#thanksforplayingsvt

[savventeen]

.|X| THANKS FOR PLAYING |X|.

[synopsis] finals are finally over, and all you want is to keep yourself entertained on the lonely train ride home since your best friend crush isn't coming with you. you don't expect to find yourself becoming the main character in a horror story.

[main pairing] >> chan x gn!reader

[other ships] >> implied reader x ot12 friendship, background verkwan, implied minghao/seokmin [main cast] >> reader, chan, [redacted] [supporting cast] >> vernon, seungkwan, minghao [cameos] >> jeonghan, mingyu, seokmin, seungcheol

[rating] >> 16+ [genre] >> texting au, horror, angst, tragedy [status] >> COMPLETE 2023.06.12 - 2023.07.13 [update schedule] >> daily (sometime between 6-8PM PST) [series warnings] >> psychological horror, (supernatural) gaslighting, implied main character death (reader) [tags] >> slow burn (that technically never actually ignites oops), starts off silly, and then quite suddenly is Not, if you're looking for a happy ending this is not the story for you

[story background/set-up] >> (see episode 00)

[series tag] >> #thanksforplayingsvt

[author's note] i decided to split episodes by conversation, so episodes will average 3-5 screenshots, but there are a few with only single images. also, timestamps (when you see them) are very important :) also also, the only physical description about reader is that they have small fingers

[EPISODE GUIDE] .|| 00 ||.

Friday, December 15th .|| 01 ||. [⚡️💛 Channie 💛⚡️🦦🐈] .|| 02 ||. [+82 2 XXX XXX XXXX] .|| 03 ||. [🗡️🪱 hannie (would still love if a worm)] .|| 04 ||. [🎧🪢 hansOULMATE] .|| 05 ||. [🍊🔪 sollie’s future husband (evil) (💙)] .|| 06 ||. [+82 2 XXX XXX XXXX] .|| 07 ||. [+82 2 XXX XXX… and 5 others] .|| 08 ||. [🐶🍻 gyubert] .|| 09 ||. [📢🎤 seokminnie] .|| 10 ||. [+82 2 XXX XXX… and 5 others] .|| 11 ||. [🐸🍷 haohao] .|| 12 ||. [+82 2 XXX XXX... and 5 others] .|| 13 ||. [🐶🍻 gyubert] .|| 14 ||. [🍊🔪 sollie’s future husband (evil) (💙)] .|| 15 ||. [+82 2 XXX XXX... and 5 others] .|| 16 ||. [🏔🧸 cheollie weollie] .|| 17 ||. [+82 2 XXX XXX... and 5 others] .|| 18 ||. [written - 324 words] .|| 19-1 ||. [+82 2 XXX XXX XXXX] .|| 19-2 ||. [+82 2 XXX XXX XXXX] .|| 20 ||. [+82 2 XXX XXX XXXX] & [+82 2 XXX XXX... and 5 others] .|| 21 ||. [+82 2 XXX XXX... and 5 others] .|| 22 ||. [🐸🍷 haohao] .|| 23 ||. [+82 2 XXX XXX... and 5 others] .|| 24 ||. [+82 2 XXX XXX... and 5 others] .|| 25-1 ||. [calling: 🎧🪢 hansOULMATE] .|| 25-2 ||. [calling: 🎧🪢 hansOULMATE] .|| 26 ||. [+82 2 XXX XXX... and 5 others] .|| 27 ||. [+82 2 XXX XXX... and 5 others] .|| 28 ||. [written ~800 words] .|| 29 ||. [+82 2 XXX XXX XXXX]

After .|| 30 ||. [⚡️💛 Channie 💛⚡️🦦🐈] .|| 31 ||. [⚡️💛 Channie 💛⚡️🦦🐈] .|| 32 ||. [⚡️💛 Channie 💛⚡️🦦🐈] .|| 33 ||. [⚡️💛 Channie 💛⚡️🦦🐈]

Epilogue .|| 34 ||. [Unknown]

Bonus Material Q&A

[savventeen]

.|X| THANKS FOR PLAYING |X|. [EPISODE 33 - THE END] [warnings: cussing]

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[a/n]

...we've reached the end friends 🥲 i honestly don't know what to say except thank you so much for hopping on the pain train with me and riding all the way to the last stop 💜 i hope u guys don't hate me too much and that you still enjoyed this story even if it hurts

also please feel free to hit up my inbox with any questions/theories/what-ifs/etc bc even tho this is the last update (with the epilogue coming right after), i will never not want to talk about this story and all of the things that were left unsaid 💜

[savventeen]

.|X| THANKS FOR PLAYING |X|. [EPISODE 34 - EPILOGUE] [warnings: none]

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Unknown

c̷̹̪̞̉͝h̴̳̦̦̀͊̓̇a̴͉̙̺͚̾̋̏ṉ̴͇̗̃͗͋n̶̖̓͐i̷͐̀͜ę̴̅͑̈́̋́ ̶̡̅ĉ̷̺h̸̨͊ả̵̠n̵̜̾ṉ̶̄i̵͕̓ë̵̙́ ̷̟̍ī̶̦m̴̽͜ ̸̜͗s̴̯̚ȍ̸͖ ̴̱̓c̴̰̅ǫ̸͝l̸̨̆d̸̖͠ ̷̜͒ψ̶̜̉ ̷̪͠ i̴̬̒v̷̺͂e̴̼͌ ̴̝̚m̴̗̈́i̵̪̋s̴̹͆s̷̢͝è̶̲ḍ̵̇ ̸̛̦u̵͚̐ ̵̘̈́s̴̬̉o̷̺̐ ̵̝̂m̷̲͗ü̴͙ḉ̵h̴̪̉ w̴͈̍ạ̵́ń̴̜ṫ̷ͅ ̸̥̏t̸̞͒o̶̡͠ ̸̱̏p̵̙̀ḷ̷͝ḁ̵̊y̵̜̽ ̵̦͒a̶͉͆ ̸̧̋g̵͎̐A̴̠͠m̵̳͑ ̷͎̕ë̷͖́ ̵̡̿?̴̖̈́

[transcript:] channie channie im so cold ive missed u so much want to play a gAm e ?

[savventeen]

.|X| THANKS FOR PLAYING |X|. [EPISODE 32] [warnings: mention of medication/prescriptions, cussing]

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[a/n]

MontageOfSadness.jpeg

[savventeen]

.|X| THANKS FOR PLAYING |X|. [EPISODE 31] [warnings: supernatural gaslighting, mention of mental health issues, description of a nightmare]

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[a/n]

:')

[savventeen]

.|X| THANKS FOR PLAYING |X|. [EPISODE 30] [warnings: cussing, supernatural gaslighting, threats of violence]

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[a/n]

the beginning of the after...

(for the timestamps, I know it's technically y/n pov, but I made the timestamps relative to chan bc i think it's easier reading that way)

[savventeen]

.|X| THANKS FOR PLAYING |X|.

[EPISODE 01]

[warnings: cussing]

[masterlist] || [prev] << [01] >> [next]

[a/n]

tfw ur bored and fail to resist the urge to be an Annoying Little Shit to ur crush bffae lol

[savventeen]

.|X| THANKS FOR PLAYING |X|. [EPISODE 18] [warnings: cussing]

[wc: 324 words]

Panic rises in your throat, swift and nauseating, and you immediately exit the conversation and delete all the messages.

It doesn't feel like enough, though, so you hold down the lock button, swiping frantically when the option to “SLIDE TO POWER OFF” pops up.

Then you unplug it from the portable charger for good measure.

The screen fades to black as your phone powers down and you let out a shaky breath. You let your head thunk against the headrest of your seat and try to slow your heart rate, breathing in and out, slow and steady.

For a few moments, your heavy breathing is the only thing that can be heard in the otherwise empty car. Then you break the silence with an emphatic “Fuck.”

That was... you don't know what that was. Some kind of virus disguised as a game?

What information could it have stolen from your phone? Could it have stolen anything from just texting alone? No clicking suspicious links or redirects to shady email addresses? You drop your phone into your lap and press the heels of your palms into your eyes until you see spots.

Seeing your friends’ names pop up like that... you shake your head. You're probably overreacting, you try to tell yourself.

But it had scared you.

You should probably warn them that some kind of virus-bot-thing might’ve gotten their info, right? Because that's all that this is, some messed up hacking thing.

...right?

Just— some really fucked up game that had, like, stolen all of your contact information and input it in the game for some reason. To make it more immersive, maybe? But... how did it know that those specific people were your closest friends? And how did it know their full names?

The flash of a notification catches your eye, and you glance down at it before you remember.

You shouldn’t be getting any notifications. At all.

Because your phone is off.

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[a/n]

ruh roh

[savventeen]

.|X| THANKS FOR PLAYING |X|. [EPISODE 04] [warnings: cussing]

[masterlist] || [prev] << [04] >> [next]

[a/n]

im love platonic soulmates vernon/reader with my whole heart <3

[savventeen]

I JUST BINGED YOUR ENTIRE “THANKS FOR PLAYING” AND I HAD TO STOP MYSELF FROM CRYING IN THE LIVING ROOM AND GODDAMN I GOT SO MANY QUESTIONS/IDEAS so here’s a dump lmao

AND SPOILERS ‼️‼️

and be honest if you honestly don’t have any idea or want to leave it up for interpretation

dino’s friend recommended it to him and he recommended it to mc right? well what happened to that friend/person?? i bet they are alive because they sent that game to 13 people before 3 am so the lady in the closet doesn’t get to them 🤭

if mc didn’t mess around and acted seriously in the game, would the outcome have changed? or was it always the gamemaster’s intention for the player to fall into obscurity?

how come dino remembered the mc? power of love??? or because he knew about the game (im pulling stuff out of my ass)?? or he has an android phone in this au 🧐

what if the pfps for the “AIs” are actually previous victims

so if you actually finish the game against all odds everyone is released (if they aren’t dead) hmmmmm sequel merhaps?? jk

imagine the only clue left about the players existence is the goddamn phone bill for texting 💀

WHAT HAPPENED TO THE MC????? wait that’d be really sad if the mc was actually still alive but dino couldn’t recognize them as “mc” but knows they exist somehow uGH

i know you wrote this story for fun so these don’t need to have answers/comments but please provide any extra tidbits of info about this concept it’s so interesting 🙏🙏

SKLJDFLKSDJF OMG THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR READING????? AND IM SO HONORED HOLY SHIT I WILL DO MY ABSOLUTE BEST TO ANSWER WHAT I CAN 😭💜

also you are not the only one with questions so I'm going to do my best to answer them all here!!!

[for anyone who hasn't read it yet and wants to know wtf we're talking about, you can read the entirety of my .|X| THANKS FOR PLAYING |X|. smau here!]

*cracks knuckles* alrighty buckle up folks time to try and answer some questions and take a deep dive into savv’s personal TFP lore here we gooooooooooooo

[putting it all under a readmore bc it got long af and also i didn't realize how hard it would be to translate the lore in my brain into words??????? i somehow didn't realize how oddly complicated it is??? like writing all of this out in any kind of semi-coherent way was SO HARD sdkjfsdlkjf]

~ Was it all a dream? (this one was asked by @junhui-recs)

Sadly, no. 😭 In the reality of this fictional universe, a tragedy very much did happen and Dino and MC are very much suffering from it 🥲 (I will not stop you from imagining that it was all a dream tho, we all have different ways of coping dklsjfsklj <3)

~ What's the main purpose of the game? Why are they doing this? (this one asked by @diamondyjh)

OKAY SO to start off you need to know that this au was heavily inspired by an episode of a podcast called "The Magnus Archives", specifically the episode “Binary” (transcript here). [If you're a fan of horror, I highly recommend giving the episode a listen/read, it's delightfully creepy — you don't need to have listened to any of the other episodes to understand it (just stop at the ending 'supplemental' part)]

The episode goes into detail about this sort of digital urban legend/creepypasta/copypasta about a guy named Sergey Ushanka who, long story short, tried to upload his brain/consciousness into a computer because he was afraid of death and wanted to try living forever virtually. There are tame versions of how he did it and other much more brutal ones, but basically "Sergey Ushanka" is a prank that various coders/programmers like to pull when making chatboxes in which you could talk with "strangers". It would start out normal and then steadily devolve into something creepy. This paragraph taken directly from the episode transcript sums it up very nicely:

"But then the responses start to break down, become more sinister, and keep referring to how much pain Sergey is in. Eventually, the only response the bot gives you is screaming and pleas to be released. The idea is that the chatbot is Sergey Ushanka’s mind, and he doesn’t like being in a computer nearly as much as he’d hoped."

So the idea that I stole from the episode essentially was: but what if it was real? What would the reality of being turned into cold, unfeeling data feel like? Agony is what the episode posits. Here is a list of phrases that the Sergey in the episode uses:

cw: vague body horror, blood mention "the angles cut me when I try to think" / "it peels my mind like knives" / "it feels like thinking through cheese wire" / "there's no feeling, but the no feeling hurts" / "it's cold without blood" / "the maze is sharp on my mind"

My next thought process was: What happens after? If someone were able to survive this process and were somehow able to keep any kind of agency, how would that person try to get out of the digital hellscape that has now become their existence? After knowing what it feels like to become distinctly inhuman, wouldn't they do anything to feel human again?

And how do we feel human? How do we find connection with each other and our humanity without ever having to come in contact with another person?

Stories. Fiction and non-fiction alike, we are all connected through storytelling, by finding feeling through other people's words. The thing about stories, though, is that they aren't messy in the same way that actually feeling our feelings is. That being human is.

So what does all of this have to do with the purpose of the game?

Essentially, when it's all boiled down, in this universe the story of Sergey Ushanka is real, and in this universe he is trying to gain his humanity back by stealing that of others. He started off with stories, with whatever online libraries and resources and archives he could find across the internet. And while it wasn't even close to enough to satisfy him, to get rid of any of the pain he was constantly experiencing, it was enough for him to learn, to grow, to realize that if he wanted his humanity back, he needed to go to the source.

So he started stealing real people from the real world, with all of their messy feelings and emotions and humanness.

That is the purpose of the game, why "they" are doing this. (pls don't ask the how bc i don't have an answer for that, just -waves hands- you know, insert your supernatural/sci-fi explanation of choice sldkflksj)

~ Did all the other characters from the game also get pulled into it the same way reader did? (asked by @diamondyjh) / What if the pfps for the “AIs” are actually previous victims

Short answer, yes to both! (Longer answer in the next question lol)

~ Who are those other people? (asked by @junhui-recs)

Essentially, the other characters/bots/whatever you want to call them are a kind of amalgamation of all the previous players who got sucked into the game. Once someone's been... let's call it absorbed, whatever parts of themselves are left after the process basically get shoved into whatever "character" they fit best, sometimes different pieces going to different characters.

And while the pictures could just be random ones, I like the idea that they're taken from the most recent players that got absorbed :')

~ Why was Changkyun evil? (asked by @junhui-recs)

Well, the main reason he was "evil" was because he's, y'know, a part of the game and the game is trying to steal people's souls or whatever. As for why he's mean, that's because he's trying to trigger an emotional reaction. The more messy, human feelings that are happening at the time of absorption, the better :').

~ Dino’s friend recommended it to him and he recommended it to mc right? What happened to that friend/person??

"i bet they are alive because they sent that game to 13 people before 3 am so the lady in the closet doesn’t get to them 🤭" SJKDFSKLDJ this made me snort, so thank you 😂

BUT to answer your question, in the story, Dino says that Yeonjun gave it to him and that he got it from "a friend of a friend of a roommate". Because the absorption and the consequent complete erasure is such a big process, not everyone who plays gets sucked in. In fact, most people who play don't get sucked in. Which is why Yeonjun is totally fine! (And why the friend of the friend of the roommate, aka this universe's irl Changkyun, is not 🥲)

~ If mc didn’t mess around and acted seriously in the game, would the outcome have changed? Or was it always the gamemaster’s intention for the player to fall into obscurity?

This one's a little bit complicated. It's kind of a yes and no situation? Generally speaking, the game isn't looking to ensnare every single person who plays because 1) it takes A Lot Of Effort to take/erase a single person, and 2) the game needs to spread to other people somehow, thus it needs people to play it and then tell other people to play it too.

For MC specifically, though, it's hard to say. How they played the game didn't matter so much as how they reacted to the game, specifically the first phase(s) of the Mnemosyne Protocol. The whole point of the game is to get big, messy, emotional responses, so if MC hadn't had such a big reaction, the game probably would have turned out differently. That being said, if MC had played the game as blandly as possible, the game might not have ever decided to test out the Mnemosyne Protocol, so. *shrugs* Do with that what you will lol.

~ So if you actually finish the game against all odds everyone is released (if they aren’t dead) hmmmmm sequel merhaps?? jk

Sadly, nothing special happens if you finish the game 😭 Plenty of people finish the game and pretty much go "huh, that was cool I guess" and then move on with their lives after telling their friends about it. This can be said about all four games mentioned actually, since we only see one of them get played.

As for a sequel... almost certainly not 🥲 I'm not going to give a hard no/no forever, because who knows if I'll end up getting another idea/get suddenly struck with inspiration, but... it is Extremely unlikely. Another story in the same universe??? ...still not likely, but slightly more likely than a sequel lol.

~ Why is Dino the only one who remembers reader? (asked by @diamondyjh) / How come Dino remembered the mc? Power of love??? Or because he knew about the game (im pulling stuff out of my ass)?? Or he has an android phone in this au 🧐

I almost want to make the answer "bc he has an android" because that is So Funny to me like sldkfjsldkjfslkjdf amazing 😂

But no, that's not the case lmao. And while I am a huge sucker for the Power of Love being an unstoppable force (ESPECIALLY when it's non-romantic love!!!), the reason Dino and only Dino remembers is thanks to sheer luck and a glitch.

So, in episode 28, MC drops their phone when meeting their brother and in episode 29 we see the alert ".|| MNEMOSYNE PROTOCOL COMPLETE ||." show up on a cracked screen.

The final phase of the Mnemosyne Protocol is the erasure portion, and the reason players get erased instead of just like, disappearing is because their "essence" is basically being transferred from reality into this digital realm of Sergey's existence. And reality, because it's now lacking an entire person and their history, just kinda... rewrites itself to make sense with the missing gap. Think of it as the universe doing like a sort of reverse autocorrect.

But because MC's phone got broken in the middle of that transfer, there was a slight glitch in the process. A glitch wherein Dino, because he was on the opposite side of the globe when this was happening, got accidentally missed in the autocorrection process. If he had been in Korea (or heck, anywhere within a few thousand miles) when this happened, he would have forgotten MC as well.

So long story short, Dino was just extremely (un?)lucky 🥲

~ Where is reader? (asked by @junhui-recs) / WHAT HAPPENED TO THE MC????? Wait that’d be really sad if the mc was actually still alive but dino couldn’t recognize them as “mc” but knows they exist somehow uGH

Well, sad news here friends. Most of what's left of MC is now stuck inside the game. They got absorbed and are now a part of Sergey's dataset and will be used/distributed into "characters" as needed.

Notice that I said most. Because, thanks to the glitch, the part of them that was connected to Dino didn't get transferred properly, and now that part of them is kinda stuck — it no longer exists in the real world, but it also didn't get fully absorbed into the game.

Which leads me to the next question:

~ Did reader turn evil and try to pull Dino into the game or is it the game itself being evil and impersonating reader to lure Dino in? (asked by @diamondyjh)

When I wrote the original version of this, the answer was a kind of combination of both — MC had gotten absorbed and corrupted by the game, so while it was the MC reaching out, they were doing so because it was what the game wanted.

But in this version... It's actually neither! Which I think would normally be a good thing but I think in this instance actually just makes this sadder oops.

So, the epilogue isn't the game impersonating MC and it isn't an "evil" MC trying to lure Dino in, it's actually just the part of MC that got stuck during the glitchy transfer. This is why the messages show as being from "Unknown" instead of the phone number associated with the game. And the reason what's left of MC asks Dino if he wants to play a game is because that's the only way it knows how to connect with anything anymore.

Basically, this sliver of MC that's left is experiencing what the original Sergey went through when he first "uploaded" himself, but instead of reaching out to anyone through a chatbot for help, it's reaching out to the only thing it "remembers" about humanity — Dino.

...I honestly didn't mean to make this story any sadder than it already is and I'm glad that the epilogue by itself just reads as spooky/freaky as hell instead of, well, this. 🥲

~ If Dino plays the game, will he be reunited with reader? (asked by @diamondyjh)

It pains me to say that there is no longer an MC for Dino to reunite with 😭 The part of them that got absorbed by the game is, well, a part of the game now. And the piece of them that's left and trying to reach out to him? Well, like I said, it's just a piece.

There could potentially be a chance for him to find some closure here, but that's about it I'm afraid :')

And now because I want this to end on a more lighthearted note:

~ Imagine the only clue left about the players existence is the goddamn phone bill for texting 💀

It becomes the next biggest conspiracy, that there's someone (or a group of someones) out there completing the world's next biggest scam by raking up random people's phone bills and somehow finding a way to steal the profit lmao

~ Some last thoughts from savv:

If y'all made it all the way to the end of this... holy shit I applaud you sldkfjsdlkjflksjdf LIKE!!!

thank you for taking the time to read all of this?????? it's not even fic it's just me rambling and making things Even Sadder??????

i also want to say that i'm a believer that 'canon' is whatever was posted in the story itself and that anything else is just headcannon, even if it's from me, the author. so if you don't like/don't agree with anything i've said here, feel free to ignore it!! fill in any gaps/questions you have in the way that makes your reading experience the most enjoyable!!

but yeah tHANK YOU ALL SO MUCH FOR READING AND I HOPE THESE ARE SATISFACTORY ANSWERS TO YOUR QUESTIONS AND IF YOU HAVE ANY MORE/HAVE A RENEWED DESIRE TO FIGHT ME MY INBOX IS OPEN SDKLJFSLKJFLSKFJSLKD

[savventeen]

.|X| THANKS FOR PLAYING |X|. [EPISODE 29] [warnings: none]

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[a/n]

:'D

[savventeen]

.|X| THANKS FOR PLAYING |X|. [EPISODE 22] [warnings: supernatural gaslighting, cussing]

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sorry those last messages got kinda fried when i tried to edit them to make them green (oops); they read as follows:

no wait no come bakc hao please im sorry cmoe back haohao minghao imsorry

also again asking u to pls ignore the fact that reader references the 97s as such even tho they're not born in '97 in this au rip

[savventeen]

.|X| THANKS FOR PLAYING |X|. [EPISODE 17] [warnings: cussing]

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[a/n]

DUN DUN DUNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN

[savventeen]

.|X| THANKS FOR PLAYING |X|. [EPISODE 25 - PART 1] [warnings: supernatural gaslighting, cussing, panic attack]

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[a/n]

part 2 will come tomorrow....

[savventeen]

.|X| THANKS FOR PLAYING |X|. [EPISODE 24] [warnings: cussing]

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[a/n]

phase 2: electric boogaloo (i'm so sorry i don't know what to caption these anymore now that we're getting into Serious Times slkjflskjf)

[savventeen]

.|X| THANKS FOR PLAYING |X|. [EPISODE 03] [warnings: none]

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[a/n]

my favorite part of this is that i had jeonghan's name picked out before the gose episode where he asked woozi if he'd take care of him if he was a roach slkjfskldjflks