#i need some stuff to draw to get my mind off that hazy fever dream of an exam HHHH

[chibi-jinchou]

status update: i finished my oral exam and i’m still alive somehow 💀

[rataltouille]

BONFIRE, BONFIRE!: A COLLECTION OF FLASH FICTION + POETRY

so i’ve decided to compile all twenty [these will be split into two so that the post isn’t super long] of the writing pieces i’ve done for my random celebration into one post so that it’s easier to read / access share!! you can also find it here, all put into one work, on wattpad, because i feel nostalgic about that website and decided to just post it!!

NOTE: i know that this shouldn't need to be said, but these 20 pieces belong to me so please don’t copy/repurpose it for your writing!! i plan on using these somewhere in my own writing and either way they’re stuff i’ve written so don’t use them!!

1. cooking + destructive + purple from @andiwriteunderthemoon [also i kind of cheated with this prompt and asked my sis @dreamscanbenightmarestoo for ideas and so the base idea’s from her!!]

I didn’t mean to set my house on fire, alright?

Let me set the scene: I’m sitting in my room, watching the infomercials that blur together, and suddenly there’s a bright purple flash on the glitching screen: /grapes/. They’re shiny, plump, and oh? A recipe for fine wine? Don’t mind if I do. So I pop into my kitchen and cut the grapes, dice them up, finally using the knife after years of not cooking— /mother, are you proud of me now?/— and stick the soft, luminescent fluid into a glass bottle. Following each step of the recipe.

The recipe didn’t mention an explosion.

Destruction rained around my house like a meteor shower. The bubbles from the fluid, frisking up at contact with metal, swam across my shoes and into the living room. It touched the TV, which still flashed the recipe, which I was still cursing at. And then, you know, it burnt up. The couch scorched first, I think. So that was fun. I later realised that I’d used my reserve of petroleum, which I’d put in my kitchen cabinet, instead of vinegar. I think I’ve got to move back in with my mother again.

2. running + quiet + sky blue from @kryskakikomi [i have no idea what this is i drafted this in a fever dream state]

Summer crawled up his skin like a worm. He was seated at his dining table, crosswording his way through the sticky morning, when it struck him that the humidity was new. He’d been caught in summer before, of course, but this year was different. His parents had whisked away to their hometown, and he still didn’t understand why he wasn’t allowed to go. He loved their home— he could have been running on beach sand and waves could have cruised over his feet, and his face would reflect sky blue under palm trees. Instead he sat doodling and scratching at cement walls in a quiet that nagged at his ears, grappling his flesh like a fishing hook, reeling him in. Boredom, him sister told him, before she also left for someone��s home. What would you know? he whispered once the door latched from the outside. Maybe /she’d/ like to sit on the same wooden chair, all the pink paint worn out, and scratch out squares of empty text until the pen poked through the other hand. He scoffed. At least he knew the number of scars on the wood; he could hold that over her when his parents returned.

3. hallucinate + hazy + violet from @chloeswords [i wanted to write something dreamy and ethereal but everytime i look at your url i’m reminded of church mud and indirectly my religious trauma so here we are 🤡]

We hold the book in our arms and chant for God. We don’t know what he looks like. They say that he’s sharp, never pixelating or blurring or showing through, like a hazy image would. No, children, our family says, he will come clothed in gold and velvet— the colour a deep and rich crimson, or chartreuse. And of course, he weaves a violet into his hair. Because he is just that humble. Just that gentle. Loving.

We’ve almost understood now. Pray, clasp our palms together into a transient equinox, and pray. Maybe he will shine down on us. Maybe we will speak so loud and chant so long that our lips will chap. Maybe we’ll simply hallucinate him to salve our bones. Our family says, he will bless you. And so he will.

4. halcyon + pluviophile + beige from anon [i was yearning for cats i am a cat person i love cats]

I remember my life before I moved to London,

Those halcyon days that I spent scooping up cat litter and brushing warm fur,

Being a mother to beige and white and black little felines.

They keep better company than humans.

Now I’m a self-proclaimed businesswoman, artist, influencer, pluviophile,

Even when I’ve barely stepped foot outside during the rain,

[But it needs to be said that when it rains in London, it pours].

I think I’d like to open a cat cafe;

I’m rich enough to pull it off.

5. sing + vulnerable + olive green from @occiidens [this was actually super fun to write because it’s a break from the typically unhinged stories i gravitate towards]

You watch from the highest hill of your town, hand wrapped around the serrated wood of a red oak tree. The bark pokes into your flesh, drawing blood that shouldn’t have been taken from you. You scowl. Just another thing that lives to cause you pain.

Three storeys down is a young man, short and smiling and lovely. He has dark skin and darker hair, walking with the stride of a deer, and he’s smiling; the joy reflects onto your face, even though you can’t hear him. He wears a cotton shirt, the olive green stark against the fire-blue sky. You call out, sing his name, three times in a row.

When he finally looks up, squinting as you silhouette under the sun, the smile widens. A wave. You’re suddenly overcome with embarrassment. Your palm digs into the bark until the wound is freshly dug again, the skin supple and vulnerable. You want to wave, but your hands would look so awkward, and the blood wouldn't help. So you turn on your heel and run— why are you so awkward?— and the grass around you is brighter. This is now a tomorrow issue, you conclude. You’re still smiling.

6. dislocate + ostentatious + blood red from @oasis-of-you [this got really unhinged really fast. TW: body horror]

If you take a turn at Finn Avenue,

Rogue your way down a blood red river,

[It’s not actual blood, do not worry. The colour’s a pigment and it’s saturated enough to give you the texture, the touch, the taste of blood, but I repeat, it isn’t true blood. You might think that it’s ostentatious of us to make you cross a river like that, but you’ll understand why.]

And if can stick your fingers inside the fluid,

You’ll find a bone.

Don’t pull it out fully! Only observe.

[This is a real bone, most likely animal. We may be ominous, but we don’t hurt humans. Not yet.]

So what do you do now? You want passage into a better world.

You came here because you saw the brochure, the flyer,

Radiant Idyll, home for love, but you also saw the jutting anatomy that leads to the city. The pictures were rather clear.

Why do you look so surprised? We’ve put this on the brochure— don’t you ever read the fine print?— to avoid this exact situation. That you would cross a body, a skeleton, pooled over in a fluid that we don’t name, but it’s probably alive.

It’s watching you right now.

So what do you do now?

Hurry up, unhinge your arm, dislocate the elbow, drop it into the blood, forgive me, false blood, and pay for your passage.

Oh! Excellent; that’s record time. We do hope you enjoy your stay!

1. @noteaboy [i’ve interpreted your url as ”note, a boy”]

There’s an orange tree. It’s spring, and there’s an orange tree, and it brims with fruit and citrus perfume. Point your lens flare downwards, and note, a boy. A young man, perhaps, because he combs his hair, uptight and firm, and he wears a tie. A long suit. He doesn’t look up, because his hand holds a book. /He/ holds the book, not the hands— tenderness doesn’t translate through anatomy, I’ve taught you this before. He’s waiting for someone. There’s only the rustle of leaves. He drops the book onto the lap of the tree, crushing the apple that had fallen down. Orange, not apple. Take note better. You only have one chance to get this right.

2. @eatingjupiter [your url is so beautiful omg]

The goddess had said this before she died: you need to watch over him. He needs your sentry to survive. The goddess’ words weren’t heeded. Little baby Jupiter tottered on lava as him parents small-talked with their kingdom. Well, it must have been small talk, because nothing seemed to happen afterwards other than his mother’s face collapsing in agony, anger, annoyance. He knew not to touch them then. He’d fly off into the sun one day, but if his hands were but and charred, he wouldn’t survive even a third of the journey.

The prophecy was simple: the firstborn to the kingdom will metamorph into a celestial, purify themselves so that only stardust remains. Live in the sky forever. The astrologers were baffled; you don’t just become a star. They should have heeded the goddess.

Jupiter was sixteen when he expanded and collapsed all at once. He still lives, they say, and the astrologers /were/ right, in a way: people just don’t become stars. They become almost empty space. Nobody knows if his hands were burnt when they left earth’s orbit forever.

3. @laughtracksonata [your name gave me slight horror vibes idk why!!]

Hahaha. The Horror Movie (don’t ask me for a name, I’m not good with those), with its cymbal crashing and plastic sounds, it’s so loud and scary that it hurts, father. Please turn it off.

Father doesn't listen. I shiver on the couch. The screen flickers like radio static and reflects off our wide eyes. What kind of a home is this anyway? I don’t want to fucking listen to a laugh track or a horror VHS tape or watch the bass crescendo as the serial killer jumpscares the watcher. I don’t think that having hour pupils glued to the same blood-splattered movie, with the same recording looping in his eardrums will help him. He laughs along, sometimes. It’s scary. Father needs a new hobby.

PART TWO COMING SOON!!

anyway this got REALLY long so i’m posting the third prompt group, the one based on songs, as a second part in some time. i hope you enjoy this, and PLEASE do boost!! i spent a lot of time writing these pieces and am pretty proud of them :’)

general taglist: @lovingyou-is @guulabjamuns @andiwriteunderthemoon @coffeeandcalligraphy @melonmilk @silentlylostwriter @charles-joseph-writes @eklavvya @eowynandfaramir @bitterwitchwrites @laughtracksonata @whatwordsdidnttouch @indeliblewrites @thenataliawrites @summersguilt @illimani-gibberish @sarahkelsiwrites @writing-in-delirium @shaelinwrites @sienna-writes @chewingthescenery @jennawritesstories @chloeswords @aelenko @keira-is-writing @cherylinanika @infinitely-empty-pages @jmtwrites @august-iswriting @freedelusionbanana @beetleblue88 @mistercaleb @iwannawritepls @hanwatchingmovies @mortallynuttyqueen @idratherliveinnarnia @maisulli @thegreyboywrites @ahowlinwolf @ravens-and-rivers @oasis-of-you @yanittawrites @chazza-writes-sometimes @skyfirewrites @lovebenders @treybriggsthewriter @themidnxghtwriter @ash-karter @queen-devasena @a-procrastination-addict @gaymityblight @beyondthebracken @madmaxst26 @adielwrites @moonpixxel @hollow-knight-dnd @keep-looking-here @overlap @ashleygarciawrites @ryns-ramblings​ @wordsbynathan @novaemlynlewis​ @sophiewritingstuff​ @howdy-writes​ @occiidens​ @nsanelyawkward​ @viawrites-andacts​

[singingunderthecurtain]

Somewhere In My Sleep Part 5 (Kyungsoo Series)

(1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) Mini Masterlist

Author: @julietsoddeye AU: Cannon/EXO Universe Genre: Fantasy | Fluff | Smut | Angst Pairing: Do Kyungsoo x Unnamed OC (Iris) Trigger Warning: Nightmares, Probably wrong representation of Greek Mythology, Mythical and Evil creatures. Word Count: 1,328

Plot: You were given the ability to Astral Project (Out of body experience) by a deity and you meet a faceless soul of a woman in the 4D world who guides you through the experience. But you are given only 1 hour of your day to ‘spend time’ with Kyungsoo. Kyungsoo sometimes remembers you, but it’s mostly hazy since his job being an Idol doesn’t give him the most peaceful sleep. You and Kyungsoo met accidentally one day and he becomes curious of you.

After your ‘almost heart attack’ from the alarm, you sat up in bed trying to recollect your brain. Was all of it just a very, very vivid dream? Was Kyungsoo a dream? How about Sehun, Suho, and Chanyeol? The ugly creature of a half man and half goat, was it a dream too? Did it all really happen or was it just another fantasy scenario your brain created?

You admit that you’re a very talented and clever writer, you imagine things out of the box, but that was way too out of the box. Your mind right now can’t even comprehend all of that. Your body was rejuvenated from the sleep, but your brain felt like soup inside your head.

You know a headache will soon follow, so you stood up and went straight to the medicine cabinet in your bathroom.

You reached for your trusty bottle of Aspirin and pop four pills in your mouth. You turn your faucet on and drank the water straight from it and swallowed hard. You felt the four tablets of Aspirin as it draws down in your throat, it left a tiny sting but it went away almost immediately.

“I—I need to go back to bed, just one more hour.” You convinced yourself and your body just followed what your brain told you. Even after the pills, your head feels like it’s gonna start a coup.

“I feel like shit…” You said out loud to yourself and plopped back on your bed.

---

“I know it feels weird at first, but you will get used to it and will enjoy it very soon, I promise.” The magical voice of the woman is back. I can’t open my eyes, even in the dream world; my head feels heavy so I didn’t dare move or talk.

“For now, rest my child. I will ask Jewel to help me guard your body when you travel to the astral world.” She murmurs to me.

‘Jewel?’

“Please, adopt yourself a cat soon. You will need at least one…” Her voice started to disappear again.

‘A what? A CAT?!’

---

You jerk up again, suddenly feeling roused. The sun was shining brightly already. ‘Did you forget to close the blinds last night?’ you thought. But you were positive that you never opened your window blinds anyway.

“That’s weird…” You whisper to yourself.

“Oh, you’re awake.” You screamed your lungs out when you heard it. You jumped out of bed with your eyes closed and did a fake martial arts stance, ready to fight whoever it was in your apartment.

“WHO ARE YOU!?” You screech, still not opening your eyes.

“Relax, it’s me Ahyoung!!!” Ahyoung retaliates with another screech. You opened your eyes and sure enough, Ahyoung is standing on your open door frame, holding a tray full of food.

“Wha—what are you doing here this early?” You looked at your bedside table and the clock reads 8:30 AM. You slept in; it was more than one hour of a nap.

“I took a break from work today. I tried calling you a hundred times to ask you out, but you’re not answering your phone. So I just went here uninvited. And then I saw you sleeping there, I tried waking you up and when I touched your skin, you were literally hot to the feel. You were burning with fever!!!” Ahyoung said in one breath.

Ahyoung puts the tray of food down on your bed side table, grabs both your shoulders and vigorously pushed you back to bed into a sitting position.

“You need to stay in bed, honey.” Ahyoung pouts and started stuffing porridge down your mouth when you didn’t reply. You took the food without the will to resist. Your head was still throbbing but it’s not as bad as you felt a while ago.

“I’ve been having vivid dreams lately, Ahyoung.” You finally spoke after having 6 spoonfuls of porridge. Ahyoung released her grip of the spoon on the bowl gently and grabbed the glass of water and dropped one Vitamin C effervescent tablet and you watched the water fizzled with carbon dioxide and turn it orange in color.

“What kind of dreams?” Ahyoung asks while handing the glass to you. Something about how Ahyoung says her words that feel comforting for you. Ahyoung is only three years older than you, but you can feel her motherly love towards you whenever you were down with any kind of sickness.

“I don’t know. Just weird stuff…” You trail your words in a whisper, deciding to keep those dreams to yourself.

She would definitely laugh at you when you tell her you to keep dreaming about Kyungsoo or EXO. She didn’t even know you like EXO. You took the glass from her hands and drank the contents like you haven’t had a drink in a long time.

“Baby girl, you need to lay down again, okay. You need rest; you don’t have to work today.” Ahyoung started pushing you down in a laying position when you finished drinking.

“But I’m almost finished with the thing and its due in three days.” You started to brush off her hands, but you were still weak with sickness.

“No, just sleep.” Ahyoung successfully pushed you down on your bed and constrict your frail body in your blanket and then a duvet. You never use your duvet because it is a pain to clean.

“Why is my duvet out? It’s really hard to do laundry with that!” You complained like a child to their mother.

“We can have it dry cleaned, dear,” Ahyoung said in a matter-of-fact tone.

“Oh I— I never thought of that.” It was all you could manage to reply to her. You usually jeer with your friend and can think of a million things for a comeback, but right now your mind is in jumbles.

You are shaken by a headache and fever, mixed with your baffled mind with the dreams you were having recently. You weren’t really sure if they were real or just a chimera your brain conceived, but they surely are lucid and seem very crystal clear in your mind. The voices you hear, the creatures… Kyungsoo.

“See, you’re so sick you can’t even tease me back. Please listen to me and just rest.” Ahyoung cooed as she was caressing your head and it feels good, it relieves some of the heaviness to it.

“Okay…” You replied with a relaxed sigh. Ahyoung didn’t stop massaging your head until you fell back asleep.

---

“I know you have doubts…” The voice trailed off in a beautiful echo.

“But everything that’s happening as you sleep is absolute.” I can hear the smile on her face. She may be faceless, but her words obviously emanate realness to it.

I may be the most introverted person in the world and I don’t ever look at a person when I talk to them, unless I really have to, but I can hear every emotion people let out vocally. This is the reason why Ahyoung never lies to me because she knows I can see, err in this case, hear right through her.

“E—everything is real?” My voice was small and unsure.

“Yes child, everything. Your projection, the creatures you see, the outcries, Dionysus, me and Kyungsoo. All of it happened and is real.” The both of us were quiet for a while, I was thinking of something to ask.

“About the cat…?” I started but trailed off instead. As expected, she was patient with me and waited for me to finish my question. “Why do I need a cat?” I added to my inquiry.

“They can help protect and ward off evil beings while you’re out of your physical body.” She answered me. “For the meantime, Jewel will help protect you while projecting.” She added.

“Who is Jewel?” I asked.

“It's not a person or a soul like me. You’ll see.” And just like that, she disappeared again.

Sorry if Kyungsoo is not in this update lol. Will put him more in the next chapters, I promise! :(

[oddyssea-a]

THE DARK REVENANT

There’s a hiss.

It’s all so hazy–––unfamiliar to him but then again he had spent the first eighteen years of life being held under the blinding scope of a doctor’s light. He remembers it...vividly.

There had been something about her that had rubbed him the wrong way from the SECOND she had arrived. He didn���t like it. He didn’t like HER. He remembers the day she arrived. Jesse had been teaching him a bit of Spanish after target practice ( something of what he liked to call ‘life training’ ). But she had this look about her.

Like a MAD scientist hell bent on progress and yet...there was a darkness about her that seemed to haunt him like the poltergeist of a fever dream. The image of her breathing down his neck–––her grip like ICE. It’s all coming back to him now.

Most of the time Blackwatch wasn’t HOSPITABLE ( save Jesse ), but this was a whole new level of SINISTER that even HE COULDN’T DISMISS. He’s restrained, wires and needles hooked up to him like he’s something of a science fair project for a snapped scientist. 

But that’s not what haunts him. There’s a gleam in her eye, as if she’d just stumbled across the next FASCINATING BREAKTHROUGH of the scientific world. 

Moira.

That name is nothing more than a phantom told to him like a bed time story, to warn him of the dangers that wait in the outside world. A world beyond the four walls he had found safety in ( as unstable as it might have been ). As if he wasn’t on edge enough with Reyes’s seemingly negligent behavior on the subject of his KEYWORD. Now this woman.

She is the stuff of his nightmares. He had imagined when she was recruited that she was informed of his presence but he’d never suspected she’s tie him down like a helpless hog about to be served for CHRISTMAS DINNER.

“Fascinating...”

She turns away from him for a moment to study a series of screens that surround her. He can tell she’s taking it all in like some sort of sponge. Soaking up lines upon lines of data just about him. She’s all too eager...intrigued to break him apart piece by piece only to see what makes him up. He’d try to resist his restraints but he’s barely able to keep his eyes open let alone fight his way out.

SHE DID SOMETHING.

He lets out little more than a groan, a strained one at that, and when she hears it she turns back to face him. Her feline-esque features curling uncomfortably as she stalks back over to him. She carries herself with elegance and grace, but it does little ease his troubled mind.

She’s still the monster from his waking nightmares. Whatever she’s doing, she’s trapped him like a defenseless animal and there’s no hope for escaping now.The grin on her face is twisted, she’s so pleased at what she’s done. He’d call her mad were it not for the fact that he was sure she’s be spited by it. 

“Struggling will only exhaust you further–––and I’ll still be getting the data. So stop resisting.”

Her tone of voice seems mismatched with her features. Glee was apparent in her face, eyes sparkling like the stars in the blackest night, yet she speaks dryly, as if to an OBJECT rather than a living being. Cold and unfeeling as she folds her hands over his back and leans away from him.

“Your composition is remarkable. I’ve run blood work three...perhaps even four times and the results are absolutely astonishing. It’s as if your body was reprogrammed and adapts to small shifts in the ecosystem around you. It’s practically unheard of and yet here you are...the wonders I could create with you and your DNA.”

It’s something straight out of a lovecraftian horror flick, and it near makes Karter’s blood run COLD. He knew there was something different about himself but this woman was acting as though she was going to be on the forefront of a new frontier of science. When she turns back to him her wicked curled lips curve up even higher when she speaks of her plans.

“I must study you. There is no way to understand your composition and capabilities if I don’t. I’ll be requesting that Reyes assign you to my charge immediately. So I can begin my research on you.”

It’s then that her HAND...that very image that caused him so more horror earlier...curls up from behind her and makes itself known as she draws it nearer to him.

“...and what could come of combing my own existing research with your state currently...”

It gets too close...too close for comfort and he can feel his heart thudding in his chest as her hag-like hand...seemingly decayed into a withered husk of darkness comes closer and closer to him...

There’s only a LOUD boom through the enclosed walls. The sound echoing off the steel like a drum as she rears back her hand and leaps back a few feet at an alarming rate. It was as if she’d vanished moments before only to reemerged a few meters away.

It’s horrifying and the strained yelp of terror Karter lets out is enough to catch her off guard for a moment before her intense leer is cast to the person who’d caused the scene. Craning his head just enough the familiar jet black cape dangles into his line of vision.

Jesse...

“I reckon ya better take a few steps back DOC. Wouldn’t wanna lose a finger now would ya?”

He’s snarky as ever, the comment he makes carrying something akin to a lighter tone, but as he casually draws nearer to Karter’s side, the expression on his face tells a feeling FAR from playful. It’s almost terrifying to Jesse so...so...ANGRY. There’s something about the very sight of it that makes Karter almost shake. But then the gentle touch of Jesse’s hand snaking under his shoulders to help him sit up once freed from his restraints reminds Karter of JUST who he’s with in that moment.

Jesse would never hurt him.

Karter’s breaths are shaky as he uses Jesse for support when he swings his legs across the surface he’d been restrained to and steps down on to the freezing tile floors. The room seemed so small before...it was hard to believe the size of it all. Propped against the other man, he lets out a huff, and for a brief moment Jesse’s head seems to turn to eye him, as if momentarily sizing him up before turning his attention back to Moira. 

“Oh an’ by the way–––I wouldn’t count on that ‘assignment’ a yours...I ain’t much for rules but I know this one is MINE. So I’d thank ya kindly to keep your hands to yourself.”

There’s a sense of conviction in Jesse’s tone that almost leaves Moira speechless for a moment before she returns with her commentary. As always she’s flat of tone and cold, as if calculating her next move without giving away what it actually is. Such arrogance that it’s almost sickening. But Karter’s gaze remains fixated on her. It’s one of HORROR for sure, but he refuses to hide. He won’t allow this DEMON of a woman to terrorize him. He’d show his teeth and ensure that no matter what happened no one would see him scream and holler in the terror she struck in him.

“No matter. I will have him back...in time. So enjoy your victory neanderthal. Your possessiveness will only serve to punish you later. Now vacate my space. I’ve much to study from the data I gathered and I’ll be quite busy...”

Jesse’s clear impatience is subdued for the time being as he takes his focus away from Moira so they can make their way out of the lab she now seemed to call home. The walk is silent, likely out of mutual respect until they can find a safe space to actually speak. Knowing how the people of Blackwatch were, the last thing either of them needed was to be having a ‘heart to heart’ in the midst of prying eyes...

It’s only a brief soft spoken phrase that Jesse speaks. It’s meant to ease Karter, and by god does it work. 

“I gotcha guppy...you’re safe.”

@bulletlocked