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?

● 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.

● 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.

[boomvox]

"Presumably his face serves a different function." This is an adult conversation, about adult topics. "Oh?" That makes sense - the water thing. Their constellation becomes blue-tinged, not like his hair, but a bit like water at night; stars float, expand, letting them sink in it versus just watch.

"Most Korean guys don't have much of anything." With a royal air: "I am special."

[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.

[rhinemaid]

“Did you just tell me that you're bushy or that you're proper hung?” This is a necessary clarification in response to that, Ilde feels. It's important to be clear, when you're having adult conversations about adult topics.

[boomvox]

"I have chest hair," Jae laughs, which is enough of a revelation to actually be news, seeing as how he's Ilde's mirrorverse twin when it comes to nudity. (Never.)

"The other two you missed out on knowing about."

[rhinemaid]

“By a slim margin, apparently--!” How close, she may never know, but it makes for a great story. One day she'll have to introduce him that way - this is Jae, we didn't have sex once in an alternate reality - just to see what happens.

“Look, it's a shooting star.” Ilde, that's filthy.

[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.

[boomvox]

"Say what you want about either of us, we have good taste." Upside town fist-bump? Yes? No?

A wistful sigh at her.. moment of excellent taste there, yes. "Girls are much prettier in this whole department."

[rhinemaid]

Yes.

“That's right. You rather drew the short straw aesthetically, men. I think that's one of the better things about Ivan, actually; even if he does get so drunk he thinks it's a good idea to send me a picture of his cock, all I'll end up with is a sad picture of empty rumpled bed-sheets. I haven't decided who I'll forward it to if that ever happens.”

That it will be forwarded to someone goes without saying.

[yeouiju]

Somewhere in Chimer, Sunny laughs out loud.

The view is meant to be pretty great especially on clear days. We should go some time. Hard to get a mai tai though I guess.

[boomvox]

"You could really easily frame him for that." ... Since, you know. Sad empty picture, no way to really prove it either way. But that's about all the thought Jae's willing to put towards boning vampires, otherwise he's going to creep himself out. (SORRY IVAN.)

"I tried replicating something else, a little while ago." A beat. "Besides astrally projected dicks."

[boomvox]

Trails and booze usually don't go well unless you're a jock frat boy, I can live with a water bottle.

Whenever you're free?

Jae is, typically, available for whatever during the daytime, pending he's gotten enough sleep from his various nocturnal activities. Clubs and radio shows alike prefer him sans-daylight, though he's trying to swing a spot on a morning show sometime soon - bigger audience, different things to talk about.

(... Hiking?!)

[rhinemaid]

She could always just steal his CiD while he's sleeping off the drunk, which is the sort of idea that becomes much better when she's had a few herself; for the time being it remains, mercifully, a theoretical exercise of the more embarrassing uses for a vampire boyfriend.

“Besides that,” she agrees, turning their constellations spinning around them. If she slips just a little out of focus, she can imagine she can't feel the floor beneath her and they're somewhere else, where it's lovely. “What was it?”