be my romeo, please be my voice in this world

[boomvox]

Who: Jae and various people.
What: Various activities.
Where: Various places.
When: ... Various times.
Notes: Thread starters for a couple of characters! Otherwise feel free to fling anybody at Jae, I am easy. If you want to work out something specific vs meandering, ping me and I shall work something out for you. :>
Warnings: Various threads have simulated drug use + references to real drug use, and TMI discussions.

Jae is not, in any kind of traditional sense, a celebrity in Baedal - he'd even hesitate to call himself particularly well-known, though since the crisis and his work on the radio, the general public would have to disagree. Percentage-wise he's more famous here than he was back home (D-list radio host and DJ, a cult following and niche celebrity at best), and while it's working out fine in terms of career opportunities, he can't shake the melancholy of being primarily known for something quite so dire. When people recognize him, more often than not it's polite appreciation masking the horror of memory that he triggers.

A girl at the coffee shop he frequents offers him a wasabi and chocolate candy cane. It's horrible, but he eats it anyway, the curled end of the bright green candy sticking out of his mouth as he descends off the train, laptop bag slung over his shoulder, leaf of fliers in his arms, heading off to a printer shop. And then - the world! it's a day for running errands.

Comments

● Data

[boomvox]

It's an ungodly hour - for some, anyway - and Jae and one of his closest co-workers are out spending their night off in a completely safe and productive way: hanging out in an abandoned industrial area and electrocuting shit. Reha, 6'2" in her corporeal form and even higher in the heels she wears to work (replaced with thick rubber rain boots, at present), hops on and off a non-functioning electrical panel, watching it light up, go dark, light up, go dark... occasionally the pair stop in their work and huddle over a tiny handphone sized meter, discussing the results while Jae clumsily pokes at it, hands hindered by rubber gloves.

Every so often, the entire area lights up with explosive, beautiful, and somewhat terrifying lightning, emanating from the ground - or perhaps someone standing on it?

I'M FINALLY HERE

[asimovsdream]

Data is never late for work. Despite the fact that his employers don't seem to like him much, they do appreciate that. His coworkers, on the other hand, seem to resent it, which is curious—such a thing was never looked down upon in Starfleet—but perhaps it is simply a part of the culture here.

Tonight, he's left his tiny apartment in time to be fifteen minutes early (or, alternately, to deal with any obstacles that may waylay his progress toward the mines). It's the same time he always leaves. This is the first night, however, that he's come across anything out of the ordinary while en route.

The bright display is difficult to miss, and looks potentially dangerous. Data can see two individuals from his position on the path toward Chnum, and quickly makes the decision to investigate in case they're in trouble or harmed. Electricity is one of the few elements that is able to damage him, but he can be repaired, and the same cannot always be said of carbon-based lifeforms.

“Excuse me,” he calls as he approaches, “but I saw the electricity discharge from the path and became concerned by your presence so close to the high voltage. Are you harmed?”

[boomvox]

Reha is already staring at Data as he gets nearer, blinking large solid yellow eyes at him curiously - she raises one hand and twinkles her fingers in hello. Jae, meanwhile, is somewhat startled to be snuck up on.

"-Hi!" He doesn't quite jump, but there's a flicker of surprise and wariness at sudden company. It settles and smooths over almost at once. "We're okay, yeah. Sorry, are we on someone's property? We thought it was abandoned." Thunk, clunk, Jae balances one of the panels they were experimenting with on its side so that he can stand up and speak properly without carrying it.

[asimovsdream]

Data looks from Jae to Reha, from bright blue hair to eyes that are yellow like his. There's something about Reha, or at least something coming from her direction, that seems to resonate with him. It's strange. It almost feels. He blinks back at her.

"I am unsure whether or not this land belongs to someone," Data says to both of them. "I was simply passing by. It seems you are both well; if so, I apologize for disturbing your activities."

● Sunny

[boomvox]

He shouldn't, he thinks. He could be wrong and then it'd be eternally awkward and he'd look like an asshole - or, worse, he could be right and have it denied anyway, none of his business, not close enough to ask; he thinks he might die from embarrassment of that kind. But it sticks in his head and won't leave him alone, and the more he forces himself to stop thinking about it the more his hand starts to ghost towards his CiD.

In the produce isle of the grocery store near his apartment, Jae finally sends a text message.

Seung Seojin is pretty.

... A second later.

Nice, I mean. Handsomely masculine.

Jae mashes his face into his hand, alarming a nearby customer in the process of selecting carrots.

[yeouiju]

Jae is pretty great too!!

The message is impulsive, in that Sunny wasn't immediately sure what the best response would be, the smartest one, before simply sending forth what felt clever at the moment.

He sits in the door way in some corner of Chimer, the smell of the ocean about as present as the sounds of the marketplace near the end of the street, although the early morning rush has long since depleted, and he's come away empty handed. Sunny hesitates before, so as not to sound dismissive in coy evasion, sending off a message on the tail of the first;

And thank you :) Mermaid thought so too.

[boomvox]

Immediately feeling like a creepy asshole, Jae doesn't respond for a long time. He stares at his CiD and then puts it back in his pocket, finishes his grocery shopping, and gets all the way home and starts putting things away - the lingering feeling of 'You're a jerk and you should mind your own business' hovering over him like some cartoon raincloud. Too dramatic? Certainly, but talking to Sunny still makes Jae in turns flustered and nervous as hell. It's a well-learned impulse to only orbit someone until he's done something embarrassing or they've gotten too close and then he discards them and vanishes. He doesn't know what to do here, trapped, wanting to disappear out of shyness half the time and wanting to be closer the other half. It's a selfish insecurity that Sunny doesn't deserve to have to put up with.

An hour and a half later, Jae texts him back. Lamely.

Kim Jaehyun. I'm not creative.

He types out an apology for being nosy, then deletes it, deciding he can't trust his paranoid brain to be subjective while moping in a guilt spiral.

[yeouiju]

Almost immediately, given a little time for typing out the following monstrosity;

**/ I had this mental image.

It was going to be a car chase and then I remembered where we lived so I had to redo it, but youre being chased on foot through the streets of Baedal possibly by monsters again or maybe less intense this time, like a hoard of teenage girls which I am almost sure makes you feel at home, oppa~. You wing around a corner and into the open street and then suddenly I guess I'm in a horse and carriage now, I brake or whatever you do with horses in front of you and I'm like

QUICK GET IN

By the way you can call me Seojin~

I guess now it will never be. :( Moral of the story is i was waiting to be James Bond and THEN disclose my true identity.

[boomvox]

He doesn't know what he expected - but not this. Jae laughs, touched in a way he really shouldn't be, the cadence of it and the cheerful emote stirring at something bittersweet he doesn't let himself think about anymore. Is life giving him a consolation prize, or is it mocking him?

Does it matter?

No. Maybe it doesn't.

You could still rescue me.

From - putting groceries away, from the mundanity of daily life, from himself.

[yeouiju]

He thinks that whatever intended outcome inspired that ramble has been achieved even if he couldn't quite articulate it if pressed. Mainly, he'd been hoping to avoid a what? in reply. So Sunny smiles, lying on his back on second-hand sofa with his feet kicked up against the arm.

I will still rescue you.

Did you know there is a 2.8 km tramp from the trail park that takes you to the top of the flat cliffs in Chimer?

That may not constitute as a rescue.

[boomvox]

That.. yes, seems more like a trap than a rescue, but Jae is curious enough not to immediately respond with something like I DON'T DO NATURE.

I think I've seen a sign for it at the tiki bar?

Help.

● champagne and shenanigans

[rhinemaid]

During the siege, they'd promised to 'do something' when it was over, and though it takes a while to come to anything - sooner or later Ilde is lying with Jae on the floor of his apartment, hands folded on her stomach, watching the multicolored starscape that it struck them as a good idea to start building out of illusions, each separate contribution layered together, and--

“Do you think it should have some sort of piercing?”

--and a constellation artfully put together in the shape of a cock.

[boomvox]

"...No."

The response comes after a thoughtful pause - the silence laden with the clear weight of a man colorfully and carefully considering it, of course in context of his own junk.

Jae is laying on his back inverted from Ilde, head next to hers, length of his body stretched in the other direction. Occasionally their galaxy changes, grows, sparkles or glows in new ways as they quietly poke and prod at it. What began as aesthetics has become... this, through oneupmanship and whimsy and sheer childlike curiosity. As Jae gets better with his magic, the more finite and diverse things he can accomplish, and - well, it's nice having someone to talk to about it. Maybe.

"I've never understood doing that. Piercing dicks, I mean. And this is coming from someone who waxes."

[rhinemaid]

Glamour is Ilde's favourite trick and the one thing she's most at ease and confident with - what began as instinct has become true skill, and it's something she has a knack for. She thinks of this as an affinity for aesthetic creativity, instead of thinking too hard about the fact no one has ever had to teach her how to hide. She isn't, right now, anyway; she's lying on the floor, looking at stars, watching her constellations spin lazily through the created darkness.

Off his remark, their current piece begins to develop an additional, smaller star system that looks suspiciously like landscaped pubic hair.

“What, like-- all of it?” Temporarily diverted from piercings.

[boomvox]

"I'm not helping with that," he announces, about her current new addition to their intangible art project. "I'm going to remain a mystery. A visual mystery."

Talking about it, however, is apparently fine.

"No, I don't want to look like a twelve year old. But anything that has the potential to get caught in an underwear band or in a zipper or, you know, someone's teeth, has to go."

[rhinemaid]

“I can't do that,” Ilde observes, placidly, applying delicate tweaks and adjustments to what she is obliged to work on alone. “I mean, I used to--” no one wants to hear about her adolescent sexual exploits, ever, “--but not with these teeth. Also it's fine, Ivan trims.”

...so she's working from that model and does not require assistance! Good to know.

[boomvox]

"I'm not even gonna lie, he looks like he had better, at least." But if Ilde's not dealing with oral irritation in that respect anyway then maybe it's less unmannerly. "Guys are kind of babies about it, though."

News at 11, Jaehyun.

[rhinemaid]

“About most things, present company excluded a little bit.” She is a good friend, in any incarnation. “It's funny, though, keeping things tidy in his trousers when he looks so terrible if he shaves his face too closely. As if he's on a sex offender registry somewhere.”

She's also an excellent girlfriend. (Whatever, Ivan told her she was right after he saw Fish's mirror.)

“I don't have any, though. Not useful in the water.” The tail is optional - Nixie bodies are very mutable things.

[controlledvariable]

It takes her a little while to psych herself up to actually sending a message. Right now she's sitting on the steps outside the front of the library, CiD in hand. She just got off work, but she doesn't want to go home to Kate's empty apartment. She could go see Tim, or Babs, but she thinks they'd pity her and she doesn't want that either. So, instead, she decides to make potentially unhealthy life decisions and writes a text to send off to Jae. He got picked because she figures he'll actually know the answer to the question she has, but it's also partly because she doesn't think he'll fuss over her too much.

i need your wisdom.

i'm looking for a club to go for a 'forget this bullshit city' night, but it's not really my forte. any advice?

[boomvox]

As worrying a request as that is, Jae knows better than to just ask Steph what's wrong right off the bat. He gets the text as he's getting off the El Train to head into work, so it takes him a few minutes to respond - he checks in, and starts getting his shit together in the general dressing room (dancers and headliners get their own, and while Jae's moved up in the world lately, he's still not a primary performer). After a while:

I'm putting your CiD# on the guest list at The Vault. Ping me when you get here.

[controlledvariable]

In the time it takes Jae to reply, Steph has worked up the courage to force herself in a homeward direction, because even if she ends up going out, she'll have to get ready first and most of her stuff is still at Kate's. (She'll have to move it all soon; she doesn't want to think about that).

She knows she shouldn't be surprised when he suggests the Vault, but it does make her frown for a second, wondering whether it's the best idea. Eventually she decides it's a better option than going out on patrol when she's feeling like this, and she doesn't want to turn down the gesture. It was nice of him to put her on the list.

Anyway, it's an excuse to buy herself a new dress.

thanks, jae. i can finally make good on my promise to come see your show

She assumes that's why he's able to put her on the guest list tonight. She's less sure of if she did actually make that promise to him - she knows she did to Megan, which never happened - but she figures it doesn't matter all that much.

On her way back to the apartment she stops into a dress shop and buys the most fun-looking dress she can find, which ends up being a gold and sequined. At home, she showers, gets dressed and dips into Kate's stockpile of cash so that she'll be able to buy plenty of drinks tonight. This is probably not something Kate would approve of, but she's not here, so it doesn't matter.

About an hour and a half later, she's inside The Vault, a cocktail already in one hand as she texts with the other.

i'm here :) don't feel like you have to come hang out with me if you're busy, btw.

She doesn't want him to feel obliged to be her chaperone if he's got better things to do.

[boomvox]

Jae doesn't go on until late - he's managed to work his way up in the world, even if he's still just a DJ, and thus quite low on the performer food chain at The Vault - so he's got a bit of time still when he gets Steph's text. With the help of an eagle-eyed bouncer, he finds her, and meanders his way over through the crowd to her side.

"Hey gorgeous," he says with a smile, and greets her with a hug while he lets one hand linger at her side. Jae's bit more on than usual, fully decked out and groomed in his work get-up - his paycheck doesn't make itself, okay. "What's the occasion?"

[controlledvariable]

The hug is much appreciated, her drink held carefully so she doesn't spill it on either of them. She gives him a smile, genuine despite how crap she's feeling otherwise.

"You stole my line," Because seriously, look at him; Steph is constantly amazed by people who can do fashion. But at the question her smile twists a little, something bitter in her expression, "I figured out how to go home!"

And her tone is even more bitter, with an added dash of false excitement. She feels kind of bad about it, but it's too late to take back.

[boomvox]

It doesn't take an empath to see she's hurting; that declaration strikes him bittersweet in contrast to her brittle-edged straight up bitter (emotional cocktails everywhere tonight), and his smile turns comforting and he steps back, transferring his hand to her own. "Tell me later," he says, and tugs her along gently, angling at the dance floor.

[controlledvariable]

"Okay," And it's that easy to put her drink down on the first table they pass, her hand holding tight (not enough to hurt, she just needs that physical grounding).

It's easy because she likes Jae and she knows that later can be as far away as she wants it to be. He reminds her a lot of Cass, which probably has something to do with the whole empath thing, since Cass could always tell so easily what she was feeling -- Those thoughts make her miss home, so she puts them away.

"You're not allowed to make fun of my dancing," Self-depricating humor always works.