br.eak

[runeink]

in this exercise, the book was never the important part. what mattered in jiho's eyes was the caster: the shift in posture between attempts, their facial expressions, their level of focus.. he'd always track all of it.

he doesn't say anything when she speaks. instead, lets the admission sit for a moment, which, depending on the student, was either reassuring or unsettling.

"you're not wrong, you do get in your own way." he finally says. there's no point in sugarcoating Something she was already aware of. wasn't his type anyway. "the good thing is, most people do." he moves from where he's been standing to head toward the table, where the book's still sitting.

"but you've done it before. which means that your magic isn't the real issue. the ream problem is here" a finger lifts to tap lightly against his temple. "your mind is your greatest ally but let it turn on you and it becomes your greatest enemy. you know very well you can do this, yet you're letting the part of you that says you can't be the loudest thing in the room." as jiho reaches the table, the book has already moved back to its starting point. smoothly got dragged across the surface as he talked.

"our minds work differently so it's only natural that we apply magic differently too. some need a strong purpose behind the action. others need a distraction, or to voice the intent out loud, i've even seen students need to break eye contact entirely for it to work. you've seen it just now, i didn't need to have my eyes on it to make it move." he pauses for a short instant, not waiting for an answer, simply working out his next move.

"alright, let's try something else." in a swift motion, he draws a pattern against his palm and a small flame appears, bringing it closer to the book. "forget about point b, okay? get the book away from the flame before it burns."

[runeink]

his priority had been set on retrieving papers and materials for an afternoon potions session he'd forgotten that morning. a detour to his room he'd planned to have done in twenty minutes. he'd been in and out quickly enough, stack of folders securely tucked under his arm, mind already running through the preparations.

it was a shadow he noticed in his peripheral vision as he pulled his door shut that slowed him down. someone crouched in the hallway, facing one of the doors. as he stepped closer the features cleared.

ahn hajun… jiho had heard about his arrival, had been genuinely excited about it too, if he was being honest. he'd crossed paths with him at conferences before, brief overlaps that hadn't had the chance to become anything more. a chance he didn't intend to miss again.

"it's exactly what it looks like."

the mystery behind the media room had caught his attention upon arrival (four years ago now, a number that still occasionally surprised him.) he'd stood in his own room that first week,running a hand along the walls with the specific attention he gave old inscriptions, trying to read what the structure was doing and why.

he'd had hunches, theories he'd wanted to test. and then the term had started, the archive had needed cataloguing, a student had required supervision… routine had closed around him very quickly, his personal issues taking up whatever space was left, and the media room had stayed what it was, a project he intended to return to but never did.

four years, apparently, was how long it took to run into someone else doing it first. he was not at all surprised that someone turned out to be hajun.

"…come back later once i'm done. "

"hm." not dismissal, only the sound he made when something had just earned his attention. he didn't step away when hajun told him to, just shifted his weight to get a better angle and stayed exactly where he was, because leaving had stopped being an option the moment he understood what he was looking at.

he crouched down beside him, setting his folders to the side, glancing sideways at the other man. "have you gotten through the first layer yet or are you still working out how to carve it off without disturbing what's underneath?" the potions session could definitely wait.

[runeink]

quick mobile post,, sorry for dying it's a v busy week, ill get to replies over the weekend ):

[runeink]

her hand reaches out, grasping onto the passing body's sleeve. "hey," sena starts, free hand tapping against the page opened on top of the table, invoking of the spirit, witch's circles and the works. "can you help me with this?" for her impertinence, she follows with a disarming smile, head tilting slightly. "please?"

his shoulders drop slightly as he stares at the three books piled up on the counter.

no matter how many times he tells himself he's just returning something, he ends up leaving with more. he genuinely cannot remember a month where he hadn't had books overdue to give back. he just can't help it. though he knows he'll have to stop at some point , once he's worked his way through everything the school has to offer, which at the current rate might actually happen.

with a shake of his head, he thanks the receptionist and turns on his heels. staying some more is an option, after all the library has everything he needs for his afternoon activities, but it was about to fill up and he needed somewhere quieter than that. his office would do, as usual.

he crosses the library with the books secured under his arm, already mentally reorganizing his shelf to fit them, when something someone tugs at his sleeve and stops him. he immediately looks down, an eyebrow raised. a rather particular way of intercepting a teacher. that is, if they'd even noticed who they'd grabbed.

one look at their face is enough to place them. sena, mirror walking, good marks from what he'd heard from the other faculty. she has a book open in front of her and he follows the tapping of her finger, brown eyes narrowing enough to make out the words without his glasses. invoking of the spirit, witch's circles and the works.

from those words alone this could go several directions. ritual frameworks and circle casting being the obvious one, though she would have been particularly unlucky to land him given that he held no fondness for rituals whatsoever. but her issue could just as easily be about the historical relationship between witches and spirit entities, the architecture of magical boundaries or.. a translation issue–

"of course," jiho stops the speculation there. none of it was going to change the outcome of this encounter anyway. he cannot refuse a student in need.

"walk me through where you're stuck."

[runeink]

the thought of opening the book again makes her feel lightheaded. that’s new. “…let’s just get it over with,” she mutters to herself, like she still needs convincing. and before she can chicken out, she knocks.

with the last paper marked, jiho leans back against his chair with a sigh.

there are moments when he wonders what his life would look like if he had stayed on the road. would he have settled in another country, learned a few more languages? would he have pushed himself until the mark had nothing left to take? when he remembers his past self.. it feels like another life, another person even. someone who was always moving toward something new, meeting and getting know new faces constantly. now he's mostly a ghost. seen during classes or caught briefly on his way to the archive, or library, depending on the time of day. some students probably aren't sure he exists outside of those contexts.

normally he'd be heading down there by now, the perpetual search pulling him the way it always did. but tonight he allows himself a moment. and when pushes back from the desk, he doesn't reach for his coat.

he fills the electric kettle by the window and sets it on its base. why, when magic could do it faster? a question he's heard more than once. but he finds it nice to slow down sometimes, let the elements do their work, no input required from him. he supposes there's no harm in trying to limit use where he can,either. the mark doesn't care about intention but he cares about the mark.

the knock comes almost in sync with the first bubbles, reminding him of the headphones sitting on his head. not for music. just the specific reduction of the world that helps him process student evaluations without distraction. he pulls one side back, eyes going to the clock first.

late. later than most people knocked, which narrowed the list considerably.

he isn't sure what he'd been expecting, but the expression that settles on his face when he sees who it is isn't one he bothers to hide. surprised would be an understatement.

"yui?"

she's probably one of the last people who would've made the list (if she'd made it at all). their interactions so far had been…interesting. that's the word he's going with, and it'ss generous. he'd caught her glares during faculty meetings, received brief answers the few times he'd tried to start a conversation. he hadn't paid much attention to how she was with others, not really his business. but he's come to a reasonable conclusion that she doesn't hold him in particularly high regard.

which makes her being here, at this hour, something worth paying attention to.

"do you need anything?"

[kyungsoosus]

💕

[runeink]

🖊️ @fistprint

jiho was usually good at ignoring things, when he wanted to. identify something inconvenient, label it and set it aside in favor of something else that was more worthy of his attention, simple steps for a simple procedure. the pull toward yushu was definitely inconvenient. he had labeled it and had managed to set it aside successfully for the past few weeks and for most of this evening too, but it just kept coming back, tugging at something inside of him like a thread someone kept pulling on from the other end nonstop. definitely annoying.

he had kept his distance, deliberately so. his brain had been very clear about that. his body however..mcuh less cooperative. feet taking him in the same specific direction for the past hours without deviating once, as if the decision had been made somewhere beyond him and hadn’t bothered to ask.

with each step it intensified, bringing something with it that felt wrong in a way he couldn't really explain. the air felt different too, scratching at the back of his throat with every inhale. faint enough that he almost set it aside along with every other thought he had that night and blamed it on the side effects of the redretch’s capture. until it shifted again, drastically.

it felt urgent now, pressing at his chest like it was trying to communicate the only way it knew how. it made his hand move without thinking, palm flat against his chest as if that would do anything about it. it didn't. the pressure stayed, insistent. unconsciously, he started moving faster. and for the first time that night, he was willingly moving towards it, he wanted to reach it.

and then he saw him, back resting against a trunk, sitting in a stillness that wasn't the reassuring kind.

"hey–" he crossed the distance between them faster than he'd moved all night, dropping into a crouch in front of him, eyes moving over the younger man with the focus of someone who needed to know how bad it was before deciding how to feel about it.

“what happened here?”

[bendear]

hours and howls and owls  /  @runeink

no stars in the sky tonight. he likes how the earth speaks for him sometimes. if he gets any sadder, he's sure it'll rain. really, it'll rain because there are too many clouds. but these things aren't coincidence. there's a reason for everything, somehow. there's a reason he's at jiho's door now. he tries not to think about it too much. when he starts thinking of the why's, nothing makes sense.

the look of the light under the door is familiar. the feel of a wrapped sandwich and a packet of juice in one hand as the other wraps against the wood. these are all things he knows, but things from a while ago. he turns the knob, as he always has, and peeks his head in. "teach?"

[runeink]

the sound of the door opening is not what makes his head shoot up from what he's scribbling; the source of the voice does. it's one he hasn't heard in awhile. "donggu– what a pleasant surprise." a smile finds its way onto his face as he sets his fountain pen down. it had been quite some time since the man last stepped into his office. they used to meet pretty often, but ever since he'd passed tutoring duties onto another witch, donggu only came around when he truly needed to. jiho had taken the decrease in visits as a good sign, even if he had missed his presence.

his eyes linger on him for just a moment. he recognizes signs in his posture, in the way his eyes move around the room..tonight is definitely one of those nights. he could probably guess part of what's going on inside the other man's head right now.

he gestures to the seat across from his desk. "how have you been?"

[runeink]

🖊️ @lotusless

at this hour, the archive had a particular feel to it, a specific stillness that only existed in the last stretch before dawn, when the night had mostly ended and the day hadn't yet begun. jiho moved through it the way he always did, one hand trailing along a shelf, the other maintaining a very low flame on his palm, just enough to make letters distinct from the shadows around them.

he heard her at the entrance before he saw her. "over here," he didn't need to raise his voice, the archive carried sound in ways that still surprised people and made his way toward the far table, the one he used when he wanted space to spread things out.

"sit," simply an offer, not an order. he did the same, closing his palm to silence the flame and carefully opening the book he had retrieved earlier to a page he knew by heart at this point. "i found this three days ago." he turned it toward her. at first glance, it looked like a map. quite old and imprecise, with coastlines drawn loosely and landmarks placed randomly. however, it wasn't only a map. whoever had drawn it had added a second layer of information into it, seen in the weight of certain lines, the placement of said landmarks, the way rivers and lakes were drawn slightly wrong in specific locations that corresponded to nothing at all. it was hiding something in plain sight.

"i want to know if any of this looks familiar to you." he didn't point at anything specific, not wanting to lead her somewhere before she'd had the chance to form thoughts of her own. he wanted a raw answer, even if that answer was nothing. "sometimes it's just an instinct, a pull toward something you can't explain." he settled back. "take your time."

[smeraldoxgarden]

The greenhouse always had a light on even if it was late at night, since there was a witch busy there, working with her plants and flowers, making them bloom with a smile on her face as she worked through them with gentle hands. The day had been quite busy for Sooah, between lessons and helping students with some special projects, the witch hadn't been able to visit her precious flowers, until now.

Getting her magic from the sunlight, it was a bit odd to rely on the moon for light and since it was the reflection of the sun it sort of worked yet not with the potency of her powers under the sunlight, either way Soo wasn't going to bed anytime soon with all the work she had yet to do on her second office. Humming the witch gently watered her plants, moving pots around and making sure all had the opportunity to grow.

The witch felt his presence as soon as he stepped into her realm, or well, the greenhouse. A sweet smile growing on her lips as she kept whispering words of encouragement to a particularly small plant that needed to grow, watching pleased when it started moving, leaf practically holding her finger. "Pulling an all nighter?" Soo asked finally turning to someone she concidered a dear friend of hers. A small laugh leaving her lips at his words, shaking her head with the smile never leaving her lips. "A very interesting day in the plant realm if you must know...a couple of familiars almost left us without some potion ingredients, poor sweet things were so hungry." She hadn't found it in her to stop them and instead was growing more in the night.

[runeink]

"you know, the usual-- started spiralling so i had to take a break." all nighters aren't rare for jiho but not as frequent as one would think either, a common misconception. the light in his office stays on until very late but it does turn off at some point. he's a man who genuinely enjoys and understands the importance of sleep. years of this kind of work had also taught him to recognize the point where pushing further stopped being productive, when dots stopped connecting and started chasing each other in circles. knowing when to step away wasn't defeat. just efficiency.

going to sleep now would feel wrong though, it still qualifies as way too early by his standard. he'll get an hour or two before his first class.

his attention shifts at her next words and he can barely hide his surprise, an eyebrow raising. "they ate your plants?"

jiho can't help the snort that follows. parasites, insects.. these were the predators that came to mind first, familiars had genuinely never made the list before today. "as long as they didn't poison themselves in the process." he finds himself wondering which one it was. not that it matters, just pure curiosity.

"i’ll admit, i do come with an ulterior motive." he glances around the greenhouse while the thought is still fresh, scanning quickly for what he's looking for. turning back to her when the search turns up empty. "do you have any moonwort? dried, if possible. i've been working on a memory stabilization potion. there's a variant in one of the older texts i found that uses moonwort as the base. i want to test it."

[runeink]

@inordinaries

"hi," he says, over-eager and trying very hard not to be. "i don't think we've met before...? i'm haoran." for a moment, he smiles harder, then he drops it completely. he takes a big gulp of his drink. the sourness makes him want to grimace, but he doesn't. "i'm kind of having second thoughts about this whole hunt thing," he offers, following it up with an awkward laugh. despite his never-ending efforts to connect, he's never sure how to talk to new people. he takes another sip of his drink, much smaller this time, and tries to square his shoulders. please be nice, please be nice. "are you excited for it, or...?"

with its warmth and light, the fire is doing most of the work, successfully making everything feel alive and celebratory despite the true nature of the event.

he isn't particularly fond of gatherings like this and would rather be anywhere else right now, in all honesty. but he doesn't hate them either. they're mostly made for the students anyway, for faculty it's just another mandatory task and all you can do is find something worth being here for. and for jiho, the students are one of those things. they’re interesting, fun to observe. though, some seem to be quite tipsy already, which is a little worrisome considering what the rest of the night has in store.

the spot he finds at the outer edge of the gathering gives him a full view of the area, close enough that leaving would be noticed but far enough that no one feels compelled to pull him into anything. a strategic choice, or at least he thinks so. he isn't surprised when someones approaches, he just hadn't expected it to be so soon. the younger man's greeting earns him a smile.

“we haven’t officially met,” but i’ve seen you around, haoran. “jiho.” there’s something satisfying about finally putting a name on a face you’ve been seing around the school. he’s expected to know the student body well enough to recognise everyone in an emergency but familiars are another matter, free to move as they please (though some tend to stay close to their witches) and there's a few he hasn't identified yet.

"not particularly," his gaze briefly drifts toward the fire. "when it’s your third one, the excitement fades around." he's always found the mystery surrounding the redretch genuinely interesting, but this year he's only here because he has to and not much beyond that.

"it's normal to feel nervous before your first hunt," he turns back to the man beside him, taking in his posture, his body language.. the way someone stands when they're trying not to look like they're feeling something. it's not mandatory for you to participate if you don't wish to. he almost says it, but stops himself. he still believes the hunt to be a good thing for both witches and familiars, the effect it has on them, what it draws out of them.

"did you find yourself a party?"

[runeink]

🖊️ @smeraldoxgarden

he had started dropping by the greenhouse more often the past few months but even if the time between each stop was getting shorter, it still hadn't become a habit. jiho wouldn't call it that. at least not yet.

what had officially become a habit though, were min sooah's random visits. he couldn't remember when they started, first she was dropping off lunch, then staying for tea, then appearing on random evenings with dinner or simply as a presence willing to share the silence of his office. he had quickly learned that kindness was sooah's second nature. an inherently good person with her heart on her sleeve.

jiho was amazed by it. and genuinely thankful.

he had tried to think of ways to return it but so far, all of them felt wrong, forced, not really fitting of him.

instead, he had decided to pay her office a visit, as she liked to call it. sooah always spoke about this place so fondly. he had wanted to see it for himself.

what he found had surely surprised him and he'd ended up caught up in what sooah had mentioned during his third visit, about how certain plants would quietly compete for the same soil, suffocating each other's root systems from below with nothing visible happening above ground. so he'd come back to check on them, again and again.

without realizing it, it had become a place he returned to. a place he could step into on nights when whatever was building up inside him felt like too much to sit alone with. and tonight was one of those nights, third time this month.

“tell me,” he’s quick to break the silence as he walks up beside her, eyes following her gaze toward the cluster of magical plants she's tending to. “what’s happened in your green realm so far?”

[runeink]

yoooo everyone very thrilled to be here!! bringing with me kang jiho, your favourite teacher and researcher and archivist. he's gonna be a hard one to crack but i'm very excited to see him involved in everyone's lil stories (when possible ofc)

did my best to have his pages up , missing some info that i'll add very soon. profile & background.

under the cut you'll find random plot ideas i came up with under ten minutes (it was a challenge because all i wanted was to post his intro) but i'd be more than happy to brainstorm anything tbh i just wanna write :] so like this post if you're interested! i will come up with a plot page

do i have to say it? his familiar!! added details in his profile

fellow coworkers, they mutually respect and admire eo's work but can't stand eo and boom they need to collab for something, a new friend he made after an incident that revealed a bit too much about himself, he needs a book and you were the last one who borrowed it (and never returned it)...lots of possible plots/dynamics just throw them at me

muses who knew him before or during his traveling days (kinda childhood friends/aquaintances)

students that are either obsessed or hate his classes, students he can tutor, maybe a student who's interested in becoming a researcher or archivist? they wanna know about his road years, discuss one of his published papers...

an old situationship

someone who recognizes his work before they recognize him

ongoing event: not necessarily interested in winning as he's seen this event enough times and would rather have students gain something from it but if anyone asks him to join their hunting party he wouldn'tsay no. he does help with all the preparation and it's probably the longest time he's spent outside of his office this year, spending most of it with faculty members and students.