Status: Closed
This round has closed. It remains open for fills, comments and remixes, but prompts are no longer accepted.
About
"Someone will remember us, I say, even in another time."
"How inconvenient to be made of desire."
"It's me, hi, I'm the problem its me."
Calling all readers, lovers of poetry and music, screen and stage. Quote collecters and lyric hoarders, unleash your archive. For this round, every prompt must contain a quote - you can combine them, add commentary, link to articles, do whatever. Steal from a literary classic, or copy WeVerse drama.
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Need ideas? Check out our 2021 and 2022 Quote rounds.
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[FILL] a ghost is a wish
Major Tags: implied Major Character Death
Additional Tags: drunk!hoshi
Permission to remix: Yes
***
The legend goes something like this: hundreds of years ago, when tigers still roamed the mountains of Choson, a young man went out hunting and was killed by the very tiger he intended to slay. Death, however, was only the beginning. Cursed to an existence of slavery, the dead man’s ghost was forced to stay on earth instead of passing on; it wandered the land in search of an unsuspecting traveler, luring them to its side with the promise of a story worth their while.
What the traveler could not possibly know was that the ghost was working under the orders of its new master the tiger. It would tell the traveler enough of its tale to sufficiently distract them, but hearing the tale’s end would never be in their future: the story was but a cover to let the ghost discreetly call for the tiger and present to the beast its meal.
Only if it succeeded in its task of feeding the traveler to its master would the ghost be allowed to switch fates with its victim: the traveler, upon death, would become the next ghost to do the tiger’s bidding, and the dead young man would be free to move on to the afterlife and find peace at last.
“Bullshit,” Soonyoung slurs, slamming his glass down on the table. The sound startles Seokmin beside him; Soonyoung feels him jump in his seat. “Why does that bastard get peace?”
Across the table, Wonwoo frowns. “What, you want him to suffer as a ghost forever?” he asks. “That’s fucked up.”
“But he… he deserves it,” Soonyoung responds slowly. “He tried to kill a tiger!”
A beat passes. A grin grows on Wonwoo’s face. “Oh, is that why you’re offended? Because it was a tiger?”
“Tigers are…” There’s a word Soonyoung can’t remember. What’s the word he’s looking for? He searches the bar for an answer, and one of the lamps on the opposite wall catches his eye. It’s not what he was looking for, but it’ll do. He points. “They’re like that light!”
Now both Wonwoo and Seokmin are openly snickering. Jihoon, ever sober, raises an eyebrow at him. “You’re drunk,” he says matter-of-factly. “Already?”
None of them get it. “None of you get it,” he says. “He tried to fight the light. The light! You can’t just do that! Not without con– cons–” Gyeolgwa, he wants to say, but shaping the word has suddenly become impossible. “Anyway, you can’t do that.”
“It’s just a story, Soonyoung,” Wonwoo says, and the conversation unravels, turning to other topics. Soonyoung tries at first to follow the thread, but the story still hangs heavy on his mind, so he lets himself follow that instead. If he ever went looking for a tiger, it would never be to hunt it. He would befriend it. He could do that. He has a tiger-print matching two-piece back home; he could wear it to visit the tiger. It would probably like that, right?
“Right?” he says out loud, turning to Seokmin on his left.
Seokmin just looks at him. Then he pokes Soonyoung’s cheek and pushes it so that he’s facing forward again. “Sure,” Seokmin says, drawing out the syllables, and pats Soonyoung affably on the back of his neck. “Whatever you say.”
Soonyoung reaches for his glass again, refills it, drinks. What if, all along, the tiger was just lonely? Why else would such a mighty creature curse the man to stay by its side, when finding prey couldn’t possibly have been difficult for it on its own? Maybe it wanted someone to talk to. Maybe everyone around it was too busy eating makchang and discussing future plans, analyzing their last concert and considering improvements for the next one, when all it wanted was for someone to listen to what it had to say.
He decides to befriend the tiger.
A couple of taps to Seokmin’s shoulder and he’s moving his legs, making way for Soonyoung to maneuver his own chair away from the table and step out. Someone from the other table—Jeonghan, maybe—calls out to him: “Where you going?” Then, when he gets no response: “Where’s he going?”
“Probably to take a piss,” someone else says, and then Soonyoung reaches the door and pushes his way through it.
The evening’s cool air assaults him, rendering him temporarily disoriented. Why’s he outside in the cold, when everyone else is still laughing in the warmth indoors? Somebody mentioned taking a piss. Was that him?
And then he remembers the word. “Divine,” he says out loud, elated. In the moment, he doesn’t even mind that he’s remembered it too late to make a difference. “Divine!”
He subsides and looks around him. The group is in Daegu, there to film an episode for Going Seventeen. Naturally, Seungcheol’s elated, and has been dragging as many of the members as he can round up to his favorite spots in the city whenever they’re free. If Soonyoung recalls correctly, Seungcheol mentioned a hiking trail on Mount Palgong, complete with trees and greenery and apples ready for the picking. Do tigers eat apples? He doesn’t know, but it’s the only place he can think of to look.
Soonyoung starts walking.
Minutes hours seconds later, he finds himself in the middle of a forest. Tall shadows loom above him on either side of the trail, the trees near-invisible in the darkness. How did he get here? He vaguely recalls a bus ride and a talkative passenger seated behind him, but he can’t be sure if the memory is a recent one. Soonyoung supposes it doesn’t matter; he’s here now, and he has some searching to do.
A short distance into his walk a thought occurs to him. He’s here in the name of friendship, but what if the tiger doesn’t want to befriend him? What if it deems him unworthy as a companion? It’s unlikely that will ever happen, but if it does, will the tiger kill him like it did all the others, except this time not keep him around?
Perhaps dying to a tiger’s bite isn’t the worst way to go.
The idea has only just crossed Soonyoung’s mind when he hears a voice, someone calling out to him from his right, from the other side of the railing: “Hey! Traveler!”
No matter how hard he squints, he can’t clearly make out the person standing there. Half-hidden in the undergrowth but beckoning him closer, the figure looks otherworldly, spectral. He wonders how they got over the fence separating the two, because the ground drops steeply beyond it; the jump can’t possibly be an easy one. As if able to hear his thoughts, the figure gestures to a part of the fence covered by leaves and says, “There’s a break you can walk through right there.”
Going over to it and pushing the leaves aside, Soonyoung realizes the figure was right. He looks up at them waiting for him. “Who are you?” Soonyoung asks.
The figure hums in thought before answering. “A stranger to you now,” it says at last, “but we don’t have to remain so for long.” And then the words he’s been waiting to hear ever since he learned of the myth: “Would you like to hear my story?”
Soonyoung smiles.
***
[based on the changgwi myth from korean ghostlore!]
Re: [FILL] a ghost is a wish
Re: [FILL] a ghost is a wish
Re: [FILL] a ghost is a wish
Re: [FILL] a ghost is a wish
Re: [FILL] a ghost is a wish