closed

[pyojeol]

WHO: Han Sooyoung + others
WHAT: catch-all for September (post-dissipation) + anytime the ORV trio is being stupid together
WHERE: All over Horos
WHEN: End of Firaseri + Sekiseri
WARNINGS: spoilers for ORV! otherwise will add as we go



credit

closed starters below

Comments

artisan shrine

[pyojeol]

[The "being born from a chrysalis" experience remains gross and nasty, 0/10 experience, hopefully one she'll never go through again!!

Sooyoung claws her way out, pushing fistfuls of goo aside as she half-slips, half-steps onto the shrine floor. She grabs the towel she can see that's waiting for her, and slips into the flintstones dokja's boyfriend shirt aka yjh's clothes clothes waiting for her next to it.]

-- Ugh, gross...!

[she coughs once, then sputters. she accidentally inhaled some goo...

anyway as she struggles to BREATH again, she'll look around to see where DOKJA IS]

[salvageable]

[ HE IS NOWHERE TO BE FOUND!!

Just kidding. Dokja had left the shrine to fill up his flask at a nearby stream, so when he returns to the cavern, his eyes go wide at seeing Sooyoung revived. He had been expecting this with her chrysalis growing at the rate it had, been it's still... good to see her. Alive.

He hurries over until he reaches her, hands hovering over her in concern for just a moment before he presents her with the flask of water. ]

Here, drink this.

[ His voice is hoarse with exhaustion and he looks haggard and weary after spending days in this shrine, but the relief on his face is more than apparent. ]

[pyojeol]

[hm! he looks terrible!

Not that she expected him to look great. She did die like an idiot, and who knows how the raid panned out after she had to exit stage left. Did Yoo Joonghyuk let him walk away, after all of that?

She has half the mind to tell Dokja to take a drink himself, but she drinks from the flask instead,]

...Thanks.

[holding it out for dokja!]

How long have you been waiting?

[salvageable]

[ Great question. He hasn't really been sleeping at all during this time so the days sort of blended together. His face scrunches up as he tries to think how long it's been while he takes back the flask. ]

It's been about two days.

[ A lot faster than his own revival thanks to bringing Sooyoung's shard to the shrine of her Legacy. ]

How are you feeling?

[ He tries not to show it, but there's guilt thick and heavy both in the inflection of his voice and in his expression. He should have told her stay back. There was no need for her to come with him on this raid. ]

[pyojeol]

[Sooyoung can hear it, even if she can't see it. She's too busy skirting her gaze away from Dokja's, pulling into a stretch as if to distract from the fact that she's also feeling guilty. Guilty from a practical standpoint -- it's not like she meant to die, but she can't imagine that the raid went any easier after she did... But also, guilty because she knows that Dokja would have been hurt by it.]

I'm fine. I mean -- it hurt like a bitch and it sucked, but at least Yoo Joonghyuk went straight for it.

[She admits, somewhat grudgingly, even if the petty parts of her wishes she got to curbstomp him instead.]

It's not like I was completely out even after I died? I could kind of sense my surroundings, like when you picked me up.

[salvageable]

[ Ah. It's not like he can say that he understands without revealing that he's died here too. So he allows the comment to pass, not really wanting to dwell on her death in the first place, and starts heading for where his makeshift bedding had been laid out.

It hadn't seen any use, but it had been a place to sit and rest when he wasn't pacing around on the verge of a mental breakdown.

From his bedding, he pulls out the book Joonghyuk had stuffed in his pocket and holds it out in her direction. He had thought it would be something to read while he waited in the shrine, but....... That was not the case. ]

I couldn't get your other things, but I did manage to save this.

[pyojeol]

[TELL HSY THAT U DIED BEFORE DOKJA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anyway, Sooyoung immediately recognizes it by its probably weirdly raunchy cover and takes it, scowling.]

That damn Yoo Joonghyuk... He stole all the jewelry, didn't he.

[she looted two whole mansions for her horde... Her scowl doesn't stay for long -- turning mischievous. She turns the book over then tucks it into the pocket of the clothes she's also borrowing from Dokja,]

What did you think? You were reading it this whole time, right?

[salvageable]

[ ABSOLUTELY NOT

And he frowns at the questions. Who does she think he is... As soon as he saw the cover, he knew he had made a mistake in saving that book. ]

I didn't read it.

[ Which left him super bored and with nothing else to really do but no way in hell was going to read that. ]

Why did you even have that book with you in the first place?

sticks my foot in here... greentruth, sometime early after she's been revived

[comelately]

[ although it's easier for him to stay at the lower levels of Greentruth, he inevitably has to come back up to the top by the end of the day to get back to his quarters. For him, unfortunately, that means a ride up the freight lift - the workers there know him by now, and after his efforts in Godsblood a few weeks ago, they let him ride for free, at least. The sun is setting on one such day as the lift stops at the main level, with Johnny wheeling himself out behind a man and his kocsigyik pulling a load of goods, when he suddenly spots a familiar face.

Or... not familiar, actually. He's never met her in person. But he knows of her, and his Shard does, too. ]

-- Hey! You! You're Sooyoung, aren't you?

[ a small man with wavy blonde hair and a southern twang is calling out to her from a wheelchair, brow furrowed. He looks like he's been working on a farm all day, and probably smells a little like it, too. Sorry, Sooyoung. ]

MURDERGAME TERMS WOULD CALL THIS W5 : TUESDAY

[regression]

[ Guess who is in Godsblood! Yoo Joonghyuk, except he is a woman. Wrapped in a cloak, maybe it's hard to tell aside from some locks of jet black hair hanging out of his hood. Sometimes, canon allows you to turn into a woman and for many chapters that is how you draw untapped potential. Anyway, he is waiting

looks at the locked pages

I AM MAKING GODSBLOOD UP NOW. He's going to be waiting by the pub or tavern because Sooyoung had mentioned wanting food, though it has been days since then. Have they communioned each other since? No. And no, he isn't going to communion either of them. ]

SLDFMLSFD W5

[pyojeol]

[HE'S REALLY JUST GONNA STAND OUTSIDE THIS TAVERN AFTER GHOSTING THE BOth OF THEM FOR A (MUFFLED) AMOUNT OF TIME?

anyway Sooyoung goes to Godsblood often even though she lives in Greentruth with Dokja, despite the fact that using a portal constantly would make NPCs suspicious but let's say that she rubs her two brain cells together and manages to avoid said suspicion every time.

anyway this particular tavern in makes the closest approximation to black bean noodles which means it's her favorite tavern! She misses Korean food, that's the worst part about isekai-ing, not getting to eat your favorite things. anyway she heads on over, glancing over at this stranger in the cloak and the long hair. is YJH standing right outside the door, i'm godmoding that he is]

Hey. Are you going to go inside or what?

[is yjh shorter as a girl is he still taller than hsy]

[regression]

[ like a week and a couple of days? Y'all are smart and somehow thought about this while I was like, well, I don't know if Kenoma have portals to Godsblood, so however Joonghyuk got here? He got here. Some details are not important. He is standing right beside the door, so close enough.

He lifts his gaze to meet hers, long lashes outlining his dark—checks dokja's purple prose from the webnovel—double-lidded sultry eyes. Maybe the air and the posture is familiar to her. She has more braincells than Dokja sometimes. ]

Why are you alone?

[ No, he's taller... But even if he was average height for a woman, he'd be taller than Sooyoung. ]

[pyojeol]

[i want to argue that sooyoung has more braincells than dokja at all times?

but even if she DIDN'T there's too many pieces that just click into place with this single moment -- the way this stranger talks? demanding an answer over asking a question? and the way she looks at hsy? like she's Judging? also her double-lidded eyes? the trend for every korean before the apocalypse happened?

...]

[pyojeol]

[...............????]

[pyojeol]

Yoo...






[...........????????????????????????????]

Yoo Joonghyuk...?

[regression]

[ So you gave her a braincell... She deserves it for taking care of Dokja's kids while he's away.

Joonghyuk, too, isn't surprised that Sooyoung recognizes him. ]

Where is Kim Dokja?

[pyojeol]

[holy shit?]

Holy shit.

[She immediately leans in so she can see Joonghyuk's delicate features more closely.]

Holy shit! It's really you?! Why the hell do you look like this?!

[looks at yjh's tits]

[regression]

Disguise.

[ So other Kenoma and his retainer don't know he's here. Joonghyuk is rather handsome for a woman... Though beautiful, too. Something about soft features, but strong expressions, I don't know.

He's him. ]

And you know why I look like this. [ ............. ] What are you looking at?

WIN 5

[salvageable]

[ Where did everyone go?? Yoo Joonghyuk's always wandering off on his own so forget him, but Sooyoung too?

Anyway, he's got his own hood thrown over his head because the people of Godsblood think he's a Kenoma Aion and he doesn't want more glass bottles flung at his head. When he shows up at the tavern, he's a little weirded out by someone just standing around outside of it but okay. Different people have different hobbies.

It's only when he gets closer that he starts getting a strangely familiar feeling from this figure...

So he's gong to stare like a creep. ]

[regression]

[ HE JUST GOT HERE YOU BITCH

Also, why is he weirded out? He's here because they asked him to be here—he's here because Sooyoung mentioned food even though they know Joonghyuk has impeccable taste and will not eat anything served to him by other people. He's here DESPITE being told that Dokja is considered an enemy...

And he's weary to see that it's still the case. A part of him wants to ask why Dokja has allowed this to continue when he could show them he's Pleroma. What does he gain from letting the weak rumor fester and survive? ]

You.

[ With a perpetual frown, but a sharp leer, that's all he says. ]

[salvageable]

[ Dokja's brain screeches to an immediate halt.

Face to face like this, he recognizes her in an instant. She's the same woman he's seen time and time again, a mystery that he's never been able to puzzle out, a great beauty who could slap Yoo Joonghyuk an impossible three times in the face. He's stunned silent, eyes wide, and he wonders what the chances are that Joonghyuk, Sooyoung, and now the Punisher have all arrived in Horos??

He feels a slow heat crawl up his neck and spread to his cheeks, and he's suddenly so relieved for the hood shadowing his face. ]

I didn't know you were here.

[ And in Godsblood of all places? Wouldn't that mean... ]

Are you with the Pleroma?

[regression]

[ ... ]

[regression]

[ Joonghyuk for years had thought Dokja knew? He had to turn into a woman to win the martial arts competition for the Dark Heavenly Demon Sword and that was broadcasted at the Gourmet Association's banquet, he's sure. Was he... Not watching? Maybe Dokja was busy in the sea of voracious constellations, seeking the next delicious story. Maybe it's for the best. He dislikes it when people make unnecessary comments about his appearance, compliments or not.

...

Is it not obvious? Not that Joonghyuk would like to be recognized so easily in this form. His posture tenses only a bit, left eyebrow twitching—a very Joonghyuk trademark to show he's thinking deeply on something. ]

... No. [ He's. Kind of shocked, but not shocked enough to shoot Dokja down. ] I won't join the Pleroma.

[ Rejected. Again. ]

[salvageable]

[ DAMN THAT'S RIGHT SHE HATES HIM FOR SOME REASON 😬

Look, Dokja knows everything (okay, not everything but a lot of things) there is to know about Yoo Joonghyuk and Yoo Joonghyuk does not turn into a woman. That's just how it is! He can't rub his braincells together when there are none to begin with in this particular case. ]

Oh. [ Disappointed. ] Are you sure? There's someone from our world over on the Kenoma side, but I don't think you'd get along with that jerk. You're really better off with the Pleroma.

[ Sorry, Joonghyuk, he'll throw you under the bus for just a moment. ]

[regression]

[ The reader does not know about the writer's secret notes... The writer's secret stash of backstory for their protagonist. Dokja knows that the Breaking the Sky Sword martial arts is wielded best by women, soul or body.

........................

His eyes narrow. Oh? He isn't surprised that Dokja is so quick to badmouth him. That man is obsessed with him. ]

Why would you say that?