i'm daniel and this is jackass

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speaking of which, it’s definitely a thing he should be doing. “right. maybe we could wait it out before heading over there? it’s gonna be crowded, a little overwhelming. let’s see what’s nearby first. monster appetizers, right?”  while his mind was still on the island, he brought up a monster theory. “hey, you know what I think? that there are monster boats that do transports of other monsters, what if they’re that sophisticated? seriously, what if there’s a legitimate monster whale out in the sea? we need a– uh… a bestiary… that’s the right term for it, right?”

daniel isn’t one to dwell much. in fact, he’s probably physically incapable of dwelling. once he abandons one tangent, his brain fully commits to the next one, and he’s long gone, as are any lingering thoughts of past mistakes and why he’s been a rookie as long as he has. daniel doesn’t mind it, really; if there’s anything he knows, it’s that he still has a lot to learn. he doesn’t have a lot going for him, but his attitude is an asset, maybe. he likes to think so, anyway.

“oh, yeah!” daniel chirps, smiling easily. “there is one of those, kind of. it’s called the...” his mind goes blank, and his smile drops to reflect it, expression transitioning into the proper confused puppy look. “it’s called the mid! but i forget what it stands for. monster...something...database. have you learned about that yet? monsters that aren’t classified yet are called chimeras. there are a lot of them because the system is still pretty new, i think,” daniel nods, satisfied with his own explanation. he sets off though, in any direction, but toward the sea, as they happen to carry on their conversation, and daniel’s mind backtracks and wraps itself around what jimin really said.

daniel gapes in momentary consideration. “monster boats...” he repeats aloud, a little awed. what a theory. “i mean...why not? we don’t have any proof that they aren’t, so it’s better to be open to the possibility, right? i’m pretty sure a monster whale might actually exist, though. i haven’t seen one myself, but there are all kinds of sea monsters. i feel like it would make sense. have you heard about the lost city of atlantis? i wonder if there’s an underwater league of heroes, so the monsters of the deep sea are drawn to their magic instead of ours, so we don’t see them here on the surface.”

@ccniel​ | 2016 holiday party

“You’re old enough for some Christmas Magic, aren’t you?” he asks. “Actually, don’t bother answering that.” He holds up a plastic champagne flute with “Happy Ho Ho Holidays!” printed across it in flaking, gold paint. His index finger taps against the cheesy message he’s handpicked just for the occasion. 

“I’m pretty sure I’ve had Christmas Magic in my blood like, since I was born, Gyu hyung. That’s kind of the thing with magical heroes, right? Plus, I’m a Sagittarius,” and it makes sense in his head. He grins playfully, pleased with his perceived smooth recovery. Good job not becoming a total stuttering and blundering mess, Daniel. You’re a really cool guy after all.

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“can we take a break.” he muttered about twenty minutes into their training session, his tone blank and expression only looking tired despite the fact he hasn’t even broken a sweat. it’s just how he rolls. he would be way more content if he could just lay on the ground and not move for the next few centuries. but he can’t, and he just remembered out of the blue that it’s a special day for the other rookie. he knows this mainly due to the fact sunggyu seems to know everything about every rookie.

and since he basically lives at sunggyu’s place ( only because of joon ) taehyun has learned the birthday of almost every rookie. and what kind of friend would he be if he didn’t get Daniel something. 

daniel isn’t the most dedicated magical hero around-- certainly, he’s far from the most focused or disciplined. on the list of disciplined heroes, actually, he’s probably near the bottom, but what he lacks in drive, he makes up for in enthusiasm. he likes to think so, anyway. his energy is boundless, even after hours of practice, with early morning practice sessions as the only exception (he’ll never be a morning person) but even then, he rarely complains.

he tries to be a moodmaker, or more accurately, he doesn’t; it’s simply in his nature. daniel gravitates toward maintaining balance, as overzealous as he is. in chaos, he creates peace, and he disrupts any overabundance of order. with quiet people, he tries to pull them out of their shell, and around those more outgoing than he is, his babbling lessons. in taehyun’s case, daniel just so happens to think he needs sunshine, and daniel isn’t so bad at providing it. 

20 year old kang daniel doesn’t feel much different than he did yesterday, at a mere 19 years old. nothing extremely exciting has happened on this birthday, but he doesn’t mind it; just a little extra attention is nice and appreciated, but he doesn’t expect anything extravagant. his parents absolutely spoiled him as a child, then weened him onto something more reasonable. now, he’s just glad that they’ll both make it home for dinner tonight-- perks of having a birthday on a sunday this year. 

needless to say, his mood soars, as is usually the case, and when taehyun asks for a break, daniel can’t help but laugh. their rotation captain looks at them apprehensively, and daniel just flashes an ‘i’ve got this,’ smile, which likely doesn’t do much to ease worries-- understandable, really. he indulges in taehyun’s break with him while the others continue to practice. taehyun is probably just bored, which means daniel needs to come up with a way to make this more fun. as if his presence isn’t enough, right? unfortunately, taehyun has always been the more creative one between them.

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when she sees her brother’s face that she didn’t get to see this morning, she feels relieved to have him wish her a happy birthday. minkyung and her parents will probably wish her one at the end of the day, but this was what she needed to have her keep her faith in humanity (and family). 

entering the car and sitting herself down on the passenger seat, she lets out a sigh that she feels she’s been holding in all day. “not really. it was pretty crappy,” she answers honestly while putting on her seatbelt. “thanks for the birthday wish, though.” 

the sigh alone is enough to make daniel frown, and the words that follow only deepen it. his little sister? having a bad day, on her birthday? unacceptable! 

his gaze momentarily shifts forward, watching as cars pass, slowly analyzing when his best moment to break into traffic is. instead, however, he decides to wait to pull away from the curb. he wants to give mina his full attention to sort out this bad day business first and foremost. god knows his ability to focus at all is lacking, let alone multiple things at once. what’ll make a bad day worse? your idiot brother, driving you home from school, rear-ending another car because he couldn’t drive and listen to you talk at the same time. 

aside from that, daniel also isn’t quite sure they’re going straight home. he needs to buy himself some time to properly plan operation-salvage-kang-baby-sister’s-birthday. step one: currently unknown. if all else fails, he can probably take her out for ice cream.

Paralyzer - Finger Eleven

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“I’m twenty, I’m totally cardless, and about the sports thing– I did… tennis for about a year.”

that probably barely counts, but hey at least he’s more officially somewhat relatable to his partner, who is apparently a whole champion. a rookie with a winning attitude and a little bit of big sunshine and almost reasonably has a lot to tell. this is the part where jimin quietly decides that he should be legitimate friends-ish people with this guy once this blows over.

he’s trying, he’s warming up, and he’s motivated.

“oh yeah! they were really cute. i wonder if they show up on film. do monsters show up in pictures? or is that like...vampires...” he wonders aloud-- rhetorical questions, as most of daniel’s questions are. people that know him well tend to just tune him out. mina, his little sister, doesn’t listen to anything he ever says anymore, understandably. 

“ah, jimin hyung!” daniel declares cheerfully, eyes disappearing into crescents as he grins. his smile eases, but never entirely fades away, except for the split second it’s replaced with brief surprise. it’s back within moments though, something reassuring.

“hey, don’t worry about it! i’m still on nightshade because last year i caught too many cards and lost control of them all, and probably almost caused the end of the world.” he realizes the severity of that statement before he even has time to really pause. his voice never loses its casual tone, even as he chirps: “but it’s fine! i only have one now. he’s the best.” 

he effortlessly switches the subject, too, or more accurately, gets back on subject. “oh, tennis! i haven’t played much tennis, actually. i tried table tennis and was disappointingly bad at it, though. it takes so much focus and so...little movement-- i think, actually, i tried table tennis as a kid and then decided normal tennis wasn’t going to go well without really even trying it, because if i was bad at it with a table surely i was going to be bad without a table.”

kang daniel wears a goofy grin with his heart made out of nothing but warmth. and seongwoo is a moth; he flies so close, it’s almost enough to burn. humans are stupid, he learns, they are loud, naive and kind. humans are stupid and whenever he’s with daniel, he forgets that he isn’t one ( it’s dangerous ). 

< ❄ >  

They’re standing apart from each other now, a blue mat between them and long meter sticks poised and good to go. Wonshik is stuck out in a ridiculous pose, one where he thinks resembles that of a fencer, but because it was him to everyone else it just looked a bit…much. To be honest, most things that Wonshik does are “much” but don’t let that fool you. Wonshik standing much like a star fish with his ass out holding a meter stick across from another boy is strange on a normal day for him.

“Are you ready for the sword fight of your life, dongsaeng?” 

Daniel is a very accomplished hero of Team Nightshade. Accomplishments: once holding three cards at one time. Subsequently, releasing three of the four horsemen of the apocalypse cards onto the earth after passing out when he lost control of them. He can’t think of anything else right now. Maybe his ability to make friends, and to make anything fun! He was also one of the founding members of Montreal’s league; that’s still always worth bragging about. 

He works hard, really. He’s very heroic, but he’s also perpetually distracted, and he physically cannot stay still for longer than five minutes at a time, so while someone goes on about helpful fighting techniques when a monster is fast or when a monster can jump 10 feet in the air, like those rats from...Africa? His mind wanders, to if those rats are even real or if they’re actually monsters that the human eye happens to process as jumping that many times its actual height, and Wonshik approaching with the glorious weapons of their battle removes him from his very important revelry. 

“Hey, Wonshik--” he begins, about to ask him if he’s ever heard of jumping rats before, but he decides to leave it in favor of taking the meter stick and readying himself for their ensuing battle.

“Are you ready?” he counters, witty and original comeback of the century, as always. He holds the meter stick in front of his face dramatically, like he’s posing for some symmetrical anime poster, and then quickly swings it through the air, satisfied with the swish that follows.

< ❄ >  

clouds are pulling up, tinting the sky in a darker shade and casting everything within a dim light and tempest doesn’t wait for the hero to be on his feet before he’s sending pouring rain his way, watching it beat down on him. light steps bring him closer and he feels freedom in the long limbs and booming voice and everything that he was in that moment. “is this what heroes nowadays have become? you stand no chance of catching me like that, human.”

even all the sports he played couldn’t prepare his reflexes for this. it takes him too long to even realize what’s happening, and before he knows it, daniel skids across the pavement from the impact. did he just get blown away by the wind? that’s a new one. a magical occurrence, for sure. he winces in pain, but makes what he hopes isn’t the idiotic mistake of hesitating for a moment to catch his breath and attempt to process something. (that usually doesn’t go well for daniel. he doesn’t know why he tries.)

at the very least, he gets a clear vantagepoint of the card as he transforms--- card, right? yeah, card. transformation that looks similar to a hero’s, but with power that outranks that of a monster. for a moment, all he can do is blink, wide-eyed as he witnesses the scene, and then the ensuing onslaught of rain startles him back into reality. it’s freezing. something tells him he should not let his attacker get closer to him before he transforms, so daniel rises to his feet, hockey stick still clutched tightly in his hands.

< ❄ >  

“i’m sorry,” he says again, voice softer. “i… i don’t have the power to heal or make you feel better or… anything like that.” sighing, the grip he has on daniel tightens just slightly. “i’m sure my good looks should make up for that,” this time it’s his turn to mask himself with bad humour as he pulls his eyes away.

he frowns at the pain in his hand, but as daniel always does, quickly bounces back, smile returning to his face within moments. it only grows the longer seongwoo’s worry lingers, like he’s trying to offset it and bring balance, as always. (he still feels bad, though. guilt lingers for him too. he’s reminded now, of that first day he met seongwoo, and his emotion, and all the people that swore cards couldn’t feel any of it. he still doesn’t know if seongwoo is just special or those people were wrong, but he suspects it’s a bit of both.)

seongwoo doesn’t actually have to try to help him up. daniel could do it himself, after a little bit more time to rest and collect himself, surely, but he’s thankful for the assistance anyway. “no, really,” he reiterates. “i’m fine, just--” daniel grabs onto seongwoo’s hand with his hand that isn’t apparently injured. “pull really hard on my arm.” he uses seongwoo as leverage to heave himself up, and then he’s on his feet, grinning again in no time. see? i’m fine! no big deal.

he scowls exaggeratedly though, in response to seongwoo’s claim, but his expression softens before long. “i can be nice to you. that’s kind of what i do, seongwoo,” he says, all gentle insistence. “besides, you’re nice to me. if you can be nice to me i can definitely be nice to you. you’re really not so different from everybody else. i want you to experience life as much like everyone else as you can, too. but yes, you make a convincing point, next time i’ll just call you. lesson learned.” theoretically. in practice daniel learns the hard way, after making the same idiot mistake multiple times, but he’ll try to do better this time, really, if only so seongwoo doesn’t look at him like that anymore. 

“that’s totally not true! did you even see the second captain america movie? you did! i made you watch that; i remember,” daniel argues. “captain america looked way worse than this in that movie. when he’s on the-- the thing with the memory chips, after bucky punches his face in, and he’s all, ‘i’m with you ‘til the end of the line,’ and then he falls into the water and bucky, his supposed worst enemy, has to pull his incompetent superhero ass out of the water so he doesn’t drown.” he smiles again, admittedly proud of himself for coming up with such a solid defense under pressure. admittedly, there’s something a little familiar about the comparison, too.

bandages though, daniel can agree with. he nods, and stretches until his back cracks. “yeah, yeah, there’s a pharmacy near here that has a lot of that stuff. i could use new bandaids anyway, probably.”