dear priest,

if she says one wrong thing, breathes the wrong way, the house of cards all comes crumbling down. jaeyi's self-diagnosed with chronic foot-in-mouthitis, because it seems near impossible for her to make any friends as an adult. not that her teenage years were all that much better, but there's something that makes it so much fucking harder to make friends at 21 than 12. whatever happened to just telling someone on the playground that you wanted to be friends?

surface-level acquaintanceships are really all she has these days, and one of them, she finds kneeling in the dirt in the silver line communal gardens. jaeyi plucks mint leaves in exchange for ciders from the vending machines, and they sometimes spend a few minutes sitting on the swing. gyuri tells her about fertilisers and jaeyi nods along without the slightest clue of what she's on about. it's rare that the aeternal's not the one going on and on, which is probably why the budding (ha!) friendship's lasted as long as it has.

tonight, gyuri says the wrong thing.

they're (read: gyuri) gardening, when there's a bang and everything goes dark. jaeyi freezes, eyes darting around like they're looking for answers. the sun's already dipping below the horizon, and if the backup power doesn't kick in soon, they'll be left in darkness. jaeyi knows it's probably something getting caught in the crossfires of an aeternal and supervillain fight, but look, she's terrified of whatever the hell is going bump in the night.

then, a scream that sends shivers down jaeyi's spine. gyuri's alarmed gaze meets her own, and the other woman says the one thing she was hoping she wouldn't.

"for fuck's- yeah." it's half exasperated sigh, half scoff, like jaeyi can't quite believe gyuri actually said it. the mask slips, and jaeyi's too tired to put it back on. "okay, yeah, i did." would it have been worse or better if it was in her head? if gyuri hadn't said it out loud, would it have made it less real? "don't tell me you wanna go check it out, because when i tell you, you'd be the first to die in a horror movie."

"I work really, really hard to provide for myself! I pay all my own bills with the money I make. Like, 5am calls for a CF shoot are no joke, you guys. I love that I can do that for myself now. I'm also, like, pretty popular amongst the Aeternals with the younger demographic. Not much buying power unfortunately, but really funny comments under my Instagram. I've got really great legs, because I work really hard at Pilates, and shiny hair, and I've found my to-die-for lip combo."

"I don't remember, actually. I'm not a big crier, so by that logic, I should be able to recall when I last cried, but I can't even remember what I ate last week." She's not lying--- she's not the type to shed tears easily. The price to pay when you grow up in a family like hers, where any display of emotions equals an output of power. Her mom hates her crying because it just shows that Jaeyi can't control her emotions... which means she can't control her powers. Nursing home speedrun!

"Oh, love. I feel like hate is so strong, like, when you say hate, it's like you wouldn't even spit on them if they were on fire. Plus there's the whole liking gap thing, right? If someone's neutral on you, all you have to do is treat them nicely. Buy them some stuff you know they'd like, do a couple favours for them. After that, maybe it's not love, but they probably really like you. For hate, though? Even if you smack them in the face, they'd probably just be confused. Pissed, probably, but they wouldn't hate you. Even if your personality really pisses someone off, they'd still save you from a burning building. Probably."

"This is off the record, right? Like, inadmissible in a court of law?" Oh, Jaeyi. Only ever concerned about how she looks. "If you're talking about the thing that happened when we took down Rogue, it's not my fault, okay? I don't have to be redeemed or whatever for it." It sounds like something she's said to herself over and over. "They didn't evacuate in time, the system didn't go off, it's not something I could've helped. I didn't even know there were people in there. And we gave their families settlement money, so."

"I don't have anything I want to escape from. At least I don't think so? Nothing now, anyway. Most things usually work out well for me." Again, a stunning display of how severely one can lack self-awareness. As we all know, she's more than okay abusing her prescription. That's unfortunately no longer an option now, so she's turned to simply not acknowledging anything that doesn't align with the life she's picturing for herself. Some say it's manifestation, but most agree it's just delusion. She doesn't enjoy drinking, so most of the time when she's stressed out, she just takes a nap.

"I feel like I'm really good at controlling my temper." Yeah, she's got no self-awareness. While she does manage to not lash out pretty well (considering someone with her temperament), she's also definitely not tolerant. The closest thing would've been last night, when she was arguing with some hate commenter on a forum site on her anonymous account. Yes, she told them to ***.

happy opening, everyone! jia (21+, s/h) here, presenting (a)eternal pain in the ass, JEON JAEYI, who’s more concerned about saving (and serving!) face than the people of eden, she's the very worst of aeternals. more under the cut, and if you can stomach her, please like to plot!