Demon King Of Salvation I Drew When Bored

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]

Petitions - UK Government and Parliament

Petition: Do not stop transgender people from receiving care in mainstream hospital wards

The previous government proposed changes to the NHS constitution which would mean transgender hospital patients in England may not be treate

Well fucks? Get to it!

so i don't know if I've posted about this before, but considering that the basis of power in the star stream is the kind of stories you have, and that the stories you have lock you into a continual repeat of those stories, it is intensely important to gather stories that have the right sort of themes and utility for what you're trying to do. you don't want your achilles heel to be something you don't know how to manage, and you want your strengths to be something you can easily command.

kim dokja, trying to overturn the star stream, is gathering stories with a theme of deconstruction and rebellion. intensely, intensely useful for overturning the order of the world, but more critically, also useful for ensuring the stories themselves won't rule him to quite the extent other constellation's stories do. when a theme of a story is deconstruction, you can tear it down and remake it as many times as you need to in order to achieve your goals.

(this does get out of hand a bit later with the torch that swallowed the myth. we'll discuss it when it comes lmao)

equally important that his founding stories also have themes of saving the downtrodden and working together with them. he wants to see this world overturned, but more importantly, he wants his companions to make it to the end. these are all building themes that will ensure he tells the exact kind of story he wants to tell!

Whumpril Day 4 - Threat

On ao3

It was a normal day. Lee Jihye and Na Bori were in class, talking about the latest trends and playfully bantering. It was a normal day.

[Worldline 8162 has entered paid service.]

An ominous message was the only warning, before the two girls’ lives’ completely changed.

At first, the class had just whispered. It seemed that everyone had hurt the message, causing all conversation to stop. No one could figure out where it came from, but then… the screams began.

They were muffled through the walls, most likely from another classroom, but they started, and they wouldn’t stop. Another message pinged.

[1st Scenario - Prove Your Worth

Category: Main Scenario

Difficulty: F

Clear Conditions: Kill one or more living things.

Time Limit: 15 minutes.

Compensation: 300 coins.

Failure: Death]

A strange creature was floating above the teacher. Or what had been the teacher. When the creature appeared, the teacher had exclaimed in shock. The creature did not take this well.

The brain was splattered all over the algebra they had been doing prior. The solution for x was just a blood stain where there should have been ink.

[Look at you pathetic creatures, trying to learn how to live in your easy lives.]

Lee Jihye had many issues with that statement, and it seemed so did her classmates. They could not raise these concerns, because their mouths had been exploded, alongside the rest of their skulls.

It was brutal. The class of girls that was once thirty strong was reduced to ten.

[No one wanting to speak up? Then I guess you all know what to do… I’ll leave you alone for now. Time’s ticking.]

The creature was mocking them. They were laughing at the terrified students and left before anyone could raise a finger in complaint.

Time wore on. The students ended up returning to their desks. What could they do? Kill each other? None of them wanted to end another’s life to extend their own.

The clock ticked to its last minute. That’s when it started again. The screaming that most had been trying to drown out came back with a vigour. Soon people in the classroom joined in.

They clutched at their skulls before their end. It was fast.

Na Bori had figured out what was coming.

“Lee Jihye, do you want to hug one last time before the end?” Her voice held a strange cadence. It was that of someone who had accepted their fate. Lee Jihye looked up to see her best friend with her arms spread wide and welcoming.

She jumped into them. They held each other knowing that this would be it. Until Na Bori moved. She moved slowly, subtly, grabbing Lee Jihye’s arms and moving them to her neck. She slowly stepped back, so it ended up with Lee Jihye’s hands limply laying on her shoulders.

Those were moved next, and a chokehold was formed, blocking her windpipe.

“W-what?” A shaky voice came from Lee Jihye’s mouth, “What are you doing?”

“It needs to be done. You will survive.” And she tightened the grip around her own throat.

It was not a quick death, but she refused to let Lee Jihye’s arms move until she was too weak to keep them there.

Her friend was too weak to move them as well.

[Achievement Gained - First Kill]

does kdj even know that him having bare minimum contact with whichever timeline yjh is enough to make the man obssessed

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.

Here’s how I draw Yoohankim… one day I will have the whole company but I start by drawing their coats so I don’t know how I’ll adapt that to the rest of kimcom yet.

his sanctuary

I'm thinking about a canon adjacent au here okay hear me out. what if pre-scenarios hsy actually thought/knew she had DID?

with the blank spots of memory and lapses of time and tiredness and weakness etc hsy started to worry she had a brain tumor or something. went to a doctor & all the scans came back clear so she was directed to a psychologist instead. she learns of DID and is kind of excited to meet this apparently other person living her life (she's maybe 20 yo atp) yet her hopes are shattered bc her alter is apparently the most. uncomunicative bastard in the world. ignored all her sticky notes saying hi, all attempts at journaling or deligating tasks or following appointments on the shared calendar or working together on anything. radio silence from them, except for throwing the notes in the trash so she knows they saw them.

hsy is annoyed. the therapist suggests they don't feel safe or secure enough to talk yet and hsy begrudgingly accepts that.

its not like the other hsy is actually putting them in danger, as far as she can tell, they spent all their time on the computer doing who knows what (browsing data is always deleted after)

their body was literally collapsing under the weight of stress though, so even if the other her wouldn't help, hsy had to start managing this shit somehow. she's forced to be the responsible one and plan her day around the other her. has to take care of things like cooking and cleaning and eating and bathing in her own limited time awake, on top of things like friends and events and of course writing for work. has to choose to rest sometimes when she wanted to go out because of the other her.

she resents the other hsy for this at first - this is one of the things she spent a long time working out in therapy (among other issues besides the DID. apparently her childhood had fucked her up more than she realized) the therapist suggested the alter may not speak directly, but they're still communicating through their actions - to try to understand them and what they might be feeling. hsy does, even though she didn't want to.

the other hsy didn't seem to have any friends or leave the house, they didn't feed themselves or drink water on their own - hsy often woke up ravenous and thirsty and they were paranoid- han sooyoung found knives under her mattress once.

hsy knew these things, they were annoying, but looked at them in a new light now. for her to act like this, her other half must be damaged and cautious - the therapist had expected it, says these conditions don't develop on their own. it was a sobering thought. hsy can deal with a couple of inconveniences if it means she can stay the carefree and extraverted person she is, not miserable and lonely like the other her. maybe that's selfish but she deserves to be selfish sometimes doesn't she?

in the beginning, she tried to force the other hsy to come out - they spent a lot of time on the pc, so she took a weekend and went to the countryside, hiked to a camping spot and set up. she had her phone but no internet and wanted to see what the other her would do.

she woke up at midnight, dirty and sweaty, muscles screaming, in the closest bus stop with her phone at 2%. she could still feel the panic and adrenaline in her trembling arms, the way she had ran here. it scared her, she didn't try to force the issue again.

as for 1863, when young hsy tried to talk to her through notes she thought "oh shit oh fuck" but then realized its not like she can get kicked out (probably?) so decided to ignore her until she gave up. she tries not to interfere with her life more than necessary.

one time she woke up in a shrinks office, freaked out, threatened to stab the therapist and fled out the door. in her defense, she hadn't talked to a real life person in a month and really hadn't expected this. (for young hsy this was actually a breakthrough in therapy. she was very excited, gave her weeks of material to work on. after apologizing profusely.)

I just love this dynamic of twitchy, very maladjusted survivor who cares about very few things in life and herself is not on that list, and the exasperated young writer who wants to enjoy her life but has to deal with bullshit at home. frustrated, but at the same time curious and sad for the other her.

How this ends is. han sooyoung wakes up at the train station, looks around, and sighs with exasperation. the other her must have left her somewhere again. there is an odd hollowness in her chest that she writes it off and then the apocalypse happens.

hsy gets the avatar skill and wryly thinks its like it was made for her. she had always wanted to talk to the other her and now after so long she finally got the chance. she creates her, sees her for the first time- older than herself, skin tight around the eyes and a hard twist to her mouth like she hadn't ever smiled. shoulders hunched, she's got a confused, lost look in her eyes.

hsy says "hey, calm down, it's okay- well. things are crazy right now but you're mostly safe, I can explain."

the other her looks at her own palms, drags them up her forhead to clutch her hair, shaking her head and groaning. she stumbles away. "what have you done?"

hsy's throat feels strangled. "I- wanted to talk to you. what- what's wrong?"

the other her doesn't answer, looking blank, and then she bolts. hsy shouts and gives chase but eventually loses her, panting for breath and holding her knees in the street. "Fucking damn it!"

canon proceeds as usual. epilogue happens and hsy remembers everything, or more accurately, the other her comes back but this time without the walls dividing them. hsy feels complete for the first time in her life, and the hollowness she felt the day the scenarios started is gone.

post epilogue domestic bliss ensues where they actually get to know each other and talk openly about their experiences, after so many years.