Min-kyu

"My tell-tale heart's a hammer in my chest.
Cut me a silk-tie tourniquet..."

They/Them | NB | Divine



This is my roaring, roaring 20s.
I don't even know me.
Roll me like a blunt 'cause I wanna go home.
Roll me like a blunt 'cause I want—
I wanna go home.




"The future's uncertain, the past on the pavement below me."

When Min-kyu entered the world with flailing paws and mewls, both they and their mother knew something was amiss. Their mother, Dim, unearthed her query's answer a little faster than Min-kyu, who'd been born helpless and shell-shocked—her cub was both a male and female. They, at least, had traits of both, a fact that alarmed the entire pride. Min-kyu's development only furthered their collective bewilderment.

Though named Brigid and affectionately called Blackberry, Min-kyu held their old name close to their heart because as the world opened up around them, they knew something for certain: they were not meant to be this way. They vividly remembered embracing the love of their life, a very human man, before a bright light and deafening thunder stole away their world. Min-kyu, in fact, remembered every bit and scrap from their past life—their uncouth sister, the little boy they'd adopted, their delightful brother-in-law, their wedding...

They were alone. Everyone they had loved was dead.

Armed with the maturity of a fully adult person (mourning everything they had known) and an arsenal of human knowledge bolstered by wicked-fast intelligence, Min-kyu awed the lions around them with their seemingly unexplained precociousness. Paired with their unheard-of physiology, the pious pride arrived at the conclusion that this freakishly genius lion was, in fact, a reborn god. Min-kyu arched their eyebrows at the notion, but in their all-consuming despair, they found amusement and comfort in the pride's pampering. They grew fat on the plentiful offerings, a comfortable form due to their previous human plumpness. After a while, the despair numbed into an ice that only occasionally frosted their blood.

Min-kyu knows they are no god, but they play the role out of boredom and to ease the aching in their chest. The pride dotes on them, offers them the best of the best, and tends to their every whim. They'd even been brought their mysterious sword from a meteor crater—they've now known crazier things to have happened. Despite this, the hole in their heart hasn't been filled, and they feel flippant with this body's life. They miss their husband. They miss their sister. Their boy. Their human mama.

Maybe one day, in another life since apparently they exist, they'll meet again... but, for now, Min-kyu languishes in silence. Sometimes, the sword's gems pulse with a faint glow, and it's the only light in their eyes.