#ldfmn

[ls-daydreams]

More tag games! (are y’all sick of me by now?)

Tagged again for the Find The Word game (#1), this time by the lovely @catchingbigfish. Thank you so much <3 And the wonderful @words-after-midnight ​tagged me for the last line (#2) & heads up seven up (#3) games. Thank youu <3

I’m still relatively new so I’m a little wary of annoying/overwhelming anyone with multiple tags, which is why I’m combining these into one post, BUUUT this time I’m sharing from different projects for each game~

Soft tagging: @wildswrites ​@pertinax--loculos ​ @tate-lin ​@nightlylaments ​​@linaket ​@dotr-rose-love ​-- no pressure, and I promise this is the last tag game post I’ll torture you with for the next few weeks!

Game #1 - Metanoia

My words: dare, rule, crisis, star, surround

Your words: bloom, sweet, fade, escape, white

dare

Although every other artistic rendition on the construction site walls left something to be desired, Kai was an ambitious 14 year old who took his artwork seriously. He was amused by all the “if u read this u suck dick” messages left behind, of course, but he wanted his art to look so cool no one would dare spraypaint a dick over, wanted it to stay there and be admired by all the other kids and hobos haunting the decrepit building. 

Most importantly, he wanted Michael to tell him he liked it.

“You know what you’re doing is a crime, right?” Michael said instead, rubbing his arms to warm himself up.

rule

“If I open my eyes… would I recognize you?” Mal asked, teeth sinking in his lower lip.

“Open them, I leave. Keep them closed, I stay.”

“Them’s the rules, eh?”

“Mhm,” the stranger agreed, playing with the hem of Mal’s jeans.

The party was still in full swing, walls vibrating under jarring cheers and the heavy bass of trashy music. To Mal though, the world outside was completely faded out. 

To him, there was only the stranger.

crisis

N/A

star

Mal slid his hand down and rested it over the stranger’s steady heart, a magnet pulling him up to nuzzle back into shelter. 

The stranger was burning so hot it felt icy.

“You gonna make me see stars or what?” Mal asked, hooking smiling lips into his own. 

surround

Kai was running, his hand in Michael’s, dashing through the wheat and up a bridge to the other side, towards home, but none of it registered. 

He didn’t notice the sunflowers, the high stems cutting through his skin, the tiny pebbles of dirt jumping in his shoes, pressing on his heels painfully as they kept running and running and running. He was panting heavily, the cold air slicing deep in his throat, but they didn't stop until they made it to the cemetery, under the protective warmth of a street lamp and familiar surroundings.

Game #2 - Flat 27

(yes, it’s not just the last line. I like cheating)

[TRANSCRIPT:

Damien pulls the curtain open. Their eyes meet.

RYAN (Voice Over): Oh. You’re-

Damien smiles, relieved. Open. Genuine.

RYAN (Voice Over): Devastating.

DAMIEN: Finally. I need you.]

Game #3 - Forget-Me-Not

[TRANSCRIPT:

He reaches for the backpack and pulls out the photo album. He clutches it to his chest.

YUL: This... this is my curse. My burden. If you look inside-

SEO JOON: Yul-ah.

Yul looks up, shaken by the familiarity between them.

SEO JOON: The only reason I’m still here is because I trusted you with my life. I’m telling you you can do the same. (beat) I promise.

Yul bites his lip.

He steels himself-

- and hands over the album.]

Taglist: @enchanted-lightning-aes​ @mirioho​

[ls-daydreams]

Original Murder Gays, take a bow~

summary: Haunted by never-ending tragedies, reporter Seo Joon decides to end his life in an almost derelict bath house. It's there he runs into a pair of odd strangers who force him to pick a side when they get into a violent fight, Seo Joon accidentally ending up killing one to save the other. A connection immediately forms between Seo Joon and the rescued stranger, Yul, who convinces the former to put off his initial plans.

It's only the next morning that Seo Joon learns two things: Yul is a photographer working for the police, and the man they killed was completely certain Yul was a serial killer trying to claim him as the next victim.

FULL STORY PAGE: HERE

PLAYLIST: spotify | youtube

After five years, numerous iterations, countless drafts, and loooong periods of wringing my brain for that one thing that was missing, this baby's finally, really, completely finished.

We’ve spend many NYEs together, dancing with Yul in his red room, helping Seo Joon type up his articles, hyping Jiwon up to keep chasing her theories, and goading Kibum to go just a little more unhinged. It’s only fitting I finish this just as this year comes to a close.

This story really put me in touch with what it felt like to love and be in love, challenged me to embrace my lows and find the uncanny beauty in them, and will always serve as the one reliable reminder that I am good. I can write. The awards it won prove it. Impostor syndrome be damned. 

Ironically, even if Forget-Me-Not is now finally put to rest, the gang’s gonna stick around for a little while longer thanks to my beloved WIP, Metanoia. SJ and Yul, you’ll always be Plain River legends, inspiring young impressionable idiots-in-love Michael and Kai. Jiwon, Michael probably wouldn’t have survived childhood without you. Kibum... your kingly eccentricies have remained untouched and present everywhere you’ve ever gone. 

This is my lil’ love letter to this piece, and I can’t wait to come back to this in a few years time and remember how much I cherish this story. For future reminiscing’s sake, I’ve included some of my favorite excerpts under the cut (spoilers ahoy).

For all of you who read this, thank you and happy new year 💖 If you’d like to read the full script, you can do so here.

‘80s Murder Gang, thanks for tackling the light with me all these years! See you in Metanoia! 

...

....

...

...

...

...

...

...

...

[ls-daydreams]

Forget-Me-Not Intro

A suicidal reporter becomes the object of a serial killer's affections.

DETAILS: genre — thriller, romance // themes — grief, peculiar love, beauty in ugliness // status — finished // medium — film // wordcount — 25k words // warnings — murder, suicide, death, blood, panic attacks, cutting

READ HERE

Story Tag | Playlist - Spotify | Playlist - Youtube

Summary, Characters & More Info under the cut

SUMMARY: Haunted by never-ending tragedies, reporter Seo Joon decides to end his life in an almost derelict bath house. It's there he runs into a pair of odd strangers who force him to pick a side when they get into a violent fight, Seo Joon accidentally ending up killing one to save the other. A connection immediately forms between Seo Joon and the rescued stranger, Yul, who convinces the former to put off his initial plans.

It's only the next morning that Seo Joon learns two things: Yul is a photographer working for the police, and the man they killed was completely certain Yul was a serial killer trying to claim him as the next victim.

CHARACTERS:

Kang Seo Joon: Lonely and alone, Seo Joon struggles to make a life for himself after succumbing into a deep depression. Drawing no satisfaction from his repetitive job, drowning in grief, and haunted by the perception that he is unlovable, he is close to surrendering to his dark thoughts when he meets Yul.

Choi Yul: A seasoned photographer with a murky past, Yul is a deeply caring man trying (and failing) to alienate himself from people in order to protect them. Afraid of losing his loved ones, he immortalizes them in photographs, to keep them alive and by his side forever.

Kim Jiwon: An ambitious police officer who refuses to take things at face value, Jiwon carries her own deep grief after losing a family member in an accident for which she blames herself. Now haunted by a strange phobia and overlooked by her peers, she is forced to choose between staying loyal to an old friend or helping a charming newcomer.

Lee Kibum: A kooky private investigator who shares a past with Yul, Kibum sticks out like a sore thumb and loves it. Never still and always cheerful, he hides a dangerous and obsessive persona behind silly pretenses and an overwhelming friendliness.

Yong Sanghyuk: A troubled, vengeful man still feeling his brother's loss even after decades. Driven only by grief and rage, he carelessly throws away his life in his pursuit for revenge, managing to come only seconds away from achieving his goal.

MORE INFO:

The Inspiration & Idea: Originally titled Focus, this story served as my final major project for my Bachelor's. Having fought to write this idea (which was called too ambitious and hard to write at the time), it was all I could think about for months, and championing it proved to be the best decision I could possibly make. Inspired - again - mainly by Taemin's work, the story kept evolving throughout the years, and I with it. I wanted to explore the idea of grief and how different people experience and live with it, as well as discussing odd and intricate bonds between people who, despite being alienated from the world, understand each other perfectly.

The Feedback: This is my most successful story to date, having won Blue Cat's Fellini Award in 2020 and Best Dialogue & Best Characters at the 2021 Plot Point Awards, as well as placing as a quarterfinalist in Final Draft's 2020 Big Break Contest and semifinalist in Screencraft's 2020 Drama Competition. I was also a semifinalist for the Academy Nicholl Fellowship in 2020, which is still quite surreal.

The Extended Universe: I wrote two companion pieces to this:

1. Snapshots, a mock-up of Yul's photo album from the film. The idea would be to scan codes on the back of the photos, which would take you to a diary entry, a video, or a letter exploring that certain period in Yul's life. It goes from his childhood all the way to the night he meets Seo Joon.

2. To My Star, a transmedia experience in the form of a love letter Seo Joon writes to Yul. This letter is narrated, recorded, and played over a video containing photographs and articles from the film, as well as accompanied by physical elements such as Yul's origami rose and some of his polaroids. This piece was shown during the Underdog Scriptwriting Festival in 2019.

Both these pieces correlate to earlier drafts of the story, so I'm not making them public as they're riddled with inconsistencies. 

The universe of Forget-Me-Not also expands into both Metanoia and Flat 27, the action taking place in the same small town (Plain River)