WHITE NOISE

JUDGEMENT ( XX )

[ffsrome]

— across the room.

[arcromi-blog]

arcjaehwa:

a quick walk to the soda machine takes place before he glances up by chance and meets eyes with the girl across the room. of course he knew who she was, as he had caught her staring at him multiple times, though he knew it wasn’t an exclusive thing just for him. the extent of her powers, he didn’t have a grasp on, though he still leans against the machine and raises his brow with the slightest curve on his lips. “seeing something you like?” he thinks, though if he’s right about how she’s staring at him, she’d be able to hear it.

Romi has a preference for finding isolated locations, where the thoughts of people's minds are't so loud, so overlapping and ever-present. It was hard to escape them entirely, but finding the less populated pockets of the building to wile her time away was far more preferential than the cafeteria. The forest is ideal, but not always a feasible location to go wandering off in. Still, she is not exempt from the need to eat, even if she does have a tendency to do so at off hours. 

She's found an empty table, earbuds in and music ringing loud through her skull (despite the constant tisks of those who tell her that if she keeps it up, she'll go deaf one day. They clearly have no idea what hell sounds like). Thoughts slip in past the blaring instrumentals and screamed out lyrics anyway, her gaze settling bored on a figure across the room, an arcana, but one she doesn't know well. 

He has a brow raising at the targeted thought though, eyes dragging down, and then up again to settle on his face in a rather pointed fashion. Not really, do a trick and maybe I'll change my mind. Romi projects back, sarcasm interjected and easy enough to pick up on. It's not far from the truth though, Romi is entirely fed up with boys and their stray thoughts, especially when she lets them get too close. There’s always something off-putting to learn when you get too close to someone, idle thoughts, less-than-kind thoughts that even the nicest of people have a tendency to think. Everyone has a devil living inside of them, some are just better at keeping it muted than others.

[arcromi-blog]

–strange enough

[arcromi-blog]

arcboo:

“Pretty sure that Jinhyuk kid is a fucking virgin. In this day and age, can you imagine?” she lilts back, thinking of how she’d seen him fussing and dithering around about such things, purses her lips. “There’s some fucked up shit going on with Mona and Yong too. I think they’re fucking, for one thing, which is horrifying. Can you imagine? He’s probably into all kinds of scary shit. Don’t even tell me.” she sighs dramatically, flops back on her palms and lets her eyes shut tight, head tilting back to look toward where the stars would be. She throws a glance back at Romi, pauses, “But actually, do tell me.”  Sera chuckles to herself, sitting upright once more to steal a mouthful of the wine, humming as she gulps it down. “What about you, hear anything fun?”

Romi quirks an eyebrow as Sera proposes a mysterious solution, her arms dropping in a heap in her own lap as she waits patiently for Sera to finish her magic trick. "I'm surprised you're strong enough for that to even work." Romi notes with some amount of bland sounding surprised, though a grin quirks on her lips regardless as she reaches out to grab the cork where it had fallen on the ground. "Not sure, I guess it's a tossup. You're technically still human, and technically still thinking." Romi points out, reaches out her hand and curls her fingers in midair a few times until Sera gets the hint and trades the bottle back to her, one hand bracing against the end as she tips her head back to take a sip, and then another. 

"Tragic." Romi agrees, her voice filled with a false sense of mourning, though offers Sera a very sage nod of her head when she mentions Jaeyong. He's not Romi's favorite mind to be around. Not that she has many, but he's certainly one she'd rather steer clear from altogether. She might have actually done a better job of it too if he wasn't always loitering around Mona as of late. "He's a freak. But you know, I think he'd be a little bitch if it weren't for his powers." Romi muses out, private speculation she'd built up out of stray thoughts she'd caught when Jaeyong didn't know she wasn't around, wasn't forcefully thinking about the weather. 

"He's even worse for her than Moonsoo was." Romi decides with a click of her tongue, though of course, despite all of Romi's well meaning advice, Mona never seems to want to follow it. Seemingly content to walk into an obviously laid out trap at her feet. "Let's see..." Romi hums out, tries to dig through the mass amounts of information she'd listened in on over the past week or so in an attempt to extract out the latest gossip. "I don't think Areum ended things with Jihoon, even though, you know. Her and Moonsoo." Romi finally settles on, something of a bitter topic for her, all things considered.

[hcjowi-blog]

toil and trouble.

[arcromi-blog]

arcmona:

let’s get this over with, she thinks, and into the maze they step. it stretches long before them, already emptied of others, eerily quiet as sound is blocked out by the heavy, tall walls. charming. she steps carefully, gaze scanning smooth metal, and as soon as she thinks she might see a hinge there, it flips open and romi, mercifully acting quicker than her own body can react to the thought, pulls her down as a jet of fire spurts above them. “what the fuck.” she groans as they right themselves, casts a thankful look at the other, extends a hand towards the apparatus, sends a blast of magic towards it so that it promptly crumples, useless. “lets get moving i guess.”

When it comes to evaluations, to pitting powers against powers, Romi always feels like she gets the short end of the stick. She's poured hours upon hours in weapons training, learning how to guide a bullet into the target of a heart, how to twist her body into a combat style that's suited for someone so small. She can outsource for information better than almost anyone, but that's not always the most helpful of abilities when she's on her own and expected to fight those who are capable of destruction. 

A thought that comes bubbling to the surface when Romi picks up on the running commentary in Mona's mind. She can't help but to let a laugh escape, the mental image is rather funny. "I'm not stopping you." Romi answers her back, moves closer to Mona when she extends an invitation to team up. Romi would be an idiot to pass it up,, all things considered. "There's company. Lots of company." Romi informs her when she gets close enough, can pick up jagged thoughts of unfamiliar minds interspersed among the arcana, the imprints of some minds faded into something quieter, drowned out by louder spikes of people nearby – those who rushed fast into the midst of a challenge. "Sounds good," Romi responds verbally to Mona's thought, waits for the other to step ahead of her before she follows, fingers curling into fists at her sides. 

Her vision is unfocused, concentration poured into trying to pick up on the thoughts of those around them, trying to isolate whoever's closest. She pulls herself back in time to recognize that Mona's curiosity has spiked, one hand curling around Mona's arm to yank her down to the ground as fire crackles hot and destructive above them in a wicked stream of light. "Like this wasn't already fucking terrible enough," Romi mutters out as Mona send a destructive wave of her own at the box. She climbs to her feet, rolls back her shoulders and cocks her head to listen at Mona's request. "More people that way," Romi informs her after a beat, her thumb jerking toward the right. Granted she's not sure if that means they should trail after them or wander off in the opposite direction.

[balifor]

[arcjaeyong-blog]

truth in lies.

[arcromi-blog]

arcjaeyong:

“you could probably kill a man with that aim,” he starts, straightening his posture when he draws his gun and aims at the head of the board, asking before he pulls the trigger, “– have you, yet?” 

There are a number of people Romi isn't partial too. Among them is Jaeyong, with thoughts to match a power that's coated in terror. She's been around him long enough to know she doesn't like the thoughts in his head, has been around him long enough to know she doesn't like his insertion into Mona's life. Has been around him long enough to know there's fear that consumes him, too. Not all of it, it's not like she can use her powers to dig through his mind, to find the weak links and chip away. But thoughts collect, and she's long since learned how to put together the puzzle pieces of people's minds. 

Something always slips through the cracks, enough for Romi to speculate, to doubt, to judge. 

Romi hears Jaeyong coming before he peels her headphones back, the buzz of approaching thoughts. There's no music streaming in to block them, just a blockade to the noise cracking free from her gun as she unloads a clip. Despite the knowledge, she can't stop the shiver that creeps up her spine when he gets close enough to tug her headphones out of place. She knows fear, she lives among her fears. She's best friends with a sort-of ghost. 

But Jaeyong's different. His thoughts feel sour, a sick twist of acid. Thoughts that spring into action and devour the people around him. Romi's entirely sure he'll wither Mona away and into nothing if he were given enough time. It's part of the reason that she meddles. Nobody deserves to be shackled to a monster. "Probably." she agrees as she unloads her own empty clip, listens to his question, but doesn't bother answering until he's peppered the target with a few shots of his own. "Your fascination with murder is fucking weird, do you jerk it to snuff films?" Romi trades him back instead of a straight answer. It's not like he can leech the truth out of her own head, that's her own special brand of power play.

[arcromi-blog]

– fractured

[arcromi-blog]

arcjihoon:

“babe, please,” he says, and his voice sounds tired. he taps the space by his side on the bed, stares at her with pleading eyes. one side of him is annoyed, angry. it’s just a small thought, a fantasy, nothing more. but another side of him wonders how he’d feel if he could hear romi thinking of touching another man. the thought alone makes his chest ache. “you know i-,” words falter him, what can he even say? he didn’t mean to? it’s meaningless? he already thought it so she knows. and yet he wants her to understand. “you’re not interrupting anything. i want you here, you know it. you don’t have to do this.”

The expression on her face is tight, an attempt at control, an attempt at impassive. She fails at both, and is reminded again of why it's so much easier to retreat, to pull herself to the backdrop of life and let everyone wander past her with their tangled web of secrets and unfiltered thoughts. After all, it's not that she wants to catch Jihoon's mind wandering. It's not that she wants to listen in on thoughts she logically knows everyone has. If she could locate whatever switch inside her head leaves her open to the wavelengths of others she would without a moment of hesitation. 

But it's impossible, so she presses her nails  to the edges of her elbows as she crosses her arms over her chest instead, tries to count backward as she waits for Jihoon to finish recollecting his own daydream. "Please what? It's just a question." the words spill between them, every bit as judgmental as the arcana she supposedly represents. The more she learns about those around her, the more accurate it becomes. 

"What does that even mean, 'you don't have to do this?'" she questions out, the words laced with the frustration that seems to be leaking from her veins. Perhaps it's born from jealousy, or maybe it's aimed at herself. Fed up with her mutation, fed up with knowing too much, fed up with feeling too little. It feels more like her newfound superpower is being able to permanently destroy any relationship she wanders her way into – romantic or otherwise. Not that she can blame them (but that doesn't make it any less lonely). 

Romi takes a few steps closer, until she's standing in front of Jihoon. Everything about him is familiar, the curve of his nose and the confused furl of his brow. She knows so much about him, things she's supposed to – like how his hands feel, the way his laughter vibrates from his chest. She knows things she shouldn't too – like how he sometimes wants to pull away, like how he sometimes wants to run off without her. "Do you really want me to be here?" she can't help but ask, the weight of her eyes falling against him, heavy with meaning, with concentration, like she's waiting for his head to tell her something different than his mouth. She doesn't know why she's doing this to him. 

She doesn't know why she's doing this to herself.

[arcromi-blog]

– lose it

@arcjinhyuk

For all that Romi can meddle, can question, can pry secrets free from those that refuse to speak, her powers are far from helpful in the field when it’s riddled with chaos and overflowing with violence. There’s a certain amount of prediction that can be made in the minds of opponents, but it’s hard to follow when she’s focused on fighting. Hard to compete when she’s not allowed to fire a gun. 

By the time she reaches the third phase of the maze, she’s run ragged. Shaking fingers and aching knees from too many hours spent running. She’d long since given up casting her mental net to try and find a staff member, to dig free some secret or another that would lead her to a short cut. That would, of course, be far too easy. The interest of fairness is apparently lost on them entirely, however, because Romi would possibly trade a leg if that meant she could shoot flames out of her hand for the duration of the trial. Instead, all she can do is pick up on a familiar mind nearby and push herself forward to weave through shifting walls in an attempt to find it. 

She finally gets fed up, stops for a moment and lets herself collapse back against a wall as she lodges her own thoughts into Jinhyuk’s head. Stop fucking moving. I’m close. Romi inhales deep, ignores the dull ache in her side and pushes forward yet again, until eventually she stumbles upon Jinhyuk, lets out a sigh as she reaches back to tighten her long-destroyed ponytail. “Any idea what’s lined up next?” she asks him, though goosebumps spring up along her forearms as she comes closer, notes abstractly that the walls are starting the narrow.

[arcjoon-blog]

same old blues

[arcromi-blog]

arcjoon:

“So, what are they thinking about me around the ARC these days?” He asked unable to ignore his curiosity. 

"For a four year old, maybe." Romi conceded with a grin as she tugged her headphones free from his grip, one hand falling to pat reassuringly at his knee, like some pitying form of congratulations. The kind you gave to that one guy who needed an entirely new trophy created in their honor because they couldn't hit the bar set for everyone else. Not that, realistically, she couldn't understand what Joon went through. How very, very difficult the world was for him with his limited amount of humanity, before everything upended in anger and he receded back into something feral. 

After all, Romi could see into his mind. Was witness to his anger, and then rage. Was witness to the loss of Joon at the maw of the beast inside of him. Fifteen days might have been an accomplishment after all, but she still wasn't going to give him the satisfaction of admitting it. "That just sounds like a bad plan waiting to happen." Romi interjected, the weight of Joon's head heavy against her shoulder, but she didn't shrug him off. This was evidence enough that she liked him, when she let him invade into her boundaries. 

"Okay, bad to worse." she declared when Joon continued onward, lifted one hand up to tug playfully at a handful of his messy hair. "Not that I would mind either option, but I think they'd be more likely to tase you than feed you." She paused, toyed with the string of her hoodie before she added on a belated "but if I had to choose, definitely the door handles. If you manage to trap them, at least you'll get a head start before they come after you." Romi folded the sting over itself, tied it into a knot, and then tugged it free again before she shrugged. It was followed soon after by a chuckle, and Romi let her own voice seep back into his head who said I was sharing? At least telepathy made for fantastic ways to hide conversations. It was on the short list of benefits. 

Another stream of thought swamped her at the question though, easier to parse out with Joon's head sitting directly next to hers. "As in, you fucking something up. Oh my god, you're such a liar. You don't even deserve a hypothetical certificate." Romi accused him like she might have cared (though they both knew she didn't), one elbow knocking into his ribs in the process. "You only think that because I haven't had a reason to pull a gun on you yet." she countered, thumped her elbow against his side one more time, just for good measure. 

"Do you really want to know, or should I just tell you all the girls are secretly charmed by your daunting strength and effervescent personality again?"

[arcromi-blog]

– fractured

@arcjihoon  – past

Thoughts are not always clear. Sometimes they're fragmented, broken up into jarring, disjointed pieces. Sometimes thoughts overlap, blend together into something wholly distracting and headache inducing. Sometimes they're things Romi's not supposed to hear. Sometimes they're things she doesn't want to hear. Jihoon's head has, of late, been radiating thoughts that have kept her away, attempting to skirt outside of his periphery until only the diluted remnants of what had been tumbling around his mind manage to find her. 

It's not that Romi dislikes him – how can she, after all, when they're together – it's just oh so difficult to compartmentalize everything, to forgive every errant, angry thought. Every question of whether or not they're getting a little too close when Romi leans in and cards their fingers together. Every compulsive, fleeting notion of doubt. Every drunken, muddled murmur in his own mind about how maybe he needs to put the brakes on things before he gets in too deep. Romi can't blame him, she's not sure she would want to drown in herself either. But that's the problem, a curse that's wound through her powers. A hidden ability, one that keeps others from getting too close. Romi's sure she's destined to take up knitting and live in an isolated shack up in the mountains with fourteen cats, it's probably only a matter of time. 

But not yet, not when she's still attempting to make things work. But it's hard to keep pretending she doesn't see the doubt, hard to keep pretending everything's fine. Hard to keep pretending she's happy, now, with her hand resting on the handle to Jihoon's door. When his thoughts carry a lewd daydream of a girl that's definitely not her. Normal. It's normal. And it is normal, but that doesn't make it all any less painful when she's forced to listen in. She'd already gone through it all once with her ex, and it's hard to even remember why she thought it was a good idea to try it all over again with Jihoon. 

The door is unlocked when she tries it, he's been expecting her, a text sent half an hour ago had been an indication of that. The fire in Romi's eyes is probably a little less expected, but Romi figures that he's a smart enough boy, he can probably put two and two together. "Bad time?" she quips, sarcasm laced through her tone as she knocks the door closed behind her with a shoulder. "I wouldn't want to interrupt," it would have sounded nearly sweet if there wasn't so much acid laced through her tone.

[arcjoon-blog]

same old blues

[arcromi-blog]

arcjoon:

“What about you?” He asked, tilting his head to get a look at her face. “Should we celebrate or are you just as much of a lost cause as I am?”

Romi conceptualized minds like radio stations. Sometimes there was static, interference. Sometimes they went out of range, or overlapped into some mass of confusion. Then, there were some she grew so accustomed to that they became like preset channels. Minds that were easy, automatic for her to tap into. Truthfully, it wasn't something Romi loved. There's a beauty in being left in the dark, a simplicity that most take for granted. Lies, Romi has learned, can be rather comforting compared to the alternative. Joon had been someone she'd slowly grown accustomed to. 

At first, his presence was strange. He had stalked along the outskirts of society the same way that she did, but he was large, drew in attention. Romi hid, and Joon fought. Or, he wanted to. That was what she'd decided the first day when he'd sat down near her and methodically worked his way through how he could incapacitate everyone in the room (to be honest, she'd found it funny, though he hadn't noticed to occasional twitch of her lips every time he reached a particularly gruesome end result). The company had been nice, though Romi had initially chalked it up to Joon not know she was a telepath. The truth eventually bled over though, and Joon still stayed rooted by her side. But then, the truth is something Romi is intimately familiar with. She knows far too much of it, knows when Joon's nearby, knows when Joon's thinking about her, actively seeking her out. Maybe she'd care more if she wasn't used to people pulling away, putting as much distance as physically possible between them. 

Romi knew Joon was coming before he hit the couch, but she didn't look up from the notebook she was scribbling in until he collapsed next to her – all overlarge limbs and no sense of personal boundaries. She tossed him a glare brought about by habit when her earbud was plucked free, though she did find the volume of her phone to turn it down from blaring to background noise when Joon started to talk. "He says, like that's an actual accomplishment." Romi finished for him as she reached out to disentangle her headphone from his grip. 

"Upper management. Truly they've lost touch with us little people, how will you know to keep behaving if you don't get a gold star?" the words were weighed down heavy with sarcasm, but Romi's grin betrayed her amusement. "My incidents don't get reported, I have dirt on everyone in the building." Romi reminded him with an unconcerned shrug, but then, Romi hardly went out of her way to drag attention to herself in the way that Joon does. She prefers subtlety, keeping herself out of the fray unless there's a reason to engage in it. "Including you. Have you really gone fifteen days without incident?" she asks, elbow prodding near Joon's rib cage (and the proximity, physical touch, always made it easier to pick up on thoughts).

[arcromi-blog]

–strange enough

@arcboo

Romi loves the small semblance of isolation that the roof provides. It's not entirely quiet, not entirely peaceful. But it hangs on the edge of almost. Layers of concrete and insulation separating her from the people milling floors below, until all the thoughts that spill so needlessly from people’s heads diminish into a rush of whispers. Similar to the ocean, but somehow even more volatile. It's probably due to the intentions they bring. Despite the few degrees of separation from humanity, Romi's headphone are still in place, trapped over her ears. It's turned up too loud, music leaking out in chaotic riffs of one of the many metal playlists she has stored in her phone. Ironically enough, she finds it keeps her sane, even if it might lead to some amount of hearing loss. It feels like a necessary risk to take. 

She pushes them down along with her hood when the faint stirrings of a familiar mind encroach in on her, and not too long after Sera appears. Romi greets her with a grin. "Please tell me you brought a corkscrew, I forgot one," she complains, lifts the wine bottle she'd dragged along with her in one hand as she waits for Sera's answer. She's long since learned it's more polite to pretend you don't know what's going to come out of people's mouths. She likes Sera though, Sera at least seems to understand what it means to be an outlier. Knows how it feels to drift along the outskirts, to have people avoid you due to the power that you bring. 

To Romi, it feels more like a curse, a burden. Hates knowing the terrible, twisted thoughts people have. The secrets they want to keep. Hates that it pushes a wedge between her and others. Sera might not understand what it's like to constantly have voices in her head, but at least she knows what it's like to be regarded as strange, and Romi takes comfort in that. "Find anything exciting today?" it's an odd question, but Sera has odd habits in turn, and Romi's well aware that the girl likes to wander into places she's not supposed to. 

Goosebumps run down the length of Romi's arms, but she's not that cold. She knows Sera's caused it, her power washing over her in small waves, the beginning of trepidation curling in her stomach. It's not strong enough yet for Romi to really notice, though she's managed to build up something of a tolerance. After all, her greatest fear is being lost in a crowd, and she's had to confront this over and over again. She's grown somewhat used to the feeling, of being forced to fight her instincts when she has nowhere to go.

[zlladay]

art by januz miralles

[lunarscope]

Visit Original Link

[observando]