Thinking Again About Kim Dokja's Face Censor And How Its Such A Good Mechanic. Foreshadows The Most Ancient

kim dokja and bihyungs dynamic before they get used to each other is so funny. me and the guy i keep trapped in my torture dungeon for entertainment (he keeps torturing himself and the others in new and creative ways i hadn't thought about before. hes actually kind of better at this than i am. im kinda scared)

Whumpril Day 1 - Hug

Also posted on ao3

Han Sooyoung lets out a sigh, looking at the mountain of notes she had spent the past day sorting through.

“All these notes, yet you can’t just stay alive, can you?” She wasn’t talking to anyone. The person she wanted to talk to was long gone. All that was left of him was his piles and piles of writing, on the scenarios, on constellations, on items. Nothing saying where he went or what could bring him home.

She had taken it upon herself to read through all of them, organising their leader’s scattered thoughts into something the rest of them could manage.

Grabbing her summary of what she went through, Han Sooyoung made to stand. Pushing her chair back, her vision went dark as she rose. How long had she been sat there?

Doubling over, she gripped the table. Her vision remained dark, her head rushing. She groaned at the sensations. She knew she had to get closer to the ground, then it would be less of a fall if she passed out.

Suddenly, there was a knock at the door.

“Sooyoung-ssi? Are you alright in there?” Yoo Sangah’s gentle cadence came through the closed surface, a hint of concern in her tone.

Han Sooyoung tried to respond but the pounding doubled in strength, eyes seeing naught but waves of darkness. Another groan emerged from her throat.

“Is that you? I’m coming in,” and the door opened. Yoo Sangah’s gentle cadence was shrouded in what seemed like a halo of heavenly light, but Han Sooyoung knew it was just the too-bright lightbulb in the hallway shining into the poorly lit room.

Yoo Sangah let out a gasp when she saw Han Sooyoung. Her hair was matted, her eyes clamped shut with the eyebags beneath large and noticeable.

She rushed over and wrapped her arms around the writer, holding her close.

“Are you okay? I came to check on you because no one’s seen you all day,” Her concerned words were too loud for Han Sooyoung’s aching head, so she scrunched her eyes further closed and tightened her grip on the table.

When Yoo Sangah saw her do this, she tried to pull them both away from the table, and to the mattress that had been set up for when company members were having sleepless nights in the planning room.

Now speaking in a whisper, Yoo Sangah continued to try and comfort Han Sooyoung

“Do you want to just lay hear and cuddle? Let’s try and get some sleep,” The serene tone combined with the soft covers helped ease some of Han Sooyoung’s pain. She nodded her head, and Yoo Sangah slipped them both under the covers.

And so, as the night wore on, the two ladies slept in peace, leaving thoughts of what was to come aside.

we failed

NOTICE: As more and more fanfic writers are using generative AI for their works (you uncreative dweebs), I hereby swear on everything I hold dear that I have not and will NEVER use generative AI in ANY of my written work. Everything I post will be organically and creatively my own.

This may not be exactly what you were imagining, but:

The Kim Dokja Company receive a strange scenario, but the titular leader isn’t being as truthful as he may (not) seem.

It came early in the morning.

[Sub-Scenario - Cause and Consequence

Type: Sub Scenario

Difficulty: F-S

Clear Condition(s): A member of your nebula will swap positions with a version of their past or future self from a significant life event. Work out what this event is.

Time Limit: 24 hours

Reward: 10 000 coins

Penalty for Failure: The member of your nebula remains lost in time]

An emergency meeting was called.

“Kim Dokja, what do you know about this scenario?” Inexplicably, Han Sooyoung and Kim Dokja were the first two to arrive. Han Sooyoung was unable to sleep and thus was lingering in the communal space, while Kim Dokja had most likely been ignoring his needs in favour of scenario planning in his nearby room

After the fact that this world was from from a novel had been revealed, the two could be more open about where their information came from, and Han Sooyoung took the opportunity to freely discuss what they would do.

Kim Dokja did not respond to Han Sooyoung’s question, instead seeming to grow more pale in his already sickly pallor.

Now she looked again though, she realised something was off. His face, while normally rather blurry, was now shrouded to the point where it looked like static covered it, and his usually well-fitted coat was now hanging onto his shrunken frame.

Disturbed, Han Sooyoung walked over to be in front of him.

“Hey, do you know where you are?” If what Han Sooyoung thought had happened was true, it would probably be best to tread with caution. A ‘significant’ event, was likely to be a traumatic one, and given how Kim Dokja had reacted when they saw Song Minwoo…

Reaching over to grab his shoulder, Kim Dokja finally reacted.

“W-We’re in the apocalypse, aren’t we?”

“We are, have you read a book called Ways of Survival?”

Despite it all, the man seemed to grow even paler, and after some slight hesitation, gave a small nod.

So he was old enough to know about WoS. The man in front of her couldn’t be from the future because the Kim Dokja she knew… he was never this… this small.

This man looked weak, defenceless, nothing like the confident man she has gotten to know. He was shaking where he stood and there was a line of sweat on what she could see of his brow.

Before she could interrogate him further, the door slammed open with a sharp thud.

It was the rest of the company, though Yoo Joonghyuk was notably missing, due to the fact that he had taken a far-away hidden scenario in the lull between main scenarios, and was still travelling back after completing it.

“Do either of you know which one of us it is?” Jung Heewon said as soon as she entered the room, looking ruffled from the sword training she had been doing with Lee Jihye, who spoke next.

“We have a problem if Master got it, he might have been in the middle of a fight when the message got sent.” There were flames in both of their eyes from the ‘Demon Slaying’ skill, the embers not quite dead yet from the recent use of it.

Kim Dokja nervously raises his hand, “I think I have it, is it the…” He pauses to check, “‘Cause and Consequence’ scenario?”

“What does your window read?” The more information the better, and if this normally tricky man was choosing to be cooperative, then Han Sooyoung would take all the advantages she could get.

“It says that-” A lightning strike of probability strikes where he stood. He appeared to have sensed something amiss because he stopped talking and dove out of the way only a short time before it hit.

Lee Hyunsung jumped to help Kim Dokja up as soon as Han Sooyoung had gotten him up again. She pondered, whatever constellation had suggested this scenario obviously didn’t want the details to be let out. What kind of constellation was strong enough to send a concentrated bolt of probability though…

“It doesn’t want me to say.” Kim Dokja said, his tone lacking the shake that had been present since this past-self of his had arrived. Instead it sounded defeated, as if he had given up on trying to be understood.

What had he gone through to get to this point… What time did he come from?

~(*-*)~

Yoo Joonghyuk had been enjoying a pleasant morning in the apocalypse. He had just finished a monster hunting hidden scenario, and his companion had been messaging him throughout the night about upcoming plans.

He was cooking some monster meat over the fire when a scenario arrived.

[Sub-Scenario - Cause and Consequence]

Quickly, he finished what he was doing and activated ‘Red Phoenix Shunpo’ to sprint back to the Industrial Complex. Kim Dokja’s messages had cut off abruptly before the notification arrived.

When he got there, not slamming the door due to it already being open, he saw the rest of the group crowded around a figure wearing a white coat.

His quieter than normal entrance had not yet been noticed by the group, and as he pushed through to get to the cloaked figure, he abruptly stopped.

The figure met eyes with him, and he saw galaxies upon galaxies crowded into teared up eyes. Losing himself to the ethereal gaze, Yoo Joonghyuk felt a presence that had long been absent, with only echoes of it through his ‘Regression’ stigma.

It was the connection of sponsor and incarnation. Yoo Joonghyuk felt the connection gently shifting through his mind, as if looking through papers, and he didn’t fight it because it felt just like Kim Dokja’s skill when he possessed him.

\(0_0)/

Han Sooyoung was still trying to figure out what was happening. Kim Dokja didn’t look young enough to be from when WoS first came out, but he was not the age he was when the scenarios started.

The situation got worse after Yoo Joonghyuk arrived. He must have rushed from wherever he was to get here, but he arrived near silently and suddenly went still the second he got a look at the other Kim Dokja’s staticky face.

Both of them were completely unmoving, just staring at each other unresponsive to any other stimuli. Han Sooyoung went to shake Kim Dokja but stopped when probability sparks flared around the two of them, backing away so as to not get hit as well.

Suddenly, the two leaders dropped to their knees on floor. Kim Dokja curled into a ball, clawing at his face, tears streaming down it. Yoo Joonghyuk just had this look of awe on his unexpressive face, staring in wonder at Kim Dokja.

This was not good, with the two people who feasibly knew the most out of commission. Working herself up to try again, Han Sooyoung walked over to Yoo Joonghyuk and covered his eyes.

If he only got like this when he looked at Kim Dokja, then maybe making it so he couldn’t look anymore would help? This seemed to work as Yoo Joonghyuk’s expression went back to its normal scowl, though he still seemed a little bit out of it.

“Bastard, what made you do that!?” He didn’t respond, instead he pulled Han Sooyoung’s hand away from his face and activated the skill ‘Eye of the Sage’ with his head turned away from the prone man still on the floor, now positively covered in sparks.

With a flick of just his eyes he looks at Kim Dokja before looking away again, seeming to not want a repeat of what just happened. There were sparks around his eye, which had started to tear up from pain.

“His skill is still active, it won’t let me look at his stats.”

That can’t make sense, if the Kim Dokja in front of them hadn’t partaken in the scenarios then he wouldn’t have any skills… perhaps they didn’t just swap places, but also swapped skills, in which case they hopefully the Kim Dokja from the present was okay, given his lackluster combat skills and reliance on coins.

Deciding to leave this for later, Han Sooyoung went to comfort the crying man, keeping wary of the probability.

End for now but may be more

Past/future swap with KDJ but instead of his middle school self, he swaps with 51% and 51% has to deal with /gasp/ EMOTIONS

Yoohankim! Based on this:

Kim Dokja is a Star because I get the vibes that he is the thing that yoohan look for in the sky also because he’s a Constellation. Han Sooyoung as the sun because without her writing everything, shining light on everything, nothing would exist. Yoo Joonghyuk as the moon because he is constantly changing and showing different parts of himself, and because there is a half of the moon which is always dark, which reminds me of the theme that you can never truly know a person as their whole.

Whumpril Day 5 - Neglect

On ao3

Sponsors were staples of the Star Stream. Nearly every powerful Incarnation had one, sometimes more. They were meant to bestow legendary Stigmas upon their chosen, granting them fantastical abilities to allow them to progress further through the Scenarios.

Shin Yoosung signed that contract with the strange Ahjussi knowing this. She signed it knowing that he may not help her as much as others might, but she had faith he would be worth it.

She did not sign the contract knowing that the man would disappear so soon. She did not sign the contract knowing that the man would never come back.

She felt empty. The memories she had with that man were short, fleeting. It felt she had spent more time with the man dead than she had spent with him alive. She knew this wasn’t true, but his absence was all consuming.

Sponsors were meant to aid those they took on as Incarnations. Even though she was a child, she knew that this was not always true… this man was meant to be different. This man was meant to stay.

[The Constellation ‘Demon King of Salvation’ does not exist]

happy birthday!