Painless

[ava_lava]

Title: Painless

Pairing(s): QMi

Genre(s): Romance, sci-fi, emotion!AU

Length: 4798 words

Rating: PG-13

Summary: In which Kyuhyun cannot feel.

Inspiration(s): This one Fairly Odd Parents episode where Timmy’s feelings were removed. Mixed in with a conversation I had with my mom about whether there is a right or wrong answer for everything in life.

Edited

Comments

[metafora89]

This was awesome. The whole idea... And the development. You seem to understand what it would be like to live without feelings, and you do make it seem the right choice to have them. The dialogues were amazing, and I think my heart broke during the scene before the accident knowing what was coming next.

And the part where Kyuhyun describes love... Oh my God. I can't.

You are awesome.

Thank you.

I'll go find a hole to hide and cry now.

[ava_lava]

In a way, everybody understands what it is like to feel nothing. I personally believe that living without feelings is a lot simpler than living with them, and sometimes I wish I did. But then I realize that if life were simple, what fun would it be?

Thanks for reading!

[metafora89]

Wow, really? I don't think I can imagine what a life without feelings would be like. Simpler? Maybe. But I don't believe there's a "meaning" to life, so what's the use of living if you can't enjoy it? I don't think I could live for just for the sake of living (lol redundant).

That's why I found this really interesting, because I get to learn that there are people with other opinions out there, points of view that were, maybe, unimaginable to me before.

Thanks again!

[ava_lava]

Yah, I don't believe that there is meaning to life either. I like to think that some external force decided to throw me into life and left me to do as I wished.

The whole idea of life itself is interesting, and it messes with your head if you think about it too much. I never think whenever possible lol.

[cairistiona]

Awwwwwwwwww. Oh Kyuhyun...

[ava_lava]

Kyuhyun is really new to this lawl.

[ava_lava]

Actually, if you think about it, there are pills such as anti-depressants that come close if you take them continuously.

I actually thought long and hard about the procedure aftermath. Eventually I concluded that if a neural vein was suddenly unclotted, it would result in a sudden swarm of emotions which would push a person's sanity to the edge (that's what insanity is, after all: emotions that build up and accumulate until you can't take it anymore). The extraction of it, however, is more of a passive thing--with no emotion, you have no reason to move/live/anything so in many ways it's calmer than the emotional regain. Think of emotional extraction as dying and emotional reinsertion as pumping life back in.

I don't think it would be possible to have side effects for emotional extraction, assuming that there are no emotional remnants. I mean, the emotions are gone. There is no chance for emotional side effects.

It's a really complicated idea that I'm sure is total bullshit to everybody else lawl.

[ava_lava]

Oh yah, of course it wouldn't work completely. It's just an idea that if a person took pills that blocked off all the main neurotransmitters from the amygdala, he or she would come close to being totally unfeeling (or dead, but that's the same thing I guess).

I don't totally agree that decisions are made based on feelings, because otherwise where did the ignore the feelings and do what is best factor come from? There is a dividing line between what should be done and what you think should be done, and if you take emotionless!Kyuhyun's case, he only knows right and wrong and he is therefore totally lost when it comes to gray zones (notice how he can't answer questions about how he feels, etc.)

Dude, it takes a lot to offend me. I appreciate criticism more than praise anyway.

[neoragodestiny]

oh my god.
this was amazing
and poor kyu ><
the whole concept is just like.... wow. and the way you described it was brilliant, coming back to their usual routine and everything
the whole proceedure freaked me out ><
“Unless regaining my emotions is the right choice, I see no reason why I should.”
;_;
(and i just read your reply to another comment and HOLY COW YOU THOUGHT ABOUT THIS A LOT. but it does make sense for them to have a huge inflow of emotions that would make them go insane (pretty much) so yeah. excellent job for actually thinking it through so thoroughly :3)
anyway. this was amazing
I love your Qmi fics
and Imma go stalk you now
:3

[ava_lava]

Do not pity Kyuhyun; he wouldn't be able to feel it. If anything, I would pity Zhou Mi, who could (but of course we know that he is the stronger one emotionally, so pity is irrelevant in the end lol).

I get the stupidest and most brilliant ideas sometimes from things around me, and I can't help but ponder over them a bit. I'm glad you understood most of this, though. Ideas like these go over my head /flails.

[neoragodestiny]

b-but, by the end kyu could feel again ;_; but fair enough i guess XD
poor zhou mi >< it would be so painful :(
lawls, in the end... they both deserve pity xD
ahaha, at least you're easily inspired :3
Well, I think i understand it XD *flails with you*
<3

[ava_lava]

har har Kyuhyun has a feeling complex
GLAD YOU UNDERSTOOD AT LEAST A BIT OF MY INCOHERENCY ASDFL;JK /HAPPYTIME

[farlookout]

The idea behind this fic was pretty interesting, and I did really enjoy reading the thoughts regarding life and love and the value of emotion, but...I would have enjoyed this a thousand times more if you'd done just a little more research before writing this. I'm a medical student, and there were so many facts wrong...a few times I was actually angry because a lot of this stuff reads as medical negligence, and I wanted to punch out the stupid health care providers who kept putting Kyuhyun's life in danger. And I know it's just a fic, but seriously, it's important to fact-check. Like...clot-busting medication is extremely dangerous because it doesn't just dissolve a specific clot, it dissolves EVERY clot. You can't make clots while that stuff is in you, unless you have the antidote on hand. Therefore, we would never allow a patient to administer it to themselves, and we'd never allow it outside of a hospital setting. Additionally, if Kyuhyun actually did thrash like crazy after taking the medication, he probably would have died

[ava_lava]

a lot of this stuff reads as medical negligence <--- HAHAHA IT'S SO TRUE

No, I totally agree with what you're saying. I'm a dual degree Science/Music student but I don't have courses that deal with human anatomy or drugs of any sort (which is totally unfair, but hey core courses are core courses). For instance, I didn't even know that there were such things as clot-busting medication (lol /clueless). I did know that it was physically impossible to unclot only one particular vein, though. But really, the whole permanent emotion extraction process is literally impossible, and vein-clotting seemed like the best and most fitting way of creating this fictional operation. I'm open to other suggestions if you have them (I was also thinking of totally destroying the amygdala of the brain, but then I was just like but if you do that you die hahahaIn general, this fic is sci-fi, which gives me the flexibility to explore the "what-ifs" and "alternate universe settings". However, please let me know if you have any more realistic ways for

[farlookout]

Oh, I'm glad you're not upset with me for speaking plainly. ._

[ava_lava]

Yah, don't worry about speaking your mind in front of me - I prefer criticism because it means that I am worth criticizing. Besides, I love science, so your medical-info-sharing is greatly appreciated ^^

So, probably the best way for this procedure to theoretically work would be to find a way of targeting the neurons from sending/receiving neurotransmitters that affect emotions, correct? Do you think that a fictional medication could be strong enough to permanently freeze them? And in this train of thought, I could use an equally fictional medication to unfreeze them?

I'll be rewriting/editing passages on my computer while I await your reply. Hopefully it will be more to your liking by the time I'm through!