oneus xion (dongju) x leedo (geonhak)

delirium

after being washed ashore, geonhak fell into the arms of heaven themself

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   There was sand everywhere. It burrowed into his skin and left behind aching, raw, angry scabs in its wake. It cloaked the man like a second skin - like a blanket of coarse paper clung to his face and arms, unable to be pried off even with the harshest of scratches. His hair dripped with salt water and was encrusted with dried sediment, the sand forming shells around each lock of his ebony waves. The sand crept into his eyes and made them water to the point the man was crying - whether from the sand, or the crushing weight of the situation he was in, he no longer knew.

   Geonhak was a traveling merchant; he sailed from island to island, country to country, seeking people to buy his hand-crafted pots and bowls, his finely cut jewelry and polished shells, his seasoned and filleted fish poppers and delicately refreshing coconut spritzers. He was a man of all trades he was told - literally and metaphorically - for he sold all and did all. Geonhak went to a prestigious college in the heart of his country, studied to be an architect of the Roman-esqe temples that dotted the country, but fell out of such interest in less than a year. He's always had a passion for trade, the idea of crafting and selling, that he thought he'd risk his future, his family's fortune, his name, his life for his business.

   "Looks like I really did risk my life, didn't I?"

   Geonhak struggled onto his knees; his back ached worse than it ever has, and it seemed like he couldn't use his right arm. With slow and precarious movements, Geonhak twisted his right arm to peek near his shoulder; what he saw knocked the breath from his lungs.

   A large wooden splinter, about the size of Geonhak's hand, was lodged inside his upper arm. How it got there, he couldn't remember. What he could remember, though, he pushed out of mind before it could resurface. Waves the size of buildings crashing onto his tiny boat, wind howling as loud as a stadium's cry, his precious treasures and gems scattered about the churning waters, a wave - determined in its course that looked to have sneered at Geonhak - collapsing onto his tattered boat, total darkness.

   Geonhak must've tensed, for his arm seized with white-hot pain. Before he could stop seeing two of things, he ripped the splinter free and threw it as far away as possible. Geonhak doubled over and landed on the sand, nearly jolting with fresh waves of searing pain. But he knew he couldn't stay like this. Geonhak didn't know where he was; all he knew was how he ended up here - well, parts of it - and that he wouldn't let himself bleed out on the beach of some random island.

   With excruciating effort, Geonhak lifted himself up and tore off a piece of his cloth pants, ignoring the quivering of his arm and tying a makeshift tourniquet so tight that Geonhak's head buzzed after it was all over. He sat in the sand, knees to his chest and tears down his cheeks and breaths like squeaks of mice, and waited. Waited for a fisherman or a townsperson to stumble upon him, waited for a sliver of gentle sunlight, waited for the sound of distant thunder to pass so his legs could stop shaking for him to walk.

   The past several minutes were the most hollow Geonhak has ever felt. He has no idea where he is, the remaining morsels of determination drained from him like the blood now trickling down his arm and onto the sand, he has no one to ask for help, because who would come to a rocky shoreline on the brink of a thunderstorm, and he was shivering - whether from the hole in his arm, or the saltwater Geonhak's clothes were soaked him, he couldn't decipher between the two.

   He felt defeated, lonely, withered, and oh so terrified that when he heard the sweet melody of a woman's voice, Geonhak didn't hesitate to scramble onto his feet and sprint toward the song.

   Geonhak slammed into a wall of jagged rock and craned his neck to see past them. After hobbling around the shoreline, the washed-up man concluded that the beautiful, almost alluring song was coming from across a barrier of fierce, pointed beach rock. With trembling legs and the softest of touches - because the tourniquet was now stained completely red and his tricep now streaked with crimson - Geonhak stepped atop a slippery rock and peered through the spires of rock.

   Through a thin sheet of drizzle, Geonhak saw more angular rocks, each with its own sheen of diamonds, carpeting a small coast and conjoining beach. The air across the rock wall seem lighter, almost fresher, and definitely clearer, for the water glistened brighter, and sand appeared softer, and the person draped across the flats of rocks shone like a pearl in an oyster.

   The person - Geonhak didn't know what to call them, since they had the voice of a woman, but the physique of a man - sang a song Geonhak didn't recognize, however that was the least of his worries, for the song was the only reason he was able to see this beauty. Their hair curled into ringlets of springy mahogany, coupled with pearly shells and stripes of shimmering seaweed; their chest was shrouded in fine, opaque material as if they were displaying their muscles for painters to observe; their spindly legs were curtained by silk, and Geonhak swore he saw flayed skin at their heels; their porcelain body shone with a faint glow, almost like a beacon of warmth and safety and care, something Geonhak so desperately longed for; and as the man - blinded by a sort of wild desire for comfort - climbed over the rocks and sunk his feet into the pillowy sand, the person turned just in time to see Geonhak drop to his knees.

   Even through the overwhelming dizziness and intense nausea that tore through Geonhak's body, he was still able to take in the art that was the being's face, since Geonhak was convinced no one from this realm looked as they did.

   They had a forehead of polished marble, eyes of blown glass, a nose carved from the Gods, cheeks like summer clouds, and lips made of rose petals and spring water. Eyelashes like chaste kisses fluttered their eyes closed, and diamonds like dew droplets littered their face. Copper spirals sprung free from their sea-shelled homes and graced the skin of their forehead like summer shade, their eyebrows like strips of honed bronze.

   Geonhak felt like he was falling before he landed in the hands of this beauty. He was lost and frightened, like a kitten amid the bustle of city life. Everywhere he looked his surroundings rushed past him with complete disregard for the injured man: the wind wiped and whistled a death song, the clouds above rumbled a dark chuckle, their ash color as menacing as the glares the razor-sharp rocks gave him from their perch along the beach, the trees whispered with sweet malice, like a poison berry dipped in sugar. Geonhak was so petrified that when the person gave him the slightest notion of comfort, the smallest glance of care and warmth, Geonhak stopped, fell into their arms, and wept.

   "Shh, there-there. You're safe now, my sweet." They caressed Geonhak's cheek so lightly it felt like a fleeting kiss, and the man yearned for affection of any kind during this moment, so he leaned towards the being, getting as close as his forehead to their chest before another gut-wrenching sob wracked his body.

   "Please don't leave me," Geonhak managed to sputter through gulps of humid air. This daze he was trapped in felt too surreal to be reality, so he unwound himself, let himself fall into the mysterious yet oh-so-intoxicating delirium, allowed himself to get drunk off the spell he was under.

   "How could I ever leave someone like you here?" Their voice was like crisp church bells. Geonhak felt a slender finger curl under his chin and bring it up to face the being; he held back a gasp and a whimper. "You're too beautiful to leave behind."

   Geonhak felt his mind cloud, the corners of his eye fade out into a milky fog, the throbbing along his arm melt into the rhythm of his heart. It was all too much for Geonhak that all his body could do was spill tears and drip blood and continue gawking at the wonder in front of him. However, in the deepest recesses of his mind, the ones that were shrouded so thickly by the rose-colored fog, was an alarm ringing at full volume.

   Just as Geonhak was going to lift his arm to push away, the being trailed its soft fingers up his injured arm; he felt his arm convulse - whether out of pain or fear, he didn't know - yet the pleasing feeling of velvety tendrils ghosting up his arm sent rivers of tears down Geonhak's cheeks.

   "Say, what happened here? I can't have my beauties tainted."

   The perfectly cylindrical fingers came into view stained crimson, and through his haze, Geonhak was able to mouth 'boat sunk'. The being before him seemed to jolt with worry and horror, bringing the man closer so that one arm was gently circling his waist.

   The man visibly fell deeper into the rose-curtained well. All his senses were drowned out and completely focused on the being holding Geonhak. Nothing mattered anymore; his helplessness was replaced by warmth and pleasure and love - Yes, Geonhak loved the being before him. He saved Geonhak's life, they plucked him from the jaws of death and laid him upon a silk bed of rose petals. They nurtured him and listened to him and cared for him when no one else did; they showed him kindness and beauty and protection from a world of destruction, hatred, and death.

   The marble fingers danced before Geonhak's eyes, twirling and spinning in shimmering light that when the being brought them to their mouth, Geonhak didn't register the cleaned fingers and spiked teeth until a pain so unbearable that it dissolved the dream knifed through him.

   Geonhak fell to the sand as the being climbed on top of his writhing body to hold it in place. All the man could see were stars; the being had snaked its finger into his gash and taken hold of the bone, gripping it so hard and tight that Geonhak was sure the bone would snap. He lurched as if he was going to vomit, but the being clamped his cheeks together and wrenched his head up.

   The once heavenly beauty morphed into a scaly creature that resembled a mermaid, however, its arms and legs were adorned with webbed fins, its mouth was lined with knife-like teeth, and its eyes shone gold and reflected animalistic need.

   "You tasted so good, my beauty," The creature hissed, and Geonhak dry-heaved again, only to be thrown to the sand and dragged toward the hungry waves.

   Through surges of powerful nausea, flashes of ice and flame, and an unsatiable ocean lapping at his body, Geonhak knew this was his end. He knew of the tales of mythical creatures lurking the beaches for washed sailors, and he knew he would be another tally on their victim board, yet he wasn't scared. Geonhak was miserable that he wouldn't be able to feel that rose-scented dream ever again, to experience the comfort, the warmth, the affection, the adoration, the pleasure, and the madness that the siren spelled him with. Call him a dishonorable man for thinking of illusion when seconds away from death, but Geonhak would rather have died seeing and breathing Heaven than enduring Hell twice.

   And so Geonhak was swept into sea by a siren all too beautiful for this world, not longing for the unexplored, but content with the delirium cast

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guess whos back!??!!? ME WHOREs

this took me months to write im so sorry (u can literally tell when i stopped and picked dit back up a moth later lmFAO-)

but i made my comeback!!! be ready for more shorts!!!

till next time <33