#quickish musings

[leatafandom]

First Cold

Fandom/Ship: Supernatural - Sam Winchester & Gabriel

Rating:Teen

Word Count: 1,104

Warnings and Tags: sick fic, angst, self-pity, stuffy nose, post Asmodeus, cannon divergent, platonic bed sharing, past sexual relationship, complicated relationship, Gabriel gets sick, Gabriel low grace/powered down, human Gabriel, Sam takes care of Gabe, he is the worst patient, flu, sneezing, mentions of vomit, nausea

Summary: Of all the human things Gabriel was stuck with after being enslaved in Hell, being able to catch a cold was definitely the worst.

Written for @spnfanficpond May prompt: Being sick!

Author Note: You could probably read this as straight up sabriel, but in my head they've gone from enemies with benefits to friends with benefits to almost relationship to just friends/trauma bonded. I honestly didn't know how to tag that.

Read, First Cold, Rated Teen, in full below or on my Ao3.

*note, this story (and all of my others) on Ao3 is locked for registered Ao3 users.

First Cold

All in all being subject to temperature wasn't too bad, stealing Sam and Dean's clothes was fun after all, having to eat wasn't bad at all it just meant he had a reason to eat all the things he loved even if Sam was beginning to complain about how much of what he ate, and even the bathroom had its upsides –Gabriel found he adored a hot shower. Before catching a cold from some horrid human at the supermarket, Gabriel had thought the worst of it was the sleeping, being stuck with memories turned nightmares that had him crying out at all hours and being woken by Sam's pitying face was… uncomfortable to say the least. But now, after the sniffling horror in the store, the last archangel could firmly put the lack of immunity to any and all diseases at the top of his list.

"Ugh," a groan left him and then a sneeze seized him, echoing through the hallow walls of the bunker. "Fuck," he grumbled, resettling into the pillows he was propped up with against the headboard. 

"Here," Sam said, pushing more tissues at Gabriel with a wince. "And try to cover your mouth and nose… please."

The ‘please’ was tacked on as an afterthought, having reminded the archangel too many times to continue being polite. There was no way that he wasn’t going to catch Gabriel’s cold by the end of caring for him. A grimace pulled on his lips and slummed his shoulders, not looking forward to the prospect of catching whatever flu the archangel had come down with.

Out of all the annoyances of having Gabriel here, this was probably Sam's biggest one. The brunette had thought the worst of it was Gabriel's unhealthy eating habits. The archangel forgetting that he had to actually eat food for fuel and not just fun had been driving him off the deep end with concern and worry, but having the youngest of the ancient celestials with what seemed like a virus far surpassed that. Gabriel was worse than Dean when he was sick, and Sam had the urge to stick the archangel in a bubble the next time Gabriel insisted on coming with him for a supply run just to avoid ever being faced with the miserable entity.

Gabriel whined, taking a tissue from the offered box with a huff before doing his best impression of an elephant. "How long is this gonna last, Sam?" he bit out, wiping his nose and tossing the dirty tissue angrily towards the tin trashcan before taking another from the box.

"A week or two, hopefully," the hunter grumbled, frowning at the other as he threw the crumbled balls of tissue, sighing when at least one of them actually made it into the trashcan. "Think you can keep some food down?"

“Ugh.” Gabriel's lip pulled up with disgust at the thought of food, turning slightly onto his side and curling his knees back up to his chest. "No more of your damn broth, Nurse Sam," he grumbled, wiping his face on the pillowcase closest to him.

Sam mirrored the archangel's expression, biting back his protest to Gabriel wiping his dripping nose over their shared pillows. After a month of night terrors and running down the hall, Sam had thought it would be easier for them to simply share. It wasn't like they hadn't been in bed together before, granted that was under much different circumstances, but being a gentle reminder of what was real wasn't a role that Sam was unhappy with filling, nor was it one he didn’t understand needing, and Gabriel had been more than happy to reciprocate whenever Sam was trapped in his dreams. 

"I thought Cassie was gettin' me medicine?"

Sam nodded at the other's half muffled, half grumbled words. "Yeah, he and Dean made a run for some more cold stuff," his eyes went to the bedside clock and sighed. "I'll check on them and be right back…" he stood from the edge of the bed, putting the tissues within Gabriel's short reach, "With more of my damn broth."

"Ugh, I want a different nurse," Gabriel complained, curling the blanket's closer to himself.

"And I want a less whinny patient, preferably, one that doesn’t miss,” he complained, bending to scoop up the tissues that hadn’t made it into the trash with a disgusted twist of his lips. “But we can't all get what we want," Sam snarked at him, using a wet wipe to disinfect his hands before looking back to the pouting sniffling archangel. He frowned, walking back to him and placing the back of his hand on Gabriel's clammy forehead. "I'll get you a cloth, too," he mumbled, thinking about where Dean had left the thermometer last time one of them was sick. His frown only deepened when Gabriel leaned towards the press of his hand, running his fingers through the archangel’s hair. “I promise this will go away eventually too, Gabe,” he said in a gentle whisper. “You just gotta deal with it a bit longer, alright?” He asked, offering a weak half smile and cupping Gabriel’s cheek, disliking how warm he felt. 

Gabriel closed his eyes, enjoying how cool Sam’s hand felt against his face, only now realizing he probably had a fever again. “No choice,” he grumbled, opening his eyes when Sam pulled his hand away. He looked over the concern he still couldn’t get used to seeing in Sam’s eyes while being directed at him, but unable to say he didn’t like it. “Thanks… for taking care of me,” he said, gaze dropping to the trashcan and then to the bucket Sam had cleaned for him after his first attempt at broth this morning. “Try my best not to get you sick.” 

Sam chuckled a humorless laugh. “I think that ship has sailed, Gabe. Maybe just try to not sneeze directly on me anymore?” He smiled, resuming his way out of the room. “Or at least promise you’ll return the favor when I get sick,” he added after a moment, not thinking that the archangel would agree. 

“I would gladly be your nurse after this Sammy,” Gabriel huffed through his stuffy nose, grabbing another tissue and surprising Sam, causing him to pause in the doorway. 

The brunette stood watching Gabriel as he groaned into the tissue before throwing it, seemingly trying harder to actually aim for the trashcan than simply around it. He smiled at the archangel who snuggled back into his blankets, hesitating on leaving him before quickly moving from the archway so he could return all the faster to the whimpering ancient.

[stormlit]

suddenly hit with an overwhelming influx of muse so zoya, storm witch of my heart, now has both a regency verse (which can adapt to ~generic historical~ and could also include magic if so desired), and a dragon age verse that encompasses dai and datv. read 'em here.

quickish summaries:

regency: ravka is an eastern european country. its newly crowned king, nikolai, taking over after his father's sudden and unexplained abdication, comes to london for the season along with an entourage, which includes zoya. ravka is open to women in positions of power that england is not, and she's a trusted advisor - officially a commoner, but highly respected and feared. every young lady wants nikolai, but every single (and some married) man wants zoya. and she's too aloof to seem to care.

dragon age: ravka is a country in northwest thedas, noted for its treatment of mages; templars have basically no power, mages are trained in its little palace, supposedly a circle but where they're respected and treated well, and then the majority serve as battle mages in ravka's second army. it's not a bad thing to be a mage. zoya's half-elven, extremely powerful, has a fearsome reputation, and is specialised in elemental magic.

in inquisition zoya is part of the crew of the privateer sturmhond, who offers assistance and aid to a mage-supporting inquisition, and can sometimes be found at skyhold, though she's not part of the inner circle. in veilguard she's extremely dismissive of rook themself, but a large swath of blighted land that splits ravka is worsening and expanding, the darkspawn coming out of it causing a real problem. while not a faction, ravka's armies can be recruited to help rook in the final battle; zoya is the commander of the mages.

[independentzaun]

Fun little detail: Back when I first watched Arcane, I thought Sevika was a great character, but I didn't care too deeply for her. It is why I admire your portrayal so much. You not only have an immense and nuanced understanding of this woman, but you also expanded upon her in such creative ways. Nowadays, when I hear Sevika's name, your portrayal is actually what pops into my head, even before the canon version. That is how much of an impact your Sevika left on me.

As for your Silco portrayal, I know you are worried about him not yet being scary, but I think despite this current flaw, your portrayal is still brilliant. You have created a character with such passion and drive. I love how you can switch between this loving and encouraging father, which he is towards Jinx, and this calm, calculating and skilled man. You really capture his hatred for Piltover in sometimes surprisingly fun ways. I wish I could suggest how to make Silco scarier, but I don't know. It is your portrayal after all.

However, something, I would encourage you to do, is to be willing to embrace the uniqueness of your own portrayals. You are willing to adjust your Jinx to work with my Silco and I love the end result of that, but I also hope that I can do the same thing for you. I want to incorporate your version of Zaun more into our threads where your Silco is the one in charge. So don't hesitate to introduce some ideas, specific for your Silco or your Jinx to our threads. You saw how I reacted to Keyla. I always want to work with the new elements you give me because they give our rps that special little something.

anonymously tell me your honest opinion about me: Still accepting

First of all thank you so much, for all of this, and you’re awesome. I’m pleased, and honestly kind of honored that my Sevika has left such an impression on you. Makes me happy I decided to add her on as a full muse because originally she was just going to be at most a secondary because I wanted my Silco to have his deputy, and bodyguard. Obviously that’s changed, and it’s good to see how she’s been embraced by people.

As for Silco that’s nice to hear that it’s still a good portrayal. I do want to do more with him I’m just in a weird spot right now were I kind of...don’t exactly know what or how? In a weird way Silco has almost became a bit player with most of the stories he’s involved in being more heavily influenced by other “players” so to speak be it Sevika taking care of things for him, or whatever else. I adore him, and have a lot of thoughts about him still! I’m just really not used to writing a leader type muse, and figuring out how to balance with other peoples expectations and all. Which yes is on me of course, and something for me to figure out but it still leaves me questioning how. I almost feel like I need to do some shortish/quickish (by my standards) threads with him just being a chem-baron and leader and dealing with things in Zaun and all to figure him out again as well as what “my” version of Zaun is.

I appreciate the willingness to incorporate my ideas and all! Honestly… the one main thing that’s been standing out lately to me with my Silco in his main verse (which is post arcane, obvious statement is obvious) is that he’s not happy with the direction things have gone. Not because of shimmer, but because of the chem-barons becoming more greedy than ever and having to “share the air with parasites” like them and Zaun’s shifting priorities and all. As well as his increasing realization that really he just spent the last however many years of his life working towards a goal, and honestly isn’t really that much closer to it if at all. There’s a lot of room there I think for different possible story lines, and character development.

Anyways thank you very much, and I’m going to stop rambling down.

[mumble-ssketches]

Rice’s main room

[magiaesabiduria]

quickish activity update for today: Draco is loud as hell so I will be focusing on her replies today and after that tackling memes/inbox stuff (not including drabbles since I would like to take my time with those AND those are really for when I’m not feeling replies). 

I would like to do some shorter back and forth replies while I work on things if anyone is around for that and interested. Open to any/all muses so please specify unless you just want a random muse thrown your way. 

[lettersfromleslie]

SUMMER HEAT / EMPTY STREETS / JUSTICE NOR PEACE IN SIGHT / BUT STEP RIGHT THIS WAY FOR THE ONLY SHOW IN TOWN

Hello again from the belly of the beast!

It’s been a weird, hot, bittersweet summer. The new abnormal has made itself at home, the phases of the ‘rona have been swimming by, and one way or another life’s gone on living… Just wanted to put down a quickish sketch of what that’s been like in our lovable ol meatgrinder N.Y.C.

The lil lady and I spent the three months from mid-March to June in lockdown. I talked about all that plenty in my last post. It was a very surreal and foggy phase for us and looking back it’s hard to form a clear picture of what we did or how we felt. I think that fogginess has a lot to do with the mood swings, the phases of the news cycle, the ever-evolving picture we had of the world and our place in it… I kept my sanity by working on the album. It was good to have a mission in that. It was good too that I’d done the crowdfund and people had already paid for the damn thing, which kept me from slacking off too much. When I wrote my last post on May 2nd I was feeling quite blocked-up and discouraged because I wasn’t getting my takes, but then towards the end of May things started falling into place and before I knew it I had the whole album on tape. And whaddaya know, I think it’s a pretty good one! Probably the best one I’ve done. It was the first time I deliberately set out to write and deliver an album on a schedule, setting my dates without having the material in place, and I think that led to it being a very tight, compact statement. Of course the songs wound up being a bit more introspective and quarantine-y than planned, but that’s just how she goes, eh?

I wrapped up recording work around the beginning of June. That coincided with the period that Ariel and I started really venturing out again - starting on May 29th when we first joined the BLM protests against police brutality. I have to admit it doesn’t come naturally to me to talk about the protests online - not because it’s not important, but because I’m unsure if my voice would be as meaningful or articulate as the voices of those who are speaking from a lifetime of experience. Everyone’s feeds are already flooded with this stuff, and being a vaguely foreign white boy with an escapist bent there seems so little use in me going up and taking the mic. I'd just be repeating what I'd had to learn from others.

But that said - taking part in the protests was absolutely eye-opening. The energy and anger and emotion were relentless, and the demands for fairness and justice were so obvious, so simple to understand, and just so plainly the right thing to do. Which made it all the more incredible that it didn’t seem to affect those we were protesting in the slightest. I naively thought that the NYPD would at the very least be eager to put it out there that they, too, were against the indiscriminate killing of unarmed people, black or otherwise. I thought they’d take a knee with us. Not out of the goodness of their hearts, necessarily - but still, maybe just for the sake of PR. Intead we got to watch them go out of their way to perform live demonstrations of what we were protesting against over and over again… That’s to say my skinny white ass got a real crash-course in the harsh realities. We got kettled, intimidated with helicopters, we watched people get rounded up and beaten with batons for violating the 8PM curfew, we were there when that cop car rammed into a group of protesters on Flatbush Avenue… We also saw the looting, and the cop cars on fire, and the trash fires all along Broadway and on Union Square.

What can I say about it? It was fucked. It’s fucked. To be treated as an enemy by the police for protesting police violence. What else to assume than that they were taking the side of violence? They acted more like heavily-armed counter-protesters than peacekeepers. And of course it all led me to examine my own life and the advantages I’ve had. If you’ve been following me over the years you know I’ve always made a point of organizing my life in such a way that I have room to kinda detach from modern life and dream. And I used to think everyone could just do that. I was always proselytizing about it when I was a kid. “Just go live it!” All the while unthinkingly accepting the free passes that society would give me. Playing the free-spirited ragamuffin, simply expecting the world to recognize me in my role - and the world did! - while in a different body I wouldn’t have been recognized. That’s clear enough. So what kind of hypocrite would I be if I wasn’t out shouting for the same freedoms for my fellow humans? It’s something of a karmic debt at this point.


While all this was going on I also had to be dealing with my money situation, which was getting pretty bad. For reasons you can imagine I wasn’t in a place where I could apply for unemployment or any other kind of government assistance. My album crowdfund, the livestreams, and a little help from family and friends had seen me through the worst of the lockdown, but by the end of June I really had to start busking again. Sink or swim.

So, back to old Wash Square. That park has been through some phases in 2020, lemme tell you. It started out seriously mad. When I first started busking again the protests were still going full blast. March after march would weave in and out of the park, speeches were held, kneel-ins, sit-ins, you name it. I’d play the lulls. Around mid-July that righteous energy started making way for some seriously weird craziness. The NYPD had by this point stopped enforcing any of the usual small stuff and the Weird Ones had taken note. A squatter who called himself Jesus built a permanent home for himself and his followers in the fountain. Noise complaints were a thing of the past. Fights and brawls galore. Drugs, nudity, raves, and a riotous fuckitall feeling in the air, masks off, hands on, summer of mad recklessness. Me and my quarantine brain weren’t quite equipped to join the fray. I just kinda nervously skitted around the edges of it, yodeling here and there. Bit absent I was, maybe, but how can you go carefree gonzo when doing so means constantly risking killing someone’s granny by accident? I kept my social distance. There were some bad encounters. Bottles thrown at me while playing. Got assualted by some nut outside the W4st subway station, yanking me by the hair, punching me in the noggin. It was clear to anyone out there that the police had thrown their hands up at the situation and were letting people find out what life was like without them. As far as I could make out this unofficial police strike emboldened both the bad guys and the protesters without getting the cops anything. They might’ve been hoping the resident bougies would put their foot down one way or another, bark up the food chain some, but forget about it. There wasn’t much backlash or pushback from these upstanding, tax-paying pillars of society - they all just skipped town and headed for greener pastures. This mass exodus of wealth which had seemed temporary back in April started really accelerating around this point and by now the absence has started to feel permanent. If there’s any force of NIMBYism left in the Village I haven’t seen it. Those who have stayed on seem to have adopted a live-and-let-die approach. Aside from the fairy-lighted open-air restaurant patios with their potted plants and plexiglass dividers the streets belong to the people again, for better or for worse.

Personally, I don’t mind at all. Why should I? The money’s tough, but hell. I’ve always been broke. I’ve spent all my seven years in this city staring up at the rungless ladder which is Manhattan. If it can stop being a playground for the rich, it might become a place where I could actually hope to live someday.

Anyway, the last month has seen a sort of stabilization of the status quo. Some of the park regulars are back. R&B Lee, who used to be stuck down underground in the W4st subway station, has made a permanent place for himself and his giant PA on the western corner of the fountain. Jimmy the drummer is out all the time with a revolving cast of players. There are DJ sets on weekends and they get loud as all hell. So music’s back, but it’s a different world, and a much louder one. I’ve taken to playing in the small circle of benches on the western side of the park. There’s really not much space for unamplified music; the regular acoustic jam sessions have moved to other, more private locations and Colin Huggins, the park’s much-beloved pianist-in-residence, has more or less given up for the time being. Johan the living statue is out again much of the time. The portrait artists and street art sellers and fortune tellers are back, but the park poets are still in absence, probably conferring with their muses. Check out this article by Charlie Crespo with photos of some of the characters who are out and about.

Meanwhile the atmosphere out there is weird, anarchic, and sorta wonderful if you’re into that sort of thing. I guess I am. You won’t get bored hanging out on Washington Square in the summer of 2020, that’s for sure. Different threads of activism and action going on in every corner, friendships forged, love-ins, creativity, occasional bad chaos and ill energy, along with a good helping of just regular old hedonism in radical trappings. For a while there were great crowds of activist kids sleeping on the lawns and yakking all night about the revolution… The cops put a stop to that one, started clearing everyone out of the park again at midnight. Honestly a lot of it feels like what I always imagined the sixties might’ve been like. I’ve often looked at it a wee bit wistfully wishing I could be twenty again for it, with a head full of hot air and a fabulous tolerance for risk, instead of with bills to pay, dwindling resources, and a partner & a cat to look after. Oh, but I’ll be alright.

To everyone who’s still in NYC and has been worried about going out in public: if your health & conscience permit, come to the park sometime & let me sing a song for ya. I mean, do it responsibly - don that mask, bring your hand sanitizer, observe that distance - but New Yorkers have been knocking it out of the park when it comes to beating the virus, and that means the risks are lower and going out is almost as safe as it used to be. The park has plenty of room to socially distance. No one will bother you about it if you bring a picnic blanket and a bottle of something. The subway is safer to travel on than you might expect. The nights are hot and humid and saturated with all the great unknown we’re traveling through together.

And as far as I can make out, it’s the only show in town!

[mandaloriisms-blog]

KNOWING YOUR PARTNER WELL CAN POTENTIALLY MAKE WRITING TOGETHER A LOT EASIER.   Repost, don’t reblog.

– basics.

NAME: Sam PRONOUNS: She/her or They/Them SEXUALITY: Bisexual TAKEN OR SINGLE: Taken

– three facts.

ONE: I tend to make too many blogs ‘cause I love all the characters. TWO: I love Dungeons and Dragons, I have my own group for it and am currently working on and running my own campaign. THREE: I have a weird hobby of drawing some of my friends being super gay with each other, but most of it is their fault for giving so much inspiration since they all act gay together.

– experience.

HOW LONG (MONTHS / YEARS?): I’ve been writing for about 11-12 years and probably roleplaying for 9-10. It’s been awhile honestly. PLATFORMS YOU’VE USED: Uhm.. Varies forums, Vampire Freaks, Tumblr, Skype and other IM systems. Honestly I can barely remember any other platforms I have used for roleplaying.

BEST EXPERIENCES: Uhm.. I’d probably say Vampire Freaks, as weird as that is. I met some cool people there, that I ended up moving over to Tumblr to roleplay with. Sadly I’ve lost contact with them, but the memories of all the great people will live on.

– muse preferences.

FEMALE OR MALE: I don’t prefer one over the other, but most of my muses are overrun of males than female. I will admit that I have an easier time writing for male muses and I don’t know why.

FLUFF, ANGST OR SMUT: All of the above are great honestly. It varies between muses of course. Depending on how that muse acts, one of those will be more of a common thing, but I do try to keep smut down a little ‘cause I don’t want people thinking that’s all I am here for.

PLOTS OR MEMES: Both, but Memes have proven to have the best outcome with improvising and I truly love it. Especially when someone goes along with the random shit you are throwing around.

LONG OR SHORT REPLIES: I enjoy both, but lately I have struggled to write long replies, unless you count three or four paragraphs as long; if not then no. But I tend to enjoy the slightly quickish pace of replies, only ‘cause I’m a sucker for interactions (even if I take forever to reply sometimes).

BEST TIME TO WRITE: At night is usually when I have the most inspiration. It’s such a strange time, especially when no one is really one.

ARE YOU LIKE YOUR MUSE(S): Sort of? Maybe not too much of Mandalore, but my other muses like Kaikaina, Florida and Locus, I have a bit more in common with them.

tagged by: Taken from @ofstarkilling

tagging: Anyone who wishes to.