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agent mist at your service. aka han gaeul, junior tech agent. wassup.

[miagaeul]

You have been ordered to use your skills to create a connection between MAYLIN and the fallen agents. All you have been given is the emergency tool pack, and Maylin’s coms device. 

You’re successful nevertheless. 

But then you receive the order. 

“Guide them to a secondary location.” They are not to be sent the path to where you and everyone else is headed. You are to lead them to a different place. 

You are given no other explanation. What do you do?

     she has her own set of tools that she keeps on her at all times, tucked into the backpack she had brought with her into the car. the request is unexpected and slightly surprising, but she has enough faith in her own abilities that she jumps into the task head first as she does with everything in her life. having agent remy with her helps a bit, considering they were the ones who had also gotten the comms working again on that mission all those months ago.

     that mission felt like a lifetime ago. the time she had levelled her gun at ‘kaiser’ and survived to tell the tale.

     either way, she’s been busy since then and she’s also received a promotion. so as the senior agent tasked with this mini mission, she works hard to get a connection to the fallen agents, whether there were survivors or not.

     spoiler alert: she manages to get in contact.

     the following orders, though, are the ones that confuse her. lead them to a secondary location? for what reason?

     “respectfully, why are we not bringing them to a rendezvous point? isn’t it worse to lose man power? especially since most, if not all, of them are injured?” she asks, a hand raised in the air as if she was back in school and was asking to go to the bathroom or something. she gets no proper response, mostly a request to follow orders, and gaeul frowns to herself.

     suspicious. 

     too suspicious.

     she doesn’t waste any more time with protesting or arguing, knowing she wouldn’t get any answer when she had been told so firmly like this. there’s no way that she will be able to do this properly with doubts in her psyche so she ignores the weird feeling in her stomach. for now. she’s always trusted the head agents but she knows they’re not infallible, especially in high stress situations. 

     plastering the bright smile she had greeted the Lost Ones (as she had mentally dubbed them as) back onto her face, gaeul focuses her attention on getting them to the secondary location safely. she’ll find out eventually, why she’s doing this. she better. maybe she’ll drop some subtle feelers out and see if agent sol is aware.

    hopefully, she won’t come to regret it.

[miagaeul]

& my life held in your hands

juwon​:

his cousin’s impatience, though not unkind, only makes juwon more nervous. it’s much harder to fathom telling gaeul that he’s a traitor compared to daesu. gaeul has always been more straight-forward, less forgiving, and more suspicious. unlike daesu, who had accepted him back with no hesitation and warm embraces, gaeul had always held him a little bit at arm’s distance. 

she had still treated him well, still the cousin he had remembered, but there had been a distance between them he hadn’t felt with daesu. he didn’t doubt that she still loved him, there was enough in her actions that he knows there’s still that affection between them.

he opens his mouth a few times helplessly after she soundproofs the room, trying and failing to get the words out of his mouth in a nice way. there’s no way he can find to sugarcoat this, no way that he can cushion the blow or beat around the bush in the face of her growing irritation. 

his fear grows, and with it, the urge to just blurt it out increases, the pressure inside him of needing to tell gaeul in person pushing him. he inhales shakily to try and ground himself but it doesn’t work, and sensing that his cousin is about to lose her patience, he blurts out, the words almost ripped out of him, “i… i’m a spy for sra.”

     she can tell that her showing her impatience is not helping juwon be less nervous, but she doesn’t really know how to hide it. it’s not something that she’s ever hidden before, though she also knows that he knows that she’s busy. there’s a lot of things to do before the big move and the tech agents have a lot of data and things they need to make sure is carefully transferred from their current meia to their new meia (?). 

     though she tries her best, to school her facial expression into something more neutral.

     (she’s not sure how well it works.)

     having just been about to open her mouth, gaeul is definitely, is absolutely not prepared for what he actually says. she’s not sure what she was expecting, but nothing could’ve prepared her for the actual, almost literal bomb he drops on her in the next moment. it feels like time has slowed down, as she stares at him blankly, her brain processing it. it’s not the longest time, considering she’s pretty sure her brain works faster than most, but enough that there’s a pause where nothing is said at all.

     “people have died because of you juwon,” is what gaeul manages to say in response to his words. she knows he wouldn’t try to prank her with something as serious as this, frowning. she puts her hand in her pocket, touching against something inside of it. “what if one of those people was me? my parents? daesu? would you have stood triumphantly over our bodies as we bled out?” she says softly, the words ringing clear in the dead silence.

[ryudaeng]

happy white day from ryujin 🍭💕

[miagaeul]

easy.

doyun​:

he watches her judge the s’more. the light of the fire illuminating only part of her face but for some reason he finds himself a little entranced. maybe it’s just do to the fact they have never just… hung out in a setting like this. normally the two of them are holled up in some lab. causing some kind of chaos in the training field by testing something. whatever it was, it was not just lounging with the other agents under the light of the moon and a camp fire. 

still, he can’t say he doesn’t enjoy it. quiet the opposite in fact. this is a nice time and a nice week–better than anything they have dealt with in the last mission. if he could avoid repeating the last mission that would be nice. “nope! but i was watching one of the older agents make it.” he said, picking up one of the other s’mores. “it looked really sticky but a lot of fun?” he eyed it, curious and ready for a new experience. “apparently they were really popular in the past.” all the more reason to dive in. “cheers?” 

     “why is it called a s’more?” she asks, absentmindedly before realizing that doyun probably wouldn’t know, considering he had never had it before either. she laughs instead then, grinning at her friend afterwards. “oops, my bad,” she tacks on, shaking her head to dismiss the question she had asked. it’s nice, gaeul thinks, to not have to worry about anything much right now. it’s nice to get to relax—especially after all the excitement of the last mission. 

     picking up the s’more she had been offered, she peers inside of it curiously to see what she could make out. it’s hard, considering the only light source she has is the flickering flames in front of her but she figures it’s probably something tasty anyway. she can smell the chocolate, and something else sweet and she’s always liked crackers. “cheers,” she echoes, reaching forward to tap their s’mores together before taking a bite. her eyes brighten at the taste that floods her mouth and she turns to look at doyun, her expression somewhat surprised. “it’s good!”

[miagaeul]

& my life held in your hands

juwon​:

he’s startled when the door opens suddenly before he’s even had a chance to knock, and he inhales in surprise when his cousin greets him blandly, turning away from him again. he steps into her workshop, quietly closing the door behind him, and he’s quiet for a moment as he tries to figure out the best way to say what he wants to say. 

“gaeul,” he starts and his expression twists slightly, unsure of how exactly to alert her of the severity of the situation, the gravity of the words he wants to say to her. it’s not exactly a confession he thinks anyone would expect at this point, so critical with a move about to happen. 

“gaeul, can i talk to you about something…?” he sounds hesitant, a little nervous, and while this might tip off his cousin to the fact that there’s nothing good incoming, he doesn’t care. he needs to tell her before she finds out from someone else, especially since she’s some of the only family he really has left. 

“can you make sure no one else can hear us?” he asks quietly, fingers twitching nervously against his thighs, expecting her to be on high guard.

     she frowns when he starts speaking—not that she had expected him to come in and not say a word to her or anything, but she had been busy before he had come in and she was technically busy now and he’s asking for her attention. she had, obviously, known he wanted to tell her something, possibly something important but she’s also not really in the mood for him to beat around the bush.

     “can you talk quickly?” gaeul asks, though it’s not unkindly. she activates the soundproofing system she had upgraded recently, if only because she had felt kind of bad for anyone who was around her when she was loudly hammering or something. or sawing. things in the tech lab definitely got loud sometimes, and she didn’t want to disturb anyone else’s peace when she was tinkering.

     good thing too, apparently. 

     finally putting her things down, she turns to him and crosses her arms over her chest, feeling suspicious of why juwon was suddenly seeking her out. they’ve all been busy because of the move, and she raises an eyebrow at him. waiting.

[miajuwon]

& my life held in your hands

the truth and nothing more with @miagaeul !

telling the senior agents should have been the most terrifying part of this ordeal. and perhaps juwon should have simply stopped there. there are plenty of senior agents these days as meia prepares to move, to leave behind invicta and the only home he remembers other than sra, but not all of these seniors have been entrusted with leadership. gaeul is in fact among those seniors, although this, juwon truly doesn’t understand. his chaotic, troublemaking cousin, entrusted with a senior role? heaven knows what the head agents were thinking when they offered it to her.

in any case, while it had been expected when he told insoo that he would be expected to tell daesu, seb, and haneul — all of whom he would have wanted to come clean to at some point, anyways, there’s no obligation here for him to tell gaeul. 

no, the reason he’s in front of her workshop is all his own personal desire. 

she’s his little cousin, who has always been independent and sassy, even when they were younger. she’s been strong while he was weak, and even now, she hadn’t ever fully accepted him back into her life like daesu had, with open arms and no reservations. no, from the way he sees it, gaeul has reservations about everyone, and for good reason indeed. maybe she’ll outlive everyone.

but he can’t bear to lie to her anymore, or to have her find out about it from someone else. she’s family and he loves her, and if that means accepting her anger or whatever she chooses to do, he’ll accept it. he has no purpose anymore, anyways. 

[miagaeul]

     it’s been busy lately. for her, at least.

     with the whole leaving the agency thing, she’s been extra busy helping alistair with packing up all their tech equipment and making sure that it’s all stored properly so that they can eventually re-set it all back up once they’ve arrived at wherever their new living quarters were. she’s been holed up here, working mostly on her own unless there was something that she wasn’t sure about and needed to harass alistair for. 

     all in all, she’s been very productive but not socially active. she’s actually probably quite out of the loop as to what’s going on because the tech team has been so busy with trying to make sure they’ll be able to operate the same way as soon as humanely possible. 

     despite not being enhanced in anyway, while also seeming to have some mental enhancements, gaeul’s always trusted her gut with everything. it’s one of the reasons she gets good results when she tinkers with weapons, only going with what she knows and not every time just following the instructions or what should be done. and while she ponders this, pulling apart a cord to safely stow it away she glances at the door, feeling like someone’s there and she frowns, pressing the button to have the door slide open to reveal who’s on the other side.

     “juwon,” she greets, turning her attention back to what she’s doing when she sees who it is, knowing he probably wasn’t asking her for a weapon upgrade considering she had just given him one. “do you need something?”

[femadols]

pretty ryujin ♡ ↳ for @ryudaeng 

[miagaeul]

& hold me when i wake

juwon​:

his shoulders still tremble as he tries to steady his breathing, soft little gasps in and out that shake his shoulders and make him feel all shaky. he feels the pressure of the elephant plushie being forced more into his arms, and he inhales with a little gasp, his eyes fluttering open again.

gaeul’s voice is so calm in his ear that it helps him focus, his chest rising and falling with his gasping breaths, pressing the plushie into his chest in an attempt to help himself calm down, and he stares at the plushie in his arms silently. “i’m okay,” he breathes out even though gaeul hadn’t asked, lifting his head from her shoulder and pulling on the ears of the elephant plushie as his heart finally starts to calm down a little bit. “i lost… him… when i…” his voice trails off slightly, thick, the tears still audibly there in the choked off sound of his voice. “he looks just the same,” he whispers as he lifts his head to look at gaeul in confusion. “everything looks the same…” he hadn’t commented on it earlier, but it now feels like a touch of familiarity in a world that he’d thought he didn’t know anymore, and the shaking is slowly coming to a stop, a shaky little exhale escaping his lips as he hugs the elephant plushie to his chest.

gaeul’s continued explanation means that everything makes more sense, and he can’t help the tiny little smile that comes across his face, shaky though it feels, unsteady like the fluttering pace of his rapidly beating heart. “i thought it was him,” he confesses quietly, “even though kkiri was definitely way more worn out than this.” his voice is soft still, but now it holds more of a wondrous tone than the fear that had coloured it just a little while ago.

perhaps gaeul had the right idea — kkiri had always managed to keep the nightmares away as a child, so it stands to reason that now, too, he could do the same, right? but even so, juwon is hesitant to go back to sleep, teeth digging into his lower lip before he asks quietly, “gaeul… will you… can we… can you stay? like when we were kids…”

     she nods, having been surprised that he hadn’t commented on it earlier when he had stepped into their place. it probably helped that her dad had been a decently high ranking agent before he decided to retire to the mundane life with her mom, but he had somehow been able to find things to trade and barter away to make everything almost the same as before. of course, her parents’ apartment had a slightly different layout then back when they were at seaside but the decor and the colours and everything were practically identical.

     and her mom had managed to recreate everything according to pictures and just references and memories, which was amazing in her opinion. even the stuffed toys that were hers seemed almost exactly how she remembered, aside from being newer and she had had a ton of them when she was younger. 

     it’s not surprising that juwon remembered his elephant was the same too. she’s always been impressed with her parents but this reminds her that it’s actually quite a feat for them to have done this. 

     “yeah ... i didn’t really cuddle him or ... any of my stuffed animals once we moved here because i became an agent as soon as i could because i knew i could help out,” gaeul comments, shrugging and moving back to her bed to pick up one of the stuffed animals on there — a whale. she’s about to ask if juwon still remembered her whale’s name when she hears his question and she can’t help but make a face, just a reflex.

     “um ... let me counter that with how about you come up onto the bed instead? i don’t really want to sleep on the floor in my own home.”

[miagaeul]

on your mark.

helios​:

the count down for the challenge ends and there’s the almost echoing sound of arrows being released from their bows. daesu finds himself impressed, watching the various targets get hit. each arrow a different color to help figure out points with the challenge. he finds himself wondering if he should just give up–but that wouldn’t be very sportsmen like of him. 

“i tried at least–” he replies, amusement in his tone as he lets the yellow arrow from his bow fly. the arrow landing just shy of the target in the ground. a chuckle leaving him as he rolls his shoulder. he wants to blame it on the tenseness in his muscles from his healing wounds but well.

he really is just not the best shot and it has been a while. 

“just dont laugh at me when you come out victorious.” he lifts another arrow and notches it. “though maybe i’ll surprise you.”

     she doesn’t say anything, wholly focused on the task at hand for now. she’s very confident that she’ll win against her cousin at least, considering there’s only a handful of people that she thinks might be able to win against her—and daesu is not one of them. and because he’s family? she feels even more competitive against him.

     it would probably be the same if juwon had joined. or doyun. 

     “will you though?” gaeul asks, wanting to prod him to try a little bit harder even though she’s sure she’s going to wipe the floor with his score and everything. she might be a bit cocky, but she thinks she has every right to be when she’s been a good shot with a bow and arrow since she was little. (thanks dad!)

     she notches her final arrow, sending it flying and sinking into the given target as the time comes to an end and she turns to watch him shoot too. the feeling of the wind in her hair and the bow in her hand is one that makes her feel a bit nostalgic. “you can have the honour of seeing the verdict first.”

[miagaeul]

wild child

doyun​:

he’s heard about the hunting parties. the missions where agents go out into the wooded areas of the city and sometimes even beyond the wall to try and bring back as much food as they can. sure, meia has a pretty good garden going and the chicken coop means they have some protein. but meat is hard to come by. the hunting parties are not something they can do very often as it puts the agents at risk. their numbers are already thin. 

but being someone assigned to hunt? now thats an experience in itself. he wondered how the boar even got here. unless there’s like a pack of them beyond the fence near by. do boars live in packs? he can’t say if he even knows anything about boars. 

“do you have stuff to trap it?” he questions, continuing to watch the boar down the line of his sight. the thing still hasn’t noticed them, monching and cronching at the grass ahead of them. it’s kind of cute the longer he looks at it. that thought vanishes when it turns and aims it large behind at them and he scrunches up his noise. “like maybe we need to step up the trap and then lure it? unless you have a net launcher or something?” 

he’s just throwing out ideas at this point. he wishes the mission guidelines had told them what to do with the boar. he’s sure between the two of them they could have taken it down already. 

     “i have a net launcher ... of sorts,” she comments, frowning slightly. the head agents hadn’t given her any time to prepare for this mission before sending her out on it, so she only had minimal supplies. if she had known what she was in for before coming out here, she would’ve been able to prepare better but she hadn’t really been given much more than a head’s up before she was sent out on her way.

     her net launcher? literally a net attached to an arrow. she had her own bow but she also trusted doyun if necessary, knowing his aim was (almost) as good as hers.

     “kinda half-assed and thrown together in five minutes but i have some lasers to set up a barrier too,” gaeul adds, sighing slightly. hopefully it would work and she wouldn’t have to make something out here on a whim but she had the basic tools if she needed to build something. not as good as being in the lab, but better than nothing.

     pausing for a moment, she considers all sides of the equation and also factors in doyun’s handy-dandy enhancement. “okay, can you distract the boar while i set up the lasers?”

[kpopstages]

RYUJIN ♡ MAFIA IN THE MORNING (210516) ↳ for @vbmnl

[miadoyun]

class time || au

@miagaeul

the class was about half way done when doyun suddenly sat up straighter. his eyes dart to the board, then he glances around himself and then back to the board. there is obvious confusion written on his face is only amplified when he rubs the back of his neck. 

a moment passes where he just watches the professor lecture. his expression growing more and more lost. and then he gives in and leans over to the person nearest him. it happens to be that pretty girl who totally distracted him when he first walked into the class on day one. “hey..” he whispers, hopefully not drawing any attention to himself. there’s a lot of students and the professor is rather loud so he’s pretty confident he won’t be noticed. 

“so like, what class is this?” he asks, serious ( and seriously confused ). but also trying to play it off. he hopes the fact he looks like he just woke up would be helpful in explaining why he’s confused about the class. though the fact it’s two months into the semester isn’t probably a good thing. 

[miagaeul]

     she’s quietly taking notes as she listens to the professor. sometimes she regrets enrolling in a normal university, considering that she doesn’t really need to take most of these classes to learn what the professors are teaching. considering that she has a photographic memory, usually just reading through the textbook is enough for her to pass the midterms and quizzes and finals. but, this class has a lab so she’s taking it for the hands on aspect. 

     the class is interesting enough though, since the professor is not a bad lecturer to she shows up for attendance and to doodle in the margins of her notebook. and to see the cute boys in her class, but if anyone asks, that’s not why she’s here.

     when one of the aforementioned cute boys leans over to speak to her, gaeul raises an eyebrow and glances around before determining that he is indeed talking to her. “uh, it’s biotechnology,” she answers, confused as to why he was asking. “year two chemical engineering req?” the boy seems confused though, and she cannot for the life of her figure out why he’s asking this when it’s literally two months into the semester already.

[miadoyun]

easy.

“here.” doyun holds out a completed smore to @miagaeul . the flames behind him head his back but he doesn’t pay it any mind. the night weather was cool enough that the heat of the flames feel nice. the days activities had left him feeling sore but content. happy with the week they had all just been through. a good change of pace from what they’d been dealing with. the last mission still haunts his mind but he can put it aside to focus on gaeul. he feels like they haven’t had the chance to truly hang out this last week. both of them terrorizing different areas of the field except for the moment they shared the archery range.

he shifts his hold on the two drinks in his elbow as he takes a seat beside gaeul. his other hand holding a plate with another smore resting on it as well as a few extra marshmallows and chocolate. “have you ever had these before?” he questioned, gesturing to the smores. its something he hadn’t tried before now–and hes not sure if its because they are hard to come by or if it just isn’t given to the civilians. maybe its a special thing? he’s never even heard of them before tonight. 

[miagaeul]

     she looks up when she hears doyun’s voice, smiling up at him and scooting over slightly on the log she was sitting on currently. from the hecticness that had overcome everyone in the aftermath of the last mission. she’s still not sure if they had gained anything, though in her case she guesses she had gained some Cool Points (trademarked). part of her still doesn’t really believe it’s all happened, considering that they were doing this team bonding thing now and it’s been a good week. especially compared to the last.

     “no,” gaeul answers simply, glancing down at the s’more and analyzing it quickly. the flickering light from the flames isn’t the best for her to look at the snack, but she can see the melted chocolate and the toasted marshmallow, lifting it to her nose so she could sniff it. “looking at its components though, it feels like it should be good, if not a bit sweet?” curious, she glances at the plate he’s holding to see if there are any hidden ingredients she’s missed. “have you had one before?”

[miagaeul]

/ soup dumplings

jina​:

it’s a huge relief on her heart when the medics confirm that jinseo will be fine to leave the next day. but up until her brother leaves the med wing, she’s going to continue to remain with her team, and once he’s discharged… well, she still has a strong feeling that she’s going to continue coming to the med wing daily, for extended periods of time. but having jinseo out might at least ease the constant fretting at the bedsides of her team. she won’t be happy again until everyone is out, healthy and safe.

he’d fallen asleep not too long ago, and jina had relaxed against the chair again, sending a small smile in daesu’s direction, knowing that her team leader doesn’t sleep that much with so many people around. rubbing at her eyes exhaustedly, she’s contemplating taking a nap when someone strides in, brandishing a bag of something at her, and she blinks up at gaeul’s familiar face in incomprehension.

when the younger agent’s words register with her, she sits up slightly, gaeul already seizing her hand and tugging, and jina knows this tone of voice. no matter what she says, she won’t be able to turn gaeul down, and quite frankly — gaeul is not the first one to try and drag jina away from the med wing by this point. every time, jina has either given in or been forcibly dragged out, and she can’t deny that the breaks have been helpful. it’s just hard to relax when she’s alone, when the nightmares can get to her. her exhaustion is evident, but sleep won’t come to her anyways.

“you always upgrade my gun for free,” she points out and she lets gaeul drag her out of the med wing without too much protest, already resigned from the moment the other had walked in. she can’t deny that she’s kind of interested in whatever the younger had managed to get from the cafeteria. “i’m coming, i’m coming,” she sighs quietly, reaching over to tuck the corner of the blanket in for jinseo before she lets gaeul tug her out of the temporary med wing, bag of mysterious unnamed food in hand.

“so, what is it?” she asks, eyeing the bag curiously.

     she’s glad that she’s always been able to get jina to do what she wants her to do. she’s not quite sure how or when they became friends, but gaeul doesn’t really care about those sorts of things. she cares for her friends even if she doesn’t see them often, and also? she knows how jina is and she’s worried for her. if only because she hasn’t see her around very much as of late. 

     either way, she already knows exactly where to find the older girl because she’s done this a few times already. usually it’s just to go for a walk but she thinks she needs to make sure that jina is also eating properly, so she considers today a win-win situation since she’s able to drag her friend out of the makeshift infirmary and also try some new food to boot.

     hopefully it’ll be good.

     “let’s find somewhere to sit down and eat it first,” gaeul says, trying to keep the food a mystery for now since she doesn’t really want to give the other agent a chance to stop and turn back. she doubts anyone could say no to dumplings but she suspects that jina would try if she really wanted to get back to jinseo’s side. like gaeul had said—she’s very glad that jinseo had been asleep already or it would’ve been a lot harder. 

      finally finding the cafeteria, she plops herself down at the nearest table and indicates for jina to do the same as she opens the bag and also opens the two containers, along with some sauce. “soup dumplings! apparently they’re really good ... they told me to be careful though because there’s soup inside of the dumplings? isn’t that cool?”

[miahelios]

on your mark

event thread with @miagaeul

the feel of the bow in his hands isn’t a foreign one. but he would say it’s a weird one. he hasn’t trained as much with ranged weapons as he probably should have. especially once he hit senior status and was working on his specialty. still…

when the events for training week had come up he hadn’t wasted the chance to bother his cousin with the archery match. he knows gaeul is a a ranged fighter–though he knows she is also a tech agent and thus field work isn’t her forte–and it might be a learning experience for him. never mind a chance to bond with her a little more. the two of them never really running in the same circle despite being family. 

“i don’t suppose you’re going to go easy on me?” he questions as he rolls his shoulder. shooting a smile to the younger girl. The challenge before them was easy enough to start with. hit the bulls eye as they pop up before the other person does. 

[miagaeul]

     when she had heard of a shooting range for the summer training week thing, she had known immediately where she would probably be for the majority of it. she had exchanged glances with doyun and grinned, very excited to compete with her best friend like they had when they were younger and had first started learning the art of the bow and arrow. of course, she had moved onto her sniper rifle after meia had formed and chosen that as her signature weapon, but she would never forget her first true love: the bow and arrow.

     at the archery range, she had found herself in The Zone, as she would like to call it. the area of focus in her mind where nothing else was important aside from the task at hand. it’s a place she finds herself in often enough, usually when it comes to either 1) upgrading someone’s/a weapon or 2) when she’s coming up with (mildly dangerous) games in the tech lab.

     all in a day’s work.

     but she hadn’t expected to see daesu there, considering that he’s not usually someone who’s seen with a bow and arrow. gaeul grins to herself, notching an arrow and bringing it to eye level, aiming. “in your dreams, daesu. in your dreams.”

[miagaeul]

& hold me when i wake

juwon​:

( tw // ptsd, mention of blood )

his hands are clenched so tightly around the blanket in his hands, his knuckles white and his breathing unsteady as he tries to suppress the sobs that threaten to force their way out of his throat. his mind is full of red, painted with death, and even though he knows he’s in his cousin’s bedroom, when he closes his eyes, he still sees the memories of the day that had just flooded his nightmares.

a gasp jolts out of him when something hits him solidly in the back and he jerks forward, his whole body tensing up as though expecting to turn around and see a demon, even though the water bottle that had been the culprit rolls next to him and his cousin’s sleepy voice proves that it isn’t going to be like his nightmares. the impact had startled a hiccuped sob out of him, and he clamps his lips shut, hands tight in the blanket as he buries his face into the soft cotton, trying to muffle the sobs and tears that he just can’t seem to stop.

warm light fills the room and his name, called in his cousin’s sleepy voice, has his heart sinking. he’d woken gaeul up despite his best efforts not to, and he hunches in on himself, trying to control his breathing and crying so that at least she can go back to sleep. “i’m f-fine,” he manages, but the tone is entirely unconvincing and he squeezes his eyes shut, only to open them again so that he won’t see red anymore.

but her voice is closer to him suddenly, the soft rustling indicating that she’s coming down to his makeshift bed on the floor, and a soft stuffed animal finds its way into the tight space between his clenched hands and his hunched body. the warmth of her hand covers his clenched ones, and when she takes a hand, his fingers slowly relax so that she can take them, the blanket creased where he’d been holding onto it so tightly. he lets out a shuddering breath when she speaks to him, a calm tone that helps to soothe his frayed and battered nerves. he breathes in, listens to her voice, breathes out, repeat. finally, the sobs die down and he’s left feeling so utterly exhausted and empty that he has no more energy.

“gaeul,” he says, his voice nothing more than a rough whisper, his other hand slowly letting go of the blanket to touch the stuffed elephant instead, fondling its ear blankly. “gaeullie,” his voice breaks, soft though it is, turning to bury his face in her shoulder, the physical reassurance that he’s not out there on the field anymore.

     she doesn’t really know what to say now that she’s on the floor next to him and he’s leaned his head against her shoulder. she had tried her best not to freeze at the physical contact, considering she’s not the biggest fan of skinship in any form. she had to remind herself to not pull away, since her job now was to make sure that juwon didn’t like. think he was still in the nightmare anymore. or something. 

     in her defence, she’s never really had to do anything like this before.

     trying to remember the best way to distract someone—she’s always been the type to change the topic so she decides that’s probably the best course of action right? especially from a nightmare? well, it is now—gaeul presses the elephant plushie more into juwon’s arms, wondering if he still recognized it considering how long it’s been since the other has seen it probably. she’s not sure, but she does remember it was originally his.

     “do you remember this plushie?” gaeul asks, curious and her tone of voice sounding like he hadn’t just woken up crying or anything. when seaside had fallen, her parents had evacuated like everyone else, only grabbing a few things before going to help everyone. and after meia had been established and the civilian zone had been finished, her parents had gone out of their way to try to recreate their old home as accurately as possible. which also meant, recreating and remaking many old things. 

     including all the plush toys in her room.

     “i’m pretty sure it was yours ... mom sewed it herself from a template she got from someone else’s mom who’s a seamstress and modified it so it would look like yours,” she explains, looking amused and she reaches out to pat the elephant’s head. “you should take it back with you. he’ll keep the nightmares away maybe.”

[miadoyun]

wild child

boar hunting with @miagaeul

the cloudy skies worked as perfect cover for the two agents as they hovered behind a stack of lumber near the west side of the civilian grounds. with no sun above them to cast dark shadows, it meant they didn’t have to worry to much about their stealth. 

it’s been a couple weeks since the end of the mission that left everything upside down and doyun was happy to have a task to do. though this one was a touch odd. he can’t find it in himself to be bothered because he gets to spend the time with gaeul. it’s not as often that the two of them get the chance to work together being on different teams and having different goals. gaeul is a tech agent and that means she isn’t on the field as often. does he feel a little honored that they are out here together? kind of. 

“target spotted.” he comments softly into their shared coms as he peers through the binoculars she had given him. just ahead of them munching on some grass and acting chill as can be is the wild boar that had busted through the fence. 

this was their mission. 

“do we want to trap or just kill on site?” he questioned, knowing either way this boar was probably going to become food for the compound. they could take any meat they get–something that is harder to come by as hunting isn’t really that easy. this boar deciding to terrorize the civilian zone was almost like a small blessing. regardless of her response, he begins to get his bow ready. 

[miagaeul]

     part of her still has no idea why she was sent out on this mission. like, it makes sense, kinda. there are a lot of agents still out of commission, even if they had been cleared to leave the temporary med wing. a lot of them were still in recovery mode so they were being watched after, yadda yadda. and not being sent on a wild goose—wait no, boar—chase like they were. 

     she’s been in a pretty good mood since then, if only because she had been pretty darn helpful during it. one, with bringing the coms back with jj and then secondly managing to get a shot on kaiser-not-kaiser. it had been very eventful and gaeul had been very excited to get back to camp and start working on stuff again. she hadn’t been able to actually return to the lab, but she had been allowed to tinker on a few things and she had been trying to come up with an upgrade for her own daggers that were just backup. adding poison to them seemed like a good idea.

     and then she had been summoned for another mission, one that was promised to be much less eventful. so here she was, with doyun. hunting a boar.

     “should we trap it and see what agent sol might want to do with it?” she suggests, frowning slightly as she quietly looks through the little bag she had packed and slung over her shoulder. she had packed a few gadgets she had thought might be useful to catch it, including some high-grade nets and what not, but she’s starting to think that maybe testing doyun’s aim could be fun. or she could do it.

     swapping out her usually sniper for a stun gun instead, she cocks it on her shoulder after adjusting the glasses she had on. “maybe we could figure out how to like. breed it. or something. for more meat? only god knows how long it’s been since i’ve had real meat.”