s a nd s t on e

[ ❋ HIT ON MY MUSE: @x-wearethefuture-x ]

So maybe it was obvious he wasn’t going to keep Yongsun’s phone. He asked to borrow it to check in with Hayeon before it got too late- very eloquently promising to return it afterwards. And the bit of teasing afterwards caused him to chuckle and promise not to forget his charger again. That aside, it didn’t take long for his sister to assure him that all was well and tell him to “hang the hell up already to go spend time with your girlfriend! So inconsiderate, dude”. Manuel glanced over at Yongsun and tried his best not to seem flustered. “Uhm-… Alright, I’ll be back later on. Yup. Mhm.” Very mature with the kissy noises, Hayeon.

He hung up before clearing his throat and holding out the phone. “She’s uh… fine. Just watching another drama without me. Thank you.” He didn’t know what to say, but luckily Yongsun went and echoed his earlier phrasing, and it caused him to blink in surprise.

“Can I borrow a kiss? I promise I’ll give it back.”

This wasn’t something entirely new to Jaewon. He’d had his fair share of girlfriends and boyfriends- not a ton, but a small handful. Of course, it had pretty exclusively been girlfriends until he went to university and felt a new kind of freedom… But, yeah, he had some experience. Not a lot, but enough. It was why he’d felt free to dive right in when Benji had started confessing his feelings. That, however, didn’t mean he’d ever felt quite like this. Almost all of his relationships had been short term, no real commitment. That was fine when you felt a connection but not one deep enough to go anywhere, you know? But with Benji it felt totally different. Maybe, in part, because they’d been friends first? He liked the other for a lot of reasons that he’d not noticed at first glance, things he’d only picked up on because of their time spent together. Things like the way he could ramble on about anything (and Jaewon was so freaking smitten with how cute he was that he could listen to him do so for hours without stopping him). Or the way he stumbled over his words sometimes when he was uncomfortable or nervous. His sense of humor was Jaewon’s favorite, though- the way they could bounce stupid ideas or jokes or whatever off of each other so easily, like they’d been life long friends who knew the way each other’s minds worked. It was all so easy with Benji. Casual. Cheesy as it sounded, it was like Jaewon’s heart kind of knew from the start what was going on, but it had taken his brain a long while to catch up.

Jaewon let Benji lower his hands, though when he did he laced his fingers with the other boy’s. It felt good to have it all out in the open finally, “Yeah. That definitely means I like you.” He chuckled as Benji slipped into that cute, soft, laugh of his, “But, ya know, if you’re not really sure yet, I could always try to prove it?” With another kiss? Or by making up a terrible song to sing at him right here on the spot? Maybe he’d just steal him away for a proper date or something? Honestly, god only knew with Jaewon. Hell, even Jaewon hadn’t decided yet! (Though, honestly, it was probably going to be all of the above. Not all at once, of course, but eventually!)

He briefly wondered at what point he racked up enough good karma for something like this to happen. He considered Jaewon to be quite the catch. It was a miracle he wasn’t already tied down already to someone else when Benji came along. Or that he liked him back at all? He’d feared being tossed a casual “bro” to erase any romantic possibilities for a while now. “Prove it?” he repeated questioningly. Well, a little reaffirmation never hurt anyone... Him, especially, since he still wanted to ask Jaewon if he was sure.

Benjamin looked down at their joined hands and added, “I mean, I’m not gonna say no. I’m really curious on how you’d prove that though.” More kisses? He didn’t dare ask. But his eyes did end up trailing down to the other’s lips before he realized he was staring and quickly cleared his throat. Eye contact! Yes. Of course. He could do that. Obviously. He chuckled sheepishly.

“Soooo...” In the past the next step was to go on a few dates before things kind of just trailed off from lack of interest on both sides. Benji clearly didn’t want that to happen here. But he didn’t want to freak Jaewon out either by immediately suggesting they go out. Not that the other boy was flighty, but he didn’t want to do anything that could ruin this. So much for not overthinking it! Ugh. Benjamin decided to hurry on ahead before his mind made things too complicated.

ADYAN could not recall the last time they were in Korea. All they remembered was the trip was a failure, and the talent they was sent to meet was nothing more than a spoiled brat with a predictably pretty face. In fact most of the people they encountered lacked any flair, life, or… personality in general— boringly professional and careful to tiptoe around the bizarre foreigner.

All except one.

Adyan was already bored to death from the fourteen-hour flight. It was tragic anything existed more than an hour away from LA! Baggage claim was uneventful. Only an occasional curious head turned in their direction due to their bright pink tracksuit of choice. It likely defeated thepurpose of having personal security but dammit, the lack of attention was making them feelinvisible. Adyan adjusted their cap with a tired sigh and made the attempt to walk tall despite the urge to call up a friend and pout about the whole situation.

The only positive was the near-emptiness of the terminal, which would make finding the security personnel much easier. Praise the gods they were able to find someone fluent in English because Adyan had not found the time to brush up on their Korean. Speaking of personnel…

“Hel— oh?” The consultant stopped mid step towards the other when recognition clicked. Look at that, the one person who didn’t test Adyan’s patience towards overly stiff professionalism. “It’s you!” An eager grin quickly replaced previous fatigue and suddenly there was some extra hop in their step. “Does this mean you’re the one who’s gonna be taking care of me all week? God, please say yes.” They stopped to sigh dramatically for effect and roll their eyes. “I can’t handle boring business and dead security for a week.”

This was not what Christian meant. Not exactly. When he asked for a more consistent schedule with no surprise shifts on his days off, he did not mean “tie me to a single person to follow around all day, every day for a week.” But it was technically consistent. And there would technically be no surprise hours. He was even due for a nice 5 days off afterwards... But still. Not being on a team meant inevitable boredom and small talk from a client. And when he saw the person he was assigned to in particular? It was funny Adyan brought up god as well.

“Ha. Yes, it’s me.” Christian was caught between feeling all sort of annoyed, wary, guarded, intrigued, relieved, and... kind of grateful? Grudgingly. Their last conversation gave him the feeling Adyan was very easy to talk to, and that was dangerous. He wasn’t looking forward to spending so much time with them. Hopefully his life story wouldn’t come out at some point.

Case in point, the other’s dramatics immediately had him feeling homesick. But well. The day had just begun. Time to block home out of his mind. “Here, let me take one of your bags,” he offered as he reached to take the most cumbersome one. “I’m surprised you’re back in Korea. I heard Sanghee did not end up signing with you.”

It would be too much to explain why I fell off the earth at this point- blah blah family things, independence, health, residency status and visas, etc. I’ve been back in Sweden for a while now and ofc thinking a lot about rp again with all the new free time I’ve had. You know, pandemic stuff. But I’ve also been thinking for the past 2 weeks if I should even write again?? I have a habit of disappearing when things get tough irl + tunnel vision to where I forget to post anything online out of courtesy for others about a break. Since like the dawn of rp time. And it bugs me bc I know perfectly well how much it sucks to have people vanish??? “Shit got chaotic” isn’t a viable excuse past like...... the first time.

I’m always gonna want to write but the amount of times I’ve gone “I’ll give a notice next time!” and then not, is absurd. I don’t wanna leave people hanging / hurt again. But the chaotic nature of my life is very ~__~ I think saying my absences are bc I’m a secret FBI agent at this point would be much easier. And not even that’s an excuse. FBI agents still get laptops when they’re undercover [I think?].

Anyway idk why I’m writing this but I hope everyone is doing okay. Stay safe.

EDIT: Apparently I did give an unspecified hiatus in July but am still not happy about all the paused threads and convos. That makes it like 5% better I guess.

It was difficult to walk this line between friendship and something more- tip too far to either side and he risked losing Benjamin. So Jaewon was careful (or, as careful as he could let his reckless self be). He playfully flirted for that reason. If he could make it sound both like a joke and not like a joke at the same time, then Benji could take it whatever way he wanted. Seemed like a good idea. Or maybe he was just confusing him. Yeah, he was probably just confusing him. But, in his defense, Jaewon was confused, too! He didn’t know what Benji was thinking. He couldn’t figure it out.

Then again, maybe the signs had been there all along, and Jaewon was so afraid of misreading them and messing things up that he’d simply overlooked them. It certainly seemed that way now. It should have been so obvious. But the concern of messing up their friendship had misguided Jaewon straight into a misunderstanding. And, certainly, his own recent behavior had left Benjamin feeling lost as well.

Jaewon listened in silence, let Benjamin speak. The other was avoiding eye contact- embarrassed? Worried about what Jaewon would say? Whatever the case, it was cute. Jaewon’s lips quirked into a small smile. Ah… it was just like Benji to get flustered and ramble a bit instead of jumping straight in. Thankfully, Jaewon wasn’t the same. He was listening, sure, but all he could think about was finding the right time to cut the other off and take action. Words didn’t seem necessary to Jaewon now that the worry of messing up their friendship was gone. He gave Benji only a moment more to talk, let him finish the important things but stopped him when it seemed he might start talking in circles. Jaewon gently cupped Benjamin’s face in his hands, muttered a soft, “You can stop, now.” a hint of laughter touching his words. And then he kissed him. Soft. Delicate. Lingering. Anything more might be too much to start, but too little and Benji would think it was just to placate him. He needed the other to know that this was sincere. There was no room left for mistaking things. No room left for confusion. Just simple honesty.

When Jaewon pulled away, he gave the other a small grin, “Does that tell you whether I’ve been just kidding or not?” He said, voice still a bit quieter than it had been before, “I’ve been meaning to do that for a while.” He just hadn’t had the confidence to do it until he knew Benjamin felt the same.

It was a good thing Jaewon stopped him, or else he would’ve just kept talking and eventually ended up on a different tangent and changing the subject. On accident. Kind of. But what was unexpected was why the other stopped him- not to dismiss the “joke” or say they should talk it out. Nothing like that. But he finally did shut up.

The action was so unexpected that Benjamin actually tensed up and internally freaked out a tad when Jaewon cupped his face and leaned in. However, that didn’t last very long. It was only a moment later when Benjamin was leaning into the kiss and trying not to make it obvious he was holding back a smile- but he was pretty sure the other could tell. And then all too soon the other pulled away. He slowly opened his eyes and let out a shy, breathy chuckle before looking down. Benjamin was hardly impulsive, but it took quite a bit of effort to not immediately lean in and kiss the other man again. 

“I... Yeah. Huh. I guess that does say a lot.” Eloquent as always. But he didn’t care about that right now. He was too happy to feel self-conscious about his speech. A few moments of thinking and processing later, he looked back up with a slight grin. “I’ve wanted to kiss you for a while too, to be honest.” Probably thought about it a little too much lately, to be honest. His face warmed at the thought before he placed his hands over Jaewon’s to move them away so he could hopefully be less obvious and not asked about that.

   TRUTH be told, Ashen did not see herself as a cold person. Rather, she would admit she was an indifferent person – particularly when it came to the conflict between humans and mutants, let alone the latter race who would prove their superiority towards the world and cause chaos. Perhaps it was in her expression that made her assume she was a cold person to others, especially when she was performing or in the middle of fights. But to those who were close to her like family? Ashen showed compassion and care towards them – like how she displayed it towards Benjamin as she playfully punched him on his arm after he rambled again.

 “Being an adviser is enough, Ben. You’re someone I’d go to if I need to chill or if I’m feeling down the dumps.” She told him while she stretched her arms above her head. Ashen huffed faintly and rested her head back on the backrest of the couch. “’Sides, if you feel like you’re ready to fight with whatever ability you have, do it.” She looked at him. “No one’s gonna stop you from doing it – not even yourself.”

He was happy to hear that even some good ol’ moral support was helpful. He was also doubtful he’d be doing any kind of fighting soon- but things could get crazy in a heartbeat and Benjamin was not the type to sit back idly if his friends were throwing themselves at danger right in front of him. Never say never? The thought could stay on the backburner for now. Potential catastrophe could wait. “… Yeah, totally. We’ll see.” The most non-committal answer he could come up with.

No way! I wouldn’t call it annoying. I’d just greatly prefer some kind of indicator, you know? Even if it’s “I can’t decide between A, B, or C”, that helps a ton because then I can give ideas / narrow it down / get the general vibe of what you’re looking for. 

“Let’s get food!” Jaesung’s tone lowered with each word until he was using his designated ‘indoor volume’. He smiled brightly at the other. “Yeah, but how about we eat first and then you dive under that bridge. Wait, that didn’t sound right…” he trailed off as he corrected his train of though. ‘You can consider diving under the bridge. Yeah. That’s better.”

Muse information below the cut to help you make a decision on which muse! Starters will be a nice l’il paragraph [or 2?] to help me ease back into rp without being overwhelmed with novella stuff or something. :-)

I’ll also be dropping any threads that aren’t for x-wearethefuture-x, svnandmccn, and aniimvs because those I still have muse for. If I’m following you tho I still want to rp and we can easily get up another thread! xo

    PERHAPS it was a rarity for mutants to be close to humans, much less be friends with them – but that was not the case for Ashen. Despite the serious, indifferent expression she (sometimes) had, the DJ had an approachable, friendly personality towards those who knew her from a long time. That side of her was also shown when she was in Mantra, often seen with the patrons who visited and worked with her, especially towards the humans who were fascinated by the concept behind the club and the mutants housed in it. It was why many looked up to her as a role model not only to the mutants, but humans as well – and yet, Ashen did not see herself as one.

  “Yeeeap, that’s what makes it tough – and worse for the other mutants who only want to be a part of this society, to be treated normally.” She added as she watched Benjamin adjusted the flower she gave. Lips tugged to a small smile at the other, before Ashen stretched her arms in front of her and sunk herself into the beanbag she sat on. “Me, cold? Really, Benji?” Ashen asked out of curiosity, pointing at herself with brows raised skeptically – but later on, chuckled and nodded her head in agreement. “It’ll take time, for sure…but with more rogue mutants around, it’s gonna be one hell of a task.”

It was a miracle Ashen could understand any of his thoughts. Benjamin himself hardly understood the jumble of words that often came out of his mouth. But, that was one of the reasons he liked the other so much: he could blabber away and not be judged for it. “Yeah, you! It’d be horrible if you were a cold person.” He found himself pouting a bit without meaning to as he mumbled the next words. “Then we couldn’t be friends.” There was no way he could deal with people that closed off. Insecurities would eventually get him into a thinking spiral that it was personal and he was just bothering them all the time. Thankfully that wasn’t the case here.

Was there a chance that Lincoln would be going back to sleep now, knowing that there was something wrong? No: he wasn’t about to ignore the other, and he was awake enough now that it’d be impossible to just turn around and fall back asleep in an instant anyway. He’d probably be yawning in a few minutes, yet, for now, all his attention was all on Christian.

Fear was new to the equation, but getting the other to relax wasn’t. All Lincoln knew was that it was best not to pry, or ask any kind of questions ( since it could trigger embarrassment, and he knew Christian would start talking as soon as he was comfortable enough to ). And that consideration seemed to pay off when the energy calmed down and he could tell the other wasn’t as tense as before; the words that followed afterwards helped, too, and soon Lincoln was watching Christian with a fond smile.

“No need to thank me. Just relax, okay? Whatever’s going on, I’m here to bother you until you forget about it. It’s my specialty.” Smiling even more, he leaned in to kiss the other before settling back on his pillow with a sigh. “Do you wanna talk, or do you just wanna listen to me talk?” The question was familiar, so Lincoln hoped it worked when he was the one saying it to his partner instead. “There’s some stuff I’ve been thinking about.”

He smiled slightly at the kiss before finally opening his eyes to look at the other. “Right. Relax.” Easier said than done, obviously. Christian managed to pick up even the farther cracks of thunder since he was still anticipating so much noise. It was unnerving. But now it would be easier to ignore thanks to Lincoln’s assurances.

“I think I would like to listen to you talk for a little bit.” The flipping of the question to be directed at Christian for once wasn’t missed and it caused his smile to widen a little. “What is it you’ve been thinking about?” He didn’t expect any bad news. Otherwise he’d have been told by now.

    SHE knew Benjamin meant well with his words. In fact, Ashen never took any offense with his advice. He certainly helped with coping with the struggles she faced, let alone clear her clouded mind about her own goal and those surrounding it. If she wanted to unite humans and mutants together, she needed to prepare for the worst – and she was ready to fight for it. She was not doing this to become a hero or a role model to both races, but she was doing it for the sake of making the world a better place for mutants to live in. After all, she followed in her father’s footsteps.

    LIPS tugged to the side, which was followed with a light chuckle from the DJ. She nodded as well and patted Benjamin on the chest playfully before she lifted her arm off his shoulder. “I know you’ll be here, Benji. You’re my friend and trusted sidekick.” Ashen teased at the last part, giving a lopsided grin at him. She leaned back and huffed, shifting her gaze back at Benji. “You’re not the only one in that, Benji. A lot of mutants in Mantra want the same thing…but then you have those mutants to make it hard sometimes, you know?” She shrugged and placed her flower behind Benji’s ear. “’Sides, you’re already useful enough to become an advisor.”

He grinned back at her before giving a playful salute. “Of course! I’ll always be here. Whether as a sidekick or actual official advisor~.” Although he figured it was just playfulness, he liked the idea: helping out and doing good without having to jump into a fray with violence. Advising he could work with. Even if he didn’t always know what to say? But Ashen seemed to trust him and his words enough, and that meant a lot.