[ ' the land of nod... 💭 ' ]

Lucky couldn’t help it - the second the other jumped, he burst out laughing - full on cackling, really - at the top of his lungs.  It was almost cartoon-like, the way the guy startled.  Cookies flying, chair clattering… he was almost surprised their wasn’t a boing! sound effect that went with the jump.

“Whoa!” he managed to choke out, still cackling loudly.  “Easy there, my dude - it’s just lil’ old me providing a fascinating tidbit over here.  No ghosts or ghouls or murderers out for your blood.”  Laughter dying down into chuckles, he considered for a moment and then added, “Actually, I guess there’s no way for me to prove that I’m not a murderer out for your blood, so let’s take my noodle arms as evidence that I’m too weak to lift an axe and leave it at that.”

Making a split-second, impulsive decision - the only kind Lucky tended to make, really - he slid from his own chair, snapping his laptop shut and carrying it with him over to the other’s table, pausing only to swipe up the package of cookies from the ground.  Sitting across from the other without invitation, he waved the snack in the air.  “And yeah, I mean the cookies.  Apparently the way you eat oreos can tell your personality type.  For instance,” he continued.  “I wouldn’t eat these right now, ‘cause I don’t have any milk to dunk them in.  Apparently dunkers tend to be energetic, adventurous, and social.  Which means I’m batting three out of three, at the moment.”

He felt ridiculous, jumping as high as he did. Jitae’s cheeks warmed up, dusty rose gracing his skin as the younger male cackled loudly. He really wished he hadn’t been in such a daze, if only he had been more awake and focused on his surroundings he wouldn’t have been so startled and wouldn’t be the target of this guy’s laughter. 

While the other’s laughter died down, he continued to speak excitedly about murderers and ghosts, but that didn’t really phase Jitae. Instead he decided to focus on the way the younger boy addressed him: my dude. “That’s a new one...” he mumbled to himself as the kid mentioned something about an axe or another. He couldn’t really make out a lot of what the kid was saying only because he himself wasn’t paying a whole lot of attention. Still kicking himself in the butt for falling asleep (only a little!) and getting the fright of his life. 

He was pulled out of his thoughts when he noticed that the younger boy had decided to occupy the seat on the opposite side of the table, now sitting across from Jitae. Letting out a quiet, “Oh...” Jitae reached out to grab hold of his papers, gently stacking them into a haphazard pile closer to his person rather than the center of the table. Since he didn’t really have a whole lot of a choice, he decided to just hear the kid out... I mean, what could be the harm? It would allow him a few minutes to focus on anything except his study evaluations. It’s just two dudes... sitting in the library... sitting a table apart. 

“The cookies can tell your personality type...?” 

Now he was intrigued. Could he have been sitting on a gold mine of knowledge all this time and not known? Oreo cookies telling your personality type? Perhaps this could be his next subject of interest. The snack he always carried unknowingly carrying secrets? He wanted to know so much more. Maybe he could write his thesis on this...

He nodded his head softly as the lad spoke about his method to eating the cookies, the information he provided seemed to make sense. Jitae’s brain was suddenly alert, wanting to see if the information correlated correctly with the boy’s personality and behaviors outside of this very situation.

“Three out of three? Really?” he tilted his head, eyes gazing towards the package of cookies that were picked up off the floor, “Could you tell me more?”

     it was odd that so many androids and machinery started malfunctioning at the university lately, there were many things that needed immediate repair. or perhaps, the reason leon noticed it was because he was being sent out more often instead. it had to be either one of the two. after all, biorepair was busier than it looked on the surface, a small shop tucked in akihabara, they had a lot of requests all over the city, people who preferred a cheaper and faster option to neatech. after all the company was much slower than they were, so they won on that front.

      so, when his boss tells him to hurry and get his ass over to shujin again, leon is surprised but curious at the same time, wondering what isn’t working this time. it doesn’t take him long to get his backpack and rush to the scene, but then again, he is quite late. he stumbles into the classroom, seeing the rows of students looking bored as hell, and the assistant sweating bullets trying to fix the machinery.

     leon moves towards what seems to be a problem and greets the assistant with a nod, trying to calm them down with soothing words. in the next few minutes, he is sitting on the floor cross-legged, pulling out the hardware of the mainframe for the projector. it’s quite busted, but he thinks he can replace some wires for a temporary solution. adept fingers take apart the wires, and in ten minutes, he is done. leon is glad he isn’t a human, but he feels the itch to wipe the sweat off his brow nonetheless. 

     it’s then the assistant gets a text to postpone the lesson, and groans can be heard through the classroom. they really should have let the students go if they weren’t going to hold class in the first place, but it is what it is. many of them scramble away hurriedly, and leon feels the need to apologize, even if he did his job as soon as i could. “i’m sorry you had to wait.” he tells to the student, bowing a little in apology.

"Dumpling... an eight lettered word... d - g - i - l - m - n - p - u...,” Jitae’s mouth moves subtly as he mumbles the alphabetical order of the letters in the word “dumpling,” trying to keep himself preoccupied while the class assistant works away at the malfunctioning machinery. Not really one to get impatient, the dark haired boy just busies his mind with counting letters and breaking words about just to pronounce individual sounds to himself. It’s only when the door opens and a new individual enters the classroom that Jitae’s wandering mind comes to attention.

Seeing the way this new person moves swiftly towards the assistant and begins to speak tells Jitae that this must the one the class has been waiting for, their savior – the repairman. Unlike the other students who don’t seem to pay him any mind and continued chatting with one another or scrolled on their phones with monotonous expressions, Jitae tilts his head to the side mildly. Curious about the work the repairman is about to perform. 

This repairman is unlike what Jitae’s imagination pictured him to be. Not to be one to believe stereotypes, but he’s somewhat surprised by just how young he seems to be. Jitae’s mind had conjured up someone in their middle aged years... perhaps with a bit more weight to carry than what’s in their backpack alone. However, appearances don’t seem to matter once the young man begins working away at the wiring of the machinery. Working with such finesse that leaves Jitae speechless, mouth hanging down in surprise. He wishes he was closer to be able to see it better. He worked with such speed that Jitae couldn’t help but ... stare. His eyes gazed with an intense focus, it seemed as though he was glaring at the other man.

It wasn’t long until the issue had been solved, but to the dismay of the students, the class being postponed until the next scheduled meet up. A chorus of groans and hushed cheers can be heard from the students, rising from their seats to file out the door and carry about their now freed up days. Jitae, however, doesn’t move out as quickly as the others. He stares at the youthful face of the repairman, who apologizes to the students even if he wasn’t at fault for anything. Taking in a deep breath, Jitae stands from his chair slowly, pushing it in and shuffling to the exit slowly behind the last few lingering students. “What a drag today has been...,” he thinks to himself as he flickers his gaze once more towards the bowing repairman. Deciding to make his thoughts known, he stops walking and turns his body to face the apologizing man. With a blank facial expression he opens his mouth and lets the string of ideas plaguing his mind flow out,

Lucky was doing great.  This was the time of day he worked best - long after the sun had gone down, long after nearly every reasonable person in the city had gone to sleep.  Morning classes were a problem for Future Lucky - he’d probably end up sleeping through the majority of his first lecture again.  But at that exact moment, he was as productive as it was possible for a usually highly-distractable nineteen-year-old to be.

That wasn’t to say he was doing homework, of course.  That was still something going a bit over his head, and he was hoping that if he ignored it long enough it would just go away.  It probably wasn’t a viable strategy, but it was the one he was going with.

Besides, it wasn’t as if he wasn’t actually working on anything - just that it was a Matrix project, not a Shujin one.  It was a virus, though what in particular it was going to be used for he hadn’t been informed.  All he had to do was make it undetectable, and make it destructive. 

A few more taps to the screen, and Lucky decided he was at a good enough pause point to take a break.  Pushing his chair back, he raised his arms up above his head in a luxurious stretch, smiling a bit to himself as he slipped off the large headphones that had been covering his ears.  The shift from loud electronic music to absolute silence was deafening, and Lucky stared around the library with wide eyes as he realized that he was the only one left in the vicinity.

No, wait.

There was someone else, two tables over, papers spread out in front of him and a look of absolute exhaustion on his face.  He was eating oreos, Lucky noticed, and less than a second later the words had jumped from his brain to his mouth, as usually bypassing any potential stops along the way.

“Did you know those things can tell your personality?”

Coming back to studying after realizing how late it was seemed to be harder than starting to study in the first place. Since he broke his focus, his sleep-addled mind kept trying to whisk him off onto dreamland. Falling asleep would be so easy right now, it’s nice and quiet here... not too warm... no one would bother him if he just shut his eyes for a little while...

Jitae groaned each time he snapped back to, his head having lolled to the side. Rubbing at his burning eyes, he let out a grand yawn, stretching his legs out underneath the table and groaning at the tension in his stiff muscles.

“I’m never going to get anywhere at this rate...” he thought as he gazed at all his papers sprawled out on the table before him chaotically. Jitae shook his head in disappointment, reaching out for another oreo and nibbling on it tiredly. Hopefully a little sugar will work to wake him up properly. 

Well, let’s say the sugar didn’t wake him up as well as the only other person in the library did.

Jitae jumped. Oreo shooting out of his hand and onto the floor, chocolate cookie crumbs sprinkling the floor. His whole frame essentially shot out of his chair - he wasn’t scared, though. Okay? He was very sleepy. Dozing off. Anyone would shoot out of their skin jump at a sudden movement or loud sound. Jitae snapped his neck to face the source of his heart attack surprise.

It’s that other boy. The one who was previously hunched over his computer with headphones on. How in the world is he able to stay that active at this hour? Jitae just kept staring at him, head moving left and right slightly in confusion – he wasn’t being rude! He just really couldn’t believe he was being spoken to from two tables away...

INCOMING MESSAGE …

FULL NAME: jitae bang ALIAS: haze DATE OF BIRTH: 2119/02/14 ALIGNMENT: pro-android OCCUPATION: student at shujin, psychology major; clerk at yamazaki antique shop AFFILIATION: n/a ACCOMMODATION: orchard housing, jinbocho FACECLAIM: kim seokjin

ACCESSING: BACKGROUND …

haze | noun | /hāz/ : vagueness or obscurity, as of the mind or perception; confused or vague thoughts, feelings, etc.

Jitae Bang is the son of a well-off family. One look and you could think that he was just another rich, spoiled brat with a silver spoon in his mouth the second he left his mother’s womb. But of course, it’s never right to judge a book by its cover. Unlike most of the high class children Jitae went to school with, he was not lavished in presents. He was not taken out to grand family trips. And he was most certainly not given his own personal android to play games with after school.

While he did live in a rather excessively large house. And have house keepers, cooks, drivers, and nannies – human and android. None of it was his. It was all his parent’s wealth. And as a child they made sure to make this information known to their son. Their luxuries and wealth are all because they worked hard to achieve this success. And as their son, he too, will learn the notion of hard work.

His place in academia was to be the number one student. Regardless of the subject. Because report cards are the single most determining factor to consider when judging the worth of an individual’s life. His place at the house was to maintain a clean and proper home, his parents having requested that the hired staff educate and show Jitae how to clean and care for the house as they worked. Regardless of the task. Because a clean home is a proper home. Jitae lived his childhood under a strict set of rules, and watchful eyes. While his parents were never physically around much, they were always calling (phone or video) their son to make sure he met their expectations. While technology was flourishing and adjusting into the lives of many homes and families, the Bang family preferred the more traditional methods to raising their child and maintaining order within their four walls. Things continued simply this way for many years, until Jitae’s tenth birthday that is.

Boarding schools were such a unique concept. The promise of a well-to-do education for well-to-do children from well-to-do homes. Promises of accepting your sons and daughters as children and returning them as respectable men and women of society. He never really understood why he was being sent to a boarding school in the first place. Jitae was a very well behaved boy, and his teachers praised his intelligence and participation in the classroom. He couldn’t possibly think of a reason for why his family would want to send him away to a strange campus in another country. His brain, still too young, cannot begin to wrap around the idea that it’s a rather cruel tradition for wealthy upper class families to get rid of encourage new ideas for growth in their children. By introducing them to new environments, languages, and cultures. To open new doors. And shut old ones.

Of course, that didn’t matter. They sent him off regardless of his confusion. He could not oppose the words of his parents. For what they said was final. Their words, sacred. They were law, and they were order.

And on his twelfth birthday, Jitae stood there at the airport. With a one way ticket to Switzerland in his clammy hand. Just outside of the entrance to the terminal gates. His suitcases by his side, backpack adjusted tightly on his shoulders. His new school uniform crisp and freshly pressed, shoes buffed and sealed under a fresh coat of wax. The airport’s busy commotion did nothing to stop, seemingly unfazed as a lone child simply stood there. Wearing a blank expression… one that could be confused as sadness if they simply glanced at him. Jitae stood there, motionless, a few moments longer. Waiting. Hoping. The air around him slightly suffocating. He willed himself to stand strong and refuse to let his tears well up and fall. He was valiant. However, the airport security was growing worrisome. It wasn’t long until someone came to the boy and gently ushered him into the gates. Turning his back away from the central hub of the building. He was never given a proper send off to his new school. One that was far away from the country he called home.

His parents had never given Jitae the opportunity to even so much as glance at the campus prior to his send off. He had little to no idea about the place he would call home for the next several years, unbeknown to him. However, the moment he arrived on campus and stepped foot on the gravel, he knew it was going to be troublesome.

It was a citadel for canned though. Finding vapidity in uniqueness. Sharing disinterest in dexterous thinking.

Oh, how he struggled to integrate into the new society he was placed in. None of the other children really showed much interest in Jitae’s fascinations about psychology, nature, or about daydreams. He quickly became an outsider. Excluded. Segregated away from everyone else. Yet, what the other children failed to realize was that Jitae was used to this. In fact, their efforts to make him feel unwelcome only made him feel at home. Solidarity was his only companion.

He continued on like this for years. Excelling in academics, and yet, showing little to no interest in social activities. Instead he stuck to his books, his ideas, and all the wild fantasies he could conjure up in that head of his. Seeping away further and further from reality. Deeper and deeper into the world of dreams. It became so easy for him to do. He could just gaze out, slowly disassociating from reality, and suddenly be on another planet entirely. It was safe. It was comfort. It was the only place where he could really be himself. Since the real world didn’t want him to be that.

His dorm was piled up with novels, research studies, and thick textbooks ranging from the bottom of the sea floor to the careful and detailed analyzations of Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy. On his desk was a composition book full of his daydreams. His personal philosophies. And his innermost thoughts. Every inch of the book was filled, carefully with dates and times. Brackets off in the margins providing supporting source material for his ideas.

While his imagination grew to tremendous heights, it eventually backfired on him. Developing strange quirks that seemed to bother him to no end if he didn’t complete them. He spent more time focusing on words, numbers, and colors than on actual interactions with people. Sometimes stopping mid-sentence just to finish counting the number of letters a word had. He would lose his train-of-thought easily, and would cover many topics at once without taking a breath. It became overwhelming at times… even becoming a walking hazard to himself when he would walk into things or end up leaving scuffs and bruises all over himself. All habits he never learns to outgrow.

He spent more time in his false reality than he did in the real world.

And as such, didn’t pay it much notice when graduation was just around the corner. Rather than choosing to go back to South Korea immediately after completing his secondary education, he chose to wander around Europe and explore the sights for a while before returning back to his home country. Truly letting his mind wander. Finding peace in the open world, as compared to the confines of his school.

The moment he returned to his parent’s home in South Korea he was to begin applications for university. His time spent abroad in Switzerland would prove to be beneficial, as he was able to enroll in his first choice school with ease. Shujin University. Jitae’s parents were proud of their son’s academic success, and they expected him to continue to bring honor to the Bang name. As soon as all documentations were finalized, Jitae was shipped off once again.

Japan and Switzerland felt similar for some time. Both incredibly foreign upon arrival, but both starting to feel more like home than his actual childhood abode. His time at Shujin University seemed to go by much easier than in secondary school. The other students paid him no mind, not because of his strange antics, but because there were simply so many students. So many things to do. So many things to study for. Everyone was just trying to stay afloat…

Jitae preferred to stay as far away from the commotion of Tokyo as possible. Finding solace in The Orchard Housing in Jinbocho. In the outskirts of the lower level. While the travel times were a little bit of a hassle, Jitae much preferred the comforting silence of a good night’s rest. Of a long commute where he could daydream, count the numbers in the letters of signs, or catch up on class material before the next lecture.

It’s no trouble being away from South Korea. Away from his family. Because while all the other upper class children his age got to play with their sparkly new androids and go on expensive trips abroad, he learned to maintain a house. To cook, clean, and care for himself properly. He’s learned to take care of himself as early as he could remember. Never having to rely on anyone else for much. He could fulfill all his childhood wishes now that he’s older and away from his parents. He could daydream selfishly. After all, university is supposed to be a memorable experience, right? What could possibly go wrong?

ACCESSING: PERSONALITY …

POSITIVE TRAITS: humble, outside the box thinker, stops to smell the roses NEGATIVE TRAITS: clumsy, always thinking but rarely pays attention, easily distracted

a seemingly old soul. jitae is a simple boy with simple interests. he likes to read and think. the world is so large, so much larger than we could ever know… and he just wants to understand it, and understand those who live on it. he is soft spoken, but the meaning behind his words are deafening. he’s definitely not the type of person to put himself out there, much preferring to stay in the library or in the comfort of his apartment. spaces out more than anyone would like, and talks some nonsense from time to time, but means no harm. when listening to music he prefers to lay on the floor and shut his eyes, letting it envelope him completely – of course, this looks ridiculous to onlookers, but he pays it no mind. while he is proud of the technological advancements that humanity has achieved in the past hundred years or so, he feels bombarded by it constantly. always feeling overwhelmed by just how much stimulus there is all around him. he finds relief in printed media and things without screens. there is tranquility within it. maybe it’s the fact that it reminds him of his childhood house. the old stillness.