2022 Round 3: Last Words

[hwarium]

Status: Closed This round has closed. It remains open for fills, comments and remixes, but prompts are no longer accepted. ✧ Seventeen Holidays ✧ Round 3: Last Words About For this round, there is no theme for the prompt and you can suggest whatever you want. However! You can only prompt a single sentence and the fill must end on that sentence. Be controversial, be vague. Fillers, add to the atmosphere or subvert expectations, the choice is yours. (Note: art fills just have to include the phrase and remixes don't have to follow the rule.) Examples Joshua "Did you think America would change things?" Soonyoung/Seokmin Seokmin looks at Soonyoung one more time, "I may not trust you with my wallet, but I do trust you with my life." 97 line In the dark they grasped each other, fingers intertwined, and stepped forwards. 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! <strong>Ship/Member:</strong> Any <strong>Major Tags:</strong> N/A <strong>Additional Tags:</strong> N/A <strong>Do Not Wants:</strong> None <strong>Prompt:</strong> [PROMPT GOES HERE] 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. <strong>Ship/Member:</strong> Any <strong>Major Tags:</strong> N/A <strong>Additional Tags:</strong> N/A <strong>Permission to remix:</strong> 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) <strong>Ship/Member:</strong> Any <strong>Major Tags:</strong> N/A <strong>Additional Tags:</strong> N/A <strong>Permission to remix:</strong> 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! Need ideas? Have a look through the 2021 Fills Masterlist and the prompts there. You're welcome to keep interacting with, fill, or remix content from the previous rounds. Navigation ABOUT DATES FAQ BAITS ✧ FILLS ✧ ROUND 1: QUOTES ROUND 2: ALTERNATE UNIVERSES ❮ ROUND 3: LAST WORDS ❯

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Ship/Member: Any
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: possible nsfw?
Do Not Wants: None

Prompt: "Well," he[/name] said. "What are you going to do about it?"

[infrequencies]

Ship/Member: 95z or 97z
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: Post-enlistment
Do Not Wants: None

Prompt: It should've been different. But it isn't.

[FILL] serving shots of grief and warmth

[zweiseungs]

Ship/Member: Choi Seungcheol/Yoon Jeonghan/Joshua Hong
Major Tags: MCD but not main characters, Mentions of illness and grief
Additional Tags: post enlistment, canon!verse, somewhere in the multiverse where joshua alone might not have renew the contract extension
Permission to remix: Yes

im so sorry op if i wasnt doing any justice to the prompt but i hope you like it

✨

The restaurant is exactly how Joshua remembered it from five years back. The halmeoni greets him; remembers him with the way she smacks his back in familiarity. He laughs alongside her loud persona though masking how weak she has become — she used to be able to topple Joshua with one smack and have always remarked to him to eat more, that she would feed him until he becomes stronger. Joshua does not miss how boney her hands have become, and that her frame has turned smaller than what he remembers of her. Despite the calluses of her hands, he’s held warmly, reminding him of his own mother.

"They're waiting for you right by the corner spot. You three always hang out there," the old lady smiles warmly as she pats his back one last time before heading to the kitchen. 

Joshua makes his way to the spot, and finds two familiar figures waving and smiling at him. 

“Shua! You made it,” the oldest of the group smiles. If halmeoni had the smile of the sun, the Seungcheol was the god of the sun himself. His presence welcomes Joshua with warmth despite it being summer in Seoul right now. 

“Hey, it’s been a while,” Joshua speaks slowly and settles in the vacant seat. “Seungcheol. Jeonghan.” The two names roll out of Joshua’s tongue so foreignly that he’s reminded of the time when he first came to Korea and had to use his bare minimal Korean as a trainee. It’s been years since Joshua had gone home to California, that he feels like the same foreigner who had left everything to chase his dream in Seoul back in 2015. 

“Have you been well?” Jeonghan asks, already setting the cutleries before him, and cutting the meat that was grilled prior to his arrival, just the way Joshua likes it — slim, with little to no fats. 

Joshua looks at the latter, looking no different from his handsome and angelic self years back. Jeonghan’s hair is similar to when he had the hair length from their Ready to Love days, except his hair colour is tame, no longer fiery red. If Seungcheol was the god of sun then Jeonghan would be the god of moon; calm, serene, and quiet. He had always been unpredictable to Joshua, even more so now after years of lost communications. 

“I’m good, I just. I just came back last week.” 

The air is awkward, which is a given when Joshua hasn’t spoken to his closest friend (are they even close now?) for over the years of their absence. Or his. 

Hansol, whom out of the few Joshua had still kept in contact with, tells him from time to time that both Jeonghan and Seungcheol misses him dearly. It’s evident when Joshua wakes up, and it’s night time in Korea that he likes an Instagram upload from both Seungcheol and Jeonghan’s profile where they posted each other sharing a mug of beer upon the ending of their enlistment. 

(“We’re enlisting together, Joshuji.” Jeonghan confesses to him one night when it was just the three of them drinking out on the dorm balcony. The younger members have all fallen asleep, and Seungcheol had invited the trio to drink, to which neither of them didn’t reject.

“We’re hoping you could be there with us,” Seungcheol invites. 

But it was a time where Joshua had too much on his plate. With news of his mother being on chemo, enlisting with his two friends wasn’t the right option. He knew he would miss out much, when all he had talked about in interviews years back, before this ‘talk’, was that despite his American citizenship, he would have loved to enlist with Seungcheol and Jeonghan. Because every moment without them would only mean he could yearn.) 

“You know, you didn’t betray us. If that is why you were avoiding us years back,” Seungcheol calls out. 

Joshua could smell that the oldest among the three had a few beers in; being the alcoholic of the group, and although Seungcheol isn’t lightweight, he is blunt. 

Jeonghan hums in agreement. 

“We miss you, Joshua. And it took you this long to sit and have a meal with us… why?” Seungcheol asks, now looking at Joshua. 

The foreign man could feel his throat run dry with the way Seungcheol looked at him. Strong, passionate… yet afraid. Joshua throws a look at Jeonghan, as an excuse to look elsewhere, but he’s only given a shrug as a response. 

“You know how he is,” Jeonghan remarks, before sighing. “But he’s right. We miss you… and if you don’t feel the same as before, we understand.”  

If Joshua had not felt the guilt rising from before, he definitely feels it now. Jeonghan has always been the moral compass and mediator out of the three of them. Even if it had sounded out of goodwill, Joshua feels so small when he’s told that it’s okay to take advantage of their kindness and patience. They should be mad, perhaps even scream at him for being radio silent the past five years. Hell, they were released from enlistment two years back and yet, Joshua wasn’t there to send them off and he wasn’t there to receive them home. His home. 

“I was afraid,” Joshua confesses. 

Seungcheol raises his eyebrow, while Jeonghan reaches out for Joshua’s hand that was resting on the table. There’s a slight hesitation in Jeonghan’s touch, which is rather unlikely for someone as confident as he is yet Joshua feels the shaky hand pressed against his own firmly. 

The youngest of three breathes in, taking a deep breath and exclaims after what seems to be forever. “I was afraid of losing the two of you, as I did with my mother. She’s… gone. Been gone for a while,”

“You don’t have to—” Seungcheol reaches out for Joshua’s other hand. It’s always been like this, just like back when his father called him to inform Joshua of his mother's critical condition, and how both Seungcheol and Jeonghan had assured him that everything will be alright, except it didn’t. But he could never blame them because they had no control of the way the world moves, and how fate could be ugly and unforgiving to Joshua. 

“I’m sorry for your loss,” Jeonghan says first to break the silence, now having moved from where he had sat with Seungcheol and deposits himself next to Joshua. The eldest does the same and Joshua is now sandwiched between the two. 

“I’m sorry, I should have reached out. But I was in a slump, and then. Just one day, I realized I could lose you two, and I just. I just didn’t want to go through grief again.” Joshua does his best to bite back the tears from falling. 

“Don’t be sorry, we’re here now. And we won’t leave you, even if you begged for it, yeah?” Seungcheol comforts him and clings to Joshua even as he would have done every time someone needed him. Sometimes Joshua believed that when the eldest hanged onto someone, it felt like Seungcheol needed them more than he was needed. And he would like to believe that Seungcheol needs him as much as Joshua does for him. 

“We’re here.” Jeonghan assures him, and unlike Seungcheol’s intimate affection, he settles on holding Joshua’s hand, intertwining their fingers with confidence this time, squeezing his palm. This is Jeonghan’s way of saying, ‘I’m here.’ 

Joshua thinks he could learn to love these two again if they would have him in their life. 

It should've been different. But it isn't.

this is the end of the line

[(Anonymous)]

Ship/Member: MinWon ideally but any ship is fine!
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: marvel universe? stevebucky? please??
Do Not Wants: None

Prompt: ideally a stucky fic with the subject as the last sentence… give me angst give me tears give me EVERYTHING HONEY

Make it hurt

[saltysoon]

Ship/Member: Soonyoung/any
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: ANGST
Do Not Wants: Major character death

Prompt:
If I love you was a promise, could you keep it if you're honest ?

The right one

[(Anonymous)]

Ship/Member: soonyoung/mingyu,soonyoung/jeonghan, soonyoung/wonwoo
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: "you're too much", insecure soonyoung, previous bad relationship history
Do Not Wants: MCD

Prompt:
He's your first love, i intent to be your last, however long it takes.

anything!!

[(Anonymous)]

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

Prompt: There is no other version of this story.

[FILL] there is no other version of this story

[nunssaum]

Ship/Member: Junhui/Minghao
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: Unrequited love.
Permission to remix: Yes

word count: 400 words.

***

“minghao,” you call him, standing in front of his room. you don’t go inside because you aren’t sure if he wants you in his space. you haven’t talked to him the whole day and you don’t know what to do with yourself.

you have been waiting for him to come out of his bedroom so you could eat together but it’s an hour past the time he usually eats. you know he’s just thinking about how to approach you. it’s not everyday you walk out of a conversation with him. minghao isn’t used to being on the receiving end of your silence.

so you are the one calling him first, softly this time, “xu minghao.”

you hear him getting off his bed and footsteps approaching the door. he opens the door, just a little bit and peeks with half his face. 

“aren’t you going to eat?”

“you aren’t mad at me anymore?” he asks, searching for something on your face. “i shouldn’t have said that.”

you smile, hiding your heart and call him out to eat because you aren’t mad enough to let him end his day on an empty stomach. you are the closest thing to home he has.

“i made laziji, your favorite.”

(“you think love is easy,” he had told you yesterday, “because you haven’t loved anyone.”

it stung but you never took that to your heart. you looked away from him because you didn’t want him to know.

but your face must have given away something because you got an apology you weren’t sure what for.

you stayed awake the whole night.)

“are we okay?” he asks at the kitchen table. you have heard him talk, in this very same kitchen, about the people he loved. two months ago, it was the boy who had a smile as bright as the sun. two years ago, it was the boy who had so much love in him but not any for minghao. minghao loved a few but none of them were you.

“yes,” you say without a beat. because he’s minghao and he falls in love easily. he’ll talk about love again.

and you’ll listen. not because he’s also the closest thing you have you can call home. because he’s been the only one you’ve ever known how to love.

you prepare your heart. you know how it works.

there is no other version of this story.

How do we feel in that photograph and

[sido_rlo]

Ship/Member: Any (i'm thinking any variation of 97z, but it's open!)
Major Tags: Memory/nostalgia/possibly homesickness? angst not required
Additional Tags: N/A
Do Not Wants: Death

Prompt: "How do we feel it again?"

(because I am unoriginal, this is from Dream State by Son Lux)

Being alive is pretty much a constant stream of embarrassment

[maritimo]

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

Prompt: We are alive, after all.

second life

[klav]

Ship/Member: Any, Jeonghan/Any, Joshua/Any
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: N/A
Do Not Wants: None

Prompt: This time it doesn't feel like a lie.

between the shadow and the soul

[klav]

Ship/Member: Any, Soonyoung/Any
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: life-altering realizations (secret agents? secret love letters? secret soulmates?)
Do Not Wants: None

Prompt: "It was you the whole time?"

[FILL] between the shadow and the soul

[moonlitmelodiesfic]

Ship/Member: Joshua/Minghao--ish. could be Joshua & Minghao
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: post-enlistment, idolverse, arguably magical realism, minghao-pov but josh-centric(??),
Permission to remix: Yes please! i'd love a joshua perspective on this!
a/n: mods this is 400 words :))) and this is quite vague, but i'm challenging myself with concision today. also op, i changed one tiny thing and replaced the question mark with a period for the last line. hope that's okay!

***

Enlistment rattles them all.

It’s only Seungcheol and Jeonghan this year, but removing vital pillars from architecture wobbles the entire structure. It feels awfully like they’ve lost footing. Duties suddenly shift. Burdens worsen. Minghao watches Joshua take the brunt of the impact, nearly crumble under the weight, and soldier on.

Despite his worries, Minghao understands, and almost wishes he doesn’t. Joshua has to be the leader now, and as the leader, he mustn’t crack. Although most of them are holding out, Joshua has always cared for others too much and himself too little. There is a terrible fear rooting in Minghao’s chest that Joshua will bite off more than he can chew.

The most terrifying thing to Minghao is that he might not even notice when that does happen. Joshua can hide behind makeup and a smile and act like nothing’s wrong. Jeonghan and Seungcheol won’t be here to catch him before he realizes he’s falling.

Worry settles in them all like dust.

/

Over the course of a week, that worry disappears. Minghao doesn’t even register it.

/

Joshua suddenly becomes more tactile. He begins initiating contact. Minghao finds it strange but says nothing. He wants to be worried, but it feels like he no longer knows how to.

Must be fatigue.

/

Minghao sees the exacerbation of Joshua’s insomnia incrementally. His eye bags become perpetual. He’s constantly hiding a yawn behind a pale palm. Minghao caught Soonyoung and Wonwoo in furtive conversation once, words worry-stained, eyes quietly trained on Joshua’s back.

His own apprehension comes choking him at the jugular.

Arms slide around his waist. The shape of Joshua is familiar against his spine.

A deep breath in. The fear vanishes.

/

An idea begins forming.

/

“What do you think you are doing?” Minghao’s tone isn’t confrontational, but Joshua still tenses, frozen in a position, darkness thin around them in the practice room.

“Myungho.” Joshua turns around, lowers his arms, shoulders drooping like they bear incredible weight. Minghao aches somewhere far within.

“What are you taking from us?”

Joshua’s expression wavers for a second. Then his face is smooth once more, full of blank bafflement. He smiles; it doesn’t reach his eyes.

“What do you mean?” His voice wobbles. It’s confirmation enough.

Minghao’s tight, indrawn breath whistles like wind through empty branches.

His chest hollows out. Where his fear once was, a ghostly ache flickers now.

“It was you the whole time.”

***
some notes:
what i imagined in my head was that joshua had to ability to remove what he deemed were negative emotions from others through touch. also!: this is not my original idea, as i've read fic with this premise, and made some adaptions for this fill. credit to whoever came up with this concept. it's very intriguing!

regret?

[(Anonymous)]

Ship/Member: Seungcheol
Major Tags: regret
Additional Tags: any
Do Not Wants: None

Prompt: The howl of the wind is the only answer he gets.

don't forget

[capricornia]

Ship/Member: Any
Major Tags: any
Additional Tags: any
Do Not Wants: None

Prompt: "We'll meet again!" he shouts as the seconds run out. "Don't forget! I love you!"

it's you, it's you, it's all for you

[capricornia]

Ship/Member: Any Chan ship (wonchan...)
Major Tags: Any
Additional Tags: decisions! negation of power imbalances! people making choices! character motivations! monsterfucking! snonwoo (snake wonwoo)
Do Not Wants: None

Prompt: Chan's eyes never leave his. "You," he says, and it's enough.

idek man

[capricornia]

Ship/Member: Any
Major Tags: any
Additional Tags: any
Do Not Wants: None

Prompt: "No," he says, "you did that all on your own." He shuts the door.

bad clue

[vampiredumpling]

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

Prompt: "It's either me or you."

memory like the moon

[latespring]

Ship/Member: Minghao...?
Major Tags: Any
Additional Tags: Something with memory or history!
Do Not Wants: None

Prompt: "Don't you remember?"

after all

[hyojungss]

Ship/Member: Any, Seokmin/Jeonghan, Seokmin/Any, Jun/Any
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: confession after the fact
Do Not Wants: None

Prompt: "I don't think I could have loved you more."

hapless parallel lines

[(Anonymous)]

Ship/Member: Junhui/Minghao
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: continuous missed timings, reconciliation
Do Not Wants: major character deaths

Prompt: it’ll be your call, you finally get to call the shots.

what are we without a scaffolding

[(Anonymous)]

Ship/Member: Junhui/Any; Junhui/Seungcheol; Seungcheol/Any
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: healing through building a sturdy foundation, wound dressing
Do Not Wants: major character death

Prompt: I think for now, I am happy.

What choice did I have?

[furniished]

Ship/Member: Any
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: Idolverse?
Do Not Wants: N/A

Prompt: "Wouldn't you have done the same?"

[furniished]

Ship/Member: Junhui/Joshua, Any
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: Junhui as a tree...
Do Not Wants: None

Prompt: The tree was still there, after all.

[furniished]

Ship/Member: Any
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: Angst,???
Do Not Wants: N/A

Prompt: "I didn't ask."

[furniished]

Ship/Members: Seungcheol
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: N/A
Do Not Wants: N/A

Prompt: He'd learned from the best.

(Feel free to change tense, first/second person, use as dialogue, etc)

ROUND CLOSED

[hwarium]

This round has closed. It will forever remain open for comments, fills and remixes but any prompts posted after this Junhui will be deleted.