the air in the training room smells faintly of sweat, mixed with a static hum — the whole room feels sterile, as if someone has scrubbed all signs of life out of it. even after five years as a guardian, the room still feels like an affront to her senses. it’s too cold, too artificial, too bright, in the wrong way. the hum of the fluorescent lights makes the brightness of the room feel too sharp, too artificial — nothing like natural sunlight.
five years in, she still hasn’t managed to find beauty in this room. and she doesn’t think she ever will.
she’s made a lot of progress in the past five years, though she can’t rid herself of the feeling that it’s not enough. that she should be doing more than what she’s capable of. sometimes it feels like however much she trains, her physical combat capabilities will never be enough.
(and she can’t help but think that, in the end, it probably doesn’t matter as much as she thinks it does. it’s not like, once promoted, she’s likely to have to see physical combat often, if ever. the guardians at the top don’t swing punches, they smile for the cameras. zyra sometimes thinks they’re like flowers on display in glass cases — something pretty to be admired, but not useful.)
having jaeyong to spar with for the past couple of years has helped. he’s better than her, by a landslide, though that doesn’t bother zyra. she’s just thankful he’s willing to help her improve.
that’s not to say it doesn’t get frustrating at times. zyra isn’t sure how long they’ve been at it this time, but it’s long enough for sweat making strands of hair cling to her forehead, and an air of frustration surrounding her.
jaeyong’s rhythm outpaces hers — his steps are more measured, more confident, while zyra can’t help but hesitate, nearly stumbling over her own caution. she moves to dodge, but his movements are faster, and she finds her wrist pinned in his grip for what’s probably the tenth time already this session.
zyra exhales sharply, frustration catching in her throat. her body never quite seems to be able to catch up to her mind, never fast enough. she allows herself a moment to relax, freeing her hand from the younger’s grip and taking a step back, as she lets out a huff of air.
“i never seem to get good enough at this, do i?” there’s an attempt at a smile, though jaeyong should know her well enough by now to see right through it. another sigh. “not that it matters in the end, anyway,” she mumbles, gaze flickering away from her sparring partner, towards the floor.
sometimes jaeyong wonders if he could technically classify as a workaholic.
he spends a lot of time outside of his required training hours still at guardian project hq, training by himself – or at least without his mentor. a lot of the other guardians join him to spar, which he's thankful for. he can help them improve at fighting, they can keep him on his toes, and he can also socialize a little more while technically off the clock.
part of him knows it's ultimately pointless. it's a waste of time, really. he is training to do everything but fight now. when he becomes an a-tier guardian in another...what, nine years? none of this practice will matter. he will be a public speaker and a role model and a face of the project. he'll be admired – worshipped by some, even. but he can't help but wonder if he'll feel empty. he achieves his life-long goal, only to ultimately do...nothing of substance.
then again, it's not like jaeyong's goal was ever really to help people – at least not in the traditional guardian sense. he wants to use his position and favor in the public eye to negotiate better rights for mutagens within district x. what those "negotiations" involve will depend on how willing the d.m.h.o. is to work with him...but that's a long way away, still.
he probably really does this – pushes himself physically every day, even though he doesn't need to – so he doesn't lose himself. maybe it's because this is what's familiar. maybe it's because if he keeps fighting, he can trick himself into believing everything he suffered to become the fighter he is was worth it. at the end of the day...that's all he is, isn 't it?
it's better when he can help others improve. he and zyra are in the same boat, but he figures it's better to be physically strong as an a-tier guardian than not – no matter how much that strength is actually necessary. missions go wrong and duty calls at unexpected moments. surely it wouldn't do well for an a-tier guardian's image if they balked in the face of danger, unable to defend themselves or the humans they're supposed to protect – right?
he can tell zyra is tired. jaeyong is good at reading body language, but it helps that he knows her well, too. "if it makes you feel better, it's hard to be good enough to beat me in a fight. so yeah, you might never be good enough to do that." he grins, trying to lighten the mood. "but you're still improving." that much is true. "i think half of it is just you not trusting yourself and your practice. do i need to be more annoying to make you want to hit me?"
not that it matters in the end, anyway. jaeyong's face falls even though he tries to maintain his smile. "it matters," he argues, like a man in denial. maybe not to their line of work, or to who they're supposed to be – but it matters to him. is that enough? he doesn't have a compelling argument otherwise.
"let's take a break," he decides. he gets his water bottle out of his bag and sits down on the practice mats.
blackout
with @jaeyongdxlocation the guardian project training facilities
looking at the ceiling feels a bit different this time around for jimin.
compared to any previous sparring sessions she had had with jaeyong, these ones were the worst thing she had experienced in a while. especially since she was only recently allowed back into work. she remembers very distinctively, back at the institute, when her and jaeyong would spar, she'd think it was friendly, but as soon as her back hit the floor she knew she had to actually toughen up a bit. and those were different times really. back then, jimin was forced to be quick on her feet, forced to fight, forced to square up with other mutagens in a friendly sparring.
she feels like there is nothing friendly about these recent sparring sessions with jaeyong, but back then she at least could win one in like.. ten. currently, jimin is sure she is at least down thirty odd rounds without a single actual win. maybe a few landed hits, but nothing more.
so with a deep breath, she pushes herself back up from the floor before her friend.. yeah, okay, sure, friend had anything to say about it. her eyes glance at the clock on the wall, big and menacing. they had been at this for around an hour, with minimal breaks - by breaks, it was jimin laying on the floor trying to catch her breath - so maybe it made sense that she was at her limit. yet, she is back on her feet and her stance is a little uneasy.
"you're proved your point by now, i hope you know that." she mutters, gaze fixed on jaeyong almost anticipating whatever move he might try and pull on her next. she's gotten a bit better at reading him, a bit better at dodging new patterns, maybe even recognizing stuff, but she isn't sure if that was her or her secondary ability. the thought makes her scrunch her nose a bit as she takes a step back "are you also trying to make me regret reaching out?" jimin isn't exactly taunting, but she is buying herself time. the ache in her shoulders and hip isn't nice, that last flip from jaeyong didn't knock the wind out of her, yet the matt under them wasn't enough to stop any aches or bruises.
jaeyong gets it. he isn't exactly known for his high level of human empathy, but he knows she's going through a bit of a hard time right now. mission gone wrong, new trauma, healing, etcetera etcetera. he supposes everyone handles things like that differently.
if jaeyong was in her shoes, he would train even harder. failure isn't acceptable, and he wants to be so good at what he does that even if others on a mission with him fail to do their part, he can drag them along and still get the job done.
to her credit, jimin did reach out to ask him for help with hand-to-hand combat, and he respects the initiative. he's happy to help, too. teaching others helps him improve, too, after all. he's determined to make amp strong enough to make up for any of her previous failures. it's best to honor her fallen team by becoming stronger opposed to moping – at least if you ask jaeyong. no one did, but that's never stopped him from sharing his thoughts before.
jaeyong just didn't exactly expect her to be so...bad. he knows c-tier guardians don't work out in the field much, so it makes sense that their combat training wouldn't be as strong as others, but...this? they have a lot of work to do.
jaeyong can't help but laugh when jimin finally speaks after several rounds of losing. "no? i'm trying to do what you asked me to do." that much is true at least, despite the easy smile that accompanies his words. he realizes not everyone is used to such...brutal training methods, though. "do you need a break?" it's a little teasing, but he wouldn't mind giving her some room to breathe if that's what she needs.
his instructors at pinnacle taught him that rest is an important part of growth, too. his parents would have very different things to say about that methodology, but he'd argue there's a reason why the pinnacle instructors are training future guardians and they aren't. well, okay, considering he and his brother are both guardians now, his parents technically trained future guardians too. but still.
hihi everyone! i come bearing good news: now that the month is over i FINALLY am done with my most time-consuming work and free to rp again. thank god. i will be doing replies in the coming days (once i knew which muses on interest check are staying and going 😭) but i've also seriously slacked on plotting messages. i wanted to put up another post to sort of start fresh on plotting, because i have no idea who's still interested in plotting, or i wasn't plotting with before that would want to plot now, etc! so please like this post if you'd like to plot with jaeyong, @dxjiho or @aeradx and i will message you soon 💓
additionally, we have an event that i'd love to plot for now that i'm free!! i'll cover what the gang is up to and some potential ideas for it under the cut!
FOR JAEYONG
jaeyong, guardian that he is, would've been On Duty for halloween, much to his dismay. he would've loved to be partying, or have his band play somewhere for halloween, but alas. duty calls...he would've turned the other cheek to most of the pranks tbh, unless someone specifically went to him for help. then he'd play good guardian and leap into action. aside from that, he really did not get why the pranks were such a big deal because it's shit he endured from his family on the daily lowkey...but on halloween itself, he's torn. he is, more than anything, very curious about whoever is behind the power outage and mysterious transmission. after all, his #1 goal is to take down dmho in the end and gain more freedom for mutagens. does whoever is behind this share that goal? if he knew them, could they be allies? etc etc. but in the meantime, his primary goal is keeping innocent mutagens alive. he dgaf about property damage, especially if it's against rich people LOL unless someone important is watching him. then suddenly um civilian stop right there don't you dare break that window. he will also pretend he does not see anyone trying to escape. he will also guaranteed be making jokes the entire time to try to lighten the mood like omg guys this is just like that episode of friends where's the weirdest place you've ever had sex
FOR JIHO
jiho on the other hand probably DID have a show on halloween with his band. i think it would be funny if they were literally in the middle of their show and the power went out so they were just standing on stage in the dark like 🧍♂️ but! if people were panicking he would've just started singing and using his siren song to calm everyone down. but other than that honestllyyyy jiho is gonna be kinda boring with this i think because he's just like. that's none of my business. anywayssss. BUT he is a nurse so if he comes across anyone injured he will help, and he will probably have a shift at the hospital the next day to help with any injuries in the aftermath of whatever transpires on halloween.
FOR AERA
aera loves halloween and dark/morbid things, but she's also quite scared of it, because she's afraid it will somehow "trigger" her evil embodiment abilities. she doesn't get scared of stereotypical scary things, like she thinks spiders and skeletons and zombies are awesome, but she WILL be scared of the pranks and the events on halloween. she probably would've been out Somewhere with a friend on halloween (plot open) otherwise she probably would've just stayed home 😭 or maybe she was working a toast & coffee shift...this is quite open. aera is always battling with internal demons so there is some part of her that loves the chaos, but she's also very frightened of that part of herself, so she's most likely to just RUN HOME asap when the power goes out and lock herself in her room and have a panic attack or something 😭 so i will need people to catch her before she does that, or fellow sharehouse x housemates to coax her out like a skittish cat. people who try to encourage her to give in to her chaotic nature are also always welcome, i'd be interested to write her internal conflict trying to resist becoming someone's accomplice in evil deeds LOL
jaeyong is aware of the importance of reputation now more than ever. it's about all he learns during the day: how to shine in front of the cameras, how to maintain your image no matter what, how to be the paragon of heroism in the eyes of the public.
so, he probably shouldn't be in one of red light lane's illegal gambling dens. and yet his future is why he's here: no one really knows his name yet. why shouldn't he enjoy what fame and maintaining his image will deny him of eventually?
he doesn't intend to stay for long, anyway. jaeyong may be cocky and over-confident in most matters, but he's well-aware the house wins more often than not. he has no delusions of becoming rich tonight, though he supposes you never know. he's just...bored. and curious. a recipe for disaster in many cases, but jaeyong is self-aware enough to know that much, which makes disaster significantly less likely. right?
after about 15 minutes at the table, he gets why people develop gambling addictions. he won't, but there is some small part of you that believes, surely next time. you lose enough, and you're sure to win eventually. it's just statistics, right?
20 minutes at the table and he realizes something is off. it's like the air shifts. he watches the dealer ( @jaedx ) shuffle the cards. jaeyong loses again, but this time it's different. manipulated. not just natural bad luck, but a mutagen ability.
jaeyong smiles crookedly. "come on, you weren't even going to let me win once?" he laughs, then leans a little closer, voice dropping lower to protect the card dealer's secrets. "so what is it? luck manipulation?" he pauses, considers for a moment, then adds, "no – probability?"
it might come as a surprise, but jaeyong doesn’t care about being famous. he’s training to be a tier a guardian, 1. against his will, and 2. because it puts him in the best position to negotiate more rights for mutagens.
he’s in a band with jisung and the others because it’s fun, and he likes music and performing.
the adoring fans are a bonus. and it’s a fun bonus! sometimes jaeyong looks up their band’s name on twitter and instagram just to see if anyone is talking about them. and sometimes people are! some of their fans take really good pictures of him, actually, not that it’s easy to take a bad picture of him.
he thinks the most interesting discovery of the day is going to be the argument two of their fans are having over whether he’s an asshole or not on twitter, but then he sees something else: song jaeyong x moon jisung, soulmates au, 5,938 words, and a link to that archive website. people call it ao3, right?
now, jaeyong isn’t stupid. he knows what this means. he springs up from his spot sprawled across his bed, puts on his shoes, and leaves.
he runs up two flights of stairs, stops outside of unit #603, and takes his keys out of his pocket.
he bothered @dxjisung so much that he ended up just giving him a key to his apartment. perks of the most annoying member of your band living a mere floor away from you. in other circumstances, jaeyong might just ring the doorbell to be a nuisance anyway, but this is urgent, so he just uses the key and lets himself in.
“moon jisung!” he hollers, before he even properly shuts the door behind him. “i have important news!”
he takes his phone out of his pocket and opens the tab with the fanfic open, holding it out to jisung. “we have our first fanfic.”
it’s not often luce gets back from work before midnight. he’d picked up the closing shift that evening, fully prepared to work through the night, getting everything ready for the next day. safe to say he’d been surprised when his boss told him to take the night off, that she’d be keeping the bakery closed the next day, giving her employees some well deserved time off. this had only happened once before in the few years he’d worked there — nearly unheard of, in other words.
luce wonders what the hell he’s supposed to do with this sudden free time.
he’s still pondering his options — start a new book? watch a movie? … do a puzzle? — and wondering if he needs a new hobby, or maybe just more friends, when he slips into the elevator, the doors already halfway shut as he enters. phew. just barely made it.
there’s someone else in the elevator, he notes — luce has seen him before, frequently seen entering the apartment next to his, but he’s pretty sure he doesn’t live there. probably just visiting. a polite nod, nothing more, as he presses the button for the sixth floor, retreating into the corner opposite the familiar stranger. the hum of the elevator is soft, steady, as he grabs his phone out of his coat pocket, mindlessly scrolling through his instagram feed.
then, the lights flicker. once, twice. and with a low, mechanical sigh, everything stops. luce’s brow twitches as he looks up from his phone, gaze flickering to the elevator’s floor numbers — they’re only halfway to floor six. and they seem to have stopped moving. well, isn’t that just fucking fantastic? at least it solves his problem of not knowing what to do tonight.
luce is still staring at the unmoving numbers as he lets out a quiet, “for fuck’s sake,” murmured under his breath.
jaeyong's muscles still ache in that pleasant way they do after a good workout. training today pissed him off – as it does most days – but he calmed down in the guardian hq gym for an hour or so after his mentor released him for the day. he'll give d.m.h.o a little credit: the gym is nice. the entire building is nice, really. however, what isn't nice: said mentor, and writing a fucking essay the importance of brevity in communication. he knows it was just his mentor's way of telling him to shut the fuck up, so he made sure to ask her plenty of questions.
needless to say, he's glad to go home and spend the rest of his night relaxing, or maybe complaining to his brother. no, probably not complaining to his brother. he's in a good mood now. he doesn't want to dwell on the events of the day and sour it.
usually jaeyong takes the stairs. why would he wait for an elevator when he could probably get to the fifth floor just as fast himself? but today is a special occasion (see: he is tired).
he flashes a smile to the other man who enters and presses the button for floor six. he's jisung's neighbor, he recalls. they see each other enough that it's a little odd he doesn't actually know his name. he's about to mention it as the elevator doors shut, only for his acquaintance to pull out his phone, which jaeyong usually interprets as a physical do not disturb status. so jaeyong turns his attention to the numbers ticking up, displaying the current floor the elevator is on...and then it stops.
jaeyong is no elevator engineer but he's pretty sure he doesn't need to be in order to deduce that they are stuck as fuck. "nice," he chuckles lightly. this is, perhaps surprisingly, a new experience for him. he has been trapped in a box full of spiders before, but not an elevator.
jaeyong presses the call button on the elevator, holds it, and waits. he does it again just for good measure, and it lights up, which jaeyong assumes means their signal was received, or something of the like. he presses the door open button next, but the doors don't budge.
"well, i guess all we can do is wait for now," he concludes. he looks to his elevator companion and flashes him another smile. "at least it'll make for a good story if we end up getting married or something. very dramatic for a first proper meeting," he laughs. "i'm jaeyong, by the way. i know we see each other a lot but i don't think we actually know each other's names." unless jisung talks about me. which he should, because i'm really charming and cool, he almost adds, but he decides to exercise brevity for once. to some extent, anyway.
jaeyong has been a guardian for two years now. time flies – but he's stuck in the same place for at least five more years. likely more. most days it feels like it doesn't even matter. he can probably do more things that are actually useful as a d-tier guardian than a-tier anyway. he doesn't know what he could possibly learn in five more years from his vapid mentor that he doesn't already know.
these days, he wonders if the long training period for a-tier is less about learning and more about forgetting. emptying yourself of anything outside of d.m.h.o's ideology, learning to be the perfect publicity stunt, like some bastardized, mutated version of a trophy wife for their country's government. a-tier guardians don't actually guard anything. they don't do anything.
part of him wonders if that's why they have him here, training to be one of them. do they want to suck the power out of him? turn him into something that is just as pliant as he is pretty? get him used to a life of inaction and comfortability so he doesn't fulfill his true mission? maybe. maybe they already know about his goals, and he's fallen into their trap somehow. maybe it was all for nothing. maybe he is all for nothing.
he's in his head today. he knows it. thankfully it only results in @dxceline kicking his ass, opposed to anything more dangerous (and she kicks his ass more often than not even on his good days, anyway).
his back hits the floormat in guardian hq's training room, and he just blinks up at her, then rubs his face, not making an effort to get off the floor yet. "sorry," he says anyway. "i'm just...not on it today," he explains, despite it being no real explanation at all. he knows what his parents would say, too. you can't afford to have an off day. even your worst days need to be better than anyone else's best. and it's not. he doesn't know if it's always been this way or training for a-tier really is making him lose his touch.
"water break," he decides, then sits up and crawls over to his water bottle not too far from the practice mats. he takes a long sip and stares at one of the ceiling lights until his vision gets spotty.
he knows celine is going to call him out and ask him what's wrong with him anyway, so he might as well come out with it. "i've been thinking lately...that a-tier training might not actually be about getting better. i kinda wonder if d.m.h.o actually wants us to get worse. forget how to use our abilities to their greatest potential...forget our dreams...forget who we are..."
his eyes shift around the gym. "do you think they have this place bugged?" he questions. it's an attempt to lighten the mood after an uncharacteristic moment of vulnerability, sure, but he does wonder that, too.
hi everyone, happy opening day!! i unfortunately did not prewrite my intro so this is probably going to go up at like 3 am est because it just takes me that long to type these. anyway! i'm carly (she/her, 25+) and this is jaeyong. if you were in dx before you might know him already! he's been around in a couple other rps too...he's like a cockroach i, and now y'all, can't get rid of i fear. here is his about page, and pinterest and playlist for fun! i'm going to follow and welcome everyone individually over the course of the night/day so tumblr doesn't get fussy with me, but if you'd like to double down on your desire to plot please like this post 💓 it's easiest for me to plot on dc most of the time, so i'll just drop my username to save us all some time! it's hyunjinator, so feel free to add me, just let me know who you are ☺️ without further ado, i'll talk more about jaeyong and some plot ideas under the cut!
ABOUT JAEYONG
jaeyong is 25, leo, one of the leos of all time i fear
his power is unhealing, which is exactly what it sounds like for primary, then power detection, which means he can identify whether something is coming from a mutagen ability, blood manipulation, and twin telepathy for secondaries
he is currently a d-tier agent training for a-tier, pinnacle class of '23
he has a twin brother who is also a d-tier agent, but he's training for b and graduated a year later daeyong come home please
jaeyong honestly hates training for a tier. he is so pissed that all the training he's endured his entire life was essentially for nothing because all he's going to do is get pr training for the next decade then look pretty for cameras and that's it
and he has endured a lot.
his parents are mutagen supremacists, especially his mother, and she was just barely too old to enroll in pinnacle herself when it opened
so she decided she would instead give birth to district x's most powerful "hero", and literally chose her husband based off of his deadly powers. we love eugenics lmao
by "hero" she meant "person who will kill all the humans oppressing mutagens and help mutagens take their rightful place as overlords of the human race" or whatever
jaeyong's older sister came first, but song fam mom thought, well, better to have multiple
they were thrilled when the twins came along, even moreso when they both manifested incredibly deadly and dangerous abilities
even before their abilities manifested their parents trained them. and trained them. and trained them. martial arts. combat. strategy. their mom is a teacher and their dad is a taekwondo instructor and they're both terrible people it was bad
incredibly abusive behavior, it was basically wake up, go to school, get home, training until late at night, rinse, repeat. the training methods were also brutal and inhumane and unethical but we won't get into all that right now
but they worked i guess. all of their kids ended up getting into pinnacle, though uhhhhh it did not really go according to plan for minji (their older sister) ultimately. i won't get into all that right now either!
their mom has mind control abilities and empathy. basically the ability to insert thoughts into people's minds like they're their own. she did this to her children too so they wouldn't question the training or their Purpose
jaeyong figured this out at around 16 when his power detection secondary ability manifested, otherwise the kids never would've known. jaeyong just one day realized that certain thoughts hit different (negative) and then he was like Why and then he could tell the different between mutagen fog and regular fog and then he was like. what the fuck
they never talked about it though
jaeyong got into pinnacle when he was 18. his twin brother, daeyong, at his side through everything, got in a year later
once they got into pinnacle the vice grip of their parents eased up a lot and they got a lot more freedom
jaeyong ironically grew to really hate his parents during this time because pinnacle training, which was supposed to be The Best, wasn't nearly as brutal as his training at home. so he was like. they did that shit to us for no reason
but when you are born a weapon and sharpened through years of brutality what else can you do other than fulfill your purpose. so he trained, determined to be the best guardian he could be, sights still set on building a better life for mutagens at any cost
enter him graduating, becoming a trainee for a-tier, awesome, what an honor, but also, what a disappointment. but he recognizes this is still the best position he can be in right now to accomplish his goal, so he Deals With It
he honestly really dislikes d.m.h.o. like what the fuck are you doing overseeing US i could crush you like a bug!!!! but whatEVER. so in jaeyong's ideal world he Does dismantle the organization entirely and at the very least put mutagens in power over other mutagens instead of fuckass HUMANS who dgaf about them. but he has a ways to go until then. consider him Scheming, though
guardian duty aside he is all over the place. he's in an emo/metalcore/rock band called devil's asphalt as the guitarist. is a fan of late night food at toast & coffee. loves a good party. very very friendly and social and ANNOYING and charming. he can get along with anyone but also fight anyone.....so it should be fun!
PLOT IDEAS
erm. usually i have a lot of ideas but rn i'm kind of braindead forgive me. i promise i'm a good brainstormer. but let's see what i can cobble together
"fans," be it of devil's asphalt or a superfan of guardians who has seen him in the background of some tier-a publicity stunts and figured out who he is. jaeyong will be very annoying about this
guardian haters who think this guy is gonna be like alllll the rest but jaeyong is actually like no fuck the system i feel u bro that is why i am doing what i dooo
fellow pinnacle classmates! jaeyong was unfortunately really good and probably one of the most skilled in his class so that could be a good thing or a bad thing depending on your muse...
fellow guardians also. jaeyong also hates his a-tier mentor so do not be surprised if he tries to cozy up to you other a-tier guardians in hopes of....oh i don't know....swapping?? maybe?? he promises he will be a great apprentice and always do what you say and learn well lie lie lie
i think it would be nice for him to have someone to complain to about a-tier's lack of doing anything important. this would have to be a fellow guardian also because a-tier's uselessness is A Secret
i don't know jaeyong is a flirt and a bit of a slut so...hookups and exes are fair game....he is pretty traumatized and emotionally unavailable so i doubt he would've been emotionally invested in any past relationships BUT u never know and either way it would be fun!
top view towers neighbors. jaeyong is that guy who always makes small talk with you in the elevator even though you REALLY just want to get back to your apartment and go straight to bed stop talking to me PLEASEEE (he actually just talks more to people he can tell don't want to talk to him)
his dad is still a taekwondo instructor and his mom is a teacher at heroes of tomorrow academy so maybe your muse takes/took lessons from one of them at some point and they seemed sooooo normal and were so good at their jobs but jaeyong looks at you and is thinking things like. did they make you sit in a box full of spiders too (don't ask)
i think this is all i've got HAPPY OPENING AGAIN EVERYONE YAY YAY YIPPEE
it's been a long day. he loves his job, but being whined at by injured cats and trauma-dumped on by dogs who think their owners hate them every time they leave the house really takes a lot out of him. turns out, humans are often shitty pet-parents.
who'd've thought?
while the veterinarians at the clinic are there to perform the tasks they've been trained to do, mujin's knowledge of all species, and his ability to speak to them, simplifies the whole process. however, what the docs and other clinical staff don't realize is that he is the one who deals with the psychic damage from all of this. he's the only one who knows how these adorable little beats think, and feel.
he's the only one who hears them.
the amount of times he's had to deliver bad news is becoming kind of excessive, and while he realizes that's literally just part of his job, it still sucks to see his loved ones suffer. after all, animals, by nature, are innocent. many of them will never harm or bother you unless you provoke them. so, witnessing their trying times and misfortunes hits him harder than when a fellow human being faces similar fates.
is that a little fucked up of him? sure, but mujin doesn't really make excuses for it. in his honest opinion, the animal kingdom feels much more like family than those he shares district x with. there are some people he holds close to his heart—his mom and dad, other creature-hybrids, the few friends he's made here—and there are some who just... don't really matter, and his bandmates in devil's asphalt are individuals he doesn't really know where to place.
there's jisung, who he loves, and there's nari, who hates him, and jihu, who he sometimes forgets is even there, and then there's jaeyong.
oh, song jaeyong. he's the hot one. he's tall, and beautiful, and he's got that charming-yet-crooked smile that's equal parts punchable, and kissable. he's the one the crowd eye-fucks the entire time he's standing beneath those often shitty stage-lights, the type that look like they're about to fall and crush everyone below any second.
mujin agrees with how attractive he is, even though he'll never be someone who feeds his ego. its clearly already eaten way past its fill. for some reason, jaeyong's decided to confront him about his admittedly horrible attendance record, and he won't like, he's equal parts annoyed and intrigued. "do you think i have time to sit on my ass and send a message while i'm at the clinic?" he asks, standing from his seat; still clutching his drumsticks in both hands.
"i get here when i can, okay? besides, we're all just volunteering our time for this. it's casual, you know?" it's pretty dismissive, but he's just being honest. it's hard for him to take anything seriously. "just let me vibe. m'here to have a good time. i practice my parts during my downtime and days off. all you have to do is keep up with me. that's all." he knows it's not that simple, he's mostly being facetious, and it's only because he wants to irk jaeyong a little bit.
mujin meets him with attitude. in a bad way. jaeyong narrows his eyes at him in equal parts confusion and disbelief. jaeyong, as far as he's aware, was perfectly reasonable and friendly, but if mujin isn't going to offer him the same respect, then...fine.
"it takes like...30 seconds to shoot us a text. 'hey i'm still at the clinic i'll probably be another 20 minutes,' or literally anything. last i checked you have opposable thumbs and should be capable of that much," he replies. still calm, despite the irritation slowly seeping into his tone.
"okay, but...we all volunteer our time for this, yeah, but you not even giving us any indication of if or when you'll show up disrespects the time everyone else dedicates to this because we're supposed to be playing as a group," he points out.
mujin really seems to just not get it. maybe he got stuck with the brain of some stupid creature when he shapeshifted one time and that's why he's acting like this. surely it's not that hard to understand? "we're a band, dude. it's about playing together, not practicing our parts individually and 'keeping up' with each other. why did you even join if you don't wanna play with us outside of...what, shows every now and then?"
jaeyong is more annoyed by mujin's apparent absolute missing of the point than anything about him having a hard time keeping up, mostly because the answer to that question is a no-brainer. (jaeyong does not have a hard time keeping up.)
"we're all just doing this to have fun but we can't practice well without a drummer, and it's not as fun when you don't show up. if you really care so little then just don't come back?" okay, maybe that's extreme – or maybe not, honestly. if mujin doesn't care about the band, it's probably better for everyone involved if they just get another drummer.
"if it's actually like, timing conflicts and you having something else going on, then we can probably have practice on a different day. i don't think anybody would mind changing it if it means everybody can come to practice consistently. i think the biggest problem is us just not knowing what the fuck is going on, you know? you turning into animals doesn't exempt you from using your person communication skills."
he is floating, suspended in blinding whiteness somewhere between life and death, forgotten in purgatory where the sound of his own heartbeat plagues his thoughts like explosions dropped from above to wreak havoc on what's left of his consciousness.
cw: gore, body horror, sleep paralysis, surgery/hospitals
then the emptiness is replaced by faceless figures in white coats, their only defining features matching gelled undercuts and sinister splitting grins too large for the faces that aren't there. the ceiling above him is suddenly mirrored, and he can see as well as he can feel every fileting cut they make to his body, peeling his skin away and laying it on a tray nearby in sickeningly perfect sashimi cuts. someone meticulously pours over him a bucket of house centipedes, and he realizes, as he feels them burrowing pathways into his bone marrow, that he cannot scream, because they've garnished the platter of his organs with his julienned tongue.
the ringing in his ears ceases to be his own raw screams, because they have cut his throat to see how long it will take their blood puppet to choke on his own blood. but he still hears high-pitched wailing, shrill and desperate. is that--jiahn? no. no, it's younger than that. it's the shrieking of a colicky infant, bouncing off the walls of his hell until it sounds like there are fifty of them, tremoring in his head so hard he feels something snap and leak out of his ears until he hears nothing at all. he is trapped in a suffocating silence while they lift his organs out of his flayed chest, unable to move, unable to scream, unable to breathe--
then everything is dark.
he doesn't realize he is awake, instead of dead, until an unseen light causes the room's shadows to shift eerily overhead. he doesn't realize he can hear again until jaeyong's voice cuts through the apartment's imprisoning quiet. he doesn't realize his tongue is still firmly attached to itself until he utters, after stilling his trembling jaw long enough to speak, "jae?"
he still can't move, can't bring himself out of his nightmare's paralysis, can still feel tight, steel shackles pressing him down into the couch cushions, as if to bury him there. he shivers, damp with sweat.
"i heard- babies."
there is no explanation; there is none to give. but it should be enough for his twin to understand, that through his night terror came inklings of what may have been a very real memory. had he really, between his own scientific torture sessions, heard the screeching of lab rats not yet old enough to formulate their pain into words?
he thinks he can still feel the bugs from his dream crawling under his skin, and he can feel his own blood cells racing through him trying to find those imaginary foreign invaders. his head throbs with every beat of the heart still miraculously in his chest, right behind his eyes, spackling the darkness with a colorful, burning halo. out of the corner of his eye, a boy-shaped shadow, just behind jaeyong's shoulder. it is featureless, but somehow he recognizes the hallucination as his late brother. he wonders if maybe jiahn got the better end of the deal.
"i'm out." he contemplates out loud, squinting up at the ceiling through his migraine for more grounding signs of reality, still unsure where it begins, still glued unmoving to the sofa, "you got me out."
he has to assume jaeyong's presence here is not another hallucination. he has to assume this is reality and his nightmare was a dream and not the other way around, or else he will wake up back in that hell even worse off than before.
"yeah, it's me," jaeyong replies, voice still soft. he looks at his brother, damp hair stuck to his face from sweat, and figures he must've caught him right after a nightmare.
it's all a nightmare, he can't help but think. our lives are a nightmare.
no, he can't think like that. neither of them are stuck in the labs like daeyong was for years. they are both free. even jaeyong, forcing his own horrifying lab-induced nightmares far enough into his mind so his brother cannot see them – is free. he will always get to go home eventually, as long as they don't kill him in there. and now they have each other again. surely they can survive any hell if they're together.
i heard babies, daeyong says, and jaeyong feels sick to his stomach again. of course he knows what daeyong means. it might sound like nonsensical mutterings of a madman to anyone else, but jaeyong knows.
( cw: gore )
he hasn't heard babies in the labs himself, but he's heard the rumors, like everyone else, of newborns being stolen from the hospital. he wouldn't put it past them. he hopes he never hears the babies. he tries not to think of other babies – his sister's sons – and the feeling of their insides dripping from his skin. it was just an illusion, but why could he feel it? part of him can still feel it.
he's glad daeyong isn't really looking at him. maybe it's selfish of him, to find relief in daeyong being preoccupied with the horrors of his own mind. it means he won't know jaeyong's. not easily, anyway.
he leaves the light on on his phone, but lifts daeyong's legs off the couch, just enough so he can sit down himself. he drops his brother's legs back down, onto his lap, and leans his head on the backrest of the sofa, staring up at the ceiling himself. he rests his hands idly on daeyong's legs and hopes it grounds him a little. jaeyong could probably use some grounding, too.
"yes," jaeyong answers. daeyong is out. he's safe now. they're safe now – here, at least. for now. as long as jaeyong doesn't fuck up and reveal the secret of the labs somehow, dooming both of them to a lifetime of torture in that linoleum hellscape.
"real," he assures daeyong anyway. he flips his phone's flashlight off, leaving them in darkness. he feels better like this, if only because he doesn't have to worry about daeyong reading any fear on his face. "you're out. i'm not gonna let them hurt you again."
he wonders if daeyong believes that. why should he, when jaeyong so miserably failed to protect him already? after everything they went through together their entire lives?
somehow, that thought makes him feel a little better – not that he failed daeyong, but because in a way, this is just one more thing they're going through together. it's just not at the same time. jaeyong will eventually bear the same pain as daeyong. he will wake up from gruesome nightmares and grow used to new incisions in his skin and he will probably hear the babies.
the only difference is, daeyong will never know. this is something jaeyong has to do on his own. and that reminder makes him feel...cold. empty.
the moon hangs high in the sky, a beacon of bright champagne - it's full, and round, the face illuminating the west side of the district, acting as a guide to all of the night-goers. it's a running joke amongst the staff at toast & coffee that this time of month is always the most restless - fast and furious, there's nothing more chaotic than the night of the full moon here. it brings out something manic in people, and there's always some kind of fuss to be had during it's phase.
and tonight is no exception, though boreum wishes that she could have been spared from the misfortune. but it's unlike her to receive a stroke of luck - so much, in fact, she's considered that having ill-fated encounters may be an ability of hers on it's own. so, it's with this misfortune looming over her, coming in the form of a nearby table with snickering, young mutagens, that she approaches jaeyong, face flushed and grip so tight on her pen and pad that her knuckles turn white.
".. t-they w-want an a-autograph," she squeaks out, having been coerced into asking him by the neighboring table. she's the perfect target for these types of demands, and it took them all of five seconds after she'd stuttered through reading back their order for them to figure it out. ".. t-they said that they're.. uh, b-big fans.." boreum shakily extends out her note pad, having nervously ripped the previous page off to give one of her most notable regulars space to scribble down his moniker. there's been plenty of times she's managed to embarrass herself in front of jaeyong - like when she had stumbled over her own two feet and dropped a banana split that she'd been carrying to another table right in front of him, the child who was meant to receive the sweet treat bursting into hysterical tears, in turn making him burst out in laughter - but this one might just take the cake.
toast & coffee is a little too busy right now for his tastes. don't get him wrong, other people can be entertaining, but his favorite times at the diner are when it's late and quieter. he can bother sparky at the counter or decompress at a table by himself with a cup of decaf after a long day.
when it's busy, he usually isn't by himself. he comes with friends sometimes, at varying hours of the day, no real rhyme or reason. tonight, though, he was in the area, and got a craving for late-night breakfast food, so he figured he might as well stop in.
and honestly, it's probably a good thing he did – if only for the group of giggling girls who apparently want his autograph. he's about to make their entire year. it's just a little sad, or cruel, that they sent poor boreum, shaking like a leaf, to do their dirty work. of course, it's also really funny, so he gets it. but still.
he honestly doesn't know why she's so nervous around him. they've known each other since he was just a wee little nuisance during their time in the public school system, before he was anything close to an enhanced agent. for all intents and purposes, she should probably be more comfortable with him than most people. but, he kinda gets this too, because he is quite cool, and hot, and funny.
it's cute, and it seems that despite his regular patronage, nothing has really changed. he smiles his best, most charming smile – also a little smug, and a little cocky. "you know, boreum, you don't have to make up an excuse to ask for my autograph. i would've written you a personal message and everything." he can't help but tease her. he doesn't actually think she's lying to get his autograph, because if she wanted it, she surely would've asked ages ago. probably.
he looks over to the table in question, and flashes them a smile too. they're cute. he turns his attention back to boreum, but can't help but overhear the table gushing over him. honestly, he could get used to this. it's probably a good thing, too, because this is the future ahead of him when he becomes an a tier enhanced agent – and about all that's ahead of him with that title.
he takes the paper and pen for boreum. "did they say what exactly they're a fan of about me?" he realizes after he says it that it's worded a bit strangely. he isn't fishing for compliments. he means, "the music, or the heroics? both?" there really is a lot about him to admire.
After busy weekends with partying throughout the district, the following Monday nights were cross between blissfully and disturbingly quiet which thrilled him to no end. As much as he loved to cook, busy nights meant he was swamped with orders and didn't really have time to interact with customers.
This this time of night, however--morning? night? time was still a weird concept for him, even eight years later. For Sparky, for nearly two decades, there had simply been "daytime" and "night time"--nothing more, nothing less, and he often lost track of the passage. In fact, all he could rely on were the seasons and moon phases--much like the early ancestors, right? Calendars? Weeks? Not helpful unless he wanted to get to specifics. But apparently, those specifics were important to people--especially when it came to employment; it wasn't like he could just not abide by any set work calendar, so Sparky relied pretty heavily on setting alarms and reminders in his handy-dandy smart phone to make sure he actually showed up to the diner on time.
He was a work in progress.
But oh! Look at that! Quiet nights brought out the more delightful regulars, and he was more than happy to prepare two perfect omelets for him. The moment Jaeyong asked about his weirdest patron, Sparky immediately spun around, spatula in hand, ready to point it dramatically at the guy with "YOU!" as a proclamation ... before the stipulation was placed that his answer could NOT be Jaeyong, warranting his lips to be frozen mid-syllable before he could even get the world out. His expression morphed into a sarcastic pout. "Killjoy," he muttered with a tease, his face returning to a smile as she returned to the omelets.
"Hmmm ... weird patrons. I guess that would be this bird guy," he continued to speak as he cooked, voice carrying over the sizzling sounds of the skillet. "He spoke only in, like, bird calls. I had no idea what he was trying to order, and the server had no idea what he was trying to order, but he pointed to a picture of an omelet, so I started making an omelet, and he went berserk because I guess he didn't realize that omelets are made from eggs, and he started, like, squawking like a chicken and hopping all over the place, knocking things over. Kinda reminded me of a demented cucco from the Zelda games."
jaeyong laughs, quite proud of himself for anticipating what sparky wanted to say. "predictable," he says with a smirk. it's all in good fun, of course. that's how it is with sparky most of the time, really. all in good fun.
he watches as sparky makes the omelets, cracked eggs quickly solidifying into their edible form. he listens, too, as sparky tells an absolutely ridiculous story. his eyes narrow in suspicion at first, but he ends up laughing regardless.
"what, did he have like..." he tries to think of what nepa would call an ability that manifested entirely in only being able to speak in squawks and chirps. "bird vocalization...? as his ability...?" he laughs again.
"i think you just made that up," he decides, playful smile returning to his lips. "creative, though. i am amused and satisfied." sometimes a good story is better than the truth, in jaeyong's opinion.
"i got to spend hours today putting names to faces of people i would likely interact with in my line of work," jaeyong sighs, clearly a little irritated. he probably shouldn't be outwardly frustrated with his work as a d tier enhanced agent at all, but it isn't what he thought he was signing up for when he took the job. he thought enhanced agents were heroes, or were at the very least doing something more exciting than press conferences and photo ops. the b tier and c tier agents are – even the d tier agents training for those roles. jaeyong, however, had the honor of being chosen to train under an a tier mentor.
whatever. he knows this is for the best in the long run, but the long run will likely be in a decade, when nepa finally decides he's worthy of making his official debut to the public as an a tier agent. there are some benefits, though. as boring as it is, he's learning details about important people. he stores all of it away in his mind as fuel for a future strategy: who is in control of the wall's security. who is the lead researcher in nepa's labs. which agents have the greatest contact with the highest levels of the korean government. whose loyalty to nepa has cracks. who has weaknesses he can exploit. who has strengths that could prove useful to him later. these are the people he must spend the next several years of his life befriending and carefully manipulating in order to achieve his goals.
and then maybe one day he'll kill them. but he has a long way to go until he gets that far.
"there's like a nepa agent yearbook," he continues, after a beat of silence. "pretty sure that's confidential information, so don't tell anyone i told you." he smiles, but more subdued this time. he doesn't know if it's actually confidential. he trusts sparky not to tell anyone, and if he does, he trusts that whoever hears it probably won't believe it. it sounds so silly, and sparky is so eccentric. after all, how would he know something like that?
on the list of things jaeyong loves, devil's asphalt is pretty high on the list. to be fair, the band has gone through multiple iterations at this point, with jisung as the only real staple, but still. he loves playing guitar, and he loves the stupid band.
does he love the people in it? well. that's a different story. to be fair (2), jaeyong isn't really a lover. he is way more, as they would say, a fighter. but this group is pretty fun overall. despite nari's grouchy attitude, and jihu's wet cat aura, he's been enjoying the new lineup after the previous one crashed and burned.
there is one problem, though: park mujin. their drummer.
don't get jaeyong wrong, he's good at the drums. if he wasn't, he wouldn't be in the band anymore, because he is always late to practice, if he even shows up at all. jaeyong is also not one to take much outside of his training seriously, and he doesn't think he takes music that seriously, but he does just want to play some fucking tunes. that's pretty hard without a drummer. they can play some acoustic stuff for fun, but if they want to stick to the devil's asphalt sound, drums are a necessity.
as they're wrapping up yet another rehearsal mujin was late to, but that he was kind enough to grace with his presence eventually, jaeyong pauses. he considers the course of action for a moment – thinks about how to approach the situation. he doesn't particularly want to make it a big ordeal, but he does want the dude to actually show up, so it'll probably take a balance.
"hey," he calls to mujin eventually, as he puts his guitar in its case. "i'm gonna need you to start...at the very least, coming to practice. or like, text one of us if you'll be late or can't come. it's really hard for us to play when we spend half of practice wondering if we're going to have a drummer for the day or not." for as confrontational as the words are, they're calm and relatively amicable. for now.
seoyun hates going out in public for a multitude of reasons. the screams and cries of children grate on his patience. he has little consideration for people who walk too slowly or talk too loudly or can't mind their own business. there's days where he wishes his abilities were something that could turn off his senses, to stop the world from perceiving him altogether, so he could just go about his business in peace. but most of all, the worst thing about going out in public is that he absorbs everyone's pain like a sponge, unable to control his ability that has been 'broken' ever since the death of his father.
so what starts as an emergency grocery trip, because everything in his fridge has expired and seoyun has been too tired to eat for the last two days and it was too late to schedule a delivery, turns into a gauntlet of everyone else's ailments. it starts with seoyun limping into the store after taking on the arthritic pain of some old man's knees. he's grabbing milk out of the fridge when he feels the sharpness of a new gash some poor employee inflicted on their own hand from a box cutter, and then he's just about ready to double over while an overtired mother gets relief from her migraine for the first time all day. going out among the living is truly a torturous existence for seoyun; no one realizes how much pain everyone is living with until he takes it all onto himself.
what takes him by surprise, however, is the sudden itchiness and ache of a thousand small cuts, all from the same person. for a moment, seoyun wonders if someone's ability is paper cut attraction and that they may be even more unfortunate than he is. but then he looks at his thumb, free of any blemish, and realizes that this pain is all too familiar. for a moment, seoyun mentally traces the aches of his own body, mapping out the scratches and scars on himself. jaeyong, he realizes, and he wonders why that poor guy-- no, that asshole --feels like he's been put through the world's weakest wood chipper.
seoyun resents that his first reaction is concern. he resents that he initially took a step as if to locate the source of the pain, as if he was going to help the man who hurt him in a way no one else ever could. he hates the fact that he never really got over song jaeyong and that behind all the rancor and hurt, a yearning for affection still remains.
he can't help himself from looking around and he's not surprised when he spots a familiar mop of blond hair. "i'd punch you in the face but it'd only hurt me." seoyun remarks, a scowl wrinkling his forehead. it'd be easier to ignore jaeyong, to pretend he never noticed he was there, but seoyun can't just let live and let live. not after what he did. "what the hell is wrong with you?" there's so many meanings to the question, but seoyun knows that jaeyong understands what he's really asking. why are all your scars reopened? what the hell are you doing?
he doesn't know why seoyun can't just leave him be. surely it is in the best interest of both of them, especially seoyun, for him to keep walking. but maybe seoyun appearing beside him is karma for all the times jaeyong has irritated seoyun in the past year of them no longer dating.
( cw: brief gore )
jaeyong looks over at him, paying little mind to his empty threat. it's the first time he's seen him since the vision or nightmare or whatever the fuck it was nepa gave him, he realizes - the one with seoyun's eye sockets empty, body covered in gore and blood. for a second, he expects this moment to shift into something horrific too, but it doesn't. they're just in a grocery store, and it's just seoyun asking questions with greater weight than he could ever imagine.
part of jaeyong wants to tell him - wants seoyun, or anyone, to know what they're doing to him - what he agreed to let them do to him. but he can't. telling seoyun endangers jaeyong, and daeyong, and seoyun himself. even if he trusts that seoyun wouldn't sell him out, he doesn't trust nepa to leave them be. they could search the minds of everyone in his life for evidence of loose lips on his part, for all he knows. he wouldn't put anything past them.
and if he tells seoyun, breaking up with him would've been pointless. he went about it as cruelly as he could, so seoyun would hate him and want nothing to do with him anymore. then he wouldn't have to worry about having a boyfriend that could feel every new ache and pain inflicted on him in the name of science. he wouldn't have to worry about seoyun asking questions, such as what the hell is wrong with you? but of course jaeyong can't really avoid it. all of it still brings them to this moment, and to seoyun asking questions.
jaeyong is battered and bruised in more ways than one, and he is not in the mood to grin and lie like he usually would, but sometimes you have to do things you don't want to do.
he looks from seoyun to the cereal box, then back to seoyun in fake confusion. "what? do you have beef with oreo o's? last i knew it is a perfectly reasonable food to like." he smiles then, the shit-eating grin that he's sure makes seoyun want to punch him even more. maybe him being annoying will be enough to make seoyun walk away.
or maybe he'll recognize the small cracks in his facade today. if he's being realistic, he probably will. seoyun knows him too well, and that's on jaeyong. sure, seoyun is more harmless than most, but there is weakness in being known - weakness he can't afford to have, but that he'll never be able to fix.
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