(satellite)

i go 'round and 'round. chen haoran, familiar.

[inordinaries]

hi!!! i'm elle, happy to be here with chen haoran (pinterest) who is the biggest loser on campus until proven otherwise. to his witch, whoever they may be: sorry about your luck. to everyone else: it could always be worse. between his stats page & the intro below, i have plenty of info on him to hopefully make plotting really easy!!! like this post if interested and we can get the party started!!!

biog

born 10/10/2000 in hsinchu, taiwan. lived there for about 10 years, and then due to various promotions and company mergers his dad was asked to relocate to south korea. the family, which was only haoran and his parents, made the move.

naturally, they hadn't exactly expected to live out the rest of their lives in south korea, so none of them spoke any korean at the time of the move. it was a huge obstacle in which haoran took on most of the burden - he was young, he had a still-growing brain, and he was in school. he could do it. and he did. somehow transitioned from "let's all do this together" to "hao can you translate this for us"

hao assimilated well. his dad assimilated decently. his mom? never assimilated, works some boring part-time job that she doesn't even really need to work 'cause her husband makes plenty of money but if she stays home all the time she'll go crazy, you know?

were they a happy family? they were alright. nothing sticks out to hao from his childhood - it was fine. even if there were problems, they all became very miniscule to him after he shifted (into a goddamn red squirrel, of all things) for the first time. was about ~16 years old? the perfect age to experience an unbelievable, astounding, what-the-fuck moment that you can't share with anyone else of course

(for the record, he has not even to this day shared this with his parents because, well, how can he? if they are magical they've never shared it with him because, well, how can they? so he operates under the assumption that they're normal which is likely true)

as far as the rest of his adolescence life goes - that was not as fine. was picked on a lot for things that were mostly out of his control. not speaking korean well, being a chubby kid/teen, being awkward, being shy, calling the teacher "mom", sucking at football on school sports days, etc etc etc. wasn't badly bullied but was made fun of, like, constantly. it changed him

his personality developed accordingly. learned to set himself up for failure so when he fails it doesn't sting as bad, and to make a fool of himself so he knows why people are laughing. not the best for his self esteem, but did wonders for his... bravery? i guess? willing to try anything, doesn't really experience anxiety about the unknown. thinks very low of himself and just assumes everyone else does too/always assumes things aren't going to go that well for him so it kind of doesn't matter iykwim. it's like a little treat when he's proven wrong :)

went to college (not a good one) and got a degree in (undisclosed). never bothered trying to get a job with said degree because he kind of just got it because he didn't have any other plans for himself. would've eventually gotten around to shopping the job market if he hadn't stumbled upon......................... a magical boarding school that would've saved him the damn trouble of college if he'd found it earlier.

pretty much brings us up to date. has been floating around for a year and a half, getting not much done & trying desperately to make friends/find his witch.

as far as his personality goes, he's a lonely guy. it shows. he might come off as shy if you don't know him, but he's really not - has a tendency to observe more than interact, and i think he's someone people might speak to out of pity. like "oh that guy is always so quiet, i'll ask him about his day this one time" but all it takes is that one time for him to open up completely. tells a lot of stupid lies but also discloses an embarrassing amount of personal info by conversation 2. is cringe - physically awkward, doesn't put a lot of effort into his appearance (see: his fuckass mullet), his humor is offbeat, his style isn't that good, he misuses a lot of words. tells a lot of jokes no one laughs at, but tells a lot that people do laugh at too so it's enough to keep him going. type of guy to be laughing about something with a group of people and then he tries to add something that's so not funny that everyone stops laughing and dissipates.

if you do know him, prepare to never get rid of him completely. he might not reach out for a few days, he might not reach out for a few weeks, he might not reach out for a few months. but he always comes back. type of guy to act like he's doing you a favor by nurturing the friendship once every couple of months while you're wondering if you should block his number and be done with it.

and then there are the people he places as higher priorities - if you're a good friend of his, he'll check in at least once every few days. usually way more often than that. like a million times a day. likes to talk, and he talks a lot once he's comfortable. likes to listen too, but is not really a good listener so he doesn't remember much of what he's told. things like birthdays, events, favorite foods, etc etc stick with him but other things like fears and experiences he wasn't a part of slip his mind easily. you can tell him the same story a million times and it's fine because he doesn't remember it anyway! also really likes to make people smile and laugh :) part of him being cringe is that he will willingly embarrass himself to make someone else laugh - if they're laughing, he'll keep pushing it one step further.

hates conflict. he's not someone who's quick to anger over small things and is instead a fire extinguisher. likes to solve problems before they've even really become problems - if you have a problem with him, he'll shut down immediately, so there's that.

organized but doesn't appear to be. has everything accounted for, notices even the most miniscule of changes, but lives in complete chaos :/ messy.

has a lot of free time, so he also has a lot of hobbies in order to pass the time. is currently really into whittling. has a pocket knife on him at all times should there be a tree in the vicinity (and there usually is).

overall, very much an "it is what it is" guy. a "taking a walk because what else can i do about it" guy. doesn't take things as seriously as he should, probably? i think secretly he's hoping that his recent increasing levels of laziness, aimlessness and vague sense of doom are directly related to the fact that he's yet to find his witch.

plot ideas

other nest-building familiars he's perpetually competing with for resources lmfao

can i have a witch he's obsessed with. definitely not actually their fated familiar but he really wants to be

maybe you got him fired from his recent job. i have no actual concrete idea for how/why he left that job but it could be fun if someone complained about something that was definitely his fault and it was the straw that broke the camel's back regarding his employment. and he knows who did it. his one and only enemy. currently sabotaging them in really stupid and microscopic ways, not putting a whole lot of effort into it because he likes being unemployed lowkey (for reference he was managing some small discount retail store in the nearby magical town)

other jobless familiars he spends an annoying amount of time with because they're both usually available?

need to have the obligatory "friend who's only a friend because they're too nice to not be". you cringe when you see him walking towards you. ma...ybe he can grow on you?

does anyone want to help him fix his fuckass mullet. he's not gonna do it himself

other outdoorsy people. someone to go on long walks with. as a consequence of this you will know everything about him from birth to present day

c...an i have someone who actually genuinely enjoys his company but is currently standing as one of his acquaintances he only reaches out to once a month? i think his head would explode if someone said they wanted to spend more time with him

are there any other losers here. two people with such low self-esteem that they place e/o on pedestals?

etc etc etc. open to all types of plots!!!

[inordinaries]

with @runeink.

haoran can't find any of his friends.

he's never experienced much social anxiety, but there are a lot of uncomfortable factors joining forces currently, what with his very recent realization that the "party" everyone had been talking about for weeks is actually a party, his phone being dead & his friends being nowhere to be found. he doesn't know what to do with his hands.

he's just poured his first drink of the night. he's holding it with both hands, dumbly, so that the problem of knowing what to do with them is temporarily solved. he's still looking for his friends. before long, he deems it a losing game. his new goal becomes to just find someone to talk to so that he doesn't become 'the idiot at a party who can't find their friends'. he achieves the new goal quickly; there's a guy standing in the outskirts of the gathering, a face that he can't put a name to. he doesn't look busy. haoran approaches jiho with a smile already on his face.

"hi," he says, over-eager and trying very hard not to be. "i don't think we've met before...? i'm haoran." for a moment, he smiles harder, then he drops it completely. he takes a big gulp of his drink. the sourness makes him want to grimace, but he doesn't.

"i'm kind of having second thoughts about this whole hunt thing," he offers, following it up with an awkward laugh. despite his never-ending efforts to connect, he's never sure how to talk to new people. he takes another sip of his drink, much smaller this time, and tries to square his shoulders. please be nice, please be nice.

"are you excited for it, or...?"

[sndwnsyndrm]

haoran:

"because i'll be honest with you," a pause to account for him swallowing the last of his lukewarm drink, "i'm feeling pretty good. can't be too bad if everyone's partying like this instead of practicing spells and all that, right?"

Two years in and the world still feels foreign to her.

There's always something Eunjae doesn't know. The blood moon hunt, new moon rituals, spell incantations, the list goes on and on ad nauseam. She's out of her depth, tonight and most nights, a fact that should vex her more than it does in the current moment. Instead of irritation, Eunjae feels sated, standing alone swaying to the music while she sips her drink.

When she used to work in a club, she felt sorry for women like this⎯ the ones standing along the edge of the dance floor moving to the beat of the songs refusing to join the joie de vivre of the dance floor. But Eunjae understands it now in some small part; there's a certain pleasure that comes from observing the crowd but not participating. She doesn't really like this song much anyway, but there's something entertaining in how everyone dances along and sings the lyrics loudly.

She startles at the sound of her own name, somehow cutting over the voices screaming 'tonight I'll be crooked' at the top of their lungs. Chen Haoran, amongst other things, has a loud mouth and a willful inability to read the room and if he were anyone else Eunjae no doubt would hate him for it. She's heard enough of his story to know he's like her⎯ intrinsically lonely. Though unlike her Haoran has it in his mind to change his fate by sheer will of force.

"Haohao," She says back to him, a drunken tongue stumbling over the pronunciation of his name though it sounds cute enough, maybe she'll call him that in the future. "I'm surprised you're not dancing. You seem like the kind of guy who looks forward to hearing Crooked."

She takes a sip of her drink and watches him carefully as he rubs his eyes and rambles off something. He's always talking too much, mostly about nothing, and Eunjae's got a bad habit of only halfway listening to what he's saying.

"I feel good, I think it's something to do with the moon." She replies cooly before swatting his hand away from his face, "you should stop rubbing your eyes like that, you're going to trap smoke particles in your eye and irritate your cornea further."

[inordinaries]

both of haoran's eyes had been closed to enable him to focus entirely on rubbing the pain out of them, so he hadn't noticed eunjae's hand moving in to disrupt him. "smoke particles," he echoes, scoffing out a laugh as if to say yeah, right. but he believes her entirely. he doesn't argue. he takes his glasses from where they've been hanging on his neckline most of the night and puts them on his face; a barrier for the next time he thinks to rub his eyes, lest lee eunjae have to tell him anything twice.

he nods his head to the beat for a few seconds. "i like crooked," he admits belatedly. he's not sure if 'you seem like the type of guy who looks forward to hearing crooked' has good or bad connotations, so he's smiling plainly. "under different circumstances, i probably would be dancing, but i didn't pregame hard enough... or at all. wasn't really expecting this to, uh, actually be a party." he crumples the plastic cup in his hand just to have something to do.

the liveliness of the party still surprises him. he's not particularly nervous about the night; he either dies or doesn't. he has nothing to earn from the hunt. he could party if he wanted to, if he felt like it, but he can't understand the witches who are expending their energy on having a good time now rather than putting their best foot forward to earn a whole new power. maybe it's the blood moon making them act this way.

"speaking of the moon," he starts, "do you feel stronger than usual tonight?... like, are your powers super-charged?" is it a stupid question? would she fault him for asking a stupid question?

without giving her a second to answer, he adds, much more excitable now, "... do you know who's going to win?"

[ametrynos]

Immediately after the red moon ritual is finished, Mikhail hears whispers of a snarling beast and its deep, rumbling growls that chills the blood in his veins. He knew in an instant that the ritual had been a success. In a spark of small unexpected courage that he doesn’t know he had in him—perhaps the festive atmosphere all around the bonfire rubs off on him—the young witch tries to listen to its voice. 

Between its rasping gasps and garbled snarls, a horrid idea makes the hair at the back of Mikhail’s neck stand on their ends. For reasons unexplainable to him, Mikhail's brain traitorously entertains a thought that the creature is trying to speak, repeating the same thing over and over again like it’s calling for something. Or someone. 

Mikhail let out a tiny pained groan that totally doesn’t sound like a terrified whimper. What a nightmarish thing to think about when it seems unlikely the creature has the necessary jaw structure or voice box to speak in human tongues. 

Feeling like he could throw up any moment the more he dwells on the creature they are supposed to hunt tonight, Mikhail tries to distract himself by staring at the forest ground while doing breathing exercises. He‘s been stumbling along Haoran, half-frantically trying to go at the same pace as the older boy and not jumping in fright at any slightest noise. The young witch believes he’s doing a good job by only flinching seven times out of eight occasions. 

Mentally, he’s trying his best to ignore the faint sounds of redretch that magically graces his ears once in a while, running the worst case simulations should they’re lucky (or cursed) enough to actually stumble upon the walking nightmare given form. He flinches once again when Haoran calls his name but immediately relaxes at the sound of the older boy’s familiar voice. 

“Umm… Although I hope that we won’t actually face that… thing. I guess I haven’t really considered that possibility before. If that happens I guess the school will kick me out since I’m not magic anymore?” Oh, god, he sure hopes that won’t happen because that would suck big time. 

“But do you think we’ll actually see it? You know… that,” Mikhail asks with anxiety apparent in his voice, not wanting to say the name of the creature they’re hunting out loud out of worry it will actually summon it into existence. "I-I'll still do my best to protect us both though!!"

[inordinaries]

admittedly, haoran had been fishing for a little bit of reassurance. real reassurance. the 'i have a plan' kind, not 'i'll protect us both' from one of the meekest people he's ever met. he can't say that he's surprised by mikhail's attitude, but he is... astonished? stupefied? he laughs under his breath, not really amused, just trying to come to terms with the realization that mikhail is no more prepared for this than he is.

a few seconds pass. he walks slowly, listening to twigs snapping under his boots. thinking hard about what the rest of the night might look like. "yeah, misha, i think we're gonna see it," he says. to him, that much is a given.

“… but it won’t be that scary.” a bold-faced lie, in poor taste but a well-meaning attempt to comfort mikhail. haoran can already tell that he’s scared. he knew he would be anyway. “i… i think i saw it already. after you said those… words. the spell thing. for a second, i saw it. it wasn't anything crazy. seemed almost like a little red panda. i think." heavy on the 'i think'. he can tell the both of them that it's a red panda a million times, but it will come to them as something much worse. even more, it wasn't even a red panda to begin with; he's got honest intentions, but he's getting his animals mixed up and consequently discarding all aspects of honesty.

he wishes they had a plan.

"do you really not want to see it? aren't you curious?" he wonders. what he really wants to ask is don't you want to win?, but he refrains because he's already gotten an indirect answer and he didn't like it very much. life isn't always about winning; he knows that better than most people. but this should be about winning. he'd heard for weeks, months that it's a huge deal for witches. he's only even here in these goddamn cursed woods because he wants mikhail to win.

[inordinaries]

with @sndwnsyndrm.

haoran had heard a lot of gossip about what happens on campus during blood moons, but he'd assumed the stories were highly exaggerated. even in the days leading up to it as he was hearing more and more passing comments about the 'party', he hadn't expected a party. he's not one to complain, though; he's got a drink in hand like most others here and he's not thinking very seriously about the hunt.

he's standing around with a group of acquaintances, but he's been tuned out of the conversation for some time now. he could only hear "redritch" so many times before coming to the realization that there were some things he'd rather just find out for himself. he takes a long gulp of his drink, grimacing at the taste, and then becomes suddenly aware of how his eyes are starting to burn. maybe it's time to find another place to linger.

he takes a few steps back and starts to turn when he spots eunjae. in all of the business and excitement leading up to tonight, he'd kind of forgotten about her. but he's happy to see her now and he approaches without thinking twice, without observing to see if she looks like she'd even want the company.

"eunjae," he says, swiping the back of his free hand over his eyelids as if it would soothe the smoke sting. "eunjae, how do you feel?" and he's genuinely curious, because he can't imagine her hunting for this thing. but he can't really imagine himself hunting for it either, and at least she's got something to gain from it.

"because i'll be honest with you," a pause to account for him swallowing the last of his lukewarm drink, "i'm feeling pretty good. can't be too bad if everyone's partying like this instead of practicing spells and all that, right?"

[inordinaries]

with @ametrynos.

haoran doesn't particularly care about his fate. that's why he's taking the lead, striding in to the dark woods like this isn't about to be the most terrifying night of his life.

there's a chill in the air. it feels ominous to him, and as he walks into the forest, he wonders if this thing—the redretch—could kill him. he hadn't asked many questions in the weeks and days leading up to the blood moon because sometimes bravery comes from not knowing. with each step, the bell in his hand rings quietly. he also wonders if the redretch might hear the bell and find them before they find it. whether or not that's a bad thing is reliant on whether or not it could kill them, so he's back to square one. he knows better than to share these what-ifs with mikhail.

he doesn't have much of a game plan developed. he's not sure what he could even do, what with his best talent being having a squirrel form and his only weapon being a dull pocket knife. his redretch knowledge is very limited, but he doesn't think it'd be very susceptible to squirrels or pocket knives. he's hoping that mikhail has a plan, but that's another thing he doesn't really want to talk about. ultimately, he's prepared to be the best bell-ringer he can be. he hopes it'll be enough.

"hey," he says, to get mikhail's attention like it's not just the two of them. like there's anything to focus on other than here, now. "i don't know if it's insensitive to ask this, but..."

he walks on, not quite as fast now. one step at a time. he's not scared, but he also doesn't want to start the night too ambitious and end up in a bad spot. it might be best to take it slow and wait for someone to yell out that they've seen the redretch. he doesn't really want to be the first.

"if we find this thing and you catch it or whatever, have you thought about if it has a really stupid power? what if it's something that cancels out what you've already got, and it's worse? can that happen?" do witches think about these things? he thinks he would.

[neonsbian]