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

cat T____T i love your jeonghans the most because he is so Tired and exhausted and incredibly real. you must be tired of hearing from me by now but i absolutely admire how you infuse so much character and reveal a lot about their inner thoughts w your prose. it feels so natural, for him to get irritated by mingyu just being there and wanting to help… i liked this line the most: Throwing up all over Mingyu for bothering him is better than throwing up all over himself unprovoked, but only marginally. WHEHEHE thank you for writing

this was sooooo amazing thank you!!! you really got the feeling i was imagining and it's absolutely perfect... thank you very much for the fill!!!

Ship/Member: Hoshi
Major Tags: Hoshi
Additional Tags: Hoshi
Do Not Wants: No Hoshi

Prompt:

The tiger
He destroyed his cage
Yes
YES
The tiger is out

- Nael, age 6

INSANE. i'm so emotionally attached to the booseoksoon fanmeet vid you based this off, so this was incredible for me personally!!!! and oh my goodness the sheer adoration that wonwoo has for seokmin..... you're not the only one!! get in line!! but that's not the point. the POINT is that you wrote this so well and i really enjoyed it <3

oh my god this is just. wow. this is such a unique and painful way to capture the experience of grief. i'm glad i read this. thank you <3

gaaaaah you've really packed so much emotion and tension into this, it's so great!

Ship/Member: Vernon/Minghao
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: first love?
Do Not Wants: any character death

Prompt:

I didn't care to state the plain, kept my mouth closed, we're both so familiar

- Frank Ocean, White Ferrari

Ship/Member: Soonyoung/Wonwoo
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: wonu bi
Do Not Wants: None

Prompt:

My guy's pretty like a girl, and he's got fight stories to tell, I see both sides like Chanel

- Frank Ocean, Chanel

OH (｡♡___♡｡) there really is nothing sexier than betrayal, especially when done in such a masterful way... inadequacy, clashing loyalties, bastard yjh??? ppl being worse under their skin???? thank u sm for sharing this rlly made my afternoon

Ship/Member: Vernon/Any
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: Genderbend, femslash
Do Not Wants: None

Prompt:

Lotta fun to be seen / When you've got this dog back on your leash / Giddy up for you baby ya any time of day you like it

Puppy Grin by Peach Pit

Ship/Member: Mingyu/Anyone
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: (possibly) unrequited love, friends with benefits
Do Not Wants: None

Prompt:

I may be younger but I'll look after you, we're not in love but I'll make love to you, when you're not here I'll save some for you, I'm not him but I'll mean something to you

- Frank Ocean, Nikes

i do want to see this lyric explored from mingyu's pov, but you can ignore the bit about being younger if you want to write a 97z!

you are SO good oh my gosh the subtext

Ship/Member: Seungkwan/Any
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: Idolverse (not necessarily canon compliant)
Do Not Wants: None

Prompt:

You were such an idol / Yeah, you were the whole world / Now you see you look pretty broken

Pretty by Girlpool

Ship/Member: Seokmin/Mingyu, Mingyu/Jeonghan
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: Coworker/family/power dynamics, infidelity, vague successiony corporate world, implied sexual content
Permission to remix: Yes

***

“Mingyu-ssi,” Seokmin says softly, toeing the ground, his eyes pleading. “Don’t take this— please don’t take this personal.”

“Oh, okay. Okay, sure. Then how exactly am I supposed to take it? Are you fucking me up the ass right now, Lee Seokmin? On the roof of my father’s company and in front of the eyes of God?”

When it’s Seokmin, Mingyu takes everything personal.

Seokmin coughs, looks around like someone might be eavesdropping on them, an anxious smile biting at the corner of his face. He’s still not very comfortable in his own skin here, fumbly and too vulnerable. He has always been soft. Milk teeth. Nobody kid from Yongin who came begging to Mingyu for a job.

When he was still Mingyu’s personal assistant, he cried once in front of Han Sung Soo and the entire third floor just because Han Sung Soo got all up in his face and said, “You gonna cry, Lee Seokmin?” It was suddenly excruciating, this rote verbal humiliation that Mingyu was so used to, perhaps because it was Seokmin. Mingyu had needed to look away. But after the meeting was over he’d gone to the bathroom and there Seokmin was, head down, still crying, the elbows of his secondhand suit getting damp where they braced against the sink.

It did something to Mingyu’s heart. There. No, it did, it did. It made him want to offer Seokmin something better. Anything better. But he knew what was expected of him. He knew he needed Seokmin right where he was. The only person Mingyu could punch down to. He should've gone to slap Seokmin’s back, make a joke like Hey Seokmin-ssi you been jacking off into the sink or what for the last half an hour? Ought to have sent him on his way, tell him to make himself useful and go get a coffee.

Instead, Mingyu came closer, slowly, like approaching a terrified dog. He splayed his hand against the pale smooth back of Seokmin’s neck, under the edges of his overgrown cheap haircut. Seokmin inhaled sharply with surprise, turned his face up to look up at him.

Touching Seokmin always made Mingyu feel strange, trembly. Split-open. Seokmin was such a little nothing, still. Especially when he cried.

Mingyu said in a low voice, staring into his flushed, shining eyes, “Look. I’ll take care of you, Seokmin-ah. I said I would, didn’t I? I’ll take care of you.”

Seokmin whispered, “Do you really mean that? Is that real?”

And for some reason, Mingyu leaned down and kissed his damp forehead.

Mingyu had been very good at taking care of things back then.

He took care of Jeonghan. He took care of their house and their dog Aji. He let himself get fucked, by Jeonghan and by Jeonghan’s father’s company and his own father’s company. A few months later he even married Jeonghan on a winter morning in Cape Cod. Seokmin was at the wedding. Of course he was. It was the greatest merger this side of the Time Warner deal, and this was the symbolic cherry on top of it, a kiss to seal it. Good optics, rotten inside. Like most things in this world.

Only problem was, Mingyu really thought he loved Jeonghan. He really, really thought he did. And Jeonghan had rewarded it by whispering into his mouth the night before the vows, one hand shoved down his pants, “I just don’t think I’m a good fit for a monogamous marriage, Mingyu-ah.”

It was the only honest thing he’d ever told Mingyu. Honesty was the most efficient way to break a person.

It was especially good timing, too, because that very morning, when Mingyu had been out for a run, Seokmin came sprinting up behind him calling his name, his mouth pursed, his eyes wide, grabbed Mingyu by the shoulder and looked into his eyes and whispered, “I think Jeonghan-ssi is— I think Jeonghan-ssi and your step-brother— um, I think Jeonghan-ssi and Seungcheol-sunbaenim—” and Mingyu had said, “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” kept repeating it as he shoved Seokmin backward, wrestled him to the snowy ground and straddled his writhing mass, one elbow on his throat, the way he'd wanted to be near him for so long but now it was all wrong and he said it one last time with deadly calm:

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Seokmin-ssi.”

That’s what he says now, on the roof, when Seokmin says, “I’m really not trying to fuck you, I’m not. But you do remember those documents you had me get rid of.”

Mingyu keeps shaking his head stubbornly. The motions grow into desperation.

“You should know,” Seokmin says, sounding more careful than he’s ever been capable of before, “that Seungcheol-sunbaenim asked me about them the other day.”

Mingyu turns to look at him.

“Are you fucking asking me if you can kill me? You’re getting my permission before you carve my heart out? Thank you, Seokmin-ssi, what a truly nice gesture. Your coworkers are right. You’re the second kindest person after God.”

“No, no, I—” Seokmin takes a step closer. “Mingyu-ssi. Please. I don’t want to hurt you. I don’t want— I’m no good at this stuff. You know I’m not.” His voice has dropped into that quiet, soft cadence, trying to soothe, the way he’d talked to Aji the first and only time Mingyu had let him into his and Jeonghan’s apartment. “I’m really not smart. Maybe I’m good with people, but I’m not smart. It’s just… those documents. They could really help. They could… They could change things around here. Really.”

“If those papers get out,” Mingyu says quietly, “my father is going to send me to jail, Seokmin-ssi.”

“No, he’s not.”

“I’m the youngest son. I’m expendable.”

“You’re not expendable,” Seokmin says softly, like he really believes it. “You're a good person. You're better than all of them. Come with me. I want you to come with me.”

Abruptly, Mingyu feels his own tiredness.

That old thing sitting on his heart, so heavy. The exhaustion of having lived in this world since early adolescence. Of, for as long as he can remember, being pit like a fucking fighting dog against the people he loved and the people he wanted with all his stupid little heart to love him.

“I'm not very good,” Mingyu whispers. “You’re– you’re better than me. You’re full of hope. I’m full of nothing. I’m not a real person. I’m a straw doll. I got nothing inside me anymore. You know?”

“Well, then I’ll take care of you,” Seokmin says softly, kindly, in his talking-to-dogs voice, “Kim Mingyu.”

Seokmin is not a little nothing from Yongin anymore. He doesn't need Mingyu anymore. But he's still reaching a hand out. Mingyu touches his face because his eyes feel funny. He’s sort of crying. He turns away. Out of the corner of one eye, he sees Seokmin come closer, raise his hands up, careful.

“You,” Mingyu starts, when the large, warm hands are around his jaw, solid and anchoring.

The tenderness is out of place. Suddenly he wants those hands around his throat. He wants them to squeeze the life out of him.

“I. Seokmin. If there was some world. Where we weren’t here like this. If there was some world where we– I'd fucking marry you, you know. I'd lie awake in our bed, waiting for you to kill me. I really think I wouldn't mind being killed, if it was you."

Seokmin’s arms are around him now. Mingyu's shaking. Seokmin turns his face up to kiss his forehead. Mingyu knows Seokmin is smiling. He can tell. The knife is twisting. Mingyu's losing and he likes it. He's leaning into it.

“I’ll take care of you," Seokmin says again. "Mingyu-ah."

Ship/Member: Soonyoung/Wonwoo/(Jeonghan)
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: vague criminal underground AU, mild violence
Permission to remix: Yes
going for [Year of the Tiger] and potentially [Rarest Pair], if this qualifies!

***

Wonwoo is walking home from the office when Jeonghan finds him.

“One more job.” Jeonghan says before he can speak. They fall into step together, like it hasn't been three years and a career change since their last conversation. “I wouldn’t be asking if I weren’t desperate.”

His hair is blonde now. It looks good, catching the light like the sea at golden hour. Wonwoo shoves his hands deep into his coat pockets and wishes he could say no. This is an obvious ploy—Jeonghan has never been desperate a day in his life.

And yet.

“Who else is on your roster?”

Jeonghan gives him a little grin. “You already know the answer to that.”

-

They call him the tiger.

Legend says that if you get close enough to see his eyes through the windshield, you’re already dead.

Those stories used to make Soonyoung laugh. He loved to hear rumors about himself, passed around seedy bars by people who’d heard nothing more than there’s a number you can call for the best driver in Seoul… no, the best in Korea! He’ll do what you need. As long as you can pay.

For years, no one knew the man behind the myth. Except Wonwoo.

Then came Yoon Jeonghan.

-

The plan goes south.

Wonwoo blows open the front door of the mansion, sending long yellow shadows over the grass. He freezes halfway over the threshold—hands scraped bloody, gun drawn, heaving deep breaths of cold midnight, decidedly not in possession of the jewels he came for—when a boy crashes down the stairs behind him.

The boy is pretty. Privileged. Still in his blue silk robe, despite the blaring alarms and the faraway hustle of private security getting their asses into gear.

An orange Ferrari squeals up to the front gate. Wonwoo lowers the gun. “Sorry to wake you,” he says to the boy.

Then he runs.

Slamming himself into the passenger seat, Wonwoo has just enough time to close the door before Soonyoung hits the gas.

“What the fuck is up, Jeon Wonwoo,” he says in welcome, his hands white on the wheel. A grin shatters his face. Wonwoo feels vaguely sick. “It’s been a while. Look who came crawling back.”

“I didn’t get the rubies.”

Soonyoung doesn’t care. Soonyoung never cared about the money—he’s in it for this, for the way his engine thrums when he pushes the car faster, farther, eyes darting to check his rear through the dark, winding streets. A cheery pop song repeats on the stereo, like a twisted little circus soundtrack, where all Wonwoo can catch is a trilled horanghae!

“No one’s following us.” Wonwoo flicks his hair back and accidentally smears blood across his forehead. His heart begins to slow. “The police weren’t there yet when I left.”

“Then why’d you bail?”

“The safe was empty.”

“Shit.” Soonyoung laughs. “Jeonghan’s gonna be pissed.”

He’s just like Wonwoo remembers: sharp as a diamond, devilish in a three-piece suit. Beautiful as all hell. It hurts to look at him, knowing that he belongs to someone else now. Knowing that Wonwoo is the one who walked away.

Soonyoung takes a hairpin turn and starts edging up the side of the mountain. Trees blur by in dark, amorphous shapes.

“So,” he says, in a low tone of voice that Wonwoo has never heard before. “Did you miss me?”

“Shut the fuck up, Soonyoung.”

“Don’t be an asshole. I just want to know, really—do you regret it?”

Wonwoo clenches his hands into fists and lies. “No.” He turns his face toward the window. “I told you, I won’t watch you die for him.”

Soonyoung turns off the main road and starts climbing the car up a steep dirt path bracketed by bushes. His mouth twists wryly. “Hasn’t happened yet.”

Wonwoo makes the mistake of looking over, and—Soonyoung’s face is lit with little stars from the dashboard, bright and glittering. Their eye contact is electric.

Wonwoo’s heart falls out of his chest and tumbles down the cliff-side. He can’t admit to Soonyoung the truth: he still loves him. Despite the weapon he’s become.

(Maybe, part of him thinks, because of the weapon he’s become. There is something deeply erotic about serving a man like Jeonghan—about how that service changes you. Wonwoo’s always had difficulty distinguishing between lust and jealousy.)

“Yeah,” he says, a little too late, his throat inexplicably raw. “You’re a lucky bastard.”

Soonyoung pulls up to a dark, unassuming house with a wraparound balcony. His teeth glint white in the gloom.

“Luck has nothing to do with it.”

Wonwoo can’t help himself—he reaches out and touches Soonyoung’s face, his thumb swiping over his full bottom lip. Dried blood flakes off and catches in the corner of his mouth. Soonyoung licks it off reflexively, his expression falling open.

“I hope to God you stay lucky,” Wonwoo whispers. He drops his hand. “Goodbye, Soonyoung.”

When he gets out of the car, he doesn’t walk to the safe house where Jeonghan is undoubtedly waiting. He lopes into the trees, his hands still stinging, his eyes adjusting slowly to the moon’s dim cast of light. It’s a long hike down Bukhansan—but it will be worth it. There’s a wad of cash stuck into the waistband of his pants that’s worth far more than a few precious gems.

Insurance, he tells himself. For when Jeonghan comes calling again.

GOOD GOD KI. this is so. FUCK. the way mingyu doesn't recognise the cruelty of the world until seokmin's a part of it, the way the weight of his past with jeonghan hangs over him, the ROTTEN FRUIT!!! the dog similes too, and the tenderness despite it all. i LOVE the world you've evoked here, in all its fucked up abject misery. i'm sure i'll find more things to pick up on but i just had to get this out 💞💞

sitting here just staring at my screen... head in hands... MINGYU'S LOSING AND HE LIKES IT. HE'S LEANING INTO IT. no words... feeling like [succession kendall roy bathroom breakdown scene]. you're insane (complimentary)

Ship/Member: Seungcheol/Any, Jihoon/Any, Jeonghan/Any
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: N/A
Do Not Wants: none

Prompt:

I really like the idea of love as a violent act—not to the person that you love, but against the world. To say to somebody, "I love you; by extension, I hate all other things." - Hozier

Ship/Member: Wonwoo/Any, Jeonghan/Any
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: idolverse/BBB-ish, clashing love languages, first love/second love or any combo of these!
Do Not Wants: None

Prompt:

I fear I will be ripped open and found unsightly. - Anne Sexton

ahhh, this is excellent!! The sensory details, the tension, the Exhaustion all felt so real. I love how differently Jeonghan thinks of Mingyu and Minghao: Throwing up all over Mingyu for bothering him is better than throwing up all over himself unprovoked, but only marginally. (hilarious line) vs Minghao’s in the car somewhere. Jeonghan can’t put him through that. Thank you for writing!

Edited (T___T half of my comment disappeared sorry) 2021-12-27 21:11 (UTC)

OH this is so rich and good... I love how you explored the ways jihan are the same, and Jeonghan's hurt + how he reacts to that. The hints of Seungcheol's presence are DELICIOUS thank you!!

Ship/Member: Any
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: violence (romantic)
Do Not Wants: None

Prompt:

Our fingers curl together, much gentler than when we were trying to take each other's lives.
—Iron Widow

This is so lovely and heartache-y... I love the way you captured the shift of Hansol opening the door. Something ignited, right then. Not in Wonwoo, he doesn’t think anything will again. - ouch!!

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

Prompt:

Don't let me in with with no intention to keep me
Jesus Christ, don't be kind to me
Honey, don't feed me, I will come back

Don't you hear me howling, babe?

- It Will Come Back by Hozier

Ship/Member: Wonwoo/Any, Soonyoung/Any
Major Tags: Graphic Depictions of Violence and/or Character Death
Additional Tags: star-crossed lovers, urban fantasy, paiiiiiiin.
Do Not Wants: None

** tags not set in stone, feel free to alter as you see fit!

Prompt:

He was another knife, I could feel it. A different sort, but a knife still. I did not care. I thought: give me the blade. Some things are worth spilling blood for.

— Circe, Madeline Miller

"You destroy me and then you kiss me. You give me a reason to hate you and then you give me a reason to love you. Is this a lie or the truth? Is this a ploy or your heart reaching for me?"

— These Violent Delights, Chloe Gong

Love was meat and drink for betrayal — by allowing the greatest intimacy, it nurtures the greatest betrayal, poisons what is most intimate.

— Cristina and Her Double, Herta Müller, translated by Geoffrey Mulligan

Edited 2021-12-27 21:41 (UTC)

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

Page 8 of 73

2022 Round 1: Quotes

Re: [FILL] Nothing left, babe!

Re: [FILL] dawning dusk

Hoshi

Re: [FILL] hey where's the drum

Re: [FILL] love, persevering

Re: [FILL] dawning dusk

the saddest song vernon has ever heard is white ferrari by frank ocean

soonwoo chanel because .

Re: [FILL] i know the end

no subject

mingyu acts of service

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

no subject

[FILL] This is not for tears

[FILL] heart in your headlights

Re: [FILL] This is not for tears

Re: [FILL] This is not for tears

Love As

no subject

Re: [FILL] Nothing left, babe!

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

what souls are made of

Re: [FILL] dawning dusk

no subject

astra inclinant, sed non obligant