#also all of my points are nullified by the fact that saeran is my favorite

[mitskiluvr]

replaying mystic messenger is so crazy because why am i gentle parenting these grown men and teaching them how to handle their feelings

[sage-nebula]

tailsimp replied to your post: Mystic Messenger - Entry Nine

I love your versionof MC so much i would kill to have a character like this in a dating sim.

Ahhh, thank you!! This makes me feel a lot less self-conscious about adding that little bit in, haha. To be honest, I was kicking around ideas earlier of kind of novelizing Seven’s route, and really fleshing out MC into her own character with her own backstory, et cetera---but I don’t know if that would be something people would be interested in, if people would even want to read that, since MC is technically an OC and all . . . but this is encouraging, thank you!

If you’re interested, I also imagined a little scene like this playing out at some point during the Days of Silence™ part of the time they lived together, probably a bit earlier on (and as a note to those not familiar, my MC is MC4, and Pepero is the Korean equivalent of Pocky---though since this is Mystic Messenger, I’ll be calling it Bebero =P):

“What are you doing?”

It was the first thing Seven had said to her all day, and MC paused in the middle of tugging her left shoe on to look over at him. He was staring at her, but that wasn’t exactly right. It was more like he was glaring at her, and as nice as it was that he had finally looked up from his laptop screen, she couldn’t say the fact that he was glaring made her feel warm or fuzzy. She pulled her shoe on the rest of the way, and then put her foot on the wall so she could tie the laces. (That was the worst part about chucks, really; you could never just slip them on, you had to untie and retie them each and every time.)

“Going to the convenience mart,” she said, looping her laces before she yanked them secure. “We’re out of soda and I want some. Want anything?”

“You can’t do that,” Seven said. MC glanced over at him before she reached for her other shoe, and his volume kicked up just a notch as he snapped, “I’m still gathering information---I haven’t even begun the process of neutralizing the threat. It’s too dangerous out there. You can’t leave the apartment.”

MC fought the urge to roll her eyes, but she flashed him a small smirk as she finished tying her other shoe.

“It’s 12:30 in the afternoon,” she said. “What, you think Saeran’s going to jump me in broad daylight? He’d be more than a little noticeable, don’t you think?”

“Saeran isn’t working alone. He’s part of a larger organization---Mint Eye,” Seven said. His voice choked a little over Saeran’s name, and MC’s heart squeezed. “And whether he’s noticeable or not doesn’t matter. He’s clearly capable of a lot now. Maybe more than we know.”

The pain in his voice was palpable, and MC squeezed the edge of her jeans to stop herself from crossing the room to offer him a hug. Judging from what he said the night before, he wouldn’t want it. “Seven . . .”

“Until the situation is stabilized, you can’t leave the apartment. You’re far safer in here than you are out there, and we can’t take the risk of something happening to you just because you wanted a soda.” The hard edge was back in Seven’s voice, all traces of vulnerability gone. The stare he fixed on her was no less piercing. “So take off your shoes. You can’t leave.”

As bad as she felt about what he was currently going through---as much as she wished she could do something to nullify the stress and pain he was feeling---MC couldn’t help but grit her teeth in response to his word choice and tone.

“Okay, as much as I appreciate everything you have done---and are doing---for me, I really don’t respond well to orders, so I’d appreciate it just as much if you didn’t give them,” she said. “You can ask me to do things, and we can discuss them, but don’t just tell me what to do.”

Seven huffed a sharp, irritated sigh, and smacked his hand against his leg. “Look. Your life is in danger. And I know that’s my fault, and I know this apartment doesn’t feel like the safest place because of the bomb---”

MC rolled her eyes. “This isn’t about the bomb---”

“---but if you go out there right now, anything could happen. Anyone could hurt you. The agency, Mint Eye---and I can’t . . .” Seven yanked on his headphone wire before he bit out, “It’s bad enough that you’re in the danger you’re in right now. The thought of something actually happening to you because of something as stupid as a soda is just . . .”

MC sighed, and let the tension leave her shoulders. “Okay, then let’s try to come up with a compromise,” she said. He glanced back at her, eyes wary behind his glasses, and she gestured toward the door with both arms as she said, “Why don’t you come with me? We can both go down to the convenience mart, I can get my soda and maybe a snack, and then we can come back. We’ll be together the whole time. You’ll keep me safe.”

Seven paused in the process of giving his headphone wire another sharp tug, his eyes wide, but then he pressed his lips together in a tight line and shook his head.

“No,” he said. “I have too much work to do. You know that.”

“Okay,” MC said again. “Then you stay here, and I’ll go.”

Seven’s glare was fierce, and there was a growl in his voice as he said, “Have you been listening to a word I’ve been---?!”

He cut himself off abruptly when MC pulled her cell phone from her pocket, and held it up for him to see. Her eyes never leaving his face, MC swiped her thumb across her phone’s screen to unlock it, opened her call history, and tapped his name. It only took a moment for Seven’s phone to start ringing, blaring a fast-paced theme (bebop, it sounded like) from his jacket pocket, and he furrowed his brow in confusion as he fished it out.

MC bit back a smile. He looked so cute when he was confused.

Seven cast another look her way, and when she gave him an encouraging nod, he answered it. The call now connected, MC held her own up to her ear.

“We’ll stay on the line the whole time,” she said. “The convenience mart is seriously right down the street---you can see it from the bottom of the stairs---so if I run into trouble, you’ll know immediately, and the Defender of Justice 707 can come dashing to my rescue. Okay? Does that sound fair?” He opened his mouth, and she held up one finger to silence him as she added, “This is the last deal you’re going to get before I go with my original plan of just leaving on my own, so be aware of that.”

He glowered at her, seemingly too frustrated to speak for a moment, before he said, “You’re stupidly careless with your own life, you know that?”

“Look who’s talking,” MC shot back. This did nothing to ease the frustration in his expression, but she thought his forehead creased a little more with renewed confusion, and this time she couldn’t keep her smile at bay. “Well? Sound like a good deal?”

“. . . Fine,” he said at last. “But make sure to keep it connected the whole time. If you hang up for even a second, I’m coming to find you.”

“Maybe I’ll hang up on purpose, then,” MC said, but when his lips didn’t so much as twitch out of his frown, she lifted her other hand in a placating gesture. “Relax, relax, it was a joke. I’ll be right back.”

“Mmhm.” Seven looked back at his computer, but MC paused in the doorway long enough to see that he hadn’t resumed typing, and his eyes seemed to be glued to one spot on the screen. His phone sat on his knee, right next to his left hand, and it was with a little smile that she stepped through the doorway and started toward the stairs.

The convenience mart was less than a five minute walk from the apartment, and as she had told him, the sun was bright and high in the sky. There wasn’t a hacker or secret agent in sight (though MC supposed secret agents were probably good at staying out of sight), and she made it to the mart with no trouble at all. She considered saying something to him, to try and have a light conversation over the phone as she walked; but then she had remembered that he had left his phone on his knee, and figured that he had probably done that intentionally. It was a sign. He would be near enough to hear if something happened, but still too far away to talk. There was no change from the previous night.

The mart was nearly empty when she walked in, save for the now-familiar face of the clerk behind the counter. He smiled at her as she entered, and she lifted her hand in a wave.

“Back again, huh?” he said. “It’s only been a few days, and yet I feel like I’ve seen you so many times we’re practically old friends.”

“Yup,” she said, very conscious of the phone in her hand. She glanced at the screen, saw that the call was still connected, and bit the inside of her lip as she wondered what Seven thought about what he was overhearing. Probably he wouldn’t care since the convenience mart clerk wasn’t a hacker or secret agent, but . . . well. She still wondered.

“Back for your usual?” the clerk asked, oblivious to her preoccupation. MC let her arm drop back to her side and forced a little grin. He was a nice enough guy, probably living a normal enough life; there was no need to drag him into the world of drama she’d found herself in. “We actually just got a fresh stock of Bebero in last night. I thought of you when I was unpacking it.”

“That’s sweet,” MC said, mostly because it was easier to say “sweet” than it was to say “strange” in situations like these. She had Seven on the call for his own comfort, not because she wanted to accidentally create a situation where she actually needed him to come to the rescue.

“Aw, it’s nothing,” the clerk said, and he blushed a little as he rubbed at the back of his neck. “Anyway, they’re over at the candy section if you wanna grab ‘em.”

“Thanks.”

She hit the soda coolers first, and paused for only a second after grabbing her one-liter of Ph.D Pepper to grab a second for Seven. That they had the same favorite soda was coincidence, but it was one that had made her grin like an idiot when she found out anyway. It was just soda, and there were plenty of people who liked Ph.D Pepper---but still, it was nice that they had something like that in common. It was just another way in which they clicked so well.

Well, she thought so, anyway.

She tucked both bottles in the crook of her arm before she kicked the door shut and swung by the candy aisle. Just as the clerk had predicted she would, she swiped up three boxes of dark chocolate Bebero before she headed up to the counter, and spread out her haul on top.

The clerk grinned at her. “Stocking up?”

MC smiled back, and shrugged. “Something like that.”

The clerk laughed a little to himself before he began scanning her items, and it was as he was reaching for the second bottle of Ph.D Pepper that something occurred to her. She glanced at her phone. It was risky---he might notice even if he didn’t have the phone against his ear, and she might have to deal with him kicking down the door of the convenience mart to make sure she hadn’t been spontaneously murdered by a secret agent if he did, but if it was necessary to keep the surprise . . .

She pressed her lips together, hesitating for only a second more before she swiped her thumb across the Mute button.

“Hey,” she said, and when the clerk looked up at her asked, “you wouldn’t happen to have any Honey Buddha Chips in stock, would you?”

He blinked, and then huffed a surprised laugh. “Actually, for the first time in months, yes,” he said, and MC’s heart lifted. “It’s strange; we haven’t been able to get a hold of them for ages, almost as if someone bought out the entire warehouse. But we just got some in last night. Want me to grab you some? How many?”

She wondered briefly if she should tell him how close he was with his guess that someone had bought out the warehouse (and that the someone who hadn’t bought out the warehouse, but rather had been paid with it, was currently back at her temporary apartment) before she decided against it. “Four bags, please,” she said. Three for Seven, and potentially one for her. She had never had them before, but after hearing Seven and Yoosung gush about them, she’d be lying if she said she wasn’t curious.

The clerk slipped out from behind the counter to go grab them, and as he did, MC unmuted her phone and brought it up to her ear just in time to hear Seven (his voice frantic) say, “MC? MC! Are you there?”

“Yeah, I’m here,” she said, and nodded to the clerk as he began to scan the items. She reached into her pocket and pulled out her wad of cash to pay him (she was running low on cash; she’d have to buy fewer boxes of Bebero next time, given how expensive they were, but they were such a guilty pleasure), thumbing out the bills as she said, “Sorry, I accidentally hit Mute.”

Seven sighed on the other end of the line, and maybe it was her bias, but she thought he sounded more relieved than irritated. “Be more careful next time, all right? I thought something had happened.”

“Yeah, okay,” she said. The clerk scooped her items into a double-bag, and she gave him a grateful smile and another small wave as she took it and exited the mart. Seven didn’t say anything else, but then, she didn’t expect him to. If it wasn’t about her safety, he didn’t seem inclined to say very much.

The walk back to the apartment was as uneventful as the walk from it had been. Seven didn’t look up from his computer when she re-entered the apartment, but she saw him reach over and disconnect their call. Well, that was fine; it had only been a compromise to make him feel better, and it wasn’t as if they had been talking anyway. MC slid her own phone back into her pocket, even though she knew she was going to have it out again in the next five minutes to see if any of the other RFA members were in the chat.

Seven didn’t so much as breathe in her direction to acknowledge her as she locked the door behind her, kicked her shoes off on the mat by the door, or carried the convenience mart bag into the kitchen. Neither of them said a word as she stacked her Bebero boxes on the counter next to two of the bags of Honey Buddha Chips, or as she carried her own bottle of Ph.D Pepper and bag of Honey Buddha Chips to the couch, setting them both on the coffee table. In fact, Seven didn’t look up at all until she walked over to him, and even then, it was only after she set his liter of Ph.D Pepper on the side of his laptop, and propped his bag of Honey Buddha Chips up against it. He glanced first at the snacks before he looked up at her, his eyes wide and, for once, unguarded.

His eyes were so pretty when he wasn’t trying to be cold.

“Thought you could use something to eat,” MC said lightly. “You didn’t eat dinner last night, and I haven’t seen you eat anything yet today, either. We don’t have much here, but I figured those might tide you over. You always seemed to like them, anyway.”

Seven stared at her for another long second before he looked back at the snacks, and furrowed his brow as he brushed his fingers against the Honey Buddha Chips bag.

“How’d you get them?” he asked. “I thought none of the stores were selling them since I . . .”

“Looks like the Honey Buddha Chips drought has ended,” MC said, grinning. “The convenience mart clerk said they just got a shipment in last night. Yoosung’ll probably be pretty happy whenever he finds out.”

“You’re not going to tell him?”

“Nah. Let ‘em stew on it a little longer.”

The ghost of a smile graced Seven’s lips, but then he swallowed hard and looked back at his computer. “Thanks, but I’m not hungry right now,” he said. “You didn’t have to spend your money.”

MC bit back a sigh. “It’s not about what I had to do, but about what I felt like doing,” she said. “But anyway, there are two more bags of Honey Buddha Chips in the kitchen for whenever you want them.”

Seven didn’t say anything, once again shutting her out. MC tried to ignore the awkward feeling that had settled between her shoulder blades as she walked over to the couch, and let herself flop back on the cushions. After a moment of relishing in how comfortable the couch was (whatever else could be said about Rika, she had good taste in furniture), she pulled out her phone to check the RFA guest e-mails, just in case any potential guests had replied. She opened up a new one with a Culture Club that Jumin and Jaehee had suggested, and was tapping her nail against her phone as she tried to think of a reply when she heard the sound of a chip bag opening from the other side of the room, followed shortly by the sound of a soda cap unscrewing, and the faint hiss of carbonation leaving a bottle.

MC smiled.