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mistymark · 5 years ago

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VIGILANTE/S V

part five // 4.0k words // superpowered!au // (sort of) gang!au // series masterlist

summary; in which you consider yourself somewhat of a vigilante.

warnings; swearing, mentions of death, weapons and killing, gang shit really

notes; this is just a filler bc the whole thing ended up being way too long but !! hope u like anyway <33

One week into living in the warehouse, you’ve got your own routine. You know what times to avoid the bathrooms, you know not to eat Chenle’s cereal – a tip from Donghyuck, who informed you that Chenle once set him on fire for doing just that – you know that Jaemin is the only one who cooks breakfast, and most of the meals eaten in the warehouse are from local takeout stores with shifty delivery guys. You know that 15 pizzas are ordered for one meal – because Jaemin eats at least 5 of them.

“My metabolism is crazy,” he explains to you on your third day there. “I’ll be hungry again in, like, 2 hours.” Mark had laughed and said that was normal for anyone here.

Donghyuck had whispered to you, “Jaemin carries around jellybeans all the time for his blood sugar. If you want to piss him off, call him Jelly Baby.”

You know that every time Jaemin is given an assignment, he brings a girl back to the warehouse, something you’d discovered when you saw Jeno sleeping on the couch in the main room the next day. You know the boy named Renjun doesn’t train, and hardly leaves his room. You know that Donghyuck sometimes snores in his sleep, now that you’re sharing his room, which actually hasn’t been so bad.

Jaehyun had you move in together the day after you met him, and he’d been really nice about it, moving half of his clothes from his wardrobe so you had space, and boxing up most of his stuff to allow more space for your things. He’d even offered to take down his sketches and drawings so you had some wall space. It was a sweet gesture, but you found his posters interesting, so you told him to keep them up.

Doyoung had gone with you to empty out your apartment – not that it had much in it – and convince your landlord to break your lease. “Your landlord has a very weak mind,” he’d said in a monotonous tone, when he was carrying a box to his car, a flashy black thing that certainly did not belong in your neighbourhood at all. The dilapidated, crumbling buildings surrounding you were brown and dirty, the streets grey and filled with potholes, the people who inhabited the area looking just as worn. Doyoung, on the other hand, was clean and sharp, wearing fitted black jeans and a clean white tee. His shoes were almost as shiny as his car, which made you feel slightly self-conscious when you noticed how much he stood out here.

“He’s pretty much given up on life,” you’d agreed, which earned you a smirk from him. It was true, your landlord was a chubby, pot-bellied man who wore nothing but baggy, ill-fitting jeans and old t-shirts with various food stains on them. You’ve never seen him leave the building, and you often wonder if he knows what a shithole the place is.

“I can’t believe you actually lived here,” he looked up at the building, at the brickwork that was being held together by mould rather than concrete, at the wooden window frames that were rotten and splitting apart, at a window that was recently broken, now being blocked by a curtain taped across the panel – at the place you once called home.

Well, not necessarily. It hadn’t felt like home since your dad had died, if you were being truthful.

“You live in a warehouse with criminals,” you reminded him.

“We live in a warehouse with criminals,” he cracked a smile at you, taking the box from your hands and placing it in the boot of his car.

“At least my roommate only kills himself,” you mumbled on the drive back.

“Donghyuck wouldn’t hurt a fly,” Doyoung laughed. “He’d probably kill himself if a fly started a fight with him, just so he wouldn’t have to fight it and win.”

You watched the buildings go by – Doyoung drove slower than the elderly, you were sure – and all the industrial warehouses with cute, bright signs advertising children’s toys and courier services, wondering how many of them were a front for another operation, like Jaehyun’s. “Do you think Donghyuck can die? For real?”

Doyoung was silent for a moment, then, slowly, he said, “We have our speculations. We can’t know for sure, though. And none of us really want to.” You gave a small smile to him, though he was too focused on the road ahead to see it. When you’d first come to the warehouse, you were sure no one liked him, since no one seemed devastated by the fact that he was dead. Now, you knew he was family to them.

“You have a cassette player?” Donghyuck was supposed to be helping you unload your stuff into your now shared room, but he was mostly just being nosy, going through your boxes and not actually putting anything away.

“Uh, yeah,” you throw a glance over your shoulder, seeing Donghyuck sitting on his bed, rifling through one of your boxes. “It was my dad’s.”

He nods, gently putting it on the bed. He doesn’t ask any questions about it, or your family, which you’re grateful for, but it makes you think he doesn’t have any family of his own.

You know Donghyuck is the most open out of all of the team, but you also know not to ask any personal questions.

You know a lot of things after living in the warehouse for a week. You know that Jaehyun drinks tea in the mornings and coffee at night, that Doyoung cannot access Chenle’s mind. You know that Donghyuck is definitely not a morning person, and that he exclusively wears black, as if he’s always ready for a funeral. Maybe that’s exactly the reason; some kind of sick joke surrounding his immortality.

Most importantly, you now know how to survive Johnny’s training sessions. You’ve trained with most of the team, mostly the Shields – Jeno, Jaemin, Mark and Chenle – as their powers manifest physically, and are easier to control, but Johnny has also been helping you use his ability. “You’re smaller and weaker than the rest of the team, and most Shields in general,” he’d said, eyes roaming your body. It was the first time anyone’s ever looked at you like that without making you feel objectified. “If I’m around, my ability may be the difference in whether you win or lose a fight. Try again, and focus on me.” As if you already weren’t.

He’d hunkered down and gestured for you to begin. With the other members around, you could take Johnny down in less than a minute now. Alone, it took you upwards of 10 minutes.

The day you officially move into the warehouse, you’re exempt from training with the Shields, but Donghyuck takes the opportunity to teach you gunmanship.

“I’ve used a gun before, you know,” you say, but after 10 shots you still haven’t managed to hit the target. The firing range isn’t small, located in the basement of the warehouse, which you didn’t even know existed, but you should have been able to at least hit the target once.

He laughs, picks up the gun and nails the target’s centre 5 times in a row, “So have I. Do you want to be able to actually hit your target, though?” The hole in the centre of the target looks about twice the width of the bullet, made from the bullets hitting basically in the same spot each time.

He puts a hand on your shoulder, adjusting the position of your shoulders, then places one on your lower back, adjusting your posture. You’re stiff, and you know it. He clears his throat and steps back, “Go.”

You brace yourself and shoot, the bullet going straight through the target’s stomach.

“Not too bad,” he nods in approval, holding his hand out for the gun and easily changing the clip in three quick motions. He offers the gun back to you, “Again.”

“You sound like Johnny,” you say when you take it from him. You deepen your voice as low as possible to mimic your trainer and the short, efficient way he speaks, “Again. Stop. Go. Try again. Up.”

Donghyuck lets out a loud laugh that immediately brings a smile to your face. “That was amazing.” He sits down and leans back, a hand pressed against his stomach as he laughs, mimicking your imitation. You join him on the floor, resting your back against the wall and leaning over to grab the bag of potato chips he’d brought down with you. “Have you ever shot someone?”

He reaches over and steals a few chips, as if it was the most normal question in the world. But, there’s a slight shake in his voice when he speaks, “Shot? Yes. Killed? No.”

“Who?” He shoots you a sideways glance and you lower your head, “Sorry.” No personal questions.

The heavy stench of awkward silence settles over you. He breaks it, “Johnny.”

You don’t know what to say except, “Shit.”

“Yeah,” he swallows thickly. “It was an accident. Obviously.”

You’re about to ask what happened when you’re interrupted by someone coming down the stairs. Neither of you had bothered to shut the door to the firing range, giving anyone going up or down the stairs a full view of what you were doing. Jaehyun stops when he sees you both, sitting on the floor of the firing range, sharing a bag of potato chips. He doesn’t look at you, focusing on Donghyuck. He clears his throat, “Are you training, Hyuck?”

Donghyuck’s eyes are wide and innocent when he answers, “Teaching Y/n how to shoot.”

Jaehyun’s eyes move from the two of you to the target and back again, but he doesn’t say anything about the lack of holes in it. “Johnny’s ordering Chinese – if you want anything, let him know. I’ll see you guys tomorrow.”

He continues and you turn to Donghyuck, “Where’s he going?”

“Garage,” Donghyuck says, through a handful of chips. “Do you want the rest of these?” He offers the bag to you. You shake your head.

“What else is down here?”

“Weapons vault, garage, the range,” he answers distractedly, too focused on getting the last of the flavouring from the bag. “The gym…” his voice trails off.

When he’s satisfied that the bag is indeed empty, he stands up, offering his hand out to you to pull you up, “Jaemin takes ten minutes to pick what he wants to eat, so if you have a preference, we should probably tell Johnny now.”

You take his hand and let him pull you up, reaching for the gun that lays on the ground, “Where-?”

“I’ll take it,” he takes it, quickly turning the safety on and reaches around to his back, tucking the weapon into the back of his black jeans.

Your second day of training was with Chenle, in the gym, which looked more like the inside of an asylum than anything. Everything was clean and a pale, almost-white shade of grey, and the entire ceiling was a cloudy glass panel that illuminated the room, giving the room a bright and energetic yet sterile feel. The equipment was state-of-the-art, a dark contrast to the overall lightness to the room, and floor to ceiling mirrors took up two of the walls. There was a stack of clean towels in the corner, and a few televisions across the room, visible from each machine. A smaller version of the Super fight ring was situated at one end of the long room. Yet, the thing that shocked you the most was the bright blue flooring, an odd design choice.

Chenle was the least helpful out of the Shields in the team, watching you train with his ability, critiquing your control and your movements with a stern eye. “Wrong. Try again. Make it hotter this time, or you’ll do no damage.” As if to gloat, he held a hand up, and a dangerous blue flame engulfed it. Your own flame, a measly bright orange, wavered.

The entire time you’d trained with him, he’d done nothing but glare and criticise you. You were sure he hated you, or maybe it was just the fact that he wasn’t the only one who had his ability anymore.

Yet, as he was leaving to eat, he’d nodded in approval at you, “Good. We’ll train together again soon, I’m sure.” It was the most he’d said to you. Actually, if you added up everything he has said to you, it would still be less words than were in that sentence.

Basically, he hadn’t spoken to you much all week.

Jaemin, however, was the opposite, and the person you’d trained with the day after Chenle. If anything, he was too kind and too understanding - he barely helped you.

“It’s okay if you can’t run as fast as me, yet,” he’d assured you with a smile, his hands on your shoulders. His smile was wide and encouraging, his eyes kind, and you instinctively knew he was a heartbreaker. No one with a smile like that has ever been heartbroken, you’d thought. His flirtatious manner was also a dead giveaway.

Your suspicions were only confirmed when he’d been sent on an assignment at the Den, and entered the kitchen the day after looking a little too happy. A girl had snuck out a few minutes later, looking only slightly embarrassed as she tried to pull her shoes on and find the exit at the same time. Jaemin had just stood in the kitchen and smiled at her as he ate his toast, not even bothering to show her out.

“You’ll have to eat a lot tonight,” he informed you at the end of your training. “And make sure you don’t have any training tomorrow morning, because you’ll be out for a while since this is your first time testing your stamina with my ability.”

He was right; you were exhausted after only two hours with him. When you’d told him just that, his smile widened and he winked at you. You laughed and shook your head at him, throwing your towel at him, “I’m going to shower.” He opened his mouth but you shot him a stern look, “Do not ask to join me.”

His easy-going smile remained on his face as he shrugged nonchalantly, “Worth a shot.” He bent down to pick up his drink bottle and began tidying up the gym as you left.

The person that surprised you the most was Jeno. His ability was easy enough to control, since you could control when you wanted the super strength, but he was happy to train you in preparation for your own training with Johnny.

“I guess it’s easy if you can control when you want to use someone’s ability, since your emotions don’t get in the way,” he’d said, as he wound his fist up with tape and gauze. “But if we’re not around, you need to be able to defend yourself with just your, uh, body.”

You nodded, but didn’t say anything.

“Keep a clear head and be logical. Johnny is the only one that can see what you’re about to do, so unless you’re fighting him, think about what you’re doing.” The intense look is back in his eyes when he looks up from his wrapped hands, checking to see if you’re listening, as you haven’t said anything. You can easily see why the others would hate fighting him – he’s smart and he’s dangerous. “If you don’t think, you’ll… you’ll get hurt.” Something in his voice has changed, but it’s gone when he speaks again, “You’re no use if you’re dead.” You quirk an eyebrow at him and he juts his chin up at you, “Hold out your hand.”

You do as he says and he steps forward and begins wrapping your hand delicately. It’s far neater than you’d expected.

“Were you a boxer?”

He lets out a humourless laugh, “No. I’ve just been in a fair few fights.” You try not to react, but he can see what you’re thinking when he looks up. “Relax, most of them walked away just fine.”

“Most?” He doesn’t respond, and you take the hint that he does not want to talk about it.

He’s actually quite a good trainer, you discover, and teaches you the strongest ways to take someone down. He’s less talkative than Jaemin, but his instructions are clear and easy to follow, and at the end of your session, you’re able to do basic sparring with him.

“It’s 6,” he says, looking up at the wall of the gym. Without even a goodbye, he grabs his drink bottle and gym bag, lightly jogging up the steps to head to his room.

That night, you ate dinner with Mark and Jaemin. Well, you ate while they played video games. Jaemin shared a room with Jeno, but you hadn’t seen him since your training session. Empty pizza boxes were stacked by the door, and you counted at least 5. Your own box was sitting beside you on Jeno’s bed, while Jaemin and Mark sat side by side on Jaemin’s bed, their eyes glued to the TV screen that hung on one wall. Their room was a lot more… normal than you’d expected. Donghyuck’s was a giveaway that he was a Super – or a psychopath, either worked – with the blood and the diagrams and the journals and the weapons stacked in boxes around the room.

Jeno and Jaemin’s room was fitted out with their beds, desks, wardrobes, bean bag chairs, an old gaming console and a flatscreen TV. A few movie posters and celebrities were on the wall, and old photos. Only Jaemin had photos, and even so, there were only a few taped to the wall above his bed’s headboard. You couldn’t make out any details from where you were sitting.

Mark’s reflexes were no match for Jaemin’s, and he lost almost every round, making you wonder why he still agreed to play.

“Hey, should I save some of this for Jeno?” You asked, staring at the pizza still remaining in the box. There were only three left, and part of you wondered if it would even be enough. The other part of you thought it would at least be polite to offer.

“Nah, he won’t be back til tomorrow,” Jaemin doesn’t even turn around in his seat, his eyes frantically following his character as it moves across the screen.

“Huh. Okay,” you pick up another slice just as the game ends and Jaemin turns to throw another wide grin at you.

“That means my room’s free for the night, if that’s what you’re wondering.” He laughs at the look of exasperation on your face.

When his attention is away from you again, you say, “Jaehyun sure keeps you guys busy.” There’s only a little bit of bitterness in your voice; you’d been with the team for four days and the only time you’d left was to sort out your apartment. Apparently, you weren’t ready for any assignments yet.

“Huh? Jaehyun has him on an assignment?” Mark’s confusion gets your attention, as he turns to look at Jaemin with a furrowed brow. This was clearly unusual – or, at least, news to him.

Jaemin barely glances at you as he responds, “Nah, he’s visiting his girlfriend.”

“Jeno has a girlfriend?” You ask, only slightly shocked. It wasn’t like you’d thought about their love lives, but you’d just assumed everyone was single. It went with the job description.

“Yeah,” Jaemin nods. “She lives on the other side of the city somewhere. At one of the colleges. He normally goes after trainings on Fridays, since it’s the only night she’s not studying.”

Even without seeing your face, he can sense your surprise.

“Don’t ask him about it, though. He’s very reserved when it comes to her. Doesn’t want any of us to know much about her. I don’t even know her n-”

Mark laughs when he finally manages to kill Jaemin, and Jaemin pouts and rolls his eyes, insisting he was too focused on you to play. “You’re such a baby,” Mark laughs louder, and Jaemin swats at him. His hand moves so fast you barely even see it hit Mark’s arm. “Ow! Dude!”

“One more game, come on,” Jaemin insists, turning back to the screen. Then he raises his voice, “Anyway, Y/n, he won’t even tell us her name, let alone anything else about her. So don’t bring it up.”

“Or he’ll literally chokeslam you,” Mark adds, which, for some reason, makes them both laugh loudly.

You nod, despite the fact they can’t see you, and go back to eating your pizza, “I’ve got next game!”

Mark sighs in relief, “Gladly.” Jaemin’s competitiveness was beginning to wear him out.

The following day, Mark taught you the basics of shape shifting. He was the latest addition to the team – other than you – and his control was even worse than yours. “Shape shifting is really difficult,” he giggled, nervously. “If you’re not 100% imagining what you want to be, you’ll turn into something way different. But don’t panic, it will restrict your ability to change back.”

Over the course of the day, you’d shifted into birds, mice, elephants, leopards, any creature you could think of. Though, you had humiliated yourself when he went to get snacks during your break, greeting and talking to the large dog that came trotting down the stairs, as if it were Mark.

“What are you doing?” He’d laughed when he walked back into the gym, snacks in hand.

You’d been at a loss for words, your cheeks immediately becoming inflamed. “I- I thought that was you,” you pointed at the dog, which was panting as it sat down on the stack of towels in the corner of the room.

“That’s Bruce, Renjun’s dog,” Mark explained, tossing you a can of iced coffee. “Don’t tell Jaemin you drank his coffee.”

You paused, the opened can raised to your lips. You lowered it, slightly, “Why does Jaemin need coffee if he already operates at like 10 times the speed we do?”

“For after he crashes,” Mark shrugs. “Sometimes speed isn’t everything.” He laughs at his own joke, “If he doesn’t sleep enough, he’ll still be exhausted. Sometimes he can’t afford to sleep more than 12 hours, so he relies on coffee.” He cocks his head to the side as he examines his can.

Later, when you’re sitting on the floor after successfully shapeshifting into cockroaches, you ask, “Have you ever tried turning into other people? Can you do that?”

“Yes, but – I really have to know what the person looks like. Like, I can imagine a dog and turn into a dog because any small details that I remember incorrectly will go unnoticed by a human,” he gulps down his cola. “Humans are more complex – one small detail could make me look totally different to the person I’m trying to copy.”

“Change into me, then,” you sit up straighter. “If you can see me, surely you won’t have to rely on your memory, right?”

He shrugs and locks his eyes onto you. You’d seen him transfer from human to horse, from sheep to frog, but somehow seeing him change from himself to you was more disturbing. His skin ripples and his bones make disturbing popping noises as they change, and you wonder if it hurts, even though you had shape shifted multiple times and knew it didn’t hurt at all.

Within a few seconds, right before your eyes… is you. “Hello,” he says in your voice.

“Okay, fuck that, change back,” you tell him, looking away. “That’s so creepy. Brilliant, but creepy.”

When he laughs, it sounds like him again, and you let your eyes drift back to where was sitting. He smiles, and his eyes crinkle at the corners. His eyes, not your own.

You could have so much fun with this ability, reminding yourself to try it on Donghyuck later.

You tell Mark this as he tosses a piece of popcorn into his mouth, and you both stretch out on the gym floor, laughing at all the pranks you could easily pull on the other members of the team.

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babiesdreams · 4 years ago

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Superhuman +18 Chapter 1 [127]

Warnings: mentions of: blood, rape, traumas, gore (kind of)

Jungwoo’s story:

It’s always been in my blood, but I wasn’t aware of it at first. Maybe I should have noticed in the way my anger came out like a power bust sometimes. Maybe people around me should have noticed before. But now is too late to feel sorry about things.

It isn’t something bad to take advantage of your situations, to help your relatives, It shouldn’t be bad.

The police’s siren marked the rythm of my heartbeats, but I tried to stay calmed, there was nothing suspicious about a young adult driving his car a few miles /metres away from a recently robbed bank. Not even if they cassually had a bag with a million dollars on the backseat.

“Can I talk to you sir?” A tall policeman says tapping on my car’s window. “Yes” I politely reply, while I rolled the window down just enough for him to hear me. “Can we inspect your car? There’s been a robbery near by and we wanted to make sure-” My foot quickly stepped over throttle, to start driving through the busy streets.

My mind was too focused on not driving into other cars that I almost forgot about my powers. After driving through three streets, I stopped the car completely, concentrating like I practiced. Everyone and everything freezed around me. Everything stopped, except me.

I took my time to escape, as I had literally all the time on my hands. I was so scared of what could happen to me that I simply kept the world on pause for a whole month. Hours, days the all went through like nothing.

I only stopped because my headaches were getting worse every minute, the pain was way too much to take, so I had to stop using my powers for a while. They eventually got me, and took me to prison, but luckily I could give the money to my family first. I hope they all can enjoy the life they deserved now.

I really hope so.

Taeyong’s story:

It’s always been a curse to me. I never felt normal, I was never normal I guess. I first noticed when I was five. My mom told me I was the best thing that happened to her, and the images passed through my head.

I was a product of a rape, and she tried her best to abort me, but it was too late, and then she just got used to it. She lost her job because of me, and all her friends left her. We moved to a new city and bills were trapping us in. I got to know that when I was only five.

Since then, I could always know when someone lied to me. I thought it was a stupid power, useless and harmful for myself, but it turned out to be harmful for others as well.

Knowing secrets is powerful, much more than what I thought. I got out a job because I knew the boss was cheating on his wife. I got a promotion because I knew a workmate was stealing stuff from the office.

I worked hard since I was fifteen to get to where I am, and I’m not gonna risk it all for a stupid project. I wasn’t gonna, but they have my mother, so I’m here to tell the truth.

Yuta’s story:

When you’re like me, people misunderstand a lot of things. I was diagnosed with TDAH when I was three. Doctors said I lives a fast life, and that I should relax. They were simply wrong.

I live my life in between pills, xannys and all sorts of medication. But that shit only stops my body, my brain still works an 180% faster than the average human brain. My Iq was qualified as “untestable” and I’ve lives in labs my whole life.

Doctors wanted to figure out what caused my “disease” and they never stopped testing me.

So I plotted an escape plan on a free hour I had. I faked eating the pills so that I could take back some of my physical speed, and then I left the lab, as fast as I could. When they realized I was out, I was already exactly 10.000 km away from them.

But I didn’t realize how freedom would get me lost, unpathed and really pityful. So I ended up taking drugs, which actually helped me getting some of my brain speed out, and be free of my own thoughts for a while. But drugs led me to a shameful path full of crimes.

Dongyoung’s story:

I’ve always lived apart from other humans. I was trapped into a jail, where the experimented with me. I never saw another human, not that I remembered. Everyone was so scared of my power I guess.

Nobody likes to be manipulated, but it’s something I couldn’t control. They made me believe I was a monster and I acted upon that. I never wanted to be harmful. But do you know how it feels to feel what others feel?

I get to feel others feelings constantly and they all get mixed up, and there’s so much anger in this world, and sometimes I can’t control that anger.

So yeah, maybe I manipulate people, but they made me feel bad first it’s just fair. I don’t want to feel this either.

When I escaped, everyone was too scared of me, I had to turn that into something less harmful, like, like exhaustion. I made them fall asleep, but I didn’t think about the consequences it all may have.

So when I felt overwhelmed... well you know what happened... I also felt their sadness, the way their souls got out of their bodies, the way they cried their lungs out. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to do that.

So I came here to learn how to control this.

Taeil’s story:

My powers came like something to be grateful for. My family were farmers, and the business kept going down. I still got the motivation to kept the farm going, and helping my family over the hardships of summer.

I don’t even know how it happened. I guess I just grabbed a bunch of rotten tomatoes and picture them to be the best vegetables I could imagine, and It changed, taking the form I had in my head.

Of course I didn’t tell my parents how I got the perfectly looking vegetables and fruits, but it saved the business, and I kept on doing it until I realized it waisted too much of my energy.

I want to make sure I can keep this going for more time until we get better, so I want to know how to improve with my powers.

Jaehyun’s story:

Transforming is never easy you know? The way I have to shape my body into something new and different from my original form, is not easy at all. I can transform myself into other humans, animals and even objects.

It causes my body to get stiff sometimes, and even if the things I transform into are a perfect copy of reality they have certain limits. Human limits I guess.

I remember this one time I turned into a plane, to escape from a robbery we did at a famous bank, it was kind of epic, but I ended up crashing into the ocean half way.

The rest is kind of history, everyone knows me and my mate. Rest in peace. But now I want to take a good turn and use my powers for good. That’s why I came here. But I must say I think I have what it’s needed to be a leader, so if we need a lead I think I can do it.

Mark’s story:

Okay so I was in middle school when this happened. I was too angry at my classmates, because they were always you know bullying me. So the thought came out of nowhere and I was just looking at the boy, and then his nose started bleeding a lot.

I thought it was just a coincidence, until I bumped into that guy. Yo he was raping a girl, and I got too angry and I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t know his veins would explode like that.

He bleed out in front of my eyes, I will never forget how life escaped his eyes. But the girl kept saying I was a hero so I thought it wasn’t that bad you know. I had the good luck that I was wearing a costume for my theatre classes.

Media named me as the bomb hero. They thought I used some sort of inner bombs, I don’t know honestly. I just want to control myself to have a normal life for once.

Johnny’s story:

I thought they were healing powers at first. My mother was at the hospital when I first noticed. I wanted her to get back to normal, and I guess I did. The thing is that I have to know exactly what I want to do to the body.

I knew my mother needed that cancer out so I just pictured it out(? I don’t know how to explain I just did it and she got back at her normal self instantly.

But It is also harmful, like my brother Mark, I can make organs and veins explode, or modify them as I want, tho I’mm better at healing.

We came here together because we wanted to live as a family, without feeling weird or different. And I feel like we can get that in here.

Donghyuck’s story:

I discovered my powers a week ago but you already know that, you also probably know that I’m the most powerful out everyone here, so I don’t get the point of sharing my story when you literally recruited me.

972: Lee Donghyuk, it’s a formal aspect we all agreed on, please do as you were told.

The robotic voice resounds all over the room, provocking me to sigh. “Fine. You want to know what I do?” I say, concentrating for a second, before I make the gravity dissappear on the said room. Everyone started to float in the air as I kept my feet on the ground.

Then gravity came back, when I stopped controlling it, making them all fall into the ground.

“You didn’t have to do that asshole” Jaehyun said in the distance, and I smiled to his stupid expression. “There’s no point in this anyway” I say, but everything turned a weird shade of blue fastly.

972: Welcome to the unit 127, you have been selected to the protection unit, you will be assigned with daily missions around the world that you will have to accomplish. I will always be watching your actions and if you go against the companies policies, we will inform the police to take you away. As long as you are here you are protected. 972 will always look after you.

“Are you like us?” Mark asked from the distance. The robotic voice answered a yes, that felt odd for everyone, but Taeyong started speaking the truth “She is more powerful than us and she’s leggit. Also she’s hiding behind that wall” The boy speaked calmly.

Jaehyun turned into one of the security guards body, breaking the glass that was covering the misterious girl with a stong punch. Her soft and calmed expression got us all. She got out of the cage she was in gently, supporting herself on one of the guard’s hand.

“You didn’t have to break that” She says calmly, repairing the broken mirror like nothing. The pieces slowy got back to place, like nothing had happened, at all. “I trust your ability of keeping secrets from now on, Lee Taeyong” her voice said calmly to the boy who simply nodded.

And like that she left the room, leaving us behind with all sorts of doubts. But I guess that’s how 972 worked, always wanting to keep the misterious atmosphere.

------------------------------------------------------

This is like a character introductions sorta so be patient for more parts pleaseee

Masterlist --requests open-- How to request? Check out your score.

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tetsurow · 6 years ago

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dude.... they cut off johnny’s mv part in superhuman, DO YOU SEE THE DISAPPOINTMENT. he literally went “where did my part go?” HE SOUNDED LIKE A LITTLE BABY ASKING WHERE IS MY CANDY. he looked so so so sad, :/

johnny was literally waiting for his part and then, sm decides to fucking remove it again. my heart literally broke into pieces. just the way he was waiting excitedly and expecting it... but no, sm decides to fuck it up. good job sm, you did it again. 🤒

#nct #nct angst #nct scenarios #nct127 #nct blurbs #nctu #nct au #nctdream #nct fluff #nct smut #nct johnny #johnny seo #superhuman #nct jyani #seo youngho

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ctzenofnct · 6 years ago

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KISSY KISSY 💋

#nct #nct 127 #superhuman #we are superhuman #haechan #jungwoo #taeil #jaehyun #taeyong #johnny #mark #yuta #doyoung #nct vlive #nct kiss #nct au #jung jaehyun #jaeyong

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cmpaws · 6 years ago

Video

tumblr

taeyong...brushing his hair up ㅠㅠㅠㅠ

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emosakumas · 6 years ago

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[23:54] cuddling in bed with donghyuck running your hair through his grey hair and asking how his promotions for superhuman went and he gets so excited and talks about how well they shot the music video

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yeoli-tranbolie · 6 years ago

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NCT +WayV (pt.2 of my haul)

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neonacity · 3 years ago

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Arcane | CH.1 | NCT Dream x Reader

Summary: When you decided to apply for a researcher post in an elusive institute, you already had the feeling that you will be getting yourself knee-deep into something out of the ordinary. But desperate needs require desperate measures, and so you embraced the invite, despite all the alarm signals urging you to run away. What you found out was nothing you’d ever expected.

Seven boys.

Seven human deviants granted with abilities tied to the legendary Arcana Cards.

Welcome to Project Dream.

Pairing: Various Dream Members x Reader

Trigger Warnings/Themes: violence, torture, trauma, yandere themes, poly dynamics, psychological, mystery, sci-fi. The concept of the tarot or Arcana cards will be loosely used throughout the series. Note that I am not a trained doctor so there may be some slips here and there about medical things. Again, this is a work of fiction and I am not implying any likeness between the characterization here to their real life counterparts. I also reserve the rights to all my work—I do not post anywhere else other than tumblr.

Chapter Song > Heathens

"Hey. I got your mail for you."

You looked up from your laptop just in time for your friend Mijeong to peek around your bedroom door. You have been staring so long at your blinding screen that you had to blink away the spots of color that appeared on your vision before training your gaze at the stacks of envelope that she was waving in her hand. You simply gave a soft grunt as she strutted into your room and dropped them on your table.

"Thanks. I was planning to pick them up tomorrow."

Your roommate gave you a look that you knew far too well by now. It was the kind of side eye that spoke volumes–and honestly one that you didn’t want to acknowledge at the moment. You made a pointed effort to ignore the bunch of letters that seemed to stick out like a sore thumb now on top of your research papers, opting instead to remove your glasses and wipe them unconsciously with your shirt. Behind you, Mijeong threw herself into your bed, her bracelets clinking together in her wrists as she sank into your mattress.

“Look, girl, I don’t mean anything bad about this. But when was the last time you slept?”

You didn’t even turn around when you gave her a reply. “Uh. Last night?”

“Sure. For how long?”

“Long enough.”

“I’m pretty sure an hour is not enough, young lady. I got home at 5AM and I clearly saw your light on even with all the vodka in my system.”

That made you finally turn around towards her with a sigh. One look at Mijeong and anyone would see how different you are from each other. She’s the type of girl you would often see at the newest hotspot in town, the campus crush everyone wants to be or be with. She moves around with a free-spirited air, one that was only made more appealing by her friendliness and openness towards everyone.

She’s an amazing girl, but that’s not what you like the most about her. Ever since you started rooming together in your last year in uni, you’ve gotten so close that it is almost impossible to think that you haven't known each other for years. Now that you’ve graduated, the pair of you still remain stuck together despite your priorities going down different directions, with Mijeong taking a year off before taking over her father’s pharma company and you diving straight to your PhD.

“Look, it’s not like I really have any other choice. My final paper was due yesterday and I had to finish my shift at the psych ward.”

"Is it really all that though?"

You abruptly stopped as she said that. The knowing look on her face was back again and you shifted your gaze away to keep from meeting her eyes.

"I just think you are pushing yourself too hard. Graduate school is different and then you also have to do that gig at the community hospital. I'm just worried that you might drop dead soon with what you're doing."

Maybe that will be better. To drop dead.

You were really only slightly surprised at your train of thought. To be honest, you didn't really need your psychology degree to understand the reason why you have been pushing yourself too hard in the last couple of months. Ever since that day you found a letter on your father's desk, you've been desperately trying to chase your high just so you wouldn't have to face the reality you've been slapped with.

And who wouldn't if they're placed in your situation? How would you deal if you come home one day to check on the only remaining parent you've ever known, only to find out that they've packed their bags and decided to disappear off the face of the earth? No other explanation, no other reason. All you're left with was a single letter apologizing for what he has done. Well, that and millions of debt, apparently.

You knew your father had been one passionate man. Your relationship with him was neutral enough in such a way that you didn't hate him, but you didn't know him at a personal level, too. It's an odd mix for your small unit since you didn't really have any other relatives who raised you, but the two of you somehow made it work.

Just like you, he also had a great love for the sciences. As a child, that meant going on for days without seeing him get out of his private research lab and spending holidays alone. You never really questioned it since it was the only 'parenting' he provided you with, though to give him credit, he did make sure you were never hungry and got the best education. On his part, he never shared with you what he was working on behind his closed doors and you also never bothered to ask, but you knew that it must be something incredibly important for him, what with all the hours he spent poring over his work.

That was one of your mistakes. You never asked. It never occurred to you to dig a little deeper about his projects, specifically, to get to know more about where he was getting his funding. Your father worked day and night…and a work ethic like that came with a hefty bill to support the scale of research he had been doing. You simply assumed he was a contractor to a hospital, a research group, or maybe an affiliate of a private benefactor. Whatever it was he was doing, you knew he needed money for it. Lots of it.

As it turns out, he wasn't any of those.

Oh no. He was so far off from any of your assumptions.

It apparently started with bank loans. From there, he moved to peer-to-peer lending, until it finally escalated to resorting to loan sharks. He threw himself head on to whatever it was that could give him money, and by the time he realized that he was drowning in it, it was too late for him to fix his mess up. And so he did the next thing a damned man could do—which is to jump ship before the waves fully drowned him.

The only problem about that was that he was the only one who left his sinking boat. You were left alone in it with no other choice but to desperately try and keep it afloat. Sure, you were not the one who borrowed the money, but you were also the only existing, living target that the sharks could chomp on after he disappeared without any other trace. Hell, you didn't even have any idea if he was still alive—if he is, then he is doing a very great job acting dead and absent.

It had been pure hell for you since the day of his disappearance. If you're not dealing with bank calls, you're desperately trying to hide away from actual collector visits. You consider it your lucky day when you actually get one from a legal collecting firm… because on your worst ones, you had to stare down the nose of a gun and pray to yourself that the mob will make you live another day.

Your eyes momentarily slipped now towards the stack of envelopes that Mijeong put on your table. Opening them has become useless at this point, because you already have a pretty solid idea of what their contents will most likely be. More problems. More mess for you to fix.

"I can't really quit my job at the hospital, you know that," you finally managed to answer as you turned towards your friend again. "And no, I am not going to give up my studies, especially with the scholarship that I have. It is already unfair enough that I have to fix his mess. I am not going to let go of the only right thing that is going on for me just so I can work and clean up his bullshit."

Your friend shot you an understanding glance in answer. That's another thing about Mijeong. She may practically be an heiress—and will probably never have a single financial hiccup in her life—but she is not entirely clueless when it comes to understanding the plight of people like you. In fact, she is very attentive about them, to the point that sometimes, you feel the only reason why she is still sharing an apartment with you is because she knew you needed someone to split off the costs.

"Are you sure that you don't really want to…"

You widened your eyes at her to give her a warning look before she even finished. You knew what was coming, and you didn't really want to hear it.

"No. That is not an option."

"But it can make your life so much easier! Look, I can just write you a check. You don't have to worry about interest and you can just pay me whenever you can—"

"Mijeong. I already borrowed money from you."

"After much insistence from me, yes. But that's not even an eighth of what you need. I know it because—"

"Jeongie. Stop."

The exhaustion in your voice must have been so obvious because it immediately made her pause. Maybe she is right… At this point, you knew that you couldn't afford even a trace of pride, but the last thing that you also need is to have someone act as your charity. You'll never be like your father who dumped his problems on someone else just because he lacked a shred of responsibility in his body.

"I really appreciate the offer… but I really don't want to borrow money just to pay off the mess he has made. I mean, I already did from you and that is not even a small amount at all."

A sigh came from your best friend now as she raked her fingers over her long, flowy hair. You gave her an apologetic smile which she only answered with a roll of her eyes.

"Sometimes, I want to wring your neck for your moral values. I can't force you to do what you don't want though. I'm just… really worried over you."

"I know. And I love you for it. Thank you, Jeongie."

You thought that was finally the end of the conversation as she fell silent while staring you down, but she is anything but finished. You were about to ask her again if anything is wrong when she suddenly put up a finger, asking you to shut up. You immediately pursed your lips at the action.

"This is going to sound silly, maybe even dangerous. But since you don't want to have the easy way out, what do you think about taking… a job?"

Your brows rose suspiciously.

"What job?"

You didn't miss the look of hesitance that briefly passed her at your question. For a few seconds, you actually thought she changed her mind about telling you more details, but then she sighed again and finally rearranged herself on top of your bed so she could look at you better.

"So you know how my dad's company supplies different institutions across the country, right? Well, the other night, he asked me to pick up something in his office and I found a folder there. As it turns out, we're also the primary provider of all the drugs of Cypher Institute."

A frown settled on your features at that reveal. Cypher Institute is the biggest research group in the country which has various arms in the medical, IT, and even nuclear fields. It is notorious for its influence in both the academe and the industry… though it is also equally infamous for the shady rumors connected to its name.

"Cypher Institute… the one that was recently in the news for a controversial psychological case study?" You asked Mijeong now who gave you a single nod in return.

"I got curious when I saw their file since they've been all over the television and papers, so I kinda decided to take a peek," she continued. You moved your head slightly to encourage her to speak more. She looked a little uncomfortable, which is a novelty for you since she is the type of girl who is almost never shaken by anything.

"Well, I saw the file… and it was a job post," she finally said after swallowing. "It was a list of open positions for a research experiment they are doing."

That took you a while to process. "Job positions—why did your father have it? Posts like those should be opened to the public, especially if it's for a research expe—" you stopped abruptly as realization struck you. You looked at Mijeong wide-eyed and she returned the glance with a look of confirmation.

"I don't think it is a publicly open experiment… or even a legal one," she said in a tone that was barely above a whisper. "I don't know the full details of it, but apparently organizations like these endorse their openings to a select few—in this case, industry partners who might know some leads. It's an open secret in the business…"

It took you a moment to absorb that. Sure, you are aware of underground projects like this, but you didn't really expect that you'll be brushing elbows with one ever in your life. The fact that it was coming from your friend, too, makes it even more odd. As someone who is both part of the research academe and the medical community, you didn't really know how to feel about it. You were still processing your thoughts when Mijeong's voice broke through them again.

"They have an opening for a researcher who can join their small team. The job details look pretty normal but they didn't really go into detail about the actual project. The pay… is very competitive."

You watched as she pulled up her phone and raised it to your eye level so you could see her screen. "I was in a hurry so I was only able to take a photo, but there is a QR code there that you could check. You know… if you're interested."

You reached out to take it from her hands and quickly scanned through the job requirements. She is right. Everything looked straightforward. They were looking for someone with a psychology background who can handle a test group for a contract of one year. It's nothing special than what you normally see from other jobs—but it is also that very thing that makes everything seem more suspicious given that it is posted by an organization with a reputation like Cypher's. It's for that reason that you took a couple of extra seconds to simply stare at the screen, your thumb hovering over it. You swallowed back the dryness that had gathered in your mouth as you flipped a thought over your head.

"What makes you think they will take me though?"

Mijeong raised her brows at you as if challenging the logic of your question.

"You have a double degree in psychology and psychiatry. You're also not a neophyte when it comes to actual on the ground research. If you ask me, you're even overqualified for it."

"But I'm not really affiliated with any—"

"They don't know that though. Obviously, this is an underground hiring, so they will probably only assume that whoever sends an application is from one of their networks."

You shot her a furtive look. Mijeong sighed and leaned towards you.

"Look, babes. I am not saying you should go for it because to be honest, even I think everything about that is shady as hell. But I just wanted to give you an option. Let's be honest here, you wouldn't be able to dig yourself out of your father's debts working in the community psych ward and I am seriously getting worried with the amount of harassment you're getting from the sharks. If you take this, you can probably pay everything in half a year tops."

She is right… She is absolutely right however you look at it.

You unconsciously gnawed on your lower lip now as you glanced back at the phone in your hand. No matter how you look at it, the opportunity is perfect for what you exactly need right now. Sure it might be illegal and sure you might end up in a ditch if you fuck it up, but to be honest, even that doesn't seem so bad from what you're dealing with at the moment.

You sighed and tapped the screen again so you could share the photo to yourself. Mijeong saw the look on your face and immediately understood your decision. She slightly grimaced.

"Oh God, if you die from working there it will be a hundred percent my fault, isn't it."

You gave her a stiff shake of your head before finally throwing her phone back to her.

"Don't feel guilty if that's the case. You'll be doing me a favor."

*******

"You will be the doctor assigned to seven of our high-security patients. I need you to sign these papers to formalize everything."

Your gaze fell on the single piece of document shoved towards you by the elderly lady sitting across the table. She shot you a look that said she'd rather be somewhere else so you softly cleared your throat and picked up your pen to get the deal done and over with. To be honest, you still can't believe that you are actually here now, sitting inside one of Cypher's ghastly looking interview rooms. Everything moved so fast from the moment you submitted your application that you actually thought they were just as desperate in getting someone to fill in the position. And so here you are, just a sign away from formally getting in. You quickly ran through the contents of the document now, a slight frown settling between your brows as you finally realized what it was.

"This is a… liability waiver," you said slowly as you gave her a glance. She didn't seem unperturbed by the hesitation in your voice at all, instead raising a brow as she looked dead into your eyes.

"A confidentiality and liability waiver. Signing this means you agree never to share any information about the project and that you relieve the organization of any responsibilities in the event that you get injured or die while at work."

She said that in such a straightforward, nonplussed tone that you wondered just how normal it is for such situations to happen in this place. For the hundredth time since you walked into the institute, you questioned yourself again if you were making a sane decision. However, there was also a bigger, more desperate part of you that was still ready to ignore the obvious red flags.

You swallowed the dry lump blocking your throat before finally gliding your pen on the blank at the foot of the page. You then pushed it back towards the woman before the ink even dried on the paper.

"Is there—Is there anything else I need to sign?" You asked shakily as you rested your hands over your lap to keep them from shaking. The lady gave the document one quick look before picking it up with her bony hands. For a while, she didn't say anything at all, her eyes only set on the drying scribble of your name there. It took you everything to keep yourself from squirming on your seat.

And then she smiled.

"None. That's it for now. We will be processing the remainder of your work papers tomorrow. You can sign them then. For now, you can start familiarizing yourself with the project… and your future patients. Welcome onboard, Doctor. "

You watched silently as she pushed towards you a metal folder holding what seemed like a thin ream of documents inside. Your cold fingers reached out to it, your gaze set on the glaring label on its cover. Thin black letters jumped up to you like living beings, spelling out two words.

Project Dream.

The first page you flipped to told you the basics that you've also read in the original job post. You will be the in-house psychologist for a group of volunteer patients for a high-profile but highly confidential experiment. It was the second document that gave you more information, your eyes widening as you quickly realized what the words there mean. Your head shot up towards the woman again who has now picked herself up from her seat, your signed papers safely clutched in her claw-like hands. She was just about to turn and leave when you called out to her in slight alarm.

“Wait, what does this—what does ‘human deviants mean?”

The term made her stop abruptly in her tracks. Slightly, she turned her body towards you, one part of her face washed by the lone stark fluorescent bulb lighting up the room. The rest of her features were bathed with shadows, but that didn’t stop you from making out the dead gleam in her eyes.

“It will be best to ask your patients personally. I’m sure they can’t wait to meet you.”

The ringing of the door echoed in the four walls of the room when she slammed it shut behind her. You were left staring at the spot she just left, your body temperature dropping as you stayed frozen on your seat. Slowly, your eyes moved towards the open file in front of you once more. Shaky fingers turned another page, your gaze landing on the faces printed there.

Seven boys with seven different sets of abilities that are beyond the capacity of a normal human. Their black and white faces stared at you from the page, their names and what you can only assume as their code names glaring underneath their headshots.

Your eyes fell on the first one.

Mark Lee, 23 years old.

Patient Code: 04

Arcana ID: The Emperor / L’ Imperatore

*******

The smell of antiseptic clinging in the place was not helping the state of your nerves at all. Your eyes roamed the stark white walls of the corridor you are currently traversing before moving towards the small sticky note on the top of your folder. It was the only thing given to you by a bleak-looking receptionist on the front desk—that and the direction to look for room 119 down the left wing of the Institute.

Cypher's structure was, in all sense of the word, intimidating. It was fully decked with what looks like the most advanced of technologies—eye scanners, voice-automated elevators, and the likes—to the point that the place almost gives off an air of icy artificiality. It was a sprawling maze of corridors that looked so alike from each other, and you couldn't help but notice just how far and in between the people roaming around got the deeper you wove your way into its underbelly. You know it shouldn't surprise you as much since you are working on a highly confidential project, but you still couldn't shake off the foreboding feeling gnawing at your insides especially after what you found out earlier from the files.

The clacking of your heels stopped when your eyes finally found the door you were looking for. It was at the end of a long corridor which seems to have fewer rooms than the earlier ones you passed through. You briefly looked back towards the direction you’ve come from before finally raising your hand to give a quick knock. If you're not 100 percent convinced before that working here is a bad idea, then you have absolutely no doubts about it now, that is fore sure. However, you will also be lying if you say you are not at all curious about what lies on the other end of all these.

Human deviants…

Superhumans…

They couldn't really exist, right?

"Come in."

You were mildly startled when a voice called out from the inside. Blinking a few times, you wrapped your hand around the steel door handle and finally pushed it open.

The room's expanse definitely took you by surprise. It looks significantly bigger than what one would assume from its unassuming entrance, its length spanning what you think might be a good quarter of the whole corridor. What really caught your eyes is its odd mix of setup, however, with one end looking like a laboratory and the middle similar to what you would see from a control room. Big screens took up one portion of a wall, though they were all currently dead at the moment. Beside it is another section of what looks like x-ray illuminators currently stacked with films.

"Can I help you?"

You were too caught up in trying to absorb everything that you barely even noticed the man currently huddled on one of the tables by your right. He straightened up a little bit better on his seat when you finally turned to look at him, his face now in better focus without the monitors covering it earlier.

"Hi. I—I am the new psychologist. I just joined the team today."

A look of realization dawned on his face momentarily before slight confusion crept in. You watched as he finally picked himself up from his seat to go over where you were. He looked just a couple of years older than you, with his dark hair brushed up to keep them from falling over his glasses. You tried to make out his name on the ID tag pinned on the pocket of his lab coat but he was already in front of you before you could properly make it out.

"I wasn't expecting you to start so soon. They told me someone was coming in later this week…"

"Uhh… I also was a little surprised that this is my first day, but they said it's better for me to get a good head start…"

His expression changed as he seemed to have picked up the slight hesitation in your voice. He gave you a guilty smile then and scratched the back of his neck before offering his hand to you.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to sound unwelcoming. I'm Qian Kun, the resident neurologist for this project."

Neurologist… so that explains the dozens of MRI scans on the wall.

"Nice meeting you, Kun," you said as you took his hand and offered your name. He definitely looked far more friendlier now that the air of suspicion has dropped off from him. "So… are we the only members of the research unit?"

"Oh no. There are quite a few. Most of them are junior researchers though and some are data analysts. They stay in a different room most of the time."

"So you are the project lead then?"

He gave a slight shrug of his shoulders as a reply.

"No, not really. But… I do get top level access to most of the files and the data. You'll have it too, I guess. Since you will be playing a major role now that you're here."

That made your gaze immediately drop towards the folder in your hand. To be honest, you haven't really brought yourself to read more after having a glimpse of the page with the faces of the study participants, and you would be lying if you say you are less confused now than when you first walked into the institute. Kun immediately noticed the look you had, his dark eyes reading what's behind them.

"You…were briefed about the study, weren't you?"

You simply gave him a look and slightly raised the file you were holding.

"If you mean giving me these papers, then yes. I have been briefed."

That made him look at you in disbelief.

"Wow. So they even left that with me. Have you at least read it?"

"I did take a look… doesn't mean I understood anything there."

Kun nodded emphatically at you and sighed. He waved his hand at you then, motioning you to follow him as he went over to one side of the room with the largest monitor. You quietly followed after his steps, the cold metal of your file folder pressed against your side as you clutched to it.

"Can't really blame you. I can't believe that they didn't even try to explain things to you though. How do I even do this… where do I start," he was more so whispering to himself as he settled on a seat and started keying in some code on the computer in front of him. The monitor came to life in front of you, making you slightly squint with its sudden light. You only noticed the words there after blinking a few times to adjust your vision.

Project Dream.

"I guess I can give you a brief explanation so you know what to expect. You already know that this is an experimental study with human subjects, I assume?"

"Seven volunteers, yes."

An unknown look briefly passed him as he took in the second word you used. It was gone too fast, however, as he refocused to type something on the keyboard. The monitor changed to show the exact same photos of the boys printed on your file, their faces much more clearer this time with the blown up images. Your gaze touched each one silently.

"Seven special volunteers, if I might say. The boys you are looking at right now, they aren't average civilians. They are superhumans. The term we officially use for them here are deviants."

The way he said that in such a plain straightforward manner almost made you lose your focus. You gawked at him, speechless, but he wasn't even looking at you. Instead, he clicked on one photo from the seven to put one image in focus. It was the same boy you first laid eyes on when you checked the files.

"One thing you must know about this study is that it's not going to be anything you would ever expect. I doubt you will ever come across anything like this—like them again."

"When you say superhumans, do you mean—"

"They have abilities that are beyond what regular people can do. Matter manipulation, time bending, telekinesis, god knows what else. All those things you see in the movies? That sort of crazy. The goal of this project was to properly profile their skills and understand how they got them."

That made you realize… Now that you think about it, not all of them had complete information on their files. The boy flashed on the screen right now, Mark, was one of the three that had most of his blanks filled out.

"So you mean, they are mutants?" You asked in almost a whisper, disbelief still making you feel almost numb. Kun finally turned to glance at you.

"I don't really know if you can call them that. Mutants… well… they are a result of mutation. Meaning they developed over generations. The skills of these boys are assumed to be tied to something more… ancient. At least that is what we assume."

You frowned. And then something clicked.

"The Arcana IDs."

"You're familiar with them?"

You shook your head in earnest. "I know the term since it is connected to tarot reading. I have a friend who kinda believes in it, but other than that… I don't know anything else."

Kun nodded slowly. “Well, that’s what the public knows. Card reading does come from tarot, but the Arcana is more than that. If you take a look at its history, the reason why they started to be used as devices for fortune-telling is because they are apparently connected to the esoteric. The language of the universe, if you want to put it in a more simple explanation. Do you know how the tarot works?”

You gave him a blank stare. He pointed towards the screen again which is now taken over by photos of 22 different cards. “According to mystics, reading the tarot helps someone understand the past, the present, and the future. They are not exactly considered magical devices, but they are believed to contain energies that bridge and shape the inner and outer world. That’s the keyword. ‘Energy.’”

“I still don’t understand any of this,” you said honestly with a slight shake of your head.

“Don’t quote me on this, but according to the history of this project that was disclosed to me, the arcana system exists in what is called the third realm. It’s the one in between the real world that we know as the astral plane. It’s not bound by what we know to be true here in our three-dimensional existence, but it is also not fiction enough to not be considered true. That’s why it can touch both the past, present, and the future.”

“Like… dreams,” you said softly with a look of realization. Kun tapped the edge of the table to confirm your comment.

“So apparently, the Arcana system can influence the world of the living by connecting with human vessels. They basically lend them abilities that make them superior in skills than us mundanes, but doesn’t exactly make them different from us. They’re like the connection between our world and the other dimension. Which is why I wouldn’t call them mutants, because these people are connected to something much more ancient that's beyond logic.”

“But how…” you frowned now as you moved your gaze towards the deck of cards flashed on the screen again. “I can’t imagine how any of these can be real. You believe this?”

You didn’t mean your tone to sound so incredulous, but it is what you feel as you tried to take everything in. Fortunately, Kun didn’t seem to take that personally, instead shooting you a look that says he definitely understands your reaction.

“Look… I am a man of science. I’m a doctor just like you. I look at logic. Facts. Believe it or not, I also thought all of these are just some bunch of hokey magic. But… I’ve seen things. Once you do, I think you can make the decision for yourself, too.”

You gnawed at your lower lip at what he just said. You’re still on the fence about everything, but you also don’t think he is the type to lie or be easily fooled.

“What’s your role in the project though? If this is all about supernatural abilities, why do they need a neurologist?”

Kun sighed and turned his chair to face you better. “Well, even though all of this is esoteric, Cypher still believes that we can find a system that can explain the abilities of these boys. Magnetic energies, physics, whatever. For me, I look at their brains. Because if these kids can do what they can do, there is obviously something going on in their head or DNA that sets them apart from normal humans.”

That makes sense. “And why… do they need a psychologist and psychiatrist then?”

Kun gave you an unreadable look. He immediately glanced away, however, before you could even fully take it in.

“The tests… can be a little stressful. We need someone who can help them process things. Just to make sure that they are in the right mindsets.”

For some reason, you weren’t entirely sold on that. You can’t exactly put your finger on it, but you have the feeling that there is something much odder going on here other than the fact that you will be dealing with superhumans.

“Anyway, you can meet them tomorrow. I would suggest you read their records first so you can prepare yourself. Some of them can be a little elusive and withdrawn. I guess you can take a secret peek right now though. It’s their time to go out in their shared foyer for their free time.”

You were just on the verge of asking him what that means when he keyed in some new commands on his keyboard again. In a flash, the monitor before you changed feedback, showing a live feed of what looks like a wide plain white room. Bookshelves, computers, and various gaming consoles decorated it in an odd mashup of interiors. Your eyes bounced on the people there, now currently scattered in different places. They all seemed to be engrossed in their own activities, oblivious of the fact that they were currently being watched.

“The eldest is Mark, the one that you see right now by the table,” Kun nodded his head towards a boy with a close-cropped brownish blonde haircut. “The one next to him is Renjun,” he continued, now referring to the lithe-framed black and blonde-haired one talking to the former.

“Our two youngest are Chenle and Jisung. They’re the ones by the pool table,” your eyes went towards the spot he described just in time to see the two boys laugh over something. The taller one puffed out his cheeks, seemingly disappointed at the ball he pinned, while his dark-haired partner snickered. “Jaemin and Jeno, the ones watching them, are like twins. They’re the same age,” Kun continued, now motioning towards another pair of boys lounging over the computers stacked on one end of the wall. “Then, you finally have Haechan, also the same age as the two,” he finished as he nodded towards the last boy sitting comfortably on a bean bag, his face buried behind a hardbound book.

You didn’t say anything as you silently observed everyone in the room. They all looked so young… and so normal. If not for what you have been told, you would have never assumed they are anything out of the ordinary.

“That’s it, I guess. I can give you a tour around the other parts of the Institute in a bit. I know the place is so big so it’s easy to get lost here,” Kun said as he finally stood up from his seat and started pulling off his lab coat to hang it behind the chair of his designated cubicle. That made you finally tear your eyes away from the monitor.

“Thank you. That will really mean a lot to me,” you answered him with a smile.

“No problem. Just give me two minutes. I just need to finish an email.”

You nodded before turning your head again towards the screen. You didn’t give it too much thought, which is why it felt like a bucket of ice was thrown over your head when your gaze landed on it again.

Seven pairs of eyes are now looking directly at you from the camera, as if they’ve always known you’ve been there.

The boy with the book slowly gave you a smirk before raising his right hand to throw you a playful salute.

---

CH.2

A/N: Belated Happy Birthday to the boy who lights up my world, Huang Renjun. :D Also, thank you for 700 followers! 💚

Taglist [OPEN]: @negincho, @jhornytrash, @aaasteroidsky, @huangberryyy, @marijmin, @ashkuuuu, @reluctantserpent-101, @yutasnabi, @huskyhunny, @domojoo, @anaveragefangirl, @lostlovesoul11

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