walking on wires and power lines

[keravnos]

PB NAME: Song Joongki
GROUP: Actor

MUSE NAME: Song Joongki (Eric Song)
DW / AIM: keravnos / #pseudostatiq
TWITTER: pseudostatiq

AGE: 1990/07/07 (26)
OCCUPATION: Baekhyun's protector Resident DJ at Drop
RESIDENCE: Immigrant / 4th floor apartment at Palatial Crest with Baekhyun (floorplan + visuals)

RACE: Demigod
PARENT [DEMIGODS ONLY]: Zeus (Greek)
POWER(S): Electrokinesis

PERSONALITY:
Whenever asked to describe himself, Joongki will simply state that he is a free spirit.

There are very few things (and people) that anchor him, and while his twin had been shy and introverted as a child, Joongki has always been the outgoing one. Partly due, perhaps, to his deep-rooted sense of responsibility towards his brother, Joongki grew to love exploring - in as many definitions of the word as possible. As a child, he sought out creative ways to ensure Baekhyun had the best experiences - nifty little hideouts they could play to their hearts' content, seeking out bookstores and pet cafes where they would spend whole afternoons unperturbed. This particular trait blossomed into an all-encompassing love for life experiences in general when the shock of moving to Boston subsided.

It is possible that very nature gravitated him towards the night scene, where his easygoing personality earns him friends and acquaintances of varied backgrounds.

That isn't to say, however, that Joongki does not have negative qualities. While he doesn't easily give into his anger, preferring to bottle it up until it fades away, his temper can get quite explosive when left unchecked - and oftentimes literally so. Joongki also has a rather possessive streak when it comes to the people he loves dearly. This goes without saying that Baekhyun is the most important person in his life, and Joongki does not take too kindly to people who try to monopolise, or worse, hurt his twin.

HISTORY:
"The origins of any man can be anything he wants it to be."

For Eric Song, born Song Joongki in South Korea, his origins needed no embellishments or fanciful inventions. How often could one not only claim to be an offspring of the mighty Olympian god Zeus himself, but to be the elder twin to the son of Hades? It seemed impossible, a flightful tale concocted for entertainment value, yet to Joongki, this was the simple truth.

The creation of demigods was not unheard of, of course, particularly when it came to Zeus, whose progeny spanned millenias. For the Song twins, their births was a result of rivalry and countermeasure - one demigod to rein in the other.

What they did not expect was the twins becoming instinctively protective of each other.

Joongki was not told of his heritage by his mother, and had no idea of his true ancestry, assuming he was born as normal as any human could be. As the elder (and more outspoken) twin, Joongki was brought up by their mother to always look out for Baekhyun, and this was so strongly instilled in him that over time, aside from their mother, Baekhyun became the most important person in his world. Life was easy. Simple.

That was, until The Incident happened.

"My memories of it are both hazy and clear - some parts stood out more vividly, yet how do I have proof that they aren't the product of time? We were seven, and the mind of a seven year old, while honest, can often be erratic and easily impressionable. I was having one of my rare moods. Don't get me wrong, I love my brother, but once in a while, I simply wanted to be alone. And so I told him to go on home first, that I wanted to talk to a friend first, that I'd catch up with him on the way home. It wasn't a complete lie - I did have a small chat with a friend who was waiting to be picked up, but his mother came almost the very moment Baekhyun had stepped out. I waited five minutes - five minutes which could have changed so many things forever - and then skipped off. Home wasn't very far then, but it was still a good fifteen minute walk for our little legs.

"Somewhere in-between, was Baekhyun, looking lost and terrified as some of the older kids from the neighbourhood cornered him in hopes of extortion. Naturally, I was furious, and yelled at them. Did I care that they were older, bigger, and meaner? Did I care that they could probably beat us to a pulp? The thoughts didn't even cross my mind, I was so focused on lashing out at them and making sure Baekhyun was okay that I didn't stop to think that maybe grabbing my twin and running home could've been the safer solution.

"I wasn't much bigger than Baekhyun - we're still very similar in looks and physique to this day - so my yelling did nothing to intimidate as hoped. Yet something strange was happening, even as the bullies decided stealing the pocket money of two were better than one. I felt empowered and energised, like I'd just finished resting after a rousing game of tag and was ready to go for round two. This was where I'm sure my memory became a little distorted. The skies seemed to darken, the air felt cold and prickly, yet until now I cannot be sure if that was my doing or if it was something I imagined. I have no control over the weather, after all. What I know was real, however, was a whole row of streetlamps crackling and sending out little showers of electric sparks. To an adult, it would be seen as nothing more than a short circuit, but to us children, that was a Very Scary Thing.

"It only lasted a few seconds, but it was all the distraction we needed. My brother and I hotfooted it out of dodge the moment those kids flinched at the unintentional light show. Now of course, I apologised for my tiny act of abandonment and spent the next month or so making up for it, but we didn't think much about those sparks, attributing it to freak accident with impeccable timing and nothing more."

With their mother's marriage to a certain Mr Lee and the possibility of moving far, far away from Seoul and everything they knew, The Incident was soon forgotten about. There were more important things to worry about, like mastering English and getting used to the idea of a father figure in their lives. Mr Lee wasn't the villain of the story, yet despite his kindness, Joongki wanted no part of it, and detested the very idea of having to share their mother with a strange man.

It was his only act of rebellion - being forced to move to a foreign country at the age of 9 was daunting enough on its own, yet Joongki assimilated into life in Boston easily enough. Overcoming his clumsy pronounciation of English words did not take long, and neither did making new friends in the city.

"For the first few years since we moved to Boston, I felt like the new kid in class every single day. It was literal, having to drop out of class in the middle of the year back in Seoul, yet here in Boston, the school year hadn't even started yet. We had a summer of english tutoring and exploring, and a whole year of getting used to doing things differently."

The discomfort did not last long, and to avoid more instances of his name being mispronounced by his growing number of friends in the city, he renamed himself Eric Song. And as Eric warmed up to Boston and his anxieties considerably lessened, bits and pieces of his past became clearer.

"That was one experience I never want to live through again. It's scary enough, having little electrical accidents follow you around without realising it, it's worse when you belatedly realise you're actually the cause of it - and why. How often do you get Zeus appearing in front of you and claiming fatherhood? And how often do you get Hades claiming fatherhood for your twin brother? We were only five, and for years, we thought it had all been just one very imaginative collective dream. Yet once we'd stopped worrying so much about family and relocating, it just all started to make a whole lot of sense. It stopped being a dream."

And it certainly did, as Eric began a different kind of self-tutelage to gain proper control over his abilities. In an odd twist of events, unlike the mild-mannered Mr Lee who had been trying in vain to win Eric's affections, it was the absent Zeus with whom Joongki wanted to get close to and impress most. There was no way to reach him, no matter how hard he prayed, and that one-off meeting at the tender age of five was all the memory he would ever get. To his precocious mind, this was his true father, not the bland businessman Mr Lee.

With his family issues settled and out of the way a new problem presented itself in the form of his very existence - nodes were dying out fast. For the second time in their lives, the twins had to relocate out of necessity. Hong Kong was different - an odd mix of old and new, of Seoul and Boston, and settling into the city proved much easier this time around. With only his twin brother in tow, Eric soon found himself in a bright little apartment where their next great adventure awaits.


POWERS/ABILITIES:
Electrokinesis is the psychic power to create, shape and manipulate electricity, a form of energy resulting from the existence of charged particles (such as electrons or protons) which gives the user control over electric fields, electric charges, electric currents, electronics, and electromagnetism.

For all intents and purposes, Eric is able to shape and manipulate electricity to some extent. He is unable to create electricity out of thin air, and he cannot 'hold' electricity in his hands as it isn't tangible. However, he is able to draw currents from electrical outlets by will, and his ability ranges from manipulating them into discernible shapes, to magnifying and shooting them off elsewhere, not unlike lightning bolts.

He is also able to control electrical appliances to an extent, for example causing lightbulbs to explode by directing thought at the electrical charge in order to overload, or even simple tasks such as turning appliances on and off within a 30m (≈100ft) radius. This is not to be confused with telekinesis, as he cannot flip switches, so to speak, but rather 'speak' to the currents to flow despite the switches being turned off - as long as they are plugged in or contain batteries that are not damaged.

The usage of this power drains Eric's energy - all puns intended. Short bursts of it every once in a while does not have much effect, but if, for example, he tries to use it in any way for longer than 30 minutes without stopping, it will take a toll on his energy. Should he ever try to make continuous use of it for an hour, he will get migraines alongside depleting energy. His ultimate limit is non-stop use for three hours straight - he will most certainly faint from over-exhaustion.

His skin and body is naturally impervious to electric shocks in the same way wearing rubber-soled shoes prevents someone else from getting electrocuted. High powered shocks (anything over 10k volts lasting more than 10 seconds) however, will affect him and cause burns. Overexposure (anything over 10k volts lasting more than a minute) will be enough to kill him. For perspective: typical lightning bolts carry upwards of 50k volts, and the average duration is 0.2 seconds made up from a number of much shorter flashes of around 30 microseconds. In short, if he's struck by lightning, he will be just as dead as any other human.


CLIFF NOTES + TRIVIA:
- 5mins older than baekhyun
- fraternal twins, has a different father [zeus] than baekhyun [hades]
- see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superfecundation re: above
- born/spent childhood in korea
- very protective of baekhyun
- trusts baekhyun more than anyone
- seriously, his world probably revolves around baekhyun
- mischievous and playful as a child
- sunny outlook on life
- electrokinesis first manifested during a bullying incident at 7
- single mum married korean american when they were 9
- family moved to boston
- despite being easygoing, has more acquaintances than real friends
- migrated with baekhyun to hong kong in the past year
- works as a freelance club dj under the name pseudostatiq
- unfortunately has low alcohol tolerance