#hsy isn't there but just know

[ssunfish]

kim dokja...the guyest guy to ever have guyed...

[orphiclovers]

unpopular epilogue opinion time again. you have been warned

I've been thinking how profoundly unfair the epilogue is from 49% perspective. because he wasn't enough for Yoo Joonghyuk and Han Sooyoung.

He barely gets to speak any lines in (supposedly) his own story, Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint ™, because no one respects him as his own person, just who he isn't. all three of them are given the chance of a 'happily ever after' due to the sacrifice made by another version of themselves (1863!hsy, black coat wearing 1863!yjh and 51% kdj) but yjh and hsy couldn't settle. they just had to be 'greedy' and demand all of him. when kim dokja has never placed that same expectation on them, even when all this time, to kim dokja, yjh and hsy have been the 49% versions of themselves.

take 1863!hsy - who we are told is cooler, smarter and has way more of the 'original' han sooyoung's memories than our han sooyoung. yet kim dokja never thinks of our hsy as lesser or inferior and even tells so to 1863!hsy face (accidentally making her fall in love with him in the process but I digress...)

not to even mention Yoo Joonghyuk - at first he only remembers the first three rounds, and even at the end he doesn't regain all of his memories. you know how much 3 out of 1863 is? 0.16% ! He's less than one percent Yoo Joonghyuk. Less than one precent Secretive Plotter. Yet Kim Dokja chooses him as his companion even with the memories he knows are missing, unconditionally.

but yjh and hsy. can't.

just. urghhhhhh I'm in pain....

(tbf to hsy and yjh- I get it. orpheus turns around in every version of the story etc etc. I think it was the only choice they could have possibly made)

[lunaxstrange]

Can we talk about love in orv?

[SPOILERS]

Okay so, I am aware that Kdj loves the "story" but I really wanna point some things out individually because it's 2am and ORV is on my mind.

Kdj had the easiest way out of the 1863rd turn. The most perfect turn (at the time) but he really went I'd let the world burn for Yjh? Yeah, everything is "part of his plan" but let's talk about the 73rd Demon King arc. My man would do anything to make sure Yjh finishes his story. Apart from this, it's the fact that while everyone else dislike any other version of Yjh (even he hates himself lol), Kdj loves every. single. one. I mean 3rd turn (1864th) Yjh? Yes. Hsy's 1863rd turn? Yes. Frickin' Secretive Plotter? Got off to a rough start but yes. You simply cannot make Kdj hate his beloved protagonist. I mean, this man risked his whole existence to make sure the 0th turn is actually the most perfect one. He didn't want Yjh to regress but became his sponsor anyway because it's what Yjh wanted. He would do anything to see Yjh happy. This type of love isn't romantic or platonic or anything else, it's the most inexplicable form of love. Love in its purest form. I'd like to take the time to compare it to Achilles and Patroclus because while we can fight over whether these two were gay or not, we cannot deny the sheer love they had for each other. No strings attached. Kdj is in awe of Yjh.

Yjh. The regressor. The protagonist. The person Kdj loves the most. Yjh had everything (0th turn) but he really gave it all up just to meet Kdj. Suffered the "Hell of eternity" just to see him. Bro didn't even love Lsw the way he loves Kdj. Tbf, 0th turn Yjh didn't know what the real struggle of passing the scenarios without help was but I'm sure he got the gist. Okay, sure, you can call it "curiosity" that led to Yjh keeping Kdj alive during the 3rd (1864th) turn. But my guy didn't choose Kdj to go to Peace Land because he had "someone he loved" like bro, YJH!? THE COLD REGRESSOR??? HE DID THAT FOR KIM DOKJA! Not to mention the fact that Yjh didn't even care that his whole life was a mere novel. He just despised the fact that Kdj chose the 1863rd turn over him. I'm gonna cry. Bro wanted Kdj so bad that he kept fighting the Secretive Plotter. Not only this, he gave up the 3rd (1864th) turn for Kdj too. Went from Supreme King to terrorist just to save Kdj. When everyone else - even Hsy - gave up. After all, what is a protagonist without a reader? The whole astronaut ordeal might've been to "find his purpose" but we can't ignore their connection. He gave up everything he could ever ask for twice (0th and 3rd/1864th turn) for Kdj. The attachment these two have with each other is insane.

I could go on about them for eternity but we have another person to talk about - Hsy. This woman spent 10 years exhausted, stuck in a world-line and body not her own for one person. Even if it's only Hsy with half her memories, she gave up her perfect world-line because she missed Kdj. Just like Kdj loves Yjh, Hsy also loves every version of Kdj. She wanted to meet him, no matter what the world-line. My girl had only a few hours where she was in control and decided to use off all those hours to write TWSA - a story she herself disliked. Hsy wants to see Kdj happy, every part of Hsy loves Kdj. There is nothing a writer could love more than an avid reader who loves their story. And let's talk about the fact that Yjh and Hsy absolutely hate each other. He is literally her creation (more or less) but their relationship is questionable. Why? Because a protagonist has no value without a reader. Kinda like Asuka Ren and Kyrgios Rodgraim. They have no special relationship despite being creator and creation. Since there is no reader, Asuka and Kyrgios are as distant as two people can be. Alternatively, what brings Hsy and Yjh together is Kdj.

I just can't get enough of the way ORV relationships are written. If I had to describe love as a writer, I'd cite ORV as an example.

[insomaniacat]

orv spoilers

tbh I'm so happy there is no explicit romance in orv (minus the brief stuff that happens with jhw and lhs) and because of that I feel like I've been able to appreciate kdj in such a profound way as a character

like sure i like joongdok and yoohankim but to me at least kdj has this level of asexuality to him that I don't usually associate him with anyone that romantically. And their relationships are still as complex and has such a great depth that they are like THE foundest of families and I can return to the kim dokja company at the end of the day as all of them being my comfort characters. you know that saying like 'i love you so much i'd make the world burn for you'? it's meant to be this dramatic line about how much you love someone (romantically), but kdj's company fully encapsulates this in a platonic way that just isn't cringey or anything like that

they are all so platonic but they love each other to such an unconditional way that they ALL decide to relive through all the scenarios again in the hope of finding kim dokja again. and later, they all help to write and spread a story - stories, the thing the reader loves - again, in hopes of bringing kdj back home. they aren't sure if it'll work, but it is through this love they all have that they don't give up and put their hope in this seemingly impossible method

and this is also what makes them fundamentally different from kdj. unlike kim dokja in the apocalypse, they do not have any sort of proof their methods will work. kdj has twsa - the novel he grew up reading, the novel he fantasized living in, the novel that he's spent 13 years following, learning every nook and cranny and probably even planning out his own way to survive the apocalypse from this lengthy novel. he has some sort of assurance his methods will work, with the amount of time hsy put into describing the settings (remember that twsa was not popular and one of the complaints was that tls123 put too much emphasis on the settings that deterred people from reading it, when really, that too was a way to ensure kdj survived the apocalypse later on). he has had time to reassure himself and plan for it, and probably had yjh case test them all

but kdj's company had no assurance - they did not grow up with a book that confirmed their methods of bringing kdj back would work. they did not have any 'third plans', no 'ressurections', no 'restarts', that kdj had in the apocalypse. all they had was their own hope - something kdj didn't have when he was fifteen sitting in that hospital bed after that failed suicide attempt, feeling like the whole world was against him. Until he searched up those three words on his phone. Those three words that were probably 'Ways of Survival'.

And then he found his hope in twsa. he found his hope in yjh, the protagonist made just for him. he found hope in the story that he believed in for the next thirteen years. the story that got him through high school, the CSATs, the military. his hope was in this tangible book that carried him through the apocalypse.

kdj's company had none of that. they only had their hope in kim dokja - the man they survived the scenarios with. they could only put their hope in their memories of surviving with the man that saved them, even though there was no evidence he lived in their world anymore. they had to put their hope in the fact that they remembered he existed, even though they had to acknowledge that they didn't know everything about him.

sing shong touches upon this idea a lot throughout orv - does something really exist if no one knows about it? or, in a more modern saying, did a fallen tree in a forest really fall if no one heard it? what proves the existence of something? what proves that something truly happened? sing shong seems to make it pretty clear that the existence of something can be represented metaphorically like a 'story', and stories need a 'reader', some sort of spectator that witnesses it, for the 'story' to exist.

for kim dokja, his final sacrifice, where he split into infinite little pieces scattered across the universe, was to ensure that everything existed. that open ending, as tragic as it was, was meant to be comforting. that his sacrifice was supposed to be so existences like you and me, are real. no matter how lonely we may feel throughout our lives, a metaphorical 'kim dokja' is looking at our own stories, spectating our own stories, even living our own lives himself.

and what i hate to say sometimes is that kim dokja is not really a character - he is an idea. he is an idea of some being affirming our lives, that it's real, that what we do from day to day, even something as simple as getting up in the mornings and brushing your teeth, or thumbing through a store catalog, matters. and this is why kim dokja sacrificed himself. for all the stories that may have not 'existed' if no one was watching it.

and it's out of love. this tragic, terrible love for the world, that eats away at yourself until you are nothing. but at least you exist.

[aweekoftodays]

i have a theory about the reason 1893rd hsy and our hsy is so different from each other.

I just dont think if you perfectly split someone in half that would radically change the person they are. We know what happens when you give all of one type of memory to one copy versus the other (49 and 51), they don't have enough of what made them themselves to function for very long, like with 49 slowly disappearing. But that's how kdj would split himself, a complete polarization.

When yjk splits himself, he gives himself bits and pieces of his skills and secret easter egg memories but without the burden of all the turns that led him to split himself. He frees himself but instead of resetting himself back to the beginning, he keeps all his memories up to the 3rd turn. He had the choice to become the person he used to be before his turns drove him insane but he chose to keep the things that defined him the most.

But i think if you were to do it in a smart way, you would give each half different perspectives of the same thing, so that they could fill in the same blanks by themselves leading to the same result. Like 1863rd hsy isn't the smart and calculating one because she remembered memories our hsy didnt have but because she was the protagonist of her own story.

My theory is that 1863rd hsy is so different from the han sooyoung we know because it's the hsy that never met kim dokja

Our hsy is just the hsy that didn't have her every wish come true, the one that didn't have to pick up the burden of saving an entire world through her knowledge of the future. The 1863rd hsy is the truest version of an "isekai power levelling fantasy protagonist." She had total control but she was also completely alone, since she saw yjk as nothing but a means to an end. Our hsy got to be a little silly and a little stupid because she didn't have to face all this alone and didn't have to manipulate everyone and everything into the story of her own design.

Hsy is shown time and time again pandering to her audience, it's the main reason she didn't go along with kdj for the longest time. Because he took her coins and swept her up into a story she couldn't control. But she was also afraid of breaking from the formula. For example, the conversation about cliches in the king arc (she thinks the cliche will always win), the way hsy kept asking why kdj keeps changing the story even when it made surviving harder and took them further away from the story she knew, or the 'this is a paid service' scene where she tells kdj to never make her do that again.

Without her reader, she lost sight of her story and thought she could just restart and erase everything that came before. She was "fixing" the story she made fun of and looked down on. She didn't know how to save the story so she damned it.

Until a reader came along that loved it with all his heart and she realized if he was willing to sacrifice everything for this story then what right does she have to abandon it?

[evercelle]

Wait! What does it mean that if KDJ reply to YJH, he becomes a character?? Wait how? (I read it long ago and I don't remember it😭)

the text is from chp 370, when kdj and yjh fight after the existence of TWSA has been revealed and yjh "kills" hsy.

yjh forgoes speaking out loud and has been thinking at kdj, knowing that kdj can hear his thoughts. this is just my interpretation, but i think kdj refuses to answer at first because replying to the unspoken questions would be proof positive for yjh of the act itself: that yjh is a character kdj is reading even now.

it's an interesting bit of mental gymnastics, because the quoted text comes right after kdj's narration in which he (1) begins doubting [kdj's] own core identity and (2) states that yjh has become someone who won't be controlled by anyone, including kdj himself. yjh has become more "real," but there's a part of kdj that doesn't seem to always like that--seen in past chapters when yjh acts differently than his novel counterpart had/would, and kdj thinks stuff like "this is wrong, it isn't the yjh i know." novel!yjh is an existence that's portrayed as larger-than-life to kdj, so important to him that he was kdj's literal reason to keep living, so he can't just be a "mere character" to kdj... but at the same time, kdj struggles to give up the certainty of a known quantity. kdj comes off as a bit (or a lot lol) of a control freak who's really uncomfortable when the story diverges from his knowledge, so i think his reluctance to leave behind the story he cherishes and reconcile these identities is mirrored by the fourth wall thickening continuously during this fight... ultimately, though, he states that things will never be the same again, and kdj/yjh introduce themselves in their own words. feels like a big turning point in both of them navigating who "yoo joonghyuk" and "kim dokja" are as "characters in a story" versus "a person here in this moment"

you can take my yapping with a lot of grains of salt though, since i've been on pause with continuing the novel haha! this is just my read of the divorce fight. but i really like the themes of control and impersonation (played both for laughs and for real) throughout the novel culminating here and falling away to the stripped-down rawness of finally seeing each other and properly doing a self-introduction... good stuff

[currently-not-studying]

I'm deeply appreciative of the fact ORV wasn't my first web novel. It's of course just my personal opinion and experience. Still the why is rather simple

ORV uses the tropes and expectations against it's readers. having read a bunch of other unlimited flow/book becomes reality/apocalypse web novels I came in expecting things. I expected some romance and not the constant teasing that was left alone as family was much more important than the simple answer who will Kim Dokja sleep with. I expected a theme of survival and not the question of when does the self-sacrifice for others become too much for the people you are trying to save. I expected a narrator, maybe even an unreliable one, but not the whole construction of the narrative to be a plot device. Of course there is also the main character of the original story playing the secondary character role - only YJH is as important as KDJ . In the end he is the one taking action to save the one he cares about. A protagonist once again but fully aware he is doing it for the other. I expected a companion character who starts out as an antagonist but I wasn't prepared for HSY's, well everything. She is so much more than potential love interest, a friend, an antagonist, a companion.

This realizations - this isn't like any other web novel I've read & the authors know this medium well and they are going to twist it the way they want - there was nothing else like that

[pluto-sims]

Y2K Patterns, Graphics and Palette

sooo i found some funky patterns and vintage graphics AGES ago and simlish-ified and recoloured them, started doing some recolours of the HSY cas items.....and never finished them at all lmao. anyway I was requested to share the patterns and figured hey, why not share everything? Further details under the cut, but TLDR; 37 patterns as PS pattern files and PNGs, 22 graphic PNGs, 7-swatch palette file >:)

Details

37 patterns; available as Photoshop Pattern files and as stand-alone PNGs. Known issues: some of the patterns have a few white seams....sorry! I don't know how noticeable it is when used to recolour items. Feel free to scale them up a bit to get rid of the seams, or, if there's any you really want edited but aren't sure how to, please send me a message and I can do it!

22 graphics; all in simlish, all with a transparent background.

7 Swatch palette; sharing the PS palette, but you can also just colour pick from the preview image, which also includes the hex codes.

aaaaaaand I think that's it lmao. sorry again that some of the patterns have a lil white seam; i made these all ages ago and ngl, i'm too bloody lazy to go through and check each one because i am trash ;)

do whatever you want with the patterns, graphics and palette as long as it isn't paywalled (including early access).

Download: SFS PATREON (both 100% free to everyone, always)

[hehearse]

i see we're sending song suggestions again! i sent a few orv songs a while back, but it was before you'd finished the novel (which i had not realized at the time), so i want to try my hand at it again (plus with some sctir songs since you're into that now). there's gonna be a lot so please don't feel pressured to listen to them all at once (or at all!)

for orv:

everything in the dear hunter's all is as all should be album, but specifically the right wrong for yjh & all is as all should be (the song) for either sp or 51% kdj

reset me & take this lonely heart by nothing but thieves (yjh, arguably also kdj for the latter)

stories by lilli furfaro (The Themes)

icarus & apollo by ripto (yoohankim...)

mephisto by queen bee (this one goes SO hard. yjh)

for sctir:

always gold by radical face (this is The han brothers song to me. i love doomed siblings.)

against the kitchen floor by will wood (this one is primarily focused on the relationship yoohyun & hyunjae have with yoojin, and how that relates to their relationship with their humanity. the first verse/chorus is yoohyun, the second is hyunjae, and the rest of the song is yoojin. This one makes me so ill you have no idea)

honestly i'm still holding back but i don't just want to list out my entire playlists ... i hope you enjoy these ones!

HAPPENS TO THE BEST OF US NO WORRIES!! apparently i blended in well. :D

oh that's gonna be long. breaking it apart for structure purposes and also a read more cause feels appropriate FDSFCVS

-> orv

the right wrong by the dear hunter...

yeah checks out. yjh, always watched by kdj in one way or another. always remembering all his mistakes, letting them cling onto him as he goes through one regression after another. and then going back again and again, attempting to get rid of people who are yet to wrong him. yes yes... /crumbles/

all is as it should be. that's yjh. that's plotter. to me. gah.

is there even a need to elaborate. the cycle of regression, his self moving further and further from the patient zero if you will. the crash of stepping back into the first moments of that loop. watching his own self afterwards, wading through the 3rd turn. dooming himself in the 999th turn. something something biting his own tail and i am weak to it.

Nothing But Thieves - Take This Lonely Heart

this one is also. self explanatory isn't it. the story ended but yjh did not. what else is there to do. his purpose gone, his constellation gone. star-shaped hole in his chest aching, but the world is no longer the one that could fill it. there is comfort in the end of the world, you know what to do at any moment of your life, don't you? prevent it. save the world. but once you're done. what then huh. ehe. <- on the verge of death

Nothing But Thieves - Reset me

i hear you but consider this: yoohankim. first kdj - carrying the end in his pocket (literal) - the edited version of ways of survival, if you will. changing their luck - also literal. you know the drill then yjh - carrying so many ends (pardon the implications). carrying the pocket watch too - why not. carrying his sponsorship that leads him to his end etc etc then hsy of course - carrying wos for years and years, bringing forth the end of the world, the usual ^^ and they all attempt to look after each other, don't they? carrying each other's names and faces to the end of universe and back, bringing each other to life (or back to life). self explanatory i think.

lilli furfaro - stories - that one you are correct. the themes. orv in general. ehe. (<- sobbing)

ripto - icarus & apollo well.

something something. han sooyoung paving the way for yoo joonghyuk. and kim dokja leading him astray (to the epilogue). and him going back still. bangs my head against the wall. yoohankim....

queen bee - mephisto

consider this: yjh talking to kdj. reciting his own words at times. ehe... <- shaking but absolutely. yoo joonghyuk risking his life by making that regression his final one (liar). while kim dokja becomes something else in front of his eyes . ^^ almost leaving his turn for the 1863rd. salvation in form of betrayal. isn't that a love on shape of a lie? very kdj truly. ^^

-> sctir

ALWAYS GOLD ABSOLUTELY i think it cropped up before and you are very correct. that's them, the doomed siblings of all time.

will wood - against the kitchen floor

yeah there is nothing to add. you are correct. yoohyun first, hyunje second, yoojin in the end. and hyh and shj both changed due to love. i had a whole essay somewhere on them attempting to humanize their love for yoojin, but dooming him by doing that. and yet still being loved back. head in hands. and ogh yoojin as quicksand? yeah checks out. with all the s classes drowning in his love mhm. sounds about right. (and of course the overwhelming guilt for existing in others' lives.)

[bidokja]

kdj realizing he's bi would have to be during the most chaotic intervention ever. imagine kimcom (minus yjh, he is having no part in this) not-so-subtly interrogating kdj about his sexuality and kdj says Out Loud for the first time "yeah i'm attracted to yjh but it doesn't count" and they're like "what does that even mean" and kdj is like "EVERYONE is attracted to yjh" and they're like "kim dokja. what the Fuck are you talking about" and he's like "if someone isn't attracted to him there's something wrong with them." and hsy is like "we think something is wrong with You, actually" and he ignores that cause hsy said it and goes "even sangah is attracted to him, right sangah?" and ysa, a Lesbian, is like "i can admit he's handsome, certainly, but that's all. i don't feel any pull towards him so i wouldn't call it attraction, personally" and kim dokja starts sweating cause he Definitely feels A Pull towards yjh and goes "but. but hyunsung is also attracted to yjh!" and lhs is like "yes? i'm bisexual though?" and kdj's jaw hits the floor and he's fully sweating now and everyone is like. "wait. did you nOT KNOW?? THAT LHS IS BISEXUAL." AND KDJ, INFAMOUS BIPHOBIC BISEXUAL, IS LIKE "WHY WOULD I KNOW???" and lhs, who kdj has known for Years and who has made his crush on kdj painfully obvious and is constantly teased by jhw about it is like "*teary smile* this is fine" so then the interrogation morphs into a comfort session for lhs and everyone's like "damn kdj what is wrong with you how long have you even known lhs how could you not know he's bi" but he's not hearing any of it he's just sitting there in shock from so many revelations smacking him on the back of the head all at once

anyways, yjh enters the chaos completely unaffected to say dinner is ready and kdj makes a break for the nearest exit which is A Window and gets dogpiled by everyone

[astranauticus]

orv 🤝 asteroid city

stories about stories that left a surprisingly large impact crater in my brain

anyway some more (frankly far too extensive) thoughts under the cut for an au i dont forsee myself drawing for again (cw: mention of suicidal thoughts and lots of talk about death)

for anyone reading this who hasn't watched asteroid city: it's a movie documenting the making of an in universe fictional play called asteroid city written by conrad earp (kdj) directed by schubert green (hsy) lead actor jones hall (yjh) who plays augie, very emotionally repressed guy whose wife (lsh, kinda) just died and is trying to figure out how to tell his children about it. anyway jones shows up at conrad's house for auditions and the two fall in love, then conrad dies from a car crash 6 months into the shows run and jones is left to play a character mourning the death of his wife while irl mourning the death of his lover and it drives him up a wall trying to figure out if he's doing conrad "right" (hence 'i still don't understand the play')

anyway for this au like everything that happens in the movie also happens i think but the character motivations are a little bit different like in the movie conrad earp writes the play before he ever meets jones hall so we don't really know why it's Like That but i think in the au kdj is either like. having suicidal thoughts or just fully believed he wasn't gonna live for very long in the like cptsd symptom kinda way lmao. so like it's not really that he wrote the play to help yjh process his own death (i think if that were the case the message of the play would be way different lmfao) but it's more like he just had death and grief on the brain and was also writing stuff. and like the answer he arrived at was that he didn't actually arrive at anything in the end. sometimes tragedy just happens and there's no meaning to it you just kinda have to live with that. like i know this is not how the process of play production works but if there's one change to the original movie plot in this au i want to make it's that kdj still dies by car accident but before the script is 100% finished or after he's been talking about rewriting the ending or something because i think he also doesn't figure out an answer he's satisfied with in the end about like death and grief and mourning. like you just know that in kdj's ideal world his loved ones wouldn't mourn him at all if he dies because he doesn't want them to be sad because of him and maybe he still hasn't fully 100% internalised that he has people who would care if he dies. anyway i think yjh kinda understands like subliminally that kdj was trying to Say Something with the play he just isn't sure what because he's looking for An Answer like some kind of meaning to everything that's happened but the point is there isn't one and if there is kdj hasn't found it either lmao. and like i think hsy understood immediately like as soon as she heard the news of his death she's figured out what kdjs thought process behind the play was and like she's absolutely not holding it together as well as she appears but she also sees yjh driving himself insane every night trying to find The Meaning or whatever and like whether or not she even agrees with kdj aside this is the only way she can think of to help him get out of that hole bc she can't exactly tell yjh like 'the point is that there is no point you just have to live with The Everything' so she's just trying her best to make him understand on his own. idk i just need someone who's watched asteroid city to see this and tell me if ive gone completely insane LMAO

[yellowocaballero]

ORV Characters Ranked by Least to Most Likely to Commit White Collar Crime

You guys said you wanted my ORV takes, and I try not to say things unsolicited, so I'll drop the good meta-analysis and literary criticism that I'm known for. For comedy purposes please pretend that ORV is American.

Omniscent Reader's Viewpoint characters broken down by likelihood to commit white collar crime, least to most:

Lee Hyeonseong: he's convinced that he's never committed a crime in his life. Intentionally, of course not. Unintentionally, he takes shopping for groceries extremely seriously, and is sometimes so wrapped up in the fruit inspection experience that he'll leave without paying. Due to his innocent face, bulk, and sheer confidence, he's never caught. In an economically thrifty maneuver, KDJ always sends him on snack runs for parties and texts him math problems while he's there. He insists it's like couponing. It's not couponing.

Jeong Huiwon: similarly, of course she would never choose to commit a crime. Also similarly, when KDJ says, 'Hey, wanna commit a crime?' she always participates. Since the crime is normally targeted at rich people, KDJ can usually morally justify it to her. She calls this harm reduction. It's not harm reduction.

Lee Jihye: would love to commit a crime in theory, almost never in practice. She has an idealized image in her mind of the ideal high school experience and it involves grand theft auto. However, the worst she ever gets is breaking & entering and trespassing, mostly because she didn't stop to wonder if the building was abandoned or not. She can't even shoplift from Claire's.

Shin Yuseung: the kind of kid who sets the dissection frogs in the school laboratory free. Looks up illegal exotic animal trading on the deepweb and sighs in longing. But exotic pet trading isn't very Animal Rights of her, so she just leaks information to the CIA and busts the rings. Lee Gilyeong convinces her to track down shady sellers on Craigslist and bust their kneecaps. Neither of them view this as significantly different from the dissection frog liberation. KDJ gets her a rescued exotic cat for her birthday as a reward.

Lee Gilyeong: self-explanatory.

Han Suyeong: she's been pirating media since she was eleven and has never stopped. World-class expert in pirating everything. She's the unsung hero who rips the CDs and games and puts them online. Runs the pirating websites. Has never paid for a webnovel or manwha or manga in her life. Despite this, she insists that pirating books is immoral and that people should support small authors. The FBI knows she exists and has been trying to catch her for years. She brags about this constantly.

Yoo Sangah: has committed tax fraud before, will commit tax fraud tomorrow, is currently committing tax fraud. Embezzles her company's embezzlement. Insists that she's only committing victimless crimes, mainly because she doesn't view business executives as people. Her ability to evade the IRS is mythological and it's how KDJ got a crush on her.

Yoo Junghyeok: does not understand adult life well enough to knowingly commit any sort of white collar crime. He is this high on the list because he enables and helps KDJ in literally everything he does, especially using his clout as an influencer. This is because KDJ has convinced him that these things aren't crimes, and he doesn't understand adult life well enough to figure it out.

Kim Dokja: has done every white collar crime under the sun. I can't emphasize enough how much crime he does. He's currently blackmailing SYS's college tuition out of a US Senator. HSY makes the shell companies and launders so much money with him. Alternates between running a pyramid scheme and a ponzi scheme depending on the month. Started a cult that one time but we don't like to talk about that. Runs the betting ring for YJH's esports games. Fixes the games. YJH does not know he does this, but KDJ splits the profits and Yoo Mia also needs a college tuition so he decides not to think about it too hard. Big into crypto and runs every crypto scam you can possibly think of, which is normally where the the ponzi schemes come in. Steals YJH's identity often. Somehow everything he does is technically legal. The only crime he does not commit is pirating. Exclusively targets the wealthy and ultra-wealthy and has never stolen money from a poor person. Sugar daddies all of his friends and pays all college tuitions. Anonymously yet obviously sponsors huge amounts of money to YJH's Twitch streams, mostly in apology for the ID theft. Would really rather be living a quiet life in a big house with all of his friends, but that big house ain't gonna pay for itself.

[orphiclovers]

Thoughts on yjh and body horror?

Hmm, some. I think Yoo Joonghyuk's whole deal is a lot more often about mental anguish as opposed to physical. Regression resets all his wounds and scars except the mental ones, so those are the ones that take a massive toll on him. 'Hell of Eternity' is hell because he can never escape his own memories. He is weak to mental attacks but his body is usually near indestructible.

Secretive Plotter's damage is the 'curse of immortality' and his only motivation is finding eternal rest, so that's all mental. Even outergodification is a mental process. Losing his appearence as a 'human' was a secondary side effect to losing his identity as 'Yoo Joonghyuk' and just asthetically speaking, turning into a shadow person isn't really 'body horror' to me, which I associate more with viscera and flesh, not cold and clean intangibility.

I'm not just bringing up SP because I have brain worms (also that) but because there is a specific regression that I think does exemplify 'body horror', and that's 999, baby!

Hear me out. I don't say this soley due to 999's lack of limbs, since there's nothing inherently horror about being an amputee (though removing his own eyes is a bit saw trap energy not going to lie) BUT because his was the one regression where his main problem wasn't mental - he had all his companions, was as happy as one could be in an apocalypse - but the fact that his physical body failed him. He didn't die in battle, but instead wasted away due to the 'outer world covenant'.

Kim Dokja might be self-sacrifical but this guy was on another level.

999 didn't hesitate to take hits for his companions, which is how he lost his limbs, and at the same time he borrowed an outer god's powers to win battles (I'm imaganing a chaos version of advent of a half-god) , which probably looked really epic, but unforunatley was at the expence of his soul. The covenant ate away at him piece by piece, and it's said his 'bloodstream went haywire until he couldn't walk or use his skills' (the translation was wonky here but you get it) which I take to mean he had some kind of cell damage, kind of like radiation or chemo.

This was a years long process, from when he first signed the Outer World Covenant up until the 99th scenario, and that whole time he kept borrowing those powers even though he saw it was killing him. What I mean is, it probably didn't look or feel great to see him falling apart, but the level of gore is reader's choice to imagine (anywhere from a tasteful coughing up blood and nosebleeds, to skin peeling off and hair falling out etc.).

Oh and since I know you would enjoy this, I'll say this too.

I don't think Secretive Plotter knew what he would do to 999.

He meant to save 999, not kill him.

This was almost assuredly his first Outer World Convenant, since I figure changing the 999th regression was the first thing he tried to do after he gained the ability to worldline hop/ had the tiniest bit of control over his outer god powers. He was still young and hopeful - 'foolish' as the Secrerive Plotter reminices. But he clearly fucked something up badly, maybe since he didn't have the clear grasp of probability manipulation that he developed in the next thousands of years or tried to directly change too much.

Canon era, he gives both KDJ and HSY a covenant just fine and they don't have any issues from it. (He's very careful to take the probability on himself - remember the finger thing?)

I wonder how horrified young SP was to see 999 destroying himself using SP as the method. Did he try to back out at some point, but couldn't due to the covenant? Did he try to make 999 stop, which he of course refused to do? I think about them a lot.

[pillow-boi]

Hello, I really love your art!

I know you made this a while ago, but I was wondering if you had any lore/headcanons about the orv witch/witch hunter au you made

I do!!!! I had a lot of comments or interesting ideas in the tags, and some of them were really inspiring. Here is an long and disparate list of my headcanons for that AU:

So in this AU, magic only works if you have an object/animal (not recommended because difficult to control) as a magic catalyst. It doesn't have to be near the witch, but the source should exist. If it is destroyed, they can't use magic until they accumulate magic and choose another catalyst with a complicated and long ritual. Could take years. Most of the time, witches hide it or keep it with them, so it's often an object they really like.

After many trials, Yjh thought it was the book because he realised kdj loved to read and always had that book with him.

Too bad, it was all kdj's trap. The reason kdj chose yjh's medallion as his magic catalyst is because he knows yjh will never find out but also because he thinks yjh is invincible. To destroy that medallion, he would have to be beaten, and kdj can't conceive such a thing.

Hsy is also a witch, and ysa is the hunter that goes the most after her, but unlike joongdok, they became friends at some point and are actually collaborating a lot. When they meet, they either fight for fun or go eat crepes together. They also share intel.

As for joongdok, they fight for real every time they meet. But there also are common ennemies of both witches and hunters, like monsters, bad sorcerers or constellations (=patrons of magic here).

During a fight between yjh and a very strong constellation, yjh seems to have a hard time. Kdj is watching from afar but doesn't want to interfere because he didn't originally plan to fight that constellation now. At one point, the constellation attacks yjh and he's definitely going to hit him right on his chest (where the medallion is), so kdj HAS to come and defend yjh so his magic catalyst doesn't get destroyed. OF COURSE yjh is very confused and still has no idea it's because of the medallion so he's like "why are you saving me?". And OF COURSE kdj isn't going to spill the beans so he doesn't say anything and just smiles at yjh. In the end they fight the constellation together and kdj slips away after the fight.

After that yjh is even more relentless in hunting kdj but when he finds an object that might be his catalyst, he just takes it with him instead of destroying it (he still pins kdj with his sword and menacingly asks him if it's the right object but kdj never says).

They fight together against constellations and nebulas more and more.

Good things never last and during a BIG FIGHT against a nebula, yjh's medallion gets destroyed and kdj ends up powerless in the middle of the fight. Yjh notices it and put 2 and 2 together, but it's too late, the constellation is aiming for kdj and it's going to fast. With one last smile, kdj is hit, falls, and magically crumbles away, in front of yjh and all of kimcom.

BUT NO ONE KNOWS THAT HE'S BECOMING A CONSTELLATION HIMSELF HA HA HA. He indeed met all the criteria to become a patron of magic himself.

That's it, I haven't thought any further.

[its-no-biggie]

decided to open my old "yjh gets turned into a cat" wip and. yeah i was definitely onto something

honestly the characterization in this is pretty rough - i think i made yjh too much of a tsundere and kdj too..... well-adjusted? so let's play in the space shall we

light spoilers??? no in-depth discussion of any specific events but it's sort of a character study so. y'know

part of the cathyuk appeal to me is like. he already basically shows affection like a cat. he seems standoffish but he just doesn't communicate in the same way..... he doesn't know how to show affection...... and then of course the rest of the appeal is. tortured loner op protagonist trapped in a fluffy and cute and sleepy little body. not exactly dramatic and brooding with those tiny little legs huh? and toe beans, no less? and part of that is also the vulnerability of it - it's not like he can really protect himself from the kind of threats they expect to be facing. there's appeal in forcing the guy who always tries to do everything himself to take a break, but. well. that role isn't exactly filled by yjh anymore, is it?

and in fact, if we assign kdj to take care of cathyuk (which was my original plan bc i think this was before i started thinking about yoohankim 24/7. reformed joongdok shippers represent ‼️‼️) then that could be an interesting exploration of the way kdj already views yjh as someone who needs to be protected/taken care of (because of The Guilt). forcing them to confront the unbalanced nature of their relationship..... via cat transformation......

okay but. we must not forget han sooyoung. hmmm yoohan interactions are so difficult for me cause we don't really see much of them interacting together outside of 1863 or like. the epilogue. oh and that one time they scammed anna croft LOL. hmmmmm and like. on one hand. i think it's really fun if hsy understands cat body language better than anyone else and can now read yjh in ways even kdj can't. but also, as cat coded as hsy is, she doesn't seem like she would really like cats? well actually. those two ideas can coexist. and that kind of does apply to their relationship already - she understands him well enough (well, at least him as a character) but just doesn't really get along with him.

anyway. idk if this can fit together in a satisfying way or anything - i might revisit it at some point but i doubt it. having one character get turned into an animal as a catalyst for slowburn is one of my favourite highly-specific-and-yet-every-fandom-seems-to-have-it fanfic tropes (along with accidental baby acquisition and getting stuck in a small space together. put those guys in a ridiculous situation!!!!) so that's probably why i wanted to try it with jd originally. it's definitely fun but i can't really get anything to stick beyond the basic concept - sometimes you just have to imagine The Character as a disgruntled cat getting scooped up off the floor and bombarded with kissies. for your mental health. you understand

[moonlight-blue-rose]

Continuing with my screaming for the 1863rd round, so SPOILERS + this one is a little long

Ch 288:

Kdj petting yjh's head ahhhhesophjeapgsh

Good, it's the least he deserved after kdj broke his spirit in the last chapter

And Gabriel being reminded of herself and Uriel?? Pls tell me more, I'm listening

Pffff, I didn't expect this XD yjh completely obediently eating the soil lmaoooooo

Oh, but you don’t have the heart to kill your favourite protagonist, do you? You don’t have the heart to kill the person you’ve come to know and love

*vibrating in my seat* *sees the next chapter* awwwww it was just knw

Ch 290:

Han Sooyoung my queeeeeeeeennnnn

Doksoo’s back and forth is fun as always

Uriel, my love! I wasn’t expecting her to appear ahhhhhhh

Ch 291:

Ohhh, is this what the Forth Wall did? Giving flashes of memories to yjh? Sneaky sneaky if that is true.

But!!! Yjh saying Uriel's name softly, "like a child first learning to speak"... ahhhhhhh them!!!

Ch 292:

NOOOOOOOOOO I didn’t expect to be crying for both yjh and Uriel in this arc, you can’t do this ;-;

And oh sweetie… A world where Uriel isn’t a friend is so strange after spending so much time with the 3rd round Uriel.

1863rd hsy’s 'Predictive Plagiarism' sounds really interesting. And combined with her Avatar ability, she sure is terrifying

Once again I can hear my heart shattering. A world in which the ending is possible without sacrifices. Except one. One single sacrifice that nobody of this world would mourn. Only the original protagonist and no one else (Yoo Mia isn't here. She is gone, isn't she ;-;). I’m just (╥╯^╰╥) 1863rd hsy may not need yjh to reach the end but I want him to. Can’t you let him get away with it, at least once? Can’t he too, reach the end with everyone else? But even if he does, will it be worth it? In a world he has no one by his side, in a world he isn’t wanted? Oh Yoo Joonghyuk…

Hsy’s last words in this chapter feel so final, so unforgiving. The only feeling they induce is quiet despair (it wasn’t supposed to end like that)

Ch 293:

YES TELL HER SWEETIE

Okay, not the time for this but six-winged kdj sounds so hot…

Kim Dokja saved her,,,, It’s not his Uriel. Her fury against Yoo Joonghyuk is justified, he said,,, And yet, he didn’t have the heart to let her die… I’m just *ugly sobbing noises* (╥╯^╰╥)

Ahhh being surrounded by the people who look exactly like his colleagues, friends, and yet standing amidst strangers. It’s such a lonely feeling, the 1863rd round. I wonder, is this how yjh has always felt each regression?

Kim Dokja sounds so tired here. “What’s new about this story”, you wonder as you gaze at the broken protagonist. What’s so different about this world, when in the end, it ends the same. Someone has to die for everyone else to reach the end. But that’s the same as every other round, isn’t it? (╥╯^╰╥)

“They could never be the original” – I’m dying oahgsohsapoegg  KIM DOKJAAAAAAA

The original always holds a special place in a person’s heart… Maybe they don’t like the way the story was handled or the way it ended or some of the characters’ actions… Maybe they liked a lot of things and disliked an equal amount of them… But still, it’s the original. It’s the thing you fell in love with, the thing that gave you something to hold on to, something to cherish… Of course a reproduction could never surpass the original...

I can’t believe that he’s wormed his way into their group already… Actually, no. I can believe that. It’s Kim Dokja after all XD

He fought all alone,,,,

*Shaking 1863 hsy upside down* What do you mean he promised to die! What do you meannnnnn

TELL ME WHAT YOU MEAN BY THAT YOU CRYPTIC BASTARDS-

Ch 294

wheeze Poor lhs

He’s thinking about his kids!!! He wants to go back, even if he doesn’t admit it ;-;

Look at him praising yjh even now awwww

…. Kim Dokja… He really should stop being so mean with knw, poor guy

I’m having too many emotions rn helloooo. They are his friends! He cares! He wants to go back!!!! Ahhhh

Oh no. Oh no. I have one (1) fear

*screams into the void* I shouldn’t read this while sober *I say and drink a whole cup of tea ‘cause I’m sick rn* Honestly though, this part... Kim Dokja's desperation, effort, love, his resolution... I think this part will stay with me for a long long time...

It's just… this whole part to the end of the chapter. Kim Dokja tried. He tried so hard. He gave his best. He knows how this story is supposed to end. And once again, just like with 41st sys, he tried his best. He tried to find a way to change the ending.  I love him so much. God, I love him so much (╥╯^╰╥)

“It was an effort that perhaps no one would understand” *screams* *insert crying gif here*

ALSO ALSO, KDJ’S EYES BEING COMPARED TO STARS… AHHHHH

Yoo Joonghyuk listened. He listened. I can’t even explain how much this means to me, nor the way my heart is shattered on the floor right now (╥╯^╰╥) It was a story he didn’t know. It was a story written by someone who wished, from the bottom of his heart, for Yoo Joonghyuk’s happiness ahhhhhhhhh

This arc will be the death of me ahhhhh