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
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- 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.)
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what is love? baby don't hurt me
Major Tags: idolverse
Additional Tags: N/A
Do Not Wants: None
Prompt:
[FILL] ...and back again
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: Idolverse, Lovers to Coworkers, referenced Minghao/OC (or pick your favorite of his Chinese celeb friends)
Permission to remix: Yes
slides in extremely late. i'm not sure how well this fits the prompt... i'm not sure what this is at all... but i was so intrigued by this combination of quotes!
***
When Minghao comes back to Seoul, he is in love.
It takes Mingyu a while to notice. First, for the obvious reasons: Jun and Minghao have to quarantine, and then there are the rehearsals for the shows they can’t participate in and the end-of-the-year concert itself. And beyond that, Mingyu’s learned to respect the space Minghao asked for, learned it so well that it’s become comfortable. Minghao wouldn’t bristle anymore if he caught him looking too long, just give him a quizzical little smile. But Mingyu doesn’t look too long.
Except in a break during the rehearsals for the GDAs, when he catches Minghao curled up against the mirror, grinning at his phone. He’s lit from within; love animates him. He’s always been painfully slow at typing, but his fingers are flying. Mingyu knows the impulse, remembers what it’s like to look around and need to tell someone everything you see, as if that could bring them to you. Lost in thought, Minghao thumbs his lower lip, feeling the curve of his own happiness.
Don’t touch your mouth if you haven’t washed your hands, Mingyu thinks crossly. He’s pretty sure he’s told Minghao that before, but it didn’t stick.
>>
In the car coming back from the GDAs, Minghao’s on his phone again the second the window rolls up and he stops waving to fans. He doesn’t bother hiding his screen from Mingyu; they both know he can’t read a word on it. There’s not even a telling emoji saved by the other person’s name.
“What did you do on New Year’s?” Mingyu asks, to fill the silence. The manager who’s driving has put on some moody indie music he actually does like, but it’s nowhere near enough.
Not looking up, Minghao shrugs. “I called my parents. And some other people. That’s about it.”
And some other people. No shit. “Why didn’t you go out with Jun-hyung?”
Minghao taps a long finger against the side of his phone case. “What do you want me to say? I didn’t feel like it. Nothing to do with him.”
They’re stalled at what feels like the longest red light in the world, and the indie band is singing about a faithless lover. “I feel bad,” starts Mingyu, “since you were by yourself on your birthday and Christmas…”
Minghao turns to really look at him. He has a terribly open way of looking at people, as if everyone else was hiding behind some kind of film and only he figured out how to peel it away. That is not how he is looking at Mingyu now. “I’m not saying this to be mean, but it just isn’t any of your business. Anyway, I like being by myself.”
He wants so badly to make this a fight, but there’s nothing he can do with another person listening. Minghao is always kind to the staff by default, but he sometimes seems to forget they are there.
Before Mingyu can think of a diplomatic thing to say, Minghao’s phone buzzes and he is thousands of kilometers away.
>>
Mingyu throws away his pride and asks Jun about it.
“Ah.” Jun’s smiling like he’s a little embarrassed for both of them. For all three of them, for being in this situation. “I think if you asked Hao and he didn’t tell you, it’s not for me to say.”
He hadn’t, of course, asked Minghao.
<<
“Why did you post that?” Minghao had demanded, back in May. “You said we were over, so act like it.”
He posted the picture on the group's anniversary because it made him smile. A beautiful morning, dazzling sunlight, Minghao laughing for the first time in days.
“You’re still my best friend,” Mingyu said, and Minghao whitened.
They’d been so mature about it. You weren’t supposed to be able to break up with your bandmate and then keep going like nothing happened, but they’d talked it over. Talked it to death. The whole thing had begun as an accident, an uncontrollable freefall, but he thought they’d pulled off a graceful landing. Still—
“Sometimes it feels like—I don’t know. You’re making this really hard for me. I need to be my own person,” Minghao said, and Mingyu stared.
“You’ve always been your own person,” he said. “Probably more than anyone I know. If you don’t feel that way, I don’t know if I can help you.”
>>
“I’m sorry I was rude to you the other day,” Minghao says. “After the awards,” he clarifies, when Mingyu looks at him uncomprehendingly.
That had been more than a few days ago, but Minghao has always operated on his own sense of time. Besides, he’s been away with Seungcheol and Soonyoung. He must have wanted to wait and say it in person.
“It’s nothing,” he says, offhand, but it’s impossible to brush Minghao off when he wants to make a point.
“I was lonely, but I didn’t want to admit it. I should have just said that.” A deep breath. “Coming back—being back—has been more complicated than I thought it would be. But I want you to know I did miss you. I’m happy to see you again. And I’m sorry I didn’t call.”
He could easily have said I did miss you all. I’m happy to see you all again. It doesn’t start the spark it would have once, when every reunion was like fireworks. After all, they’d both made it clear that they owed each other no special privilege. This is what it’s like, he thinks, to truly be over it. A girl he’d dated in high school got engaged a few months ago; when he saw the announcement, all he felt was a distant pleasure, a pride on her behalf. That is what it will be like.
He should finally broach the question, like Jun assumed he had. But he doesn’t.
“I’m happy to see you too.”
FILL: bitter after
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: vaguely 2020 OTY tour; unrequited minwon; unrequited jeongcheol
Permission to remix: Please ask
consider: what if you were the one let go
***
The ground starts spinning as the last “Aju Nice” ends.
If Seungcheol were here, he'd be making that face. That you are my responsibility face, eyes wide with fire and worry that can't be silenced with a simple shrug.
As it were, Seungcheol is not present, and won't be for at least another couple of days. And as it were, Jeonghan isn't speaking to him. But that's another thing entirely.
Backstage, it's somehow hotter than it was under the spotlights. Hotter than the showers Jeonghan takes to attempt to steam some sort of energy out of his weary bones each morning. Than the flash of annoyance when someone asks him to consider taking a break on the next stop.
Luckily, the spinning has started to slow. It isn't the kind that makes Jeonghan’s chest cave in, a monster swallowing grief and repressed desires buried in his chest.
Someone is shouting for water over the chorus of tired sounds, and a manager is reaching for him with a concerned look on their face.
“Why don't we travel with a physician, again?” someone asks. One of the members. Maybe Minghao. He's right. He's heard that some groups even travel with a massage therapist. That sounds nice.
A sports drink gets pushed in Jeonghan’s hands, and he's drunk most of it by the time he finally sets his hands on the familiar black duffel bag that Mingyu had gifted him for his birthday.
There's still so many obligations to fulfill before send-off. His phone is nearly dead from the wave of notifications crashing in at turn-on, and there's still some filming to happen before turning in for the night.
Jeonghan’s gotten the right amount of bitch down to a science. Snippy enough that people given him a wide berth for most of tour, gleaning his sour mood from the handful of passive aggressive emoji in the groupchat pre-travel days.
There's something awful about being the one who everyone treads carefully around. Chronic fatigue has only gotten worse as time goes on. Seungkwan refuses to leave him alone, however, and deep down, they both know why.
A hand steadies him as he climbs into the hotel shuttle. Jeonghan barely remembers the flashing lights and screaming fans sending them off. Maybe there was a sign with his face on it that someone will mention later, or a Carat he'd held eye contact for a millisecond who found meaning in the micro-acknowledgment.
He genuinely hopes there was something there to give some small comfort, some positivity in how awful he feels. Later, he'll probably catch some video of himself with unseeing eyes, not knowing where the person wearing his face has gone.
Wordlessly, Wonwoo sets acetaminophen in his lap. It's sealed in a tiny medicine bag, paired off with something that looks like one of the supplements Jeonghan left back at the hotel. He takes it with the last bit of what's in the bottle and sets his head on Wonwoo’s shoulder.
“Thank you,” he says into the scarf Wonwoo is using as a makeshift pillow. His hum of acknowledgement vibrates through Jeonghan’s body.
“Any time.”
----
🍊 boo seungkwan
[11:38 am]
food in jun and shua’s room
mingyu was looking for u but left with wonu earlier
🐰 yoon jeonghan
[1:53 pm]
ah is there still food
jk kyeomie is here
[2:40 pm]
are they still filming
where is mingyu now
----
Mingyu’s room is single-occupancy, but still filled to the brim with supplies to feed thirteen people and their crew. Typically, they keep a room just for snacks for the members to grab, but Mingyu had jumped at the opportunity to get some alone time. Jeonghan can’t say he blames him for snagging slices of silence where he can get them.
He ends up drifting there in the evening, head in Mingyu’s lap. Jeonghan toys with the strings of his hoodie, staring blankly at the TV. God, his English sucks. Nothing makes sense.
“What did you do today?”
Jeonghan had finally peeled himself out of bed around 3 pm to take a walk, finding their floor unsurprisingly silent. Flights to the next city start departing early in the morning after, so maximizing any off time is a priority.
He feels helpless when they're overseas in cities where he doesn't speak the language. No amount of research can settle the bubbling unease each time an unfamiliar scenario arises. Staying close to the hotel until they end up splitting off for dinner is safe.
Mingyu talks about the museum he’d traversed to in the early afternoon, showing off pictures from his day. Even for shots taken on his iPhone, the photo quality is miles above anything that Jeonghan has ever taken. Not that he’s ever taking anything past half-face selcas to send off to his sister these days.
Were things different, he'd send them to Seungcheol. Find the courage to say the words I miss you when they're written down. But that moment has long passed.
Jeonghan’s stomach grumbles loud enough that it interrupts their conversation, and Jeonghan drops into the theatrics, draping an arm over his eyes. “Hey. Feed me.”
Mingyu snorts. His attention is back on his phone. Jeonghan catches a glimpse of KaTalk on his screen. The name he sees is unsurprising.
“Feed yourself. The microwave is right there.”
Packs of instant noodles line the chair furthest from the door from the staff’s last grocery run. It's almost certain that they'll give him a sodium headache, but it's about the principle of the thing, really.
Mingyu threads his fingers through Jeonghan’s hair, letting the strands drape over his fingers. It’s a good sign that he’ll cave. He keeps the small talk going to wear Mingyu down, and the TV flicks to something that looks familiar. Jeonghan can't understand more than half of the dialogue, so he keeps talking.
Mingyu pulls a throw over both of them, Jeonghan’s body and Mingyu’s legs. He smells warm. Jeonghan curls into his hoodie even more, fabric over fists.
“So,” Jeonghan finally comes to a stop, yawning. Mingyu’s fingers are still in his hair, brushing the bangs back.
“So?”
“How long was Wonwoo here for?”
Mingyu stills at being caught.
“Long enough.”
“No need to be defensive.”
Jeonghan heaves himself into Mingyu’s lap with a soft groan. Legs over legs, thigh over thigh. Mingyu’s ears are burning red, face matches the hue.
“You're reading into it too much,” Mingyu stares past him, suddenly taken with a toothpaste commercial.
He may be a decent actor, but he's a terrible liar.
“Do you want me to talk to him?”
Mingyu crosses his arms then, eyes jumping back to Jeonghan. He can hear the pout in his voice when he says, “No,” and “There’s nothing to say, hyung,” lisp hyper prominent and dripping poorly concealed annoyance.
Jeonghan raises a hand on his cheek.
Mingyu’s hackles retract.
“You know you can talk to me about this.”
The defense falters for the briefest of seconds.
“There's really nothing to say.”
There’s something unfathomable about loving someone so much that every second by their side in any circumstance doesn't feel like enough.
Mingyu moves out from under Jeonghan, suddenly busying himself with making him food. He knows deep down it was a cruel direction to take, one that will sit heavy in his gut.
What’s in Mingyu’s eyes is reflected in Jeonghan’s, opposite ends of the same moving stream.
Re: FILL: bitter after
(Thank you for this 🥺)
Re: FILL: bitter after
thank you for reading!! <3