Kim Dokja stood before the the 'Absolute Throne' after addressing the incarnations around him, standing solid in the face of all the eyes that have been turned to him. Belatedly, he recognizes the fact that he's been here before, with all of the eyes on him. He's felt this way before, with a similar sense of aggression and a deep seeded feeling of helplessness curling up in his chest.
[Activating exclusive skill 'The Fourth Wall']
He decides it doesn't matter. What matters is that this part of his plan is completed just as he had thought about over and over. He stares forward from the steps, looking over the streets covered in half-eaten corpses that lay to the wayside, a determined look in his eyes. It doesn't matter what these people think or feel. There is a point to this.
Thunder begins to rumble above, signaling the start of rain that drops on everyone stood before the stairs to the throne. Overhead, the dokkaebi begins to get more and more furious as Dokja ignores his instructions. The lightning serving as a backdrop to his red eyes and face curled up in a snarl. Looking upon the dokkaebi, Kim Dokja stares blandly with a dead look in his eyes.
o0o
The pain that comes with the storm is excruciating in a way that is hard to describe. He feels himself whole, but Dokja could also attest that it feels like his nerves are being pulled out from under his skin in a way that starts from the tips of his fingers through his entire body. His arms come up to cradle himself, nails tearing through skin, digging into muscle and dragging. Wet blood covers his fingers as he does so, dark red smearing on his forearms.. It feels like electricity bouncing around in his body, making his limbs stiff and his muscles jump.
Closing his eyes, he lets the pain ground him in his own body, feeling the most awake that he has since the apocalypse started. Blood drips from his nose and into his mouth. His open mouth. Belatedly, he realizes he's screaming. And that someone (Multiple people?) are talking around him. Yelling, really. The sound makes him want to curl further into himself.
Suddenly, there is relief. Just barely there, but growing, slowly but surely. The pain eases bit by bit, electricity pulling back and his nerves begin to right themselves again. Looking up from his curled over position on his knees, he sees the stars lighting up in a now clear sky.
o0o
He looks down and finds he is in some sort of recliner chair, looking up he finds there's rows of them. And his companions. His companions are up and crowded in a circle, talking to each other and suddenly, the world explodes in noise once more.
"-m not even sure wha-"
"Are we stuck here?"
"-t kind of scenario this is."
"You can't be serious?"
"Why is hyung still out while the rest of us are already awake?"
"For the last time, kid, no one knows."
His head throbs and, he tries to breath through the ache, he takes note that it's not just his companions in the room with him. Whatever this room is.
Purposely avoiding to look at anyone else in the room, he saw a head of familiar brown hair he would never dare to acknowledge, he does his best to observe exactly what else is in the room. Rows of leather recliners, a large projector screen, and felt looking walls.
A theater. They're in a theater.
o0o
"Gilyoung-ah, biting isn't nice." Dokja nervously brings his free hand up to gently grab Gilyoung's jaw, bringing it away from the protagonist's hand. Yoo Joonghyuk does not remove his hand from the collar of the robe. Rude and ungrateful.
"I don't want to be nice to that sooty bastard." Gilyoung spits from where he has now rested his jaw in Dokja's freehand, not looking like he will be moving it anytime soon. Sighing, Kim Dokja attempts to set th kid down again. Gilyoung lets him.
With the kid now out of his arms, Dokja raises his eyes to make contact with Joonghyuk's own, grabbing onto the wrist of the hand that is curled in his collar. He smiles once more.
o0o
And jarringly, it's like Kim Dokja had been thrusted at the very start of all of this, on his very last train ride with the very last chapter of TWAS in his hands. Standing amongst his companions, Dokja's breath hitches at the familiar words. Jerking his head to look over at Han Sooyoung, he finds an equally disturbed look. Shifting his sight to the people he is sandwiched in between, he hides his shaking hands behind him.
Everyone is looking at the screen, confused and curious. Jung Heewon and Lee Hyunsung had sat in some of the chairs, still tense but making an attempt to relax.
"It looks like... The ending of a book?" Sangah hesitates as she speaks, moving towards the recliners to take a seat herself. She chooses one by Heewon and even pops up the foot rest as she looks at the screen. Gilyoung grabs one of his shaking hands and pulls him along to sit in one of the chairs a well. He does not get his own personal space. Gilyoung curls up in his lap as soon as he sits down.
o0o
The man starts to rapidly refresh the page, scrolling down and then up again. He does it over and over as the look of despair grows on his face.
'Is... Is that it? Really?'
He looks up from his phone, seemingly staring straight through the screen at everyone with a familiar dead look in his eyes.
"Dokja-ssi, is that... Is that you? Right before the scenarios started?" Sangah pipes up from somewhere on his left and it startles him so bad that he jerks Gilyoung almost completely out of his lap. The kid just pats his arm, getting comfortable again. To his side, Yoo Joonghyuk is watching him. Kim Dojka doesn't dare look his way. He stays quiet for a bit.
[Many Constellations are surprised at the revelation]
"Yes." dokja curls up around Giloung, avoiding eye contact with the group around him. Sangah makes a face, as if confused. She opens and closes her mouth a couple of times before settling on one thing to say.
[Constellation 'Demon-like Judge of Fire' says she didn't know Incarnation 'Kim Dokja' looked so soft]
"I can't remember what you look like. From before." Sangah's face scrunches up more the more she tries to think about it. A look of realization hits her. "Was- Did we just hear your thoughts?"
[Constellation 'Secretive Plotter' is alarmed]
o0o
After Heewon's outburst, Dokja finally looks at everyone with minimal turning of his head. This massive room filled with so many people, incarnations and constellations alike. Trapped here with the intention of enacting what? A reaction fic? A fucking reaction fic?
He refuses to think about the fact that it's obviously a reaction fic about himself. A plain nobody. For one cruel moment, Dokja thinks that it should have been Yoo Joonghyuk up there. The spotlight was made for someone like Joonghyuk, not him. He was already through with his life, who he used to be, before the scenarios. There is no reason to go back to that. In the background to his thoughts, more people begin discussing with words he can no longer hear so lost in his own mind.Kim Dokja stood before the the 'Absolute Throne' after addressing the incarnations around him, standing solid in the face of all the eyes that have been turned to him. Belatedly, he recognizes the fact that he's been here before, with all of the eyes on him. He's felt this way before, with a similar sense of aggression and a deep seeded feeling of helplessness curling up in his chest.
[Activating exclusive skill 'The Fourth Wall']
He decides it doesn't matter. What matters is that this part of his plan is completed just as he had thought about over and over. He stares forward from the steps, looking over the streets covered in half-eaten corpses that lay to the wayside, a determined look in his eyes. It doesn't matter what these people think or feel. There is a point to this.
Thunder begins to rumble above, signaling the start of rain that drops on everyone stood before the stairs to the throne. Overhead, the dokkaebi begins to get more and more furious as Dokja ignores his instructions. The lightning serving as a backdrop to his red eyes and face curled up in a snarl. Looking upon the dokkaebi, Kim Dokja stares blandly with a dead look in his eyes.
"I refuse to sit on the 'Absolute Throne'." He states once again assuredly, condescension in his tone as he speaks, staring at the dokkaebi with that dead unyielding look. He does his best to make is sound like he's talking to a child. The dokkaebi splutters angrily, fuming out that he should just sit on the throne as none of the incarnations will get past the 'Fifth Scenario' without a King.
The people around him pipe up in outrage, yelling at him to sit on the throne or to give it up to someone else who is willing to instead. The Dokkaebi begins a long winded speech in an effort to convince him, but Kim Dokja just stands there bored. To himself, and only in the own safety of his mind, he admits that even with 'The Fourth Wall' that the people are starting to get to him a bit. Just a little bit.
['The Fourth Wall' stabilizes]
Never mind, it seems to be working just fine now. Still zoned out of the dokkaebi's obnoxiously long speech, he thinks to himself about what the fluffy thing had said earlier.
While yes, the 'Fifth Scenario' does become more difficult if the 'Absolute Throne' isn't taken, that doesn't mean it becomes impossible. Impossible things aren't interesting.
[I am not a low grade dokkaebi. None of your crude tricks will work on me like you want.] The dokkaebi finishes his speech with a flushed face and blazing red eyes lighting up as he looks down upon Kim Dokja with the most disgusted face it looks like he could manage. Looking at the frazzled and frustrated creature of the star stream, he can feel a scoff bubble up in his throat. He keeps it there as he has an image he's trying to make here and a scoff would not fit it.
I know the underlying fact that the dokkaebi has left out, on purpose no doubt. If I use the 'Absolute Throne', I will not reach the end of the scenarios. I will miss the end I intend to forge with my own hands.
Thinking back on the unconscious Yoo Joonghyuk that is laying somewhere he can not see, he mentally admits that it was his 41st regression that had learned of this. For all he was an asshole, he had set things up to be perfect to Dokja's plans. Cursing the man in his mind, he purposefully ignores the jeering calls being made from the crowd as best as he can. It was rude to interrupt, didn't they know?
Sighing when asked why he doesn't want to be 'King', he turns around to question them back, pointing out the fact that he could just kill them all once he sat upon the gilded throne. Looking back to it, he swore he could see dark blood red threads leading away from it. A harbinger of doom, he would call it. He turns away from it again quickly.
"I refuse to be the representative for human beings like the lot of you." Dokja's eyes roll over the revolting crowd before lifting his eyes up to look through the clouded sky, addresses the constellations next. "Nor will I be taking any of you as a sponsor."
Through a blue tinted screen, an ominous figure with a blurry face watches the constellations back. For a moment, the screen glitches, in the figures place is a different outline. In that moment, starry eyes and the vicious unrelenting feeling of unease. It melts away and there stands Dokja once more. The label 'Bl-762' appears in the upper corner, multiple aggressive eyes settling on Kim Dokja.
Shifting himself from his relaxed standing into a proper fighting stance in front of the stairs to the throne. The dokkaebi floating above runs out of the thin string of patience he had left, angrily advising Dokja to stop his nonsense.
"I won't let any of you take a seat on it either." He states, looking at the yelling crowd in front of him. Yelling back at the incarnations, he throws a hand out in the direction of the dokkaebi. "How long with you let yourselves be lead along by the scenarios and dokkaebi? Do you even understand what sitting on the 'Absolute Throne' would even mean for any of you?!"
Looking back up to the sky with the very same stern look, biting back a sneer at the clouded sky. He talks to the constellations next, demanding to know how long they plan on stringing their incarnations along. How long they will play out history on this battlefield. In the process he acknowledges the work it takes to become different grades of constellation, but he ultimately backtracks.
"How long will you continue your selfish play with the descendants of this country before you feel you've gotten far enough? Done enough?!"
The dokkaebi grits his teeth, baring them in the process, and snaps his fingers. He aggressively states he's done with Dokja's performance as a sub scenario screen lights up in front of the incarnations gathered in front of the throne. I was a bounty scenario that called for incarnation Kim Dokja's head in return for the chance to have the throne for the victor. Greedy eyes turned away from the screen to Dokja standing at the stairs. He remarks he knew it would go like this, a sardonic smile on his face that turns sharp.
Jung Heewon emerges from the savage crowd, darting through the people and sliding in front of Dokja, yelling about how they would have to go through her first to even think of laying a hand on him. She growls where she stands, baring her teeth at the unrest crowd. Dokja stands there stunned, looking at her from where he's in his own fighting stance. More and more people he knows come up to stand in between him and the large mass of people wanting his death.
What's left of the prophets, Yoo Sangah who comes up with her belief of values no one should forgo, even Min Jiwon and Cha Sangkyung come forward. Standing there and looking at the backs of the people who have decided to defend him, Kim Dokja chokes back what he refuses to acknowledge as tears.
['The Fourth Wall' stabilizes]
As Kim Dokja stands in shock, the dokkaebi screams out a sound of pure fury, inciting the other incarnations into action while sounding like a toddler throwing a tantrum.
The scene continues as Dokja has planned out. All the elements he had gathered up until now were worth the trouble it took to obtain them. One after the other, the pieces he had set up start to fall in place like perfectly aligned domino pieces. Disregarding the blooding rolling down his face from his nose and mouth, he continues to his goal.
To sever the connection between the 'Absolute Throne' and an 'Outer God' - a deity that roams the dark dimension.
If they had used it, considering how it made the scenarios easier short term, it would have lead to the world's destruction in the long run. A destroyed world has no place in the end he wants to see.
The events play out as such, Dokja uses the help of 7 constellations to sever the connect of the 'Absolute throne' and he succeeds. The bounty sub scenario ends when the throne is destroyed. An outer god takes interest. The dokkaebi rages in a way that equates him to a child and Dokja prepares himself for the probability storm to come.
The pain that comes with the storm is excruciating in a way that is hard to describe. He feels himself whole, but Dokja could also attest that it feels like his nerves are being pulled out from under his skin in a way that starts from the tips of his fingers through his entire body. His arms come up to cradle himself, nails tearing through skin, digging into muscle and dragging. Wet blood covers his fingers as he does so, dark red smearing on his forearms.. It feels like electricity bouncing around in his body, making his limbs stiff and his muscles jump.
Closing his eyes, he lets the pain ground him in his own body, feeling the most awake that he has since the apocalypse started. Blood drips from his nose and into his mouth. His open mouth. Belatedly, he realizes he's screaming. And that someone (Multiple people?) are talking around him. Yelling, really. The sound makes him want to curl further into himself.
Suddenly, there is relief. Just barely there, but growing, slowly but surely. The pain eases bit by bit, electricity pulling back and his nerves begin to right themselves again. Looking up from his curled over position on his knees, he sees the stars lighting up in a now clear sky.
[''Is this the story you want to tell?'' The seven stars of 'The Big Dipper' asks, ''We will watch over you, dear 'King of a Kingless World'']
And with that, the stars fade from sight along with the rest of the world. His skin is still buzzing with the left over dreggs of pain. He can only hear his own breath in his ears, no more chatter that made no sense. With his hearing, Kim Dokja also starts to bleed out of consciousness.
[You have achieved an impossible feat.]
[A new 'Fable' has been created.]
[The Fable 'King of a Kingless World has been born.]
o0o
It felt like it had been ages by the time Kim Dokja started to drift in from unconsciousness,
awakening to the sound of loud talking around him. Groggy and disoriented, he is late to take note of his surroundings, a throbbing headache persisting to hammer in his skull. Opening his eyes, he's forced to blink a couple of times and even squint to be able to see.
He is sitting, lounging really, in a chair that feels plush. Running his hands over it, Dokja takes note that it feels like leather under his sticky fingertips. Confused, he scrunches his face up and brings his hand up to his face, looking upon the tacky blood dried on his hand. Kim Dokja then decides to ignore it, setting his hand back down on the arm rests.
He looks down and finds he is in some sort of recliner chair, looking up he finds there's rows of them. And his companions. His companions are up and crowded in a circle, talking to each other and suddenly, the world explodes in noise once more.
"-m not even sure wha-"
"Are we stuck here?"
"-t kind of scenario this is."
"You can't be serious?"
"Why is hyung still out while the rest of us are already awake?"
"For the last time, kid, no one knows."
His head throbs and, he tries to breath through the ache, he takes note that it's not just his companions in the room with him. Whatever this room is.
Purposely avoiding to look at anyone else in the room, he saw a head of familiar brown hair he would never dare to acknowledge, he does his best to observe exactly what else is in the room. Rows of leather recliners, a large projector screen, and felt looking walls.
A theater. They're in a theater.
Oh hell no.
They better damn well not be in what he thinks they're in. Jumping up from where he is sitting, taking a moment to stabilize himself when a spell of dizzy hits him, he hurriedly starts to look for an exit. The walls are all solid, not a dip or doorway to be found. Nothing. Just straight walls in a square box of a room. Frustrated, Dokja looks over to where his companions are only to get himself an armful of running child.
In his arms, hugging around his waist, is Lee Gilyoung who seems to be crying. Everyone else has begun to swarm him, asking all sorts of questions. Yoo Joonghyuk stands at the back of the group with a glare and his face set in an unusual frown. Or perhaps he's just waiting to get back at Dokja for knocking him out with one punch.
"What do you think this is, Dokja-ssi?" Yoo Sangah asks from his right, shuffling in place with a nervous look on her face. Humming, Dokja's initial panic begins to fade as he looks around once more. Placing a hand on the top of Gilyoung's head, he mulls his words over in his mouth.
['The Fourth Wall' Stabilizes]
"I'm not quite sure, it looks to be a theater of sorts." He looks to the screen again and dreads what looks to be a reaction fic that they have been shoved into. Out of the corner of his eye, he sees Han Sooyoung hanging back from the rest of them with a similar look of realization on her face.
Kim Dokja picks Gilyoung up, putting him on his hip, and walks over to the plagiarist. They share eye contact for a little bit, Sooyoung shifting her eyes between him, the big screen, and the rest of the people gathered here. She snorts.
"I think you know what this is, don't you?" With a cheeky grin on her face, she vaguely motions to the things around them as she speaks. Nearby, Yoo Joonghyuk's face sours even further and his glare ramps up to full on rage.
"I'm not sure I know what you mean." Dokja sends a smile at her, his scammer smile (whatever that means.) He then tilts his head as if he's thinking of something, before grinning even wider and pointing at her with his free hand. "But you would definitely know what's going on, as a plagiarist and all."
The statement sends Sooyoung in a splutter rage, her face souring just as much as the sunfish bastard's, as she yells at him and waves her arms sporadically. To himself, he admits that it should have made his head hurt more, but it seems that his splitting headache has dulled to be barely there.
"Kim Dokja." It seems while he was dealing with the witch, Yoo Joonghyuk had approached with his murderous aura. Dokja has no idea how he missed that much killing intent coming up right by him. Gilyoung squeezes him harder, a more firm hold where he has his arms wrapped around Dokja's neck.
"Haha..." Dokja laughs nervously, shifting his eyes around before settling on the glaring eyes in front of him. Smiling, he backs away a step and attempts to put Gilyoung down to deal with the regressor. Gilyoung holds on for all he's worth, constricting Dokja's airways and making him give up and just continue to hold the kid. "Joonghyuk-ah, wonderful to see you awa-"
"Kim Dokja. What have you done." Yoo Joonghyuk bulldozes through anything he was trying to say, stepping forward to crowd him. With one hand on his sheathed sword, he uses the other to reach forward to grab the collar of the robe Dokja's wearing. In the process, he gets a mouth full of teeth sunk into his hand. He scowls at Gilyoung, but holds on anyway.
"Gilyoung-ah, biting isn't nice." Dokja nervously brings his free hand up to gently grab Gilyoung's jaw, bringing it away from the protagonist's hand. Yoo Joonghyuk does not remove his hand from the collar of the robe. Rude and ungrateful.
"I don't want to be nice to that sooty bastard." Gilyoung spits from where he has now rested his jaw in Dokja's freehand, not looking like he will be moving it anytime soon. Sighing, Kim Dokja attempts to set th kid down again. Gilyoung lets him.
With the kid now out of his arms, Dokja raises his eyes to make contact with Joonghyuk's own, grabbing onto the wrist of the hand that is curled in his collar. He smiles once more.
"I didn't do anything, Joonghyuk-ah. There's no need to be aggressive." Dokja is as cheeky as he can be, trying his best to press the bastard's buttons without pushing him too far.
[Incarnation Yoo Joonghyuk activates 'Lie Detector']
Kim Dokja scoffs.
['Lie Detector' determines Incarnation Kim Dokja is telling the truth]
Before Yoo Joonghyuk can say anything more the big screen lights up in a familiar blue light, at the top corner there is an indicator that says 'RF-864'. And suddenly, there is more than just the incarnations in the room.
[Constellation 'Demon-like Judge of Fire' has joined 'RF-864']
[Constellation 'Prisoner of the Golden Headband' has joined 'RF-864']
[Constellation 'Abyssal Black Flame Dragon' has joined 'RF-864']
[Constellation 'Secretive Plotter' has joined 'RF-864']
There are more that he recognized, but the notifications passed too quickly to pick apart every modifier. He waves away the notifications, squirming out of Joonghyuk's grip and rushing quickly to the rest of his group to look at the screen.
['RF-864' has Begun Streaming.]
['Rf-864' Loading Content...]
And then the screen's light turns blindingly white. An then, there are words in a black text on a white background.
[There are three ways to survive in a ruined world. Now, I have forgotten a few, but one thing is certain. The fact that you who are reading this now will survive.
'The End'
-Three Ways to survive the Apocalypse (Final Episode)
TLS123]
And jarringly, it's like Kim Dokja had been thrusted at the very start of all of this, on his very last train ride with the very last chapter of TWAS in his hands. Standing amongst his companions, Dokja's breath hitches at the familiar words. Jerking his head to look over at Han Sooyoung, he finds an equally disturbed look. Shifting his sight to the people he is sandwiched in between, he hides his shaking hands behind him.
Everyone is looking at the screen, confused and curious. Jung Heewon and Lee Hyunsung had sat in some of the chairs, still tense but making an attempt to relax.
"It looks like... The ending of a book?" Sangah hesitates as she speaks, moving towards the recliners to take a seat herself. She chooses one by Heewon and even pops up the foot rest as she looks at the screen. Gilyoung grabs one of his shaking hands and pulls him along to sit in one of the chairs a well. He does not get his own personal space. Gilyoung curls up in his lap as soon as he sits down.
Everyone else gets their own pick of the surrounding seats. Dokja somehow finds himself sat in between Yoo Joonghyuk and Shin Yoosung. Which, is jarring because they should not have met her yet. Looking her over, Dokja finds she looks to be about in good health, but he was never actually too good at telling with those things.
When they are finally sat, the screen abruptly changes.
Sitting on a subway bench squished by the other people around him is a man, his soft face is pulled up in a look of surprise before it flickers to despair as he curls over the old beat up phone in his hands. The ill-fitted suit crumples with him, a sharp noise of ascent leaving his cracked lips.
"huh?"