#For Free? (Interlude) | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

curio-queries · 8 months

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FACE, LETTER, & CLOSER THAN THIS

Disclaimer: The following post is full of my own opinions and interpretations. I do not share this with the intent to convince anyone else that this meaning upholds for all. My interpretations are also limited to English and that is an important distinction to make when accessing art from another language and culture. There are absolutely intentions and meanings that won't translate. Art is beautifully subjective, and I hope you all find your own reasons to love Jimin's music.

This is quite a lengthy post. Thank you to anyone who reads. I'd love to hear your thoughts as well, so don't feel shy to share! 💜

So FACE has been out for nearly a year, why am I making this post now? Honestly, it's all because of Closer Than This and the few nuggets we can glean from the music video. The very first clip of the mv is of Jimin's team discussing the lyrics and then Jimin's recording session. Honestly, I was quite surprised CTT was written at the same time as all of the FACE songs.

So the question then rises: Why wasn't CTT included in FACE? The answer I've arrived at is because CTT is not part of the journey Jimin was describing with FACE. More on CTT below but first, we need to revisit FACE:

TIMELINE

(US dates - I have to do too much timezone manipulation in my job, I'm not spending the time here):

30 DEC 2018 : Promise Release on SoundCloud

21 FEB 2023 : FACE announcement

16 MAR 2023 : Set Me Free pt.2 Release

23 MAR 2023 : FACE Release

22 DEC 2023 : Closer Than This Release

And here's the FACE schedule:

MOTTO-THEME-GUIDE

These phrases are ALL OVER the FACE project! They're in the digital media that was released, on pretty much every side of the physical albums, on the back of the photocards and postcards... They're pretty much on everything official connected to FACE. They're not just fluff included to fill up space; these words have MEANING in this project. I've been using these phrases as guide posts to help me interpret some of the meanings behind FACE recently, and I would encourage anyone interested in Jimin's deeper message to do the same. I've highlighted my references below.

Circles of Resonance Reflection of vulnerable minds and unexposed wounds. An echo, tremor and small movement to reach you. Face of facing the deepest part of inner-self. Face, the reflection of myself in an unfamiliar appearance. Waves originated from the deepest invisible inner world, pass through the face on the surface and reach others to resonate while transmitting the inner voice. Waves spread beautifully, finding its own flow despite wounds and distortions from a smallest scratch. The face of unwavering effort despite repeated falls and pain.

When asked what the album was about, Jimin freely shares that it relates to the events during the pandemic...and then the conversation usually moves on without any deeper discussion. This interview is probably the most verbose Jimin was any time he described the meaning behind FACE. If you haven't watched it recently, I highly recommend it.

youtube

We know that Jimin rarely shares the problems he's having whilst he's going through them (with us at least). He always waits until after he's moved on so that he can tell us not to worry, that it's in the past. (This concept comes up again in this post so keep it in mind.)

The distinction that I think is important to make is that, yes, FACE is about the pandemic, but it's not a straightforward diary of events. It's about how those events affected him. How the waves caused by the pandemic RESONATE, ECHO, and TREMOR through him - effecting the UNEXPOSED WOUNDS. Jimin found something in himself through this experience and had no choice but to FACE it. There were no distractions anymore, no pushing it to the side to deal with later. And he was able to share that journey with us in such a tragically beautiful way.

THE TRACKS

I made the below gifs for each track but I think they look best as a set without the tags so you can get the full effect of the differing ripples. Check out this post to see what I mean. ☺️

FACE-OFF

I know everyone likes to meme about Face-Off and trying to find who hurt Jimin to make them pay...but I really don't associate Face-Off with an external person. You can betray yourself in much worse ways than anyone else can because you know exactly all of your own weaknesses. You know exactly what pretty lies to tell yourself. And honestly, the source of the event doesn't really matter in the context of FACE. I view Face-Off as the initial incident. The SMALLEST SCRATCH that pushes the waves to spread.

There's also a lovely bit of foreshadowing with the lyric "Like crazy, everyone shout out, yeah yeah". CIRCLES OF RESONANCE. Not singular, multiple; we are in for a bumpy ride.

INTERLUDE : DIVE

I admit, I only listen to this track when I'm doing a full album listen. I love instrumental tracks but this isn't instrumental to me, it's sound effects. And I just personally have a sensory issue that comes out to play here BUT it's important to include in our discussion so don't skip it when you're trying to delve into the meanings!

The message I glean here is just how pervasive the issue is becoming. Jimin can be going about his life, trying to disregard it but the UNEXPOSED WOUNDS are there lurking underneath it all.

The pretty music overlaying the track may sound like glitz and glam, but this is just the beginning of the WAVES SPREADING BEAUTIFULLY, FINDING ITS OWN FLOW DESPITE WOUNDS AND DISTORTIONS...

LIKE CRAZY

I've been promising a post on Like Crazy for ages and this may be the closest I get to it. Let me know if any of you are interested in a more in-depth discussion on how the movie and the song work together. My short summary for both is this: there are moments when you willfully take actions that you KNOW are against your best interest. Not in a fleeting eats-too-many-cookies way. In a I-know-putting-my-hand-on-the-stove-and-turning-it-on-will-burn-me way.

I hope none of you experience this to such a damning extent. I have. Despite being the kind of person who I thought would never venture down such a path. It's not something I wish upon anyone. This is the WAVES ORIGINATED FROM THE DEEPEST INVISIBLE INNER WORLD, PASS THROUGH THE FACE ON THE SURFACE...

ALONE

Have you ever repeated a word enough that it starts to sound bizzare? What if you got the point where you thought the weird sound was reality? And then you were confronted with the truth. This song is that point. Where you are left with the sober understanding of yourself. FACE, THE REFLECTION OF MYSELF IN AN UNFAMILIAR APPEARANCE.

SET ME FREE pt.2

The rise! Jimin was able to find a way to push himself beyond the betrayal of himself. It absolutely wasn't easy and there were setbacks, but this is a clear call to any who find themselves in similar circumstances: you CAN overcome. THE FACE OF UNWAVERING EFFORT DESPITE REPEATED FALLS AND PAIN.

Remember when I said earlier that Jimin only tells us about his struggle once it's over? I honestly believe that's why SMF was the pre-release track. He needed us to know that there was a happy ending before he would tell us about the pain he went through.

LIKE CRAZY (English Version)

As I mentioned my sensory issue above, I cannot talk about Like Crazy without mentioning the whispered English at the beginning/end. I HATE it sooooo much! It just twigs my brain in all the wrong ways. It's a huge part of why it took me a long time to appreciate LC. As much as I hate it though, it's absolutely necessary for the interpretation of LC. It firmly gives us a landmark into where and how the song relates to the movie. It also creates a bookend structure that gives the original and the English versions their own rightful places to exist.

LETTER

My very first post on this blog was a simple comparison of the lyrics in Like Crazy from the translation on the original music video to the english version. There is absolutely a difference here and I think it's a very important distinction that there are two versions of Like Crazy in the album. One is AN ECHO, TREMOR AND SMALL MOVEMENT TO REACH YOU. This phrase is for us, the audience. None of the other phrases use "you". Even though Jimin has set himself free, there are still CIRCLES RESONATING.

If you have seen any of my posts prior to this, you likely know how obsessed with Letter I am. I have the hardest time naming anything as a favorite (even favorite colour, there's just sooo many good uses of different colors) so I hope you understand how revolutionary it is for me to unequivocally state that Letter is my favorite song. Like ever. For all of my (cough*decades*cough) of music-listening, opinion-having life. Letter is THE ONE. Letter is it. I probably have stronger feelings about Letter than any relationship I've been in (but I'm aspec so take that with a grain of salt...)

I listen to Letter A LOT (sometimes on literal repeat - there's a video on YouTube that loops it for over an hour and I've definitely contributed several of those listens) and while working on this post, I would still get emotional hearing it at the end of FACE. This song is the absolute definition of the beauty that can only truly be understood after utter tragedy.

To me, Letter is about how this experience has effected Jimin to the point where there's a noticeable difference in the way he interacts with and appreciates those he loves, in all interpretations of the word love. WAVES...REACH OTHERS TO RESONATE WHILE TRANSMITTING THE INNER VOICE.

I am not using this post to debate the merits of exactly who Letter is for: a significant other, ARMY, or Jimin himself. Frankly, I don't think it matters to the meaning of the song. Use whatever flavour most appeals to you. That's the real genius and gift of Jimin's music imo. He creates it in such a way that we can fold it around our own personal stories and needs.

WHAT WAS THIS POST ABOUT AGAIN?

Right, so rewind to the release of Closer Than This. I'd had very little sleep as I traveled for the holidays and was absolutely feeling the timezone difference. But I stayed up to hear Jimin's new song. I listened to it first in Spotify and thought it sounded like a beautiful, happy, well-produced gift of a song - perfect for the end of the year and to comfort us with his departure for military service. Then I watched the mv to read the subtitles... Y'all, I absolutely was NOT expecting to see clips from the time covered in Jimin's Production Diary! I wouldn't have been surprised if it was the same team that Jimin worked with before but at a later time - he trusts them artisically after all. BUT these clips were the same angles and same conversations we saw from the development of FACE.

So I started my due diligence. Is it possible CTT was supposed to be part of FACE but they held it specifically to release when it did? I listened to FACE multiple times trying to insert CTT into the narrative. And it just doesn't fit this journey...at all. Like not in the slightest. I thought maybe immediately after Letter or even replacing Letter but no. I even tried inserting Promise as a bridge and it just doesn't work in the context of FACE.

CTT has a pretty literal storytelling narrative. It describes the journey WE have been on with Jimin. It lists his promises to US going forward. The music video being an album of memories, supports the nostalgic and loving viewpoint of the song. It has absolutely nothing to do with how Jimin was affected by the events of the pandemic or anything he found inside himself because of it.

Both songs have been described by Jimin as a 'fan song' and as I described in this post, there are many reasons that support both of them falling into this categorization. To me, Letter is more about Jimin having a deep intimate conversation with us because he trusts us. While CTT is literally about the relationship between ARMY and Jimin.

Anyway, I think that's all I've got to say about it for now. What are your thoughts? Should Closer Than This have been included in FACE? Was it just a marketing ploy to keep generating our interest after Jimin left?

(BTW I'm really happy with those FACE gifs and how the ripples look when they're together. They took some time to figure out. I just wish I had some better software to turn them into gifs so the colours display better, but alas, beggars can't be choosers. They look really great in the ppt that I made them in but I guess that's just for me to enjoy!)

#park jimin #jimin #FACE #Face-off #Interlude: Dive #like crazy #alone #set me free pt.2 #like crazy (english)#Letter #closer than this

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colorwrites · 27 days

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There's a mirror in front of you. It's broken, but the pieces are still stuck in the frame. (Any character)

PROMPT REQUEST! - always accepting, read pinned before sending

FANDOM & CHARACTER: Sunny, OMORI. WARNINGS: - unreality - blood & injury - canon typical horror content - implied suicide / suicidal imagery (if you know how you get out of whitespace, it's that. sunny is fine, i swear.) - spoilers for omori! this takes place pre-game, and i left a lot of things vague on purpose, but if you want to go in blind i'd avoid it.

Sunny was staring at a broken mirror.

He stood at the sink, breathing too hard and too fast. His hands gripped its rim with such force that his knuckles were turning white. The only coherent thought he could form was that there was Something in the mirror. And yet all he could see there was his own reflection, distorted by the broken glass. The glass had not fallen out of the frame, but it had been shattered. The cracks spread out in a spiderweb pattern, centered over his own face. He was certain that he had broken it. But he couldn’t remember how, or why. He couldn’t even remember why he had come to the bathroom in the first place.

The blank spot in his memory nagged at the back of his mind.

He felt like he was forgetting something important.

Sunny swallowed hard, as he forced himself to release his death grip on the sink. His stomach churned with anxiety, and overwhelming guilt over what he had done. He tried to reason that it wasn’t really that bad. It was just a mirror, it could easily be replaced. His mom would understand that it had been an accident, wouldn’t she?

Somehow, that thought didn’t really help him much.

He needed to leave.

Sunny turned away from the mirror, towards the door- or, at least he thought that he did. Only, the door wasn’t there. He was staring right back into the mirror again, his reflection staring back at him. Still distorted by the cracks. The cracks, which he could have sworn had gotten bigger. But that didn’t make any sense.

Assuming he was just disoriented, Sunny lifted his hands to rub his eyes.

But he didn’t get that far.

He was stopped by the sudden realization that his hands were covered in blood.

He froze, his heart beating harshly in his ears.

I broke it.

The thought entered his mind involuntarily. He was breathing erratically again, panic increasing tenfold for a reason that he couldn’t place.

I broke the mirror.

Sunny added to his thought by force. He already knew that. That was probably why he was bleeding. Had he really broken the mirror with his bare hands? He couldn’t picture it, but it was the only thing that made sense.

He gave himself no time to ponder it any further. Instead, he stumbled towards the sink. Turning on the tap, he held his hands beneath the running water. He watched with trepidation as the water flowing through his fingers turned red with blood, and yet it seemed to be doing nothing to remove it from his skin.

He couldn’t even find where he was bleeding from.

Desperate to remove it, he rubbed at his hands, even once it was clear that it had no effect. He wasn’t sure how long that went on for. He only stopped when, for some reason, the sink began to overflow. Hurriedly, he turned the tap back off. Something was clogging the drain.

Sunny felt sick. He knew, deep down, that he did not want to see what it was.

But in spite of himself, he looked.

The sink was filled with bloody water. But beneath it, the drain was clogged with a mass of black hair, entangled within shards of splintered wood.

You broke it.

Sunny could not hear himself, but he thought he might have screamed. He turned around again, desperate to run for the door, but was faced once more with the broken mirror. However, unlike the last time, there was no denying that it was more broken than it had been before. An entire chunk of glass had fallen out of the frame.

And yet, in the gap where the glass should have been, his reflection still stood. No longer distorted, but completely drained of color. There was nothing behind him but a solid white void.

Sunny couldn’t bring himself to do anything but stare at him.

Omori stared back, expression impassive, but after a moment a very pointed thought passed through Sunny’s mind:

Told you so.

He could not for the life of him understand what that meant. But he had the distinct, chilling feeling that he had done something that he wasn’t supposed to, and that he didn’t want to know what it was.

Get me out of here. Sunny silently begged to his reflection, not really expecting a reply.

But in response, Omori kneeled in front of him, and held his hand out to him.

Sunny grabbed it without hesitation, and within a split second, was pulled through the gap in the mirror.

. . .

Welcome to Whitespace.

You have been living here for as long as you can remember.

Omori was sitting on the floor in Whitespace, idly staring off into the void. He had the vague sense that he had just been somewhere else, but that probably wasn’t important. He would remember it if it was.

That said, he also had the sense that he had somewhere else to be, which was probably a little more important.

He stood up, taking a quick, cursory glance around him. Nothing had changed, as far as he could immediately tell. He was surrounded by the same things as always- a laptop, his sketchbook, and Mewo. The latter of whom was looking at him, with an almost judgmental expression. At least, as judgmental as a cat could get.

“ Waiting for something to happen? “

Well, with that out of the way, there was only one more thing he could think to do.

Omori took out his knife, and aimed it at his stomach.

. . .

Sunny woke up with a start.

At first, he wasn’t quite sure why. His dream hadn’t been particularly startling.

It was just Whitespace again, the same as usual. He had long since stopped being alarmed by how he woke himself up; it got less and less jarring every time.

It was only when he started to sit up, and he felt the cold floor under his palms instead of his warm, comfortable bed, that he realized what was wrong. Not only was he not in his bed, he wasn’t even in his bedroom. He was laying on the floor in the bathroom, in front of the sink.

He blinked in surprise, an unsettled feeling passing over him for a moment. What was he doing in the bathroom?

… Right, he did remember getting up in the middle of the night, actually. He had woken up thirsty, and got up to get water. But he had apparently never gotten that far. He had passed out before even turning the tap on.

Embarrassing. But at least he hadn’t flooded the bathroom.

Meanwhile, the glass he had intended to fill had shattered, scattering pieces all over the floor. Unfortunately, he didn’t notice that in time to prevent a shard from embedding itself in his palm as he pushed himself to his feet.

He winced, as he plucked the piece of glass out of his hand. Unsurprisingly, it started to bleed.

It was giving him the strangest sense of deja vu, which was a little bit alarming, combined with the dull ache in the back of his head. He had obviously hit it fairly hard on the bathroom floor when he fell.

All he could really bring himself to do about it would be to go back to bed and try to sleep it off. He just hoped he hadn’t given himself a concussion.

He was glad his mom was away for work. If she had been home she probably would have heard him fall. As far as he knew, she wasn’t aware that he had been having fainting spells, and he wanted to keep it that way.

He didn’t want to add to her stress. She had enough on her plate as it was.

Sunny gingerly stepped over the remaining shards of glass- a problem for him to deal with later- and up to the sink to wash off his bleeding hand. He tried to do it quickly, and didn’t bother bandaging it or anything. It really wasn’t that bad, and he was growing increasingly desperate to go lay back down before he passed out again.

That odd sense of deja vu hadn’t gone away. In fact, it seemed to have gotten a little worse.

As he started to step back from the sink, he paused, distracted momentarily by his own reflection in the mirror. He wasn’t sure why. He had seen it a million times. It was still just him, the same as always. Although, he was looking a little pale. But that had probably been the case for awhile, and he just hadn’t noticed.

He sighed, turning away from the mirror.

Whatever that was about, it was just another sign that he needed to go back to bed.

So, he walked out of the bathroom, and down the hall to his room. And within a few minutes of laying down in his bed, he had fallen asleep.

. . .

Welcome to Whitespace. You have been living here for as long as you can remember.

#color writes #prompt requests #omori #omori (game)#sunny (omori)#sunny omori #omori (character)#omori omori #fun fact i completely changed where i was going with this about half way through the first section (before the whitespace interlude)#if anyone's curious about the details / my thought process behind this in general you're free to ask lol !!#this probably isn't entirely lore compliant with how sunny's dreams worked pre-game but i liked it so who cares #he can experience The Horrors(tm) and then promptly block it out #i'll probably end up also cross-posting this one to ao3 tbh i like it well enough and it ended up decently long

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