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[gumspine]

@serialeclipse

two conversing voices bounce off of nondescript walls as namoo clambers down a set of stairs into the labyrinthine backstage hallways of the convention center. if he had a hundred won for every meandering crew or coordinator or gamer he'd helped with directions just this morning, he'd have a handful of coins to throw at a wishing well by now and have at least one wish come true. statistically. right? maybe? regardless, he doesn't charge at all for the assistance, and if he hadn't already worked a hundred gigs here before he'd probably find himself lost, too.

he rounds an equally nondescript corner and spots the two talking figures at the far end, their backs to him. echoes carry their voices across the corridor just enough for namoo to make out bits and pieces of the conversation. something something... jeong domi. his ears perk up. something something... overrated? his brows furrow. their pace is comparatively slower than his always-in-a-rush, always-needing-to-be-somewhere stride, and either intentionally or unintentionally, he closes in on the knuckleheads with ease.

now just a meter away and within proper earshot, it's tough to ignore how wrong they are. disparaging the shadow with biased statistics? he barely holds back a chortle when one of them tries to conflate her win rate with a botched percentage. namoo would know the difference. he's only ever been any good with numbers when it came to jeong domi's statsㅡgo ahead and ask the convenience store he'd once tried cashiering for.

bowl cut (one of two knuckleheads) ends his subjectively and objectively incorrect rant with an annoyed "where is the restroom anyway!" and namoo manages to put together that said knuckleheads are lost, and, ergo, in this brilliant moment in time, are at his mercy. he clears his throat.

"don't know where you're pulling your numbers from, but jeong domi's still one of the strongest fighters in the league." he combs through her current points and terra-wide rankings like he's reading from a script (he might as well be; he co-authors her stats page in the official iron fist forum like it's paid labor) and stuns the two to silence. that, or they're just weirded out. namoo launches into his spiel on how jeong domi's playstyle was pioneering in its time (the subject of an article he'd also co-authored on the forum), and even though many players have adapted her technique since, not one of them could pull it off like she does.

(he hadn't earned his top spot on her fan forum for nothing.)

"and!" he concludes, narrowing his eyes at ketchup stain (the other knucklehead) while pausing for effect, "restroom's that way." namoo moves to gesture at the hall behind him, decidedly where the restrooms aren't, but realizes someone else had walked up to their merry conversation from behind. he pulls his hand back just in time to avoid smacking the person with his arm.

eyes readjust.

it's. jeong domi.

bowl cut and ketchup stain apparently are able to process this information faster than he does, and they duck out with apologies before hurrying to the direction of the not-restrooms. namoo just. gawks. it's jeong domi. he tries at words but none come. it's jeong domi.

[gumspine]

HELLO this is horrendously late work was kicking my ass but YES i'm juice and i'll be writing for jung namoo! he's a 22 y/o production assistant/audiovisual technician (yes they still exist) (i like to imagine that it's a bit of a simultaneously hyperfuturistic but also a thing of the past type paradox that namoo precisely loves) + he's also part of the glitched-out subplot as moneybags!

linking namoo's profile + wip plots page for easy access and there's more abt him under the cut, but b4 i get into it: if you'd like to plot, please like this post and i'll msg you <3

BACKGROUND

family: parents were low level but pioneering programmers for iron fist! which would've been well and good if they hadn't gotten themselves embroiled in betting on matches/tournaments to the extent that they would tamper with code or collude with fighters to win bets. orbit found out and suddenly mom and pops were "volunteering" to "work" in the outer world

namoo and his older brother (gureum) were 9 and 12 at the time; guardianship went to a family relative who squandered their parents' payouts liberally. namoo and gureum tolerated it for a bit, but eventually found a good chance to run off w/ what little money was left and live in the belt by themselves

spent his teens doing odd jobs and gigs, picked up a lot of skills along the way. procedural learner and is what one wld describe as being good with his hands

in light of the above ^ he opted for vocational training instead of university! financially it was also the most practical choice. got introduced to PA work by an instructor he had at vocational school, and he follows orders well enough to be delegated miscellaneous grunt work around set without worry. eventually wiggles his way up to actual PA tasks, w/c is where he also picked up a lot of his initial av tech knowledge!

decides to stick to tv/film/event production by the time he's 20, and currently has trade certifications on electronics/communication systems, audiovisual tech, modern media + three-quarters of a term in event management (this is namoo pretty much)

currently still project-based/freelance, but he's rarely out of a gig because he's got that head-down no-complaints hardworking reliability that cost-cutting bosses just luuuv (it's a capitalist corporatocratic world after all)

(ok but seriously he's cultivated a rep for like. being helpful and having initiative and needing little supervision to get stuff done so it follows that he always gets called on whenever production/event companies need PA/tech help!)

PERSONALITY

at a glance: u can immediately tell he's the youngest child/baby brother bc he's very. cutesy and affectionate? loves to tease and be a lil gremlin

despite his boyish tendencies, he's far from immature. brother raised him using their parents and relatives as cautionary tales (in the sense that they sucked as human beings lol) so he grew up a decent kid, if a bit of a doormat

carries himself well on the outside but deep down he has pretty much internalized the prejudice he's experienced due to living in the belt and being poor so his self-esteem is six feet in the mud. not in a wallowy self-pitying sense but like. his instinct is to make himself small and take up as little space as possible. also of the thinking that if he's treated badly he should just put up with it because who is he to complain? he's nobody

growing up his mindset has shaped up to prioritize survival over pride so if self-esteem has to take a backseat it'll take a backseat

his glitch (moneybags, aka he gets unlimited merits for an hour if he claps under a very specific circumstanceㅡw/c he's unaware of! so it isn't something he can intentionally replicate yet) has also put him in a tough spot w/ authorities before (basically he thought the amt of money in his acct wasn't real and just went around clicking "buy" on a bunch of stuff... sorry he was 13... anyway yeah the transactions went through. cue police sirens bc what is a boy from the belt doing w/ that much money)

managed to evade interrogation/escalation by the skin of his teeth thnx to his big bro but like! ya boy is traumatized indefinitely. hates coming across/potentially talking to the terra equivalent of law enforcement or authorities

not to mention that their relatives (to a certain degree aware that their parents were virtual-deathed (?) bc things went sideways with orbit and their gambling) used to taunt namoo abt receiving the same punishment for any little thing so

he has actually accidentally triggered the glitch twice more after that first instance, though he's handled those two times a lot better and with more tact! thnx again in part to his bro so he's not as terrified of his glitch as he initially was. used it to pay the bills and purchase a couple other stuff LMAO but he still gets anxious around authority though

he's also a bit of a conspiracy theorist because he's well-aware that glitches can exist! he's proof of it! doesn't go so far as to interact w/ the tinhat community but he reads the posts n forums... has a bit of a vested interest as well in like. people being sent to the outer world via virtual death against their will because of what may or may not have happened 2 his parents (he doesn't rlly know the truth yet)

sidenote: even though iron fist is somewhat entwined w/ the way his childhood has tumbled downhill, he still luvs the game (as an audience; he can't play for the life of him) and luvs being part of the tech team for iron fist events/tournaments bc it was a big part of like. being a teen in the belt and just having this outlet regardless of how tough life was

MISC

very much artistically inclined, which is why he was initially drawn to tv/film PA work! my 31st century tech lore is that production sets use hyper-realistic life-scale "holographic" projections instead of props or shooting on location which! def sucks for propmasters and authenticity but like. even though this world is virtual and crazy advanced and the sky's the limit, it would still take a creative eye to make beautiful things! u could have the tools but w/o that human touch it wouldn't quite be the same. so he's out here sticking it out as that should-be-a-thing-of-the-past human aspect to a creative endeavor that has endured literal millennia. even though ofc it prolly has changed a lot from our time

his work is predominantly on the technical side but he's interested and has a knack for design! specifically w/ holography as the medium. one of the stuff he probably bought w/ his glitch money is the holography version of a wacom tablet

one day would love to lean into that and pick up design as his main fare but for now he earns steadily with PA/av tech work and he's really quite good at it to the point that he's kind of moving up in the world a little? so he's content! not to mention all the backstage perks of getting to work iron fist gigs lol he's just a boy fr

has had the opportunity to be additional tech help with both of last year's iron fist majors so he's hoping he'll get called on to that gig again 🤞

POSSIBLE CONNECTIONS

ppl he grew up with in the the belt, roommates (they were able to move out of the belt eventually so he currently lives in a megabuilding! give him roomies he's super neat and considerate 💙 though downside is that he snores like a cartoon character), celebs he's either had the pleasure or displeasure of working with, iron fist folks (staff, fighters, maybe people whose parents knew his parents?), fellow tinfoil hat wearers, whatever it is let's write it!

[gumspine]

whatever you say, pretty eyes 🥰