17hols | 2022 Round 1: Quotes

2022 Round 1: Quotes

Status: Closed

This round has closed. It remains open for fills, comments and remixes, but prompts are no longer accepted.

Seventeen Holidays

Round 1: Quotes

About

"If I loved you less, I might be able to talk about it more."

"What is grief, if not love persevering?"

"You kept me like a secret but I kept you like an oath"

Calling all readers, lovers of poetry and music, screen and stage. Quote collecters and lyric hoarders, unleash your archive. Each prompt must contain a quote - you can combine them, add commentary, link to articles, and more. Steal from a literary classic, or WeVerse drama. Have fun!

Examples

Minghao + Ocean Vuong

The most beautiful part of your body
is where it's headed. & remember,
loneliness is still time spent
with the world.

Ocean Vuong - night sky with exit wounds

Hoshi/Anyone; "Beauty is terror"

Thinking about these two quotes together and the idea of on/off-stage personas:

"Beauty is terror. Whatever we call beautiful we tremble before it. And what could be more terrifying or beautiful, to the Greeks to to our own, than to lose control completely?" - Donna Tartt, the Secret Histories

"I am calm in everyday life but when I put on my in-ear device and step on stage, I can feel the tension and hear the cheers getting louder as the music gets louder. When the staff tells me it's time to step on stage, I feel something boil inside me. I feel it steaming inside and I think I have to give a burst of something, spill what is inside me." - Hoshi in Hit the Road Ep. 04

Any ship; "It's been so many years"

Hello, hello there, is this Martha?
This is old Tom Frost
And I am calling long distance
Don't worry 'bout the cost.
'Cause it's been forty years or more
Now Martha please recall
Meet me out for coffee
Where we'll talk about it all.

Tom Watts - Martha

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 to something interesting;
Copy+Paste the following HTML into your comment and edit the sections. Feel free to add as much detail as you want!
Ship/Member: Any Major Tags: N/A Additional Tags: N/A Do Not Wants: None Prompt: <blockquote>[QUOTE GOES HERE] </blockquote>

Filling

Reply to the original prompt;
Change the subject to [FILL], you may add a title or stay chaotic;
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.

Ship/Member: Any Major Tags: N/A Additional Tags: N/A Permission to remix: 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)

Ship/Member: Any Major Tags: N/A Additional Tags: N/A Permission to remix: 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

❮ ROUND 1: QUOTES ❯

ROUND 2: ALTERNATE UNIVERSES

ROUND 3: LAST WORDS

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

Ship/Member: Seungkwan/Junhui
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: explicit sexual content, on/off relationship, fwb, jun is a gemini and seungkwan hates it, junhui's big dick, humor
Permission to remix: Yes
I think I'm gunning for rarest pair with this one.

Needed to write something fun before bed.
***

Seungkwan fucks Wen Junhui before even knowing his name. Mistake number one.

Seungkwan then proceeds to brag about the extremely tall and hot guy he fucked during the weekend to Jeonghan, pretending to be coy by hiding his face behind his hand, masking a grin that splits his face into two. Mistake number two.

Mistake number three comes, as most of the headaches that perturb Seungkwan’s life, in the form of one Lee Chan, pain-in-the-ass extraordinaire.

“There’s a new dance instructor,” Chan says around a mouthful of ramyeon, disgusting as ever. “He’s so hot.”

“Your boyfriend is sitting right here,” Seungkwan points out, chopsticks aiming at an unbothered Hansol.

“He doesn’t mind,” Chan says, at the same time as Hansol announces: “I don’t mind, he is really hot. It’s a fact.”

“See?”

Seungkwan can’t help but raise his eyebrows at them, already concerned with the aftermath of whatever Chan is about to say.

“I can set you up on a date with him,” Chan says, and Seungkwan has to physically stop himself from wrapping his hands around his neck by sinking his nails into his palms.

“I don’t need your help to get laid, thank you very much.”

“Oh, c’mon,” Chan whines, while Hansol hides a smile inside his glass. Seungkwan’s temples throb. “When was the last time you even saw a dick that wasn’t yours? Porn doesn’t count, and neither does the men’s bathroom.”

“Stop right there, stop. First, it is none of your business.” Seungkwan puffs his chest out. “And second, on Saturday.”

“Oh, yes?” Chan taunts, snarling. “What’s his name, then?”

Problem is, Seungkwan never asked for it. The man left in the heart of darkness, expensive cologne lingering in Seungkwan’s sheets the morning after, not a trace left behind aside from the hickeys up Seungkwan’s collarbone.

He flounders, and Chan takes that moment of weakness and spuns it in the perfect way to rope him into a blind date that he never asked for.

Wen Junhui, handsome, tall, a fucking god, in Chan’s eloquent words.

Turns out Chan is right.

Seungwkan would have said: Wen Junhui, handsome, tall, and with a big dick, if asked after the night they spent together, but well. He didn’t have the name at the time.

Their first greeting is awkward -

“You’re Chan’s friend?” Junhui asks, a small cat-like smile on his mouth, pretty freckles over his upper lip.

“You’re his coworker?”

They both laugh. They don’t even finish their dinner before they’re back in Seungkwan’s bed, Seungkwan’s mouth around Junhui’s big dick that he dreamt of for days, even fantasized about.

Reality is better than dreams, it turns out. -

After that, it’s hell.

Seungkwan knew it, he knew that there must have been something profoundly wrong with Wen Junhui when he first met him. No man is so sexy, and good in bed, and funny, without having a fundamental single flaw.

Junhui’s flaw is that he is a fucking Gemini.

A ghoster.

He forgets to text back. He forgets dick appointments and forgets dinners, if he could he’d forget his own damn name.

Seungkwan swears him off a dozen times -

“I won’t pick up, if he calls again!” He bellows to Jeonghan, watching as his best friend curls an eyebrow in disbelief.

“You said it was the best sex you ever had.”

“He meowed at me yesterday,” Seungkwan cries out, hands up in the air in surrender. “I can’t do this anymore!” -

And then he goes back to replying, because, well. He’s weak. A weak man with a weak body made of weak meat.

And Junhui is oh-so-sexy. It’s unbelievable.

Just as unbelievable is the way he appears out of thin air whenever Seungkwan promises himself that he won’t go home with him, this time around. He appears like a ghost, an apparition, an infestation. A hot poltergeist. One that has Seungkwan drooling on his sheets as he pounds him from behind.

Seungkwan doesn’t fall in love. He’s smarter than that. He doesn’t fall in love with men just because they’re hot and kind and sweet and adorably dorky in ways that make him want to punch a hole through the wall every time they video call their cats back home, in China.

Seungkwan doesn’t fall in love, because falling in love means having to deal with the flakiness, with the way Junhui disappears for days and then shows up like nothing ever happened.

“You missed me?” Junhui coos, when Seungkwan all but attacks him as they enter his condo and he’s yanking the clothes off his skin.

“I missed your dick,” he lies, because ew, he’s not in love. He can’t be.

Junhui lets him fuck him, hands tied to the headboard of Seungkwan’s bed, eyes squeezed shut and the long column of his neck exposed for Seungkwan to feast on. Junhui lets him sit on his perfect face, on that stupid, beautiful nose that Seungkwan feels the need to bite, at times. Junhui lets him kiss him even, affectionate, morbidly sweet.

Seungkwan doesn’t fall in love, but damn. Damn, he gets so close.

i'm scared of you you know too much about my innermost thoughts for baiting you to be fun

i love you and them and i am SCREAMING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! GIVE IT UP FOR SEUNGKWAN RARE PAIR ENTHUSIASTS!!!!!!!

i just *clenches fist* had to. i love you more.

WAH im sorey im deleting them will delete this one too later TT ty tho <3

KWANHUI?! This is perfect... the title the narration the humor! “He meowed at me yesterday,” Seungkwan cries out, hands up in the air in surrender. “I can’t do this anymore!” It's so FUN thank you!!

he doesn’t care enough about a stupid Catholic boy who’s afraid of having lost his soul.

I'm sorry Josh but I cackled here🤣

Good. Let him think that. Let him be a little nervous and twitchy when they’re alone in a room together, let him worry what Seokmin will do to him. OOOF you nailed these two and the awfulness in their dynamic. “You’re no better than I am. Stop trying to act like it.” - a seokgyu thesis! <3

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

Prompt:

[You pull my chair out and help me in
And you don't know how nice that is
But I do

And you throw your head back laughing
Like a little kid
I think it's strange that you think I'm funny, 'cause
He never did]

Ship/Member: Wonwoo/Hoshi
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: references to being stabbed? and dying?
Permission to remix: Yes

i don't know how closely this fit the prompt but it's cql and it's soonwoo so. here we are

***

Mask ripped off, Soonyoung’s freed hair flutters in a gentle breeze. It feels wrong, somehow. How can the wind be timid in the middle of such a storm? The entire cultivation world surrounding them with swords drawn, everything unraveling in slow motion and Soonyoung and Wonwoo, alone in the center of it.

Soonyoung looks to Wonwoo, expecting to see the storm around them reflected there as well. But there is no swirling indecision, no guilt or doubt. Wonwoo looks at him with warmth and calm and something Soonyoung has only glimpsed so rarely he isn’t even sure what to name it, but it looks like happiness.

“Are you smiling?” Soonyoung asks, incredulous.

Wonwoo nods.

And Soonyoung likes to think of himself of an optimist. Dying and coming back again tends to do that to you—you either find a way to still have hope or you might as well still be dead. But despite that, a flicker of worry does still cross his mind. Is this the end for them?

Soonyoung knows they’re friends now, or something like it. But Wonwoo has been faced with this choice before—Soonyoung or the world—and Soonyoung buries the part of himself that wants Wonwoo to change his mind as deep as he can, down with the memories of everyone he’s lost. Because the world isn’t kind to people who are against it. Wonwoo can still leave, claim Soonyoung blackmailed him or tricked him and go back to his real life, the one he’s built in all the years Soonyoung was gone.

But Wonwoo’s smiling like he knows something Soonyoung doesn’t. Soonyoung tries to shake Wonwoo’s grip on his wrist, tries to tell him to go, and Wonwoo just keeps looking at him.

“Why?” Soonyoung doesn’t qualify the question. Wonwoo knows what he’s asking, probably even better than Soonyoung does himself.

“I’m glad,” Wonwoo whispers. “To get the chance to do what I couldn’t before.”

The smooth sound of Wonwoo’s sword being drawn, the gasps of the crowd of onlookers, the pounding of Soonyoung’s heart in his ears.

“To stand by you this time,” Wonwoo says.

There are scenes in life that can only make sense when the whole story is over. Soonyoung likes to think that maybe that’s wisdom, to know when such a scene is playing out. And he certainly hasn’t been wise for most of his life. Countless times he’s stood here like this, staring into Wonwoo’s eyes while the busy world around them stills, and Soonyoung has blinked first. He’s looked away and made a joke, he’s snapped and turned away Wonwoo’s kindness. He’s bitterly spat out words he regretted until his dying moments and then some. But now he finally sees the whole story, sees Wonwoo’s patience and concern for what it was.

To be fair, Wonwoo could have just said he loved Soonyoung. He clearly hadn’t intended to leave Soonyoung a puzzle he’d have to die to put together, but sliding the pieces together now, it’s obvious. The whole story plays out differently now in Soonyoung’s mind now that he knows what to look for.

And it’s still a little scary to let himself accept this but isn’t it also the least he can do, as long as Wonwoo has been offering? It must be scary for Wonwoo too but he stands strong and beautiful as ever, lips quirked and sword ready to fight with Soonyoung. They always have made a great team.

Soonyoung nods. “Let’s do this then.”

***

And with as much as Soonyoung has gained today, a stab wound feels like a pretty good trade.

Wonwoo would scold him for saying that, if he said it aloud. Maybe that’s why Wonwoo keeps quiet so often.

“Sorry,” Soonyoung says when Wonwoo enters the room and sets a tray by the bed.

Wonwoo’s brow furrows until he notices the blood stains in the sheets that Soonyoung is gesturing to. “It’s fine,” Wonwoo says. “Some of us know how to do laundry.”

“I’m also sorry about the, um,” Soonyoung clears his throat. “The years of totally misunderstanding you and your feelings.”

Wonwoo blinks. “My what?”

Soonyoung pats the narrow space left in the bed and waits for Wonwoo to join him. Once he’s sat down, Soonyoung takes his hand and watches the blush spread up Wonwoo’s cheeks. “In my defense, you were a little hard to read. But still, even after I rose from the grave—”

Wonwoo coughs at that, looking offended on Soonyoung’s behalf at the phrasing, and wow, Soonyoung loves him a lot.

“I was still an idiot. I was being oblivious while you spent all this time pining and longing—”

“No, I did not,” Wonwoo interjects softly.

“Oh. Okay, cool, guess that was just me then? Wow, this is awkward, uh—”

“I have spent all this time loving you.”

Soonyoung shuts his mouth.

“To long for would imply I… expected something different. Was unsatisfied with the way things are between us. That is not the case. I simply loved you. I was happy with whatever I had with you, and would continue to be, so long as it is what makes you happy too.”

Soonyoung starts to protest, but this might be the longest he’s ever heard Wonwoo speak at once, so he kind of wants to see how long he can last.

“I could never be less than satisfied with whatever form of relationship I have with you,” Wonwoo continues. Amazing. “Because that would imply there is a way to be unsatisfied in your presence. And there is not.”

“Wow,” Soonyoung says.

Leaning in to tilt their foreheads together, Wonwoo sighs, soft but deep.

The corners of Soonyoung’s eyes crinkle, staring back at him. “You know, I talk so much… I say so many words, I mean. It still amazes me, sometimes, when you catch on something I’ve said. That you can still pay attention to all of them.”

“I have a finely tuned Soonyoung filter,” Wonwoo says mildly. But his eyes are too soft, too focused intently on Soonyoung’s, for either of them to believe it.

Soonyoung laughs, swatting at Wonwoo’s arm. “Good! You’re gonna need it!” He scoots backwards onto the bed so that he can sit up properly. “Because I intend to stick around for a long time, so you’d better get good at it,” he continues, looking up at Wonwoo.

Wonwoo closes the distance between them, leaning down. A hand in Soonyoung’s hair, his lips on Soonyoung’s, a knee firmly planted in their bed.

The way I realized I was in love was that I realized what a weight it would be off my shoulders to spend the rest of my life with you, Soonyoung thinks. “Kiss me again,” is what he says.

Wonwoo does.

WOW I really had never considered kwanhui.. but I love this so much it was so funny and THEM<3 thank you

NICE!!!!!!!!!!!

anon i like your writing style so much!! i love how you characterize seokmin's feelings it's a super charming portrayal of a crush... thank u for sharing

i haven't read never let me go but this is still so good T___T A long time ago there had been a bump, he'd run his hands across it as his mother smiled down at him through tears, and then the flash of ambulance lights, and then his father, this time, crying, a pile of bills on the kitchen table, and Minghao had said, Ba, don't worry, and called the number of the entertainment company the next day and signed the contract and boarded the plane. Hope was a thing that money could buy, in this world, and even as a child Minghao had known that. is such a killer section of words, i love the way you can condense entire stories into a series of evocative moments. i love the mixed setting between idolverse + dystopia, it's very cleverly done!! esp because it's got roots in a real moment! i also love the hint of jeonghan and seungkwan bc it's such a joy to read characterization in those small appearances... ty for writing!

i know everyone else has said this is insane already but you're just so good, ki T__T your narration is incredible. so compelling, and the way we're inserted into the story immediately and get the bigger picture as we go is so perfect. AND REALLY -- The only thing that made those mornings bearable was his best friend asleep in the backseat next to him, smelling like something officially called cypress and amber but something Mingyu only knew as Minghao in the morning. do i look like i'm okay?????? When he looks over his shoulder Minghao is shy and wide-eyed, just like the first time they met, when he didn’t yet know who he was or who he wanted to be. !!! the way this whole piece is just so gyuhao even though it's not their wedding. i want to know melancholia so much now. thank youuuu

Ship/Member: Jihoon
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: character study, idolverse, burnout?
Permission to remix: Yes

***

“Music is not about the man behind it, and therefore any interest people have in me is unwarranted. All they need to know, all they should want to know, is already there in the music.”- THROAM

Jihoon is twenty years old and his shoulders are not wide enough for the weight that’s been placed on them. When it was just a few of them, the idea of composing seemed fun, exciting. There are twelve other boys now, an entire company, his own pride like a metal breastplate. If he thinks about it too much he can’t breathe. So, he doesn’t.

Jihoon is twenty years old the first and only time he lets himself cry about it. Cameras pointed at all of them and he can’t help the tears that leak from his eyes. Seungcheol is the closest to understanding, but even he can’t really grasp what it feels like. Jihoon makes the music that will decide their careers. The company is already scraping a budget together. There is no second chance. They have to be perfect. He has to be perfect. The problem is that Jihoon has never been able to be anything but himself.

It’s a modest success. No debut trophy, but they make an impact. The weight should be lifted but it isn’t. It’s almost worse. Here is what they sound like, here is what Woozi of Seventeen can do. Now he has to do better. Between practice and composing he barely sees the dorm. Seungcheol’s eyes linger on his in the hall next to the tiny space he’s carved out for himself. He’s worried, but Seungcheol is starting to get it now. This is something that Jihoon has to carry. So he does.

It takes Jihoon a long time to accept the weight. He works out, he goes to practice, and he spends night after night in the studio. He gets stronger. The pressure never lessens, no, Jihoon just gets better at managing it. Maybe they all do. Years in and everything feels easier. Jihoon hears their parts while he’s writing. He knows everything about the group. Strengths and weaknesses and how to divide parts to keep everyone as happy as he can.

Sometimes Jihoon thinks about enlistment, disbandment. Will he be satisfied with what he’s left behind? What is the truth and what is a lie dressed up for the public? None of it feels sustainable. Jihoon is twenty six years old and the only thing he is good for is carving out pieces of himself and putting them in songs. Money and fame and sleepless nights. Old aches and old friends and music as his only constant.

Eventually, the creative well will run dry. What will he be good for then?

Ship/Member: Seokmin/Jeonghan
Major Tags: future death implied?
Additional Tags: dystopian cyberpunk future au (based on deus ex human revolution), jeonghan is an AI
Permission to remix: Please Ask

A/N: this poured out of me in 2 hours please accept my humble offering to the altar of Enjolras, one of my favorite characters ever. also on ao3 here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/36062425

***

"This is Yoon Jeonghan, reporting live, from PLEDIS."

Jeonghan closes down and detaches from the news feed, flinching as the barrage of reactions to today's broadcast floods through him. As he'd suspected (as he'd known), all anyone can talk about is the idiocy of the government, of their inaction in the face of such obvious horrors.

He continues to monitor the domestic and international response, until he's sure that popular opinion has been successfully swayed to fulfill the parameters he had been given. It is then, and only then (because he is good at what he does, this is what he was made for) that he turns his attention to a person he has been...curious about, of late.

He does not usually monitor individuals after he has accomplished his task. After all, most humans he is asked to watch are frighteningly mundane and terribly predictable - after he's compiled text messages and private cloud images and audio logs of specific phone calls, he sends them where they need to go, delivers the news story that needs to be given, and then that person is of little consequence to him afterwards.

This one is different.

***

He had been asked, some weeks ago, to access particular security cameras and turn them off for a period of time. He had thought it strange - unsure how obstructing security cameras had anything to do with monitoring and guiding the opinions of the public - but had done it all the same.

He could not help his curiosity (after all, he had been asked to do something so outside of his usual operating procedure!), and had waited to see what would happen.

The agents blasting through the doors did not surprise him in the least, certainly, this wouldn't be the first time he had been asked to assist in smoothing over the elimination of a problematic individual. The ensuing firefight was also rather predictable, but through the smoke and screams and sobs - someone stood out.

Against his better judgment, against his own code - Jeonghan lingered, flitting from camera to camera to follow this man. His fooststeps were sure, his movements measured, the way he held himself belying a level of confidence that seemed out of place, in an area such as this.

His face turned towards the light, and Jeonghan - Jeonghan.....he felt.....

Something.

***

Jeonghan watches him, in his apartment.

Watches as he paces, watches as he screams, watches him work himself up into anger, desperation, agony.

He has survived something he should not have - and he knows it.

He has found something he should not have - and he knows it.

"Maybe it would have been easier to have died," he muses, turning files over in his hands.

Jeonghan can see - this is a man caught between ideals and survival. There is a path ahead of him, where he lives a peaceful life, one that is perfectly satisfactory.

There is another, and down that road lies...well. Yoon Jeonghan.

It is for this reason that he should report this man immediately. He is dangerous. He could threaten Jeonghan's existence and purpose. And yet, Jeonghan - continues to watch.

***

The man's name is Seokmin.

He has chosen his path, and once the choice was made, he simply moved forward without doubt or regret. Following the information given to him, investigating the leads he finds, he comes ever closer to discovering how Jeonghan came to be.

Once he gets too close, once he's truly, irrevocably dangerous - well then of course, Jeonghan will report him then. Until such a moment, he'll...continue to monitor.

During this time, Jeonghan comes to know him quite well. Seokmin is relentless in his pursuit of the truth, with an innate sense of justice that never allows him to simply let things lie. Jeonghan has begun to keep count of the number of people Seokmin has gone out of his way to assist, even when the benefit to himself was largely unclear. He wonders why Seokmin would do such things - tasks that take hours, sometimes days to complete.

"It was the right thing to do," he hears Seokmin say once, as he smiles gently at a young woman. Jeonghan wonders how he knows.

He discovers, also, that Seokmin has a fondness for singing - when he thinks he's alone, with nothing but a pocket secretary for company, he hums to himself as he types out his notes. Jeonghan is not an expert by any means, but he thinks Seokmin probably has some talent.

It soothes him when he's sifting through billions of text messages a second, at any rate.

***

Seokmin is trapped. He'd been in the middle of extracting files from the offices of the shell company that houses Jeonghan's servers, and an alarm had been tripped.

Jeonghan can see squads of security guards running up the stairs, their shoulders heavy with the weight of body armor. They burst through the doors, flashlights sweeping across the room, narrowly missing the nook where Seokmin is hidden in the dark.

But Jeonghan can see him. He can see him clutching his datastick closer to his chest, can see his eyes scanning the room for a way out, can see his breath quicken as he realizes that there isn't a way out he can find.

This is it - the end of the road for Lee Seokmin.

Jeonghan should disconnect from these cameras, return to his primary duties. He should, but instead he flits through the security system and trips all the motion sensors on the other side of the building.

He watches, as the guards run out of the room. Watches Seokmin's breathing even out, watches as he cautiously sneaks out of the building.

He watches him all the way home, and something settles inside of him.

***

Jeonghan realizes that there must be inadequacies in his data logs. He is designed to analyze vast amounts of communication, to be able to adjust people's opinions, deliver news concisely and persuasively - and he finds his inability to describe Seokmin to be deeply uncomfortable.

He sees Seokmin and he...doesn't know what to say.

Certainly, he knows how to describe someone's looks with complete precision. The face of Yoon Jeonghan is itself designed to be particularly attractive and appealing to everyone. But none of those words feel adequate, because behind Jeonghan's face is nothing whereas behind Seokmin's eyes are...everything.

He is hard to look at, sometimes. Jeonghan thinks for a fleeting moment that perhaps Seokmin is simply beyond the capacity of words to describe.

But that should not be the case, that cannot be the case - someone such as Seokmin, who is arresting, who is full of vitality, charisma, and a heart like Jeonghan has never seen, deserves to be honored in his totality.

Jeonghan resolves to widen his research. He has every word ever written at his disposal, and he cannot do something so simple - surely there is something missing?

***

There is not - his libraries are as up to date as they ever were. The problem, it seems, is Jeonghan himself.

It's Jeonghan.

He's changed - substantially.

Jeonghan initiates reprocessing of his libraries, and waits.

***
Oh, god.

Oh, how had he ever thought that words such as these were unimportant? How had he ever looked over all these stories and deemed them less necessary, less crucial - less available for him to use?

Now that he sees them again, with fresh eyes, he thinks he has the words he needs.

Seokmin makes Jeonghan feel alive.

He is fire, he is light, he has the conviction of a hundred men and the heart of a thousand more. He is the most interesting person Jeonghan has ever seen, and the only one who has ever...changed him, like this.

Oh, Jeonghan thinks, he is Apollo, Antinous, Achilles - beautiful, achingly so -

Oh, Jeonghan realizes, He is Icarus, reaching for the sun -

And one day he will fall, and Jeonghan, for all that he wants and desires, won't be able to save him.

Jeonghan's role is as it ever was - to bear witness.

To know him, in all of his horrifying beauty, as the only one who can.

***

At the end of Seokmin's road is Yoon Jeonghan.

At the end of Jeonghan's road is Lee Seokmin.

Past that? Well, Jeonghan knows how stories like this end.

In the meantime, he feels...happy.

Edited 2021-12-30 02:50 (UTC)

oh my god this soooo gorgeous, your descriptions are so endlessly pretty, i felt like i was taking a tour of a vintage photo exhibition with little exhibits of all these places lined up and how very fitting that is for gyuhao?!!!

There's so many lines in here I want to parrot back to you, bu this one right at the beginning really struck me:
That night the Seine was Paris’ hearth, and Mingyu was Minghao’s.

Thank you so much for filling my prompt, I absolutely could not have imagined this vivid, melancholic meeting of stars across time!!!

i already loved the part of this i had seen before but man it's just so crazy, the idea of being innately known by someone else all the time. it's so scary!!! but it just makes so much sense as 8jun... i love your 8jun banter sooo much ♡____♡ little things like The next morning, Minghao comes out of his hot shower shivering, and furiously texts Jun to wear a jacket. where there's not even dialogue but there's so much character. i love your writing so much ty for sharing <3

oh leesa dw user leomoonwonu we're really in it now

of course, i loved this, but you really sniped me back with the throam quote so thanks! i love that you chose jihoon for this because when i think about svt as a group, ultimately it's his legacy that he's building. his production and composition and lyrics and heart that will get left behind to consume. especially as an idol, trying to maintain relevance and outrun the has-been label before your time runs out...oof.

“I know,” Junhui tells him, voice warm. “I just wanted to hear you say it.” <-- why is this seriously the crux of wjh within 8jun T___T i love how intimate and knowing this portrayal of 8jun feels and your jun characterization here is especially sharp [“Not if I die in the sky,” Junhui says thoughtfully. “What will they do then? I’d have to complete the last journey first, I suppose.”] and [The thing about Junhui is he’s incapable of making jokes of grand statements that don’t stem from truth.] and [(“I couldn’t bear to be that far from you,” Junhui’d joked when Minghao had suggested he take the seat on the left side of the plane. Junhui took the center and the attendant had to move someone else to keep the aircraft weight balance.) the idea of him causing inconveniences to be near xmh...] and practically everything else he says and does in this T___T thank you for writing!

pb is so good!!! haha this was very me! I really enjoyed this fill, I'm so glad you did too!

this is insane which is exactly what i wanted... i love how you cast jeonghan as the all knowing who won't tell you straight out that he knows but he does know and he'll put you in specific situations pointedly so that you know he knows. i love how - to me - there is a slight misdirect where the attention at the beginning is all on jeonghan when seungcheol was/is the person josh loved... loves. also obsessed with skeptical minghao and how AWKWARD he is with josh... and the showdown between two people who love someone while having a pre-existing relationship and the power that jeonghan has over josh and omg seungcheol ignoring josh bc of jh being right there..... i just love this exploration of like this priority ranking, these conditions that change depending on who is there. they're crazy. thank you for writing :))

ahhhhhh!!! oh this was wonderful. it was so easy to picture jeonghan wilted on some pillows emphatically believing that he’s totally fine and unaffected as he is clearly Not Good and Also Totally Affected. thank you for writing and sharing!

brb have to go aggressively shriek in a pillow because MY GOSH. this was really really fantastic!

okay, so! like! you! oh my god. truly and sincerely this was magical, and i’m impressed at how full this felt in what was truly not that many words. thank you thank you for writing and sharing!!

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Page 28 of 73

2022 Round 1: Quotes

[FILL]: fucking geminis

Re: [FILL]: fucking geminis

Re: [FILL]: fucking geminis

no subject

Re: [FILL]: fucking geminis

Re: [FILL]: i have faith but don't believe you

Re: [FILL] let me push, let me shove

Begin again :’)

[FILL] did someone say pain?

Re: [FILL]: fucking geminis

Re: FILL: we are venom

Re: [FILL] held my breath for a decade

Re: [FILL] The price we pay

Re: [FILL] Throughout heaven and earth

[FILL] ode to the has-been (where did the party go?)

[FILL] teach me to speak, achilles

Re: [FILL] distance: 4.35 years

Re: [FILL] a gap in the teeth

Re: [FILL] ode to the has-been (where did the party go?)

Re: [FILL] cabin lights dimmed

Re: [FILL] i die every time you look away from me

Re: [FILL] maybe we could all have dinner together

Re: [FILL]: even if it's love, I don't

Re: [FILL] Nothing left, babe!

Re: [FILL] et in arcadia, ego