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A/N: drop-dead gorgeous (hakric, true blood au)
I literally don't have the brains to do anything today, so I figured I'd just talk to myself for a bit and see if that helps? (because what are these if not me going "hey remember when you did THIS lol") and it's been a while since I finished a fic and felt this LOST, like, what am I supposed to do now that I'm done with [redacted]??? exist?? awful. just awful.
anyway, this was another fest fic! and a true blood au because what is more me than that? nothing.
so let's talk vampires.
some initial thoughts: the idea of this fest was so good! basically, you could write anything based on a piece of media from the 90s or the 00s, and it had to be centered on a 99/00liner. any fandom, any piece of media as long as it had aired/been published within that timeframe. SO many things to draw from, so many iconic universes to choose from.
coincidentally, I had already started a hakric true blood au fic before I had even heard about the fest. so I thought it'd be a good opportunity to a) actually finish the fic and b) join a multifandom fest for once! because so far I had only joined fandom-specific fests, and hey, why not, right? so I joined knowing I wouldn't have much of an issue with deadlines or planning. the fic was already half-planned, and what with it being a true blood au, I knew I wouldn't have a hard time.
and I was right! I actually finished it in december, waaaay before the deadline. way before I posted maps, which turned out to be my "first" hakric fic because of how long it took for this one to be posted T_T
the title was supposed to be punny and was sort of inspired by "drop dead gorgeous" (1999)? that movie had been on my watchlist for so long that this was the push I needed to finally watch it in march. I can't recall if I posted the fic to the collection before or after that but I'm pretty sure I got the idea from there! kgfdkfdjkk
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some observations:
He wasn’t used to seeing things so clearly—and this wasn’t a vampire thing, he realized, he was just really glad he didn’t need his glasses anymore.
not enough mention of that in vampire-themed media!!! what do you mean I can see WITHOUT TWO PIECES OF GLASS IN FRONT OF MY EYES!! this also reminds me that I was (and kind of still am) bothered with the way I was describing things here. I don't know why I was having such a hard time with just... descriptions? maybe I wanted this to be /more/ detailed, more descriptive, but couldn't quite get there in the end. maybe the past tense made things harder for me too... so this was one of those fics where I was like "this sounds so weird, but I don't know how to fix it". I did have a lot of fun with the dialogues, though!
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He bared his teeth and watched in amazement as they came down again, pointy and sharp.
retractable fangs make no sense to me but I love them so much because they're so practical! one of my favorite things about this universe.
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Like clawing his way out of a grave.
[...]
"That’s the price for taking a vampire life. Making another one."
I hope this post doesn't turn into a long list of true blood references, but this was inspired by jessica's character! she gets turned pretty much the same way and for the same reason eric gets turned here, still on the first season. the "kill one, make one" rule is one of the things I remember most vividly about the lore of the show, I'm not sure why? jessica doesn't even exist in the books. but I thought it made sense in this context for sunwoo to be an unwilling participant in this, sort of - he's not turning eric because he's thrilled about being a maker (#VAMPDAD), he just had to. that makes their dynamic so much funnier.
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“I’m a vampire. There’s barely any difference.”
“How many people have you killed?”
Sunwoo didn’t answer.
one of the things I adored in the sookie stackhouse books (aka the books that were adapted into the tv show) is that a lot of the vampires had really shitty lives, both before and after being turned. and sometimes being turned wasn't a good thing, or when it was, it wasn't a matter of choice; sometimes people were turned because they were about to die, and a vampire spared their life for one reason or another - that was the case with sunwoo. he had a hard human life, and an only slightly less hard vampire one. he's not the most enthusiastic about vampire life, but he has his reasons to feel that way.
I never thought his backstory through from start to finish but I know that even if I wanted to expand on that, I wouldn't. it'd be way too dark for this fic lol
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“I’m a journalist.”
hak here is aiming for a food critic career, hence the journalism degree! that piece of info never made it into the fic itself. it's the second time I write him as a journalist, I think? I mean, technically the first - after this I made him a TV/movie critic in 311/312. I just think he'd love to be paid to share his thoughts and opinions!!!
THIS POST BROUGHT TO YOU BY THE JOURNALIST!HAKNYEON GANG.
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“Fae?” Eric looked at Sunwoo, confused.
“Fae,” Sunwoo confirmed. “A fairy. To a vampire, fae blood is…”
“I’m basically the tastiest thing you’d ever have,” the guy said. He didn’t sound bothered by it. If anything, he sounded bored. “Like a cheeseburger.”
I'm like 98% sure I took the cheeseburger line straight out of the books. or was it on the show too? anyway, the books (and the tv show, to a lesser extent) have so! many! supernatural! creatures!! the fairies being incredibly tasty to vampires is another thing that's part of the lore and plays into interspecies politics etc. plus in the books the main character is part fae, so iirc that explains why she's so... well, attractive to vampires. (these books are the trashiest thing I've ever read and I love them very much.) I considered making hak have something special too - maybe he could read minds like sookie? - but then thought, nah. too much supernatural things going on already. eric doesn't need an excuse to be crazy about him, anyway. it's just regular attraction.
and I'd been thinking about fae!chanhee for a while when I wrote this, so everything just fit :')
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Sunwoo then went to explain that vampire blood, although useless to vampires themselves, carried enough magic to offer more than one benefit to any human who drank a mere drop of it. The most common effect was a high similar to a party drug, more often than not associated with enhanced libido (think Viagra meets ecstasy), but in big doses could also offer healing beyond what was considered possible by modern medicine. It was addictive too, like any drug [...]
lore dump! this was taken from the books/show too. I actually reread the first few chapters of the first book to remember what the comparison was (viagra + something else). this paragraph always gets a chuckle out of me because the source material is so HORNY and UNHINGED, that this fic reads like a super sfw version of the universe. honestly. I know eric is horny here but if I wanted to make this Extra Horny I could totally go there because that would be much closer to the original work.
also, I worried that this would be considered a chekhov's gun of sorts - like, would people reading it expect this particular bit of lore to come into play later? I wondered if I should go there, but just like with sunwoo's backstory, I didn't want to make this fic too dark. I really wanted it to be lighthearted and fun!! so after jenny yelled at me that it was fine and that I didn't need to go there, I just made sure the info played into the overall conflict of eric learning what it really means to be a vampire, and how that affects how he (and sunwoo) react to haknyeon.
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Eric could not be happier to lie on his shitty bed and have Bolt jump on his stomach like he was a tiny pomeranian and not an overweight bulldog mix.
FICTIONAL BOLT I LOVE YOU. I had a blast writing eric having a dog named BOLT because technically he IS bolt but look. my universe, my rules. and then later the real eric said he'd consider bolt as a name for his future dog so! it's set in stone now.
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He was coming back from the bar with his bottle of TruBlood and Juyeon’s dark beer, wincing at the off-key rendition of IU’s 25 going on at the karaoke stage, when a familiar voice called his name.
1) I love the idea of hyunjae tagging along for juyeon's terrible ideas of a night out, like whatever this place is. just two dudes! hyunjae is the best friend you could ever hope for, let's be real... 2) for some reason I pictured a very drunk keonhee on that karaoke stage??
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[...] taking in Haknyeon’s sharp edges and round softness somehow perfectly encompassed in one.
I don't think I'll ever be able to describe haknyeon in any other way... this is exactly how I see him: sharp features but with something very soft about it too.
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[...] watching as Eric went through the boxes at the back of his closet looking for that one set of a card game he used to play with friends a couple years back.
same game juyeon and hyunjae are playing in the first scene of everything about you. I'm OBSESSED with this game and I wrote this when I still playing it too, so the fact that I added it here is no surprise at all.
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“Literally would never have pegged you as a math guy.”
Eric snorted, more like a honk than anything. “No one does.”
eric is SMART AS FUCK and a little bit of a genius and I will DIE ON THIS HILL.
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He was wearing all black, including the eyeliner on his eyes and the nail polish on his fingers, and his outfit had more studs and chains than Eric had ever worn in his entire life combined.
[...]
(+ this from a later scene:) The lights bounced off the many rings he was wearing every time he moved his hands during conversation.
now, this. this is the thing that I'm constantly thinking about. hyunjun isn't just a full-blown goth here, though he uses fashion in his favor. his studs and chains and rings are actually silver/silver-plated. he's COVERED in anti-vampire stuff. haknyeon is right about one thing - hyunjun is smart, and he knows what he's doing.
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Eric was confused. “That’s it?” He waited until Sunwoo had looked up at him again. “No lecture? No ‘I’ll take away your phone for a week’? No ‘I’ll hang you from your toes until you apologize’?”
“You’re not 15 and I’m not the Inquisition.”
“Could’ve fooled me.”
I love this dialogue. when I started thinking about this au, and even after I had started writing it, I didn't imagine I'd end up giving the sunwoo/eric dynamic this much weight. but it was a lot of fun thinking up their relationship here, the supposedly cold and detached vampire who cares, and the new vampire who is so incredibly bad at reading him. plus it was a 9900liner fest, so once sunwoo started taking up more space in the story, I just let it happen. made it a maknaeline fic of sorts :')
and the idea that sunric couldn't STAND each other at first irl (I'm exaggerating things here, please don't take this too seriously) makes it a lot of fun to explore the "wow I just met you and I already hate you" dynamic I like to imagine they had during their first year of training/working together. and then that animosity turning into a really close friendship because you now #understand each other... excellent.
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He knew Felix was and would always be there to offer a friendly shoulder, and that both Seoyoung and Seokyoung would maim anyone he pointed to and accused of being mean to him.
the minutes I spent on kprofiles just to add this line about felix here... but then I made eric be friends with seoyoung and seokyoung?? sometimes you win the canon-compliant/canon-adjacent game, sometimes you don't.
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Changmin, Eric learned, was the owner of PIAN5 (the bar they were at), and Giwook was one of Sunwoo’s oldest friends [...]
this bar is another true blood reference, technically. the vampire bar on the show plays such an important part in the story, that I kinda just did the same thing here, and made my own fangtasia (oh, I love that name so much). "pian5" is supposed to be a pun too: it reads as "piano" since 5 = "o", and the "pi" references "blood". what exactly is the meaning of the name, though? I have no idea!!! not fluent enough to make actually smart puns! but "an(e)/안(에)" works as a noun/preposition too, like "(with)in", so I just imagined it'd mean something silly and punny!!!
and also, so many cameos. SO many cameos. all of the vampire cameos except for changmin are 9900liners too. I love a theme! yeoreum, haeun, dongju were totally self-indulgent on my part; giwook had to make an appearence as sunwoo's actual friend because I'll never not love this friendship.
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“Hanging out with fangbangers?” Changmin whistled. To Sunwoo, he said, “You’re letting him have some fun, finally.”
fangbangers are something from the true blood universe too, but I meant for them to be much more socially acceptable and just like, a part of society here. eric doesn't really know any fangbangers so he has no idea how to address them or talk about them, which is kinda really funny? because it's not exactly a taboo lol eric is just inexperienced and a little sheltered.
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"A vampire my age, or even Changmin’s age, won’t go down easily."
[...] It was a bit unsettling; there was something about him, the way he talked, that felt old, ancient even, but Eric couldn’t pinpoint what exactly.
giwook really is ANCIENT (the godric of this universe, sort of, if any #truebies end up reading this). changmin is old. sunwoo is like a baby vampire next to them.
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“I don’t. I’m just—“ Sunwoo sighed, admitting defeat before he had even uttered the words. “I’m just scared of dogs. In general.”
2017/2018 sunwoo who was scared of dogs, you're so special to me.
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Too bad he had mastered the art of tuning out the voice of reason when it served him.
to me, writing eric - especially in a non-canon setting - is so much fun because it forces me to think outside the box. there's no running away with him, no ignoring feelings, no permanently pushing people away. the way I write him, there's always gonna be some bad decisions happening, but like, he doesn't see any of it as a bad decision. he's just always gonna follow his heart if he can. BECAUSE HE LOVES PEOPLE!!! and he's not scared to show that!!! fuck holding grudges, he misses him, goddammit.
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[...] it was still exhilarating to see him standing there, wearing a blue sweater that looked as soft as his black hair. The sleeves were a bit too long for him; the effect was adorable for the sweater paws it gave him, but Eric was too distracted to comment on that.
and then like a month later haknyeon showed up like this and I cried.
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“Yeah. Exactly. Then I could get the thrill I was looking for and move on with my life. Hopefully forget the whole thing, if I was lucky.”
th-thrill ride th-rill ride ooh yeahhh
hak's character was the hardest one for me. I think that's why I started the fic and stopped before joining the fest, because I was trying to figure out /who/ he was, and what his motives were. I knew eric would be a clueless new vampire, but who would hak be? would he be a fangbanger? that could be fun! but I wasn't totally satisfied with that idea. just like hak didn't need any special powers to attract eric, I thought that nah, hak doesn't need to be super crazy about vampires to be attracted to eric, either. so instead I made hyunjun the fangbanger, and I think I like where this led them!! to talking it out, sussing out each other's motives for being there, etc.
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“True,” Haknyeon conceded. He gave Eric’s shoulder another brief kiss. “Whether they’re vampires or not.”
Eric didn’t know what to say to that other than a soft, “Yeah.”
He was pretty sure his heart would be beating really loud if it could still beat at all.
I love this scene... the first few paragraphs are a bit clunky but I like this conversation, I like how honest they are with each other here :( peak romance, opening your heart to another person and talking about your most irrational fears??? I LOVE the roundabout confession too.
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"[...] And if the worst happens—”
“It won’t.”
“If the worst happens,” Sunwoo repeated himself, voice firm, eyes just as serious. “You call me. Immediately.”
ah, the "I'd help you hide a body" love language... my favorite.
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Not just because Hyunjun was an actor and Eric loved the idea of accompanying Haknyeon to see him, but because he liked the experience, too.
the way I finished this fic and then a couple weeks later hyunjun announced his first acting gig... BLESS.
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From the framed posters on the walls of movies older than both of them to the ever-growing collection of mugs on the display shelf reserved for that particular purpose [...]
did I describe haknyeon's apartment or my dream apartment? good question. not much to say about the sex scene that follows, only that I tried not to make it too horny/explicit (because I don't think I can write hakric smut, especially in this universe, and not make it a bit too horny?), and I loved making eric go GRAB A FORK. STAB ME IF I DON'T STOP. because honestly, who THE FUCK would do that if not eric...
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“Ratched,” Hyunjun said. When Eric gave him a blank look, he added, “The TV show? It’s on Netflix.”
I had just finished watching the show when I wrote this scene. so much fun imagining eric still trying to wrap his head around the fact that the vampires around him are not, in fact, bloodthirst murderers but just a bunch of guys watching netflix like him. OMG WHO'S KILLING WHO!! sarah paulson on her new netflix show, calm down, dude.
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“Babe, hang on. You gotta help us settle this.”
“That’s not fair!” Sunwoo argued. “He’s gonna take your side.”
“Excuse me? He’s his own person with his own opinions,” Haknyeon said, then turned back to Eric again. “But please do take my side. Park Seojoon or Cha Eunwoo? Eunwoo, right?”
DKGKFDJNFDKHFDB I HAD TO... I had to include the sunwoo/haknyeon dynamic because a) SO HILARIOUS to think of sunwoo begrudgingly warming up to haknyeon for eric's sake and haknyeon likewise making an effort to befriend sunwoo because he knows how important sunwoo is to him, and b) even funnier to think of them actually becoming friends and forming the ultimate Protect Eric Squad that no one would ever dare fuck with. also I always laugh when I picture haknyeon going EXCUSE ME? HE'S HIS OWN PERSON WITH HIS OWN OPINIONS but yeah take my side please and thank you <3
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“You’re way too soft to play big bad vampire dom. No one would fall for that.”
he's right.
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some final thoughts: I really, really had a blast writing this fic, I think because it combines a bunch of my favorite things: the true blood universe, writing from eric's pov, writing a hak ship, some lighthearted humor, a BUNCH of dialogue... all things I love and have fun with. this was when I realized that OH, eric is a delight to write as a main character. I already knew I loved writing him as a side character, but his pov is definitely one of my favorites now.
and vampires!!! I really like vampires. I had no idea how much until I understood I don't care half as much about other supernatural creatures as I do about vampires kdfgkhbfdkhd growing up with underworld can really change a person.
anywho, hakric is one of the most fun tbz ships to write for, I think. the potential of Chaotic, Loves Too Much Person A meets Chaotic, Loves Too Much Person B is !!! immensurable. the banter alone? 10/10.
even though I didn't think much of this fic when I first finished it and when it was first posted (I was SO SURE I had done a terrible job with characterization??), I think I can overlook the things I didn't like more easily now. like, it's hakric. they're both idiots here. I love them. and I love this universe. that's what matters :')
(and, as usual, the positive feedback meant the world to me... it's hard to be too self-deprecating when people are so nice ;;)
anyway, this was another fest fic! and a true blood au because what is more me than that? nothing.
so let's talk vampires.
some initial thoughts: the idea of this fest was so good! basically, you could write anything based on a piece of media from the 90s or the 00s, and it had to be centered on a 99/00liner. any fandom, any piece of media as long as it had aired/been published within that timeframe. SO many things to draw from, so many iconic universes to choose from.
coincidentally, I had already started a hakric true blood au fic before I had even heard about the fest. so I thought it'd be a good opportunity to a) actually finish the fic and b) join a multifandom fest for once! because so far I had only joined fandom-specific fests, and hey, why not, right? so I joined knowing I wouldn't have much of an issue with deadlines or planning. the fic was already half-planned, and what with it being a true blood au, I knew I wouldn't have a hard time.
and I was right! I actually finished it in december, waaaay before the deadline. way before I posted maps, which turned out to be my "first" hakric fic because of how long it took for this one to be posted T_T
the title was supposed to be punny and was sort of inspired by "drop dead gorgeous" (1999)? that movie had been on my watchlist for so long that this was the push I needed to finally watch it in march. I can't recall if I posted the fic to the collection before or after that but I'm pretty sure I got the idea from there! kgfdkfdjkk
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some observations:
He wasn’t used to seeing things so clearly—and this wasn’t a vampire thing, he realized, he was just really glad he didn’t need his glasses anymore.
not enough mention of that in vampire-themed media!!! what do you mean I can see WITHOUT TWO PIECES OF GLASS IN FRONT OF MY EYES!! this also reminds me that I was (and kind of still am) bothered with the way I was describing things here. I don't know why I was having such a hard time with just... descriptions? maybe I wanted this to be /more/ detailed, more descriptive, but couldn't quite get there in the end. maybe the past tense made things harder for me too... so this was one of those fics where I was like "this sounds so weird, but I don't know how to fix it". I did have a lot of fun with the dialogues, though!
He bared his teeth and watched in amazement as they came down again, pointy and sharp.
retractable fangs make no sense to me but I love them so much because they're so practical! one of my favorite things about this universe.
Like clawing his way out of a grave.
[...]
"That’s the price for taking a vampire life. Making another one."
I hope this post doesn't turn into a long list of true blood references, but this was inspired by jessica's character! she gets turned pretty much the same way and for the same reason eric gets turned here, still on the first season. the "kill one, make one" rule is one of the things I remember most vividly about the lore of the show, I'm not sure why? jessica doesn't even exist in the books. but I thought it made sense in this context for sunwoo to be an unwilling participant in this, sort of - he's not turning eric because he's thrilled about being a maker (#VAMPDAD), he just had to. that makes their dynamic so much funnier.
“I’m a vampire. There’s barely any difference.”
“How many people have you killed?”
Sunwoo didn’t answer.
one of the things I adored in the sookie stackhouse books (aka the books that were adapted into the tv show) is that a lot of the vampires had really shitty lives, both before and after being turned. and sometimes being turned wasn't a good thing, or when it was, it wasn't a matter of choice; sometimes people were turned because they were about to die, and a vampire spared their life for one reason or another - that was the case with sunwoo. he had a hard human life, and an only slightly less hard vampire one. he's not the most enthusiastic about vampire life, but he has his reasons to feel that way.
I never thought his backstory through from start to finish but I know that even if I wanted to expand on that, I wouldn't. it'd be way too dark for this fic lol
“I’m a journalist.”
hak here is aiming for a food critic career, hence the journalism degree! that piece of info never made it into the fic itself. it's the second time I write him as a journalist, I think? I mean, technically the first - after this I made him a TV/movie critic in 311/312. I just think he'd love to be paid to share his thoughts and opinions!!!
THIS POST BROUGHT TO YOU BY THE JOURNALIST!HAKNYEON GANG.
“Fae?” Eric looked at Sunwoo, confused.
“Fae,” Sunwoo confirmed. “A fairy. To a vampire, fae blood is…”
“I’m basically the tastiest thing you’d ever have,” the guy said. He didn’t sound bothered by it. If anything, he sounded bored. “Like a cheeseburger.”
I'm like 98% sure I took the cheeseburger line straight out of the books. or was it on the show too? anyway, the books (and the tv show, to a lesser extent) have so! many! supernatural! creatures!! the fairies being incredibly tasty to vampires is another thing that's part of the lore and plays into interspecies politics etc. plus in the books the main character is part fae, so iirc that explains why she's so... well, attractive to vampires. (these books are the trashiest thing I've ever read and I love them very much.) I considered making hak have something special too - maybe he could read minds like sookie? - but then thought, nah. too much supernatural things going on already. eric doesn't need an excuse to be crazy about him, anyway. it's just regular attraction.
and I'd been thinking about fae!chanhee for a while when I wrote this, so everything just fit :')
Sunwoo then went to explain that vampire blood, although useless to vampires themselves, carried enough magic to offer more than one benefit to any human who drank a mere drop of it. The most common effect was a high similar to a party drug, more often than not associated with enhanced libido (think Viagra meets ecstasy), but in big doses could also offer healing beyond what was considered possible by modern medicine. It was addictive too, like any drug [...]
lore dump! this was taken from the books/show too. I actually reread the first few chapters of the first book to remember what the comparison was (viagra + something else). this paragraph always gets a chuckle out of me because the source material is so HORNY and UNHINGED, that this fic reads like a super sfw version of the universe. honestly. I know eric is horny here but if I wanted to make this Extra Horny I could totally go there because that would be much closer to the original work.
also, I worried that this would be considered a chekhov's gun of sorts - like, would people reading it expect this particular bit of lore to come into play later? I wondered if I should go there, but just like with sunwoo's backstory, I didn't want to make this fic too dark. I really wanted it to be lighthearted and fun!! so after jenny yelled at me that it was fine and that I didn't need to go there, I just made sure the info played into the overall conflict of eric learning what it really means to be a vampire, and how that affects how he (and sunwoo) react to haknyeon.
Eric could not be happier to lie on his shitty bed and have Bolt jump on his stomach like he was a tiny pomeranian and not an overweight bulldog mix.
FICTIONAL BOLT I LOVE YOU. I had a blast writing eric having a dog named BOLT because technically he IS bolt but look. my universe, my rules. and then later the real eric said he'd consider bolt as a name for his future dog so! it's set in stone now.
He was coming back from the bar with his bottle of TruBlood and Juyeon’s dark beer, wincing at the off-key rendition of IU’s 25 going on at the karaoke stage, when a familiar voice called his name.
1) I love the idea of hyunjae tagging along for juyeon's terrible ideas of a night out, like whatever this place is. just two dudes! hyunjae is the best friend you could ever hope for, let's be real... 2) for some reason I pictured a very drunk keonhee on that karaoke stage??
[...] taking in Haknyeon’s sharp edges and round softness somehow perfectly encompassed in one.
I don't think I'll ever be able to describe haknyeon in any other way... this is exactly how I see him: sharp features but with something very soft about it too.
[...] watching as Eric went through the boxes at the back of his closet looking for that one set of a card game he used to play with friends a couple years back.
same game juyeon and hyunjae are playing in the first scene of everything about you. I'm OBSESSED with this game and I wrote this when I still playing it too, so the fact that I added it here is no surprise at all.
“Literally would never have pegged you as a math guy.”
Eric snorted, more like a honk than anything. “No one does.”
eric is SMART AS FUCK and a little bit of a genius and I will DIE ON THIS HILL.
He was wearing all black, including the eyeliner on his eyes and the nail polish on his fingers, and his outfit had more studs and chains than Eric had ever worn in his entire life combined.
[...]
(+ this from a later scene:) The lights bounced off the many rings he was wearing every time he moved his hands during conversation.
now, this. this is the thing that I'm constantly thinking about. hyunjun isn't just a full-blown goth here, though he uses fashion in his favor. his studs and chains and rings are actually silver/silver-plated. he's COVERED in anti-vampire stuff. haknyeon is right about one thing - hyunjun is smart, and he knows what he's doing.
Eric was confused. “That’s it?” He waited until Sunwoo had looked up at him again. “No lecture? No ‘I’ll take away your phone for a week’? No ‘I’ll hang you from your toes until you apologize’?”
“You’re not 15 and I’m not the Inquisition.”
“Could’ve fooled me.”
I love this dialogue. when I started thinking about this au, and even after I had started writing it, I didn't imagine I'd end up giving the sunwoo/eric dynamic this much weight. but it was a lot of fun thinking up their relationship here, the supposedly cold and detached vampire who cares, and the new vampire who is so incredibly bad at reading him. plus it was a 9900liner fest, so once sunwoo started taking up more space in the story, I just let it happen. made it a maknaeline fic of sorts :')
and the idea that sunric couldn't STAND each other at first irl (I'm exaggerating things here, please don't take this too seriously) makes it a lot of fun to explore the "wow I just met you and I already hate you" dynamic I like to imagine they had during their first year of training/working together. and then that animosity turning into a really close friendship because you now #understand each other... excellent.
He knew Felix was and would always be there to offer a friendly shoulder, and that both Seoyoung and Seokyoung would maim anyone he pointed to and accused of being mean to him.
the minutes I spent on kprofiles just to add this line about felix here... but then I made eric be friends with seoyoung and seokyoung?? sometimes you win the canon-compliant/canon-adjacent game, sometimes you don't.
Changmin, Eric learned, was the owner of PIAN5 (the bar they were at), and Giwook was one of Sunwoo’s oldest friends [...]
this bar is another true blood reference, technically. the vampire bar on the show plays such an important part in the story, that I kinda just did the same thing here, and made my own fangtasia (oh, I love that name so much). "pian5" is supposed to be a pun too: it reads as "piano" since 5 = "o", and the "pi" references "blood". what exactly is the meaning of the name, though? I have no idea!!! not fluent enough to make actually smart puns! but "an(e)/안(에)" works as a noun/preposition too, like "(with)in", so I just imagined it'd mean something silly and punny!!!
and also, so many cameos. SO many cameos. all of the vampire cameos except for changmin are 9900liners too. I love a theme! yeoreum, haeun, dongju were totally self-indulgent on my part; giwook had to make an appearence as sunwoo's actual friend because I'll never not love this friendship.
“Hanging out with fangbangers?” Changmin whistled. To Sunwoo, he said, “You’re letting him have some fun, finally.”
fangbangers are something from the true blood universe too, but I meant for them to be much more socially acceptable and just like, a part of society here. eric doesn't really know any fangbangers so he has no idea how to address them or talk about them, which is kinda really funny? because it's not exactly a taboo lol eric is just inexperienced and a little sheltered.
"A vampire my age, or even Changmin’s age, won’t go down easily."
[...] It was a bit unsettling; there was something about him, the way he talked, that felt old, ancient even, but Eric couldn’t pinpoint what exactly.
giwook really is ANCIENT (the godric of this universe, sort of, if any #truebies end up reading this). changmin is old. sunwoo is like a baby vampire next to them.
“I don’t. I’m just—“ Sunwoo sighed, admitting defeat before he had even uttered the words. “I’m just scared of dogs. In general.”
2017/2018 sunwoo who was scared of dogs, you're so special to me.
Too bad he had mastered the art of tuning out the voice of reason when it served him.
to me, writing eric - especially in a non-canon setting - is so much fun because it forces me to think outside the box. there's no running away with him, no ignoring feelings, no permanently pushing people away. the way I write him, there's always gonna be some bad decisions happening, but like, he doesn't see any of it as a bad decision. he's just always gonna follow his heart if he can. BECAUSE HE LOVES PEOPLE!!! and he's not scared to show that!!! fuck holding grudges, he misses him, goddammit.
[...] it was still exhilarating to see him standing there, wearing a blue sweater that looked as soft as his black hair. The sleeves were a bit too long for him; the effect was adorable for the sweater paws it gave him, but Eric was too distracted to comment on that.
and then like a month later haknyeon showed up like this and I cried.
“Yeah. Exactly. Then I could get the thrill I was looking for and move on with my life. Hopefully forget the whole thing, if I was lucky.”
th-thrill ride th-rill ride ooh yeahhh
hak's character was the hardest one for me. I think that's why I started the fic and stopped before joining the fest, because I was trying to figure out /who/ he was, and what his motives were. I knew eric would be a clueless new vampire, but who would hak be? would he be a fangbanger? that could be fun! but I wasn't totally satisfied with that idea. just like hak didn't need any special powers to attract eric, I thought that nah, hak doesn't need to be super crazy about vampires to be attracted to eric, either. so instead I made hyunjun the fangbanger, and I think I like where this led them!! to talking it out, sussing out each other's motives for being there, etc.
“True,” Haknyeon conceded. He gave Eric’s shoulder another brief kiss. “Whether they’re vampires or not.”
Eric didn’t know what to say to that other than a soft, “Yeah.”
He was pretty sure his heart would be beating really loud if it could still beat at all.
I love this scene... the first few paragraphs are a bit clunky but I like this conversation, I like how honest they are with each other here :( peak romance, opening your heart to another person and talking about your most irrational fears??? I LOVE the roundabout confession too.
"[...] And if the worst happens—”
“It won’t.”
“If the worst happens,” Sunwoo repeated himself, voice firm, eyes just as serious. “You call me. Immediately.”
ah, the "I'd help you hide a body" love language... my favorite.
Not just because Hyunjun was an actor and Eric loved the idea of accompanying Haknyeon to see him, but because he liked the experience, too.
the way I finished this fic and then a couple weeks later hyunjun announced his first acting gig... BLESS.
From the framed posters on the walls of movies older than both of them to the ever-growing collection of mugs on the display shelf reserved for that particular purpose [...]
did I describe haknyeon's apartment or my dream apartment? good question. not much to say about the sex scene that follows, only that I tried not to make it too horny/explicit (because I don't think I can write hakric smut, especially in this universe, and not make it a bit too horny?), and I loved making eric go GRAB A FORK. STAB ME IF I DON'T STOP. because honestly, who THE FUCK would do that if not eric...
“Ratched,” Hyunjun said. When Eric gave him a blank look, he added, “The TV show? It’s on Netflix.”
I had just finished watching the show when I wrote this scene. so much fun imagining eric still trying to wrap his head around the fact that the vampires around him are not, in fact, bloodthirst murderers but just a bunch of guys watching netflix like him. OMG WHO'S KILLING WHO!! sarah paulson on her new netflix show, calm down, dude.
“Babe, hang on. You gotta help us settle this.”
“That’s not fair!” Sunwoo argued. “He’s gonna take your side.”
“Excuse me? He’s his own person with his own opinions,” Haknyeon said, then turned back to Eric again. “But please do take my side. Park Seojoon or Cha Eunwoo? Eunwoo, right?”
DKGKFDJNFDKHFDB I HAD TO... I had to include the sunwoo/haknyeon dynamic because a) SO HILARIOUS to think of sunwoo begrudgingly warming up to haknyeon for eric's sake and haknyeon likewise making an effort to befriend sunwoo because he knows how important sunwoo is to him, and b) even funnier to think of them actually becoming friends and forming the ultimate Protect Eric Squad that no one would ever dare fuck with. also I always laugh when I picture haknyeon going EXCUSE ME? HE'S HIS OWN PERSON WITH HIS OWN OPINIONS but yeah take my side please and thank you <3
“You’re way too soft to play big bad vampire dom. No one would fall for that.”
he's right.
-
some final thoughts: I really, really had a blast writing this fic, I think because it combines a bunch of my favorite things: the true blood universe, writing from eric's pov, writing a hak ship, some lighthearted humor, a BUNCH of dialogue... all things I love and have fun with. this was when I realized that OH, eric is a delight to write as a main character. I already knew I loved writing him as a side character, but his pov is definitely one of my favorites now.
and vampires!!! I really like vampires. I had no idea how much until I understood I don't care half as much about other supernatural creatures as I do about vampires kdfgkhbfdkhd growing up with underworld can really change a person.
anywho, hakric is one of the most fun tbz ships to write for, I think. the potential of Chaotic, Loves Too Much Person A meets Chaotic, Loves Too Much Person B is !!! immensurable. the banter alone? 10/10.
even though I didn't think much of this fic when I first finished it and when it was first posted (I was SO SURE I had done a terrible job with characterization??), I think I can overlook the things I didn't like more easily now. like, it's hakric. they're both idiots here. I love them. and I love this universe. that's what matters :')
(and, as usual, the positive feedback meant the world to me... it's hard to be too self-deprecating when people are so nice ;;)
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this fic was really cool in the sense that it had so much vampire lore and eric is a pov i've never read for before and i adore Both of these things so obviously this was great. TO ME, as a jcmfucker who looks for copious amounts of jichang throughout... well this was not that fic because he's no 9900-liner but STILL that's on me and i'm dumb. (one day i shall also write jichang as the vampire who gets to suck people's necks - homeboy was IN IT in drink it.mv)
i really enjoyed this one! i never would've guessed that you struggled with hak - he was such a solid presence and because eric's narration is so all-encompassing i just thought the kind of confusion on his end was.. well, on his end rather than yours. do i make sense?
definitely my favorite part was the sunric dynamic. sunwoo especially, just sooo good. one thing about sunwoo, in my head, is like, (if he isn't doing his y/n spiel) he moves in this world like he's just been woken up from too little sleep. ALL THE TIME (my pisces mercury son...). so like this really came across in this fic and i absolutely adored it.
>(and, as usual, the positive feedback meant the world to me... it's hard to be too self-deprecating when people are so nice ;;)
cause you're great !!! it's TRUE
no subject
the lore is so much fun, isn't it? I can't take much credit for it but man, vampire lore is always a blast. I'm glad you thought so too with the fic!! I definitely wondered how much lore was too much lore at some point. and oh PLEASE. please!!! write vampire!jcm one day T____T no pressure of course but consider this my VERY ENTHUSIASTIC encouragement because he really was Going Through It in the drink it mv...
you totally do! and yeah, the confusion was mostly on eric's end, but now that you mention it, I kinda worked my own confusion about hak's character into the plot, didn't I? ksjswkshbwbdnk I didn't even realize. by the time he showed up in the fic I knew who he'd be but then just worked my initial confusion into the story as a plot point, I guess? oh, my single working brain cell must've had fun pulling this off ksjdhwhdjdkkc
"[...] he moves in this world like he's just been woken up from too little sleep. ALL THE TIME (my pisces mercury son...). I'M CRYINGKFJSHSHWHSJK why is this so ACCURATE... and I'm happy to hear that came across in the fic :') sometimes I worry I've forgotten how to write sunwoo but at least I knew how at one point in time!
and PLEASE. you're so kind 😭💖 thank you as always for that, and once again thank you for reading this little vampire brainrot of mine!! <333