Fic: The World Turned Upside-Down
Mar. 19th, 2016 02:11 amTitle: The World Turned Upside-Down
Fandom: Exo
Focus: Xiumin-centric, hints of Chanyeol/Xiumin
Genre: Fantasy
Rating: G
Length: Drabble, 286 words
Summary: Minseok was never one for questioning, for exploring. Not until Chanyeol. Patema Inverted!AU
Original Post: Here.
Prompt: When I look at the stars / I worry that gravity will reverse / and I'll fall up into the sky / forever.
Author's Note: Written for the last Caucus Race of Round 2 of EIWAU. This was based off of the animated movie Patema Inverted, in which two sets of people live on Earth but with opposing gravities. It's... pretty confusing when you watch it, haha. But here, Xiumin is a resident (technically the prince) of the underground community, which I called Lagos for both simplicity's sake and in honor of one of the movie's characters. I think that was the plan anyway, I don't really remember after a year... Haha. Chanyeol is kinda in Lagos' role I guess, in opening Xiumin's mind up to the possibilities of the other community. Objects and people from one community will obey the gravity of their home community, so the photograph is from the other community, which is why it floats "up" in Xiumin's opinion but in its own reality is falling down naturally. The title is both meant literally and because of Xiumin's mindset in the process of changing, but also it's from a line from the Hamilton musical that got stuck in my head.
Fandom: Exo
Focus: Xiumin-centric, hints of Chanyeol/Xiumin
Genre: Fantasy
Rating: G
Length: Drabble, 286 words
Summary: Minseok was never one for questioning, for exploring. Not until Chanyeol. Patema Inverted!AU
The deeper tunnels were strictly off-limits to all residents of Lagos. Minseok had never really questioned it before, had just accepted it as yet another ironclad rule of his father, the chief, and carried on with his life as he scavenged for supplies in the areas they actually were allowed in.
But then Chanyeol. Chanyeol and his strange stories and that even stranger slip of glossy paper -- depicting a ceiling that wasn't just dirt and wiring, that was blue and white instead. Even stranger was the fact that whenever Chanyeol let the paper slip from his fingers, instead of falling to the ground, it would drift up towards the ceiling.
"How did you get it to do that?" Minseok asks him before his last trip. He has a lot of questions for Chanyeol, who seems to know so much despite being a couple of years younger, but he always finds himself saving them for a later that never comes.
"That's just how it's made," Chanyeol shrugs, confusion in his eyes despite the smile on his face, "I've found a lot of things like that. They'll fly up into the sky if you don't hold them tight enough."
Maybe that's why Chanyeol himself disappeared. Because Minseok didn't hold tight enough and he drifted up into the sky like the photograph had wanted to.
But maybe he hasn't gotten too far. That's why Minseok is in the tunnels now, descending lower and lower into the darkness. The rope he has tied around his waist doesn't feel quite tight enough, but he doesn't actually notice it slipping away until he's too far down to do anything besides cling more tightly to the ladder built into the tunnel's walls.
But then Chanyeol. Chanyeol and his strange stories and that even stranger slip of glossy paper -- depicting a ceiling that wasn't just dirt and wiring, that was blue and white instead. Even stranger was the fact that whenever Chanyeol let the paper slip from his fingers, instead of falling to the ground, it would drift up towards the ceiling.
"How did you get it to do that?" Minseok asks him before his last trip. He has a lot of questions for Chanyeol, who seems to know so much despite being a couple of years younger, but he always finds himself saving them for a later that never comes.
"That's just how it's made," Chanyeol shrugs, confusion in his eyes despite the smile on his face, "I've found a lot of things like that. They'll fly up into the sky if you don't hold them tight enough."
Maybe that's why Chanyeol himself disappeared. Because Minseok didn't hold tight enough and he drifted up into the sky like the photograph had wanted to.
But maybe he hasn't gotten too far. That's why Minseok is in the tunnels now, descending lower and lower into the darkness. The rope he has tied around his waist doesn't feel quite tight enough, but he doesn't actually notice it slipping away until he's too far down to do anything besides cling more tightly to the ladder built into the tunnel's walls.
Original Post: Here.
Prompt: When I look at the stars / I worry that gravity will reverse / and I'll fall up into the sky / forever.
Author's Note: Written for the last Caucus Race of Round 2 of EIWAU. This was based off of the animated movie Patema Inverted, in which two sets of people live on Earth but with opposing gravities. It's... pretty confusing when you watch it, haha. But here, Xiumin is a resident (technically the prince) of the underground community, which I called Lagos for both simplicity's sake and in honor of one of the movie's characters. I think that was the plan anyway, I don't really remember after a year... Haha. Chanyeol is kinda in Lagos' role I guess, in opening Xiumin's mind up to the possibilities of the other community. Objects and people from one community will obey the gravity of their home community, so the photograph is from the other community, which is why it floats "up" in Xiumin's opinion but in its own reality is falling down naturally. The title is both meant literally and because of Xiumin's mindset in the process of changing, but also it's from a line from the Hamilton musical that got stuck in my head.