- will mirror responses.

- i am a slower responder.

- extra: i am slower with 3rd/para responses. still adjusting to writing in 3rd/para, so please excuse my rough responses.

plotting essentials and notes

• for plotting please send a pm. if you have my dc, please feel free to message me there.

• if you do not have any ideas when approaching me, please tell me what you like/don't like. 

• i can get extremely detailed and ask too many questions during the process, just a warning. this happens more so when there's history, angst, or complicated layers between our characters. i want to make sure we are on the same page.

• please contribute to the plotting process. it helps me immensely when suggesting ideas, but also inspires me to do better.

with romance, this means the plot has romantic elements to it like former lovers, current attractions, etc. 

with smut, we can also cut to black.

location preferences: walls typically, but will respond in rooms. anything smut related, strictly pm.

genre avoidances: nothing too fluff based. willing to do comedy if the plot calls for it and it feels natural.

triggers/limits/will most likely not plot with: 

incest

sa. it's fine if it is part of your character's background.

terminal illness. will most likely avoid plotting/rping with your character if it's part of their background in some way, especially if it is vital to your character or the plot. 

if i am not responding to you, it does not mean anything negative. i am slow with responses, so please be patient. my presence in rooms is not a sign that i am ignoring you.

responses

overall: ooc is faster than ic. not a preference, it's easier for me to respond to something ooc.

positive

mindful, selectively selfless, tactful, resilient, considerate, observant, perceptive, composed, independent, selectively gentle, disciplined, generous to those permitted, protective of those under his responsibility.

neutral

perfectionist, honest but can be blunt after reading the situation, strong-willed. situationally maintains morals and standards, highly analytical.

negative

pessimistic, hypocritical, manipulative (used as a tool when the outcomes require it), calculating, selfish to a degree, skeptical, controlling, struggles with trust, detached, guarded, stubborn, hyper-aware of his surroundings, restrained, and overthinking.

goals

maintaining order within a corrupt and greedy machine.

resolve problems.

avoid unnecessary disruption.

allow the ignorant to remain ignorant.

fears

being inadequate.

losing control.

becoming the people he once opposed and had grown to hate.

moral codes

never create a lie, rather weaponize the truth.

never target children and the vulnerable elderly.

never destroy a person beyond saving, the outcomes must be contained.

avoid irreversible outcomes.

collateral is acceptable.

not all things are meant to be buried. some truths, no matter the cost, must surface.

he will choose what the system is allowed to hide and what it isn't.

general: woodworking, f1, long walks and drives, operas, movies, classic art, marble statues, history, scenic views, optimism, answers, closure over comfort.

food: steak (medium rare), traditional korean food, scotch, black coffee, spicy food, peaches, exotic fruits, and tea

movies, tv shows, and music: a story sadder than sadness, the godfather, veep, scarface, scorsese, historical epics, sg wannabe

dislikes

general: those that target vulnerable individuals, broken promises, judgmental people, hypocrisy, performative morality, controlling individuals, inefficient system, losing, unsolved problems, surrealism, quarterly doctors' visits, golf (only doing this for business purposes), optimism.

food: mint chocolate chip, cilantro, oysters, and nuts in his dessert.

hobbies: woodworking, attending concerts, gardening, fencing, racing, reading, watching movies, collecting watches, spending time with his nieces and nephews

nickname: the fixer

age: forty-three

birthplace: seoul, south korea

residence: lunar city, japan

religion: christian

languages spoken: korean (native), english (fluent), japanese (fluent), spanish (conversational), russian (conversational), mandarin (basic).

faultline strategies

on paper, it is a security and intelligence firm that provides security, protection, and crisis consultation. in practice, it operates in places where problems were not meant to be seen. information is king. pressure is applied. situations are contained before they can escalate. 

orientation: heterosexual

He let it ring once. 

Twice.

Three times.

“Uncle?”

“Shit-” The moment Jicheol heard his young nephew’s voice come up quietly from behind him, he immediately dropped his cigarette to the ground. Damn, a newly lit one too. Once it hit the marble floor, he crushed it under his new Ferragamos, “Hey.” 

He waved off the smoke a couple of times before turning his head to the boy. Now his tone shifted to a softer one, though rough around the edges, “Something wrong, kid?”

“Do you like your job?” seven-year-old Hyunwoo asked as he took a step closer to his uncle. His nose scrunched up at the stench that still lingered in the air, but he did not move away. Instead, he glanced up at the gentle giant next to him.

Jicheol blinked, “Why do you ask?”

“You seem to hate it,” Hyunwoo shrugged before pausing. Then, added almost as an afterthought, “And people too.”

The older man could only laugh in disbelief before he crouched down. Now he was at eye level with the boy, “Hate’s a strong word, especially for someone your age.”

“You’re the one who said it. Not me.” The smart ass gene was already showing up in the little Gong boy, that he wasn't sure to be proud or worried about. It always seemed to show up younger and younger with each passing generation. The child did not have a complete grasp or understanding of this trait, but it would not take long in the near future. Still, he looked back at his uncle, asking, “So why do you do what you do?”

Another ring interrupted them. How persistent this one was. Habit was a strong creature; he glanced at the screen. A CEO this time. Different name, same problem. 

“You mean my job?”

“Yeah.”

Looking off to the side, Jicheol’s voice soon went quiet, “Because if I don’t… someone worse will.” He sighed, “That’s what I used to think.”

This time, he answered the call. 

It was simply in their nature. His father was the typical rags-to-riches story. As the son of a farmer, Gong Juwon did the impossible for a dirt spoon to rise up in society as the founder of one of Seoul’s most prominent law firms, Gong and Partners. His mother came from a well-off family, but created her own legacy as a surgeon and professor, an innovator and adaptor of emerging technology. Both were exacting, decisive, and unafraid to impose their standards because in their world, problems existed to be solved, and they were the few who could solve them. 

Despite the distance, Jicheol respected them. Oftentimes, he spent his free time with his grandparents, who instilled the values that would define and complicate him. 

With his paternal grandparents, he learned not just woodworking skills between his time in the fields and eating freshly roasted sweet potatoes. From them came his sense of groundedness, patience, and composure. They would be traits that he would carry into adulthood, though not without distortion. In their quiet, modest life, he first understood fairness and the weight of honesty. 

Meanwhile, with his maternal grandparents, he inherited a different sense of responsibility. Through their volunteer work, they instilled a sense of community and a duty to protect those more vulnerable. Jicheol found a sense of pride not just in helping others, but also in resolving their issues. That influence was seen throughout his life, through organizations like Amnesty International and Habitat for Humanity. Later in his college and law school years, he volunteered at the school’s legal aid. It was not rare to find him at a protest, wanting to provide a voice to a cause that mattered. Justice and fairness were not abstract ideals. They were beliefs that could be enacted and enforced, real. 

When he started as a prosecutor, he believed that he was on the path of his true purpose. Through his role, he could deliver justice. While his parents solved problems, Jicheol would right the wrongs of the world. 

He poured his heart and soul into his career. People joked that he lived at the office and that the criminals were more of a regular fixture in his life than his girlfriend. He would laugh along, but never denied it. While careful and strategic with each case, he was hungry to catch the next perp. One more arrest, one more conviction, one more step towards something better. Seeing the look on the victims’ faces with each win made it all worth it. Yet each loss was not simply a damaging number in his stats. It was a result of failure, disappointing those who mattered. 

Then came Son Gyeongmin.

Woken up late in the middle of the night, he was ordered to go to St. Mary’s Hospital to arrest the perpetrator. It was a fight in a nightclub gone wrong, one that did not typically involve such urgency. Yet, his superiors demanded that an arrest be made that night. No excuses. 

By the time Jicheol arrived, he found a bloodied, nearly beaten-to-the-pulp Kim Jaemin in the bed that had him question if he was in the right place and if this was his perp. He could not even make out Jaemin’s features, only learning his name from the clipboard as the man could barely move his lips. To an observer, it was almost comical with cops surrounding the bed with handcuffs ready. All for a close to handicapped man. 

His gut told him to hold off such words, to dig a little more.  

His confusion only worsened minutes later when he was escorted to the VIP private room. The victim, Son Gyeongmin, nursed a “broken" arm while laughing and playing phone games with his free hand. He barely acknowledged the prosecutor’s presence. The story was only more bizarre. 

And it all stemmed from a spilled drink. 

Overworked and exhausted while working his second job as a waiter in a nightclub, Jaemin made the unfortunate mistake of spilling a drink on Gyeongmin’s shoes. Expensive, loud, and impossible to miss.

From there, the story converged into three paths: Jaemin’s version, Gyeongmin’s version, and the truth. The last existed, but was buried. 

Gyeongmin told Jicheol and the cops that Jaemin attacked him after the former said he would report this to the club’s manager, a close friend of his. That he only reacted in self-defense. 

Jaemin said that, enraged over his ruined shoes, Gyeongmin attacked the waiter over this spill since he had to “learn his lesson”.

No videos captured the situation, even from the partygoers around them. Even they had the same story down to the T, all following Gyeongmin’s story.

However, the doctor’s initial reports told a different story. Gyeongmin’s injuries barely matched self-defense. Not cleanly. Not convincingly. Just days after his hospital stay, the cast seemed to miraculously disappear as seen from his friends’ social media posts and stories.

The truth was there. Buried, but there.

“Sunbae, we need to arrest Son Gyeongmin,” Jicheol slammed the arrest warrant on the Deputy Prosecutor’s desk.

The man barely glanced at the papers, scoffing, “Are you out of your mind?”

“Why not? The evidence lines up-”

“You don’t get it.”

Just like that, the case was over.

Son Gyeongmin was the son of an assemblyman. He did not have a flashy name like his colleagues, who dreamed of grander positions and titles. However, he had enough pull and influence to keep his darling son out of prison, to wipe out any faults that would derail their reputations. Kim Jaemin was another small, but unfortunate incident along the way. There were no consequences for Son Gyeongmin, only for those who stood in his way.

It was the first time Jicheol understood that justice was not decided by truth, but by who could afford to determine it.

“You can only upset the systems to a certain extent,”a line Jicheol swore he heard under his father’s breath. Not as a warning. Not as advice. Just a fact. 

Yet, this was what fueled him to fight for what he believed in. 

Months later, when Jicheol saw the news of Son Gyeongmin’s run for the national assembly, he made his decision. He resigned the next day and joined the opposition’s campaign team. If the law would not stop men like Gyeongmin accountable, then he would challenge them through the fair fight that the world presented them. 

The opposition campaign was underfunded, understaffed, and already expected to lose. None of that mattered to him. He truly believed in his candidate’s beliefs, ethics, and abilities. This was the type of correction the system needed, creating the change that truly helped the people.

Once again, Jicheol gave his all with each passing day. The story of David and Goliath was one he admired, but to experience it himself was different. To fight against the institution, wealth, and power was the hydra that never ended. Finally, he decided to pull his last card. 

If they wanted to play dirty, he would meet them there.

Kim Jaemin was never meant to be part of it again, but Jicheol found him anyway. At first, Jaemin refused. He was trying to move on, but the former prosecutor persisted. The truth mattered, it always had.

Eventually, Jaemin agreed.

The story stormed the online forums and social media at first, true momentum from each new anonymous post and comment. Yet, none of the established media covered it. Soon, Jicheol escalated Jaemin to give his own press conference. A final and clear say of the truth, once and for all. 

On the day of the press conference, it all went south. Jaemin did not arrive alone. Instead, he stood beside Son Gyeongmin, claiming that he made the story up out of jealousy. Gyeongmin ran with this opportunity and boosted his way up the polls, winning in a tight race.

“Jaemin, what was that?”

“Did he threaten you? Give you money?"

“Say something, dammit.”

Jaemin spoke up, “I can't. You know why.”       

Rather, the newly appointed Assemblyman Son and now Minister Son made sure of it.

Shut out from the career that once promised him to fight for justice, Jicheol soon lost faith. The conviction that had once driven him was lost. Not wrong, but perhaps irrelevant all this time.

Listless, he was forced to work for the family’s law firm, Gong and Partners. It was the one path he swore he would never take, unable to stomach the idea of defending those he once tried to hold accountable. However, he had no choice. 

While Gong Juwon was proud to finally have his son work alongside him. Despite not saying much to his middle son, he knew better. That Jicheol needed redirection, perhaps a harsh, but truthful lesson in life.

The decision came not long after. With clients expanding into the newly developed Lunar City, a new office needed to be established. Jicheol was sent to oversee it. It was the opportunity he needed. A fresh start, a growing market, and untapped potential in the new wild west. 

Jicheol learnt to do the same.

The man who arrived in Lunar City was no longer the same bold, emotional prosecutor who believed in clean outcomes. He was cold and controlled. Every decision calculated. Each word had intent. Digging a little deeper, one would notice how he was rarely in the center, but always near it. Near every important politician, businessman, or anyone who wielded wealth, influence, and power. 

Most would attribute it to his growing reputation in the courthouse. Others would say it was the result of his family’s network. It made sense he would be in those rooms.

Not many truly knew what was under the surface. Those who did knew better than to ask. 

Like his father, he continued as The Fixer, but expanded his abilities beyond Gong and Partners. Not too long after arriving in Lunar City, he founded Faultline Strategies. On paper, it was a security and intelligence firm that provided security, protection, and crisis consultation. In practice, it operated in places where problems were not meant to surface. Information was acquired. Pressure was applied. Situations were contained before they could escalate. 

Jicheol learnt never to collect information and favors out of pure greed and domination. Early on, he understood that they were part of a simple equation. Favors and information meant leverage. Leverage, when used correctly, became control. With such ability, he could determine how the system should be handled. As his father once said, everything had to balance. Everything had limits.

Don’t learn how the sausage is made.

Even Jicheol himself knew that with each client, case, and problem he took on, the more he learned. The more he learned about people, their greed, their sins, and their hypocrisy, the more he learned about the system. It could not be escaped or changed, forever broken and fueled by the worst of humans. The truth existed, but was buried by power. He grew to hate that. He grew to hate the machine and the system, along with his role in it, forever fixing and participating in it. 

His methods have changed, evolving with the times. Lines have shifted. Compromises were made. Where his past self might have hesitated, he no longer did. Harm was inevitable, but he could decide its shape. If he didn’t handle it himself, someone worse will. 

He has stopped asking if he is a good person anymore. Instead, he wonders if the version of the world he is trying to balance will be better than if he weren’t there. Underneath it, too, he sometimes questions if he could truly step away from it all. Years deep in the trenches, in the darkness, he has learnt to admire the complexity and thrive on the pressure, feeling alive in this system’s chaos. 

One cannot deny he’s disillusioned, but sometimes he does wonder if the good will truly win, the David against the Goliath. The thought never lasted long, but it never disappeared either. 

gender: female

age: 38-48

relationship: first love. original partner in crime. toxic on/off lovers

note: this relationship started most likely during his time in law school. her character is morally grey. holds a position of influence (potentially at faultline strategies), a rags-to-riches type.

their relationship started off innocent, but soon turned into a dangerous game, one where love and manipulation intertwined into something both intoxicating and toxic. muse a, with her fierce independence, cunning nature and scrappy background, was not the ideal partner for him on paper or to his parents. yet, she fed his idealism. she was his support while helping him and his ambition; she understood him in ways no one else could. it was not completely selfless, as she benefitted from him just as much as he did from her.

they believed that together they could conquer the world. when he finally broke after the son gyeongmin case, she not resist the change. she evolved. now she fueled his disillusionment and need for control, becoming the pragmatic partner he needed for success. they remained on the same side, but under different terms.

beyond the manipulation, there was something real between them, an undeniable connection. his love for her wasn’t just an obsession. it was genuine. she was the one who saw the parts of him not meant for the public, his brokenness, the parts no one else could understand, and she loved him for them.

they were each other’s partners in crime, a team bound by their shared hunger for power, for greatness. as jicheol rose in lunar city, the weight of his new ambitions forced him to not make her his complete equal partner. she was never fully outside of his world, but she could not fully stay by his side.

so they ended their relationship. repeatedly.

despite this, he couldn’t escape the magnetic pull she had on him. their bond was a twisted love story. it was a love so dangerous that sank in every fiber of him, always drawing him back to her, even as he tried to move on.

gender: female
age: 35-48
relationship: ex-wife
note: married most likely ten years ago, during the early years of jicheol moving to lunar city. however, probably divorced about eight to nine years ago. she either comes from a family of influence or has a position of her own. please see “high on heaven".

it was a short-lived marriage, but a whirlwind to say the least. 

while he was a rising figure in lunar city, he did not seek the flash, visibility, and name recognition like many of his peers. instead, muse a noticed that despite his younger age, he had people of power gravitating towards him. sometimes it was a passing handshake held with close familiarity. other times, it was deep conversations behind closed doors. 

his influence was attractive to most. what drew her in was everything else. his rare, but small smile that appeared whenever he was talking to an elderly street vendor. the small wooden figures he would give to kids. the way he would linger in conversation with a waiter, speaking about current events with an ease that was almost out of place compared to the politicians and ceos he dealt with. 

and so, she approached him.

despite jicheol’s on and off again relationship status, there were other women he met and dated in between. yet, he found something different in muse a. she had a refined image and sense of legitimacy that aligned with the expectations of the world he operated in. she was someone who captivated those around her, but still fit in his world, not as an extension of his growing influence and power. rather, she was a reflection of it. more importantly, she gave him an attempt at a life that was structured, understandable, normal.

they married within a year, but by their first wedding anniversary, he was already gone. at first it was the work. late nights. calls that could not wait. departures and tardiness without explanation. never a full apology. he was present when required, but never fully there. soon, she noticed how attached he was to phone, how that same smile she once admired returned. how drawn he was to that woman.

unable to share him with his two mistresses, work and her, she had enough.

age: 35-50
relationship: a close friendship with underlying strain.
occupation: a politician who has immense backing from jicheol

in some ways, jicheol sees himself in muse a. they’re ambitious and starry eyed, wanting to leave the world in a better place than when they were in it. perhaps, this is why the two have remained close all these years. 

when muse a decided they want to enter politics, jicheol was their first backer. he opened doors that would have remained closed, placing them in the right rooms, in front of the right names. in political circles, his backing was considered invaluable. 

at first, it was an advantage. eventually, it was something harder to defined. 

in politics, everything was transactional. intentions were rarely clear and the outcomes were rarely clean. what once felt like guidance, soon felt strains of control even when it was not so clear. resentment, at times, surfaced. not at his support, but at what he represents within the system, someone who understands how everything works, yet does not fully explain it to those he places inside it.

relationship: employer-employee. close, trusted relationship

requirement: late twenties minimum. preferably their early thirties or up. has worked for jicheol for at least seven years

trust is not a word jicheol throws out or feels lightly, which is why his secretarial staff consists of one person: muse a.

it's a position similar to their father, who was gong juwon's longtime chief of staff and a second father figure to jicheol. after the years these two have spent together, many would assume that muse a knows every bit and piece of their boss, but even then they always discover something new about him.

mother: ban hyemi (77)

younger sister: gong hayoung (46)

younger brother: gong junhyuk (40)