#tidesofpower

[hwaarang]

    incorrect quotes generator   feat .   hwoarang   &   juri     ／     @tidesofpower​​ !

[icecoldwilliams]

❄️𝒞𝓁𝑜𝓈𝑒𝒹 𝒮𝓉𝒶𝓇𝓉𝑒𝓇 𝒻𝑜𝓇:@tidesofpower​ ❄️

┈┈┈┈┈┈ · 🙦 ❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️ 🙤 · ┈┈┈┈┈┈

Traveling was typically a freeing sort of delight for most, especially for the globe trotting assassin. Usually it was one of the only things left that seemed to bring her joy, but even she wasn't immune to jet lag.

A little over a week ago Nina had the misfortune of adding yet another run in with a certain minx to their long list of altercations, and suddenly her already hectic travel schedule was increased ten fold. Instead of a new country every week, she had been to four in the past week just to get the furious brunette off her heels. Russia for two days, South America for three, and now here she was, Thailand for the past two. Just now returning to her hotel room after completing a quick job.

Following a quick change of clothes and a room service call, Nina let her body sink into the bed. Figuring she'd allow herself just a moment of rest before she'd spend the night booking her next flight. Never had a bed felt so enticingly comfortable before.. an immeasurable amount of jet lag and exhaustion ended up keeping the blonde still far longer than she intended.

Sleep was just about to take hold when her phone ringing put a dent in her little bit of peace. A tsk escaping her lips as she reached over, fully planning on letting whoever it was answer to her voicemail. Perhaps given the second chance they'd rethink their desire to end someone's life. The most committed customers never do.

However, in a rather interesting turn of events, one glance at the screen was all it took for Nina to force herself to sit up instead. One hand running through her hair while the other brought her phone to her ear. A smirk even tugging on the corner of her lips. 

Took him long enough.

"Well what do y'know, ghosts do exist.."

[hwaarang]

     incorrect quotes generator   feat .   hwoarang   &   jin     ／     @tidesofpower​ !

[hwaarang]

❛ company . silently sit with my muse to comfort them.

       sender :   @tidesofpower​     /     source :   prompted     /     status :   closed .

          hwoarang has always been a strong person .

          he’s never had any other option ;   what more can be made of a child whose heart had been shattered to pieces before they were even born ??   a thirst for survival   &   a dedication to remain alive is nearly innate to him ,   as hardwired into his being as breathing itself .   thus ,   the choice to face the seemingly endless barrage of life’s challenges with his chin held high   &   his body as wide   &   sturdy as he can make it hadn’t really been much of a   choice   at all ,   but a reflex .

          but even accompanied by the strength with which he’d come into the world   &   cultivated ,   nurtured ,   &   forged   over a lifetime of   fighting   &   fighting   &   fighting ,   humanity humbles him through the bone - crushing reality of the   limits   he cannot evade .   as long a way as he has come without having to answer to his own lack of coveted invincibility ,   every road has an end ,   whether its pavement tapers into soft ,   forgiving meadows or drops off a steep cliff   &   into the suffocating hearth of a volcano .  

          within the prison of heartache   &   uncertainty ,   hwoarang forcibly faces the nemeses he’s made of grief   &   guilt .   there is   grief   at the impending loss   &   increasing deterioration of a man who allowed him to see value in himself for the first time ;   a man who taught him to be strong in a way beyond physicality   (   the only way that   really   matters ,   he’s learned ,   but is still reluctant to admit   even now   )   even while providing him the means to reach the peak of his physical potential  ,   who effectively breathed life   &   wisdom into a boy whose unfortunate circumstances left him plummeting toward soullessness .   there is   guilt   in that grief ;   the man isn’t even   dead   yet ,   but hwoarang already feels his loss in that he no longer senses him by his side ,   can only cling desperately to remnants of him in his conscience .

          the last moment he saw his master standing tall   &   proud before him haunts him like a persistent apparition ,   especially since ,   moments later ,   hwoarang would be slanted over his body ,   sobbing uncontrollably for the first time since he was a child .   nothing in life could have prepared him for that ;   not growing up with only bloodstained memories of his birth parents ,   not a childhood so riddled with pain   &   abuse that he barely remembers it ,   not living day by day or moment by moment on unsafe   &   destitute streets as a little boy ,   not having to fight every day ,   in every sense of the word ,   to just   survive .   in that moment ,   &   every moment he has faced his comatose master since ,   he is essentially thrust back into childhood ,   as maturity has not yet endowed him with a way to cope with such a devastating loss .

          he manages to swallow his emotions as he exits the hospital room ,   ignoring the unsolicited look of sympathy the nurse always gives him .   hwoarang cannot ,   however ,   hide the look of shock that eclipses his face when she tells him that someone’s in the lobby ,   waiting for him .

          there aren’t many people it could be .   anyone of any significance to him knows about baek’s condition ,   &   knows that hwoarang is not handling it well .   while he’s not one to be open with hardships   &   struggles that have him appear anything even remotely adjacent to vulnerable ,   he’s not delusional enough to think that he’s been able to conceal   all   of how deeply hurt he is by his beloved master’s occupation of death’s doorstep .   

          even so ,   he’s still utterly   stunned ,   to the extent of muteness ,   to see his rival standing there ,   looking as blank - faced   &   untouchable as he always does .   tucked away into a small room hidden from the sights of any civilians moving about the hospital ,   there’s something almost daunting about approaching him ,   which unsettles hwoarang ,   even in this state of mind .   others may be intimidated by kazama jin ,   but hwoarang has never been among them .   he does not allow himself to be intimidated by   anyone .

          but it isn’t just the fact that it’s jin that makes it nerve - wracking .   it’s also that he’s just shown up here with no prior announcement   (   which is nothing unlike him ,   but still   ) ,   at the hospital where baek’s coma is being monitored ,   likely knowing that hwoarang would be here .   it’s that they’ll be alone .   it’s that hwoarang   knows   that jin will see his grief ,   &   he hadn’t prepared himself for that .

          still ,   he goes to him .   he always goes to him .

          “   what are you doing here ??   ”   he offers in an inquisitive grumble ,   hardening his face more on instinct than volition .   “   baek’s the one you should bother coming to this shithole to see .   not   me ,   kazama .   you can see me anyplace .   ”   the spoken fact is one they both know ,   &   it adds weight to the question that had preceded it .   why here ??   why now ??

          at the back of hwoarang’s brain ,   there is an answer .   yet ,   it isn’t one in which he wants to place a lot of faith ,   for a variety of reasons .   never has he relied on another person to support him through hard times ,   with the exception of the one whose listless body he’d nearly torn the flesh of his own palms   (   via the tightness of clenched fists   )   trying not to cry over for the umpteenth time .   no one has really   been there for him   during all of this ,   &   he mostly has himself to thank for that ,   given he never lets anyone in .   but it seems jin has come on his own ,   with no need for an invitation . 

          it becomes clear when jin does not answer him .   they only look at each other ,   decoding words engraved along the ways their eyes catch the light ,   &   hwoarang knows .   that   is   why he’s here .   &   neither of them are going to say it .

          without fully thinking about it ,   hwoarang sighs ;   a suspiration heavy with forlornness ,   wracked with hopelessness .   for once ,   he cannot seize one glimmer of idealism or ego   &   use it to guide his way out of the darkness of despair .   there’s no light to be found here ;   baek’s condition is getting worse ,   &   it seems it will continue to do so until it simply can’t get worse anymore ,   &   hwoarang will have to put the only man who’s ever believed in him in cold ,  dark earth .

          he’s just not ready to be without him .   not yet .

          it occurs to him ,   then ,   that jin knows what that’s like .   the infantilizing grief .   the plague of uncertainty .   the ocean of tears .   the feeling that life may as well   stop   altogether without the person that had shown him why it even matters in the first place .

          side by side ,   shoulders nearly touching .   there are chairs ,   but they choose the floor .   the room is still with silence ,   &   hwoarang feels like his whole body is burning beneath his skin .   but it’s a purifying kind of burn .   it feels like healing .

          “   he’s not dead ,   ”   he says after a while ,   voice near to a whisper ,   “   but i’m grieving him already .   ”   hwoarang doesn’t say anything else .   his head feels heavy .    it’s blurry .   there’s an unfamiliar wetness bounding down his left cheek .   he doesn’t remember how old he is .

          but he’s not alone .

[hwaarang]

“ let me see the wound. ” ( i'm 5000 years late but!! )

    sender :   @tidesofpower​     /     source :   prompted     /     status :   accepting !

          for once ,   hwoarang is silent .

          typicality sees him able to offer ten words to each lone   one   that comes out of jin’s mouth   ───   that’s how verbal communication between the two of them has always been ;   his eighty to jin’s twenty .   &   never once has he fostered a   real   complaint about it ,   because the other man talks back in ways beyond words ,   ways hwoarang is more equipped to understand than anyone else .   but this is different from times when words evade them entirely due to a sense of obsoleteness ,   due to them being able to feel each other in ways that render talking useless .   no ,   this is   uncertainty ;   it’s approaching the edge of a cliff overlooking the fiery pits of oblivion while wearing a blindfold .   what ,   pray tell ,   can be said to that ??

          a faint sigh surges past subtly expanding nares ,   the breeze of his tight breath daintily tousling the curtain of red hair that drapes over his bandaged eye ,   concealing a good deal of it from view .   yet ,   the way the stark white of freshly - applied gauze contrasts against the warmth of his complexion leaves no question regarding the condition of the other side of his face ;   except ,   of course ,   the one surrounding the simple request jin had made now moments into the past ,   dwindling onto   minutes   as hwoarang contemplates how to handle this uncomfortable situation ,   &   if he even   wants   to handle it at all .

          “   for   fuck’s sake ,   kazama ,   ”   he finally utters ,   though there’s far less bite to his tone than he’d intended .   there’s only fatigue    ───   emotional exhaustion ,   really   ───   as it feels immensely unfair for the raven - haired man to implore such a thing .   they have a lot to fix ,   &   the fact that they have yet to actually discuss any of it directly does naught to ease navigation of the rocky terrain of their circumstances .   when first they saw each other again following all that had happened ,   when hwoarang had to guess whether or not jin would even come out of his coma without his brains scrambled to the point that the korea native would be little more than a stranger to him   (   he couldn’t bring himself to wonder whether or not the other would even survive ,   because frankly ,   it is a concept he refuses to grasp to any extent    ───   dying is   not a fucking option   for this bastard   ) ,   it required every whit of self - control he could channel from his fallen master to not kick jin’s head clean off his shoulders .

          all that searing anger   &   molten resentment has come pouring out in volcanic waves of varying magnitudes ,   but even then ,   his intent to remain by the other’s side never once wavered .

          the injury   had not yet come up .   not formally ,   anyway ;   hwoarang would catch jin’s dark eyes glancing at it in some forlorn ,   guilt - ridden way every now   &   then ,   &   while most times he’d simply pretend not to notice   &   allow the other man to feel what he feels without having to answer to another person ,   there had been a few other occasions where he’d bark at him to stop   fucking   staring at it .   i know what you’re thinking ,   his taut lineaments would utter ,   though his lips would not once move .   leave it be .   there’s no point in feeling bad about it .   

          for both their sakes ,   hwoarang honestly wishes not to address his new disability at all .   yet he knows ,   deep down ,   that this is the easiest place to start mending what had been torn asunder .   &   with jin finally daring to reach out ,   finally seeking to address this royal mess in some way ,   he’s having a hard time simply brushing him off .

          who’d have thought kazama would make the first move ?? 

          “   what do you want to see it for ??   ”   asks the redhead ,   sweeping tresses incarnadine behind his left ear so his functioning eye can focus without obstruction on the only person he’s even been able to think of as his closest friend .   there’s something soft   &   unforged in the glimmer of aureate copper ,   a lone iris zeroing in on a face that’s meant to bring familiarity ,   but now comes with a dull sting .   “   so you can torture yourself about it ??  what’s the point of that ,   jin .   ”   it doesn’t leave him as a question ;   the rare use of the other’s given name bearing too much weight for the lifted inflection denoting an inquiry .   “   i’ve already told you it’s not your fault .   it’s one of the few things that isn’t .   that being said ,  i’m pretty sure you got other shit to worry about than my goddamn eye .   ”

          still ,   moments later ,   his hand raises ,   long fingers inching closer toward the seam where the bandages envelop the back of his head .   it seems that this is the first of many steps to truly being open about all he’s endured since they’d been apart ,   thanks to jin’s disappearing act .   “   . . .   but if it’s really what you want ,   i’ll show you ,   ”   hwoarang murmurs ,   his characteristically hard   &   brusque tone almost unrecognizably soft as he adds ,   “   just   . . .   tell me why ,   first .   ”

          you’re asking a lot of me ,   so i’m asking a lot of you .

[hwaarang]

aloe, amaryllis, bluebell, lavender, poppy, tulip, violet, willow, zinnia

     sender :   @tidesofpower​​      /     source :   prompted     /     status :   accepting !

aloe :   how does your muse handle grief ?

          three words :   not fucking well .   hwoarang takes a lot of time to process when something has hurt him deeply ;   he has a lot of mental blocks that have been erected by years of unresolved   &   unaddressed trauma   &   that prevent him from being able to seek healthy coping mechanisms .   he does not do well with vulnerability ,   even in solely his own company ,   &   tends to bottle things up   &   leave them to fester   &   rot deep within him until he thinks he can forget about them ,   or just not think about them enough to function at his standard rate .

          he pointedly keeps the number of people in his heart very low   &   easy to manage so that he won’t have to encounter as much loss ,   because he doesn’t cope well with people he trusts leaving him ,   even in a way they cannot help .   but as a result of having very few souls intwined with his own ,   he hinges on those he does have quite extensively without fully realizing it .   while he himself does not fear death ,   he fears the devastation it is capable of through taking away those who matter most to him .   as much as he doesn’t want to   need   or even so much as rely on anyone else ,   hwoarang is also uncomfortably aware that he doesn’t want to be alone ,   either ,   though he would die before admitting it   &   his disgust of his own vulnerability when it comes to those he trusts often handicaps him from communicating how important they are to him with words .   this leaves him with a lot of regrets when he loses someone ,   as there are a lot of things that tend to go permanently unsaid .

          grief maddens him .   it can make him manic   &   unstable ,   make him destructive   &   hysterical .   his already - impulsive tendencies go into overdrive   &   his thirst for violence increases exponentially as he searches for a place to just   put the emotion .   at that point ,   only someone who truly understands   &   cares for him can even hope to extinguish that raging fire   &   guide him toward healthily processing what he’s lost ,   &   what comes next .   so if baek ends up not pulling through his injuries ,   an ounce of luck to anyone in hwoarang’s life lmao .

amaryllis :   what is something or someone that your muse takes pride in ?   how do they express that pride ?

          hwoarang is an   extremely   prideful person .   the aspect of himself of which he is the proudest remains ,   of course ,   his skill as a fighter   ———   for many years ,   it was all he really had to his name ;   how he made a living ,   how he kept himself safe ,   how he   survived   &   established himself as an individual with a place in a brutal   &   unforgiving world .   the expression of his esteem often manifests in a very genuine sense of   confidence ,   which many of his opponents perceive as arrogance   (   &   not incorrectly so   ) .

          while he can surely be cocky ,   he never makes the mistake of actually doubting his opponents ,   as much as he gets into the habit of talking down to them when he has the upper hand .   to hwoarang ,   part of being a good fighter is rising to the occasion   &   acknowledging when an opponent offers a good challenge .   still ,   he is rightfully sure of his skill   &   is not afraid to show it ,   &   is even less afraid of others disliking him for it .   in his eyes ,   if they have a problem with it ,   they should put that energy toward getting stronger .

bluebell :   does your muse learn from their past ,   or are they prone to repeating the same mistakes ?

          this is an   . . .   interesting   concept as it relates to hwoarang ,   to say the least .   he does show growth from his past   &   appears to learn his lesson when he gets himself into a bit too much trouble ,   especially when his master reprimands him   &   urges him to do   &   be better .

          the fact of the matter is ,   hwoarang approaches consequences like he approaches most things in life ;   stubbornly   &   violently .   he thinks so long as he can handle the repercussions of his actions then he doesn’t necessarily have anything to learn ,   a sort of   ‘  if it ain’t broke ,   don’t fix it  ’   mentality .   he is reckless through   &   through   &   a little bit hedonistic ,   often more focused on the   now   &   what he can achieve immediately than what may happen in the long - term future .

          it isn’t that he lacks critical thinking skills or the ability to think ahead ,   for this isn’t the case in the slightest .   it’s more along the lines that he finds it more beneficial for his own life to focus on the present   &   deal with the aftermath   . . .   after .   because of this ,   he can indeed make a lot of the same mistakes over   &   over again ,   but mostly because he’s not afraid of the impact .

lavender :   how easy is it to gain your muse’s trust ?  once their trust is broken ,   how might one go about mending it ?

          attaining hwoarang’s   full   trust is nothing short of a herculean task .

          the majority of the people he keeps around himself in a friendly manner are more so to serve as good company rather than to be vessels for the depth of his innermost vulnerabilities .   as previously stated ,   he does not care for relying on other people ,   &   given that he’s had few people in the most formative years of his life to whom he could entrust any part of himself without suffering immensely as a result ,   he’s elected to hold most everyone at arm’s length   at the very closest .   it takes a very persistent ,   patient ,   & / or just   special   person to be able to earn a place in hwoarang’s heart .

          as for mending a trust that has been broken ,   this is largely a case - by - case endeavour ,   rooted in the nuances of how the trust was broken   &   who  broke it .   regardless ,   it won’t be an easy feat for things to return as they once were .   a lot of time   &   work   &   genuine change are the baseline requirements for hwoarang to begin to open himself up as much as he once had ,   &   even then ,   things may never entirely be restored to what once they were .

poppy :   what comforts your muse ?

          familiarity .   not necessarily in the sense of location ,   though that can help ,   but in   people .   he may not be inclined to admit it ,   but being understood intimately by another person is important to hwoarang ,   &   it relaxes him through reminding him that ,   as much as he loves to fight ,   there doesn’t have to be discord   &   conflict all the time .   he’s been fighting his whole life .   sometimes ,   it’s nice to not have to .

          a more material thing that provides some sense of comfort is smoking .   initially ,   he started doing it just to look cool   &   be rebellious in his younger years ,   but now ,   he finds that the strong smell of nicotine can be soothing .   even so ,   it’s still something he limits himself from doing too often ,   as he doesn’t want to become reliant on cigarettes for anything ,   especially not something as primeval as comfort .

           lastly ,   in a strange ,   nearly inexplicable way ,   fighting  comforts hwoarang .   since he was young ,   it’s been a release without a need for an explanation ;   it’s been thrilling   &   grounding all the same .   the rush of adrenaline that comes with a good fight is like a shock of dopamine to his bloodstream ,   &   when he comes out on top ,   there’s a sense of fulfillment   &   comfort   that he’s one step closer to expanding the boundlessness of his potential ,   which is among the most important things to him in life .

tulip :   how does your muse view people in general ?

          fragile ,   frivolous ,   indecisive ,   untrustworthy .   yet ,   through the myriad of poor experiences he’s had since his discovery of his own existence ,   he finds something   precious   about humanity through all of that ;   how people are so simple yet so complicated ,   &   how he can easily be considered scum by some   &   something heroic by others ,   &   no one is necessarily wrong .   he doesn’t dedicate a lot of time to philosophical sentiments ,   but to him ,   as shitty as the world   &   the people living within it are ,   even a shred of hope is worth trying to save it all for .

violet :   how does your muse respond to betrayal ?

          depending on the depth of the knife in his back ,   it can go a handful of ways .

          given that he doesn’t easily let people in ,   hwoarang somewhat anticipates those he doesn’t trust as much to let him down in some way ,   or to behave in some manner that inconveniences him .   in those cases ,   it’s little more than annoying to him   &   may warrant even less than a fight   (   though he never really needs an excuse to kick someone in the throat   ) .

          if the betrayal comes from someone he holds with a bit more esteem ,   however ,   he is very likely to handle it poorly .   circling back to what was discussed in the sections on grief   &   trust ,   hwoarang does not depend on a lot of people ,   which in turn leads him to lean heavily   ———   more than he realizes   ———   on those he’s determined worthy of his trust .   a betrayal in a relationship of this kind would cut devastatingly deeply ,   &   while he would try to seem as unaffected as possible by the grievance ,   it could foster the potential to alter him   permanently   &   significantly so .

willow :   how does your muse handle sadness   &   depression ?

          admittedly ,   hwoarang doesn’t really acknowledge his own sadness very much .   it ties back into the concept of being vulnerable   &   him not handling that very well .   he struggles to even be open   &   emotional with himself ;   he refuses to cry even when he’s alone ,   if he can help it .   to him ,   sadness correlates too closely with weakness   &   it’s a waste of time to linger in the prison of despair .   he thinks he has nothing to gain from allowing himself to be sad .

          of course ,   he cannot just turn off his emotions indefinitely   (   as fucking convenient as that would be   ) ,   &   there are times where he’s forced to endure the crushing weight of sorrow ,   during which he tends to keep himself hidden in the same vein as the back of the moon ;   it is strictly a solitary affair .   venting to others just isn’t an option because he doesn’t know   how   &   if another human being sees him cry he thinks he will actually die .  

zinnia :   how has the loss of fallen comrades and/or loved ones affected your muse ?   has it taught them anything or given them any new perspectives ?

          despite encountering death with no sense of infrequency while in the army ,   there wasn’t much hwoarang absorbed from the experience because he was a bit too focused on how much he despised being there to form any strong bonds with his fellow soldiers .   other than that ,   he hasn’t lost much .   he barely remembers his mother ,   though the chill native to the haunting way in which she met her demise still lingers somewhere at the back of his mind ,   even if he cannot fully recall the details of her end .

          he is nigh on losing baek ,   a fact with which he is not coming to terms with well   &   refuses to acknowledge most days ,   holding stubbornly onto the shred of hope that his master will come out of his coma   &   everything will just be   fine   because he cannot bear to live in any other reality ;   a reality   without him .

          not having baek around has given him the time to realize just how much the other man means to him ,   though that was never something he doubted or of which he needed to be reminded .   all he has really gained from his master being put out of commission is a new layer of trauma to sort through   &   we know how that shit is going lmfao .

[artisxagni-archive-blog]

      (  @tidesofpower | @sweetestdumpling | @teslagravity | @lasangredelobo | @xtrication  )

                                             RP Power Couple of Tekken + Tropes

[artisxagni-archive-blog]

your relationship with + tidesofpower

@tidesofpower

WHERE TO BEGIN?     Jin was certainly different from the many names and faces she’d come across in her life.  what others saw as distant and cold,  Valentine felt  differently.  she was there was good in him.  and he was lonely.     wasn’t he  ?

         ❛    he usually doesn’t have a lot to say when i am around him…  but i’ve somehow managed to learn about him that way.  many would point out that i’m actually quite an observant woman and in this case,  i know it to be true…  he doesn’t  express  his emotions openly,  but he doesn’t have to either… somehow i just know he’s a good man,  even if he may have done wrong in the past.  i like to think he and i are friends,  even if i don’t see him very often.  i sort of feel...protective...of him,  too.  it doesn’t help that the man i’m dating isn’t particularly  happy  with Jin though…    ❜

                                 ❛     (  MEME  | |  ACCEPTING  )