I-would-like-to-leave - Reading + Other

Butch4Butch Sangsoo... 2!!! This time featuring their post-canon designs :]

Everybody give it up for my friend that I got into orv

yuri-fied them

Hey, random writing tip: Instead of having something be a ridiculously unlikely coincidence, you can make the thing happen due to who this particular character is as a person. Instead of getting stuck on "there's no logical reason to why that would happen", try to bend it into a case of "something like this would never happen to anybody but this specific fucker." Something that makes your reader chuckle and roll their eyes, going "well of course you would."

Why would the timid shy nerd be at a huge sketchy downtown black market bazaar? Well, she's got this beetle colony she's raising that needs a very specific kind of leaf for nest material, and there only place to get it is this one guy at the bazaar that sells that stuff. Why would the most femininely flamboyant guy ever known just happen to have downright encyclopedic knowledge about professional boxing? Well, there was this one time when he was down bad for this guy who was an aspiring professional boxer...

I know it sounds stupidly obvious when written out like this, but when you're up close to your writing, it's hard to see the forest for the trees. Some time ago I finished reading a book, where the whole plot hinges on character A, who is 100% certain that character B is dead, personally getting up and coming down from the top rooms of a castle, to the gates, at 3 am, to come look at some drunk who claims to be this guy who died 17 years ago. Why would A do that, if he's sure that B is dead?

Because he's a Warrior Guy from a culture of Loyalty And Honour, and hearing that someone's got the audacity to go about claiming to be his long-lost brother in battle, there is no other option than to immediately personally go down there to beat the ever-loving shit out of this guy. Who then turns out to actually be character B, after all.

Whumpril Day 2 - Lies

Also posted on ao3

If Hyung wasn’t lying when he said they would all survive and then he went off to die, then this wasn’t a lie either.

The bugs couldn’t save him. They swarmed and they swarmed and they swarmed and the sword got through anyway. It burned. The boy felt like his insides were burning, twisting around the blade piercing through him.

But then, just as fast, the sensation left. Lee Gilyoung saw his Hyung standing over what had just hurt him, blade dripping with blood and Stories. Having finished the job, his Hyung rushed over to check on Lee Gilyoung.

“Are you okay? It didn’t get you did it?” His Hyung sounded so stressed. Lee Gilyoung didn’t want to bother him with his pain, so chose to omit it.

The bugs swarmed, covering his torso, Hyung didn’t see this because he was too busy looking the boy in the eyes.

“No, Dokja-Hyung, I’m fine,” Lee Gilyoung said, desperately trying to sound sincere, feeling suffocated by the feeling that he was gushing blood onto the floor.

His Hyung looked unsure, but when the battle roared up again behind him, he reluctantly turned around to go finish it.

Lee Gilyoung sank to his knees, no longer able to stand. He was invisible to the world, surrounded by layers and layers of bugs. He loved bugs.

Surely if he just closed his eyes for a moment, he wasn’t going to die… the boy thought, blinks growing longer and heavier.

An ear piercing screech rang out. His eyes flashed open. It was his Hyung, he was running over to him. He looked so desperate, his blurry and blank face flashing with what could have been tears.

His Hyung pushed through the bugs, who were attacking him, trying to keep him away. Lee Gilyoung ordered them to stop.

His Hyung had activated Demon King Transformation at some point, his ebony wings blocking out what was left of the sun. Those dark wings wrapped around him, cocooning him in a soft embrace.

“You’ll be okay, you’ll be okay, you’ll be okay,” Dokja-Hyung repeated, needlessly, as he wouldn’t die. His Hyung was here! He wouldn’t die.

Hyung wrapped his arms around the boy, and burst into flight. Scrambling back to the complex and completely ignoring the abandoned fight.

In his Hyung’s arms, Lee Gilyoung knew he was safe. His eyes began to close once more.

“No, no, no, no, no!” His Hyung muttered, sounding as desperate as Lee Gilyoung had once felt. But this desperation didn’t work. The boys eyes closed, and the world faded away.

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

i think the near-extinction of people making fun, deep and/or unique interactive text-based browser games, projects and stories is catastrophic to the internet. i'm talking pre-itch.io era, nothing against it.

there are a lot of fun ones listed here and here but for the most part, they were made years ago and are now a dying breed. i get why. there's no money in it. factoring in the cost of web hosting and servers, it probably costs money. it's just sad that it's a dying art form.

anyway, here's some of my favorite browser-based interactive projects and games, if you're into that kind of thing. 90% of them are on the lists that i linked above.

A Better World - create an alternate history timeline

Alter Ego - abandonware birth-to-death life simulator game

Seedship - text-based game about colonizing a new planet

Sandboxels or ThisIsSand - free-falling sand physics games

Little Alchemy 2 - combine various elements to make new ones

Infinite Craft - kind of the same as Little Alchemy

ZenGM - simulate sports

Tamajoji - browser-based tamagotchi

IFDB - interactive fiction database (text adventure games)

Written Realms - more text adventure games with a user interface

The Cafe & Diner - mystery game

The New Campaign Trail - US presidential campaign game

Money Simulator - simulate financial decisions

Genesis - text-based adventure/fantasy game

Level 13 - text-based science fiction adventure game

Miniconomy - player driven economy game

Checkbox Olympics - games involving clicking checkboxes

BrantSteele.net - game show and Hunger Games simulators

Murder Games - fight to the death simulator by Orteil

Cookie Clicker - different but felt weird not including it. by Orteil.

if you're ever thinking about making a niche project that only a select number of individuals will be nerdy enough to enjoy, keep in mind i've been playing some of these games off and on for 20~ years (Alter Ego, for example). quite literally a lifetime of replayability.

A crossover no one asked for...

except me.