You yelled out to him. 

He turned around with his arms up as he continued to walk backwards. “And I’m not technically a Sargeant anymore.” 

“Old habits die hard!” You yelled back just before the elevator doors opened and he stepped backwards into the elevator flashing you a quick smile before the doors closed and he was back on duty.

[ominouspuff]

Last Line Challenge

Rules: In a new post, show your latest line (artwork or written), and tag as many people as there are words (or as many as you feel like)!

Tagged by @rooksunday (well you know what this one is going to be)

This time you caught me writing a fic snippet for the RepGA AU to feel out characterization. I’m sharing the whole snippet though for fun, not just one line.

———————————

“Everything is normal.

It is grating against his skin and lighting up his veins in red-hot acid. He is choked by it, throat clotted and breath thin. Betrayal stings in his chest — directionless and worthless and misguided, because he cannot truly fault his shaking legs when he doesn’t know what’s wrong with them.

It is weakness, and it is getting worse.

“Yes, Senator,” He manages, and is grimly relieved that the man does not look askance at Fox — does not seem to notice the tremor in his voice at all. The words come mechanically, his inflection seven levels from perfection, which is six too many to forgive.

“Make sure they are your best,” The Senator is saying, not unkindly but blindly, focus tighter than a pinprick, for which Fox is grateful. “We cannot tolerate abuse on the delegation, not even a whisper of it. I have tried to reason with them, but the students are young and their professors passionate — they are so set on fighting to be heard, with an unfortunate emphasis on the physicality of that action…”

Fox nods. “Well,” He says, as if perturbed and accepting all at once — but can afford no more. He might be sick if he opens his mouth too far.

“Well, indeed.” The man nods, wrinkles scrunching, eyes fogged by inward thought. He sucks his sharp teeth. “Well. I must regroup with Senator Organa I fear, I expect your units will be timely?”

“Yes.” Fox confirms and denies all at once — because his ‘units’ are always timely, even when they’re bleeding, and having those expectations is no business of the Senator’s. It is a Guard matter.

There are many Guard matters. One of them is Thorn, lost in the seventh level as of fifteen minutes before Fox inclined his helmet to a Senator, answering the summon. Thorn, with his two faithful CTs and orders from a sectorial mayor. Thorn, who looked at Fox before he left and did not point out his shaking fingers, only nodded with sharp eyes and a tight mouth and trust bleeding out of him in streams.

“It’s normal, Fox. Don’t stress it.”

The Senator leaves, satisfied and indulging his perturbation over the youth, as is typical of the man lately. Fox stiffly reverses his direction, marching to the nearest service stairwell. He wrenches it open, but does not let the door bang. It takes excruciating effort to close it still more gently behind him, to step without staggering or tightening his aching fists.

He runs, already flipping on his comm. Voices answer, their pitch perfect, their diction flawless, their sound near identical, and Fox’s pride is a balm against the cold that perpetually tightens his chest and throws his stride off beat.

He uses numbers, not their names — never their names, on the comm. Directives come quick, but not smooth. There is a breath of hesitation that betrays how far he has fallen, that they notice even here, before all chorus affirmatives and sign off. A ping comes from Thire, inquisitive and absurd. Fox pings back once, raising the urgency, and Thire duly does not repeat himself.

They cannot afford to discuss that Fox can barely breathe — and Thire would do worse, asking why.

By the time he reaches his office, he is in agony. Thire is waiting there, according to his orders. He knows better than to speak — not here, not now — but his eyes are glittering wetly with concern and uncertainty, and Fox is a shriveled, rotting thing that cannot open his ironbound teeth in the face of it. They strip to blacks, swapping armor with the seamless efficiency of frequent practice. Once Fox has put on every piece of Thire’s armor, he puts on the rest — Thire’s loose hands, Thire’s tilting head, Thire’s light steps. It takes too long. It comes like bits of flesh slotted into gaping holes, alien and painful.

Thire is already standing like a rigid statue by the time Fox has finished, head tilted down slightly, every inch of him looking like Fox’s mirror does.

“8 hours. Meet me back here.” Fox repeats from their talk over comms., shoulders sliding back, and Thire nods solemnly.

Fox leaves the office, stride ever so slightly trembling with the new bounce in his step. He heads for the elevators, the exits, the city outside, the underground that leads down and down and down. His pistol sits heavy on his belt, and Fox’s loose fingers twitch with something feverish that’s settled in his very bones.

Everything is normal, and Fox refuses to let it kill him.”

—————————

Tagging: Reverse-uno, @rooksunday , and anyone else who wants to! (@frostbitebakery and @chiliger , I simply must.)

[selfindulgentpixies]

The hands that hold you chp 10.2: let me in/tell me how you hurt

Master list Oh my goodness I feel like i'm finally hitting my stride again and like i really do have my muse back for this story. It went into hiding a bit after the end of september but given time and encouragement from people reading my story I think we're back in action. These events follow Satoru's birthday by a few months. (i'll probably do one shot type snippets for other events that happen in the time in between like Suguru's birthday) but we're back to the main story! I really enjoyed writing this chapter if i'm honest. CW: Satoru gojo x reader x suguru geto, GN!reader (reader only uses they/them pronouns), reader is afab but it's not really a big thing this chapter, Reader is a foreigner who was adopted by Yaga, reader has a CT (it's plot relevant), Suguru is depressed and struggling. wc. 3.6k

“Sugu?” 

Silence. 

“Suguru?” You try again a note of pleading to your voice. “I know you’re in there… I recognize your cursed energy like it’s my own.” You rest your forehead against Suguru’s locked dorm room door. Hating how as the weeks had passed he’d begun to close himself off more. Satoru had become increasingly busy. Admittedly you’d all been getting more busy, but between his training and the increase in missions? It was hard to compare. And Suguru had been alone more and more while you’d been sent on missions with Nanami and Haibara since not only were they in your year but it turned out you worked well with them, especially well with Nanami. 

“Suguru please don’t shut me out.. I’m getting worried about you. More than that I miss you.” 

There's the sound of shifting cloth on the other side of the closed door followed by near silent footsteps before the click of a lock and the  door sliding open. You let yourself fall against Suguru’s chest and wrap your arms tightly around his waist. He lets out a surprised exhale and wraps an arm around your shoulders while the other hangs limp at his side. “You’re such a clingy lil thing you know that?” 

You snort before craning your neck to look at him. “Yeah. With you I am.” 

Suguru’s dulled eyes flash with surprise as they meet your shining ones. You’re not looking at him but instead it feels as if you’re looking into him. He shouldn’t be surprised though… it was on some level why he was trying to avoid you.  “You shouldn’t be. There are better people for you to spend your time with.” A better person, he doesn’t say.

You frown deeply at him and push him backwards further into the room. He allows it. Once you make the backs of his knees hit his bed he sits on it with a bounce. “Just stay here.” 

“What am I a dog?”

“You’re stinky, that's what you are.”  

Ignoring the little incredulous sound he makes you go to his door to close it before rummaging for clean clothes for him and tossing them onto the bed next to him. “I don’t suppose I can convince you to go take a shower? Even just rinse off?” 

He wrinkles his nose and sighs and it’s the most energy you think he’s put into an expression in days. 

“Please?” You cajole, walking over, placing your hands on his knees as you look at him. “I’ll dry and brush your hair after.”

The dull look he gives you tells you he’s far from convinced. Chewing at your lower lip you hope you won’t regret what you suggest next. “What if I wash your hair for you?” 

Now that gets his attention and you feel your face heat up. “Don’t get any ideas! I just want to make sure you’re taken care of.” You glance away from him. “Normally you take really good care of yourself but lately you just haven’t been and i’m getting worried…” you trail off and then feel his arms hug around your middle and his head rest against your chest.  

“’m sorry.” The words are muffled into the fabric of your shirt but you hear them clearly enough. You comb your fingers through his lank hair, catching on tangles and then working through them. 

“You don’t gotta apologize. Just.. let’s get you cleaned up yeah? Why don’t you head down to the showers and i’ll meet you there.” You go to step back but he doesn’t release you. 

“You know Yaga-sensei will expel me if he finds out.”

You snort. “As if we’ll be caught. Besides he’d be crazy to expel one of the best prodigies this school has ever had. “

“Parents are crazy.” He finally allows you to step back from him and you roll your eyes so he can see. 

“Chances of anyone at all catching us are low. Now shoo. I’m gonna go get some stuff and i’ll meet you there.” and without waiting you leave the room. He wonders what you’re getting, wonders if he’ll get to see all of you since even with how much time you spent with him and Satoru you’d always been especially shy and they never push you. He sighs and gathers up the clothes you’d set out for him along with a towel. 

—

Suguru would be lying if he didn’t say he was at least a little disappointed when you show up to the showers already wearing a white bathrobe you clearly plan to keep on. You’re glancing everywhere but him even though he’s kept a towel slung over his hips as he sits on the tiled floor. There’s no way you could help him wash his hair if he were standing. 

“You sure about this? You look like you’re gonna run away at any second,” and you can tell he’s teasing despite his tired tone by the little curl of his lips.

Huffing you finally look at him, focusing on his face while walking forward, your feet padding across the cool tiles. Suguru had turned on the water a little before you’d arrived so the floor warms slightly as you approach. He’s sitting just at the edge of the spray so you don’t have to get hit with more water than needed. Setting a familiar shower caddy on the floor you lower yourself to your knees at his side, uncaring of how the robe gets soaked where it touches the floor and where your shoulder is closest to the warm spray. You press against his shoulder. “Come on, lean back and get your hair wet.” 

Suguru complies without complaint and leans back, soaking his hair. It’s a quiet process for a while after that. You working up a lather in his hair and washing away the grime that had settled there, which turns into slowly washing his neck and shoulders after you put conditioner in his hair. He lets you maneuver him however you need. It startles you when he finally does speak. 

“You know Satoru will be awfully jealous when he finds out.” He glances back at you, his lips half quirked with amusement.

You scoff. “Don’t give him any ideas. I don’t want him going nearly a week without a proper shower.” It’s only kind of a joke. 

“Was it really that long?” Suguru asks genuinely, causing you to frown.

“Yeah. This past week you’ve hardly even gone through the motions, Suguru..” 

He doesn’t respond, seemingly lost in his head again. You finish washing his back before rising from your knees with a slight wince. You’re sure if you looked at them there would be impressions from the tiles pressed into the skin. “Rinse yourself off and I’ll meet you back in your room, yeah? I’ll blow dry your hair for you. You tuck a bit of conditioner soaked hair behind his ear, watching his face to make sure he’s heard you. His eyes focus on you.  He nods and you wish you knew what exactly he was thinking.

—

You’re laying in Suguru’s bed, dressed in a dry pair of pajamas when he gets back. He’s wearing the sweat pants and tshirt you’d picked out for him. His hair falls down his back soaking the fabric. He’s clean though and for that you’re glad. You sit up and swing your legs over the side of the bed, your legs spread for him to sit between. Everything you need to take care of his hair is already out. You smile at him warmly and make grabby hands at him. 

Sighing but unable to stop a slight smile he walks over to sit in front of you. There’s not much room for talking over the sounds of the blow dryer but you think that’s okay. Suguru hasn’t been the most chatty anyway.  But as you click off the blow dryer and run your finger through his soft and clean hair he surprises you. 

“Why are you going to all this trouble? “ He doesn’t look at you but his voice is oddly tight. 

Setting aside the blow dryer you wrap your arms around his shoulders and press your face into his hair, breathing in the scent of him. “Isn’t it obvious?” Your heart hammers in your chest and you don’t give him a chance to say anything. “I love you, that’s why.” 

You both feel and hear his breath hitch, his hands come up to cover your own and he curls himself forward around your arms that you’ve wrapped around him. You’ve said it without words so many times over the months since you'd begun dating him and Satoru but never had you directly given voice to it until now. He doesn’t say it back now, but you know he does by the way his shoulders shake as he clings to your arms. You know he feels the same when you feel something warm and wet fall onto your arm. 

____

How. How was this possible? You stand in the Tomb of the Star, dazed and more than a little confused. How’d you get here? Why are you here? There are smears of blood on the ground and the stone work is cold beneath your feet. Stumbling back, panic thrums through your veins. Looking around frantically you call out. “S-suguru? Are you here?” Your voice comes out weak and small. You turn in a circle looking about the chamber, praying that you’d at least sense him or catch sight of one of his curses but there’s no sign of him here with you. Why are you here alone? You never wanted to be in this place again. You turn heel and head toward the exit. You feel sick as you go through what feels like endless corridors, all a blur, you fight to not look at the smear of blood outside the elevator Why hasn’t anyone cleaned anything up?

Stepping into the elevator, its slow rise feels like agony. The rattling of the metal cage grates against your nerves making you fingers twitch but once it stops… that’s so much worse. Everything is so quiet. Far too quiet as you step from the elevator to somehow find yourself somewhere that your brain struggles to process. Just outside the doors, despite the impossibility of it, is the crater Satoru had created that day months ago and it’s so much worse in it’s own way. The buzzing of thousands of flyheads is absent and yet the silence makes you feel sick, the only sound is your stumbling steps and ragged breathing as you make your way through the cracked earth and stone. Ignoring how you must scrape your hands and knees as you scramble up to the raised center of the crater. A stage to display one of your worst fears.

‘Satoru-’ you want to call out the name of the still figure but no sound passes your lips. You can’t seem to urge yourself to your feet and instead crawl to him. No this isn’t right. He shouldn’t still be here. When you reach him you pull your body close to his so you can hold his face. His normally vibrant eyes stare up at you blankly, dully, and missing all that spark you’ve come to treasure.

A shadow falls over you and a deep voice sends a nauseating spike of fear through you. “I told you it wouldn’t make a difference.” 

When you shakily sit up to look you’re suddenly lifted by your hair, your arms refuse to listen to you despite you screaming at yourself to fight back and when your eyes roll to look at them they’re horrifyingly twisted. His fist crushes into your abdomen. 

You let out  a choked scream and when you hit the ground it cuts off as the air is forced from your lungs. Things are… sharper now as you flail in the dark realizing you're tangled up- tangled up in your blanket. Eventually chest heaving you free yourself from your fabric confines. You look at your shaking hands in the mostly dark room, the only light coming from the early spring moon outside your window. Your arms are whole now, of course they are.

You shakily get to your feet and grab for your phone. Looking at the time it’s a bit after 3am. Both far too late and too early for you to be awake. You stumble from your room, clad only in your pj’s and your blanket wrapped around your shoulders, you barely bother to close the door behind you. Cool air hits the tear tracks on your cheeks as you stumble toward Satoru’s room. Both Suguru and Satoru are supposed to be out on solo missions, Suguru having left early the previous morning and Satoru having left a few days ago. You’re not fully thinking as you stumble your way through the halls but you can’t bring yourself to stay in your lonely room. Satoru’s dead eyes keep flashing in your mind with each blink. Your lip wobbles as you reach his door and shove it open, glad that it’s unlocked as you stumble in and make your way to his unmade bed and only partially closing the door in your single minded focus. You crawl into it letting your own blanket fall to the floor as you curl up under his and bury your face into his pillow. Each panicked breath pulls him into your lungs.

It’s a far cry from the comfort of actually having him here but being able to breathe in his scent is enough to soothe your frayed nerves. As your breathing evens out and your muscles slowly relax, the world around you slowly fades. It’s with your face pressed into his pillow and wrapped up in his blanket that reality starts to force its way back in with the dip of the mattress and a hand resting on your head. You jerk awake, heart in your throat until your eyes settle blearily on Satoru. His glasses pushed up and holding his hair back while he looks at you with an achingly soft expression. Surprise creeps in when tears begin to well up in your eyes. 

“Hey hey what’s with the tears?” As he asks you sit bolt upright to hug him. Pressing your teary face to his neck and wrapping your arms around his waist. His clothes and skin are still cool from the chilly spring night, the scent of crisp mountain air that surrounds the campus clinging to him.  Beyond that though is all him. A scent of comfort you’d sought out by crawling into his bed, but it’s so much better when paired with the sounds of his breathing and the safe haven of his arms as he wraps you up tight.  He rests his chin on your head. The two of you sit like that, him simply holding you and slowly warming up as he waits for you to calm down enough to tell him what’s going on. Normally if you’re to be found in one of their rooms it was Suguru’s since that’s usually where the three of you slept together and Suguru was admittedly at the school more than he was these days. When you finally pull your face from his neck with a sniffle he swipes a thumb over your cheek. “So is my crybaby gonna tell me what’s wrong?” 

A small watery laugh from you makes him smile and lean in to press his lips to your forehead.  It’s short lived though. You take in his beautiful, very much alive face, cheeks flushed and eyes bright but then when you blink his bloodied face flashes in your mind. You shake your head, biting at your lip. “I just…” How honest did you want to be? 

Satoru’s smile fades as the two of you sit in the quiet of his room. “I can’t help if you don’t tell me what’s wrong.”

“You being here is enough.” He doesn’t look convinced by your words and you relent. Thinking of how you’ve felt as Suguru’s been slowly closing you out. “I.. I dreamt about..” a deep breath.  “I had a nightmare about.. About when I thought you’d died.” You look away from him only for him to suddenly cup your face in both his hands, tilting your face toward him as he rests his forehead against yours. All you can see now are his eyes, a mix of sparkling blues that you’d happily get lost in. His breath fans across your face before his lips, warm and so alive, press against your own. An affirmation. He breathes his own life into your lungs so there’s no denying that he’s here with you.

He deepens the kiss in a way he hasn’t before with you, that you’ve only caught him doing with Suguru before. He tips you back toward the bed, pressing you down into soft sheets before parting from you slowly. He goes to speak but his glasses finally slip off the top of his head and smack you in the face before he can stop them.

Both of you remain in place, stunned, until your shoulders begin to shake with quiet laughter. Picking up the offending eyewear you hold it out to him.. “I think these are yours.” You bite you lip trying to hold back a smile. 

Satoru groans and lets his face fall to your neck. He doesn’t glance at you until he hears you place his glasses on the side table and then he feels your arms wrap around his shoulders. “See… I said you being here was enough.” You nuzzle your face against his hair. 

He hums into your neck before falling to his side and cradling you against his chest. “I’m..” he sighs. “I’m sorry I’m not here more often.. I know i’m gone a lot and it’s been just you and Suguru dealing with stuff alone.” 

“ ‘s not your fault… You’re needed in a lot of places… and besides that means you’re also dealing with things alone doesn’t it?” 

He squeezes you tight for a moment. “ Don’t worry i’m one of the stron- “

You cut him off “That doesn’t matter. You’re still just a person.” 

And he’s taken back to that night before everything went wrong. When you’d said those words to him before and you’d made him feel seen and he realized maybe you cared about him just as much as you cared for Suguru. He remains quiet as he holds you. The silence isn’t broken until you mumble against his chest. “Actually… I wanted to talk to you about Suguru..”

Satoru pulls back to look at you, showing that you have his full attention. 

“If you can… I think he needs you. He doesn’t say it! But..” You trail off a little. “He hasn’t been doing well.” 

Satoru’s eyes flick over your face, a worried crease forming between his eyebrows. “If he needs something I’m sure he’ll tell us-” 

“He won’t. “ 

The sureness in your voice takes Satoru aback a little. “While you’ve been away on your latest mission he was barely eating and didn’t even shower or brush his hair for nearly a week. He was even avoiding me until I pleaded with him at his door to let me in… “ Satoru squeezes you. “He was barely eating and didn’t even shower until I convinced him to by saying I’d wash his hair for him.” 

Satoru’s throat bobs. “Okay.. I’ll talk to him.  I promise.” 

“I’m sorry.” 

He blinks at you. “Why are you apologizing?” His eyebrows vanish behind his bangs. 

“Well… I acknowledged how busy you are and how much you have on your plate in one breath and then in the next asked for your help with Suguru- ow!” You hand flies up to your forehead that had just been flicked. “What was that for?” you pout. 

“For being ridiculous that’s what. Remember what I said a couple minutes ago? ‘I can’t help if you don’t tell me what’s wrong.’ That also means I want to know when things are wrong. With both you and Suguru. You’re both so stubborn, what’s it gonna take to get through to the two of you how important you are to me..” The last part is said quietly.  “I’m gonna start telling those old bastards to back off a bit okay? I’ll find more time for you both…” 

“ ‘toru…” Your chest feels tight. 

His lips quirk into a smile bringing out his dimples. “Let me help okay?”

“Okay.” you return his smile. 

“So… did you?”

You tilt your head to the side. “Did I what?” 

“Help him shower I mean? “ He tugs a bit at the collar of your pajamas. “Did he get to see you naked first and without me?” He says with a little pout. 

Your face flushes with heat and you smack his hand away. “Satoru!” a pause. “Yes and no. I helped him shower but I wore a robe the whole time.” 

He seems mollified but then that pretty mouth of his opens again. “So you got to see him naked then?”

“Oh my god Satoru. Suguru was right when he said you’d be jealous.”

“I’m not jealous!” he says indignantly.  

“You’re so jealous.” 

“...Okay maybe a little.” 

You smile and cup his face. “You know… I think you both forget.. Or maybe it’s because. Well maybe it’s because I’ve been so nervous to actually say it but i don’t think it’s fair to keep it in. But I love you, Satoru. I love you both.” You think of Suguru’s tears when you said it to him finally, and it’s such a contrast to Satoru. Because his face lights up like the stars in the sky, eyes shining and turning pink from his cheeks to the tips of his ears. His smile is dazzling, at least what you see of it is before his mouth crashes into yours. 

Then with his lips still pressed to yours. “I love you too.” It startles you a bit to hear it back but then you’re grinning and pressing a toothy smile of your own against his lips.

___

And that wraps up this chapter! Like I said at the start I enjoyed writing this one! The next chapter actually has a good chunk written that I just need to revise to reflect changes that i've made as I've been writing the story since i wrote it a while ago. We're sort of hitting the home stretch with this story because basically everything after this I've had planned since I decided to make this a series. A lot of it is outlined and written out and just needs to be properly fleshed out.

Special thanks to @strawberrystepmom for beta reading this for me. You guys have no idea how much she's helped with this fic with her assurances and support.

Taglist! (keep in mind you must be 18+ and have your age listed before i'll add you to my tag list. ) @pastelle-rabbit @hauntedhearthowl @biscuitsngravie @nanamikentoseyebags@sleezzsister @moonsua1, @yuuuumii @yokaimoon @4sat0ruu-deactivated20231218 (nooo this isn't how i wanted to find out you deactivated!!) @chibiizzy @porridgesblog @suhmie, @defacatestenderly @agentdedf1sh @night-shadowblood-writes2 @missphanosaur18 @stevenknightmarc @icy-spicy @mysugu @fushigurro @missmugiwara

...The whole time i was typing up the tags my cat has had the zoomies and has been screaming like banshee running up and down the halls from my room to the kitchen. So i'm gonna go get his wet food now...

[taekooktimeline]

January 29, 2024 (released)-

Tae’s hairstylist, Mujin, is interviewed for Harper’s Bazaar Korea. He talks with the magazine about Tae’s beautiful blue hair, noting the process to achieve this ethereal look. He mentions the story and concept of the pictorial were planned in advance, with the male, coming of age, romantic drama “Call Me By Your Name” (CMBYN) being an inspiration.

Article snippet:

🗣️: In this <Bazaar> pictorial, V's unique transformation of blue hair drew attention. Why did you choose this color?

Mujin: After checking the overall story, design, and concept of the pictorial planned by 'Bazaar' in advance, the mise-en-scène of “Call Me by Your Name.”

Mujin also references the LGBTQ+ movie “Blue is the Warmest Color,” a female coming of age movie similar to CMBYN, and we can discern this because he says “warmest” then ‘blue color’ is placed in quotations, indicating he’s citing material that inspired their pictorial. His exact words are, “The warmest ‘blue color’ with a European sensibility rather than a specially decorated feel.” A Google search of “warmest blue color” will showcase the movie, and protagonist Emma’s blue hair color.

Another translation -

Tae’s stunning “Blue Dragon” look for this editorial -

Full interview - https://x.com/naver_taehyung/status/1751980774876958877?s=46&t=StSwHjW0_Domk_lHUFMaCg

Of course, this isn’t the first time Tae has mentioned his fondness for the movie CMBYN. On May 31, 2019, on the heels of pride month, he uploaded to the BTS Twitter page a snippet of him playing the movie’s OST on the piano.

On June 9, 2019, he recommended the movie to Hobi during a live.

Recap - https://www.tumblr.com/taekooktimeline2019/625212551783907328

On June 9, 2020 (during pride month), Tae read Elio’s father’s impactful speech on a live:

Recap -

https://www.tumblr.com/taekooktimeline2020/625387601649713152

And as an aside, I always found it interesting and noteworthy that the very next day, after reading Elio’s father’s monologue about living life on your terms and no one else’s, Tae responded to a fan on Weverse by saying, “I want to be happy too🥺”

Recap - https://www.tumblr.com/taekooktimeline2020/625387582497439745/june-10-2020-in-a-suspicious-chain-of-events

And on September 4, 2023, an article was posted on Weverse. Within the contents of the article, “Rainy Days”, a song from Tae’s solo debut album “Layover”, is noted to have followed the “tomato girl summer” trend, which was inspired by movies such as “Call Me By Your Name.”

Recap - https://www.tumblr.com/taekooktimeline2023/727548456756035584

And for visual references, these are the movie posters for “Call Me By Your Name” -

and “Blue is the Warmest Color” -

(CT Una for filling me in on the “blue is the warmest color” reference due to me currently being more inactive on social media)

[probadbatch]

Oooh 'soulmates'???

Another Crosshair x Hunter fic (with a dash of Tech x Phee) that I'm working on but it's barely more than an outline right now

Cliche soulmate au where your soulmate's name shows up on your wrist except that it just happens kinda randomly rather than when you first meet or at a set age or whatever. So Hunter gets his mark on Kaller and doesn't say anything about it at first because he's worried that Crosshair's acting weird because he's unhappy about getting his mark and besides, there will be plenty of time to deal with that later, right? Lol nope. Cue three seasons of angst and tragic pining because I am a simple girl and my target audience is me.

Like I said, barely more than an outline so I don't have much that's share-able but I do have one scene that's almost a proper snippet so here! Have some post-Eriadu sads:

Phee doesn’t cover her wrists. She makes no effort to hide the mark that wasn’t there when they last saw her. “Appeared right after your ship took off,” she says, answering his unasked question and tracing a finger over the spot where CT-9902 is written across her skin, clear as day. It hasn’t even begun to scar yet. It’s a cruel trick of the force that they both gained their marks right before losing their soulmates. “Do you know if he…” Phee begins to ask, her voice trailing off before she reaches the end. Hunter understands. “He didn’t say.” He wishes he could tell her something more than the truth. If her name had appeared on Tech’s wrist, his brother either didn’t know about it or had chosen to keep the information to himself. Phee nods thoughtfully, accepting the answer. She takes a deep breath and drops her arms. “Yours is your sniper, isn’t it?” she asks, nodding toward Hunter’s still-covered wrist. “How did you -” “There’s a hurt in your eyes,” she says gently. “Didn’t know what it was until I saw it in my own. You’re missing the other half of your soul.” Hunter thinks he’s missing a lot more than that now.

The idea came to me when looking through the prompts for @tbb-appreciation-week and I'm gonna try to get it done in time to post for that but let's be honest, that's a longshot for me 😂

[skyloftian-nutcase]

@kikker-oma Have a little hurt/comfort/fluff(ish) Healthcare snippet to help you get through being sick. I hope you feel better soon! ❤️ (@hermitdrabbles56 come get your healthcare au soup 😂👍🏻)

Legend wasn’t the best at emotional support and care, and he’d be he first one to admit it. But he also knew when to recognize that a situation was rough and when someone would probably need help through it. The matter was what was he supposed to do.

When Hyrule walked briskly into the emergency department, blood trailing up his arms and seeping into parts of his clothes, hair a frizzy mess, Mo equally disheveled, and a firefighter Legend didn’t know at his side… he knew it was bad. He’d known it was bad based on the incoming report.

The trauma room had been packed, as it always was for alpha alerts. Voices layered over each other as they worked to transfer the patient to the bed from the stretcher. Machines beeped as devices were unhooked and reattached. The emergency attending called for silence so Hyrule could give his report.

“Unknown age male, approximately in his 20s, found down on a back road. He’s been unresponsive for us the entire time. He’s got a ton of bleeding from the back of his head and it feels depressed in the back, unequal and soft, likely has a skull fracture. Pupils unequal, right side larger than the left, but both reactive. No step off or anything palpating c-spine, flail chest with deformity on the left side, large laceration on the left arm that we’ve got wrapped, and just road rash all over. We don’t know if it was a hit and run or what the deal was. He was originally 88/50, and tachycardic in the 130s, SpO2 in the 80s. We intubated him with a 7.0, it’s 20… something—um, 22 at the teeth. Lots of blood in the airway that we are clearing out. He’s got two bilateral 16G IVs, we gave him 1.5L normal saline, he’s gotten TXA as well. His BP improved to 108/74, was the last one we got. He’s been sating in the 90s since we got the tube in. I don’t have a medical history or anything, no witnesses to what happened.”

As soon as Hyrule had finished, other providers were calling out findings. Legend noted out loud when vitals were dropping again. The emergency nurse glanced at Hyrule as he walked away and saw the medic belatedly realize just how much blood he’d gotten on himself. Mo was already washing his own hands at the nearest sink.

He barely had time to even consider saying anything to the kid, but he certainly didn’t have time to talk to him right now. So he made a note for later as Time talked to the emergency physician and they prepared to go to CT.

Hours later, Legend sat down in the locker room, exhausted, and grabbed his phone.

Hey Rulie, wanna hang out?

He didn’t know Mo that well, but he knew Hyrule. He knew that medic didn’t really hang out with anyone who he didn’t know from work, which meant his circle of friends—though expanding since they’d recently met some new people—was fairly limited. And he’d never heard of the teenager mention family. Four was working a day shift today, Time was still in surgery, and Warriors was coming in to work today as well. Wind was in school, and Wild was out sick with Twilight holding him hostage so he rested. Legend didn’t know what Sky was doing—he disappeared off the face of the planet sometimes, it was a little disconcerting—so he couldn’t rely on him. Which was unfortunate because Sky (and Twilight, Legend was discovering) was fairly emotionally supportive.

Which meant it was up to him.

I’m not built for this, he grumbled in his head, but his worry for his friend far outweighed any awkwardness and anxiety on the matter.

When he didn’t get an immediate reply, he started wondering if Hyrule had just gone home and gone to sleep. A part of him was relieved and a part still worried. By the time he got to his car, though, a text popped up on his screen.

Hang out? Didn’t you just get off work?

So he was awake. Legend’s fingers moved quickly. I mean we don’t have to now but like in general. Later today?

Sure

Perfect. This was going to be fine. Yeah. Legend could offer support. He could, thank you very much.

Six hours later, he groaned as his alarm went off, and his confidence and concern on the matter were far lower than earlier.

Maybe we can hang out tomorrow, he thought as an exhaustion headache thrummed against his skull. But when he grabbed his phone, Hyrule had already texted him.

I was thinking we could go hiking! There’s a trail where we can watch the sunset.

Ah. Well, now he was committed and his friend was excited. He definitely wasn’t delaying this.

Except it was butt cold outside, he discovered to his dismay as he wrapped himself in several layers of jackets.

Be a supportive friend, yeah, it would be great, terrific, wonderful, WHY IS THE WIND BLOWING IT’S COLD ENOUGH—

Legend nearly scampered to the safety of his car, the bitter wind held at bay, and then yelled at how frozen the seats felt. “Damn it all, why is—what the hell made Hyrule think today was a good day to hike?!”

After too short a time to warm the car up, he finally met Hyrule at the designated spot at the edge of town.

“Why the hell are you biking here?” He exclaimed as he rolled his window down. Hyrule, cheeks flushed and smile bright, jogged over and slid into the car from where he’d locked his bike at a post. “It’s eighty thousand degrees below zero out there!”

Hyrule sniffled with a chuckle. “It’s not that bad. Was your last travel assignment at a beach or something?”

“No, it was somewhere where people didn’t hike just as winter’s moving in,” Legend fired back irritably before remembering he was supposed to be helping right now.

Well, you know what, being here is helping. So there.

He needed to drink more of his energy drink.

Legend’s next great discovery was that the hiking trail in question was blessedly short, much to his relief, but made up for its lack of mileage in a steep gradient that was fairly equivalent to rock climbing.

“You said hiking, not mountaineering,” he noted as he crawled on all fours to get over some rocks on the trail.

“Don’t worry, this means we’re almost at the top!”

Hyrule was correct in his assessment, allowing Legend to finally catch his breath and to freeze in place at the view.

The valley was littered with color, duller now that winter was beginning its long hold on the land, but notable nonetheless. Browns, oranges, yellows, reds, greens all intermingled like paint mixed on a canvas, contrasted against an autumn blue sky, which was slowly staining gold and crimson with the oncoming descent of the sun.

“It’s nice, right?” Hyrule prompted as he glanced at his friend.

“Yeah,” Legend had to agree quietly. Then he remembered his purpose for this outing and felt his stomach twist. “So I got blankets and food and stuff, let’s sit down and chill.”

Hyrule cheerily agreed, and the pair settled with their feet hanging over the rocky edge of the mountain. The wind was still stupidly cold, but now Legend had blankets wrapped around him, and he was already warmed up from the exertion.

“Hey, so…”—great heavens above he sucked at this—“Um. About that call last night. You… uh, you wanna talk about it?”

“What was the verdict?” Hyrule asked. “He still alive?”

“He was when I left, though I doubt it’ll last. Massive head bleed and skull fragments in the brain. Anything he could break was broken in some way or another.”

Hyrule hummed. “Figured.”

“They found out how it happened, though,” Legend noted.

“Was it a hit and run?”

“Nope. Alcohol in his system, dude was having an argument with whoever was driving, they were going 55mph and this guy decided he was going to end the argument but stepping out of the vehicle while it was going that fast.”

Hyrule stared. “He… did that to himself? And not SI, just like straight up—wow. We sure there weren’t drugs involved too?”

“Tox screen was negative for everything except EtOH.”

Hyrule huffed, leaning back and looking out again. “Wow.”

“Play stupid games, win stupid prizes,” Legend muttered, glaring at the scenery. The careless idiocy of the maneuver still got under his skin. They’d all worked damn hard to keep that moron alive.

And that’s what he was. A moron. Because life was precious and he’d literally tossed his out the window because of poor choices.

And now they had to pick up the pieces.

“So… you good?” Legend glanced hesitantly to his right. “I mean… that was a lot. Even in the hospital. I can’t imagine being the one scraping him off the pavement.”

Hyrule chuckled nervously now, shifting in place. “I mean, it was… a mess but yeah. I’m ok.”

“Okay.”

“Yeah.”

“Great.”

The wind blew again, and Legend didn’t feel it, turning sharply to face his friend. “Okay but most people aren’t okay after that.”

Hyrule scrunched his nose. “Are you okay?”

“This isn’t about me!”

“You seem like you’re not okay.”

“Rulie for the love of G—”

“Hey, you said to Sky you wouldn’t swear like that.”

“Fine, for the love of all things holy, you can just not be okay with me!” Legend continued, waving his arm in a frustrated manner. Because he was frustrated, he was tired of everyone having to be okay with what they saw and dealt with, he was tired of the taboo behind being hurt and affected.

He wasn’t that affected by it, but people usually were!

“You want… me to be not okay with you…?” Hyrule repeated, clearly confused.

Damn it all he sucked at this.

Legend took a steadying breath, rubbing his face. “I want. You. To be okay. With not being okay. That call freaking sucked.”

Hyrule was silent for a long time after that, and Legend was again wondering why he’d thought any of this was a good idea. He took a swig out of his energy drink and looked away awkwardly.

“Do you ever wonder if it’s worth it?”

Legend glanced over at his friend to see him staring out at the valley below, eyes distant, shoulders slumped. The nurse sat up straighter, choosing his words carefully. “If what’s worth it?”

“All the effort we put into it. Like… we all knew that guy wasn’t going to make it.”

“He… might…” Legend lied helplessly.

Hyrule continued to look at the scenery before huffing and smiling. He closed his eyes, bowing his hand and leaning forward with his hands on his knees.

Legend reached out hesitantly, settling a hand on the teenager’s shoulder. Hyrule let out a shuddering sigh, and Legend squeezed his hand in support.

“It’s always worth it for the chance that they do,” Hyrule said softly. “But yeah… that call sucked.”

Legend bit his lip and nodded, offering silent support as the two huddled close against the wind. No more words were exchanged for the hour that they stayed there. No words were needed. But when Legend finally felt too frozen solid to sit there any longer, the gentle peace was finally broken.

“Okay, now you get to carry me down because my knees aren’t tolerating that rock climbing shit.”

Hyrule laughed, bubbly and joyful and free, face more radiant than the sunset, and Legend smiled.

They’d be alright.

[lothcat-lothcat-lothwolf-run]

soup clone soup clone soup clone

I did it! Not the whole finished work, but more of a short snippet :). My first time posting my work on here, hope you guys like it.

————————————————————————

No matter how many times he ran his blacks through the wash in the communal laundry room, the grease still remained. The smell of it too. Nothing in the cafeteria was practically good, but fresh food was better than ration bars. He got so sick of them that  once, on some forsaken planet, he decided to try fishing for his vod’s meal. Using a few berries a bait, he constructed a pole from a clanker arm and a rope. It didn’t take long before something bit, but in trying to real it in, he got thrown into the lake itself. He can still hear his commander mumble about “mir’oisk shinies getting us into trouble with the enemy”.  But the frigid waters and relentless teasing was much better than the oisk that they had to eat for the rest of the campaign.

Sighing deeply, CT-1413 gathered his things for the walk back to the barracks. A different bunk in a different wing of a different building, the whole situation felt strange. What happened to the pin-up girls that Bright had beside his bed? Or the wall that they had carved their names into after their first mission? The war was only three years, just over 1,000 coruscanti days, but it felt so much longer. They had all changed so much. It felt strange that it was finally over.

Slipping quietly into the room, he fumbled around trying to find his own bed. The only time to get anything done is peace was in the wee hours of the morning, when most troopers were enjoying their rest. 

“Kriff! What are you doing, 1413?” 

Karking hell, this is exactly what he wanted to avoid. Wandering around kamino at night wasn’t the most innocent looking behavior when 5 defectives turned only a day ago. Besides, it also wasn’t the finest way to try and get along with your new squad. 

“N-nothing, Commander Numa…sir. Just doing some late night-uh-loads of laundry?”

“From the food fight? The smell of broth follows you like a hungry tooka. You were very lucky you weren’t called for disciplinary action, trooper. If it was my blacks, my lunch…things would have gone differently.”

The commander turned over to face the opposite row of soldiers. Taking this as a sign to leave, he continued to try and find his bunk in the ever-lasting darkness. 

As he sat there, staring at the powered-off ion lights, he wondered about what Bright and the rest of the Vod would think. 

It had only been days, but he could feel them growing father out of reach. Yes, they all have the same voice and face, but the inflictions on certain words, Tricker’s biting sarcasm, even the sound of himself laughing was becoming forgin. He listed over them in his head so he could remember.  He wasn’t going to grow old, he promised himself that when he was still a cadet. If his joints ever ached or his memory fades, he himself would put the blaster to his head. The clones were created for usefulness, not to become veterans of a forgotten war. The whole vod promised too, that they wouldn’t let themselves overstay their welcome in the galaxy.  And they didn’t, in the end. Now he just has to uphold his end of the bargain.

He often wondered on nights like these about who else shared this bunk, shared these sheets and pillows. He never knew the  trooper he replaced. Their squad must have held them in high regard, because nothing he ever did seemed to gain their respect. He wondered if they used to be the commander of a battalion or an arc trooper. Did they die with glory? Was it a sacrifice? Did he get shot down on the field of battle with hundreds of his brothers? What mixed with his blood first, the dirt of the unnamed moon he died on or was it the sweat under his armor? He admired whoever they were with a morbid curiosity and desire. If they had switched places, they would both be were they belong.

[deargodsno]

Two thousand years ago, a volcanic eruption buried an ancient library of papyrus scrolls now known as the Herculaneum Papyri. In the 18th century the scrolls were discovered. More than 800 of them are now stored in a library in Naples, Italy; these lumps of carbonized ash cannot be opened without severely damaging them. But how can we read them if they remain rolled up? On March 15th, 2023, Nat Friedman, Daniel Gross, and Brent Seales launched the Vesuvius Challenge to answer this question. Scrolls from the Institut de France were imaged at the Diamond Light Source particle accelerator near Oxford. We released these high-resolution CT scans of the scrolls, and we offered more than $1M in prizes, put forward by many generous donors. A global community of competitors and collaborators assembled to crack the problem with computer vision, machine learning, and hard work. Less than a year later, in December 2023, they succeeded. Finally, after 275 years, we can begin to read the scrolls. Grand Prize​ There was one submission that stood out clearly from the rest. Working independently, each member of our team of papyrologists recovered more text from this submission than any other. Remarkably, the entry achieved the criteria we set when announcing the Vesuvius Challenge in March: 4 passages of 140 characters each, with at least 85% of characters recoverable. This was not a given: most of us on the organizing team assigned a less than 30% probability of success when we announced these criteria! And in addition, the submission includes another 11 (!) columns of text — more than 2000 characters total. The results of this review were clear and unanimous: the Vesuvius Challenge Grand Prize of $700,000 is awarded to a team of three for their excellent submission. Congratulations to Youssef Nader, Luke Farritor, and Julian Schilliger! Runners up​ Of the remaining submissions, the scores from our team of papyrologists identify a three-way tie for runner up. These entries show remarkably similar readability to each other, but still stand out from the rest by being significantly more readable. Congratulations to the following teams, each taking home $50,000! Shao-Qian Mah. GitHub Elian Rafael Dal Prá, Sean Johnson, Leonardo Scabini, Raí Fernando Dal Prá, João Vitor Brentigani Torezan, Daniel Baldin Franceschini, Bruno Pereira Kellm, Marcelo Soccol Gris, and Odemir Martinez Bruno. GitHub Louis Schlessinger and Arefeh Sherafati. GitHub

What does the scroll say?​ To date, our efforts have managed to unroll and read about 5% of the first scroll. Our eminent team of papyrologists has been hard at work and has achieved a preliminary transcription of all the revealed columns. We now know that this scroll is not a duplicate of an existing work; it contains never-before-seen text from antiquity. The papyrology team are preparing to deliver a comprehensive study as soon as they can. You all gave them a lot of work to do! Initial readings already provide glimpses into this philosophical text. From our scholars: The general subject of the text is pleasure, which, properly understood, is the highest good in Epicurean philosophy. In these two snippets from two consecutive columns of the scroll, the author is concerned with whether and how the availability of goods, such as food, can affect the pleasure which they provide. Do things that are available in lesser quantities afford more pleasure than those available in abundance? Our author thinks not: “as too in the case of food, we do not right away believe things that are scarce to be absolutely more pleasant than those which are abundant.” However, is it easier for us naturally to do without things that are plentiful? “Such questions will be considered frequently.” Since this is the end of a scroll, this phrasing may suggest that more is coming in subsequent books of the same work. At the beginning of the first text, a certain Xenophantos is mentioned, perhaps the same man — presumably a musician — also mentioned by Philodemus in his work On Music. Richard Janko writes: “Is the author Epicurus' follower, the philosopher and poet Philodemus, the teacher of Vergil? It seems very likely. Is he writing about the effect of music on the hearer, and comparing it to other pleasures like those of food and drink? Quite probably. Does this text come from his four-part treatise on music, of which we know Book 4? Quite possibly: the title should soon become available to read. Is the Xenophantus who is mentioned the celebrated flute-player, or the man famous in antiquity for being unable to control his laughter, or someone else entirely? So many questions! But improvements to the identification of the ink, which can be expected, will soon answer most of them. I can hardly wait.” Scholars might call it a philosophical treatise. But it seems familiar to us, and we can’t escape the feeling that the first text we’ve uncovered is a 2000-year-old blog post about how to enjoy life. Is Philodemus throwing shade at the stoics in his closing paragraph, asserting that stoicism is an incomplete philosophy because it has “nothing to say about pleasure?” The questions he seems to discuss — life’s pleasures and what makes life worth living — are still on our minds today. We can expect many more works from Philodemus in the current collection, once we’re able to scale up this technique. But there could be other text as well — an Aristotle dialog, a lost history of Livy, a lost Homeric epic work, a poem from Sappho — who knows what treasures are hidden in these lumps of ash.

[mearchy]

For like a year I’ve been occasionally fucking around in this Google doc with a bunch of little writing snippets based on the premise “what if there were just normal dogs in Star Wars and one of them got passed around and summarily adopted by all the different clone battalions.” And in my near-manic writing state lately I decided to actually do something with those. Behold.

Fandom: Star Wars the Clone Wars (2008)

Works in Series: 3

Total Words: 5,950

Rated G through T

Summary: The 501st Legion gets a dog. And then, because the 501st can’t keep their problems to themselves, the entire GAR gets a dog.

Most Relevant Tags: Fluff and Crack, Implied CC-2224 | Cody/Obi-Wan Kenobi, CC-1010 | Fox/Happiness (implied future relationship), Shenanigans, Hurt/Comfort, 212th Attack Battalion, 501st Legion, Coruscant Guard, Fluff and Angst, Swearing

Note: Check warnings for the one fic rated T, which has vague discussion of drug abuse and is also generally an Angst/Fluff combo.

More will likely continue to be added, there were seven different premises in the doc and I already have another queued up in Ao3 drafts.

[thequibblah]

i have to say come together (or if it's already been done/no snippets for now, ghost stories?)

“This is going to be the most unbearable…period of my life,” Sirius muttered.

🎶 and then he went to wizard prison 🎶

ask me about my wips

[eomereadig]

Snippet: Comfort Sex

Day 3 prompt for @212thappreciation, featuring Fever, one of my OC clone medics! Sequal to Healing Hands but not an essential first read.

Fandom: Star Wars

Pairing: Captain Gregor/Fever

Rating: E

Tags: vulnerability, power imbalance, cuddling and snuggling, emotional hurt/comfort, handjobs, Fever needs a hug, fluff, possible consent issues?, but they are both very self aware

Full fic now avaliable here

He advanced through the locker room and into the adjoining fresher complex, two neat rows of stalls and shining, wet tiled floor. Most of the troopers had come through already, Gregor knew, but a few still remained. 

Two troopers from A-squad shared one of the stalls to his left, talking to each other quietly as one washed the other’s hair. Gregor advanced further and saw one of his sergeants showering alone. Though he was jittery with the need to care for someone, he doubted ‘04 would be receptive, known for preferring his own company immediately after battles. Best leave him to it, Gregor thought. It wasn’t his job to pry. 

Gregor walked on. 

But just as he made to turn, to go back the way he’d come and consign himself to his quarters for a night alone in the dark, or maybe look for an update on the one-footed shiny (CC-8295, he thought he was called), he stopped. In the furthest cubicle, the one up against the wall in the corner, stood a solitary vod, their back to Gregor as they hung their head under the meagre water spray. He might not have known who they were, if they were a friend or a stranger, but he was relieved to see they were unharmed save the bruise blooming over one shoulder. 

Gregor took in his slight build and lack of scars. He was a shiny, for sure. And a medic, maybe? Having to heft people to safety all day certainly explained the bruise. 

The captain watched them for a long moment. He made no move to get clean, instead simply lingering under the luke-warm spray, head hanging and shoulders hunched as if he were trying to make himself smaller. Gregor watched as his back and shoulders hitched with silent sobs. The shiny looked pretty pitiful all round, even from behind. 

His heart swelled with the urge to mend their hurts, to bring the vod to his chest and soothe them, to tuck them in for a good night’s sleep amongst brothers. 

A fucking terrible first assignment for a medic, Gregor thought. There would have been so many vod he couldn’t have helped. 

Gregor watched their hitching shoulders for a moment longer before coming to a decision. Without a word, he stripped off the top half of his blacks, leaving his lowers on, and shuffled to the stall’s entrance without a word. 

The kid either hadn’t sensed, or ignored Gregor’s presence entirely. He was fixated with his hands, scrubbing at his fingers roughly with one of the shitty, regulation wash clothes they all had. From this angle, Gregor couldn’t see much, but their hands looked clean to his eyes - though quite pink from all the scrubbing. He suspected that without intervention, the shiny would scrub all the way down to the bone. 

“Hey.” Gregor murmured softly, barely audible over the water. Still, the vod jolted hard. Gregor belatedly realised he’d snuck up on the vod but then again, he looked so jumpy that it probably couldn’t have been avoided either way. They froze when they caught sight of him and blinked owlishly. “I’m Gregor, what’s your name, kid?”

For a long moment, there was no answer. But just as Gregor was debating calling Fix, the CMO far better at dealing with battle shock despite Gregor’s best efforts, the shiny drew breath. 

“I’m CT-05-2323, Captain.”

Gregor didn’t recognise the number, but if the kid was indeed a medic, that made sense. Fix was the one to get the shiny medics up to speed, like with all specialists - even if they were attached to his own Company. That being said, the trooper at least knew who Gregor was, which was a good start. He smiled at them, trying to radiate ease and patience. 

“You picked out a name yet?” The shiny hesitated to answer and his gaze sunk back down to his hands. 

“Fever…” A little unusual for a medic, thought Gregor. Usually they picked something to do with healing rather than the illness themselves, but he’d certainly heard worse from the demolitions squad. Gregor nodded and smiled at him again. 

“That was your first battle, I take it?” 

Fever nodded and swallowed thickly, turning away from Gregor with a vacant expression and starting to scrub at his nails again. There was a long beat of silence before he spoke again, voice wobbling precariously. 

“The training dye comes off a lot easier than this…” Fever’s hands were clean of blood. They had been for some time. 

Gregor’s chest clenched in sympathy. He knew he needed to take control of the situation before Fever spiralled any further. He couldn’t, in good conscience, let Fever continue as he was. 

“Hell of a first day…” Gregor murmured. There was a hitching hiccup of bitter laughter from Fever. “Mind if I join you? You look like you could use the company.”

“Ok…” Fever turned back to him hesitantly, looking far too vulnerable for Gregor’s tastes. “I don’t think I’m good company right now, though…”

“Neither am I.” Gregor stepped into the cubicle with a gentle smile.

Full fic now avaliable here

[mimikoolover]

If you could change one thing about the show, what would it be?

For me, it would be tae joining them. I'm sorry, but I would say the same about any other member. It just ruined the feeling of the show. We were supposed to see how jkk behave together, how they react to things together, how they deal with new experiences together, so I couldn't feel jeju. Also the photobook, it was something that we were promised of jkk alone, but it's not

I think the show was too focused on seasons, I would have preferred them having a couple of more days to do something in tokyo too and (selfish of me) film it for us. I think Sapporo = snow = winter was the reason why we've not seen them in tokyo but it's a shame cause I wanna know what they did there (jimin especially cause he wasn't there for work as far as I'm aware). but I kinda wonder if we didn't see them in tokyo because they didn't film anything for jk's documentary in Japan like they did in the US when we got snippets of jk's schedules in New York (the same guy who directed jk's documentary also directed the CT episodes). in a way I'm glad they spent time together in tokyo (I assume so even if we haven't seen it) without it being filmed but I would have loved to see them do something there too.

I get your point about tae but I will say, towards the end of jeju tae did leave them to spend time together or did his thing on his own kinda away from them so I wasn't mad at him being there. I do think he wanted to go mainly to see jimin (cause he's seen jk more) and he was probably missing everyone. he asked why namjoon didn't go too and then called him and listened to his song so for that reason (tae missing the members) I'm glad tae was able to have that time with them. even if I think jungkook would have preferred it be just him and jimin, I don't think he was mad at tae being there either for these reasons.

I have to say I kinda enjoy the jikook feat v aspect of this though because it really established jikook as a duo first and foremost. it's satisfying seeing that after all the years of people claiming they're not the closest when they clearly are. it's been jikook as a duo + someone else for a long time so to see even the company acknowledge it is something.

my last thought about jeju is that they had more to do there than in Japan, had a lot more staff there yet the Japan episodes have been the longest and I think that is saying a lot about jikook's ~chemistry but also for the company to choose to edit the show this way too, that's quite interesting. they know we wanna see jikook do nothing special but have fun just because they're together more than anything lol which is interesting to me tbh.

[adhd-coyote]

The squad from this post, who I have dubbed Petal Squad, has been occupying a large portion of my brain all day so of course I wrote a snippet about them. Cross-posted on ao3! (@deancodedinthewater @the-starry-seas)

CT-9360 had an idea.

Well, maybe. He was still thinking.

See, he and the rest of his squad still didn’t have names. Which was a bit of a problem, as they were about to be deployed, and they’d really prefer to have names by then.

Their deployment assignment had just come in. Commander Cyar’ika. CT-9360 had heard of him before, but only in passing, and had never put much thought into his name. Now, though, he did think about it. He thought about it a lot.

Part of the reason his squad had taken so long to choose names was that they all wanted to match. Well, CT-9360 wanted to match, and CT-9144 and CT-6112 had agreed with him, and since CT-8057 and CT-8203 didn’t have a preference either way, it had been decided they would have matching names. Only problem was, it was hard to come up with five matching names that all of them liked.

CT-9360 was about to solve that problem. Hopefully.

“I have an idea!” He announced the second they were back in their bunkroom. CT-6112, already dangling upside down from his sleeping tube, quirked an eyebrow.

“Well?” CT-9144 prompted.

“Don’t leave us in suspense, vod,” CT-8057 agreed, smirking.

“Our names!” CT-9360 beamed. “I know what the theme can be!” CT-6112 perked up and gestured for him to continue. “So you know our Commander’s name? Cyar’ika? Let’s do that!”

CT-9144 tilted his head like a curious tooka-cat. “You want to do pet names?”

“Mhm!”

CT-8203 scrunched his nose. “Isn’t that kinda… I dunno…” He trailed off, apparently unable to think of a word, and made a vague noise and hand gesture to indicate his meaning. His squad understood.

“I mean, kinda, I guess?” CT-9360 shrugged. “Some might think that. But our Commander’s name is Cyar’ika, is anyone gonna make fun of us?”

“Good point,” CT-8203 agreed.

“All in favor, then?” CT-8057 raised his hand. The other four copied. “Alright, then. I’ll be Darling. You’re Sweetheart-” He pointed at CT-9360. “Dear-” CT-6112. “Honey-” CT-9144. “and Sugar.” He finished with CT-8203.

“Sugar?” The newly-renamed Sugar’s nose scrunched again. “No offense, but that’s the one you chose for me?”

“Yep!” CT-8057, now Darling, popped the ‘p’ and grinned. “That’s exactly the point. Since you’re named Sugar, absolutely no one will guess how much of an asshole you are. It’s gonna be great.”

Sugar opened his mouth to reply, then closed it with a hum. “Ya know what? Yeah, I like that. Sugar it is.”

“Dear is nice,” Dear smiled, voice quiet. “Short and sweet. And Honey definitely fits you,” he giggled, tilting his head towards Honey. “You’ve got a voice like it. Plus that silver tongue of yours.”

“Honey tongue, now,” Honey smirked, the aforementioned tongue flicking across his lips. “Though I gotta say, Sweetheart’s new name suits him best. He’s such a sweetie.”

Sweetheart blushed, but beamed. “Really?”

“Yeah, why do you think I gave you that one, Sweet’ika?” Darling ruffled his hair. Sweetheart pressed into his hand with a happy hum. “Now c’mon, it’s almost lights out. In your tube.”

Like saying the words had triggered something, all of Sweetheart’s exhaustion hit him at once. He yawned and nodded. “M’kay.”

“Wanna share tonight, ‘60- Sweetheart?” Dear offered his hand down. Sweetheart perked up and with an eager nod, grabbed Dear’s hand and climbed up into the tube with him.

“Night!” Sweetheart called. The rest of his squad echoed him. Dear tugged him down and pressed the button to close the tube. As it slid closed, Sweetheart snuggled closer with another big yawn. He was asleep in seconds.

[taekooktimeline]

November 3, 2023 -

Jk goes live! I do think it’s plausible someone was in his apartment during his live, and off camera. I’ll break down why I believe that in this piece. But I do want to disclaim this as speculative, so I’ll leave timestamps and you can decide if someone is there and if so, who you think it is. 

Right at the start of his live, Jk abruptly glances off camera on his right. While I don’t hear any noises at this time, I found his abrupt glance interesting to note, since he was just facing the camera and telling listeners he’s back with his solo debut album “Golden.” Though there could be times he’s just instinctively glancing, or looking at the screen as he shares his tracks from “Golden,” it does seem like he periodically glances towards someone off camera throughout his live (or sometimes he glances at the monitor but then gazes at something / someone else). Some instances are noted below (not all encompassing): 

1:43

left and right at 2:15-2:17

2:55

3:20

4:49

Prolonged glance 6:03-6:08

7:49-7:51

9:41, it seems as if he glances as the monitor then slightly shifts his gaze to something else, before looking back at the monitor 

13:20-13:24

13:45-13:55, briefly at 13:59

39:30

You get the idea! And again, sometimes he may be looking at the monitor, but it does seem like at times he’s glancing at something or someone else. 

Timestamp 1:43, 2:55, 4:49 (side note - I want that earring😭)

Tae spams the chat!

Jk reads his fourth comment out loud and tells Tae and Jimin not to come, before he cracks up and smiles, saying he hasn’t cleaned his house.

Timestamp 44:58

He then tells them to come with a bright smile -

Timestamp 45:18

Snippet of the exchange - https://x.com/jeonmygoogie/status/1720452425994183160?s=46&t=StSwHjW0_Domk_lHUFMaCg 

During Jk’s live, Tae and Jimin go live for 7-8 seconds, outside Jk’s apartment. The translation:

🐥 dont do this aha

🐯 im going okay?

🐥 ah i said turn it off

🐯 we’re going okay??

CT: miiniyoongs

https://x.com/tishia_thv30/status/1720432709435273426?s=46&t=StSwHjW0_Domk_lHUFMaCg https://x.com/miiniyoongs/status/1720431172449173902?s=46&t=StSwHjW0_Domk_lHUFMaCg Raw - https://weverse.io/bts/live/0-129065538

There’s a distinct knocking sound that causes Jk to glance over, and then what sounds like footsteps at 49:18 as someone responds to the knock -

Timestamp 48:58

Jk wraps it up by laughing and saying he needs to go, as he doesn’t know what chaos Tae and Jimin will bring, that the two went out “right now” and drank.

Timestamp 50:18

A very random side note - I got this mug solely because Jk has it 😆

Theory as to some sounds heard as Jk went live (decide as you like) - https://x.com/loveis_taekook/status/1720679236565094892?s=46&t=StSwHjW0_Domk_lHUFMaCg 

Some have raised the speculation that Tae may have been present in Jk's apartment at the time Jimin knocked on the door. The assumption here is that Tae was the one who could be heard walking off-camera to answer the door. Throughout his livestream, Jk periodically glances in the direction of something or someone, and there is an audible sound of footsteps off-camera shortly after the knock. However, Jk informs his viewers that both Tae and Jimin were out having a drink. Given that BTS sometimes need to omit or modify information for privacy considerations, it remains unclear whether Tae briefly appeared on the livestream to greet Jimin, or if there's another explanation for the observed noises and glances in Jk's livestream. You are welcome to draw your own conclusions.

Raw - https://weverse.io/bts/live/0-128993548

[ahsokryze]

I’ll keep you safe

Gen | 2.5k words

relationship(s): Anakin Skywalker & Ahsoka Tano, CT-7567 | Rex & Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi & Anakin Skywalker

summary: Anakin carries a sleepy Ahsoka back to the temple when they arrive back on Coruscant in the middle of the night.

read on ao3

snippet below:

↓ ↓ ↓

"Snips?" Anakin quietly called out as he entered his Padawan's quarters, squinting his eyes towards the bunk in the wall at the side of the dimly-lit room.

The door silently sliding shut behind him, Anakin found a fond smile growing on his face as his eyes adjusted to the dark, taking in the image of his sleeping apprentice, who was curled up on her side on the bunk, appearing to be soundly asleep.

Closing the distance across the room, Anakin padded over and kneeled down in front of Ahsoka's bunk. Reaching out with his flesh hand, he gently stroked the side of Ahsoka's left lek, hoping the light motion would be enough to softly ease her awake.

"Snips?" he repeated with a whisper. As much as he didn't want to have to wake her like this, the Resolute had just arrived back on Coruscant, docking at the military shipyard, and Anakin needed to head back to the Jedi temple with his Padawan. Even though it was currently the middle of the night.

Ahsoka began to lightly shift under his palm.

"Hey," he whispered as the young togruta weakly opened her eyes, blinking up at him with a bleary gaze. "I'm sorry to wake you, Snips, but we just got back to Coruscant. We need to leave the ship now."

Ahsoka slowly blinked again, seeming to take in his words before she sleepily closed her eyes again with a soft hum. Anakin stroked her montral.

"Snips," he murmured, "I know it's the middle of the night and you're tired—i'm sorry—but we do need to the leave the cruiser now. We need to head back to the temple."

Ahsoka's eyes stayed closed. But she gave him another soft hum in acknowledgment.

Anakin patiently waited for another few moments, but when the sleepy togruta made no move to get up, he released a quiet sigh.

"Oh, you really must be tired, Snips…" he murmured, his heart twisting at his exhausted Padawan.

Watching her for another moment, Anakin made the decision that he really didn't want to have to make Ahsoka get up and walk while she was exhausted like this, so the only other alternative was that he would have to carry her off the cruiser. But Anakin found that he didn't mind that prospect.

He would do anything for his little Padawan.

Including carrying her home when she was too tired to walk.

continue reading on ao3