#i know whats going on!! with my funky body!! no more unanswered questions!!

[sciderman]

How did your meeting go with the surgeons?

it was memorable

[twstedstoryshop]

Scavenger

Freeform prose. Just wanted to really let myself go ham with imagery and quick dialogue. So apologies if the pacing is all over the place. Based on the idea of older TWST characters from this post. Had a gut feeling to just go for Leona with this prompt. Also brownie points if you can guess why Yuu’s cigarette can make funky smoke trails. -Shopkeep

A recently back Yuu takes a moment of peace to recollect themself from their sudden arrival. Leona, their old love, joins them and the two wonder if they can pick up where they last left off.

Content: GN!Yuu x Leona, Pre-Established Relationship, Swearing, Tobacco Use, Alcohol Mention, Mild Hurt/Comfort

The sudden rollarcoaster of a welcome from all sides had dwindled down. A luxurious suite on Sage Island became Yuu’s hideaway despite friends’ protests to party the night away. They wanted to hear stories, laugh, cry all over a number of colorfully named alcohol bottles. But that would be saved for another day. Yuu’s mind and body needed to readjust with the dimension-hopping equivalent of jetlag. Lazily hung from their bottom lip, a cigarette sat and puffs of colorful smoke plumed around Yuu. They curled and formed into whimsical scenes, from a crocodile waving its shining tail to fishes swimming along an invisible current. Yet the visions dissipated as they escaped through the open window and into the night air.

The taste was infinitely better compared to the shit back home. To be expected, when you’re indulging in the vices of a technicolor magical world. Their gaze flicked to the room’s door as the lock clicked open. A tall, built form stalked through the doorway and eyes colored a jungle’s verdant green during a summer day, landed on the bare torso of Yuu. Long ago they had discarded their shirt to enjoy the cool night air. A low growl of a voice mentioned something about a spare key being left behind, but Yuu could care less as they stared openly upon their old flame.

Leona Kingscholar, like wine, the more he aged, the more intoxicating he looked. It wasn’t a one-sided attraction though. For Leona, there was no sign of the herbivore he once knew. Bright-eyed, naive, and such a goody-two-shoes to a fault. Now that spark has faded just a bit over the years to reveal a wizened traveler with some bad habits on their heels. Namely the piercings, the tattoos, and the cigarette that played on their tongue. 

Leona sat down with them, thighs ever so close to touching, but a half-inch of uncertainty kept them separated. His gaze lingered on the intricate imagery that adorned Yuu’s arms and back. His main focus was of course on the earth-toned silhouette of a lion that roared ferociously with a hyena and wolf by its side. His fingers reached out and traced along the fangs it bore. Yuu didn’t reel back at all. They watched him closely as he admired their body’s art.

“I etched you all on my skin. Because I was afraid I was going to forget. Like this was all just some fever dream.”

“Hmph, dream huh? Is that what we were?” He couldn’t fight the bitterness that clawed its way up. Unresolved tensions, questions left unanswered, they festered much too long in the Prince’s heart like roots hiding away the most vital parts of a tree. But Yuu wasn’t keen on playing gardener though.

“Don’t you dare try to pin this on me. You knew exactly why I had to leave, but I promised, didn't I? I promised to be back. And I’m here!”

“Why after so long? What if you were gone for 20? 30? 40 years?”

Yuu groaned, combing their hair back in exasperation. “For fuck’s sake Leona! You wanna me to have the fucking Dark Mirror on speed dial!? I don’t have magic back home! I can’t pull off Godly crap like you and others can!”

Leona bit back his tongue at the annoyance that flashed in herbivore, no, scavenger’s eyes. They looked so tired. Tired from exhausting god knows how much resources to make contact back here. They scraped by on what little they had in their homeworld, praying on bones and leftovers for a miracle to happen and where was he? What was he doing on his side of the mirror? Sitting around, fat, and happy with how life has been treating him alright after Night Raven. But at least he knew one thing to do after all the time that’s passed.

“Sorry… That was unfair of me…”

It was Yuu’s turn to look at him bug-eyed. He growled.

“You won’t hear that outta me a second time…”

“Pfft, and here I thought the lion finally had a heart,” they joked, their tension now subsiding.

“Shut the hell up.”

“Heh,” the cigarette was passed to him. “Want a hit?”

“Nah. Stuff messes with my tongue too much. Plus it tastes horrible.”

“Damn, this is horrible for you? Y’all wouldn’t last a minute back at my place,” even if it was a joke, Yuu felt a frown curl on their lips at the truth that statement held. Leona paid no mind. Instead he reveled in the calm, letting the cool breeze that entered the hotel room soothe his nerves. Unconsciously, he felt at edge, but the more he and Yuu talked, the more a familiar energy came to settle between the two. One, two, three moments passed. Yuu took in a huff and spoke with smoke curling around their talking mouth.

“Leona… Are we still–” A pause and a frustrated sigh.

His hand gripped a bit tighter on his knee. “What?”

Yuu made a vague hand gesture, their cigarette humorously leaving trails that formed into wheels to represent their racing mind. “Y’know! Are we still– together? Even after so long?”

“... Yuu, I got angry that you took too long to come back through a magic mirror. When you don’t have magic to begin with. You think I’m not into you, after all this? Are you an idiot?”

“I just wanted to double-check, damn! It’s never bad to ask!” The two laughed breathily, though maybe more on a scoffing side for Leona. Slowly, the barrier from before crumbled down as Yuu now sat side to side with Leona. He looked down and Yuu met his gaze with such deep yearning, it blind-sided him. Hesitation was gone now as Yuu drew boldly close.

“Hey, can we kiss?” They asked softly. Smoke still hovered over their lips. Leona would have abhorred the thought of kissing someone with tobacco still strong on them. Yet the way that Leona nearly dove in to catch Yuu’s lips could have said otherwise. In the quick moments when they both surfaced to breathe between their kisses, the smoke escaped and leaked between their mouths. The shapes they made were of lions chasing antelope, ravens fluttering wildly in the air, then everything crashing into a meld of hearts. Quickly as they appeared, so too did they disappear, leaving only a hunter and a scavenger trying desperately to satiate their hunger.

[january-summers]

So I came into the fandom from The Untamed/CQL (the live action drama), so I don’t know if this is accurate to any version of MDZS universe, but apparently Wei Ying maybe ate corpses in order to not starve to death in the burial mounds? And then steeped himself in resentful energy to exact retribution on the douchebag sect, before kind sorta losing his shit and massacring a shit ton of people?

Now I’m not saying it’s The reason, but just so you know: cannibalism isn’t only frowned on because it is ethically bad, but because it leads to shit getting funky in the brain, so you know... maybe don’t mix cannibalism and demonic cultivation if you don’t want to go crazy and murder rampage?

So just to clarify real quick: when I say I came into the fandom from CQL I mean The Untamed was my first exposure the MDZS fandom in any capacity, and I have seen the Untamed twice all the way through, since then I've made it about halfway through the available donghua, and I'm in chapter 60 of the manhua. I HAVE NOT however, read the novel. (except for one chapter I'll mention in just a sec.)

When I say “apparently he maybe did the thing” I mean I had no idea if there was any supporting novel based text evidence, (thankfully I've been told the answer is no, the boy has suffered enough) BUT: I actually heard the “Wei Ying resorted to cannibalism to survive the mounds” thing a couple times in fics, but it was usually tacked on to an 'angst list' like a throw away fact so I was never sure if it was fanon or canon, but considering what I know of the Incense Burner chapter (the only chapter I've read from the novel because some asshole told me it was a cute married couple WangXian fluff piece (it was not, YKINMK)) the author is not above horrific character treatment so it wasn't outside of the realm of possibility.

If false: awesome, one less horror for Wei Ying to have to deal with in his already terrible life.

If true: consider the angst:

V This angst V

-

Wei Ying punches the ground as the crows circle above him just out of reach, taunting him. He's so tired and worn and sore, but he can't rest. The 'inhabitants' of the Burial Mounds are making his trek difficult, the mere energy of the place is fighting him every step of the way. He's getting better at controlling the resentful energy every time he tries, but it still fights him.

Inedia is almost impossible without his core, using resentful energy to do it is... not going well for him. He's hungry and thirsty, but nothing grows in the Burial Mounds that isn't already poison or rotting. The few tiny pools he's managed to find are... best not to think about unless he's forcing the questionable liquid down. The only readily available source of 'safe' food is the crows, and he can't fucking catch them! They're harder to catch than the pheasants he used to hunt... or maybe they're not, maybe he's just that much weaker now... without his...

There's a corpse on the ground, a few pieces of flesh still clinging to the body, the crows had fled him before they could finish. His stomach aches at the sight even as his mind recoils. He's been here too long, the edge of the Burial Mounds never seemed to draw any closer. Maybe it had always been further than he thought, maybe he'd been walking in circles.

If he doesn't eat soon he'll die for real, then there will be no chance of him escaping this place, of getting retribution for his sect, his family...

He doesn't want to die refuses to die, he'd sworn he'd come back he'd even said he'd do it as an inhuman monster and make the Wen Sect pay for what they'd done.

What were morals to a Demonic Cultivator any way?

He forces the meat down, cracks to bones to suck the marrow as the crows scream above him. Something in the miasma of the Burial Mounds' resentful energy seems to laugh gleefully as he throws away a piece of his humanity for vengeance.

The Resentful energy seems to answer his call a little more readily afterwards.

-

His revenge is not yet complete, but he has his shijie and shidi back. maybe he can keep that promise this time His shijie made him soup, the bowl is warm in his hands, the smell is familiar and comforting.

Until the flavour hits his tongue.

"Pork," she tells him, and it is he knows it is, but somehow it tastes like his sin.

-

His people are starving, A-Yuan is starving, there isn't enough food. He's managed to pull enough resentful energy from the gardens so that the food will grow un-rotten, but there still isn't enough. Even when he manages to cleanse the area enough for the fruit to grow without poison, even when he brings home small animals that have begun to make their cautious way to the area.

Wei Ying sees to his people's needs first, makes sure A-Yuan has his fill as best he can even when it leaves his own plate empty.

Wei Ying wanders out into the Burial Mounds to follow a circling flock of crows, just like he had on his long walk out the first time.

-

“Come back to Gusu with me.”

Yes, Help me, Save me, I'm scared of what I'm becoming. A thousand things are lost under the weight of what he's done, beyond the people he's killed in revenge, beyond the dangerous cultivation he's created, there are sins that weigh heavily, things that can't be forgiven, can never be spoken of. He doesn't deserve saving.

“Get lost."

-

Lan Wanji plays until his fingers bleed, keeps playing until they're too numb to play the notes correctly.

Inquiry, yes, always unanswered by the only one he wants to hear from, but Clarity as well.

If he had played for Wei Ying, if he had stayed with him instead, would he have been strong enough to save him? Would he have been enough to temper the resentful energy Wei Ying filled himself with? If he...

Lan Zhan directs spiritual energy to his fingers to heal them, cleaning Wangji's string and board of his blood.

He plays again the next day and the next and the next...

[zipp0flare]

Infection part 1

(So, this is an old relic piece back from when I first started playing Left 4 Dead. I loved the character and infected designs so much back then (still do, tbh) that I actually made several characters, whom I still love to this day. I only have stories for two of them, back from my deviantArt days, which is why this may look familiar. Anywho, this is the origin story for my Hunter, Luke (based off a GaiaOnline avatar I made one day, which is why the design choice is kinda funky.))

The rave that was so often filled to the brim with people on Saturday nights was close to being empty, mainly only filled with the loyal regulars that spent their free nights dancing amongst the music and flashing lights. A young male made his way to a small group of men gathered around the bar, some of which gave him surprised greetings.

"Whoa, Luke! Didn't think we'd see you here!" A man with a large, orange dyed mohawk called as he motioned the other male over. 'Luke' merely scoffed and sat down next to the man, as well a second man, wearing a ridiculous, tie dyed ski cap. "You know you look like a moron with that on, right Mal?" Luke asked, to which he received a punch in the arm from 'Mal'.

"You don't look any better. What's with the goggles, and the hood? Hell, what are you doing here in the first place?" Luke gave Mal a scowl, which only grew when the first man piped up; "Yeah, he's right. I mean, you have heard about the Green Flu going around, right?"

Luke leveled a glare at the man. "I could ask you the same question. I could ask everyone here the same question. I came here because I had planned to ever since Tuesday. But it looks like the hype about this flu has caused everyone to run for home with their tail between their legs."

Luke coughed into his arm, causing his two companions to inch back a little farther. "Damn, did you come here with it? What the fuck were you thinking?!"

"Vince, I don't have the flu, my throat's just been sore. You can calm down." Mal and Vince still looked leery. "I think you should go back home. You don't know if you're not infected, and none of us want to come down with the thing. I mean, I've heard some people are dying from it." Vince actually sounded somewhat worried, though it was hard to tell if the worry was for his friend, or for himself.

"That's just the media making this whole thing look worse than it did. Remember their last, so-called 'epidemic'?" Mal choked back a laugh. "Yeah, you boarded yourself up in your apartment for a week and a half. You thought the world was ending or something." Mal may have controlled his laughter, but Vince had begun to guffaw at the memory.

"And nothing happened, which made me look like a damn idiot."

"Yeah, you did look like a fool when you finally came out of your 'house of safety' with the fire axe you practically stole from your apartment building."

"Exactly. So, just like nothing happened then, everything's just going to go over in a week or so, and everyone will soon forget about the Green Flu." Luke raised a hand into the air with three fingers up, and waved to the bartender, earning a nod as the woman behind the bar got to work.

"So... you're sure your not infected, right?" Vince asked cautiously. "Yes. I know I'm not infected. I haven't even been near someone who's sick. Though..." His face scrunched up in disgust, to which his two friend gave him odd looks. "You remember my weird ass neighbor? Who lives in the apartment to the right of mine?"

"You mean crazy old hag Meri-something?" Vince received a nod. "What the hell did she do this time? Start up a story about her toe jam again?" Mal had to keep from retching when he heard Vince, even though he hadn't been there for whatever this story was, unlike poor friends. "No, not another toe jam story. I went to get my mail this morning and saw her walking my direction. I've gotten to the point where I wait for her to start going through whatever crap she's received until I leave. I stood there for two minutes and she didn't start rummaging through her mail. Instead, the crazy bat reaches over and bites me in the arm!"

"The fuck?! I knew she was out of her mind, but biting people?"

"I have no idea what was going through her freaky mind, but it was hard enough to break the skin." Luke rubbed his bandaged arm, currently concealed under his black arm warmers. "What did you do?" Mal asked, knowing that the story couldn't have ended there.

"I immediately elbowed her in the stomach out of reflex. She whined like a dog and took off after that."

"She broke the skin? Did you disinfect and all that crap?" Luke nodded. "I pretty much bathed it in rubbing alcohol, which burned like hell I might add."

Mal and Vince still looked disgusted with the story, thankful that neither of them had a out-of-their-mind neighbor that went around biting people. "Maybe you should head back home." Vince piped up after a few moments of silence. "If she bit you and all, maybe she's infected?"

"I'm sure the cause of that is from being out of her mind. I'm fine." Luke stressed the word 'fine'. "So, you wanted to come here on a Saturday, mainly only because we always do. You also think that all of this is just the media hyping things up a bit. I still don't see you going out, risking getting sick. You're the one who's always against that kind of-"

"It's nothing!" Luke exclaimed, startling his two friends, along with other people that were close by. "It's... just your normal flu."

"Dude... what the hell has your panties in a bunch? You're never this worked up." There was only silence from Luke, who seemed to almost be refusing to answer Mal's question.

"Maddie's sick." Those two words were so quiet that Luke's friends almost didn't catch what Luke had said. Maddie, Madeline, was Luke's five-year-old sister; she meant the world to Luke. "Maddie's sick with it. And if I start freaking out about this whole thing, I"m basically telling myself that my little sister's going to die." He bit his lower lip. "So, all of this is just nothing, alright?"

"... Sorry, I.. I had no idea, man." Mal apologized. "How's she doing?"

"She's currently in quarentine with CEDA. Or, that's what I'm being told." Luke coughed into his arm again, a bit more harshly this time. "I'm not sick, you can drop it." Luke knew what his friends were thinking and his words shut them up before they could say anything.

The bartender came back with his drink, but Luke could tell that she was keeping her distance as well. "Damn, why the hell is everyone acting like this.." He growled. Luke was hardly ever this agitated but Mal and Vince took it as him simply being worked up about his younger sister.

There was silence amongst the friends once more (minus Luke's coughing every few minutes) none of them knowing what to say. The silence was broken by a loud swearing from Luke. "They need to turn down these fucking lights. My eyes are burning from them!" His friends cringed, not expecting Luke's outburst. "Uh... the lights are the same as they always are. You sure you're oka-"

"I'm fine! Dammit, I'm fine!" Luke held his injured arm close to him, his fingers digging into it. Vince simply held his hands in front of him as if to guard himself from Luke's verbal lashing.

Luke's coughing seemed to have quickly and steadily grown worse, and he was beginning to notice a slightly red stain decorating the inside of his arm. Maybe he was seeing things though, his eyesight seemed to steadily be growing worse, and it was hard to think of anything with the pounding headache that had suddenly overwhelmed him.

Luke could barely make out his friend's worried looks, only seeing their lips moving while no sound came from their mouths, but the music in the background seemed to only be getting louder and louder, the noise assaulting his eardrums and causing his headache to grow worse.

As his eyes began to slowly bleed was when he fell backward and off of his seat, his head making a sickening crack as it hit the floor. Luke could barely see now, barely think, barely even keep his eyes open. "Holy shit! Someone call an ambulance, or something!" Mal and Vince had only become more and more concerned for Luke, giving him questions and suggestions, both of which went unanswered. None of that, though, compared to the panic going through their systems when their friend suddenly fell off the seat, bleeding out of his eyes.

"C'mon, Luke! You've been through worse, stay with us!" Vince exclaimed with frustration, trying to make things not at bad as they seemed, as he crouched down next to his friend. The bartender had already called 911, though Vince and Mal were wondering if it would do any good now.

When Luke slowly started to come to, letting out groans and what sounded like low growling, the duo's hope skyrocketed. It came crashing down, though, when Luke suddenly rolled off of his back and onto his stomach, crouching and growling at his 'friends'.

"Whoa, calm down, buddy... everything's alright.. you're going to be okay.." Neither of them had anymore time to say anything before 'Luke' pounced and attacked them both.

When the ambulance finally arrived, along with several people in hazmat suits from CEDA, they found the rave a bloody, gruesome mess. Several bodies were scattered on the floor and against the bar's counter. All of them were viciously torn into. "We need to block this place off. Don't let anything come out or into here." One of the CEDA workers commanded. While several people rushed to various parts of the club, a lone ambulance worker looked out at the horrific scene and sighed. His eyes turned down to see a man at his feet, with a large, orange mohawk, who looked even more torn into than the rest of the bodies at the scene. He didn't seem to pay much mind to the smeared blood trail that led away from the body, simply assuming that it was caused by the thing that had caused all of this. "God, this sickness is horrid..."

[didim-dol]

Explanation of Shamanic Rituals in 손: The Guest

This is not the most organized of thought pieces, so I do apologize for that. I’m not being paid, so I honestly don’t care enough. 

Disclaimer: I am not a native Korean speaker, nor do I have any academic training, except access to academic texts, and a significant interest in the subject. Also, I’m married to a native Korean speaker, so trust me when I say, I badgered him all the time while we watched the show, asking questions that allowed me to better understand what I needed to look for in research. I can read Korean and type it, so I was able to find a lot with information he provided me. Google Translate sucks balls, but it’s often good enough, and/or points in the right direction. If you are a native speaker, and I’m totally wrong, please let me know. I will fix it and credit you! 

I know there were lots of vagueness and unanswered questions about the rituals, who Park Il Do was, and what the ever-loving-fuck was going on most of the time, so I want to address them. I don’t speak to the Catholic part of any of it, except to say, in Korea, Catholicism is one of the more tolerant of Christian denominations that proselytized/evangelized there. As you can see, while not the same, they are compatible with one another, like in structured rituals dealing with possession, among other things. If you are Catholic and want to contribute to the post, please do! 

First let me point out that in the entire show, the terms “possession” and “exorcism” are used rather loosely, and encompass many different rituals that don’t have obvious English translations. Some were more confusing than others, which I want to clarify.

Episode 8-9: Seo Joon (the little girl)

In Episode 8, when Seo Joon is questioned about what happened to her, she tells Hwa Pyung and YukGwang she was approached by an old lady ghost in old-fashioned clothing, who was frightening at first, but later wasn’t

YukGwang asks about the symptoms she had (digging, aching body), and says she has been “possessed” and she needs an “exorcism.”

The translations are a bit funky here: The English subtitle is “possession” which is true, but not in the way we think of it the west, which is primarily from the Catholic Church. What is actually happening to her is called: 무병 (巫病, mu byeong), or “spirit sickness/ghost sickness,” and she is experiencing 신병 (shin byeong) or “self-loss”, which is what happens to someone destined to be a shaman. They serve their spirit guide, take a new name, and thus “lose” their former identity.

Then he tells her grandmother she needs an “exorcism,” which is not a very good translation. He says she needs 내림굿 (naelim kut) which is the initiation ritual of a new shaman, meaning she needs to accept her role and become a shaman.

But when Seo Joon says the lady is gone, replaced by spirits with knives, they realize that can’t happen. The old lady she saw was the spirit who should have become her spirit guide, and the one she would serve as a shaman, but Park Il Do destroyed her, leaving Seo Joon without a guide, and vulnerable to the evil spirits that come for her instead.

In the end of the character’s arc, he talks about another “exorcism” which is, yet again, a different ritual. This is the 눌림굿 (nullim kut), or the ritual to suppress a potential shaman’s abilities to see spirits. It is the same one that was used on Hwa Pyung when he was a child.

Episode 12: The Blind Shaman

Choi Yoon goes to see the shaman who performed a 굿(kut) on Hwa Pyung as a child. She tells Choi Yoon she remembers the boy from the 세습무 (saeseummu), or “hereditary shaman” family. He asks which kind of ritual she performed on him, and she says nullim kut, but its effects are wearing off. She refers to the 큰귀신 (k’un gwishin), or the “great/powerful spirit,” which they call Park Il Do, that wants him. This weakening of the ritual’s power is why he is able to see the ghost of his father again. It doesn’t explain why his eye hurts or why he can’t touch the cross, though. 

Episode 16: The Ritual to capture and contain 손 

In the flashback in Episode 16, we see Yukgwang telling Hwa Pyung how to trap Park Il Do in his body. He uses two words the translators didn’t even bother with. I don’t blame them.  

The first word is the ritual that Hwa Pyung should use to trap Park Il Do, and is called the 팔문금쇄진 ( 八門金鎖陣; palmungeumswaejin)  or “The Eight Gate Lock Formation,” which comes from the Chinese novel, Romance of the Three Kingdoms. It is a fictional military formation, but also a real ritual used in Korean Shamanism. It probably comes from the influence of Buddhism and Taoism from China, which goes back to the 3-4th centuries.

Each gate represents one of the Eight Generals/Gods of the Eight Doors and the Eight Directions (If you have a better translation for these, let me know. I did my best.):

North- 휴문신장 (休���神將) - God of the Gate of Rest

North East- 생문신장 ( 生門神將) - God of the Gate of Life

East- 상문신장 (傷門神將) - God of the Gate of Injury

South East- 두문신장 (枓門神將) - God of the Gate of Fabrication

West- 경문신장 (驚門神將) - God of the Gate of Fear

North West- 개문신장 (開門神將) - God of the Open Gate

South- 경문신장 (景門神將) - God of the Gate of View/Scenery

South West- 사문신장(死門神將) - God of the Gate of Death

The act of doing this ritual is called 팔문진경 (palmunjingyeong).

In the actual ritual, an intricately cut piece of paper in the shape of a cylindrical net is hung from the ceiling where the ritual is taking place. Eight nets are then strung out from the center net to eight more hanging nets with the names of the above deities written on amulets in red ink, pasted to the corresponding net. The image of the ghost or spirit that needs to be captured is then placed in the middle of the net, like so:

Source

Because Hwa Pyung is trying to trap the spirit of Park Il Do in himself, he carves each of the god’s names into his body in, roughly, the proper directions. It’s much more gruesome, but works. His blood is red (the color of the dead)  which is a substitute for red ink. The last one, he writes on his arm which is significant because 팔 (pal) means “arm” in Korean, as well as the number “eight” in Sino-Korean numbers. 

The characters are Hanja, and correct as far as I can tell. I can imagine it would be quite difficult to carve complex characters into one’s skin, upside down, and they are kind of hard to read.

Side note: I tried to find out how these directional gods corresponded with the 오방신장 (obang shinjang), or the “Gods of the Five Directions” in Korean mythology, but I was unable to find anything. It may be that the difference is in pre/post-Buddhist and Taoist influence. I’m not sure.

손: The Guest

The term 손 (sohn or son) It means “hand” as well as “guest/visitor.” In shamanism is it referred to an “ominous force,” which is why the villagers call the thing from the sea, sohn.

It was unclear from the beginning if sohn and Park Il Do were the same or different, even in Korean, as Korean is very vague. Pronouns aren’t really used, so there is no real reference to who they are talking about except in context or direct questions. This is why Choi Yoon assumed that “he” was Hwa Pyung, not his grandfather, when the shaman said sohn was still in the body he had possessed back then.  

So at one point, they were not the same. Park Il Do was possessed by the ominous force known as sohn, then transferred to the driver. Then I’m not sure if he went into Hwa Pyung’s grandfather, or if there were more in-between. I can’t remember. 

As the grandfather was from a hereditary shaman family, his body was powerful enough to hold him for the 20 years, along with Park Il Do’s body buried in the backyard. This is like the crow that allowed Park Il Do put in the pickled shrimp, so he always had access to Hwa Pyung, even when he was far away. How he stayed attached to Park Il Do’s body, idk, except because it wasn’t destroyed or cremated. Wrapped up like that, the body didn’t decompose. 

Miscellaneous Words

살 (煞 sal) - “invisible arrow,” “evil spirit.” Sal is also a homophone for death in Chinese, and in pure Korean, it means arrow. Therefore one is struck with an arrow of misfortune. More generically, it is evil/bad things that are caused by malevolent spirits.

살푸리 (salpuri)- ritual to remove curses and evil spirits; or remove the arrows of misfortune. 

I’ll probably add more to this later on, but if you want to add to it, please do! If you have any corrections for me, you can message me or reply. But don’t be an asshole. 

11/23/18 - NEWLY ADDED

구마 (guma) - the Korean term for the Catholic Exorcism. 

저주 (chaju)- a curse (what happened to Choi Yoon)

Sources: 

Shamans, Housewives, and Other Spirits by Laurel Kendall

Illustrated Guide to Korean Mythology by Choi Won Oh

Other random sites I didn’t save. Sorry.