Status: Open
Prompting is currently open. Prompting is open from 28 December 2024 to 19 January 2025.
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.
đ 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.
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.
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)
On dreamwidth, you can't edit a comment once someone has replied to it.
|
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
opposite loves
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: mismatched love, unrequited love
Do Not Wants: None
Prompt:
- Tomasz Jedrowski, Swimming in the dark
- Tasha Shuri, The Oleander Sword
[FILL] you believe me like a god
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: Challengers, but make it musicians; infidelity; wrong person, always the wrong time; implied sexual content
Permission to remix: Yes
***
âSeokmin asked me,â Joshua says. The coffee in the mug has cooled, but his hands still need something to do. When he looks at Jeonghan, his palms itch. âLast night. Do you want to see the ring?â
Jeonghanâs eyes flicker from his face to his left hand curled around the front of the mug. Itâs a simple white gold band with inset diamonds. Vintage, 14 karat gold. Kind of ugly if heâs being honest, but in the moment, Seokmin had been overwrought with the kind of grief that made him look like a single breeze would blow him away.
Joshua is a hurricane.
âItâs nice.â The lie comes to Jeonghan easily. It always has.
âAre you staying in this hotel?â
His dark hair sways as shakes his head no. âIâm in an Airbnb a little further down.â
Joshua sips his coffee. It tastes sour. Jeonghanâs cologne smells like vanilla and citrus, like summer 2017, when they woke up next to each other in a Coachella tent smelling like weed and sex. Jeonghanâs neck littered in a bouquet of hickeys. How they'd fucked the way they'd fought once in a studio: no blood drawn but close.
He shivers. Jeonghan cocks a brow.
âYouâre not playing tomorrow.â
It isn't a question. Joshua looked the schedule over and over. Seokmin will be on the grounds all day, and Joshua has no reason to be there.
âIâm not.â
âShow me your Airbnb.â
âJust like that?â Jeonghanâs brows shoot to his hairline. âI don't know if I want you if you're gonna make it that easy for me.â
âYou always want me,â Joshua murmurs.
Jeonghanâs foot nudges against his knee. âAlways have.â
---
âSo.â
The man leaned up against the wall is lean and mostly made of leg. Long, thin legs that are an almost comical contrast to the thighs on his friend thatâs been trailing behind him all night.
Joshua, of course, knows who Yoon Jeonghan is. Most people do. His father founded one of the largest tech startups in Korea, which funds his half-baked career. The label of nepo baby doesnât tarnish his shine, at least not when using it to promote hot young talent.
He throws the other man a sidelong glance. Seokmin, maybe? He gives Seokmin an appraising once over that Jeonghan seems to bristle at, but his painted-on smile only becomes more saccharine.
âIâve never been here before,â Joshua gestures to the room, but he means the building. The city. The country. Korea has always felt so distant, and being here is surreal. âBut is it typical to start a conversation with âsoâ, or are you skipping formality because Iâm American?â
His Korean feels elementary, and stilted, and overly practiced through conversations with his mother, where sheâd pursed her lips and corrected pronunciation every other word. In this room, heâs a big Western star given the opportunity to mingle. The work that his brain has been doing all night is exhausting.
âYou sound like a child,â Jeonghan says under his breath, though Joshua knows heâs meant to hear it. Thankful for his grown out hair, he feels the tips of his ears turn pink.
---
A beaten up sedan idles at the porte-cochère with the hazards flicker-flashing like a metronome or a timebomb, counting down the seconds to an undoing. Three in the morning is a liminal space and the dream-like glow of the hotel lobby at this time of night makes the walk from the elevator feel unreal.
Joshua can still feel that bottle of Barolo from dinner. Celebrating Seokminâs triumphant return to the stage after theyâd thought heâd never get back on his feet. The spotlight encircles him and he shines when he takes center stage, but the fear in his eyes had cut the performance short. It was a small engagement. Midday, supporting a new artist. Seokmin had nearly shaken out of his skin before striding off stage with a mumbled apology.
The top half of his body feels detached from the rest of him as he moves past the front desk without so much as a nod, and the idling vehicle flashes its headlights. Joshua pushes out of the hotel and into the late August air. He reaches inside of the open passenger window with practiced ease, fingers hooking around the door handle and flicking towards the driver with an impatient kind of flourish that startles the exhausted valet who is watching them both with wary eyes.
âUber drivers these days,â Joshua says, flashing his best and brightest smile as he ducks into the cramped passenger seat, but the valet's attention has already shifted.
âUber driver?â Jeonghanâs sleepy drawl is steeped in incredulity. The insult lands where itâs meant to; his shitty beater of a car is a sore spot. âI'm doing you a favor here and you're being anââ
âDon't start.â
The car crawls into motion, departing the hotel overhang for who knows where. Anywhere but here. Here, at this hotel, everything is heavy. Seokmin wanted an ultimatum from him tonight, and Joshua feels the weight of it on his shoulders. He can still taste Seokmin on his soft palette. His cologne sticks to the shirt heâd swiped off the hotel floor.
Jeonghan touches Joshua's hand resting on the center console. Typically, the advance would be dodged, but after the night he's had, doesn't everyone deserve a change in pace?
âJust drive.â
He does.
---
âYouâre so full of shit.â
Jeonghan is fumbling around in the dark for something on the car floor. The seats smell stale, like sweat-caked clothes and cigarette smoke, even with the windows cracked and the kiss of summer air breezing through the car.
Joshua shivers. His back aches from being folded against the door, and his hips pop as his legs unpretzel.
âRomantic,â he snipes in return, unearthing the dented pack of cigarettes from where they'd been squished into the crevices of the seat. Jeonghan snatches them from his hands. âI'm not asking for much.â
âYou shouldn't ask me for anything at all.â Heâs slid his pants back on, one leg slung over the back of the seat. âSeokmin would kill me if he knew.â
âWhich is why Iâm not telling you to tell him.â
âDoes he know?â
Joshua hikes himself back upright, crossing his legs over Jeonghanâs folded one, toes dug into the inside of his inner thigh.
âDoes he need to?â
Jeonghan looks down at his foot, then back up into Joshuaâs eyes, inquisitive. Thereâs another question behind what heâs actually asking. One of his many real talents, being able to side-step the heart of something but still manage to strike the way he needs to.
Once, Jeonghan had called him a snake.
Whoâs biting who?
---
Joshua is typically much more methodical than this.
The cracks in the wall have become more prominent, and the only two people who have been successful at breaking them down are staring at him in askance. He shouldâve been more careful.
After tonight, someone will leave. He just doesnât know which one will go.
âIâm not a homewrecker,â heâd said firmly, many times over. His arms around Jeonghanâs neck. Seokminâs head in his lap. âI donât break up families. Iâm not going to come between you two.â
Those same words ring through Joshuaâs mind now in this godforsaken hotel room, echoing off the high ceilings and bouncing between them three.
Aren't you, though? he asks himself, crossing and uncrossing his legs in the doorway, fingers looped in the bathrobe tie. Showering hadnât done anything about the exhaustion and the guilt and shame. Of course absolution wonât come in a hotel bathroom, but it was worth a shot, wasnât it?
When the festival set had ended, Seokmin hadnât been able to look at him, and Jeonghan hadnât been able to look away.
Now, Seokmin shifts his stance in the doorway of the conjoining rooms. His gaze shifts from Joshua to Jeonghan, who looks all too comfortable sprawled across the bed. His thin legs are spread, shirt riding up past his belly button. Joshua doesnât have to follow Seokmin's gaze to know.
After all, he was the one that destabilized a happy home.
âYou donât have to fight me for Shuaâs honor, Seokseok-ah,â Jeonghan says soothingly. As far as Joshua knows, they havenât spoken in nearly 6 years before today, but the way Seokmin reacts to the statement is sobering. âThe whole thing was his idea.â
Seokmin still doesnât look his way, but strides forward until heâs at the foot of the bed in front of Jeonghan. The set of his jaw is concerning, but the words catch in Joshuaâs throat. What do you say to the person youâd promised to love for the rest of your life whenâ
âDid you know?â Seokmin asks. The soft voice heâd used for most of their relationship is replaced with something colder, like the day theyâd fought about Jeonghan. The day theyâd ended their engagement and Joshua had briefly moved back to the States. The day that everything had shifted.
âI knew you could do it,â Joshua says, quiet, eyes closed. âYou needed to get back out there. With or without me.â
Jeonghanâs eyes flick over to meet his, and the corner of his lips quirk, already knowing. Itâs the thing thatâs infuriated him so much through their short-lived relationship. What do you know about me? heâd wanted to scream in his face back then, and even now. To dig his fingernails into his skin and peel back that smug veneer to reveal the insecurity underneath.
After all, Yoon Jeonghanâs biggest problem had always been that things were always handed to him, from his shiny stint as a DJ that spurned a record deal to the proposition that had drawn him into this very hotel room.
Yoon Jeonghan gets by on coasting and hates when he has to work for something. Heâs spoiled in many ways, and Joshua had always respected Seokmin for holding things back.
His boys, the DJ and the pop star, one catapulted off the back of his own failures, and the other left to crash and burn all on his own.
âI wish you hadnât lied to me,â Seokmin says, breaking the silence. He genuflects, hands on Jeonghanâs thighs before his knees touch the floor. âBoth of you. I trust both of you more than anyone.â
(Last night washes over him as their mouths meet.
âWhat am I,â Joshua had said, half-joking, hands stilled over his aching knee, thumbs tracing over the scar. Seokmin had followed his thumbs with his lips, as if asking for forgiveness. âAm I Jesus? Am I God?â
âYes,â Seokmin had said, breathless, wet mouth against Joshuaâs thigh. âYou are.â)
Jeonghan curls a hand in Seokminâs hair. The scene is tender, unlike any way heâs ever seen them. When Joshua was all too happy to string them along, theyâd been competitive. At each otherâs throats like two starved dogs, begging for a scrap of external affection.
Now, here they are, giving each other the tenderness that theyâd only before given Joshua. The kind of worship that he'd been given before the pedestal began to crumble.
It isnât the first time heâs been locked out of the world that heâd wanted to be in.
Re: [FILL] you believe me like a god