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Fic: Asymptote
Title: Asymptote
Fandom: Exo
Focus: Suho-centric
Genre: Gen, mild angst
Rating: G
Length: Oneshot (drabble), 200 words
Summary: Joonmyun's a leader, but he has his limits.
Prompts: Taken from seouldout's Round 6 Challenge Three:Author's Note: I honestly only used the picture prompt for this. :( Mostly because I have no experience being drunk, although I did think of ways I could have interpreted that differently. But anyway, yes. Picture prompt, which was of a dream-catcher this week! Honestly, for starting out with as good an analysis as I had this week, I just couldn't do justice to this prompt and that makes me pretty regretful :(
So. What does a dream-catcher mean. Obviously a dream-catcher... catches dreams. Haha, I actually had to go look up things about dream-catchers and I found a few interesting points! While a dream-catcher has protective qualities in that it filters good dreams from bad and allows the good ones to trail down to the sleeper's head, they are actually meant to dry out and break over time! Well, the wood and sinew they're made out of are supposed to, because the sleeper eventually has to learn to sleep without depending on them for good dreams. So that was my theme -- limited protection, protection with a limit.
Here, Joonmyun is worried about Exo's future. Since it takes place in 2011, this was before Exo debuted, but after they were put together as a group. Joonmyun, as the longest-running SM trainee, has seen what happens in SM. The breaking imagery of DBSK and Super Junior were deliberate so it'd match the breaking of the dream-catcher. Anyway, because of what happened with JYJ and Han Geng, the SM trainees had their contracts changed. Also, at the time of f(x)'s debut, it was assumed that SM's next boyband would be released in 2010. We -- and here, Joonmyun -- were wrong. Here he thought the new contract meant a closer debut + better conditions, but he was wrong on both counts.
Fast-forward to 2011, he's working with Yifan who hasn't taken on the name of Kris yet, the same way Joonmyun hasn't taken on the name Suho yet. They're going through the contracts because if there are too many differences -- specifically in the amount of money earned and the number of years someone is contracted to -- the group is more likely to be unstable and have tension. Too many differences, too many marks (the ink on Yifan's fingers) make Joonmyun nervous. That's why numbers are important -- cost and profit are driving factors in producing an idol group and Joonmyun knows that, and a difference in the numbers will ultimately hurt Exo.
The last two parts... focus on the protecting imagery. Suho means "Guardian" and Joonmyun wants to protect Exo -- for his sake, for the group's sake. But he has his limits, the way a nightlight and a dream-catcher (both protective images) would. There's only so much he could do. The asymptote in the title refers to these limits and to Joonmyun's aspirations at becoming someone like Shinhwa's Eric, who successfully kept his group together for 14 years after having to pretty much buy the group with his own money. Joonmyun doesn't ever see himself becoming like Eric, however much he'd like to, like in an asymptote, the line never meets a certain point. :(
And that's pretty much it. I didn't pull as much from the prompts this time, so I'll probably try to do an alternative drabble that does.
Fandom: Exo
Focus: Suho-centric
Genre: Gen, mild angst
Rating: G
Length: Oneshot (drabble), 200 words
Summary: Joonmyun's a leader, but he has his limits.
2009's a momentous year: DBSK cracks into two, Super Junior chips into fragments, SM debuts their last group for three years. Joonmyun watches with ridiculously misplaced hopes as his contract changes, most of the terms just prettily, precisely reworded.
It's not for the last time. By 2011 he's well-versed enough to comb through twelve contracts with Yifan one night, armed with pens and dictionaries -- Korean, Chinese, English, legal. The smallest differences are circled, cross-analyzed, counted. He doesn't know what numbers to look for, just that they should be the same. Numbers determine debuts and disbandments.
"Is it really important?" Yifan asks, rubbing his eyes with ink-smeared fingers. Joonmyun stares at them despairingly. A group split down the middle -- strained by distance, differences, dreams -- is a bad enough start. How can they protect Exo if the odds are already against them?
But then, that's his job. Being leader's more than a label, and "I'm Exo's Guardian" actually means something.
A nightlight's batteries die out eventually though, dream-catchers dry up over time -- Joonmyun is just as aware of his own limits. He'd like to be an Eric, but it'd be a miracle if he could just be Suho.
It's not for the last time. By 2011 he's well-versed enough to comb through twelve contracts with Yifan one night, armed with pens and dictionaries -- Korean, Chinese, English, legal. The smallest differences are circled, cross-analyzed, counted. He doesn't know what numbers to look for, just that they should be the same. Numbers determine debuts and disbandments.
"Is it really important?" Yifan asks, rubbing his eyes with ink-smeared fingers. Joonmyun stares at them despairingly. A group split down the middle -- strained by distance, differences, dreams -- is a bad enough start. How can they protect Exo if the odds are already against them?
But then, that's his job. Being leader's more than a label, and "I'm Exo's Guardian" actually means something.
A nightlight's batteries die out eventually though, dream-catchers dry up over time -- Joonmyun is just as aware of his own limits. He'd like to be an Eric, but it'd be a miracle if he could just be Suho.
Prompts: Taken from seouldout's Round 6 Challenge Three:Author's Note: I honestly only used the picture prompt for this. :( Mostly because I have no experience being drunk, although I did think of ways I could have interpreted that differently. But anyway, yes. Picture prompt, which was of a dream-catcher this week! Honestly, for starting out with as good an analysis as I had this week, I just couldn't do justice to this prompt and that makes me pretty regretful :(
So. What does a dream-catcher mean. Obviously a dream-catcher... catches dreams. Haha, I actually had to go look up things about dream-catchers and I found a few interesting points! While a dream-catcher has protective qualities in that it filters good dreams from bad and allows the good ones to trail down to the sleeper's head, they are actually meant to dry out and break over time! Well, the wood and sinew they're made out of are supposed to, because the sleeper eventually has to learn to sleep without depending on them for good dreams. So that was my theme -- limited protection, protection with a limit.
Here, Joonmyun is worried about Exo's future. Since it takes place in 2011, this was before Exo debuted, but after they were put together as a group. Joonmyun, as the longest-running SM trainee, has seen what happens in SM. The breaking imagery of DBSK and Super Junior were deliberate so it'd match the breaking of the dream-catcher. Anyway, because of what happened with JYJ and Han Geng, the SM trainees had their contracts changed. Also, at the time of f(x)'s debut, it was assumed that SM's next boyband would be released in 2010. We -- and here, Joonmyun -- were wrong. Here he thought the new contract meant a closer debut + better conditions, but he was wrong on both counts.
Fast-forward to 2011, he's working with Yifan who hasn't taken on the name of Kris yet, the same way Joonmyun hasn't taken on the name Suho yet. They're going through the contracts because if there are too many differences -- specifically in the amount of money earned and the number of years someone is contracted to -- the group is more likely to be unstable and have tension. Too many differences, too many marks (the ink on Yifan's fingers) make Joonmyun nervous. That's why numbers are important -- cost and profit are driving factors in producing an idol group and Joonmyun knows that, and a difference in the numbers will ultimately hurt Exo.
The last two parts... focus on the protecting imagery. Suho means "Guardian" and Joonmyun wants to protect Exo -- for his sake, for the group's sake. But he has his limits, the way a nightlight and a dream-catcher (both protective images) would. There's only so much he could do. The asymptote in the title refers to these limits and to Joonmyun's aspirations at becoming someone like Shinhwa's Eric, who successfully kept his group together for 14 years after having to pretty much buy the group with his own money. Joonmyun doesn't ever see himself becoming like Eric, however much he'd like to, like in an asymptote, the line never meets a certain point. :(
And that's pretty much it. I didn't pull as much from the prompts this time, so I'll probably try to do an alternative drabble that does.