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They could if it's the meal that breaks their fast.
Also she's getting suspicious about us gossiping and unlike Midday Tryst, there's receipts.
So sit tight and you'll get your story once I'm free.

Edited 2022-02-01 04:54 (UTC)

I don't have all day.

[Yes he does.]

Yes you do.

[and that's the last message from Kim Dokja for the next hour or so however long this thread with Han Suyeong goes on for.

but once he's free, there's a text:]

I still maintain that coming to in a place full of a Constellation's story with letters scattered everywhere was a bit like walking in on a murder scene.

You took too long, you bastard.
Is this your way of defending yourself because you're about to tell how you shot your mouth off and made things worse?

I don't want to hear that from the guy who says he'll kill his monster without knowing how that'd effect himself.
I made a mistake, and I even apologized for it at the end.
Hell, I even took the punishment for it?
Though one interesting thing was that when I was testing reactions to things like blood getting on the books, the sphinx didn't really do much and instead treated me like I was stupid because the books aren't real.
Which I know. They're just mental constructions of concepts, really.

Tell me everything that happened, from the top.

[le sigh, but writing out an account of the dream... though, he's deliberately leaving out any mention of rejection because. that was stupid. and also. he did not reject anyone. MISTLETOE WAS JUST STUPID.]

[damn bro you got your ass kicked.]

The monster believes it's protecting her.
It was ready to kill you because of that.

[listen, some of us don't have stat buffs.]

Right.
Not that that's really a surprise.

[It's Normal That People Want To Kill Him? He's Responsible For Everything, Obviously.]

[He wanted to say that it's extremely common for someone to want to kill him right after meeting him, but he had to go and take the fun out of it. Tch.]

It stopped because of the storm.
If everything there was just a representation of something in Han Suyeong's mind, what was the storm?

Edited 2022-02-02 21:04 (UTC)

[CAN'T DUNK HIM IF HE DUNKS HIMSELF FIRST #LIFEHACK]

Here's the thing.
The reason why I ended up making the mistake I did was because I was taking in the situation from the wrong perspective.
Rookie mistake.
From the sphinx's perspective, it is protecting and guarding those memories in a cage--ITS domain--away from the storm outside.
But from THAT perspective, it makes it seem like the storm is the problem. Not the sphinx.
From MY perspective, it seemed like the sphinx stopped from going further because the storm made it, but what if from the sphinx's perspective... to prevent the storm from getting worse and doing damage to what it was guarding, it let up?
In other words, if the storm is an aspect of Han Suyeong's mind, then the storm possibly is something negative and liable to do damage
And Han Suyeong was somewhere out in the middle of it.
Because also consider: I started the dream within the safety of the sphinx's cage. Not in the middle of the storm.

Based on what happened and what the monster had to say, your mistake may actually be irrelevant to what happened.
First, though. There's one more perspective that you haven't gotten to, right?

[that first part reads suspiciously like you're trying to say something isn't my fault and therefore I will ignore it.]

Consider the sequence of events:
1. possession by a monster--the sphinx
2. the sphinx then collects these books, memories--reasons are unknown except, perhaps, that the sphinx became attached to the stories and, much like all other characters Han Suyeong has gotten in her head, has decided to go about things in a particular way
3. the storm likely begins in reaction to this which causes the sphinx to "protect" the memories
4. the sphinx's realm is built to shield both itself and those memories from the storm
Whether the sphinx is genuine in its intentions to protect Han Suyeong or not is irrelevant, because the one who stole those memories in the first place was the sphinx.
Han Suyeong has said that she doesn't really interact with the sphinx--not the way I do with the Outer God or others may interact with theirs.
Even you have your dragon speak up with its stories?
So, for certain, the cage is that barrier.
And sphinxes are creatures who speak in riddles and keep hold of secrets, so it follows that it wouldn't explain anything.
But if the sphinx reacted to the storm shaking the cage because it threatened me, then it follows that the storm is capable of dismantling the cage.
So I think, with all of this in mind... the storm is definitely Han Suyeong. Her stronger emotions--both positive and negative but mostly a reaction in response to knowing there is a threat.

Edited 2022-02-02 22:12 (UTC)

That is a technically accurate, yet woefully inadequate assessment of what that thing's story is doing.
If Han Suyeong never interacts with her monster, I've never envied her more in my life.

...I think you're correct about what the storm is.
But I think you've misread the monster.
And I mean besides when you misread it the first time.
Which I don't think actually mattered.
I think it was going to attack you one way or the other.

[it's going to be a moment while he processes this, recalls again the things that the sphinx said--or even what Han Suyeong said that time with the mistletoe. truths that wounded pretty deeply.

right.

of course.

it makes sense.]

Because I'm Kim Dokja.

[Worse. I'm THAT Kim Dokja--but he doesn't send that. too honest.]

It said that if it killed you, everything would be solved.

[Which, y'know.]

[Stop me if you've heard that one before!]

But the storm stopped it.
Han Suyeong didn't want it to hurt you.
At the end of the day, it thinks it is protecting Han Suyeong.
Or at least, one version of her.

[wow, this way belated ptsd response sure is a fun and joy no wonder it didn't process before!!!

Kim Dokja is typing... just kind of blinks for a long while.

then,]

Yeah, that makes sense.

Edited 2022-02-02 23:27 (UTC)

[Hm. That's weird. Sure hope I didn't cause some massive emotional problems.]

I want to speak to it.
How do we recreate the circumstances that led to you meeting it.

How should I know?
I'm not the one in charge of this place.
And I didn't dream anything on purpose.
This is a realm between dream and reality in the first place so it could just happen completely at random.

You're surprisingly useless when you don't have knowledge from that novel to fall back on.
At the end of the day, the only way we solve anything with Kim Dokja or Han Suyeong is by dealing with their monsters directly, so we need to figure out a way to communicate with them.

Kim Dokja is in complete denial, by the way. Even after I used Midday Tryst.

And you're unsurprisingly pessimistic about your progress.
I told you he's going to need concrete proof.
But I wouldn't say it's complete denial at this point.
If he even acknowledges a possibility of it, you're still making progress.
And I don't know if their monsters influence them in the same way.

It's hard to come up with proof more concrete than the Midday Tryst he created.

[Beat. There's a momentary pause between texts, where Yu Junghyeok is typing appears, then goes away, then appears again, before finally...]

There may be one way.
But it's impossible right now.
Maybe doubly impossible.

Do I need to loan out another volume of that story?
Because I haven't read anything that's said that you guys are very good at leaving things as being "impossible".

There's a story I can use that might do something.
But if I tried to use the story and it fell apart, he would just take it as more proof that he's a different Kim Dokja after all.
And right now, there's two reasons the story would likely immediately fall apart if I tried to use it.

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