Do You Think Daniel Park Misses Dreaming?

No, I did not just spend over ten hours worldbuilding today! I have no idea what you mean and Campfire certainly does not have a feature that tells me so!

I need therapy and a cat...

#19

Danny: Alright, listen up, you little shits. Danny: Not you, Jay. You’re an angel and we’re thrilled to have you here.

#13

It wasn't uncommon for certain physical traits, mostly scars, and tattoos to travel loops with Daniel. It was, however, extremely inconvenient when fresh injuries would travel over with him.

That's how Daniel found himself kneeling over in an alleyway, bleeding profusely from one eye and covered in bruises. One of his arms had a few patches of missing skin that had been scraped off when he skidded down the pavement after a pick-up had rammed straight into him. Someone had ordered a hit on him in the last loop. The boy had been ambushed by over a thousand trained and armed men and when he'd finally made his escape leaving their limp bodies behind he had been hit head-on and thrown through a glass panel. Then he was hit again just as he was regaining his bearings and finally died from the trauma.

Tentatively he reached with shaky fingers and touched his swelling eye. It felt gummy and something liquid was leaking out, but thankfully it was already numbed by the effects of time travel. At least that was one good thing he could get out of his 'predicament', his body didn't hurt. In a few hours, it would start to, as the effects of the loop wore off, and by then he would probably be writhing in a hospital bed (if he even made it there), but for now, he could focus on figuring out when and where he was.

"Fuck!"

He spun around in a panic, coming face to face with a certain black-eyed male looking at him incredulously. Danny tried to square his shoulders and straighten his back, but his abdomen was bleeding profusely and he had to keep one hand in place to slow the flow of he blood. As he was, half-leaning onto the wall with one arm while looking like he would collapse at any minute he was pretty sure he didn't look intimidating enough to get the male to leave him alone.

"Fuck!"Gun repeated, as if not believing what he was seeing.

Danny steeled his nerves and tried to slightly shift his body into a fighting stance but failed, his right leg almost giving away beneath him. He was sent stumbling right into the wall, but kept his head up, glowering and showing his teeth in an almost animalistic threat not to get closer. It didn't matter that he was slowly dying, he wouldn't let a bastard like him have the satisfaction of seeing him vulnerable.

"You" He paused as if unsure of himself "You need medical attention"

"Yeah, no shit" The injured boy spat out alongside a few flakes of blood.

The fighting maniac shifted from one foot onto another and looked around hesitantly. Daniel stifled a disbelieving snort. Was he actually debating on being a decent human being for once and helping him out? He hoped that was just wishful thinking on his part because if it wasn't, surely something must've gone terribly wrong with this loop!

"Who?"

Danny just let out a scratchy hum in inquiry. He very much doubted he could keep this up much longer, already feeling like his insides were going to spill out at any moment. He was really pushing his luck right now, but the boy found he didn't care much. The loop would reset and his wounds would probably disappear. Death was just another part of the circle, something he had come to accept could happen at any time.

"Who did this? Who could have beaten you so bad? You, who just a few days ago fought me and broke my arm like it was second nature to you!? You're a fighting genius! This should be possible! How is this possible?" His voice began showing traces of hysteria and Danny rolled his eyes. The stock he put in his own skills would have seemed warranted to him before the loops, but now that he had far surpassed him, Gun only seemed like a lunatic with illusions of grandeur and a perverse way of seeing the world.

A rough, dry laugh fell past his bloodied lips, startling the raving man out of his hysteria. He turned just in time to see blood pooling beneath the boy, whose body had slid down the wall and onto the concrete, leaving behind a trail of crimson. He gurgled a mouthful of blood just as the Japanese man rushed towards him, and Daniel Park slumped over lifeless, his face twisted in a mocking grin and his eyes fixed forward, dull and unseeing.

A full-body shiver ran through Gun and he silently despaired at losing such a promising fighter with so much untapped potential. He could have been his masterpiece or even his rival. It wasn't fair!

With shaking hands (why were his hands shaking?) he pulled out a cigarette. It took him three tries before he managed to light it and finally took a mouthful of the addictive smoke(just don't think about it). Slowly, the substance calmed him down enough to get up and clumsily stumble off to god knows where(it happens, people die all the time). Without realizing it, Gun reached the port and sat down on the cold concrete, hypnotized by the sea. His hands were dripping red, staining his expensive clothes (when had he touched the blood?).

"Maybe...Maybe I should've..."

The sound of crashing waves covered his words. He stood there for a while longer, until his phone began blowing up and night had fallen. He threw his phone into the water carelessly and sat back down. The sun rose over the horizon like it always did, and a single man, waiting on the docks was there to greet it. (Death could not be undone)

In another timeline, Danny felt the sudden urge to yell SIKE!

#15

Gun was telling Daniel about how he would use his friends instead if he refuse to create his own crew, watching in delight as the boy's eyes darkened before his face suddenly went blank. He stopped talking, a confused frown pulling at his already twisted features as the boy seemed to look right through him, as if in a trance. Slightly unnerved and a bit annoyed he threw a kick toward him in an effort to snap the boy out of his daydreaming. It worked, just not in the way that Gun was expecting. Before his foot could make contact with the boy's head it was stopped by a tight grip that made his bones creak in protest.

"What's with you now? Are you that angry about me using your friends for my crews?" He mocked, hiding just how unsettled he was by the fact he couldn't pull his leg free.

Thinking quickly, he aimed a fist at the boy, hoping to distract him enough to let go of his leg, but it backfired when Daniel grasped his arm and twisted. He bit his lip to muffle the groan of pain threatening to escape him. What the fcuk was going on? Just a minute ago he was kicking him around like a straw doll and now he was left vulnerable at the boy's mercy. Whatever had happened to cause this sudden switch in him...it wasn't natural.

"My...Jay..." he seemed to mutter under his breath, eyes glazed over, "how dare they... kill them...dare they...pay...death...too kind...bastards..."

An unexplainable sense of fear washed over Gun and he began struggling to get out of the raving boy's clutch. Terror dulled his senses and turned his movements animalistic up to the point where he couldn't think clearly. He had to get away! He had to get away from him! Run! Hide! His instincts screamed at him, overwhelming the usually composed male.

Without warning the boy went silent and his eyes snapped straight to the panicking Gun, who felt every muscle in his boy freeze under the intensity of his gaze. His throat constricted painfully and he found himself losing control of his own body when his white eyes clashed with the other's jet-black ones. He barely even registered when he was thrown to the ground, crumpling like a puppet whose strings had been cut.

Daniel's eyes reminded him of those of a predator, cold and lusting for blood. It was only later that he realized that the boy had been restraining himself from tearing his throat open with his bare hands, though even then, he couldn't tell what he had done exactly to spur this kind of anger in the usually mellow boy. It didn't make sense.

It made even less sense that Daniel just shot him another look, a mix of disgust and anger, and left without another word like nothing had happened. Like that night had just been a dream. Not real, just a figment of Gun's imagination...at least, it would've been, if it weren't for the circle of bruises in the shape of a hand around his arm and lower leg. The doctors said his tibia was almost shattered, as well as his wrist. That was the only proof he had that it hadn't all just been in his head. Something had snapped in Daniel that night.

The Workers' four affiliates were all set ablaze in the following days. Many died in the fire, while others perished under mysterious circumstances in the hospital.

Danny watched the brunette news anchor report on the situation, with one arm firmly clasped around Jay's waist as he rested on his chest. The remote snapped in his hand.

Eugene had somehow survived.

That wasn't a problem. It just meant he would have to go hunting again later. For, now he focused on the sleeping blonde in his arms, nuzzling into this slim neck and inhaling the scene of his cologne. He would never allow anyone to lay their hands on his beloved again. Never.

Robin: Are you having another depressive episode? Danny: A depressive episode? Danny: I'm having a depressive series and we're just on season one.

Danny: So that’s my plan. Zack: Are you alright with constructive criticism? I don’t want to sound mean. Danny: No, go ahead, I want to hear it. Zack: It fucking sucks. Danny: That’s not constructive criticism.

I am in desperate need of help. My Time-Loop Ideas folder apparently got deleted by accident and I am left idea-less. It would really help if you could send me some ideas for loops!

<3

#23

"Jay, love of my life, apple of my eye, treasure of my heart, darling of my soul can you do me a favor real quick?" Daniel purred seductively, his hair a dirty mess and dried blood on his knuckles. Jay nodded helplessly.

----------------

"Where were you on the evening of July 8, between 9 pm and 2 am?" the police officer questioned the nervous blonde with a stern expression.

'In my home' Jay wrote, trying to convey as much sincerity as possible into his gesture. Technically speaking, he wasn't lying. He had been at home, just not the one they were probably referring to. But they didn't ask, so Jay didn't tell. Home was where his dearest beloved was, even if that meant in the middle of the woods digging up some endangered flower specimen to plant over their 'package'.

He remembered the smell of copper lingering on his body, and how gently Daniel had helped him scrub every inch of the vile blood off of his skin. The thought made a blush rise to his cheeks, which thankfully went unseen by the officer. The phantom touch of delicate fingers scrubbing his scalp sent a shiver down the boy's back as the memory etched itself into the very fabric of his mind clinging to him like an intoxicating perfume.

Daniel had been quiet after 'that', but later confessed to being worried he had scared the blonde. It only took one reassurance to make him bounce back to being his usual preppy self as if he needed nothing more than Jay's word and he would believe that the sun rose for the west. It made something twist in his chest like a pleased feline and then settle into a comforting warmth that would surge forward every time he laid eyes on the brunette teen.

He may not have understood why they had done 'that' but he wasn't about to question his beloved. Danny always had a reason to do things, even if sometimes he didn't share it. Nevertheless, Jay felt that wherever the man's sin was, he deserved his fate. His love had never been unkind to people, even those who sought to take advantage of him, so whatever his motive it had to have been important, so he would do his utmost to protect him from any legal repercussions, even if that meant having to face suspicion from his own family.

After all would be said and done, he could finally enjoy melting into his lover's embrace once more. There was no body, no murder weapon, and no DNA or digital evidence, so nothing could be pinned on them anyway. He just had to be patient, then maybe Daniel would reward him~

"Can anybody confirm this?" The policeman's rough voice rudely cut through his reminiscing and brought him back to reality. This interrogation was really starting to get on his nerves he ought to have the man fired for this later.

'My butler' he wrote, briefly pausing and adding something else onto the notebook before he handed it back to the man.

"Your boyfriend, huh? And does this midnight Romeo have a name?"

'Daniel Park'

#7

Daniel wasn't born invincible, although most people wouldn't be able to tell you that. Even in the first loop, he had first crawled through the filth before reaching the top. But it hadn't been enough. This is why, in every loop after that one, for at least a few dozen of them he had approached people like Gun, Goo, and Diego to teach him. Some were harder to convince than others and some would downright refuse to teach him until he found a way to prove to them he was worthy. He had to do things that he didn't dare to remember some days.

He remembered the first time he was made to kill.

His second loop, Gun had been much crueler than he usually was. He made his two masterpieces fight to the death, just for the sake of it. Daniel orphaned a little girl that day. He couldn't bare to look in the mirror for weeks, but he pushed on. He needed to be stronger! So, the boy-turned-killer gritted his teeth and force-fed himself sleeping pills every night.

The second time he killed it came much easier.

Perhaps because he was still reeling from the first one. It was only a few weeks after Eli's blood had covered his hands that another lay before him with his neck broken. It had been so easy it was gut-churning, like breaking a particularly tough twig. He emptied the contents of his stomach in a bush nearby, but couldn't find it in himself to regret it very much. It was horrifying to realize he regretted getting caught and ending up in juvie more than killing Zoe's stalker.

The third time's the charm, right? It wasn't.

That night he stumbled into a bar and drank himself into obliviousness to forget the feeling of a too-small boy beneath the tips of his fingers. He had killed a kid, not much younger than himself, a year at maximum, but a kid! The feeling of bile rising in his throat hadn't left him for the entire loop. When he woke up he was in a cell, with policemen looking down at him with a mix of disgust and horror. They regarded him as a monster, and Daniel deserved it. It didn't take long to get a confession out of him and back to juvie he went. It didn't matter, the phantom touch lingering whenever he clutched his fist was still there.

When the fourth came he still cried.

By the time of the fifth, he lost his appetite completely.

The sixth came with mandatory visits to the therapist's office.

The seventh brought on a new therapist and sturdier cuffs.

It helped, incredibly. There was no more killing in that loop, and the couple that followed.

The eight was accidental, and it left Daniel screaming and crying, and vomiting hysterically. He wasn't locked up for that one, but he somehow found his way back to the therapist's office. The first one he tried had left him with a bitter taste on his tongue. The second one knew exactly which buttons to push. It was a miracle Daniel didn't end up with a ninth corpse to the ever-growing pile attached to his name.

Finally, after a lot of breakdowns and unhelpful psychologists, Danny ended up meeting a nice lady by the name of Robin Lim, who managed, with an amount of ungodly patience and calm, to get through to him. It wasn't a sudden catharsis that left him feeling the office a thousand tons lighter, but it was like the steady flow of a stream, growing quicker and bigger every day until he could finally breathe without feeling like he was choking on air.

Robin remained Daniel's therapist for over eight loops until he finally came to terms with what he had and most likely would again do. He managed to establish a system of what to do when it happened again and how to manage his inner turmoil so that it didn't spill into something dangerous, either for himself or others.

While the looping had the effect of twisting his morals to the extreme sometimes, Daniel was always careful to keep a grip on his emotions and try to use the techniques Robin had taught him to regulate those that could become a threat. It wasn't perfect (the seemingly, only imperfect thing about him now), but it worked and it made him view the world in another light.

It was both surprising and not that he now understood Jinho, to a certain level. He knew what it felt like to be given a ray of light and not manage to cling to it no matter how hard he struggled. He had been pathetic and weak and selfish in a way that made him both better and so much worse than the scrawny boy. Better because he had learned from it and strived to make himself the best possible version despite his worries, insecurities, paranoia, and tilted moral compass. Worse because, unlike Jinho, he had succeeded and killed people to further his own selfish goals.

At the end of the day, the imperfect-perfect boy remained a human, one who struggled and hurt and cried. As long as he kept a tight leash on the part of him that could make others struggle and hurt and cry (and even worse) he kept going, trying to find a way to end the cycle and keep the people he loved safe.

Even if that meant entire loops-worth of counseling and breakdowns, he would do it. For those he cherished? Anything.

Baby Danny in Big Deal Loop

Baby Danny: Why should I make my bed, when I'm just gonna unmake it to sleep in it anyways? Samuel: Why should I feed you if you're just gonna die anyways? Danny: Danny: I'll go make my bed-