2025 Round: Quotes

[hwarium]

Status: Open Prompting is currently open. Prompting is open from 28 December 2024 to 19 January 2025. Seventeen Holidays 2025 Round: Quotes About "the poem begins not where the knife enters, but where the blade twists" "beauty is terror" "you'll just have to taste me, when he's kissing you" 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 a hit tweet. 🛑 HOLD UP If this is your first time on 17hols please check out our About Page which has helpful information about dreamwidth and HTML. We are a prompting fest where all the action happens in the comment section. Rules Sign up is not required. Fills have a minimum of 400 words for prose, haiku-length for poetry (3 lines), and 400px by 400px for art (memes are also art). Other mediums are fine too! There is no maximum cap. Tag and provide content warnings at your discretion, but a good guide are the Ao3 four (Graphic Depictions of Violence, Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con, Underage) and this list of common CWs (cr: SportsFest). NSFW/Explicit content should be tagged NSFW art should not be visible, please provide a link and a warning. You may crop the artwork and embed a SFW preview. How it works Prompting Click on [Post a New Comment] at the bottom of this post; Change the subject; Copy+Paste the following HTML into your comment and edit the sections. Feel free to add as much detail as you want! Need ideas? Check out our 2021 and 2022 Quote rounds. <strong>Ship/Member:</strong> Any <strong>Major Tags:</strong> N/A <strong>Additional Tags:</strong> N/A <strong>Do Not Wants:</strong> None <strong>Prompt:</strong> <blockquote>[QUOTE GOES HERE] </blockquote> Filling Reply to the original prompt; You must change the subject to [FILL] - this is to help the mods track. Feel free to add a title Copy+Paste the following HTML into your comment, edit the sections, and add your text. You may also upload your fill to the AO3 Collection. <strong>Ship/Member:</strong> Any <strong>Major Tags:</strong> N/A <strong>Additional Tags:</strong> N/A <strong>Permission to remix:</strong> Yes/No/Please ask *** Remixing Post as a reply to the fill you are remixing, using the same HTML as above; Change the subject to [REMIX]. Art/media Upload your work to any platform (twitter, imgur, youtube, soundcloud, google maps, etc.) Using the same HTML code as above, copy the link into your fill or remix. That's it! Optionally, you can embed a picture into your comment. Please use the following code instead. (To explain, the HTML resizes your picture to 400x400px so that it fits on most screens. Users can view the full size if they click on it. You can also add a link to your work on twitter so that others can share it, or to any other website you want) <strong>Ship/Member:</strong> Any <strong>Major Tags:</strong> N/A <strong>Additional Tags:</strong> N/A <strong>Permission to remix:</strong> Yes/No/Please ask *** <img src="INSERT IMAGE URL" width="400px"> <a href="INSERT ANY URL YOU WANT">TEXT THAT DESCRIBES THE LINK</a> Note! On dreamwidth, you can't edit a comment once someone has replied to it. Navigation ABOUT FAQ TWITTER BAITS ✧ 2025 ROUND: QUOTES ✧ 2025 FILLS MASTERLIST ARCHIVE: 2021 ARCHIVE: 2022 ARCHIVE: 2023 NOTION DATABASE

Comments

pink pony boi

[sido_rlo]

Ship/Member: Vernon
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: N/A
Do Not Wants: None

Prompt:

[I'm up and jaws are on the floor
Lovers in the bathroom and a line outside the door
Blacklights and a mirrored disco ball
Every night's another reason why I left it all
I thank my wicked dreams a year from Tennessee
Oh, Santa Monica, you've been too good to me
Won't make my mama proud, it's gonna cause a scene
She sees her baby girl, I know she's gonna scream]

- Chappell Roan, Pink Pony Club

(pretty simply, I always think of dancer boy vernon when I listen to this song,,, does anyone else see the vision!)

[FILL] pink pony boi

[kumquat]

Ship/Member: Vernon/Seungkwan
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: N/A
Permission to remix: Yes

***

dancer vernon + live boohan reaction (tweet)

[(Anonymous)]

Ship/Member: Any
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: converging dimensions
Do Not Wants: None

Prompt:

You alone will carry the memory of this day. Can you carry that burden?
— From "I Will Remember You", Angel: the Series

"Time is the wound."
— from Lisa Frankenstein (2024)

my boy builds coffins

[(Anonymous)]

Ship/Member: Any
Major Tags: Temporary Character Death
Additional Tags: N/A
Do Not Wants: N/A

Prompt:

I died but I came back exactly the same. You though, I came back and you were wrong. Did the fact of my dying really damage you that much? Was bringing me back worth what it cost you? Would it have been better to just leave me? (source) (https://www.tumblr.com/jadedanddark/724879929374851072?source=share)

[FILL] my boy builds coffins

[tembusu]

Ship/Member: Dino/Vernon
Major Tags: temporary character death, nsfw, implied minor character death
Additional Tags: implied asphyxiation, superpower-ish au
Permission to remix: Yes

***

Hansol’s throat starts working again three months after he wakes up.

They’ve started thinking that perhaps he’d never talk again. It’s not as scary as it sounds. He’s never been much of a talker even before, and Chan has always been good at understanding non-verbal cues.

Today Chan passes him his headphones after Hansol’s done putting his shoes on, and it slips out of his mouth on instinct.

“Thanks, Chan.”

The headphones fall to the ground. Chan looks at Hansol like he’s been stricken.

Hansol decides not to say anything again.



-



His memory is a little fuzzy, and no one seems willing to fill in the blanks.

They treat him just fine. A little too delicate, maybe, but nothing he can’t deal with. He’s no longer allowed to be on the front lines for missions—which is understandable, considering—but it’s not like a healer like him was ever expected to do that anyway, so.

The agency sends people his way, Hansol fixes them up. Same old, same old.

It's been one stranger after another lately. That’s good, he figures. It means the people he knows aren’t getting hurt. But he hasn’t seen anyone from his team ever since he woke up—Jisoo, Seungkwan, Seokmin, all of them—and the pang in his heart feels like yearning.

Chan drops by sometimes, if only to keep Hansol company.

He talks about his day, his mission. He rants about the agency and clocking extra hours. He talks about overpriced food in the company cafeteria.

He never talks about the team.

And Hansol never replies, because it doesn’t seem like Chan ever really wants him to, so he lets Chan find comfort in the silence.



-


Chan has always been a little too eager, a little too enthusiastic, but Hansol doesn’t remember him ever being deliberately rough.

Maybe he needs it now. Maybe he needs to go hard to make it feel real. Maybe he just needs to drown everything out.

Sex is the only time Chan doesn’t flinch at Hansol’s voice. Chan yearns for it, even, fucks him hard until Hansol’s muted, choked gasps becomes moans. Sometimes Chan’s hands hover over his neck, wraps around it, and Hansol knows he considers, knows the pauses mean something, but he never goes through with it.

Once, he comes close, the weight of his palms pressing on Hansol’s throat as he thrusts inside.

“Sometimes I wish we never met,” he whispers, and the cold honesty pierces through Hansol as he claws at his back.



-



(“You didn’t have to bring me back,” Hansol says to him quietly, after.

Chan lets out a bitter, despondent laugh. “I’ll always choose you.”)



-



“I would’ve done the same.”

“You wouldn’t,” Chan tells him, “not for anything in the world.”

Hansol lets out a soft breath, hugging his knees to his chest. “You don’t know that.”

Chan scoffs. “I know you,” he says, “the same way I know you’ll lie to me if it makes me feel better.”

“You don’t need to explain anything to me, Chan-ah.”

Chan doesn’t look at him. He never looks at Hansol anymore, when it comes to things that matter. “You were always stronger than me.”

Hansol doesn’t ask. A life for a life, a love for a love. The same way pain seeps into Hansol’s entire being when he takes away pain.

Hansol doesn’t ask whose blood Chan stained his hands with to bring Hansol back.



-

sit, stay, heel

[infrequencies]

Ship/Member: Any, but consider Mingyu, DK, Seungcheol
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: N/A
Do Not Wants: None

Prompt:

TASHI: What am I, Jesus?
ART: Yeah.
Challengers (2024)

You're an angel, I'm a dog
Or you're a dog and I'm your man
You believe me like a god
I destroy you like I am
[...]
You believe me like a god
I betray you like a man
— Mitski, I'm Your Man

...what we are is holy, and this, you and me as one together, is transubstantiation of the highest degree. This is you and me becoming the consecration of us; amen, above everything, I believe.
— from Alone With You in the Ether

what you want vs what you can have

[infrequencies]

Ship/Member: Any
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: sacrifice
Do Not Wants: None

Prompt:

To get what you want, you have to know exactly how much you are willing to give up.

Never had he wanted something this badly, and held it in his hands knowing that tomorrow it would be gone, traded for the high cliffs of Ios, and the uncertain future across the border, the chance to stand before his brother, to ask him for all the answers that no longer seemed important. A kingdom, or this.
— from Prince's Gambit by CS Pacat

i'm limited / together, we're unlimited

[infrequencies]

Ship/Member: Any
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: idolverse, what's right and what's easy
Do Not Wants: None

Prompt:

[ELPHABA]
I hope you're happy, too
I hope you're proud how you
Would grovel in submission, to feed your own ambition

worship

[kkulecru]

Ship/Member: Any
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: angst? toxic relationships? power imbalances???
Do Not Wants: None

Prompt:

Drink my tears, I'm at your mercy
I love you most, but I'm not worthy
...
I'd rather drown in your ocean
Than wither on the shore

Holy, Zolita

&

Take what's yours
Just leave me in two pieces
...
I took you out of my existence
Only to crawl back into your arms
Knowing how much it would take away

Limbo, DPR Ian

The rest of Holy and Limbo have very different vibes to each other but you could potentially lean into one over the other...?

where are you now?

[cheapdates]

Ship/Member: Any but consider jihoon, wonwoo, jeonghan
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: angst, obsession, unhealthy relationship dynamics, mess
Do Not Wants: None

Prompt:

I read your letter
The one you left when you broke into my house
Retracing every step you made

And you said you meant it
And there's a piece of me in every single
Second of every single day
But if it's true, then tell me how it got this way

Where are you now?
As I'm swimming through the stereo
I'm writing you a symphony of sound

Where are you now?
As I rearrange the songs again
This mix could burn a hole in anyone
But it was you I was thinking of
It was you I was thinking of

- the mixed tape, jack's mannequin

[FILL] it was you i was dreaming of

[infrequencies]

Ship/Member: Seungcheol/Jeonghan
Major Tags: implied/glossed over sexual content, mentioned breeding kink
Additional Tags: post-breakup, dreams
Permission to remix: Yes | on ao3

went into a fugue state, fell asleep, there were words in the doc. bone app the teeth.

***

Seungcheol knows that the dream isn’t real because Jeonghan can stand to look at him head on. He’s smiling in Seungcheol’s direction, which is something he hadn’t thought to miss, but he feels it like a tide grabbing at his ankles. The aching rips through him like an electric current.

He might remember this day, or at least some part of it. Early on when they were still learning each other. How to move from friendship to romance. Jeonghan had adapted faster. He was always better at that, coaxing Seungcheol into a new phase of life rather than dragging him along.

All of that changed, after, and he can't pinpoint the moment. The last days of their relationship were bookended by an uncomfortable silence that even Kkuma seemed to know better to try to break. All that filled the space was some old mix CD that Jeonghan had made him when they were in high school. All love songs, all ballads.

Sometimes, he lets the CDs spin in the ancient boombox he’d stolen from his parents’ house and lets the words wash over. This one was for a ceremony he’ll never have. This one, soundtracking their first kiss. When they’d moved into the apartment, the one that he’s standing in, the one where he’s asleep on the couch in the waking world, the song he hears distantly had been on a loop over and over and over. “This one reminds me of you,” Jeonghan had said, a faint blush dusting his cheeks before returning his full attention to the next box that needed to be unpacked.

In the end, Seungcheol had been left with the apartment, two boxes of shared memories, and a hand-written note. The words paralleled the first time they’d exchanged I love yous. Jeonghan always loved a full circle moment. He wonders how he would feel about this memory. This dream where they're still together.

In the dream, Jeonghan is wearing a coat he’d gotten rid of years ago, one that Seungcheol had told him had the scent of ashes lingering in the wool.

(Secretly, he used to love undoing the toggle buttons, fumbling them in his fingers before pulling Jeonghan in closer by the lapels to kiss. He doesn’t smell like smoke here, but clean. Cotton and cut flowers.

The first night that Seungcheol had to sleep alone, he’d piled every piece of clothing that Jeonghan had left behind onto his side of the bed, and fallen asleep with his face buried in a ratty t-shirt that used to belong to him. So much of his became theirs. He doesn’t know how to be alone anymore.)

“You know,” Dream Jeonghan drawls, holding out a scarf. He looks exasperated but fond. Seungcheol feels a pang of regret. “Just because you’ve gotten bigger doesn’t mean you can wear less winter clothes.”

He smooths a hand over his stomach, instinctive, but Jeonghan lassoes the scarf around his neck. The face he makes is another wave of regret. Why did he always fight this?

“Don’t start,” Jeonghan warns, covering Seungcheol’s hand with his own. They exchange a look, and Seungcheol’s stomach swoops.

(Jeonghan’s hand had moved over his stomach, months and months ago. Possessive. He’d been enthusiastic about giving Seungcheol what he’d asked for. Always had been, even when it meant giving him space.

Seungcheol had hidden his face in his hands, unable to look him in the eye. His skin was hot everywhere.

“Don’t hide from me,” Jeonghan had mumbled, fingertips trailing on the inside of his thighs. His breath tickled the thin skin behind his knee, hair shadowing his face before he’d leaned over, hips thrusting forward. “If this takes, everyone will know what I did to you.”)

Jeonghan’s hand moves, lacing their fingers together. “You’re perfect.”

“I’m not,” Seungcheol starts to complain, but Dream Jeonghan kisses him silent. His lips are soft and forgiving.

“I would love you even if you weren’t,” Jeonghan says, and Seungcheol’s next breath catches in his throat.

You wouldn’t, he doesn’t say, choosing to melt into the fantasy instead.

why won't you just love me back

[(Anonymous)]

Ship/Member: Mingyu/Any, but consider: gyuhao or meanie:-)
Any
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: desperate, yet unrequited love
Do Not Wants: None

Prompt:

In my daydreams, in my sleep
Infatuation turning into disease
You could cure me, see all you have to do now
Is please try
Give it your best shot and try
All I'm asking for is love
But you never seem to have enough

[FILL] anything for you

[cheapdates]

Ship/Member: Wonwoo/Seokmin, Mingyu
Major Tags: unrequited love, unhappy ending
Additional Tags: pining. NYE.
Permission to remix: Yes! Go crazy.

happy new year...?

***

Mingyu shifts the case of beer higher on his shoulder as he knocks on Wonwoo’s door. There’s no answer at first, which is strange. Wonwoo is usually prompt, quick to respond, especially since he’s the one who asked for help. Mingyu frowns and knocks again, louder this time.

“Coming!” Wonwoo’s muffled voice calls out.

A minute later, the door swings open. Wonwoo stands there, his glasses slightly askew, damp hair sticking to his forehead. “Sorry about that,” he says, stepping aside to let Mingyu in. “Got caught up in the shower.”

Mingyu freezes for half a second. “Caught up?” he echoes. His eyes flick to the bead of water trailing slowly down Wonwoo’s neck, disappearing under the collar of his hoodie.

“Yeah.” Wonwoo shrugs, running a hand through his wet hair. “Lost track of time.”

Mingyu steps inside, trying to shake off the strange feeling twisting in his chest. Glancing around, the apartment is cluttered with boxes of decorations, which feels out of place for someone like Wonwoo.

“You know,” Mingyu says, setting the case of beer on the table. “I was already surprised when you said you were hosting a party. But streamers? Balloons?” He raises an eyebrow. “Who are you, and what have you done with Jeon Wonwoo?”

Wonwoo’s lips twitch into a half-smile, but he doesn’t meet Mingyu’s gaze. “It’s New Year’s Eve. Thought I’d do something different this year.”

Different. The word needles at Mingyu, heavy with implications he can’t quite place. Different? Why? Wonwoo has always been a creature of habit, set in his ways since they were teenagers. He’s the kind of person who takes the same route to the train station every morning, who orders the same coffee from the same cafe, who has kept the same watch from high school even though the strap has worn thin.

Mingyu wants to ask what prompted such a change, but before he can, a door creaks open behind him. He turns instinctively, and his heart stutters, then drops.

Seokmin steps out of Wonwoo’s bedroom, damp hair curling at the edges, wearing a sweater that’s unmistakably Wonwoo’s. It hangs loose on Seokmin’s frame, the sleeves casually pushed up to reveal his forearms. Mingyu’s seen this sweater a hundred times, knows the way Wonwoo always tugs the cuffs down to cover his hands.

“Oh, hey, Mingyu!” Seokmin greets him with his usual bright smile. “Didn’t know you were coming so early.”

Mingyu swallows hard, his throat suddenly dry. “Uh, yeah. Wonwoo asked me to help set up.”

Seokmin grins wider, turning to rifle through a box of noisemakers. “That’s so nice of you. Wonwoo’s been stressing about tonight all week,” he says. “It’s sweet, isn’t it? I know he’s not really into this kind of thing, but he knows how much I love big holiday parties, and so he’s really going all out.”

Mingyu’s gaze flickers to Wonwoo, who busies himself with unraveling a roll of streamers. His expression is neutral, but there’s a faint pink on his cheeks that Mingyu doesn’t miss.

“Oh,” Mingyu says quietly. “Yeah. That’s… sweet.”

Sweet. The word feels foreign when he thinks of Wonwoo. Wonwoo isn’t the type to fawn or make grand, sappy gestures; his care is always quiet, subtle.. Like how he passes Mingyu the second blanket when they’re crashing on the couch together watching a movie, or the way he moves Mingyu’s jacket from the chair to the coat rack whenever he visits. It’s the kind of care that’s easy to miss if you’re not paying attention. But this? The decorations, the planning, the effort—this isn’t Wonwoo’s usual MO. And it isn’t for him. It’s for Seokmin.

Mingyu forces himself to smile, to keep moving, even as the ache in his chest deepens.

As they set up for the party, Mingyu can’t help but watch, stealing glances from the corner of his vision. He watches as Wonwoo adjusts the playlist when Seokmin deems it too slow, as he sets a drink on the counter before Seokmin can even ask for one, as his hand lingers on Seokmin’s lower back when they pass each other. None of it is big or showy. It’s just…thoughtful.

Thoughtful in a way Wonwoo’s never been with him.

The realization hits harder than Mingyu expects, and he can’t stop comparing the intimate, effortless warmth Wonwoo shows Seokmin to the casual, platonic care he offers Mingyu. It’s the same person, similar gestures, but the difference is glaring.

“Hey, can you hand me the tape?” Wonwoo’s voice pulls him out of his thoughts, and Mingyu blinks, realizing he’s holding the roll of tape in a death grip.

“Yeah, here,” he says, handing it over. His fingers brush against Wonwoo’s briefly, and it’s pathetic how his heart stumbles at the contact.

“Thanks,” Wonwoo says, smiling faintly before turning back to Seokmin, who’s calling him over to taste-test something.

Mingyu swallows the lump in his throat, forcing himself to keep moving. “Anything for you,” he whispers under his breath.

***

The party is in full swing by the time midnight approaches. Wonwoo’s apartment is packed, fuller than Mingyu has ever seen it. There are familiar faces—mutual friends scattered across the room—but more than that, there are strangers. People Mingyu doesn’t recognize, laughing and chatting like they’ve been here a hundred times before. Guests of Seokmin, no doubt. People that belong to a world Mingyu has no access to, a world that Wonwoo and Seokmin share.

Mingyu stands by the kitchen counter, nursing a drink that’s mostly melted ice now, watching from the sidelines as Wonwoo flits around, Seokmin never far from his side.

It’s the little things that cut the deepest. The way Wonwoo leans in when Seokmin speaks, his nose scrunching as he laughs at something Mingyu can’t hear. The way their fingers deliberately brush as they pass a glass of champagne back and forth. The way Seokmin reaches out to tuck a stray strand of hair behind Wonwoo’s ear, and Wonwoo doesn’t flinch, just smiles, soft and easy. It’s the casual familiarity of it all, unthinking and natural, and somehow more intimate because of it.

The countdown begins, voices rising excitedly as people gather close.

“Ten! Nine! Eight!”

Mingyu grips his glass tighter, the condensation slick against his palm, his eyes locked on Wonwoo even though it hurts. He’s flushed pink, his hand on Seokmin’s arm, fingers curling just slightly.

“Three! Two! One!”

“Happy New Year!”

The room erupts in cheers, and Mingyu’s stomach sinks as he watches Seokmin cup Wonwoo’s face, thumb brushing over his cheek as he pulls him in for a kiss. Wonwoo smiles into it, his hands finding Seokmin’s waist, and the sight is like a needle slipping beneath Mingyu’s skin.

He tears his gaze away, tipping his glass back and downing the rest of his drink in one go. It’s watered down, nearly tasteless, but it burns all the same, sliding down his throat and pooling in his chest.

“Happy New Year,” he mumbles to himself.

No one notices as he sets his empty glass on the counter and slips out the front door. The muffled sound of celebration fades behind him, replaced by the sharp bite of the night air and the distant crackle of fireworks.

Another year. Another one wasted, tossed onto the growing pile of years spent pining after Jeon Wonwoo.

Mingyu drags a hand down his face, his breath fogging in the cold.

2025, he promises himself. 2025 will be different.

***

Mingyu wakes up to the faint light of dawn spilling through his window, his head pounding and his mouth dry. He groans, rolling over to escape the sun, the movement jostling his phone. The screen lights up, and a single notification stares back at him.

Wonwoo.

His chest tightens as he unlocks it with a quick swipe.

“Saw you sneak out right after midnight. Why’d you leave without saying bye?”

The ache from last night resurfaces in full force, pressing against his ribs.

Wonwoo noticed.

He should feel something good—relief, maybe, or a flicker of gratitude. Wonwoo, who was so absorbed in Seokmin and the celebration, still managed to catch the moment Mingyu slipped away. But all it does is twist the knife in his chest. Wonwoo noticed, but he didn’t come after him. He didn’t ask him to stay.

Mingyu’s fingers tremble as he types a reply. He deletes it. Types again. Deletes it.

What can he even say? That he left because the sight of Wonwoo kissing someone else was too much? That he’s spent years choking down feelings that only seem to grow sharper the harder he tries to swallow them?

‘Can’t you just try? Just once, see what it’s like to love me back’ is what Mingyu has wanted to type out for almost a decade. But he doesn’t. He never does. Instead, his hand falls limp, letting the phone drop onto the mattress.

The promise he made just hours ago—to move on, to stop torturing himself with hope—feels impossible now. Another resolution broken before it even began.

He rolls over, pulling the covers over his head, as if that can shut out the pain.

He won’t be getting over Wonwoo this year either.

leeches

[kkulecru]

Ship/Member: Any
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: yuri beam optional
Do Not Wants: None

Prompt:

Cleavers up, bring 'em here
Femurs all swing on the ceiling like a chandelier
She sittin' there in a white dress
Lookin' like she should get it
...
She tryin' to suck face off the bone
You should know she is prone
To swallow the marrow
...
Chainsaw motor revving outside
Bloodstains on the carpet, Annie
Elbow-length gloves
Thigh highs, fishnets and the garter
God's son crucified on her necklace

Body & Blood, clipping.

ghosts

[kkulecru]

Ship/Member: Any, (perhaps consider a Jeonghan, Minghao or Wonwoo)
Major Tags: mcd?
Additional Tags: N/A
Do Not Wants: None

Prompt:

My husband cooling in the ground, the worms crawl in and out
My lover’s disembodied soul makes me so happy now
...
Don't talk to me of “death do us part”
Between us we share one beating heart
Candles flicker in the chandelier
Can't you see we got a good thing here

Ghost Story, Charming Disaster

There’s still cobwebs in the corners
And the backyard’s full of bones
Won’t you stay with me, my darling
When this house don’t feel like home

Curses, The Crane Wives

Silent screams

[kkulecru]

Ship/Member: Any (although might be interesting with a Soonyoung, Seungcheol or Jeonghan?)
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: N/A
Do Not Wants: None

Prompt:

Flashes like camera bulbs fire in my brain
Is this truly me, am I going insane?
In faint bloody flashes I watch people die
And if that was me, then who am I?

Loki, The Mechanisms

From nowhere mankind can go
There's too much light, blinding white
Your matter tells mine to scatter
....
Some will say my actions let the no-eyed people in
And I'd do it all again

No Eyed Girl, Lemon Demon

[slytherminie]

Ship/Member: Any, joshua, seokmin, mingyu
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: N/A
Do Not Wants: None

Prompt:

Remember what you must do
when they undervalue you,
when they think
your softness is your weakness,
when they treat your kindness
like it is their advantage.

You awaken
every dragon,
every wolf,
every monster
that sleeps inside of you
and you remind them
what hell looks like
when it wears the skin
of a gentle human.

- Nikita Gill, Wild Embers: Poems of Rebellion, Fire and Beauty

[slytherminie]

Ship/Member: Any but to me it's screaming seokgyu or kwanchan
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: bitter exes, rivals to lovers
Do Not Wants: None

Prompt:

what’s with that look? are you saying i only dislike him because he reminds me of myself?

- twitter user holyaches

he knew me by heart. it infuriated me that he knew me by heart.

- Fyodor Dostoevsky, Notes from Underground

can i ask you a question?

[slytherminie]

Ship/Member: Any
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: N/A
Do Not Wants: None

Prompt:

how both a well-aimed question & any apparatus of torture require satisfaction to cease their patient cutting

- Natalie Wee, Beast At Every Threshold

Did you leave her house in the middle of the night?
Did you wish you'd put up more of a fight?
When she said it was too much?
Do you wish you could still touch ...her?
It's just a question

- Question...?, Taylor Swift

[FILL] answer

[infrequencies]

Ship/Member: past Wonwoo/Soonyoung; brief Wonwoo/Seungkwan; Wonwoo/Minghao
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: Post-Breakup, prose
Permission to remix: Please ask

after natalie wee, bandaged and bruised

***

Maybe I love you is a difficult thing to answer to.

Wonwoo was 22 when he had a tooth pulled, nervous and afraid in the dentist chair, head tilted back with the blinding lights glinting off his glasses. Two needles to the gums, a hand on his chin, tools pulling his lips back to expose the molar before the dentist whittled down to the root and pulled. He didn't feel much more than discomfort until he'd arrived home, anxiety spiked through the roof. His body had felt the pain, but the mind hadn't realized it yet.

He turns 27 three days after Soonyoung packs the last box, and the pain breaks through. A decade plus of a life lived. That suture tight pain, the uncomfortable throb in his jaw. Unable to chew on one side, readjusting, reworking, relearning. Extraction is enough for some, but not all.

For the first month, he'd keep forgetting. Biting down where nothing lives. Dialing a number to call, and turning his phone over.

He's walking through life, but no one knows. Who would care that a 22 year old had lost a tooth? Wonwoo knows that he certainly wouldn't care past the initial voicing of concern.

Flesh, bone, bruise, ache.

No one thinks to miss a tooth. It's supposed to carry you through life. He doesn't think to miss Soonyoung until the mail stops arriving for a name that isn't his.

Seungkwan had been a promising fresh start, but the scarring had made it difficult to heal.

Do you still love him? A question no one wants to ask, and a question Wonwoo doesn't want to answer. Breakthrough bleeding, a wrong name sighed. You dream about him when you're sleeping next to me. Undeserved cruelty.

The dentist sighs. You have to take care of the wound. The soreness won't fade if you won't tend to it. I'm trying, he says, but the swelling doesn't go down. The antibiotics clear the infection, but the bone—

Have you ever missed someone long past you were supposed to forget them? What a heavy question for a first date. Across the table, Minghao turns the words over. His fingertips dance at the base of the wine glass.

Yes.

And do you miss them even now?

Minghao hums. Of course.

How do you move past it?

You don't. There will always be a scar.

After the second date, Wonwoo runs the tip of his tongue over the gum. Old habits.

The site isn't swollen anymore.

persistence, resistance

[slytherminie]

Ship/Member: Any but strong on jeonghan
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: N/A
Do Not Wants: None

Prompt:

Everything I've ever let go of has claw marks on it.

- David Foster Wallace

nightowls

[delicatesse]

Ship/Member: Any, consider soonyoung/jeonghan
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: insomnia, dreamspace?
Do Not Wants: None

Prompt:

And we have nights more beautiful than your days

Et nous avons des nuits plus belles que vos jours

-- Jean Racine

[delicatesse]

Ship/Member: Any, consider seokmin/jeonghan, soonyoung/mingyu
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: N/A
Do Not Wants: None

Prompt:

what a match
i'm half doomed and you're semi-sweet

so boycott love
detox just to retox

nobody wants to hear you sing about tragedy

-- fall out boy, disloyal order of water buffaloes

[delicatesse]

Ship/Member: wonwoo, soonyoung, seungcheol, any
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: sadness/melancholy/nostalgia/depression <3 angst.
Do Not Wants: None

Prompt:

A strange melancholy pervades me to which I hesitate to give the grave and beautiful name of sadness

Sur ce sentiment inconnu, dont l'ennui, la douceur m'obsèdent, j'hésite à apposer le nom, le beau nom grave de tristesse

-- Françoise Sagan, Bonjour Tristesse

[(Anonymous)]

Ship/Member: Soonyoung/Jihoon
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: canon compliant or a/b/o or guide verse au
Do Not Wants: mcd

Prompt:

The more you spread, the darker it becomes
My nights are a little longer and lonely
Your face comes to mind all day long
Fill the room like a rainbow
Little by little, a sweet color begins to appear

- 10CM, Gradation

[FILL] degrees of noise

[poppyseedheart]

Ship/Member: Soonyoung/Jihoon
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: sentinel/guide au (w some liberties), idolverse
Permission to remix: Yes

***

It's lucky that Jihoon is in the studio tonight.

can i come to u was all Soonyoung had sent, no punctuation like a heathen, and Jihoon replies with a thumbs up. There used to be protocols to observe, calls and responses in code and communications through a group chat with no fewer than three staff members, but it's been long enough since the chaos that was debuting a group with a sentinel in it that they've long since figured out their own more casual systems.

It's only about five minutes before Soonyoung knocks and lets himself in, so he must have already been at the company practicing.

Soonyoung confirms Jihoon's suspicions: "I was just downstairs. Sorry. It's loud tonight."

It's loud every night. Soonyoung doesn't handle the fluorescents well, but still for some reason practices alone in rooms with all the lights on, music pounding, sweat dripping into his eyes. Like all the pamphlets he'd been given about managing sensory input served him better as napkins than as practical guides.

Why would I need guidance, Soonyoung likes to say, wrapping a genial arm around Jihoon's shoulders, when I have this guy?

Jihoon grunts at him and puts his headphones back on. He's got another hour in him. Maybe two. The song needs four or five before he can reasonably call it finished, but it isn't due until the end of the week. Which is a good thing, because he's not going to be getting much more done tonight.

Soonyoung sighs and collapses dramatically into a seated heap at Jihoon's feet. He nudges closer, closer still, looking up every now and again like he's pushing his luck. His hair is white blonde and spiky. The stylists keep putting him in colored contacts, ice blue, which Soonyoung detests because he can feel them against his corneas and the distraction means that for every moment they're not performing he needs Jihoon's hand in his just to stop from floating away into an overload. And for a guy who loves to loudly proclaim his devotion to Jihoon and desire for more skinship and literally has a registered disability for which Jihoon himself has been assigned as an accommodation, Soonyoung hates being seen needing help.

He's still inching closer like he's afraid Jihoon is going to snap. His eyes are pinched the way they get when a migraine looms.

"It's fine," Jihoon mutters, to put the both of them out of their misery.

Soonyoung's hand wraps around Jihoon's bare ankle, and the room kaleidoscopes into a sensory fractal.

Jihoon has never gotten used to this part; he doesn't know how any person reasonably could. Soonyoung's consciousness sprawls, predatory and unrelenting like invasive flora in an otherwise undisturbed forest. Where Jihoon had before been focused on clicking around his editing software, he's now thrust into a view wherein each wavelength of light emanating from his screen is distinct from the others. He hears the buzzing of the computer, the lights, the gears in his watch. He feels the press of the air conditioner against every facet of his body.

"Intense," he remarks.

"Told you it was loud."

"Gonna calm down?"

Soonyoung grumbles. "Why are you always so harsh?"

"Take it or leave it." Jihoon chews a little on the inside of his cheek and tastes that afternoon's lunch. "Seriously, relax."

Soonyoung grimaces again, bleached hair prickling Jihoon's knee just below the line of his shorts, and that stubborn sensitive sentinel part of him loosens its grip, fractionally, on their combined senses. Soonyoung describes these moments, once they've passed, with a kind of religious fervor. Soonyoung who despite his pride willingly sinks to his knees in front of Jihoon like it costs him nothing. Soonyoung who is well-practiced in the art of worship to the point of obsession, between his thirsts for artistry and fame and pressing at the limits of what his body is capable of, this body that has already broken barriers, done and seen and weathered more than most, this body that has become, hilariously, absurdly, Jihoon's responsibility somewhere along the way. Soonyoung who, with no traces of irony in his voice, calls what Jihoon can do a miracle.

Soonyoung whose first question upon meeting the boy who would become his guide was: "But can you dance?"

Jihoon could and can. Amidst a sea of rumors to the contrary, Jihoon wanted this as badly as any of them from the very start.

"Better?" he asks after a long moment.

Soonyoung smiles up at him dopily. "You're magic."

"I need to keep working," he says instead of responding in kind. "That fine?"

"Do your thing. I'll just be down here."

This, Jihoon will never admit, is the part he himself would liken to prayer. Soonyoung fills his awareness with thorns and Jihoon, methodical and tactless, pares them back, one after another until the room shimmers in soft afterglow.

Soonyoung's temple grateful against Jihoon's knee, and Jihoon pressing back.

onions

[arundels]

Ship/Member: Any
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: unrequited love? shrek-like transformations? all of the above?
Do Not Wants: None

Prompt:

如果你愿意一层一层一层 的剥开我的心
你会发现 你会讶异
你是我 最压抑 最深处的秘密

If you are willing to, layer by layer by layer, peel open my heart
You would discover, you would be shocked
You are my most repressed and most deeply held secret

--Aska Yang, 洋蔥 (Onion)

Shrek: For your information, there's a lot more to ogres than people think. Ogres are like onions!
Donkey: They stink? They make you cry? Oh, you leave 'em out in the sun, they get all brown, start sprouting little white hairs...
Shrek: No! Layers. Onions have layers. Ogres have layers. You get it? We both have layers.

--Shrek (2001)

FILL: like secretkeeping

[twomblying]

Ship/Member: Jeongcheol
Major Tags: AU, Friends with benefits
Additional Tags: ambiguous relationship, not actually unrequited love, drinking, somewhat unreliable narrator. (this got away from me due to extreme jeonghan feelings and is not quite the unrequited love you probably wanted)
Permission to remix: Yes!

***


They kick their shoes off at the door and Jeonghan scolds Seungcheol for getting mud on the tile, even though his boots are just as muddy from the rain. It’s not a serious scolding, made clear by how much they’re both giggling. They’d split a single bottle of soju between the four of them, Jihoon and Mingyu ordering a second one entirely for themselves to enjoy after Jeonghan and Seungcheol said their goodbyes and parted ways.

Jeonghan drags Seungcheol over to the couch, and pushes him down to sit. Seungcheol makes grabby hands at his waist, trying to pull him down into his lap. Jeonghan sidesteps him easily and laughs, shaking his head. He ducks quickly into Seungcheol’s bedroom to grab a change of clothes out of his drawer. When he comes back, Seungcheol is sitting ramrod straight and looking at the bedroom doorway – as if he’d been waiting for Jeonghan to come back after being gone for two minutes max. Waiting patiently only to immediately try to pull Jeonghan into his lap again. At some point tonight, Jeonghan will go easily. But not yet.

Jeonghan laughs again and drops down on the other end of the sofa, turning sideways so he can sit with his legs crossed. He can’t stop laughing. He’s not even tipsy. He’s just giggly, feeling lighter than he has in days. Seungcheol’s in high spirits too, and a pretty flush sits high on his cheeks. When the downpour had started, conveniently right as they decided to walk home from the bar they had met their friends at, they’d taken off together at a sprint. Counterproductive, considering it took them longer than usual to get home because they kept ducking under awnings and trees to press their mouths against one another. Then, about a block from Seungcheol's apartment, they’d started bickering, which had continued through the lobby of the building and for the entirety of the elevator ride.

“Chan totally knew already,” Seungcheol says, taking a moment to scroll through their friends’ group chat, where Wonwoo was currently scolding everyone for ruining Chan’s surprise party that’s supposed to happen tomorrow without him knowing yet. That’s what they’ve been bickering about, picking up the same conversation they’d been having with MIngyu and Jihoon earlier.

Jeonghan snorts. “Of course he knew, you can’t keep your mouth shut.”

When Seungcheol lets out an outraged gasp, Jeonghan rolls his eyes but still reaches out once to nudge his knee with his foot.

“Me?! Yoon Jeonghan, you can’t keep a secret to save your life.”

It’s true, at least when it comes to their friends. The younger ones in their friend group can get almost any information out of Jeonghan if they try hard enough.

“I have plenty of secrets, Choi Seungcheol.” Maybe Jeonghan has had a little more to drink than he remembers.

Seungcheol pouts. “Yah. Like what?”

Jeonghan’s words catch up with him. All of a sudden, it feels colder in the apartment than he can stand and Jeonghan itches to turn the heat on. He’s very aware that his hair is still wet from the rain and all he managed to pull on was a pair of sleep shorts and a tank top. He shivers. Seungcheol immediately stands and rushes to grab a throw blanket from the small closet across the room.

Jeonghan replies to Seungcheol’s question when Seungcheol’s back is turned to him before he can think twice.

“Well, there’s you.” The words don’t make sense. He’s aware they don’t make sense. He elaborates, even though he really would rather just leave the room. Instead he clears his throat and says, “How I feel about you.”

The air gets sucked out of the room all at once, and Jeonghan has a real moment of disbelief. That those words had actually come out of his mouth. Maybe he can play it off like a cheesy line, contort his face into a smarmy grin. He could throw finger guns. Seungcheol will think he’s a pod person, and then he can make his escape. It’s no good, he thinks. The words had sounded entirely too honest to be played off, even to his own ears.

He could mean: the well-kept secret of his arrangement with Seungcheol that he has maintained for the last eight months that they’ve been doing whatever this is. Sleeping together. Kissing on their way home from drinking nights with their friends. He’s almost sure none of them know.

What he actually means: the whole truth of it. And it’s a faltering step in his well-practiced slight of hand routine. The one where he kisses Seungcheol when he feels like it, and goes to bed with him, and lets Seungcheol fuck him with the lights on. Does all that happily while the truth of his feelings sits unnamed. He’s fucked it up a little now, though.

In real time, he’s facing the harsh reality that loving Seungcheol has peeled back at least a few of his hard-won layers, and, really, the only thing stronger than the humiliation and resentment is the relief. Because if he’s being honest, it’s been a little exhausting, working so hard to pretend that he’s not so in love with Seungcheol that he’s sick with it.

Seungcheol turns so quickly that a small pile of blankets and towels falls off the shelf behind him, but he doesn’t turn to pick them up. It rankles Jeonghan. Isn’t that annoying? He loves him so much.

“That’s not a secret though,” And it’s such a Seungcheol thing to say. He bends, then, to pick up a single blanket and walks over to drape it around Jeonghan’s shoulders. Jeonghan huffs but tightens the throw around himself. He says it casually, like he’s either exposing Jeonghan’s lie or letting Jeonghan get away with it and he hasn’t decided which one it is yet.

“I mean, I know. It’s not a secret to me.”

“It is,” Jeonghan insists. And god, why is he doubling down on this?

He clears his throat. “There’s so much. How much I feel about you –” Jeonghan mutters, pretending he’s just talking out loud to himself. He can say it, he wants to say it.

“What?” Seungcheol whispers, back on the couch across from him. He’s looking at Jeonghan with his eyes wide, so earnest.

Jeonghan shakes his head. “There’s so much to how I feel about you... All the time, Cheol. All the fucking time.” He tries not to sound mad about it, but he is a little bit. He’s a little low-level angry at the depth of his own emotion pretty much constantly.

When Seungcheol shifts, he’s a little closer but there’s still space between them. He knows Jeonghan will want space between them right now. “I don’t want you to keep that a secret from me, though.”

Jeonghan laughs. It’s not unkind, but it’s not actual mirth. It’s more like he’s making a sound to fill the space between them.

“Or,” Seungcheol continues, “Sometimes secrets are okay I think.” He looks at Jeonghan so earnestly that Jeonghan feels something tighten in his chest. Honest to god tightening, like a fist clenched in bedsheets, like a string pulled taut.

“They are?” he asks softly.

Seungcheol nods, his hand reaching out to graze the delicate arch of Jeonghan’s foot where it rests between them on the sofa. “When we get to share them, yeah. I like when things that belong to you belong to me too.”

Jeonghan hums.

Seungcheol scoots a little closer and drags Jeonghan’s feet into his lap. Jeonghan searches his face for some indication of what he’s going to say next. He’s gotten very good at that, reading Seungcheol. It’s easy, really; Seungcheol doesn’t keep secrets. He’s not built for it. Only when the anxiety truly eats at him does he let things fester, but it’s not how he likes to operate.

Sometimes Jeonghan feels like all he does is carry things he doesn’t know how to put down, and here’s Seungcheol saying here, let me. He’s always there with a hand outstretched, saying it’s as easy as handing it over.

He’s doing that now. He presses a thumb along the tendon that runs along the arch of Jeonghan’s foot and it’s all a little bit like a port in a storm. An obvious place to surrender, if Jeonghan will allow it. He’s getting better at giving himself permission.

“Lots of things,” Jeonghan says finally, when it becomes clear Seungcheol is waiting for him to speak. He meets his eyes and he’s speaking in a low, slow voice. As if Seungcheol is the one moving through this like a spooked animal. “Lots of things that belong to me belong to you.”

It’s not the whole truth of it. He knows what Seungcheol wants to hear, but he can’t form the words. He wonders if Seungcheol will ever get tired of waiting so patiently, and immediately feels a hot spike of shame because he knows the answer is no.

When Seungcheol kisses him, it feels like secretkeeping. The warm feel of his mouth and the earnest press of his tongue against the seam of Jeonghan’s lips is another secret passed along. And then another, and another, and another.

[arundels]

Ship/Member: Any but I could see jeonghan, joshua, hoshi
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: idolverse, the pressures of being constantly observed, physical intimacy as a coping mechanism, the chasm between desire and love
Do Not Wants: None

Prompt:

what I have done is risked everything for
that hour
that hour in the black night
where one flashing light
looks like love

--Ada Limón, 'Glow'

And I'm sick of all my judges
So scared of what they'll find
But I know that I can make it
As long as somebody takes me home
Every now and then

--The Killers, 'Sam's Town'

The line

[abaegel]

Ship/Member: Any but consider Jeonghan, Scoups, Woozi
Major Tags: possible MCD
Additional Tags: Bonus points if it's an Arcane AU but not a requirement, dealing with difficult and probably life altering decisions
Do Not Wants: None

Prompt:

Take a seat
But I'd rather you not be here for
What could be my final form
Stay your pretty eyes on course
Keep the memories of who I was before
So stay with me because
My body's on the line now
I can't fight this time now
I can feel the light shine on my face
Did I disappoint you?
Will they still let me over
If I cross the line?

-The line - Twenty One Pilots

cruel to be kind

[tenderlyache]

Ship/Member: Any but consider Jeonghan
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: N/A
Do Not Wants: None

Prompt:

Wishin' you were kind enough to be cruel about it
Tellin' myself I can always do without it
Knowin' that it probably isn't true

Cool About It, boygenius

Maybe won't you take it back?
Say you were tryna make me laugh
And nothing has to change today
You didn’t mean to say "I love you"

i love you, Billie Eilish

I told you I loved you—for a moment the cruelest thing to do seemed like the nicest thing I could say.

source

[tenderlyache]

Ship/Member: Any but consider Seungcheol or Mingyu
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: N/A
Do Not Wants: None

Prompt:

I am at the mouth of the cave. I am willing to crawl.

-Ada Limón, Notes on the Below

I will be
nothing more than a neck for this one.
How they resist learning the body, following
its instructions like a dog.

-Caitlin Scarano, Do Not Bring Him Water