#omnsicient reader

[ephemerle]

orv as tumblr posts 8

[orvwomenzine]

Our next guest is the wonderful @jomeimei421! Mei's expressive style and striking linework are a joy to see in her art, and we're thrilled to get to work with her!

[lizhly-writes]

here you go more normal orv fan knw.  you could probably view it as an extension of this, if you like.

Kim Namwoon does not have a copy of Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint at his disposal.

He does, however, have the Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint fandom at his disposal, which feels like the weirdest fucking flex ever.  It’s a statement by an author who really wants to piss him off: here, you can have everything except what you actually really need.

You can look at the fanart on twitter.  Postype and tumblr too.  Hey, did you want to read the fanfic on ao3?  Covered.  Oh, look, there’s a wiki too.  That was a major win, having a source of information more canonical than fanfic, but it’s not like it has every detail he needs.  Not like actually being able to read the novel himself.

Better than nothing.  Kim Namwoon has assigned himself homework, and that homework is to go through the fucking wiki in the hopes he won’t run headfirst into a horrible death because of something he forgot about.  

Of course, the moment he has to do something is the moment he loses interest in actually doing it.  Procrastination!  Ha.  And this weird bastard skill he has offers lots of methods of procrastination.

He types out a message –

 [so in scenario 1 if person 1 pushed person 2 into the path of a car person 3 was driving, and person 2 dies, who officially gets the credit for killing person 2? ] 

– and sends it out.

It takes a minute.  Maybe two.  And then –

[ Several people are typing…]

[ i mean they both do take part in killing person 2.  maybe it’s like split credit?]

[ person 1 because person 1 has the intent to kill.  person 3 is just a vessel ]

[ ok but what if person 3 sees what person 1 is trying to do and slams on gas to more effectively murder person 2 ]

[ well then ]

Apparently Kim Namwoon’s got access to the fandom Discord server, too.  

That’s what’s fucking him up.  Kim Namwoon missed it the first time he opened Twitter, but looking on Discord, it’s patently obvious that for some reason, he’s got an active connection to the real world.  Sure, it’s limited.  Any social media accounts with his actual name?  No.  Phone numbers?  No good.

But if he wants to ask Discord people how the fuck Yoo Joonghyuk got his shiny magical coat or what happened to Ricardo von Kaixenix’s consciousness or hey, how did everyone end up in Dark Castle to begin with?  Fine, sure, what-the-fuck-ever.

Kim Namwoon doesn’t understand.  That’s his own Discord account he’s using.  The people he’s talking to, they’re people he actually knows, even if he’s never met them in real life.  The timestamps on the messages don’t match his current date and time, but he bets anything that that’s how time’s passing in the real world.

What does this mean for him?

[lizhly-writes]

aight, so a few days ago, i asked y’all what kind of orv writing you wanted to see.  @strikeslip​ got in the first reply, so here we are with the coparenting au. i’ll probably cycle through the rest of the replies/asks in the coming weeks.

first of all: bihyung does not hit anyone with the cabbage.  sorry.   second of all: to really answer this, i probably should have written a little more, buuuut if i did, this would probably end up extending to sunday and i’m already late, so here you go.

Bihyung knows exactly who Dokja’s mother is.  

“I wasn’t trying to pry into your personal life,” Bihyung says defensively.  “I had to look you up, I wasn’t going to have just anyone have a claim on Biyoo.  It’s just –” he looks off to the side, hand going up to rub the back of his neck.  “Your name isn’t very common.  That’s all.”

That’s an understatement.  ‘Dokja’ is the kind of name that doesn’t really register as a name, so of course it sticks in your memory if someone claims it as one.  It makes sense to remember it, especially if you saw it somewhere in a best-selling book of some kind.

If Dokja looked his own name up, maybe that book would be the first result.

“You’re fine with that?” he says.  The smile he’s wearing feels terribly tight on his face.

Bihyung’s mouth twists.  “If I had a problem with it, do you think I would have made you take that paternity test to begin with.”

“...Right.”

Dokja would like to say the conversation ends there, and they never talk about it again, but that would be a lie.  They do talk about it; they don’t have a choice but to talk about it, when Dokja thinks of his mother, thinks of the fact it’s flat-out better not visiting instead of having to tell her the next pathetically sad thing to happen in his life.  

A child, though.  It seems… important.

“...I should probably let her know about Biyoo.”

“...You probably should,” Bihyung allows.

And that’s that.

“You don’t have to come with me,” Dokja says charitably.  It’s already going to be uncomfortable and awkward.  Explaining Bihyung is going to be… weird.  Yes, Dokja is coparenting a child with Bihyung.  No, they’re not together in any way, shape, or form.  How did this occur?  Who knows.

“Of course I do, she’s my– she’s your –”  Bihyung pauses, makes a face, because he’s probably about as stuck on terms as Dokja is.  “She’s Biyoo’s grandmother.  And you’re bringing Biyoo.”

“Yeah.  Well.”

Well.

The trip there is made in relative silence.  Biyoo is… not a quiet baby, exactly, but one that can be counted upon to exist in contentment for a predictable time period, especially when she’s being held, so the subway ride there is.  Fine.

“What’s she like,” Bihyung says, at one point.  “Your mother,” he adds, like there’s more than one ‘she’ that they decided to go visit.

“Why?”

“Haaah, I’m just curious.  Is that not allowed?”

“She’s… she.  She likes reading.”

“Oh, so she’s just like you.”  A pause, abashed.  “... I didn’t mean it like…”

“I know what you mean.  It’s fine.”

The subway ride is fine.  Everything’s Fine.

…

“You look like you’re about to meet your mother-in-law,” Kim Dokja offers.

“Hahaha, shut up,” says Bihyung.

…

“Hello, Mother,” says Kim Dokja.

That person looks the same he remembers.  Maybe a little grayer around the temples, but that’s it.  It’s hard to believe she’s any older at all, which means it’s hard to believe he’s any older at all.  He can very easily pretend that this is the past, and he’s still that child that regularly visited his mother, sitting uselessly in silence and spouting off random webnovel plots in an attempt to have anything to talk about at all.

“...Dokja,” she says, and even her expression is the same as he remembers.  Even, barely showing any emotion at all. “It’s been a while.”

It’s not a question.  It might as well be one.  Dokja doesn’t actually remember the last time he visited.  Maybe neither does she.  If he squints, he could pretend that she actually looks surprised.  

She might actually be surprised.  Dokja isn’t quite looking at his mother in the eye, but he can still see when her gaze wanders to Bihyung, who straightens under the attention.  It’s a fair enough reaction.  Dokja’s never actually brought anyone to visit before.

“Hi,” Bihyung says stiltedly, and hefts Biyoo slightly higher up.  “This is your grandchild.”

Kim Dokja almost laughs.

“...Excuse me?” says Mother, and there’s the crack in her usual face.  Eyes just a little wider, just a little rounder, a twitch in the corner of her mouth.

“That’s Biyoo,” Kim Dokja says.  “My daughter, so your granddaughter.  I thought you’d like to know.”

[orvwomenzine]

Our first writer is the wonderful @directorofthefalselastact! Sona's sincere and thoughtful style perfectly captures the characters of ORV. Look forward to seeing their work in the zine!

[lizhly-writes]

transmigration au: that is, normal orv fan knw transmigrates into orv and will probably not have the best time.

So Kim Namwoon’s memory is admittedly kind of fuzzy at the moment, but he is pretty certain that he shouldn’t be anywhere on the subway. He’s somehow apparently managed to fall asleep standing up, holding on to a hanging strap and all, which is honestly pretty impressive, he kind of wishes he could stay this perfectly upright when he falls asleep in class.

Really, his balance is suddenly inexplicably incredible; even when he takes his hand off the strap to check the bag he apparently has on his back, he still manages to stay upright when the train screeches to an entirely unexpected stop and the lights go out.

Some kind of accident, he supposes. Not great for this time of day, not that he actually knows what time it is. He makes a grab for his phone — not in either of his front pockets, where could it - ah, back pocket — and gets it just in time to see the clock tick up from 6:59 to 7:00.

[The free service of planetary system 8612 has been terminated.]

Wait a second.

[The main scenario has started.]

…Shit.

[Ah. Ah. Does this sound good? Ah, I had a hard time because the Korean patch didn’t work. Everyone, can you hear my words?]

“Yep,” Kim Namwoon says aloud. “We can hear you loud and clear. Sound quality’s fine.” He gives a thumbs up, for good measure.

[Ah, thank you!]

“Hey, no problem.”

It’s a lie. There are so many problems here.

Kim Namwoon knows exactly where he is now. He’s got a sneaking suspicion he knows who he is too. He checks the camera of his phone — yeah. Bleached hair and a uniform for a school he’s never attended, but looks a lot like what the ORV webtoon set up for Kim Namwoon, the character. Which. Which. Which likely means that he’s Kim Namwoon, the character. The Omniscient Reader character.

How is this his life.

Maybe this is just what happens when you’re named Kim Namwoon! Maybe this is just what happens when you’ve got the exact same name as a webnovel character, you’re just transmigration bait! And did it really have to be Kim Namwoon? Like it’s nice that he gets to keep his own name, but Kim Namwoon also dies, like, what, five chapters in because Kim Dokja kills him dead.

What the hell is Kim Namwoon even supposed to do now? It’s the first scenario, so obviously the answer is to kill someone, but if he does that, then that probably means Kim Dokja will kill him. Except if he doesn’t kill anyone, then he’s going to be dead anyway, unless he miraculously finds a grasshopper when after Kim Dokja hurls the whole goddamn net into the subway carriage. Even then, it’s pretty hard to catch something that’s jumping around like that, you know?

And even if he does catch a grasshopper, what happens after that? Does that mean that he’d catch a grasshopper instead of a member of Kim Dokja’s Company? Does that mean he’s preemptively killing a KDJC member? He doesn’t want that either!

Why did he have to be Kim Namwoon. Wouldn’t it be easier if he was Kim Dokja? Kim Dokja gets to be the one who gets his hands on a grasshopper first, after all! And if he was Kim Dokja, he wouldn’t need to worry about Kim Dokja killing him, right?

… Kim Namwoon doesn’t particularly want to be Kim Dokja, either. Maybe Lee Gilyoung would be better? Sure, he’d have to go through puberty again, but nothing bad happens to Lee Gilyoung, right? Yeah, things would be great if he transmigrated into Lee Gilyoung instead! Sure, Lee Gilyoung gets thrown into life-threatening situations, but that’s just how the apocalypse is, it’s not like — okay he should probably focus on the reality of the situation and figure what he’s going to do to get out of this.

That said, maybe this is all a dream! Kim Namwoon’s memories feel suspiciously fuzzy and he doesn’t remember getting here at all, so maybe he’s fallen asleep and he’ll wake up drooling on his desk or in his bed, and everything will be great.

Kim Namwoon’s internal monologue is cut off when he hears a sound like a gunshot going off. Something hot and wet splatters across his face as a person — no, a body — hits the floor. There’s a thick, coppery scent in the air, and when Kim Namwoon hesitantly touches his tongue to the splotch he can feel clinging on to his lower lip, there’s no mistaking it. That’s definitely blood.

He squeezes his eyes shut as he hears a few more bangs and pops and screams and thinks, yeah, okay, so this is probably actually happening.

Kim Namwoon is having the worst day.

[lizhly-writes]

here’s a brand new character that i was planning to shove in my post-epilogue lhs/jhw fake dating au as a plot device.  have no idea if she’s gonna make it in whatever final cut i do, but here she is anyway.

Ahn Minji is perfectly coiffed and beautiful and honestly looks like she should belong on a magazine cover rather than at a security company. She’s also exactly what you’d expect out of someone who spent four years as Han Sooyoung’s university roommate, which is to say she's terrible.

“Hey, Heewon,” she says. She raises her eyebrows at Lee Hyunsung following at her heels. “Oh, you brought beefaroni again?”

“I brought who,” Jung Heewon says.

Lee Hyunsung covers his face. “Hello, Minji-ssi,” he says, his voice muffled. “It’s good to see you too.”

“Beefaroni?” Jung Heewon says, grin spreading across her face. “Really?”

“Look at him,” Ahn Minji says. “He’s beefy. Got beefier, even. You’ve been busy since I’ve last seen you, huh? Did you work out? That’s a lot of improvement in — a month? Six months? A year? Has it been more than a year?”

“It’s been a while," says Lee Hyunsung, conveniently not answering Ahn Minji's question.

“Time sure flies, huh,” says Ahn Minji. "Hey, would you be interested in a job? Heewon-ah, did you drag your boyfriend here so he could be another pretty face to sell the company? Marketing would go insane, another ‘hero-of-the-world’ would be a real nice bonus.”