there’s this feeling like something big is coming his way. some might call it doom, how his palms have gotten uncontrollably sweaty or how the bass rings deafeningly loud in his ear. the more level headed crowd might chalk it up to the overstimulation of a late night out with colleagues he’s barely gotten acquainted with, and perhaps the only real doom in this equation is pairing that with an arduous day at work and approximately five hours of sleep.
it’s an unpopular opinion, but jaden thinks it’s the music. that is to say, he disagrees entirely with terra’s taste, thinks it loud and incongruous in every way— a jarringly unmatching beat for the genre and even then, distracting for a bar that claims to host good conversation. in fact, jaden’s so entirely firm in this belief that he thinks it’d take a miracle to change his mind.
suppose it’s a spot of cliché that he finds that in lee rumi.
it’s perhaps a little presumptuous to say, considering he doesn’t know her all that well other than a name he’s plucked off of coach and a face he’s only seen in pictures. but jaden had been somewhat impressed by their 50% match—the absolute minimum, from what he’s told, that even 0.1% less would strike her from his options entirely. and he’d thought it even more bizarre that he’d spotted her across the room then, just as he looked up from her profile.
and what he means to say here is that jaden is suddenly thankful for the music. he’s thankful that it’d been disconcerting enough to drown out his colleagues’ voices when they’d attempted to give him the years of context to a piece of immaterial office gossip that had long preceded him, so much so that they’d all but given up on including him in the conversation. and he’s thankful that he’d been so overwhelmed by it that he’d given up all pretence of caring, too, opting instead to swipe mindlessly on the app.
all to find her.
suppose his mother’s right when she called him a romantic, after all.
jaden loosens his collar and excuses himself from the group, then walks up to her by the bar, his eyes never once straying from hers. in the back of his mind, he notes that the music’s not so loud where she’s at, and it coaxes out the ironic chuckle. “hi,” he greets, and there’s a pause, like he’s only just realised what he’s done— that he’d randomly made eye contact with and swiftly approached a girl at a bar, and context aside, there’s a real chance that he could come off like a complete tool for it. he clears his throat and points to her teasingly, “i really hope your name is rumi and you’re not some doppelganger who’s never heard of her, because that would make me look like a real piece of work.” jaden offers his hand for the shake, a pleasant smile on his lips, “but if you’re my match, then hi. i’m jaden. it’s really nice to meet you.”
HANG THE DJ ft. jaden fanning & @serialeclipse's lee rumi
( … )
"the restaurant's owner, his brother-in-law is actually a fisherman so this time of year he has some of the best abalone you can get." jaein adds, as if somehow trying to better sell her on her meal though he doubts how much she actually cares about the origin of where tonights meal is coming from. he fiddles with his hands trying to think of something to say, his sister told him once how girls hate it when the conversation die on first dates and he's finds himself rifling through a mental catalogue of questions that feel appropriate enough for a first date.
"so i guess we should probably get to the 'getting-to-know-you' part, right?" he finally asks folding his hands together as he leans back in his chair. "is this your first time using coach?"
growth is never linear. it is a beast of its own, moving in accordance to its own, seemingly dynamic law that morphs and shapes however and whenever it so pleases. suppose it is within its concept that growth should do anything but stay in the same place. it’s a tragedy nonetheless for a girl like maruyama reina, too stubborn to give up on even the most abstract notions until she conceptualises it fully. to this end, she considers it the plight of the thinker— though some may brand her foolish, the way she’s often seen stumbling over its elusive tail.
and what she means is that maruyama reina has been a small adult since the age of five. from as far as anyone can remember, the girl never fussed, never cried, and always spoke in full sentences. some say it’s a bad thing to have a child grow up so quickly— if you ask reina, she wouldn’t be able to tell you why.
now, in front of noh jaein, maruyama reina instead feels like a tall child. he tells her about the place and she can’t say that she catches it all, only that she’s thankful for it. under the table, she plays with her hands, feels her cheeks grow red, and she wonders if some would call this a bad thing, too. there’s a soft silence that comes between them, and reina lets it settle for a moment before she offers a whisper between the gentle smile, “i like it.”
his line of questioning is briefly interrupted when they are served their food, and the girl politely thanks the waiter before focusing back on her date. there’s this way her lips move, as though balancing a cache of responses, before settling on a sheepish smile. “is it that obvious?” she asks, almost embarrassed to meet his eyes so she instead focuses on picking up her knife and fork to dissect the dish in front of her. “my colleagues made me download coach,” she confesses, eyes flicking briefly to his then back to the abalone, “they said that… well, they couldn’t take how boring my life seemed to be compared to theirs, but something tells me that they were just running out of things to talk about.”
reina takes a bite of her food and glances towards him, a light in her eyes as though to indicate her delight. she takes a sip of her drink and pauses, slips in a genuine, “i’m glad it’s you, though,” before busying herself with her plate. “as my first date, i mean,” she clarifies, “we haven’t known each other for long, but you seem like a really nice guy.” and there’s weight in the pause, how her eyes flick momentarily to the side, as though haunted by a memory. and what she means to say is— “better than the ones i’ve known, anyway.”
“so… how does this work? we eat… we talk…” she regards him from beneath her brow and takes a breath, “what would we do next?”
( … )
and by that, he means he'll pick up his knees a bit more when he speedwalks towards the elevator. for a brief moment, yohan is caught by the fear that he'll smack the top of the threshold with his stuff, but he manages to duck in time and set his belongings on the floor to crack his neck. ❝ thanks, ❞ he huffs. a word spoken too soon when he finally looks up and realizes who his savior is.
❝ huh. ❞ park jaehyun. now if that's a face he hasn't seen in a while. there aren't any hard feelings here. none at all. he cracks a smile, almost sure that the split of his lips looks like a gaping wound instead. ❝ 형! long time no see! how've you been? ❞
too often has park jaehyun bitten off more than he can chew. in this way, he has always been hungry. there had been a gnawing ache at the bottom of his stomach from even before his father drops him off at his grandmother’s on the belt, when park jaehyun first learns what it means to truly want— even from when he’d only been a small child, screaming for his mother’s teat until his face turned blue. sin enters the child before it forms in the womb. park jaehyun, in turn, enters the world gluttonous and ready to feed. and as the boy grows, this need grows with him— it fattens and morphs to feed the growing child.
so suppose it is only natural that it soon gains an appetite for the people around him. moon yohan is an innocent, unsuspecting kid who, by the good of his personality, earns the kind of public favour that not many would know what to do with. when the two finally meet, jaehyun catches this fragrance on him and bares his teeth.
park jaehyun consumes moon yohan until the man is all but skin and bones. the first bite— he makes sure he is spotted with his new friend at an uptown party. the third— he bares their friendship for all to see, a useless comment on the latter’s promotional post. park jaehyun circles moon yohan in hopes that the man’s good rating would rub off on him. but when yohan’s picture perfect rating suddenly takes a fall, park jaehyun, too, is suddenly nowhere to be seen.
the man understands that he is not blameless, but this does not mean that he enjoys being confronted with his sins. like most, he prefers to enjoy them in his dark corner, then tuck them away as though separate from himself. in saying this, when moon yohan finally shows up at his door, park jaehyun has the gall to be irritated. he doesn’t realise it is yohan to start, of course. at first, the man is simply a new, faceless neighbour in need of help, and jaehyun thought himself kind enough to hold the elevator for him.
the irritation follows the reveal. there is yohan’s chirpy tone, and perhaps if jaehyun had thought about more than himself and his hunger, he’d notice its lack of the usual colour. instead, the man clears his throat and shoves his hands in his pockets, a pursed, but polite smile pulling pathetically at his lips. “yohan,” he acknowledges, his tone lacking the usual gusto, “it’s been awhile.” it’s a piss-poor greeting for an old friend, but suppose that’s the thing: park jaehyun never actually regarded moon yohan as a friend. for one, you don’t bleed your friends for their worth.
his eyes flick momentarily to the ascending floor numbers, wonders why the fuck it’s taking so long today. “you’re moving in?” he confirms, tone hinting at his displeasure as he briefly flicks his gaze to the boxes set on the floor, “the gated districts not good enough for you? your house was pretty cozy, from what i remember.”
IMPROVED COMMUNICATIONS for jaehyun but all the texts pls
TERRRASCAPE CO.'S NEW PATCHES / STILL ACCEPTING !
LOADING COMPLETE: IMPROVED COMMUNICATIONS.
✉️ : last text
[ txt → 힘쎈남자 노재인 ] drinks tonight yeah
💌 : heartfelt text
[ txt → 힘쎈남자 노재인 ] yo thanks for the help today you're the best brother i fucking appreciate you
[ txt → 힘쎈남자 노재인 ] just don't let it get to your head yeah it's big enough as is
[ txt → 힘쎈남자 노재인 ] drinks later? my treat
📨 : accidental text
[ txt → 힘쎈남자 노재인 ] wait you fixed haerin's sink? fuck are you not telling me
📩 : drunk text
[ txt → 힘쎈남자 노재인 ] yo im like 5 bottels down wherethe FUCK are u
there is no greater misfortune than to come across a desperate creature. driven to the edge, man can do anything. for the sake of their immediate need, they will thieve, seduce, deceive. they will prey on the weakest parts of you. and should there be none, then they shall pull it out of thin air and work, into you, the rotting pieces.
in the dark of this bar, park jaehyun bestows this misfortune upon an old friend. yoo seojun doesn’t deserve any of this. he had been nothing but kind to jaehyun in their shared childhood, had played an integral role in forming the parts of his memories that the latter clings onto even until today. but park jaehyun is a desperate man, made so the day his grandmother sits him down at the kitchen table and confesses that she intends to work in the outer world. life on terra is utopic for the rich man, yes— but this does not mean that it cannot be unbearable for those on the belt. according to his grandmother, there is no reason that the both of them should suffer.
so as desperate men are wont to do, park jaehyun starts looking for people who can fill this immediate need. he finds that in yoo seojun. the two grow out of their friendship some years ago, and one day, martian appears on the screen with a signature move that seojun had always used to beat his childhood friend. martian may be careful with hiding his real identity, but jaehyun sees through seojun’s cracks.
so nine years of silence and park jaehyun finally picks up the phone to call the sorry fucker. now they’re sitting at the bar, his elbow against the counter. they’re reminiscing something from their past and jaehyun hides his unease behind his lukewarm bottle. sometime later, he clears his throat and interjects, “hey, d'you watch the last major?” follows with an insincere, “that was some crazy stuff, huh?”
yoo seojun wants to remain anonymous for a reason, and park jaehyun knows himself to be a rotten friend for disrespecting it. in time and with reason, yoo seojun will forgive him. but min inyoung cannot get her life back. so with this he leans in and beckons the latter closer, cuts through his guilt as he speaks in a lowered timbre, “you know, the game’s changed a fuck ton since we last played it together. it’s funny though…” jaehyun meets his friend’s eyes with a pointed expression, “something about martian feels… familiar.”
right or wrong, there is no talking him out of it. the desperate man, parched or aflame, will run to the body of water regardless if it exists.
THE MORAL ANIMAL ( circa 3021 ) ft. park jaehyun & @neoimpetu's yoo seojun
i. fool cavetown ii. be my mistake the 1975 iii. ghostin ariana grande iv. still something suriel hess v. almost ( sweet music ) hozier vi. each time you fall in love cigarettes after sex vii. forever's not our thing lunadira viii. slow shy martin ix. ew joji x. please jagger finn
( … )
finally, her song ends and jinah sighs partially in relief and partially because the next song is even worse. money can buy a lot of things, but apparently a dj with taste is never one of them. she looks over jaehyun one more time, eyes resting on his hand once more before deciding that her addiction to nicotine in this moment is actually stronger than her pride.
"if i wave the white flag for a minute and ask you for a cigarette will you give me one?" she asks, admittedly sounding somewhat pitiful, "my agency banned me from smoking, you know for my voice even though they can just digitize that shit out later."
you must think them crazy. put park jaehyun and kwon jinah in a room together and no sooner will they fly at each others’ throats, unrelenting until one of them passes out. it’d been this way for the better half of their relationship, and yet, it’d taken at least two years before jinah finally found the sense to walk out. jaehyun can’t speak for his ex-girlfriend, but he suspects she’d stayed as long for the same reason he did: for the sheer comfort in knowing that there was someone out there who was just as bad to the fucking bone. in saying so, park jaehyun is glad to find that kwon jinah hasn’t changed in the slightest, even if he won’t admit it.
it's for this reason that he hides the growing smirk in the way he knows how, curls his tongue behind his lip and sucks on his teeth. jaehyun flicks his cigarette and sighs, “now i remember: you talk way too fucking much.” somewhere in the room is a rich man who is careless with his sardonic laughter. as those of the belt are wont to do, jaehyun saves his to make room for the bite, “you think you’d be tired of the sound of your voice by now, but of course, you had to go and put it in a fucking album.”
“but that’s us, huh? haerin might be too good for me, but you and i? we’re the fucking same— just two lucky bastards that somehow made it to the fucking top.” so park jaehyun is arrogant and kwon jinah is bitter. the years between them hold space for growth, but here, they’re back in jaehyun’s seedy living room on the belt. and isn’t it, in some ways, lovely? he turns to look at her just as he once had before, cigarette held just before his lips, “well, i got famous because of all the games i played… and you?” he chuckles, takes a puff of his cigarette and blows out the smoke, “guess we both have me to thank, huh?”
as man and woman are wont to do, they poison each other. eve had invited adam to take a bite of the apple. now, jinah asks for a smoke and jaehyun scans her features without malice, tries to recall which of them had introduced the other to the habit of smoking. and what does it matter? they’re both damned to hell, anyway. jaehyun turns away from her, holds his cigarette between his fingers and taps it twice. he pulls the box from his pocket and holds it out to her, a muffled, “take it,” as he places his smoke back between his lips, “it’s fucking insurance, if anything. my rating’s shit as is. i can’t afford to let you fucking tank it,” he confesses, and it’s the way in which they speak to each other, isn’t it? jaehyun’s supposed plot to ruin her voice sounds callous to anyone’s ears, but in the context of their past relationship, suppose she might recognise it as a device to hide the rare, good gesture.
it doesn’t last long though, because he’s clenching the box within his fist before she can put her finger to it, a halting, “though from what i hear, you’re not doing too hot yourself.” jaehyun raises the box just beyond her reach and stands closer to her, toe to toe as he says in a low drawl, “what’s it going to be, princess? who’s going down this time: you or me?”
a pause. a snicker. jaehyun brings his hand down and flips the lid to reveal the kinked cigarettes, “nah, i’m just fucking with you.”
i. bittersuite billie eilish ii. can't stop loving you artemas iii. i swear i'll never leave again keshi iv. francesca hozier v. first love / late spring mitski vi. pretty boy the neighbourhood vii. hesitations shiloh dynasty viii. halley's comet billie eilish ix. die for you joji x. by your side flatsound
LOADING COMPLETE: SECURITY REINFORCEMENT.
reina learns, from a young age, the art of shrinking so that others may take up space. she does this for jinhyeok without thinking, cheers him on in his basketball friendlies even when she can barely find it within herself to appreciate the game. somehow and despite how small she subconsciously makes herself, kim jinhyeok always finds her. whether it be in the middle of a sporting crowd or deep in the quiet section of the engineering library, he'll always show up somehow, be it a lingering look or a soft nudge. reina learns, then, that people have a way of finding you no matter how hard you make it for them. they just have to try hard enough. in this way, kim jinhyeok always will find maruyama reina.
in the same way, maruyama reina will always go out of her way to search for kim jinhyeok. the man disappears on his birthday every year, and reina finally finds him sitting alone in a cafe on the morning of his sixteenth birthday. she sinks into the chair beside him, a faint smile on her face as though to say i'm sorry it took me so long to find you. he's not the kim jinhyeok she knows that day, but reina shrinks for him anyway, rests her head on his shoulder and promises to wait by him in silence until he finds himself again.
maruyama reina will never stop looking for kim jinhyeok: this much is a fact. it's a fact long after they've stopped speaking, and reina still reads over the messages he last left her on her panel. it's a fact long after he's stopped looking for her— somehow and seemingly without effort, reina always will find him still, be it walking up the stairs to their campus, hand in hand with a girl she can't recognise, or down the street in the cafe that brews his coffee the way he likes it. and somehow and despite how small she subconsciously makes herself, kim jinhyeok will always catch her stare.
LOADING COMPLETE: IMPROVED CONNECTIONS.
✉️ : last text
[ txt → kim jinhyeok ] hey, i left my scarf at your place.
[ txt → kim jinhyeok ] actually never mind, you can keep it.
💌 heartfelt text
[ txt → jinhyeok ʕ•ᴥ•ʔ ] happy birthday, jin-chan! you make everyday feel like it's my birthday so i hope that i at least get to make you feel like it's yours today (ᵔ.ᵔ) i know i don't say it enough but there's no one i appreciate more than you! you always know how to cheer me up and i hope i can do the same for you! nothing makes me happier than seeing you smile (ᵔ.ᵔ) call me when you get up?
📨 accidental text
[ txt → jinhyeok ʕ•ᴥ•ʔ ] you're such an asshole, jinhyeok
📩 drunk text
[ txt → jinhyeok ʕ•ᴥ•ʔ ] i'm sorry i ruined your relationship
[ txt → jinhyeok ʕ•ᴥ•ʔ ] i just don't want to lose you
IMPROVED COMMUNICATIONS for reina but all the texts pls
TERRRASCAPE CO.'S NEW PATCHES / STILL ACCEPTING !
✉️ : last text
[ txt → ♥ KWON JINAH!!!! ♥ ] hihi! sorry to bother you (^^;)
[ txt → ♥ KWON JINAH!!!! ♥ ] i heard some rumours that you're going on tour! is it... true?
[ txt → ♥ KWON JINAH!!!! ♥ ] sorry for bothering (^^;)
[ txt → ♥ KWON JINAH!!!! ♥ ] or if you changed your number (╯_╰)
💌 : heartfelt text
[ txt → ♥ KWON JINAH!!!! ♥ ] hello! sorry if this is really random but jinhyeok gave me your number and told me you wouldn't mind me telling you but i really love your music! you speak so expressively through your lyrics and you always seem to find the right words to describe what i'm thinking! i'm a big fan (◕ᴗ◕✿)
📨 : accidental text
[ txt → ♥ KWON JINAH!!!! ♥ ] do you not like me ╥﹏╥ i'm sorry
📩 : drunk text
[ txt → ♥ KWON JINAH!!!! ♥ ] hehe i have your number
[ txt → ♥ KWON JINAH!!!! ♥ ] that means we are friends (◕ᴗ◕✿)
their 3? 4? year relationship is as follows: they fight, then fuck, then they do it all over again. he won't admit this to her, but there's a part of him that really enjoyed the whole cycle of it. there wasn't a lot of room to express his emotions growing up, but jinah held that space for him, whether she'd intended to or otherwise. it's for this reason that jaehyun genuinely mourned their relationship when she finally picked her self-worth off the floor and left the sorry fucker. ( then, of course, she sent him a portion of her first paycheck from the album she made off of their relationship as a way to emasculate him, and he gave her a piece of his mind via text only to realise the incidental truth— that she unblocked him. and well... turns out there wasn't much to mourn because nothing really changed, off the record. )
another thing he won't admit: park jaehyun learnt the most when he was with kwon jinah. they say that iron sharpens iron, and maybe her intention hadn't been to make him better, but worse, but he was made better all the same. if you ask him, it's because nothing will drive a man to move more than his ex-girlfriend's expertise in nagging. even so, he did the most when he was with her, whether it be driving her to some shitty studio, paying for her stupid tattoos, or walking around aimlessly with her at the flea market at the ass crack of sunday's dawn.
it wasn't all bad, though. it seems like a lifetime ago now, but there was a time when their fighting felt more like harmless bickering, when there was a lot less screaming and a lot more talking in still, small voices. once, jaehyun would have done anything to make her happy. it's why it had pissed him off when she accused him of only being with her because she reminded him of his ideal type and current girlfriend— not that he's doing himself any favours. but in truth, it wasn't anything like that. back then, he'd wanted to be with her because she was her. because jinah had this way of being so wholly and truly herself, that it inspired him to do the same. here's the final thing he won't admit: if you ask him to go back in time and relive it all over again, he'd be there with her in a heartbeat.
*crowd boos* yea ok so i know i owe a lot of threads rn and as someone who is in as big of a debt as i am i have no place bringing in another muse but also i have no self control so. yeah im back with jaden fanning who's really the face of the formerly gifted child! he's an allara native paired with an unhealthy dose of escapism which brings him to terra! ...for work, of course! you know the drill: hit that LIKE button and i'll come running for plots again!
aquarius sun / virgo moon / libra rising
born and raised in los angeles! he's got a cookie cutter life with upper middle class parents who stuck together and 3 sisters, 1 older and 2 younger, and they're all relatively close in age! being the middle child and only boy means he basically gets to do anything he wants so even though his sisters pretty much gang up on him, life is pretty breezy honestly
jaden's also a really smart kid and he's one of those weirdos who genuinely enjoys maths so he really excelled in school! him and his sisters are all pretty high achievers in general, so growing up in that environment really helped foster his education
he gets into the compsci program in whatever version of mit is present a millennium later in allara and this is really where his life starts! living away from his childhood home, he was really able to break out of his mould! it's very much like if you've always been a class clown in hs, people expect you to only be a class clown and similarly in his home, people expected him to be jaden, their son / brother / whiz kid, but for once he was really able to just be whoever and do whatever he wanted!
absolutely bombs his first yr in uni thanks to his newfound freedom ( tho bomb in his family's standards is like a B- ) so his parents start calling, sisters start teasing him, everyone starts to get a little concerned for him and he kinda doesn't like disappointing people so he locks in! one thing he's learnt from this tho is that he kind of realises that he can never really be who he wants to be fully, because his family will always kind of be hovering over him ( like family ought to do but yk men n their need for independence )
anw he graduates thankfully and manages to snag an internship with allara's version of terrascape ( allarascape or sumn idk ) as an engineer! has been working there since and he's got some good critical thinking, work ethic & he's got an easygoing personality so he climbs the ranks pretty easily!!
only for things to grow so mundane again? his now 5y old job is very reminiscent of his childhood, how he's now shelved as a can-do engineer and everyone knows and expects him to always act in a certain way
at this point he starts looking for other jobs ( doesn't tell his parents tho bc they'd call him crazy and talk him out of it considering allara(scape) is like. the biggest company in allara im guessing ) and around sometime end of last year, he finds an opening at his company to transfer to terra as an inter-server compatibility engineer! it genuinely felt like the perfect opportunity for him so he applied immediately
doesn't tell his parents until he actually gets approved for the job and is told that he needs to relocate in like a month, and his parents are naturally sad about losing their son but he convinces them like hey, it's only semi-permanent and he can come back anytime if he doesn't like it, he's only doing this to move up in his career and what better way than to be in touch with the other part of his culture ( all lies btw he just wants some excitement in his life ) and his parents eat it up so they agree that he should take the job
but yes! that brings him to terra! he's moved over to the server for about a month or so now so he's literally a fresh face!
personality-wise jaden is really easygoing and has a very try anything once type of mentality! recently, he's been getting into the music of terra ( ngl he found it a lil rocky at the start but it's grown on him ), the games ( iron fist rocks btw ) and their cool dating app, but yeah he'll literally try anything to keep himself entertained!
in saying so jaden bores very easily... he's truly an aquarius at heart in that he loves to try new things but he also learns very quickly and gets bored of them once he does, so he'll run through many different hobbies and interests until he runs out then that jaded feeling leading into escapism comes creeping back in... luckily he's only on his first month in terra tho so the shine's gonna stay for at least 1-2 years still!
ironic but maybe the reason why he bores easily is because he's fostered a pretty boring life for himself 😖 definitely a lot more boy-next-door compared to some of the muses here so really, he's just your typical dude!
considering the event that just concluded i should also say that he's a terra glazer, given that he works with the code he does find it hard to admit that there's anything wrong with the code so if your muse is out here saying that terra is lying and all that he's treating them like scientists treat covid deniers : >> will kinda write them off eek but in saying this he's also not very self-aware lol prob rates himself pretty high on the nice, down to earth scale so take that how you will
you'd never imagine that i'd be able to rattle on about some random guy uve met on the street yet here we are... anw here's some plot bunnies for ya!
i'd love for him to kinda meet anyone working @ terrascape! whether it be thru their mentor-mentee program or if they're chillin at the canteen tgt, he's ur man! he also likes going out for tgif drinks w his colleagues so !
as i said he's getting used to a lot in terra so you can definitely find him in random spots across town! whether it be the quaint bakery no one knows about or that coffee shop everyone knows AND WARNS everyone about! i assume culture is quite different between servers too so maybe he does something that's a little outside of the culture of terra? like if he tries to tip a waiter and they find him rude as hell... ye come educate this white man
honestly he's really getting into iron fist at the moment so i can see him gaming a lot! would love for him to have gaming friends he met thru iron fist and maybe your muse has decided to take pity on this literal noob lol... maybe even games other than iron fist while we're here? he's really trying anyth rn gang! while we're at it i'm also looking for someone he's a big fan of!
speaking of fans and celebrities, he's a compatibility engineer btwn terra and allara, so your muse has thought to transfer to allara briefly for a tour / to go on holiday? he doesn't usually deal with the customer aspect of things and is more present behind the scenes, but maybe bc your muse is famous the ceo employs "a professional" to handle the case and greet you so you feel special and feel enticed to keep spending your merits using this service
he's also been getting used to coach rn so maybe you've matched w him! watch him bring u around to the lamest places bc he doesn't know any place...😌
because he's moved here for his job, (allara)scape's also placed him in the megabuildings! neighbour plots would be kinda cute huh?
( … )
certain of his grandfather’s penchant for philanthropy but more so of his father’s need to create a life only to abandon it, wontaek thinks that perhaps his father had made another mistake, another blunder that he tried very well to sweep under a rug. one that his grandfather had tried to put the pieces back together somehow. and if his suspicions are right then he could be that same life changing force for a certain maruyama reina that his grandfather was. which is why he waits outside the glass doors of re:skin, a lit cigarette perched between the plush of his lips.
he stands straight, his leather briefcase stationed by the tip of his italian shoes. the suit he’s donned for the occasion seems a little on the nose but it made sense at the time. moments go by as he watches people leave the building until… he’s sure… ‘maruyama reina?’ he calls out, his hand jutting out to a woman he’s sure he has spent the last few hours poring over her online presence trying to figure out if they possibly share a father. ‘i’m sorry to bother you but do you mind if i ask you a few questions?’
there’s a joke they like to tell on this side of town about how only a fool can be happy. the way it goes, knowledge is infinite, and happiness only comes to those who settle for contentment. to be a fool is to override one’s intelligence for the sake of their emotions— or in other words, to be no greater than an animal. to be ignorant is to be a fool is to be happy. maruyama reina is crowned valedictorian of her graduating class, yet the punchline somehow escapes her.
maruyama reina is five years old when her father moves out. the night before happens as usual, reina sitting by the dining table as she shares dinner with him in silence. father leaves by the time she gets up, and reina doesn’t realise it until she’s alone in the dining room come dinnertime. her parents finalise their divorce on the cusp of her seventh birthday, and reina doesn’t hear about it until three years later when she catches him walking by a café on her way home from school, another woman’s daughter held tightly in his arms.
reina may be intelligent, but in saying so, she is made a fool by maruyama tetsuo. now she’s on the way home from a job that fails to fulfil her when she’s stopped by a man dressed in a suit. her name rolls off his tongue like he’s practised it, and reina is reminded of all the ways she hates her father. her furrowed brows betray her confusion, though she manages a polite smile. “of course,” the agreement comes mechanically, and there’s a beat before she caves, “who… are you?” reina only ever hears about her father from someone else, so suppose it’s natural when she follows with a, “is this about my father?”
> good evening, [user]. you have THREE patch updates waiting to be installed. click REBLOG to download?
LOADING… PANEL UPGRADES
[ the new panel upgrade now allows for synchronised customisation between two users. ]
the receiver can create a playlist, moodboard, web weaving, or any other aesthetic that they’d like about their muse’s relationship with the sender, and terra will upload this to their fully customisable shared panel.
LOADING… SECURITY REINFORCEMENT
[ terrascape prides itself on security, and all your secrets are safe and confidential with us. ]
write ~3 headcanons about your muse and the sender’s, and terra promises to keep it safe from prying eyes.
LOADING… IMPROVED COMMUNICATIONS
[ communications on terra are now faster and better than before. ]
send ✉️ for the last text the receiver sent to the sender, 💌 for a heartfelt text the receiver sent to the sender, 📨 for a text the receiver sent and couldn’t recall in time to the sender, 📩 for a drunk text the receiver found in their drafts that they haven’t sent to the sender.
what do you know of ghosts? his mother dies on the cusp of his memory and his father fails to shake the ghost of her. he lets her linger in the walls of their home and breaks bread with her from across the dining table. come nighttime, he tells her to lay in bed with him. the memory of his mother haunts his father through every lucid moment of every fucking season, until it threatens to kill him too. as a father is wont to do, park jaeseok sacrifices his son for the sake of his own salvation.
and what jaehyun means to say is that he’s fucking sick of listening to all this gyu-ok bullshit. never mind the fact that they’ve rolled out the whole fucking fanfare all because he acted in a couple of garbage movies that jaehyun himself could never find the time to give a shit about. his mother was granted all but an unmarked grave, jaehyun all but a new life. and what do you know: everything turned out fine.
if there’s anything his piece of shit father has taught him, it’s that you’re better off letting the dead rest.
but it’s too much to ask, isn’t it? of course— he’s got haerin talking his fucking ear off about how all of this somehow serves as evidence that something is wrong with him. now he’s breaking into wonshik’s house in hopes of finding reprieve from all the fucking nagging, only to find the man’s curtains shut and an accompanying dark cloud hanging over the once well-lit home. jaehyun groans.
“fucking hell— not you too.” jaehyun sinks into the couch on the left of wonshik, drags the open bottle of liquor towards him and pours himself a glass. he ought to be respectful— after all, he vaguely recalls that wonshik was once friends with the dead fucker, so he supposes wonshik’s granted a moment to brood following the abhorrent reappearance of bae gyu-ok. even so, the gamer finds himself fighting back a sardonic chuckle— it’s only the rich that can ever afford the time to sit in their grief. poor fuckers like him had to get up and get back to work the next day.
jaehyun studies the man from beneath his brow, lets out a long sigh and skulls the drink he’s made for himself. “how are you holding up?” the question falls in between filling his and wonshik’s empty glass, and suppose it is only right that he waits for a response. instead, jaehyun continues, “look, this whole thing fucking sucks and whoever’s behind all of this is fucking diabolical. when my mom died my world fucking ended— you remember. but the world moves on, man. you can’t let this shit get you down.” jaehyun kisses his teeth.
CURTAIN CALL ft. park jaehyun & @sparedpart's nam wonshik
( … )
he ought to have walked up to her, said his hello, pulled her chair out, done the whole romantic lead type of deal that only really exists in movies. this many first dates in he knows where his shortcomings fall and he's sure the lack of romantic overtures here will count against him at the end of the night.
"reina?" he asks, almost stupidly as she sits into her seat opposite him. who the fuck else would it be? he wants to ask but his commitment to making an awful impression isn't that strong so he sighs instead before shooting her a polite smile. "you're a lot prettier in person, your avatar on coach doesn't really do you justice."
okamura akemi falls in love for the last time when she’s only twenty-one. maruyama tetsuo is little older than her, but at the time, it meant that he had gotten a lot further than she had in life. until today, akemi maintains that it’s the first thing that drew her to him— the fact that he was experienced in all the ways she wasn’t. but as the story goes, akemi was a brilliant engineer that had accelerated far beyond her peers by the time she hit her thirties, and in doing so, she had left her husband behind. when he finally left, he packed up all the things that were just his and skipped over everything that reminded him of their life together, including the daughter and the framed photos.
love feels like something you’re meant to outgrow. there’s nothing that convinces reina more of the fact than when she watches her mother breeze past the framed photos of the life she once had, her father’s smiling face barely registering in her mother’s mind. to her knowledge, it had taken her mother two odd years to grow indifferent to pictures of her father that he had left around their home.
maruyama reina comes up to her second year today. she had been nineteen when she had last spoken to kim jinhyeok and now, she is twenty-one and determined to outgrow him. now, there is another man at the other end of the table, and maruyama reina smiles like she’s found her answer.
maruyama reina goes on her first official date when she is twenty-one. noh jaein is a little older than her, and she is certain that he has at least gotten a lot further than she has in the one way that she needs him to. it shows in the way he says her name— a little unsure, like he’s done this too many times to count. there is a compliment ready on his tongue, and reina chuckles politely back. “thank you,” she plays at being coy, chin tucked as she brushes her locks of hair behind her right ear, “you’re not so bad yourself.”
“thank you for waiting,” she reaches out, fingers brushing the back of his hand lightly before she picks up the menu in front of her. reina turns the page and briefly scans the list of appetisers, her fingers tapping along the menu’s edge. “have you been here much?” she asks, pulling the menu down to look at him, “if you have then i’ll let you do the honours. i trust your decision.”
