Why hello there...

~~~

The first thing Jayce is aware of is the inconfoundable feeling of Viktor. Next to him, around him, intertwined atom for atom.

Anything else would be secondary.

When the rest of reality coalesces back into something his brain can process and quantify, his senses come back online like circuits, lighting up one by one and instantaneously.

Touch, hearing, sight, smell. Viktor, solid in his arms, still wrapped in the soft blanket Jayce had draped over his new body, his arms around Jayce's shoulders, hands clenched in the fabric of his coat. Viktor, breathing quick and quiet next to his ear. Viktor, the pale curve of one mole-dotted shoulder peeking from his covering, and his hair gleaming under sunlight, long and fading into that pale color, like sweetmilk poured into coffee. Viktor, clutched so close in his hands, Jayce can taste the faint ozone crackle of the Arcane lingering on his skin.

Viktor, his honey eyes looking at Jayce, wide, disbelieving, alive.

"Jayce," he says, in his soft voice. The slight stretch of the 'A', cradled tenderly. The silky softness of the 'C', sibilant, always - somehow - sensual, even when Viktor was calling his name for the fourth time from across the lab at three in the morning.

Jayce has Viktor in his arms and they are alive.

"It worked," Jayce whispers, and his hands are already cradling Viktor's face. A laugh bursts out of him from some place he thought had been buried in a gulch forgotten by the apocalypse. "IT WORKED!"

Contingency Planning by @oodlyenough murdered me and i liked it so much its concerning.

A New Promise by @dis-embarks did the same, thank you 🥲

A lesson in rigor mortis by @orangechickenpillow still missing my heart after this one.

Here At The End Of All Things by queercatfan

I've Been Thinking of All the Little Things That You've Been Missing by @fouroddapples <3

Pygmalion by @twenty-qs 🩵

here is a map (with your name for a capital) by moonliving just 🥲

Run it back by spqr

be, be as you've always been by enbymegumi

Reflection and refraction series by @tryfero

Tastes like resurrection by @sulkybender 😭

disjunction by @nanashi-07

erosion by @nanashi-07

The Dead of Night by @bringthekaos

White lilies by whiskeyuncle ohmygod😭 destroyed in under 1k words

And LOL VikJayce

The whole piece is excellent. Here's another clip:

Notice how not too many rich people accept public defenders. This is rather inconsistent, philosophically speaking. Law-and-order Republicans should be the first ones to meekly accept the system’s harshest punishment when they do wrong. But of course, those harsh punishments are not meant for them. They are meant for the others.

And here's the above in plain text:

this last week and a half has been exhausting and terrifying. federal workers just want to do our job and help the people despite the constant villainization and utter hatred we receive from the general public.

I do not plan to give in and give them what they want, but I am miserable and utterly exhausted. while my closest friends try to show support, without working in government it is so hard to fully understand, especially going off of headlines.

But, as a medical student and a United States citizen, there are some things I need you to know.

- Unfortunately, many states have laws requiring healthcare providers ask patients about their immigration status. You do not have to answer this. Despite what is encoded into law, you will not be turned away nor reported, especially if you are seeking emergency services. Do not let fear stop you from getting the care you need, that’s what the government wants.

- An executive order has withdrawn the United States from the World Health Organization. While the WHO is not perfect, they are responsible for some of the most comprehensive research networks, vaccine initiatives, healthcare surveillance systems, and pandemic response protocols around the globe. Every healthcare provider and medical student I know is worried about what this means for our future and the standard of care we are able to provide nationally.

- Dismantling DEI programs only serves to hurt already marginalized communities. Contrary to what the White House claims, DEI initiatives do not allow “less qualified” applicants to enter the workforce. Instead, they provide individuals who have systematically been given less opportunities a more equitable playing field. For example, only about 6.9% of physicians identify as Hispanic and about 5.7% of physicians identify as Black or African American in the United States. This is extremely disproportionate when looking at ethnicity statistics of the country as a whole. And it largely comes down to the same root cause — lack of resources. No medical school is accepting unqualified applicants, that’s simply a fact. What DEI initiatives do promote, however, is qualified applicants to study and eventually become healthcare providers. Because guess what? Research has shown that physicians of color are most likely to practice in underserved communities and provide medical care to some of the patients who need it most.

There is so much more I want to say that can’t be adequately condensed into a short post on tumblr. But what I can do is try to do my small part in educating how current events are going to trickle down and affect national healthcare as we know it.