Status: Closed
This round has closed. It remains open for fills, comments and remixes, but prompts are no longer accepted.
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!
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.
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)
Note!
On dreamwidth, you can't edit a comment once someone has replied to it.
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Re: [FILL] Deep in my enemy I find the lover;
People make habits out of the strangest things. Seokmin doesn’t know why the war between the Dragons and the Shadows broke out - nobody does. But there must have been one first fight that spiralled out of control, and now nobody can escape it. Those original Shadows and Dragons made it their habit to wrestle with each other for whatever reason they could find, and now everyone has to do it. The sins of the fathers are visited on the sons.
Seokmin doesn’t like the violence. Not anymore. After the thrill of the first fight with Mingyu wore off, he stopped craving it. The glory that rushed through him when he stood over Mingyu on the sidewalk that day never came again, and now Seokmin thinks maybe it’s only Mingyu that can make him feel that way. Whether it’s fighting or sex, something about grappling with Mingyu changes him into something he can never be with anyone else. It’s not even about winning or losing - it’s about their sheer strength, the beauty and the struggle of what they can do together.
But Mingyu doesn’t turn up to fights either, so throwing punches is useless. He gets involved when he has to, of course, but it’s not the same. It could be a burning hot day, and Seokmin would just feel cold and limp, even as he spars with some Shadow whose name he’s forgotten. Nothing can relight the embers of whatever he had with Mingyu, nothing can make the same thrill spark in his nerves. He just feels brain-dead, moving because he has to, doing the bare minimum to try and escape unscathed.
So it’s a bad habit, all the fighting. Seokmin prefers to stay back, to heal. He prefers to douse Hansol’s wounds with antiseptic and bandage him up, or to talk Seungcheol down after a particularly rough brawl. His instincts aren’t to hurt, he knows that. The other Dragons know that too, which is why nobody pushes him to fight. They all prefer it when Seokmin is back at Seungcheol’s house, ready to soothe them and patch them up. And Seokmin likes it too - he likes being useful, he likes knowing that people want him to mend them.
There’s just one problem. For Seokmin to be a healer, somebody has to be hurt.
That’s why, as much as he hates violence, Seokmin depends on it. What use is he otherwise? If he can’t fight and he can’t heal, there’s nothing he really can do. He belongs where he’s useful, and he’s useful here. He helps his family heal, he nurses them back to full strength. What more can Seokmin ask for?
Seokmin hates violence. But, in some sick way, violence is all he’s got.
***
Seokmin senses something is off as soon as Mingyu crawls through the window. He doesn't put his hands on Seokmin immediately, like usual. Instead, he looks at him and asks,
“Seokmin, turn the light on.”
“Why?” Seokmin asks.
“I just- I have something to say.”
Seokmin doesn't quite know what to do. He turns the light on - a cheap, half-working bulb - and makes his way over to Mingyu, who’s standing with his back to the window.
“Well, go on then,” Seokmin says.
“Seokmin,” Mingyu starts. He then stops to clear his throat, before continuing. “Seokmin. I think we should get away from all this. We've been doing this for- what, two years now? And I think we both agree that it's awful being here. It's awful, worrying that one day everyone you know will get landed in hospital, or killed, or put in jail. I can't take it. I know there's more to life than this. So I’m going away. I want to- to get an actual job, or learn something, or be useful, you know? And I think you'd want to as well - you never like the violent side of life here. So I think we should find something together. Let’s go, together, to make something better for ourselves.”
Silence rings in the air as Mingyu finishes speaking. Seokmin has to take a step back, letting a rush of cold air fill the gap between them.
“What?” he asks in disbelief.
“You- I want you to get away with me. I want to get away from this hellhole, and I want you there as I do it.”
Seokmin can't help but raise his eyebrows at that. Mingyu can’t really be expecting him to leave everything he knows, can he?
“Mingyu,” he replies with a sigh, “what are you talking about?”
Mingyu’s face darkens slightly, under the flickering glow of the lightbulb.
“What do you mean?” he says, more forcefully. “I think I’m being perfectly clear. I’m sick of it here, and I want to move on. I’m tired of being defined by the friends I made years ago, friends who would throw me to the wolves for a scrap of glory.”
“And you’re not the same?” Seokmin interrupts. “You’re really telling me you don’t chase glory? I’ve seen what you’re like, Mingyu.”
“No, I don’t,” Mingyu replies, calm in his defiance. “Not this kind of glory. I’m worth more than the violence of this place. And you are too. That’s why I want you to come with me.”
“You think I’m better than the violence? Please, Mingyu. I could kill you right now. I could kill you, and everyone would thank me.”
“You won’t. You could - you’re capable of it. But you won’t.”
Seokmin rolls his eyes. As much as he would hate to admit it, there’s something thrilling about arguing with Mingyu like this, about reminding Mingyu how little he means to him. The thrum of adrenaline and power that rushes through him with each targeted curl of his
lips is exhilarating, so much so that it doesn’t even matter whether he’s lying or not.
(Later, he’ll realise that he misses the back-and-forth of it all, the simmering warmth that comes from verbally sparring with Mingyu. But right now, he’s letting himself enjoy it.)
“What? You think you're special? We fucked a few times and suddenly you're important to me? We’re on different sides, Mingyu. You can't be important to me.”
“Is that really all this meant to you? Two years of seeing each other, and you didn't even think, didn't even dream that this could be anything else?”
Seokmin pretends not to hear the tremor in Mingyu’s voice. He pushes away all the thoughts he's had in his weaker, more naive moments. He douses the spark that lights in his core at the idea of getting away from it all. He looks past Mingyu rather than at him, and he replies, quite simply,
“No. This was just sex to me.”
He pretends not to hear the tremor in his own voice.
“Seokmin. Come on. It’s more than that, isn't it? I can't be the only one feeling this way.”
“What did you think this was?” Seokmin can't help but ask. A taste of the nectar he’ll never drink.
“I thought this could be something,” Mingyu says, almost like he wants to sound desperate. “I thought maybe you cared about me a little bit more than you cared about your life here. And even if you don't care for me the way I care for you, I thought you’d at least want to get out of here. So why don't you?”
“Look,” Seokmin snaps, looking back at Mingyu as thunder rolls in the distance, “stop trying to make my decisions for me. You can’t just expect me to leave my family and friends and everything I’m familiar with for you.”
“Not for me! For you! For us! There’s so much more out there, and if we could just-”
“Stop, Mingyu. I’m not going anywhere. You don't know me as well as you think you do.”
Seokmin can just about see Mingyu’s jaw clench as the light bulb keeps flickering.
“You're right,” Mingyu replies, stony. “Clearly I don't know you at all. I think I should leave now.”
Seokmin barely remembers to open the window for Mingyu, to let him clamber out through the fire escape. Mingyu knocks down the vase on the windowsill as he goes. He doesn't set it upright. Instead, Seokmin does, as he watches Mingyu's figure descend the fire escape without looking back.
He feels like he's swallowed ice.
***
Seokmin dreams about Mingyu that night. Twice, to be exact.
In the first dream, they're teenagers. It's the sort of dream that could be a memory, but it isn't. They're biking through some woods - Seokmin can't quite figure out where. They must be somewhere that Seokmin went once as a child, a place stored deep in the back of his mind. It doesn't matter. They're racing each other until they find a bit of a clearing. They sit next to each other, ignoring the grass stains on their shorts. They're talking, and the sunlight turns them into figures of gold. The brightness only serves to make Mingyu look even more radiant and happy than Seokmin has ever seen him. When Mingyu playfully shoves at him, it's not with the hunger that Seokmin's used to, but it's with a wave of familiarity, with the knowledge that they couldn't really hurt each other if they tried. All that matters is that they're young, and they wouldn't know violence if it punched them in the face.
In the second dream, they're grown-ups - that is, proper grown-ups with a house and a garden. It's the sort of dream that could be a prophecy, but it isn't. The dream starts with Seokmin waking up, which is an odd way to start a dream, but he knows it's a dream because Mingyu is next to him. His eyes are closed, and he's peaceful. The light that filters through the curtains shows him as he is, bare and open. Seokmin has only seen this in their weaker moments, when Mingyu’s foolish enough to stay until morning and Seokmin is foolish enough to watch him as he sleeps. Mingyu’s sleeping face, haloed by sunlight, is filled with so much more possibility than the Mingyu who pins him down at night.
The dreams are nice, really - one almost-memory and one almost-prophecy. They both end the same way, though. As soon as Seokmin reaches out to Mingyu, the dream shatters and he wakes up before he can touch him.
***
When Seokmin wakes up, Mingyu's gone.
He doesn't find out for a while, of course. He washes up and eats breakfast and gets dressed and doesn't think about Mingyu and heads out into the gloomy day. The clouds lining the sky are thick and grey, looming heavy over Seokmin as he walks. It's like they're pressing down on him, gently at first, testing how much pressure he can take before he collapses. Seokmin tries to ignore the weight of his legs as he walks, heading by instinct to the street corner where Seungcheol and the others usually hang around.
Seungcheol is definitely there. Unfortunately, so is somebody else.
“I’m not going to listen to you lie to me. Where is he?”
Seokmin's blood turns icy. He's heard Wonwoo’s rough low voice enough times to know what it sounds like. Trouble’s in the air, so thick Seokmin can taste it. He rushes over to Seungcheol's side, sending a quick glance to Hansol, who's there with him.
“I’m telling you, I don't know where he is. Why should I? What exactly would I do with him?”
“You could be kidnapping him, as payback for the rumble. You could be doing anything.”
“And why would we take him? He's not exactly important.”
Something prickles in Seokmin's lungs at that. He presses it down.
Wonwoo scowls, turning to face Seokmin. “You. Do you have any idea where he is?”
Seokmin's been involved in this life long enough to know how to act, but for some reason he has to remind himself to look neutral as he replies.
“I don't see what this has to do with me. I’ve barely spoken to him since high school.”
“Really? Not even in rumbles?”
“No. Why? Am I supposed to have a heart-to-heart when I fight someone now? Is that how you do it?”
“Stop being a smartass and answer me. One of you must know where he is. Where else could he have gone?”
Seokmin thinks of last night, of Mingyu wanting to be anywhere that isn't here. A cold breeze snakes up his coat sleeves. For a brief idiotic moment, he wishes he'd joined him.
“Look,” Hansol replies, stepping forward. “you probably shouldn't get ahead of yourself right now. There's three of us and one of you. If you're going to come to our turf accusing us of something, you'd better have either proof or manpower to back you up.”
Wonwoo scoffs, retreating a little. “Alright, fine. But I’ll be back with my guys. And when we meet again, we'll make you talk.”
With that, Wonwoo walks off, leaving Seungcheol to huff and mutter under his breath. Seokmin wishes he could feel something, but he doesn't. His limbs feel deadened, and it's all he can do to mumble his excuses and drag himself back home.
In the distance, thunder rumbles. Seokmin can only pray that Mingyu will find shelter from the storm.
Re: [FILL] Deep in my enemy I find the lover;
Re: [FILL] Deep in my enemy I find the lover;
[through tears] THANKS!!!!!
Re: [FILL] Deep in my enemy I find the lover;
Re: [FILL] Deep in my enemy I find the lover;
Seokmin hates violence. But, in some sick way, violence is all he’s got. but also the Seokmin who dreamt about Mingyu (twice! and them in a happier world!) and prayed for him in the end.
(sighs strenuously) thank you, I shall retreat to my cave to recover from this :')
Re: [FILL] Deep in my enemy I find the lover;
Re: [FILL] Deep in my enemy I find the lover;
Re: [FILL] Deep in my enemy I find the lover;