Listen... this is completely random but I ABSOLUTELY ADORE the bedroom that Ray prepared for us from the first moment I saw it. It's the reason I bought pink wallpaper and bedding set for my new room AND I LOVE IT *kiss Ray's cheek as a thank you for the room inspiration*
And you know there's two vases of flowers in the room (the one on the bedside and the one on the table) so I was wondering if the flowers have any meaning behind it? Considering that Ray's in charge of the whole bedroom so it makes sense that he would decorate them with something meaningful -book anon-
Would you believe that you’re the first person to ever ask me this question? It’s been years and nobody’s ever thought to ask me about this. Purple is a naturally occurring color and you can find it, so it’s not as rare as a blue rose, but there’s a limit to what kind of flower you might find since it’s such a majestic color to have in your room. I’m not being bias or anything since it’s my favorite color, but yeah, I always loved that he put out some purple flowers to make the room sparkle for the player.
Now, at base value, it looks like a purple rose. Those can happen but you have to breed them specifically and with care to get it naturally. It’s just tricky since it’s rarer to find in the wild, even though you can find them! Another thought was the flower was Zinnia or Lisianthus. However, you can’t see the center of those very clearly and it makes it harder to gauge what I’m looking at since some of those common identifiers aren’t clear to me. So, with that, those purple flowers have to be roses since I can’t guess anything else from this angle.
Purple roses can be love and elegance. I do believe there’s a difference with a light purple and a dark purple! The lighter shades of purple would suggest love at first sight, but a darker purple would reflect deep love that never has an end date in sight. It’s interesting that these flowers are somewhere in the middle of light and dark, because Ray’s love is intense and flickers between fairytale and genuine.
Now, the pink and red flowers in this flower are even blurrier and the guesses that I could make are in the dozens. I don’t even think I could make a proper or real guess because of how limited I am in the view of the flower that he offered to the player in their room. I think if we look at the bouquet he brings you during V Route and at the start of Ray Route, I might be able to pick apart a hint on the post. So, let’s take a look at that real fast and see what we’ve got going on.
Now, we know 100% those are roses. He’s fond of roses and he tends to use them a lot in his design work. That’s an entire bushel of red roses and nothing more than that. He wants to convey the most obvious kind of love that nobody can dispute since it’s the one flower that is universal and everyone understands at base value unlike some of the more specialty flower that most people tend to overlook and forget about or don’t even realize that they exist. I think it’s sort of possible he slipped in pink and red roses in the display even if that would make a clunky bouquet.
It’s just that the perspective of the red and pink... hm, it might not even be pink now that I’m looking closer, it might be the light shining on it that’s making it look lighter than the natural red on the other side. I know it’s not orange since we’ve seen how they draw those flowers before and the colors aren’t even close to the right shade for that.
So, I’m going to have to assume it’s a smaller reddish flower here that stands for something that matches the purple rose. It’s hard to guess but I’m doing my best over here. So, like, my money says it could be Amaranth, which can stand for an eternal love as well as immortality.
So, a love that doesn’t die would match with a purple rose quite well since we’re going to Ray’s level of intense devotion to the player. There’s other flowers it could be but that’s about as good as I can get at the moment as far as my guess goes for these flowers since they look the most similar to my guess.
Don’t even ask what the ones on the bottom are since everything in that area is even more blurry and hard to discern. It has a sort of bell shape to it which could help you discern what family it belongs in but every other part of it isn’t going to help us out here. I’m crying over here because I’ve got no clue and I think that’s the one that’s going to stump me forever unless I think long and hard about what bell-shaped flower can have that coloring. Not many! That’s what I’ll tell you, my dear anon!
It’s harder to gauge what this pink flower is but he clearly picked it for a reason since it’s sitting at your bedside and it’s one specific type of flower. Now, I can try to narrow it down by wracking my brain. Snapdragon was the first that came to my mind since it can be pink and it’s very much clumped together in a bushel if you pick it for a bouquet. I not only assume it to be snapdragon because of the color and look, but because of the meaning that this flower holds.
Legend has it that concealing a snapdragon makes a person appear fascinating and cordial. Snapdragons can represent deception through lies, and passionate appreciation and graciousness. I think this is meant to be a hint about what the Mint Eye truly is. This is an extension of Ray, himself. He has chosen to say to you that he adores you, he admires you, but if you learn too much or get close to something before he’s ready to share it with you?
Well, the Savior did say that he was allowed to handle you at his discretion, after all. A beautiful flower, much like the rose he is, can be hiding thorns if you don’t dare to look deeper underneath the surface. I think that’s more interesting for an MC to think about if they found this at their bedside. it has dual meanings, like Ray and Saeran do. Although, unless you’re invested in floriography like me, you may not even realize what he’s trying to say.
Whew! I think this is the first year I’ve drawn something every month. Granted it was mostly comics, which is why I didn’t have a huge variety, but I’m still pretty happy. I can’t wait to improve even more next year~
“I miss you so much… If only I could see you again…I’m sorry.”
I decided to draw something real quick for Saeran, a.k.a Ray. V route is one emotional rollercoaster and I wanna protect BOTH Saeran and V right now ughhhh.
Anyways! Yes! I decided to step out of my comfort zone and played with lightings this time. I experimented with various other coloring methods as well and I had fun! :> Will definitely try out more new things in the future!
The Garden of Obsession is a week-long event where you can explore a side of Saeran Choi as the world caves in around him.
[Event Theme + Rules]
[Archive of Our Own Collection]
[AO3 Link for my Event Stories]
Day 2: JONQUIL - Desire for Affection Returned
[Ray]
As he leered at the monitor, Ray found himself watching every move you made. You were this interesting case to him… catching his eye when he was searching for someone, and when he’d seen you in the crowd, he found himself compelled to learn more. He longed to know what was behind that smile on your lips. He wanted to know what kind of person you were and what went on inside of your head. For some reason, he wanted to know everything there was to know about you. If he could find it, he would get his hands on it.
Because you were the one.
Oh, you were the purest soul he’d ever seen and he knew that it was his duty to save you from the outside world before it destroyed you.. He knew that you were meant for him… and that you always had been his. He knew it from the moment that he’d seen your face. It was simply meant to be. It was everything that his life had been building towards. It was as if your smile was meant for him and only him. It inspired such belief inside of him that he’d never felt before, and that… that was all he needed to commit to the goals of paradise.
The Savior had allowed him to choose the tester for his “game” as a prize for his loyalty and as a testament to her faith in him to do the right thing.
Just as she had saved him from neglect, he was going to be at your side to save and covet you from the altar he was creating in your image. It was only a matter of time. He just had to bring you here to ensure that this path was secured. The future was already set in stone, he had every way of making sure of that, he just wanted you to choose him of your accord. It wouldn’t be that hard. You were a sparkling image of light and kindness, and he knew that you would help him if he asked simply.
You were the kind of person that would go out of your way just to make sure that someone got what they needed. It didn’t matter if you offered to help someone cross the street, or if you had decided that you would open the door for someone, or if you thought that it would be nice to go and leave an extra tip for the person that made your meal. You acted in small choices that were so sweet to others. They were small acts of kindness that you never took praise for. You would smile and say that it was the right thing to do instead of accepting any praise.
It was one of the things that he adored about you. Oh, but there were many things that Ray truly and deeply adored about you. You were the light of his life. You were his love at first sight, and you didn’t even know it yet. He would sit there at his desk and watch you as you lived a life on the outside world, his head propped against his hand as he worked with the other to ensure that he could track everything you were doing. You followed a routine by going to the same places every day so it wasn’t hard to guess where you’d be.
You’d buy some groceries for the week every Sunday and start working out plans for what you were to have each night if you could prepare for it. You’d spend your Mondays at work before you got off and went to the same café you’d visit every weekday to grab your favorite drink to cool off from the trouble of the day. You would spend Tuesday working at the gym before you got off and treated yourself to a nice meal outside of your house. You would spend Wednesday knee-deep in your work for the longest time until you could grab a drink and then head home for the night.
Thursdays and Fridays, you would grab a drink after work but then you’d spend the rest of your evenings volunteering with others. It was so kind of you to do your good deeds for the day and then go out of your way to do even more work. On Saturdays, you would treat yourself again to something that you wanted, be it a treat or a new item you had been thinking about buying, then you’d grab a drink and get ready to start all over again on Sundays. There were days when you had to deviate from the set plans…
But, you had a pattern. Even if something got in the way, you would make sure to get back on the task right away. You liked living with a pattern of tasks because it helped you do the things that you needed to do. For as long as he had been watching you with stars in his eyes, Ray had known that you were a creature of habit. You liked knowing what was coming next, but there was a glint in your eyes that longed for something more. He could see it. It was a sparkle that screamed a yearning for something new.
You wanted a fairytale, didn’t you? You wanted to imagine what it would be like to be swept off your feet and imagine impossible feats completed in your honor? Didn’t you imagine what it was like to be royalty… protected in a castle of thick stone and briars, able to be yourself without the fear that you couldn’t be who you wanted to be? Didn’t you close your eyes and think about how you longed to be the one that was put first instead of the back burner for once in your life? You’d given your soul to the world…
Has it ever given that back to you?
You deserved to be able to be first in someone’s life. You deserved a chance to follow all of your simple and complex dreams. You deserved everything in this world for being a saint… for being a chosen person. Simply for being the person that had always been Ray’s. You were meant to be his from the moment you were born, and this fairytale was about to begin. You were going to get what you deserved after giving your heart for so long. Ray would return your heart to you and be sure to protect it.
Ray could give you that. He could give you the world at your fingertips if you wanted it. He had that power… he would have that power. He could keep you safe in Mint Eye and he could give you everything that you ever wanted. He could show you amazing things, he could make meals for you every day that tasted better than the last, and he could take you in the garden and forest whenever you wanted to see something that you’d never see in the city where you lived. There was so much that he could offer you and there was no limit to his imagination.
He longed to see your smile as he gifted you trinket after trinket. He wanted to shower you in the things that he never once thought possible for himself. Ray found that his purpose in life was to covet others and serve them but if he could choose the person that he served, he would choose it to be you every day. He would give you the world and burn down the rest. You were his to love and please, and you would come to learn this in due time. In due time, of course.
Would you feel like royalty if he held you up on a throne? Would you caress his cheeks and tell him that you loved the way he longed for you? Would you look at him and praise him for what good he had done to save your soul? Would you envelop yourself into his arms and allow him to cradle your head against his chest so that you would know how much his heart burned for you in this life? Would you allow him to kiss you so deeply that you could only breathe the happiness he crafted?
Oh, Ray wanted that so badly. He could envision every detail of the life that he was creating for the two of you. He could close his eyes and imagine every part of it. He could see it… in clarity and bright as can be. The strongest of these visions came when he imagined you. He could see you bathed in the white outfit that he’d chosen for your special day. He would spend hours as he tended to your hair and other needs, ensuring himself that you felt like royalty. Just the warmth and bliss he felt from thinking about cradling your hair in his hands made his chest float with a yearning he could choke on.
Sometimes, his compassion for you would grow so strong that he felt like he was going to suffocate on the flowers he wanted to give to you. He could feel his lungs burning with the thorns and petals of his dreams. It was a painful yearning in his chest but he knew that it was worth it, as he only had to suffer being away from you for so long. He wouldn’t be separated from you forever, and this feeling would go away, warmed by the feeling of your body pressed against his in an endless dance at the eternal party of your lives.
Ray shivered as he watched you smile, your eyes firmly looking at the sky as you wandered down the street to your next stop that day. He paused the footage for just a moment, his hand reaching out to brush against your cheek, even if it was just a photo. But, in his hand, he was seeing you standing in front of him on the dance floor, a hand on your cheek and the other one wrapped around your waist, smiling back at you as the music continued to play onward.
There was something fantastical about this vision that made him nearly giddy with desire. You were so beautiful, and he didn’t care if you wore broken down sweatpants or something that he had learned how to sew painstakingly by hand for you. Such a stickler for details, he was, but it mattered a lot to him that he made use of your sizes. He spent so long trying to find them, after all. He needed to impress you and ensure that you had everything that you needed. You could be so perfect if you gave everything he made for you.
“Mine,” he whispered against the silence of the room. “You’re mine.”
And Ray could almost surely feel the way that your eyes would watch him. You would be so happy to be his. You would be beside yourself with bliss and heartache. You wanted to be so close to him that it hurt. You would spend your nights curled up on the carpet of your bedroom, crying due to how lonely you were for so long that you would get it out of your system before you woke up in the morning. But, you would no longer have nights where you were lonely or neglected by the world. You would no longer suffer while Ray could only watch your pain per the camera on your phone.
You would be enveloped in his arms like you always deserved to be.
Held by his love.
You would take his affection and return it tenfold. You would give him everything that he had given you and more… he could see it and he knew that it would come to be. It was only a matter of time. It was only… only a matter of time. He just needed to be patient and keep working until he could grasp out at you and take you. He just needed you to wait a little longer and then he’d be ready.
This would make the promise that you made at the eternal party worth all of the pain he’d ever felt in his life forever, as you promised yourself to him using your heart and soul, and he gave himself to you, body and mind. He could feel all of this… and if it weren’t too bold of him, he could imagine drinking the sickeningly sweet liquid that he’d crafted all for you, slowly kissing you to take away all of the pain that you’d felt and securing that you’d always stay by his side in paradise, loyal and all but content to belong to him.
“I can’t wait… I can’t wait, [Y/N]. You don’t even know yet… you don’t even know that you’re mine. But, it’s okay. I can forgive you for not knowing… the outside world thinks that it has this stronghold on you but it doesn’t. You’re longing for something better that won’t destroy you and I can give it to you… I will give it to you. You’ll be mine,” his eyes sparkled when he thought of all the ways that you could belong to him.
“You’ll be safe in this castle. I can protect you and give you everything you need. You can never worry about working for another day in your life… you can sleep as long as you want… you can smile as much as you want… you can be the person you want to be and all your suffering on the outside will be gone from your mind. I’ll erase the outside from your heart and make sure that’ll never bother you again, you’ll be wrapped up in the warmth of our love… our love that always was meant to be… you’ll realize it as soon as you meet my eyes… I can’t wait to see you… I’m so excited… your smile… meant only for me.”
As his gloved hand smoothed out the image of you, his body trembled with unadulterated bliss in his soul. He was going to have you, sooner or later, and his misery would be gone. This fantasy would come to life and he would never suffer again… he would be happy… he would always be happy and it would be because you saved him with your smile. ‘
You were an angel, his savior, his heart, and his soul… he had to have you just as you had to have him. It was only a matter of time and he knew it would come soon.
