DUST & SHADOW.

You learn things you have heard in rumor. You learn things you have heard in myth. You learn things you have never heard of. Histories of a people who you have never heard of. Islanders living in a way that makes no sense. No technology, no great buildings, no weapons. No enhancements. 

You learn of a taboo committed. 

You learn of a family slaughtered.

“ d e a t h to the u n d y i n g.” 

The form speaks into your mind as these images flash through you. Cementing the knowledge into your mind. 

“ a  p e  o p l e with the g i f t of  l i f e” 

You see a a pair of twins walking hand in hand through this village. You see their mismatched eyes.

You see the fear in the eyes of the village. 

“ to k i  l  l one of y o u r own.” 

The images flash by quickly, you are unable to understand what you are seeing now. White sails, a village killed, a darkness over the land, a city made. The form slowly pulls away and so do the images. The knowledge stays.

“ n o t y e t .…. . curse n o t o  v  e   r “ 

The form releases you. 

“ take   wha t you have   le a r n ed. 

      b r e a t h a   n e w  a i r “

the thing disappears, taking the reflection of his own face with it. geon doesn’t relax yet, not trusting the moment of quiet, and he learns that he is right to do so when it’s suddenly back. more solid, attacking his personal space and bathing him in coldness— dread? geon tries to step back, away from the unknown creature. he tries to call out for help, but his voice seems to die in his throat, never making a sound.

there’s something in his head. something that is not himself, not his thoughts, planting memories that are not his own. it terrifies him. it’s not like when haneul is in his head, gentle and reassuring as she shares her voice. no, he’s tormented by visions of slaughter and blood, of a curse that he had nothing to do with and yet seems to bear the punishment of now. as the thing speaks, geon is hit with the realization that he will not be able to forget this, that he’s been chosen by something to carry this legacy that he didn’t ask for. there’s tears in his eyes, the sensation of a whole community suffering, mourning, too much pain for any one person to bear—

and in the next moment, it’s gone. the thing pulls away, taking it’s strange visions and cold fingers with it. geon gasps, and in the next moment he realizes that he’s sitting upright, that there’s light, and that the creature, whatever it was, is nothing more than an echo even in his own head.

the numbness fades away, pain settling in to take its place where it had been. suddenly daylight is too bright, a headache blossoming beneath his skull before he can think to close his eyes again to protect them. he’s aware that he’s in the presence of medics; he just hopes that they see the way his face goes pale, even slightly green, before he turns his head as his stomach heaves. there’s nothing in him but bile, and yet he still gasps and chokes for several long moments, as if trying to rid himself of some toxin that doesn’t actually exist.

“ wh  a t ……. wh  o ? who   a r e you?”

The unknown creature finally drops its too thin hand. It slinks back, melting into the back, circling around you from a distance. Staying out of reach. 

“ wha t are   y o u ? do you know   ? what a m m i?” 

You see your own face begin to form in the darkness. A splash of color for the first time, but your figure is wrong. It’s you, but it’s not. The eyes on this familiar but unknown face are closed. Black veins run along their face. 

“if. you coul d sav e ever y o ne

    a t  the cost o f y ou rself……” 

The creature waits for your response.

geon doesn’t like the way the shadow of the creature moves. it circles him, out of reach, like a wolf circling prey. geon turns to watch it, at least as best as he can track it in the darkness, wary. he doesn’t want to let it out of his sight, though it’s hard to track. 

it questions him, though it’s already said geon’s name. not his agent codename, but his name. he doesn’t want to give the monster any information he doesn’t have to, so he stays quiet, letting it talk to itself. if it doesn’t want to answer his questions, it doesn’t have to. if this is some sort of fucked up dream, geon can only pray that he wakes up soon.

and then it shows him his own face. like looking into a funhouse mirror, the features just slightly distorted. that feeling of dread in the pit of geon’s stomach grows colder, heavier, more urgent. his breath catches and he takes an involuntary step backwards (or, at least, he tries to; he’s still not sure if he’s really in his own body right now). does he really look like that now? has the black really spread that far, up onto his face? for a moment, geon is tempted to reach out and touch the grotesque image of himself, but he refrains. no, it’s better to be cautious. better to be safe.

you could save everyone at the cost of yourself.

“what does that mean?” geon can’t help his own curiosity. save them how? grand heights agency is already gone, dead. is ‘them’ referring to meia? do they need saving? geon doesn’t know. he just wants to help. he’s always just wanted to help.

“ hel l o…. hel l looo…." A voice laced with pain echoes back to you. The something in the darkness approaches, slinking side to side before it stops just in front of you. You see nothing, and yet you see something.

" is any o n e th  e r   e " 

A hand of black ink forms, stretching out in front of you but never does it touch. Hovering just out of reach, as if getting any closer would hurt it. 

"     g   e   o  n." You hear your name. The inky hand with it’s thin and sharp looking fingers reach out to you. 

Do you take it’s hand? 

he sees something, but he also sees nothing. geon’s brain is still trying to wrap his head around it, whether the movement in the blackness is just a trick of his imagination or if there’s truly something else out there. he holds his breath, not knowing if it’s friend or foe, if it wants to cause him harm or help him. he doesn’t like taking chances. he’s stayed alive this long through avoidance, keeping to himself and not putting his trust in anything unknown.

then he hears it. a voice, strained, quiet. it sounds like it’s suffering. geon squints his eyes, struggles to make out what the voice belongs to. nothing. is that it, is that the answer? but then there’s something. a hand, or so he thinks, reaching out toward him. he flinches, but it never touches him, hovering just before him, waiting.

and then it says his name.

if geon could feel anything at all, he’s sure that he’d feel a cold shiver down his spine, a deeply frightening chill. instinct tells him that this is dangerous, that he should proceed cautiously. he hardly dares to speak, to let the mysterious inky creature know how close it is to him.

The serum burns through your system as if your blood itself has turned to fire. You recall, distantly, being laid upon the medical bed. The monitors being attached, and Lerissa's kind voice walking your through it step by step. 

And then the heat. The intense burn that blocks out everything else. You feel as if you have been suspended in time in a pool of lava with no way out. The noises of the small medical room fade into the background. It's just you and the heat. 

The heat turns into a prickling sensation as if you had let your leg fall asleep. Except the feeling is all over your body, numbing your limbs and your senses. The world around you fades into darkness. You are suspended in this darkness, though you do not feel like you are alone. 

Do you call out?

there's nothing that geon wants more than to be human again. maybe it's the indoctrination of his old team leader from grand heights agency, or maybe it's just his own gentle nature battling with the demon's desire for blood and carnage. regardless of the cause, geon doesn't want to be this. he doesn't want to be the monster that mothers tell their children about, the creature that his fellow agents have sworn to take down, that he swore to take down. he doesn't know if it's a blessing or a curse that he kept his mind despite the infection sometimes.

now more than ever, he needs a purpose. in the days since he was made aware of the fate of grand heights, he's been lost, listless, utterly hopeless. his home was gone, burned to ash. not that he ever thought he had a chance of going home, but the burden of knowing that all of the people he had loved are now lost... it's too much to bear. there's not a person in the world who understands how lost yoo geon is right now.

so when the experiment was introduced to him, it at least gave him a shred of hope. or at least, that's what he thinks it is. he's been so numb, so miserable, that feeling anything else was welcome. he wants nothing more than to be human, to go back to some sort of normalcy. so he agrees, and the next thing he knows he finds himself on a hospital bed, lerissa speaking to him gently, and the prick of a needle as an unknown serum is injected into his veins.

it's hot, painfully so. it feels so much like the bite of the demon's claws when they dug into his flesh, the poison that ruined his life back then. geon feels sweat break out along his brow and he grits his teeth to keep from crying out. if he's weak, he'll ask them to make it stop, to call this off. but he can't be weak, not if he wants to be human again. it doesn't stop little pained noises from escaping him, especially as the serum spreads through his body, lighting his nerves on fire as it trickles through his veins. he closes his eyes tight, breathes deeply through his nose, to try to focus on anything other than the pain. it doesn't work.

and then he's numb.

his body has turned to radio static, fuzzy and tingly in the worst way. geon can breathe again, and he gasps, though he's not sure that he would call this relief from the pain. it's just a different sort of sensation, too intense to be comfortable. he opens his eyes to nothing. instinctively, he jerks around, trying to rid himself of something covering his vision. but his body doesn't respond, as if it's not even there at all. then he realizes that he can't hear anything. not the beeps and whirrs of medical equipment, not lerissa's comforting voice, not even the shift of a mattress moving beneath him. no smells either, the sterile stench of the makeshift hospital long gone from his nose.

am i dead?

there's the eerie feeling that he's being watched, that something is lurking in the darkness he cannot see around. he strains his senses and finds that none of them work, or at least that he's not picking up anything at all. if only he had built up his enhancement properly while he still had the chance. if only he didn't need eye contact to send his thoughts, he'd call out nonverbally, not betraying his position. he's still an agent, still wary of the unseen things that promise death, even if part of him believes he has already died.

miajuwon​:

( content warnings // mention of character death )

if there had ever been a comparison of how juwon felt in that moment, it would have to be rather like the abandoned shell of a hermit crab. there’s a longing emptiness that lingers inside him, gaping wide and painful, his heart cracked open and squeezed clean of any happiness that once existed inside him. he’s existing but he’s not sure why, anymore. there’s so much happening around him but juwon can barely bring himself to leave his room. it’s so much easier to curl up in bed and wonder if sieon would have been fine if he hadn’t selfishly taken the promotion to junior agent.

then, maybe, he and sieon wouldn’t have been put on the same team. they wouldn’t have taken that accursed patrol mission that juwon had insisted on stepping out of the gates for. they wouldn’t have even been in that situation where sieon had died.

he should never have come to meia. maybe then sieon would still be alive.

he doesn’t know if it’s better or worse that sieon had remembered

he’s sitting blankly at a table in the dining hall, a plate of barely touched food in front of him, gazing emptily at the food there. a presence seats itself next to him, but juwon barely even notices. he doesn’t really understand who is there, too lost in his own mind to process exactly what is going on around him, but when a thought filters into his head, his eyes having flickered towards the figure without him meaning to, he dimly registers that it’s geon.

it doesn’t occur to him immediately that geon is a demon. sieon had turned into a demon. juwon had killed sieon. rather, geon’s natural timidity and the reliance the demon agent had always shown to him triggers something else, and juwon lifts his head slightly, his eyes bleak and expression exhausted.

“geon…” he breathes, his voice rough from not speaking.

juwon speaks. geon, for as listless and out of sorts as he’s been himself, has heard the whispers of others, always with pity in their voices. they whisper about their worries about geon, the demon, who looks like he’s barely hanging on by a thread. will he stay docile? will he succumb and attack everyone? so far, it hasn’t happened, but geon hasn’t completely rules out the possibility. sometimes he wonders if it’ll feel better, to stop fighting and just... let go. will it all stop hurting then? but he’s heard the whispers about juwon as well, his own vow of silence and the lifelessness in the human agent. he’s lost so much too, geon knows. he doesn’t know what tell him.

he does know how incredibly important it is that juwon spoke at all to him, even if it’s just his name. geon doesn’t have it in himself to smile right now. if he was himself, truly himself without all of the hurt and fear, he might have smiled wide, bumped his shoulders against juwon’s, and tried to get him to open up a little more. but geon is but a shadow right now himself, his own voice lost in his throat, though he has little control over the thoughts in his head when he meets another’s eyes.

it’s me, he confirms, satisfied enough that juwon has lifted his head enough to maintain easier eye contact. geon feels uncomfortable with it, though. he wants to drop his eyes to the floor. he wants to hide, to disappear. but juwon is a friend, a very good friend in geon’s opinion, and he wants to hang on to the ones he knows he has left. and maybe he wants to share the hurt with him, the pain they’re both feeling. maybe he wants to tell juwon that it’s okay, that he’s not alone. geon may not be mouring sieon the same way, but he is mourning his own losses. he knows how heavy and dark the world feels right now.

but he doesn’t have the words for that, not even in his own head. so he settles for simpler words instead; are you going to eat that? what had happened to the voracious appetite that geon had when he first came to the agency? when did sorrow turn his stomach, make it impossible to eat? he can’t blame juwon for a lack of appetite, but he can hope that he can make him smile, even just a tiny bit, with a familiar phrase. maybe if geon tries hard enough to be normal, they’ll both be able to feel it. maybe not today, but someday. he doesn’t even dare wish for sometime soon.

@miajuwon

he feels like he’s living up to his namesake these days. a shadow. nothing more than a dark spot floating through life, not quite fully sentient though just short of lifeless. geon thought he was lost when he was wandering in the wilderness for nearly two years. that’s nothing compared to this type of lost. he knows how to navigate meia by now, how to tell which path goes to what part of the complex, but... there’s no direction. no aim. sometimes his head feels like it’s spinning so much that he doesn’t even know what way is up, where’s down, or his left from his right. his entire world is gone, as far as he’s concerned. blown up, destroyed, and he’s not even allowed to go to it to mourn the loss of the only family he had ever known.

ari, he hasn’t tried to send his thoughts so far since he thought he was dying. he doesn’t know if his old friend heard him then, let alone if he can hear him now. if he’s even still alive. are you still out there? if i go looking, will i find you?

as always, there’s no response. there never is, no matter how much he practiced with a person. just silence. his own voice. and, well, haneul’s too sometimes. but she’s quiet right now. he hopes she can’t hear him, his misery. he hopes that she can’t feel the black hole that’s eating away at his chest. when geon looks in the mirror, past the greasy, unwashed hair and sunken, tired face, he’s scared at what will look back at him. sometimes he thinks that the red in his eyes has taken over the white, that the black marks on his upper body have spread further. he runs his tongue across his teeth and swears that they’re sharper than they used to be. he’s so afraid he’s losing his humanity. his dreams are full of blood and flesh, of destruction, and sometimes when he wakes up he can’t remember himself for a few terrifying seconds.

but if there’s anyone who looks worse than geon, it’s juwon.

if geon is living up to ‘shadow’, then juwon is also living up to ‘phantom’. he too walks through the halls like a ghost, pale and lifeless. there’s no light here, no spark of life. the parts of geon that aren’t already shattered crack and break a little more when he sees him, one of his first friends when he came to meia, drifting through life like a dead man. he still has it in him to pity him. geon keeps a wide berth, at first, not knowing if juwon would appreciate the company of a demon so soon after what happened to the other agent. but... geon can’t help it. he’s always been a little too soft, maybe even more so now that he can hardly focus on anything other than his own fear and misery.

juwon’s sitting down, so geon sits next to him. he doesn’t move away, so geon takes that as acceptance that he can be here, that juwon doesn’t hate all of demonkind after what he was witness to. words don’t come to geon’s lips. they haven’t since he first heard of what happened to grand heights, his tongue feeling too heavy to lift. but it’s alright, he can still communicate important things. he leans down, trying to catch juwon’s eye; he can’t send him anything without that. geon takes advantage of the briefest glance.

you look worse than i do... i’m so sorry.

lunaxmia​:

her lips curl up at the edges even though the stranger on the other side of the curtain certainly can’t see her face. her mental voice, however, is tinged with faint amusement as the stranger resorts to speaking out loud, surely appearing rather insane to the medic who is helping him. at least, him speaking aloud gives her an idea of where he is — she’d guessed as much from the sound of the clattering, but now it’s very clear that the stranger she had startled in trying to calm him down is actually just on the other side of the thin divider. 

‘hello, yoo geon. my name is song haneul.’ she starts with the easiest question first, and she indicates to the medic helping her to pull aside the divider so that she can meet the stranger face to face. ‘as for where i am, i happen to be just on the other side of this sheet.’ she smiles a little when she can see him, dipping her head slightly in greeting, before she considers the question about her power. 

‘my enhancement has always been a little overactive,’ she thinks, not without a tone of hesitation. it’s a grossly oversimplified thought, but she doesn’t need to unload the history of experimentation and pain to this poor child, who looks even younger and more haunted now that she sees him in person. ‘i have always been able to hear too much, and since i have just returned from quite a long journey… there are many more voices than i’m accustomed to. why are you in the medic wing, yoo geon?’

song haneul. he doesn’t know the name, but he doesn’t know most of the agents and citizens of meia. he wonders if he should, if this is someone important like maylin herself or one of the head agents. should he have been more respectful, less demanding for information? god, geon doesn’t know. his head is starting to hurt, overwhelmed and confused and not yet at all comfortable with his new environment. settling into social rules, both new and old, has been a hard adjustment.

but he finally sees her, and being able to put a face to the voice and the name brings a sense of relief. she sounded kind, but she looks kind too. it puts geon at east a bit. a little of the anxiety fades with some unknowns brought to light.

he decides that he doesn’t have to speak aloud anymore. he was always told how rude it was to send his thoughts to other peoples’ heads unwarranted, his eyes always carefully trained down to not cause a problem. but haneul is going to hear him anyway, isn’t she? so he may as well use the enhancement he was gifted with years ago, still weak and underdeveloped as he meets her eyes just to make sure it’s going through, he’s not just crazy.

lunaxmia​:

the yelp and clatter of medical equipment on the floor startles her, physically jumping in response, and she’s glad abruptly that she had asked the medic to take a short break before they continued on, having wanted to help the other person quiet down. but the reaction that comes from the person on the other side of the thin curtain surprises even her in its intensity, because in all honesty, she’s only had contact with people who are familiar with her. she’d forgotten how strange it might be for those unused to it.

but no, the follow-up thoughts indicate something else, and she blinks in surprise, her own startled reaction calming down quickly in the face of the other’s utter panic. ‘it’s okay, calm down, it’s just my enhancement,’ she thinks firmly at the panicking male who is apparently behind the curtain. 'you usually can speak to people? but you can’t hear them?’

the implication is fascinating and haneul can’t help but wonder if that’s why the boy’s voice had been so incredibly loud in her mind. had he been projecting it through his power, and she had picked it up strongly because of her own enhancement? she hasn’t ever really met anyone with a similar power, so that’s another interesting thing to consider.

'everything’s okay. i just wanted to help you relax a little, but i guess that backfired. what’s your name, little one?’ she might not be able to see him at that moment, but they’ll meet later. for now, she can tell that he needs reassurance, and so she keeps her mental voice very soft, comforting, warm.

the voice is back. not with answers to the questions he asked, but with reassurances. they work; geon’s able to observe the voice more carefully this time, no longer so absorbed by fear that he doesn’t know anything other than that something entirely out of the ordinary is occurring. female, he realizes. and it sounds warm, a bit soft. kind. he thinks that he likes it, even if he’s still a bit nervous. part of him still doubts that something isn’t completely and utterly wrong, but two years of surviving alone has taught him to always be skeptical.

“where are you?” he repeats again, because he still doesn’t know who this is coming from. how strong is she that she’s able to project her voice to him without knowing him? without seeing him? geon can’t imagine it. he never really thought about how truly weak his enhancement really is... not that he’s ever had much of a chance to improve it. “i can’t send thoughts to people i don’t know unless i see you. how... how are you doing this?” there’s a bit of awe in his voice, a hint of jealousy in his mind. for all of the physical strength that being a demon gave him, a stronger version of his enhancement was not one of the supposed perks. not that there’s many perks to being a demon.

he’s not sure that he’s any more relaxed, but at least he’s thinking about new and different worries since the voice started talking to him. is she really as kind and friendly as she seems in his head? what does his voice sound like in hers, if she can even hear it? he suspects that she can, apparently she knew he was stressed even if he didn’t say it out loud. that’s weird for him too; he’s always tried to keep his thoughts to himself in case anyone didn’t want them.

“Hello agent SHADOW.” JINX greets, there is a grime expression on her face. SOL is smiling at you, but it does not reach his eyes. “We unfortunately have some bad news for you. A correspondence from GHA was received, and we felt it necessary for you to view it.” She taps something on her desk.

A notification pings on your communication device, a new message from JINX. A video message plays. 

“We don't know the full status of GHA or anyone in it just yet, but we want you to prepare for the worst.” SOL continues, stepping around the table to offer comfort if needed. 

“Moving forward things are going to change, and we need all agents ready to face whatever may come.” JINX says. “We are going to be summoning you again later today to discuss anything you might know or remember from your former agency. For now, take time to digest what you have just learned. Dismissed.” 

SOL will lead you to the door. He places a heavy hand on your shoulder as a sign of support and comfort. “Good luck, agent.” 

he's surprised and nervous when he's called into a head agent's office. geon can't help but wonder if he's in trouble, if they're suddenly not as interested in helping demons heal from the darkness and they're sending him out to the wilderness again. he supposes that wouldn't be so bad, he hasn't had that long to settle in here and get soft, but he'd be sad at the lost chance to be human again, however slim that chance was. but he's surprised again when he enters the room and is greeted not only by jinx, but sol as well. that nervousness grows, settles into some cold, hard stone in his stomach that makes every breath feel a little more difficult. even before they say anything, he can sense that something is wrong. he keeps his eyes trained on the ground, scared to let his thoughts slip into their minds lest he give away his nerves by mistake.

“We don't know the full status of GHA or anyone in it just yet, but we want you to prepare for the worst.”

the worst. that stone turns to ice and grows heavier, dropping in his gut and knocking the wind out of him. that's not possible. grand heights agency could never fall. it was a military base, it's been there for hundreds of years without fail. the agents they trained were the best, the most disciplined, the strongest... the worst would be that the building was razed, burned, crumbled to nothing more than a memory of a time past. the worst would be the civilians they protected slaughtered or turned into black-eyed demons, hungry for their pound of flesh. the worst would be... it would be ari, and all of his strength, laying in a pool of his own blood with all of the fight taken out of him, leaving only glassy, unseeing eyes staring up into the heavens.

geon feels dizzy. he feels nauseous. he doesn't know if he wants to cry, throw up, or run out of the room entirely. where would he go? back to grand heights? to try to salvage whatever life may be left there? it's too late, he realizes. if he hadn't been turned, if he was there, would he have been able to save them? is this his fault? is this his fault?

the agents dismiss him and he feels like he's walking through a dream. it's not until sol claps his shoulder that it hits him like a ton of bricks. he doubles over as if in physical pain, black mist leaking from him as that demonic energy attacks him at his weakest, and lets out a low, painful wail.

mia-zer0​:

Sero pokes his head out before darting back, remembering the other is ‘armed’ as well, before remember it’s just water. He rolls his eyes at himself and comes out from cover, weapon down as he eyes the rest of the field. They seem secluded, for now. 

Yep, that’s the demon. Sero remembers running into him a little over a year ago out on the borders of the West Ward, back when he still had a family…He’d been out hunting for small game with his pistol when he’d run into Geon in a similar manner, shooting first and asking questions later. If he remembered right, he’d winged the guy and probably run off just as fast as the demon had, both of them equally spooked.

But now, Sero just looks annoyed, a slight improvement to his normal interactions with demon agents. The other’s actions are somewhat off-putting. Something not right about an agent being so scared, even if–and especially if–they are a demon. Doesn’t he have like…bloodlust and shit?  “Better than you being out there, I guess.” He pauses, and an awkward beat plays between them for a moment…before Sero can’t stand it and he lays it out bluntly. 

“Look. I’m not gonna apologize for shooting a demon. Plus, you’re still alive and kicking. My aim’s improved since then.” Yeah, okay maybe he needs a bit more tact than that. “At the very least, I’m sorry for shooting you so suddenly. I should have had better trigger discipline, since you could have been human and all.”

he’s not sure how to react. if the other agent had been treating him with hostility, he could cower and try to show that he’s really not a threat. if he had chosen to ignore him, geon would be happy to do the same. but no, the agent seems to size him up, recognition dawning on his expression and settling back into something no worse than just mildly bothered. geon doesn’t know why his very presence annoys the other, but more than that he doesn’t know how to react to it. should he apologize? he’s not sure.

“um, yeah, i guess,” he agrees, not because he believes it, but because he thinks it’s the response that the other wants to hear. geon would have to think long and hard if it’s actually better for him to be part of the agency. it was selfish of him to beg to be taken here, the idea of a cure too tempting to pass up even if it’s not yet discovered. it’s not like he ever wants to hurt anyone. sure, the instincts are there, clawing away at his insides and making him feel a horrible guilt whenever he lets his thoughts wander there. but he’s nervous just mildly annoying someone.

geon can only blink dumbly at sero’s apology; the words all make sense but it takes him a few extra minutes to process it. “oh, um, i understand,” when he was human, he was trained to shoot demons first and ask questions later too. he can’t fault the other for having the same mindset. but he can’t quite help but feel like he’s being threatened right now. geon’s just not sure what he did to warrant that. “i didn’t know there were people around there. i was, uh, i was really trying to avoid any then. the agency i came from would’ve shot me on sight too so... um... thank you for missing?”

ashmia​:

she can’t say she understands.

her eyes take in the younger agent, seeing the desire to want to take part but not knowing how. she doesn’t understand because ash has never been someone to shy away from what she wants. she also isn’t a demon agent but that’s neither here nor there. demon agents and non demons agents are all the same to her. thanks to her ability, the playing field is normally even. but while she looks at geon and wonders how he manages, she finds herself wanting to help. it was the same feeling she felt when they had met in the medic wing. 

so she smiles more and makes sure to keep her body relaxed. wanting him to feel comfortable with her. for geon to know there is a safe bubble here with her, no matter how worried he might be around the other agents. “we’ll have to find something to do together then! it’s good for training and the head agents want to see how everyone reacts during these.” she whispers the last half as if its some kind of secret.

though to get the other agent into a game with her, ash wonders if she needs to do something to make him feel more at ease with her. an idea comes to mind and her hand slips into her pocket and she pulls out a dark blue cloth. “hang on–” she eyes the cloth then eyes geon. “actually, can you help me out with something?” she holds out the cloth. “i never manage to tie it well on my own so can you help? i need to dull my enhancement for a while before I get a headache.” normally she would have been wearing it already but the three legged race would have torn it off. 

geon doesn’t know how he got so lucky to make a good friend in meia right off the bat. he thanks whatever lucky star was with him that day that he ran into that scouting party entirely by accident; what they brought him back to was overwhelming and frankly scary sometimes, but ash has always been kind, helpful, gentle with him. he thinks it’s a little funny, a demon, tough, resilient, and lethal, being so scared of his own shadow that a human would stop to console him. geon supposes he isn’t very good at being a demon, though.

“oh, does your head hurt?” geon frowns, concerned, as he takes the cloth from the young woman and dutifully performs the task that’s requested of him. he’s careful not to get her hair caught in the knot. “is that too loose? i can redo it,” he likes being helpful, he likes feeling like he belongs here. ash always makes him feel at ease. “do you ever wish you could just... turn it off? at least my thing only works when i’m looking at people.” he didn’t hide anything from the meia agents, not even his enhancement. not that he can send thoughts to ash; her eyes are covered or she’s negating his enhancement, there’s no in between.

i’ll but the spark notes version under the cut (along with some plot/thread ideas) but please check out his profile and background and shoot me a message if you’d like to plot!!