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

Ugh Jeonghan feeling awful and wretched and his hate there at the end. Awful and relatable akdksks His exhaustion here was so well written and palpable: Jeonghan’s tired every day. At this point it feels like he’ll always be tired. And Mingyu stalking away after caring for him in the van 😖 this was so so good!!!

oh i love the unsaid in here. constipated boys!!! grrrrr this is so good!!!

AAHHHH!! Woof. I really loved this, Seungcheol’s stress, the weight of unsaid things, it's a perfect fit, seungcheol can't help but notice, and the thought is nearly warm enough to overcome the nighttime chill. !!! ITS A PERFECT FIT. (and… is this based on an actual 17 project vid?)

Ship/Member: Seungcheol/Any
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: loyalty as weakness
Do Not Wants: None

Prompt:

Revive your love in me
Revive another side of me
My eyes, they see the poisoned devotion in me

You can think again
When the hand you wanna hold is a weapon and
You're nothin' but skin

i'm suffering oh god karinaaaaaa this is so good and it's so wonhao :(( so romantic and aching at the same time. you're so good!

oh this feels so real and tangible and gosh, i feel jeonghan asjkda exhaustion is the worst and i cannot imagine how the boys function with so little sleep all the fucking time. and gyu trying to help at first but then wanting attention and huffing when he doesn't get ittt aaaa. i loved this.

"I wanted to show you the sea." WHY DOES EVERYTHING YOU WRITE FEEL SO TARGETED................. this is so good and you are so good :( just the right amount of hurt and pain :(

screaming crying yelling oh i love this so much :(( cheol growing into his need to make sure everyone is alright, but especially his jihoon, because they've been through hell together. gosh this feels so much like them!

the internal yell that i just let out GOD THIS IS INCREDIBLE I KISS YOUR BRAIN!!! YES!!!

Ship/Member: minghao/junhui
Major Tags: historical setting, angst
Additional Tags: N/A
Do Not Wants: none

Prompt:

I could tell you it's the heart, but what is really killing him is loneliness. Memories are worse than bullets.

Carlos Ruiz Zafón

Ship/Member: hoshi/wonwoo
Major Tags: sci-fi AU, light angst
Additional Tags: getting back together
Do Not Wants: MCD

Prompt:

And I want to be held down. I don't know what to do with the horrifying freedom that can destroy me.

Clarice Lispector

Ship/Member: jeonghan/joshua
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: N/A
Do Not Wants: MCD

Prompt:

I can give you my loneliness, my darkness, the hunger of my heart, I am trying to bribe you with uncertainty, with danger, with defeat.

Jorge Luis Borges

nj you. youuuuuuuuuu. the seokgyu of it all, the mean seokmin, the mingyu that craves and wants and is just soft and is not made for a life of violence. oh you captured them so well i'm OBSESSED this is so wonderful. they're the same but seokmin wants to be different from him because if they're the same then he loses his value. crying. this wasn't for me but ugh i enjoyed it throughly.

Ship/Member: Wonwoo/Mingyu
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: non-idol AU
Permission to remix: Yes

sorry op i think i might've hijacked your prompt a little >__< but thank you for the lovely quotes and i hope you enjoy anyway

***

It’s raining when Wonwoo exits the restaurant.

The flashing lights of the OPEN sign swim at the edges in little pockets of rainwater, pooling in the places where the sidewalk is uneven. Wonwoo had worn his new leather loafers today, despite the weather forecast predicting the current situation exactly, and is now regretting it. He steps gingerly around the larger pools, making his way toward the covered seating by the bus stop.

He’s the only one to leave early this time, having tapped out after the second round of drinks even as his coworkers begged him to stay for a third. Still, it’s late. Wonwoo spares a glance at his watch. The buses have already stopped running and soon the cabs will, too. He sticks his head out from under the awning and watches for any last taxis to pass by.

As he checks his wallet for cash, someone comes to stand on the other side of the single row of plastic seats in a flurry of trembling clothing and shoes slapping against the thin layer of water covering the ground. Wonwoo thumbs through the bills before putting his wallet back into his pocket. The motion in his peripheral vision comes to a standstill. And then—

“Jeon Wonwoo?”

Wonwoo blinks. He knows this voice. He looks over and realizes he knows this face too.

“Kim Mingyu.”

Under the dim glow from the streetlamp across the road, Mingyu looks exactly the same and yet somehow completely different at the same time. As if the Kim Mingyu that Wonwoo used to know was a clay doll that had been pulled and pinched this way and that by a pair of metal tweezers to alter him just slightly, just enough for it to feel— strange.

But it’s easy to tell how well he’s aged. Unbelievably, he’s now even taller than he’d been back then. Grown into the full maturity of his features and yet somehow still as boyishly charming as ever.

“Long time no see,” says Mingyu, offering him a hesitant smile that spreads out wider when Wonwoo manages one back. “What are you doing here?”

“Went to dinner after work.”

“Ah, me too.” The evidence is clear enough, golden strips of light painting the image of cheeks flushed red with alcohol across Mingyu’s face. But Wonwoo would be remiss to think a little bit of soju could dull Mingyu’s acuity at all. Even now, his eyes glint with a sharp sort of brightness. “Where did you eat?”

When Wonwoo points it out, Mingyu laughs. “We were at the place right next door. We go there all the time,” he says. “What a coincidence.”

The restaurant Wonwoo was at earlier is a favorite of his coworkers. To think that they’d been so close, just a door away, without meeting, all this time.

“What a coincidence, indeed,” Wonwoo agrees. “You look well.”

“So do you, hyung,” says Mingyu. “Even caught in weather like this.”

But Wonwoo’s always thought this sort of dreary, wet weather has its own charm, even as his hair lies flat against his forehead and he can feel the skin of his feet pruning from his soaked-through socks. Sometimes the most inherently unromantic things can be romantic in their own right.

When, finally, they catch sight of a cab and Mingyu successfully flags it down, Wonwoo checks his watch again and knows this one will be the last one of the night. Mingyu opens the back door and asks if the driver takes card or mobile payment, hissing through his teeth when the answer is in the negative. “I don’t have cash,” he tells Wonwoo. “You take this one, and I’ll wait for the next one.”

Wonwoo takes the paper bills out of his wallet and folds them into neat thirds behind his back. “Do you still live in Seongsan-dong?”

“I— I do, yeah,” says Mingyu, after a beat. “You still remember?”

Wonwoo doesn’t answer that. “That’s far from here, isn’t it?”

The confusion on Mingyu’s face only lasts a second. “Oh no. Hyung—”

“It’ll be a while if you wait for the next one. You should go now.”

“We can share the cab,” Mingyu argues.

“I live in the opposite direction.”

The taxi driver is starting to look impatient. Wonwoo doesn’t blame him. Anyone would be tired at this time of night, and the wind is blowing rain into the car and onto the seats.

“I don’t have cash to pay the fare.”

Wonwoo pushes the money into Mingyu’s hand. “Now you do.”

Mingyu looks down at the money before looking up at Wonwoo again. Even in the low light, his face is openly distraught. “Hyung, I can’t accept this.”

“Please, Mingyu. It’s late.”

“How are you going to get home?”

“My place is close. I can walk.”

“In the rain?”

Wonwoo doesn’t waste his breath telling Mingyu not to worry because he will anyway. Instead he—hesitating only for a moment—takes Mingyu’s hands in his own and folds them around the money, holding firm even as he can feel Mingyu jolt under his touch. When Wonwoo lets go, taking a step back, Mingyu lets his hands fall in front of him and makes no move to give the money back.

“Let me send you home,” says Wonwoo. “One last time.”

---

It was raining when school ended on the day Wonwoo broke up with Mingyu.

Earlier that day, when Wonwoo went up to the rooftop to find Mingyu already waiting for him, it had been sunny, with a mild breeze. Uncharacteristic for February. The day before, the lobby of Wonwoo’s building had flooded, street gutters overflowing and soaking Wonwoo’s white sneakers in a suspiciously yellow tinge. But today the concrete was dry enough to sit on.

It was cold enough that Mingyu was still wearing a thick padded jacket over his school uniform. “Wonwoo-hyung!” he called, after the loud whine of hinges desperately in need of a good oiling announced Wonwoo’s presence. In front of where he sat criss-cross on the ground was a bowl of miyeok-guk on a metal tray, identical to the one Wonwoo set down when he sat next to him.

His cheeks were as pink as the tips of Wonwoo’s fingers. Wonwoo wanted to slip his hands into the pockets of Mingyu’s jacket. Mingyu wouldn’t mind. He never did.

In the end, Wonwoo tucked his hands into his own sleeves. He couldn’t tell if it was his hands making his arms feel cold or if it was the other way around.

“It’s so cold, hyung,” Mingyu whined, punctuated with exaggerated full-body shivers. “Why did you want to eat up here today, anyways?”

Because I thought it’d be nice, Wonwoo wanted to say. Because I wanted to eat with you today, and tomorrow, and every day after that.

“I’m graduating soon,” he said. “And you’ll be busy with exams next year.”

And Mingyu had always been smart. Cleverer than Wonwoo by far. So he understood what Wonwoo meant when Wonwoo himself was unable to say it outright.

Wonwoo watched Mingyu retract his hands and put them in his own pockets. “Okay, hyung.”

Between then and now the sky had opened up, the fluffy white clouds from earlier now dense and grey. The pitter-patter of rain slapping against the concrete echoed fast and frantic like a heartbeat. When Wonwoo stepped outside the building and under the awning, Mingyu was already outside, toeing hesitantly at the line between dry and wet ground. He looked over his shoulder at the sound of footsteps.

When he saw that it was Wonwoo, he turned away again.

“Mingyu,” said Wonwoo. Wishing he would look back even when Wonwoo didn’t deserve it. “Aren’t you going home?”

“I forgot my umbrella,” said Mingyu, curt. “I asked my mom to bring it for me.”

“I have mine.”

“Good for you.”

A little desperately, Wonwoo said, “You don’t have to call your mother. I’ll bring you back.”

Mingyu turned to him then. He’d never been very good at hiding his feelings—it was as easy as breathing for Wonwoo to read the hurt on his face. “You live in the opposite direction.”

“I don’t mind.”

“You’ll get sick. You always get sick so easily.”

“It’ll be fine.”

“You always say that.”

“Mingyu, please.”

Most of the time, Wonwoo tried his best not to be selfish. But just this once he wanted to be, just one more time.

When Wonwoo opened the umbrella over his head, Mingyu stepped underneath. The distance between their shoulders was small enough for Wonwoo to feel the heat radiating off of Mingyu’s body but still not close enough to feel its weight. One centimeter, give or take.

“Let me walk you home,” said Wonwoo. “One last time.”

submitted this prompt and tbh i really didn't know where i was going with this BUT DAMN THIS IS AMAZING. i'm also amazed how everything was conveyed without anything being expressed so explicitly. i am in love with this. THANK YOU!

the second I saw minghao/yixing I was already gleeful HAHA may the cinematic universe continue to prosper -- but then I read it and the suggestions of the world made me even more delighted. this was so lovely to read

I am so blessed to see wonwoo minghao with my own eyeballs, written by karina no less! I also started watching the silent sea so even before reading those images, that /atmosphere/ slammed through me (and through me, and through me, and now I am looking at the permission to remix line).

(and then If he knew what a body of water actually felt like, maybe this would be what they called drowning. oh dear I never knew the desire to drown could be romantic BUT HERE WE ARE)

Minghao's default to anger, Wonwoo's moon-like calm. an apology for something Minghao's long forgiven him for ;____; this is beautiful thank you so much for writing!

hello this is beyond lovely and i dont have the words to express just how much i find it so! the way you used death as a metaphor is so cool. this line and its paragraph, in particular, struck me so much:

Minghao cradles the mirror’s frame with his mud-stained hands and asks the ghost standing behind it: why’d you leave before I had the chance to kill you?

the way minghao is so haunted by the ghost of yixing that he himself acts and lives very much like a ghost. oooh just absolute chills. i loved reading this thank you so much!

ohmygoodness the yearning... oh wonhui... their little exchanges say so much and every affection between them is so weighted!!! you captured and wrote them so well i loved this

that last paragraph TORE me apart!!!! im in pieces!!!!! im broken glass on the floor i can never be glued back together!!!!! this was so beautiful you delivered each punch so well i am particularly in love with the line, "Isn't that what it meant? To not be alone?" just because he still seems so unsure and it hurts because he never got to find out.. ooh sobs ;__; thank u my heart is in disarray thank u

I almost QRTd my yelling on the official twitter haha let me redirect it here oh my gosh!!!! What a story!!! A world of conflict!!! THE SUGGESTION OF A STORY!! Will be thinking about this as I fall asleep now, Seungcheol reading out letters and Wonwoo helping him write some, Wonwoo growing up trying to measure himself against the golden hyung, gradually finding relief and confidence only to shatter, Jeonghan willing to do whatever it takes for his own country ... and the ending, martyred ;___;

Oh wow you are absolutely insane for choosing Wonhan for this, Jeonghan with his invincible trickster charms and wonwoo for his subtle hyung deference. Also watched the last James Bond today so I was vividly casting Wonwoo as 007 with his penchant for dangerous woman (It’s a gentle gesture. It’s everything that Jeonghan isn’t - warm, soft, comforting - the self awareness that Jeonghan is his downfall combined with the inability to do anything about it is so¡!¡ lethal to me!! Thank you for writing this ♡♡♡

this was so!!!!!!! reading this, i myself felt so tense just wondering when jeonghan would snap but at the end, he doesnt. and of course he doesnt. he's just too tired. oh poor jeonghan :( this line felt like a sucker punch because it was just so precise:

You’re just tired, he reminds himself, but that doesn’t help either. Jeonghan’s tired every day. At this point it feels like he’ll always be tired. Like he’s built up enough of a sleep deficit that he’ll never manage to balance it back out.

if the jeonghan here can't get any rest, i sure hope u do at least! :c thank u for writing and sharing!!

Ship/Member: Jeonghan/Joshua
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: friends with benefits, open ending, implied sexual content
Permission to remix: Yes

ah this got me real good!! always a pleasure writing these two idiots. hope this does the prompt justice <3
***

Driving Joshua to the airport is torture - between traffic and the lump in Jeonghan’s throat, the weight of reality crashing down over his shoulders as they hug in goodbye, Joshua’s strong arms squeezing the life out of him.

The smile on Joshua’s face is dim, a pale reflection of the happiness he’d showed until the day before, when he knocked on Jeonghan’s door with a bouquet of flowers and a handwritten letter.

“Romantic,” Jeonghan sneered, not caring for either gift, tugging Joshua inside by the lapels of his jean jacket and flattening him down on the couch, too impatient to guide him towards the bed in the other room. Joshua laughed at his antics, grin wide and bright, sincere just as the small noises coming out of his mouth when Jeonghan finally got his hands and tongue on him.

Hours later, while Joshua is somewhere up in the sky, flying back home, Jeonghan curls up on the same couch where he wringed two orgasms out of Joshua the night before, and reads the letter. Or well, he tries.

He puts it down after the first two sentences, teeth sinking on his bottom lip, focusing on the physical pain instead of the stupid ache below his sternum.

They didn’t promise each other anything - they were never together to begin with. Finding Joshua had been a matter of lucky coincidences, overlapping lines that lead them into each other’s arms. It was never meant to last, not when there was a deadline on whatever bloomed between them.

“I’ll go back by the end of summer,” Joshua told him back then, eyes big and made liquid by Jeonghan’s fingers grazing over his feverish skin, tugs that made him gasp and writhe in Jeonghan’s hold.

“We have plenty of time to have some fun,” Jeonghan echoed back at him, smiling his wicked little smile, the one that means trouble. The same one that Joshua learned to mirror over the few months they spent together, tongue in his cheek, mischief on his pretty face.

Ruining Joshua was impossible, because he was as wicked as Jeonghan - the same push and pull, the same mean strike, the same undeniable fondness at the bottom of it all, masqueraded with an uncaring attitude and cold shoulder.

“You two deserve each other,” Seungcheol told them one day, exasperated by the constant teasing. The light in Joshua’s eyes was a blazing fire, and Jeonghan just wanted to be consumed by it.

The second letter comes as a surprise, but it’s the first one Jeonghan fully reads; the other sits in a drawer, ink on paper that Jeonghan can’t even look at, too sincere. The second letter is all about moving on, meeting old and new people, enjoying the feeling of being home. It makes Jeonghan feel bitter. Not sad, just annoyed.

He doesn’t reply to Joshua’s texts, ignores his calls. Deep inside him, he just wants to be able to move on as well. He goes on a few dates with people he doesn’t care about, fucking them just to see what it feels like. He even fucks Seungcheol.

Nothing feels the same, and Joshua stops trying to reach out.

The third letter comes all crumpled, ink bleeding on the outside of the envelope. The words are almost unreadable, but there’s no mistaking the longing - the I miss you that puts victory on the tip of Jeonghan’s tongue. He’s running for his phone before his brain can catch up with his body.

”Hello?” Joshua’s voice sounds tired, English rolling off his tongue, and maybe Jeonghan forgot all about timezones, but Joshua picked up on the second ring. It must mean something.

“Hey,” he says back, “I got your letter.”

On the other side, there’s the sound of rustling, as if Joshua was rolling around in bed. A sigh, and then Joshua speaks again, voice low. “Yeah?”

“Happy birthday,” Jeonghan says, in lieu of an explanation. “You’re old.”

“You’re older than me,” Joshua points out, sounding amused. “You didn’t reply to my birthday greetings.”

Cut to the point, Joshua doesn’t lose time. He never did. When he saw Jeonghan, and knew what he wanted, he got him. He still has him.

“Had busy days,” Jeonghan says, instead of sorry. He should be apologizing, but Joshua doesn’t seem to care, chuckling lightly. Jeonghan missed his voice - he still misses everything about Joshua, but he’s not going to say it out loud. One way or another, Joshua already knows.

“Cheollie told me you’re moping.”

Jeonghan lets out a gasp, mock offense in his tone when he speaks again. “That’s defamation.”

Joshua’s laugh fills Jeonghan’s ears as well as his heart.

“Thank you for the birthday wishes,” he says right after, sincerity bleeding out of him. “And for the letters.”

“You’re welcome. Thank you for calling.”

The unsaid is left unsaid; they chat about their days, tease each other about this or that. It’s familiar, a dance that Jeonghan loves when it’s with Joshua.

Maybe Jeonghan is selfish for not saying I miss you too, but he’s sure that Joshua can read it between the blurred lines of their relationship.

“I’m coming back,” Joshua says after a beat of comfortable silence, words that take a second or two to fully sink in. “In Spring. They’re sending me back.”

Wait for me? is what he doesn’t add, but Jeonghan knows there’s no need for the question - it shouldn’t be a question to begin with. He belongs to Joshua just as much as Joshua belongs to him.

A smile splits Jeonghan’s face into two, as he suppresses the need to squeal at the prospect of having Joshua back in his arms.

“They told me that the cherry blossoms are really pretty there,” Joshua drones on. “We could go see them together.”

On the other side of the line, and of the world, Joshua is smiling as well. Jeonghan knows it.

“We can,” Jeonghan agrees.

It’s a promise masked as indulgence.

oh i LOVE how well u characterized them. you just.. you get them. you get them so, so well. i loved how jihoon said, "we've said enough to each other about this, don't you think?" when he was clearly holding back in saying so many things in the same conversation. god this is so good thank you

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

Page 6 of 73

2022 Round 1: Quotes

Re: [FILL] Nothing left, babe!

Re: [FILL] Wonhui homecoming

Re: can we put the blame on the changing times?

asystole

Re: [FILL] what will they say about us?

Re: [FILL] Nothing left, babe!

Re: [FILL] what will they say about us?

Re: can we put the blame on the changing times?

Re: [FILL] i know the end

no subject

no subject

no subject

Re: [FILL] Deep in my enemy I find the lover;

[FILL] just as usual

Re: can we put the blame on the changing times?

Re: [FILL] what was left when that fire was gone?

Re: [FILL] what will they say about us?

Re: [FILL] what was left when that fire was gone?

Re: [FILL] Wonhui homecoming

Re: [FILL] what will they say about us?

Re: [FILL] i know the end

Re: [FILL]: Everybody’s got to love something

Re: [FILL] Nothing left, babe!

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

Re: can we put the blame on the changing times?