jakho 이야기

ocs, interactive fiction, and world "building"

[b-splendens]

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yuna/smug 20, she/they, KoreAm

@ b_splendens on instagram and itch.io AND artfight

I do things with art, writing, music (Beepbox), and IF/Twine (Sugarcube).

This blog will mostly be about Jakho (and Palisades Heart I guess)

But what is Jakho, you might ask?

a no-fantasy, semi-alternate historical universe focused around a few characters from Yul Country, a 1:0.9 replica of the Korean Empire

irreverently mashes up events and trends across the centuries, but most closely resembles the 1800s

plot-wise, an ace attorney-like murder mystery slice of life legal/political revenge drama

gay gay homosexual gay sapphic nonsense

if this sounds intriguing, tag along for rambles, radio silence, and maybe even interactive fiction—WHO knows at this point?

[b-splendens]

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hehe I derived their theme (first part) from an old thing (second part) a while back

i'm now calling the project they're still languishing in "i was in the world's worst yuri" and its companion piece "i was in the world's worst yaoi." now of course this doesn't mean I've actually written anything.

their character is still wack to me. but they seem to be remaining an energetic golf pro whose career provided for many things and created a lot of stress that they decided to cope with by reading many filthy webcomics and envying/idolizing their american rival and actually being non-binary but noooooobody knows that (not even their brother) so who even cares. when i type that out i realize they're just searching for someone to really understand them, and they mistakenly think that's vivian. i think.

actually, they really need a non-judgmental friend like young-hwan too which makes them extra susceptible to his manipulation (intentional or not).

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doryeong says: "beepbox can't cure your GERD"

eugh

today I finished rough outlining case 2 but now case 3 (the longest one) is up next

this is the lineage of the latest thing I'm finishing up

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my toil to derive a character theme that's lowkey enough to play in the background continues. but this is close enough for now.

looking forward to lots and lots of rewrites after graduating. i've already revised the ending. it ends with fire!

incense. incensed. censorate. censor. sense. sensory.

jugging the different POVs is an ongoing challenge. Noe became an extension of Yuryeong and a spy into the other perspectives. Baram and her cases will be hard to pace chronologically because they happen simultaneously. Maybe we start with Yuryeong and reach a certain midpoint before recapping the earlier events through Baram. I don't know.

[b-splendens]

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i finished it yey

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i engineered this to keep me occupied with my travails but it's done the exact opposite!

it's supposed to be doryeong's old theme + a bit of onjo + another alternate theme + incorporating an extremely old riff from young-hwan

dragon justice's working title has shifted to fragrant justice per the recent magic system changes. the working backend title for the magic system is thumiamancy.

i've decided to make good on the 3-pov approach and already have rewritten the first part of the outline. doryeong is left out of the rotation because that distance benefits the character. I was having trouble on characterizations because they kept changing throughout each outline but here's how they stand now:

Yuryeong: Frantic, exuberant, unhinged. Comparable to metal.

Doryeong: Confident, unflappable, concealed. Comparable to water and fire.

Xuan: Angry, relentless, awkward. Her legal name is now Vernaud. Comparable to wood.

Baram: Compassionate yet realistic and doubtful. Comparable to wood.

In a gameplay setting, Yuryeong crafts incenses using their keen sense of smell and observation to weasel their way into a business deal with Doryeong's family, intending to steal back their family's plantation from them. Baram helps people defend themselves in court, ace attorney style. Xuan might be redundant since Yuryeong is directly working against her to prevent her from sniffing out Noe's trail (literally, this time). If I had to, I'd cut Xuan as a POV.

Yuryeong's plan has changed, now hinging on stealing back the plantation and feeding the Cheongsanjak hallucinatory incense rather than forcing a confession. I think that the way it shakes out is that Yuryeong gets Doryeong to commit a politically convenient murder and has Baram/Xuan reveal that in order to trigger a contract clause giving compensation to Yuryeong's boss. Even though Yuryeong gets found out too, they're protected by extraterritoriality and will face no trial until repatriated to Bellia.

Since there's incense/olfactory magic, Xuan has an easier, MUCH more plausible reason to go all the way to Yulguk to find a needle in a haystack for her boss. She starts out with a smelling dog/creature and a scent sample that deteriorates with time. Yuryeong gets pinged but is able to convince Xuan that they simply have some ingredients that resemble said sample, and so Xuan compels them to work as a better sniffer + try to replicate the scent sample to distribute among the Yulais cop dogs so that the search can go on faster.

Baram just likes helping people. She no longer has to learn to help people again; she just keeps doing it even after all her hardship. She helps a drunk, angry Xuan recuperate and then later helps Xuan in a confrontation/fight just because. This helps her bargain with Xuan for her help in the trial. That makes Yuryeong notice her and Xuan as potential pawns in their scheme.

Doryeong is now going to run for censorate (incense pun intentional) instead of city council. Censors in this setting are like super powerful prosecutors reporting to the ruler to sniff out corruption/anything the ruler doesn't like in government. The process relies on a combination of scmhoozing/nomination and in-trial performance auditing of current prosecutors, usually newer/younger ones. Doryeong has his father and mentor Naun do the schmoozing, while he relies on his own performance in court. This would make a "perfect record" make sense to matter so much to a prosecutor.

Onjo is Doryeong's hidden antagonist. His mom dies (rip) which makes him go on mourning leave and reckon with his filial repsonsibilities. When he comes back and his first trial is against Baram, which he loses, he announces his engagement and intended marriage to smooth things over. This ticks Doryeong off because they'd agreed on a truce to not marry, because neither wanted to. But contrary to past drafts, Doryeong no longer hires a thug to attack Onjo (things got too messy and implausible). Instead, a random robbery occurs and makes Onjo/others THINK that Doryeong did it (although Noe being there at the wrong time makes him the defendant). This suspicion hurts, and maybe contributes to Doryeong going back to his murderous ways when influenced by Yuryeong.

The last act happens because Doryeong is acquitted of all charges by his dad, so the Cheongsanjak get to keep the plantation from Yuryeong (they're not a lawyer and arrogant so of course they didn't think of this loophole). I can't decide if Xuan has found Yuryeong out by now or not. If that's the case, things proceed as usual and Yuryeong and Noe conspire to frame Naun for murdering Doryeong to at the very least hurt Heungjin where it hurts the most + provoke fighting among the two who framed their mom. But of course b/c Baram is there at the scene, they kill Naun instead and Doryeong frames Baram to paint her as a villain against his family.

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hehe it's syncopated

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no new viv lore (yet)

my favorite is "Fire and Water Won't Live in Harmony" because it's a refurbished demo of the original beepbox where I took one of her motifs from

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i got carried away with resting my ankle so I compiled this album of all of the times I used this motif (there's way more) PLUS the madiqs cover because i'm proud of it

young-hwan lore before I forget to write it down later:

originally had him take german in high school. since he goes into business immigration later i think i'll retcon that to mandarin instead

like darcy, he has some crazy exes. one was definitely a psychotic dl korean international student in college. he had another one in college that really wore down his self-esteem, which is highly unusual. ki-jung helped him break up in a crazy way (method tbd). I think there are about 4 in total and the other half were okay.

he also helped/forced ki-jung to get out of his job bartending at a gang-owned club

worst/best book he's ever read was The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind because that's the worst/best one I've read

he's a cynic that can't help but like people and want the best for them. a good friend and honestly, bleeding heart. i think I've been pairing him with Yeonseok ("STEVE") so much these days because they're both weary romantics that guard themselves in very different ways (apathy vs rigid principles)

i'm still formulating the details of his birth but his mother is quite the character and garnered the ire of ki-jung's religious, conservative parents, which poured down to him. this is really different from the original canon where their families were chill and benign.

he only agreed to play cyrano for vivian for darcy because he genuinely thought that vivian would make his cousin happy, which was true to an extent

he once was interim president of his college KSA. it was a lot of work but the previous president was his friend so he got looped into it unilaterally, which caused backlash/drama from the other executive members

after taking a gap year as viv's golf caddie I think he starts to balance his work and life priorities better and stops having such a huge quarter life crisis and becomes happier. I think he also professionally 'comes out' if that's such a thing

if I could still place an acting career breakthrough it'd probably happen in his late 30s via one of his friends' indie films winning at Cannes or something else magical

idk I haven't done rp in such a long time so I wouldn't even know where to start. but i need to get him endgame with someone. if i continue spiraling on my own I think it might as well be Yeonseok. their long distance thing would be weird though. neither is willing to move so that would fall apart.

[b-splendens]

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one of the first things i did after finishing my music theory class. it was actually pretty useful and i hope i don't forget everything.

[b-splendens]

Pre-Semester Wrap Up

I already have a paper due on Feb 9th UUUUUUGHGHGHHGHG-

Thankfully, I accomplished a lot over break and laid the groundwork for future development on Jakho.

I have a tentative character lineup now. Figured out what Khanh is supposed to do (which I couldn't figure out for a while. Doryeong is about to change again though. I just feel it. So I can keep track of the most update mental build in my head, here are the primary players:

TW: S****de mention, death mention

Gom Baram Daughter of failed provincial civil servants. Mother's national assembly campaign and family's rep was derailed by a scandal involving their family's apparent obstruction of a different political marriage. They went to the capital and opened an inn-type place. Baram was so scorned by the injustice in the civil suit that she went and became an attorney. Had a promising career until her parents fell ill, and she had to quit to take care of them and the business. Grew desperate and called on her estranged sister to try and help them. Things get better and she eventually reenters her career, but at a disadvantage.

Gom Bari Also daughter of failed provincial civil servants. The elder. As a teen she crushed on a Maeng/Manh (term extremely pending) girl who had been intended to be married to the heir of a provincial political family. One day they decided to run off to explore some medieval ruins. When they came back, they were found out. Long story short, Bari doomed her family's political potential. She also had always been a bit "off," and shortly afterwards experienced a bout of sinbyeong/shaman's illness. So they sent her to distant relatives living in the frontier provinces and basically disowned her.

She was initiated and started training as a shaman but at some point enlisted in the army due to her useful physique + to financially help her relatives. Hunted the dying out frontier gangs and learned some advanced medicine from a medic she befriended. Discharged when injured and returned to taking care of her community. Didn't really hear back from her family until Baram sent her a letter. Went to the capital to take care of her parents, utilizing a combination of her shaman training, folk medicine, and modern medicine. Things got better and she chooses to stay, opening a practice in the capital while also helping her parents' business so that Bari could do lawyer stuff again.

Ly Khanh/I Ka-in/Ri Kyung Daughter of a Manh engineer (railroads/bridges/will be decided) that worked directly for the Long Empire as opposed to his home kingdom until the Sandalwood Wars threw a wrench in everything. His imperial affiliations cast a shadow over his family when a new dynasty overtook his homeland, and so he sought work elsewhere, recruited by the recovering Yul (as his family had worked in Yul in the past). He based his family in the capital of a province while he traveled around the country directing infrastructure projects.

Khanh mostly grew up there and befriended Bari from an early age. Her mother developed a semi-successful business. Soon it was decided Khanh would marry the heir of a provincial political clique to cement their status in Bandonese society, involving the transfer of her mother's business in return. Khanh didn't like this. She ran off with Bari one day and threw everything into shambles. When the news broke, the local family broke off the engagement and symbolically sued the Ly's for really petty terms like defamation and emotional damage to the heir. The Ly's then in turn sued the Gom's for the money lost due to settling the issue. The Gom's eventually had to pay up.

The Ly's got put in hot water for this and eventually became the victim of the xenophobic tide-turning in the capital. Her father was dismissed from his post, and then disappeared, likely murdered for trying to dispute his dismissal. Her family left Yul Country for elsewhere, likely Bellia, and then returned to their homeland when political conditions were more favorable. Khanh, haunted by her father's fate and failing at becoming a scholar, developed a reputation for problem solving and grew into a detective-type. She avoids returning to Yul for as long as possible due to deep-seated shame, until invited to work on a mystery(ies) by an acquaintance, who insists the liberal decade has done a favorable number on the country. By then, she has adopted a moniker (to be decided). Jak Doryeong He was sold as a child for a quick buck across a river by one of those declining frontier gangs, where the administration of law was much more difficult and out of reach. He escaped and withered serious injuries before collapsing from exhaustion in the mountains. Jak Heungjin, a foreign ministry official mourning the death of his wife and son in the northern provinces, famously followed the calls of magpies to his broken body, whereupon he nursed him back to health. He adopted him under the name Doryeong, and whoever he was beforehand—all but disappeared.

Doryeong flourished under Heungjin's personal care, as he took the unusual step of raising him mostly by himself and putting off returning to his post. He took a liking to history and law, and Heungjin's homecoming to the capital began Doryeong's ascent in higher education. Because Heungjin had far exceeded his period of mourning by several years, he was not restored to his post, occupied by a friend he'd chosen to "save" it for him. He sued, but because it was only custom, he lost the suit—likely due to his affiliation with the opposition, then-minority party.

Doryeong focused on uplifting his father's legacy by studying well for his examinations. At a celebration for his achievements, however, his uncle, the Supreme Prosecutor, was murdered by Gil Yong-gi—that ex-friend. Heungjin was nearly framed and executed until the opposition coalesced around his case, with key pieces of evidence being released to the public. The elder Jak was saved, while Gil was executed. Doryeong eventually gained admission to the national university and engaged in a relationship with a young widower while he studied history. However, the widower died out of continued grief.

As a result, the current Minister of Foreign Affairs, his father, took a mourning period and appointed Heungjin in his place in the meantime. Relations between the elder and younger Jak frayed around this time. Heungjin seemed to desire a grandchild, which Doryeong refused to secure, even by single-parent adoption. Thus, Heungjin remarried and gained a young daughter. After Doryeong's own short mourning period, he went abroad to travel, where he met Ly Khanh.

He returned after a few years and became a professor at the national university, while Heungjin sought to become properly/permanently appointed as Foreign Minister through supporting a new prime minister in the next election cycle. Around this time, the Jak family is plagued by a slew of threats that only Doryeong seems to see and take action against by hiring out his detective friend. (but I might actually turn him into a prosecutor now; who knows)

Jak Onjo (name subject to change) He was the son of Jak Noljin, the elder of the Jak brothers, who ascended to prominence under the conservative period as the Supreme Prosecutor. The death of his father deeply shook him, and he vowed to help others find justice by becoming a prosecutor himself, based currently in the capital. His honest demeanor and dealings have won him a great deal of appeal, contrasting with his intimidating, ambitious late father.

Gil Yuk-Nyang and Yeonseok (pending names!) The children of the late Gil. The controversy garnered by their father caused the majority party to turn on him and his family. After his execution and the fallout it had on the party's reputation and power, Gil's children and widow were shunned, sometimes violently, and they quietly slipped away to Bellia (or some other place). Both children grew up somewhat adrift, adopting new names with their mother to disappear into the rest of the diaspora community. But none of them recovered. Yeonseok went on his own path, while sibling Yuk-Nyang stayed close with their mother.

That mother, quietly grieving until the end, on her deathbed beseeched her child to return to that terrible country and do what she could not—seek vengeance and exonerate their wrongly executed father. Yuk-Nyang thus found their brother and looped him into her scheme to return to Yul and bring down every single individual who had a hand in condemning their family, ending with exposing the venerable Jak Heungjin.

Ho Daeran and Nam The former, a recent migrant from the northern frontiers with a far more storied, violent past than he lets on. The latter, his reason for coming so far down south to the capital. The bachelor Daeran adopted Nam as his younger brother some time before coming to the capital, working stifling dull jobs that he hates to scrape together enough cash for Nam to study law and pass the bar. Nam deeply cares for his adoptive "brother" and desperately fights to have him declared innocent in a murder trial that seems all but pre-decided. The only attorney who is willing to take the case for such little compensation is Gom Baram.

[b-splendens]

WOW it's been a while.

These posts were made so sporadically and at weird times of development that they're ironically way better than my old notes.

I've cut away the focus on the other characters and made a lot of changes.

The latest change that separates my previous work is the fact that the story will now focus on a fairly linear sequence of events that should fit into one ace attorney-style game.

Another change that undergirds the above is the consolidated theme: X is unfair. So, make it fair (somehow).

I will try to work everything else to fit that theme. And now the plot resembles every more creative endeavors to make things fair in the face of unfairness. This theme gives me the liberty to construct the Yulais judicial system in wild and wacky ways and present both disheartening and funny challenges to overcome.

My favorite is still Xuan, but Baram is starting to surpass her. Also, Xuan and Doryeong probably don't need to know each other anymore.

Before the plot and thematic shift, the other big change was settling on my not-omegaverse idea. Going with the dragon thing, I call the secondary classes "mireu" and "imugi." One has a yeouiju, the other does not. One has power and prestige, the other does now.

Anyways, it's an exciting semester. I feel locked in. Things are coming together.

[b-splendens]

Argh I forgot I had this account. Shiver me timbers. I can't embed the whole thing. Sad.

[genderfluid-druid]

hurr hurr I'm a human body hurr hurr I'm gonna solve all my problems using mucus

[genderfluid-druid]

"i require more fluids" well what did you do with the fluids I already gave you. hmm? did you make more mucus with them? you made more mucus with them.

[b-splendens]

Pre-finals update

WOW i haven't updated in a while. literally had to cold turkey myself out of tumblr because i was distracted. oh well. what better time to come back then right before finals!!!!

two things:

horn and tails has slowly been refined more and the base is solidifying

new vampireXwerewolf duology in development NOW

Number 2 will give me some practice with the creative process and help me better approach Number 1 in the long run

But in general I just want to have two very self indulgent short stories that pack a punch instead of a longer murder mystery that might feel flat

Elaboration on 2:

nblw and mlm

both = werewolf vampire hunters versus vampires

one of the former is part of a werewolf hunters' guild seeking to grow a second tail, the other is repressing himself to stay hidden in a human hunters' guild

one of the latter is a "new gen" vampire hellbent on becoming the top of the powerscale, the other is an "old gen" vampire who just likes screwing around

fighting!!! action. deception.

lore!!!! werewolves and vampires are the descendants of the gumiho. because I SAID SO.

""fighting""

[b-splendens]

there's nothing more surreal than building up a backlog of beepbox ditties from 2019+ and then listening to them when writing for class. it's so weird. i guess it's a flex though, since I literally used one on repeat to get me through last spring's big giant paper.

[b-splendens]

WAHHHHHHH

things are coming together but the horn and tail world does not feel complete. i'm still stuck in that "need to code for clarity" and "coding sucks make your own shit" zone. i can do several things but i'm wishy washy:

physically make the world smaller and condense/blend cultures together

physically make the world smaller and vaguely korean-code everything

REALLY shrink the world and build off of the three kingdoms analogues (but then the vibes will be SO OFF)

turn everyone into furries

magic

Things i HAVE done to make things more unique:

give everyone horns and tails

start basing the "human" cultures off of folk creatures (like dokkaebi, dragons, and whatnot)

I still really hate the idea of the cropped map world; especially since I'm working with no magic. I think these are my essential themes and elements:

family, truth, and justice

changes brought by imperialism and industrialization

a relatively safe foreign place for people to immigrate to that is also an empire/imperialist state.

I could maybe swap the two powerful states around but the beats of the world history literally just follow the irl 1500s+ trend of imperialism and globalization (with more fighting) so closely that the vibes wouldn't vibe. my current worldbuilding trek has been about bellia and connecting Xuan's "Finder" occupation to a culture that takes after dragons with the hoarding stuff (which then slots with imperialism and colonialism; finding and taking and taking and taking and taking). i think I need to find similar themes to explore with different cultures; and obviously "family" and national identity building are what Yulguk does. but that's too complicated. maybe Yulguk is family and justice while Bellia is finding and loss. idk what the other cultures are. Dai Xanh is probably endurance and diaspora; tbh I could make the Manh a stateless group but I feel like that would be disrespectful to the actual stateless peoples in SEA (since the kinh historically displaced and conquered the Cham in Vietnam). As long as these characters are still tied to their regularAU counterparts, I'm really not budging on changing their ethnic backgrounds. but if I can successfully sever the two, then I probably will.

If Yulguk is (primarily) family and justice, then Imperial Long/Jaded Republic/States might be legacy and chaos; as in the legacy of an extremely long dynastic cycle and idea of nationhood.

[b-splendens]

HNHNHhGSfhGSfhasgf

this thing is taking too much computing power in my head i need it OUT!!! OUT!!!!!!

anyways I am formally reintroducing my ""project"" so I can redirect people with ease.

Horn and Tail (working title)

Aliases: Resentment Story, Jakho/not jakho

Related projects: Bad Murder Mystery

the Pilot: smug, she/her, 20, bi KoreAm

inspirations: Ace Attorney, Kdramas, the Count of Monte Cristo

status: worldbuilding and plotting concurrently

Blurb:

Yves and Yannick Leyulais embark on a long, methodical trek of vengeance against the noble family of a man sometimes called Jacques-Dorian Montbleu.

Unbeknownst to them, the peculiar Finder that they are relying on, Joie Delaguerre, has her own intentions—and so do the various allies and enemies that they gather upon their return to the land sometimes called Yulterre.

One of them is Heukganggom Baram, whose personal investigation of the Jacques- Montbleu (Cheongsanjak) was shut down by their second son’s public humiliation of her and her family.

Meanwhile, the members of the Cheongsanjak family internally contend with tensions of inheritance, marriage, and political aspirations, which explode when their first son is nearly assassinated by justice activists.

Straight from my Notes

Central themes:

Family (blood and made)

Truth

Justice (revenge, punitive, restorative, forgiveness)

Secondary themes

Trauma

Belonging/exclusion (xenophobia, “home,” etc)

And the social construction of those categories

Aka ethnicity and nationalism and gender

Searching for family, truth, Justice

And how imperialism/colonialism/empire affects how things work

Family, truth (scientific vs traditional), justice, belonging/exclusion, social categories

How imperialism/nationalism developed over time

Tertiary themes

What love means in the context of family, social obligation, and truth/lies

How we define our self-identities in the context of others

can you exist without those around you? Who are you if not for those around you?

What do the horn and tails represent?

They show how cultures construct meaning and symbolism

As extra protrusions, they physically mirror how the characters feel extra deeply and humanly

They represent dignity and humanity, and their treatment/abuse can stand-in for other forms of trauma or humiliation

They physically show the branching of inheritance/family

They rep the genetic diversity of irl humans

Main characters(?):

Heukganggom

Baram

Ppalgangil

Yukyang

Yangseo

Vu 백남무/Baeknammu (Ly) Hongnamri

Xuân (Khanh)

Cheongsanjak

Doryeong

Onjo

Side characters

Cheongsanjak

Heungjin (dead)

Noljin

Widow

Gramps

And Gram

Heukganggom

Bari

Ppalgangil

Yonggi (dead)

Cheonha (dead)

Bukho 북호

Daeran

Nam

????

Baram’s inside friend

Summary (long):

Eight moments will culminate in desperation with horn and tail.

The first is the adoption of a northern waif by a grieving father.

The second is the little-regarded corruption trial of architect, Hongnamri Geondeok, and his cryptic death.

The third is the framing of the diplomat Cheongsanjak Heungjin for the murder of Cheongsanjak Noljin, and the exposing of Ppalgangil Yonggi.

The fourth is the Great Metounais Fire, which killed many.

The sixth is the murder of Deodat Delamer.

The seventh is the trial of Heukganggom Baram.

And the eighth is the death of Sa Leyulais, mired in debt and sickness.

Yves Leyulais discovers their father’s diary, pointing a finger into the heart of the Cheongsanjak-ssi.

Yannick Leyulais is delivered by a letter sent too late.

Joie Delaguerre is harassed by the children of the woman who disappeared her father.

Heukganggom Baram defends a laborer accused of a murder on cursed ground eyed by a seaslicker.

Cheongsanjak Onjo hires a man with no roots to protect him from everything but his own family.

Cheongsanjak Doryeong’s devotion burns like a golden branch.