#multiple dimensions au

[hwang-inhos-fish]

Guys I'm cooking. I shouldn't have two dishes going at once but listen I want a side project... something streamlined and fast, with short chapters I can publish regularly and just kind of have fun with a silly-ish concept.

Consider: the morning of November 4th, 2024, Hwang In-ho, the Front Man, wakes up in a Seoul apartment he doesn't recognize, and a husband that he very much does. And then his daughter, his wife's child, climbs into the bed with them, alive and nine years old now and the most perfect thing In-ho has ever seen.

Despite the shock, the doubt, the confusion, In-ho finds himself very quickly falling in love with this soft life, this kinder reality where neither he nor Seong Gi-hun ever touched the Games, this world where their daughters walk to school together and Jun-ho stops by for coffee and his mother calls casually to ask what Gi-hun wants for his birthday.

But this Gi-hun knows his husband, and he knows something is wrong. And In-ho knows he can't stay. Not when the gears of time are still churning in another, colder reality.

Meanwhile, Hwang In-ho, husband to goofy, good-hearted Seong Gi-hun, father to Hwang Ji-ah, wakes up in a world of horror and blood, a world where he himself is the villain... a world where his husband hates him.

Thoughts? :)

(Inspired by "it must be counterfeit (i think there's been a glitch)" by thericochetarrow on AO3, whom I asked if I could do an In-ho version and who said that was cool :) Shout-out to that fic)

[hwang-inhos-fish]

Superposition - Chapter Five

The neon sign outside the cracked-open window, blinking The Pink Motel: No Vacancy, burns acid-pink in the cold drizzle. 

As the sign blinks it lights up the room, pink washing together with blue, painting different corners and angles with the opposing hue. 

Blue. Pink-blue. Blue. Pink-blue. 

If the human perception of color was strictly about wavelengths, magenta wouldn’t exist. The candy-sweet, feminine companion to stygian blue - impossible colors. Things that, if plain logic had anything to say about it, wouldn't be here.

And yet, in every world, in every dimension, physics leaves some wiggle room for unexpected and improbable phenomena. Statistically speaking, there is always a chance for unlikely events to take place.

Like him and his Myeong-wol. 

-_-_-

Full board:

[hwang-inhos-fish]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

I know it's been a million years but NEW SUPERPOSITION!!

-_-_-

The Island, Earth 456, November 4, 2024

When you’re married to someone, you attend a thousand births and deaths of the people they become. You watch them change and grow in real time. You see them at their best, and worst. You see them laughing with their child and you see them weeping and punching the soil of their loved one’s grave. You’re there for the middle-of-the-night crises, the workplace disasters, the long car rides and time wasted in traffic. The little victories, unexpected pleasures, and occasional ecstacies. You see celebrations and disappointments. You see them dressed-up and gorgeous, and you see them sweating and sick.

And all of this, In-ho can handle. Any of this, he could have faced.

In-ho thought he knew his husband. Gullible, generous, glib Gi-hun. Possessed of a firecracker temper to match his bleeding heart. Willowy and wily and sly. Like a beloved instrument, In-ho knows how to handle his husband.

He doesn’t know what to do with this. This version of his husband that’s trying to kill him.

(Read more!)

[hwang-inhos-fish]

omg I forgot that Gihun still doesn't know...Inho-132 is gonna find a disheveled, skinny, traumatized, chained-up Gihun and be like "it's me, your husband Inho" several bombs are gonna go off in that cell Unless...through miscommunications Gihun thinks this is still Young-il undercover or something? your answer is making me sus 👀

Edit: omfg love the idea of 132-Inho having unrequited crush symptoms for his husband and just being like ??? Lmao

I typed this and then was like "it's vague spoilers tho" so I'll put it under a line in case someone doesn't want to know yet lol

Wouldn't it be a hilarious little miscommunication if 132 In-ho assumed they were also married or at least involved here, due to Gi-hun’s birthday being his computer password? And if Gi-hun overlooked Young-il acting a little weird for a minute due to sheer relief at seeing him alive?

Gi-hun: "YOU’RE ALIVE I'M SO GLAD TO -"

In-ho 132, HORRIFIED at how Gi-hun looks: (grapple-hug) (tenderly cups face in hands) (whispers) "Tell me who did this..."

Gi-hun: 😮👀🥺🫦

(Sims relationship + symbols churning out over their heads)

[hwang-inhos-fish]

Re: the dynamics of 457 and the hwang brothers, do you have any intention of either writing a fic exploring that or exploring it in either white mask or Superposition? I'd love to hear more about your thoughts on the dynamic of the three of them!

Actually, yes! Jun-ho features heavily in Superposition, in both dimensions. In Seoul 132 he's a P.I. with In-ho, as we've learned, so they'll be working together throughout the fic. And in The Middle Of the Fucking Ocean 456, OG!Jun-ho is still sailing around like "WHERE'S THIS FUCKING ISLAND" and... I mean, In-ho 132 already thinks of his brother as his right-hand-guy, and they're gonna need away off that island... like... a boat... 🤷🏻

And Jun-ho has a part in White Mask as well, though not as large.

I actually just jotted down the bare bones for a scene later in White Mask, in their Pink Motel era (lil tiny spoilers 👀), where 457 runs into In-ho's mom and brother while out and about in Seoul, as a total coincidence, and his mom sees him holding hands with Gi-hun and makes several nearly-accurate deductions and just breaks down crying like "Oh, my son! You stayed away for TEN YEARS because you thought I wouldn't accept you being GAY??" And then as everyone else is kind of agape like how do we handle this she just goes to In-ho and gives him a big hug and then turns to Gi-hun and gives him a big hug and is like "If my son loves you so do I, love is love, as long as the naughty stuff stays behind closed doors" and Jun-ho is like "MOM" and In-ho is absolutely dying inside for like ten different reasons lol.

But anyway! Yes! Jun-ho will be around.

[hwang-inhos-fish]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

Abandoned Motel, Seoul, Earth 526, November 4, 2024, 8:27 a.m.

Oh Young-il bends over his work. In the dingy motel room, with its three centimeters of dust and the newspapers plastered over the windows, barely any light gets through the gray haze at all. Young-il’s industrial brick of a laptop gives out the only real glow in the room - a piercing, bright blue light which spills over the lower planes of his face as he hunches over it.

It’s not much brighter outside, anyway. The morning is gray and drizzly - as dingy as this condemned heap of bricks. So dark it may as well be late evening instead of a new morning. The neon sign outside the cracked-open window, blinking The Pink Motel: No Vacancy, burns acid-pink in the cold drizzle.

As the sign blinks it lights up the room, pink washing together with blue, painting different corners and angles with the opposing hue.

Blue. Pink-blue. Blue. Pink-blue.

If the human perception of color was strictly about wavelengths, magenta wouldn’t exist. The candy-sweet, feminine companion to stygian blue - impossible colors. Things that, if plain logic had anything to say about it, wouldn't be here.

And yet, in every world, in every dimension, physics leaves some wiggle room for unexpected and improbable phenomena. Statistically speaking, there is always a chance for unlikely events to take place.

Like him and his Myeong-wol.

-_-_-

Have some Superposition.

It miiiiight blow your mind a little bit if you've been reading along so far. 🤷 Hey, I'm stoked for what this allows. Come on this roller coaster with me, won't you?

[hwang-inhos-fish]

Oooh I love Superposition! Is In-ho‘s wife still alive in the other world? I am super curious about the backstory of that universe, if In-ho has the same attachment to her or if it kinda fizzled out when he met his true love Gi-hun? Also so excited for alt In-hun meeting Gi-hun. I love that you keep their bodies’ instincts intact so I will be so curious to find out how OG In-ho‘s body reacts to Gi-hun. Spoilers very welcome 🤗 Thank you so much for giving us such an excellent fic, I love your writing so much ♥️

Since it could technically be considered a spoiler I'll put it under the line haha

Ae-shin is dead, RIP. I don’t think In-ho would have gotten together with Gi-hun otherwise.

Essentially, this universe is the same as canonverse, EXCEPT In-ho didn’t join the games. Maybe he missed the Recruiter by two minutes, maybe he just decided not to go. In any case, In-ho’s continued presence at the hospital and his support of Ae-shin made that tiny difference which allowed her to hang on just a little longer, just barely long enough to get Ji-ah into the NICU before Ae-shin passed.

In-ho had to keep it together for his baby daughter, so rather than fully spiraling into his worst self, he simply had a Rough Few Years, and Jun-ho and their mom helped out with Ji-ah.

He met Gi-hun a couple years after Ae-shin passed, and at first In-ho decided it was WAY too early to be interested in anyone else, they just WORKED together so well that they got married before Ji-ah turned four.

Next chapter we'll get to learn a bit more about how the sisters played a big part in that - Ga-yeong (six to seven at the time) was delighted to have a little sister figure and immediately adopted her as a sort of living doll, carting her around everywhere and dressing her up and teaching her the best kid swears, etc.

[hwang-inhos-fish]

I'm just loving your superposition fic ✨I was so excited to read the part where 132 In-ho finds Gi-hun and you cut it off to how 456 In-ho is meeting his other self life and I stayed with the suspense 😭😭 you are so evil but yeah, I'm waiting for the next chapter ahhh. I'm having lots of thoughts for the fic

Yeaahhh and now I'm working on White Mask next... 😅 My bad. But hey you gotta have at least a little cliffhanger each chapter. That's showbiz baby.

I will say, I think I might surprise people with how In-ho 132 and Gi-hun 456's first interaction will go. 😇