“When will I stop belonging to this hungry thing inside me?”

— Clementine von Radics, from “The Spring Everything Grew Wild and the Rain Came Down Like Punishment,” Mouthful of Forevers
(via lifeinpoetry)

“I clung to your hands so that something human might exist in the chaos.”

— Hélène Cixous, from “Olivier De Serres- A Single Passion Two Witnesses,” Love Itself: In the Letter Box (Polity Press, 2008)

“I scarcely dared to look / to see what it was I was.”

— Elizabeth Bishop, from “In the Waiting Room,” The Complete Poems 1927-1979

“you’re so polite with your sadness. you don’t want to ruin this for anyone.”

— — Silas Melvin, from “Twenty,” Grit

I could love you violently, if I let myself.

Sylvia Plath, quoting an acquaintance in ‘The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath’

George Seferis, from Collected Poems; "Memory I" (tr. Edmund Keeley and Philip Sherrard)

[Text ID: I whispered: memory hurts wherever you touch it,]

Tch. Eyes divert downwards towards the wrapped wound on his arm, and sure enough... Shit. He is dripping blood. It's a mess he's tempted to deal with immediately, but he knows well enough that Esmé has other plans. Levi's gaze flits back towards her now. Her casual lean against the doorframe does not mask the heightened focus she has on locating his wound, and it won't take long for her to find it. He'd wrapped it – though evidently not well enough – and a tiny blotch grows on his arm; red seeps through. Blood stains are the worst stains.

But if anyone is going to look at his wound, it should be her. So, the Captain concedes to her request, unbuttons his sleeve. He rolls it up to reveal a bandage on his forearm – which he slowly pulls off to display the sizable gash underneath. He had acquired it by diving to pull a recruit from a titan's path after her gear malfunctioned. The pain causes his arm to throb. Damn. It's deeper than he thought. ❛ If it needs stitches, just do them here. I'm not going to the infirmary. ❜

Pushing herself off the door frame, she rolls her own sleeves up to prevent unnecessary stains—they’d hardly show up on a red top, though. The skin around the gash is inflamed, red as the blood that drips from the split it outlines. He really thought bandages would be enough? There’s no scent of an ointment either. Thug behaviour, as always.

Esmé’s well aware that the Captain despises being fussed over, something medics are rather notable at. Still, her eyes flick up to meet his, fingers perched on his arm to examine the laceration. ❝ Of course, Captain. How kind of you to note that I simply walk around with medical equipment! ❞ Sarcasm colors her words, but she makes no move to push him to move to the infirmary as her gaze returns to the tear.

❝ Sit. ❞ Those are the only instructions the woman leaves him with while making a run to and from the infirmary. When she returns, it’s with an empty first aid box loaded with necessary supplies to treat him.

Esmé sets the box on her thigh, propped on one of his chair’s support beams, cleaning up the blood, clipping off any loose flesh with laser-focused eyes. ❝ The gear’s blade? ❞ It’s the most likely candidate for the cut, but she doubts it’s his own. Levi’s far too skilled to slash himself like a recruit. Her mind’s eye conjures up some plausible imagery to amuse her while she threads a needle and begins to stitch the flesh together.

❝      well , if shoko's not available , then i guess I have to confer with you .    you have a moment , don't you ? no need for that kind of face , i won't tell if you don't . ❞ the sorcerer bows his head in idle respect to the fact that they hadn't met before , dipping down onto an empty seat ( never mind the bed , it wasn't so terrible as to bring such urgency as that ! talk about an unnecessary panic ! ) ❝    it's getting progressively more humiliating to come here .     ❞ ( with how satoru knew how to use reverse cursed energy & shoko being a natural . . . there was no way he was going to one of them for any type of help . ) ❝      i think i did something to the muscle in my arm here . you'll help , won't you ? ❞ ' something ' . more like went a bit overboard in dulling out righteous punishment . . . but nobody needed to know that . / @theladymuses + bianca .

With a short, awkward—awkward because she thought that was an outdated custom, even in Japan—bow to reciprocate his, Bianca presses her lips in a thin line but nods in his direction. She has no formal experience in healing, but her technique can speed up the process a great deal.

❝ I’ve got time to take a look. It’s not some big secret that I help around the infirmary. ❞ She offers a polite smile as he takes a seat and goes on to outline the problem, indirectly admitting his indignity in coming here. Out of the five of them, Shoko and Satoru are the only ones that can use reverse cursed technique—the other three, including her and her twin brother, are in the same boat.

With a snicker at his comment, she rolls up his sleeve to take a look, fingers gently feeling over the bruised area as she talks in order to ward off any awkwardness during the procedure. ❝ You’re still in the majority boat, you know? Most sorcerers can’t heal themselves. I can only speed up the healing process, kind of like a catalyst. ❞

’Something’ seems to be an understatement if the growing bruise is anything to go by. It all inflamed skin and clear bleeding under the tissue. But she focuses her gaze on the ruptured muscle beneath swollen skin with a crease between her brows. ❝ Is it okay if I make a cut here? It’s easier to— fix. ❞

’Easier to locate stem cells in the surrounding tissue instead of summon them, and skin cells are quick to repair so the cut won’t cause a problem,’ is what she was going to say. She holds her tongue, though; the girl’s been trying to keep the details to herself since a certain someone told her to ’quit being a smartass’.