Vampyrement

[She/Any] Multifandom || Post after-reading rambles or art once in a blue moon || @vampyrement on tt & yt

[vampyre-atthestake]

Okay I was working on a gsgw animation and over rendered the character sprites I was gonna use so I thought I might as well polish and post them as I go along making the animation wip... *Looks at my checklist in despair because only 2 are finished out of 16 fucking sprites, not to even mention the scenes or the animating that needs to be done...... Why must I torment myself so?*

My glorious assistant manager falcon and supervisor badger mentioned <3 (their my first test subjects)

[vampyre-atthestake]

GSGW Spoilers for Chapter 371

I'm so happy for Soleum. The man went against all narrative odds and finally got his well deserved rest. I'm also glad part 2 ended there with him too (for an end to this arc was inevitable and the build up created such a carthatic resolution) because the way I see it, he gets to sleep for as long as the hiatus continues because we all know damn well he has to get back to work when part 3 comes back.

Have a good nap, Kim​ Soleum.

(At least one of my favorite MCs got actual rest. I'm still traumatised by Klein)

Something I thought of on how part 3's plot might kick off though, inspired by Agent Haegum's advice and the whole "Don't look back" thing where Kim Soleum persevered on towards his paradise and separating himself from the attachments made in the ghost story world to go back to the fourth wall perspective... is that Soleum won't be able to live in serenity without worrying about the fate of the people he left behind.

So, like Eurydice who looked back at Orpheus because he doubted he'd actually saved his wife from death; Soleum will look back for the people he's saved from their original fate because he doubted their circumvented ends wouldn't come back to finish the job.

Or well, something along those lines, it's just a thought I had to get that sweet Greek tragedy parrallel. We still don't know much about the world without ghost stories that Soleum came from and the entire thing with Ireum-nim. Well it's a given we'd see more of the Nameless Religion now..... I'm gonna be waiting for that Jang Heoun (Bison made employee of Golden Resort) chekhov's gun to fire off (Which now that I think about it, wouldn't the resort cease to exist without Soleum? Oh deer, what happened to the brothers' jobs then?)

[vampyre-atthestake]

GSGW Spoilers for Chapter 370

In which I got batshit insane rambling a probably barely coherent analysis below

Oh my God this entire chapter was as beautiful as a daydream. I feel like "dream-like" is the only way to even describe the entire vibe with how much everything has been leading up to this point in the sense that dreams are ultimate goals people strive for, that when it actually happened, it feels like a dream with how wonderfully fantastic it is. But, we still have that underlying lucid sense of awaiting for the dream to burst like a bubble and wake the novel back to reality because this feels like the calm before the storm and the next chapter on Friday will make us all collectively lose our minds.

(I'm so scared guys let's all hold hands for the next 24 hours while we wait hahhahahahha......)

Anyways, aside from the goosebumps I felt during the grape flavor reveal (Literally jaw dropped at my phone screen) or the the merch box staircase way back surprise (IT ALL. TIES BACK TO THE BEGINNING. THE ENTIRETY OF PART 2 IS JUST SOLEUM MOVING BACKWARDS FROM HIS PART 1 JOURNEY TO THE BEGINNING OF HIS ORIGINS SO OFC THE MERCHBOX APPEARS AFTER WE MEET THE OG BODY) I'd like to point out something I also noticed:

The way the paradise syrup is described is that it's the converging of a shooting star- the syrup shining brilliantly as the stars inside a glass bottle, 'like your holding the milky way in your hand' (Remember for later how during the process, it's described as 'colorful hologram like lights condensing and GOLDEN light leaking out between them'). And in the same paragraphs, implied how this syrup gets it's symbolism based on the "story" of how people would 'pour their wishes and dreams of paradise' after seeing a shooting star.

Where the shooting stars in people's cognition = wishes.

And this brought me back to how in Chapter 192 when Soleum was "faking" being a special security personel that he wasn't yet then and interrogating Kwak​ Jegang, when Soleum was thinking up which darkness he'd trick Jegang into thinking that's the one he came from and 'pointed to the yellow lantern at his waist, wrapped in horn-like ribs', which the scientist would interpret as:

""A Darkness related to a star. Gold, restraints... Haha, interesting... Are you interested in humans?"

And oh my god. How has it not occurred to me before. Kim Soleum's most prominent character trait is his wish to go home and one thing commonly associated with wishes are shooting stars. Not to even mention how lanterns -> illuminating & guiding the path in darkness or how stars are used as a navigation tool for ships at sea.

How the color of stars is most associated with yellow/gold, heck in the description of the syrup making process I'd quoted before ('colorful hologram like lights condensing and GOLDEN light leaking out between them') so gold = stars (or at least one interpretation of it) which can explain away how Jegang thought of stars after seeing the yellow lantern.

So: Kim Soleum is a darkness related to a star because darknesses can be stories of obsession and Kim Soleum's obsession made him chase the wish ticket made of stars, to find his way back home, while simultaneously illuminating the path for others to explore in darknesses.

Then. Restraints. When recent chapters revealed that the original golden resort owner, the yellow dragons powers was contracts, so yellow = contracts. So it makes sense for gold, a shade of yellow, to be associated with restraints... (assuming gold ≠ yellow but they can be synonymous in some interpretations) Narratively though, Kim​ Soleum can be associated with restraints due to the whole Good Friend thing that restricted his mind from realising the truth, his og body being restrained in the cocoon and his disaster inside Segwang City after a ritual, him restraining his essence inside 130666 via contract, restraining his contaminations as himself, etc..

Kwak​ Jegang after clocking Soleum's entire character themes yet again (the first being to identify him as a coward) what the actual fuck.

We need to reverse study this man in a lab room to get him locking in on any more foreshadowing hints about Soleum. I need to dissect all his dialogue.

[vampyre-atthestake]

Fully expecting the "Welcome Home" quote used in horror media to be used on Soleum at one point. Like hopefully his home doesn't get subvereted into a trap because this man DESERVES a break but dear lord the narrative odds are against him.

> "Welcome Home, Ireum-nim"

[constalation-bored-anarchist]

The ending is him walking into a house he knows is fake, but not caring. Because his father, mother and little brother are sitting at the table. And they all look so happy to see him.

[vampyre-atthestake]

I'm having LOTM flashbacks and I am not enjoying it. It's worse that I can see it happening with Soleum's like of thinking, but hopefully he'd realize quickly it's better to extricate himself from unrealistic daydreams and without letting us readers suffer too much hahahhahahahaha.....

[vampyre-atthestake]

Fully expecting the "Welcome Home" quote seen in horror media to be used on Soleum at one point. Like hopefully his home doesn't get subvereted into a trap because this man DESERVES a break but dear lord the narrative odds are against him.

> "Welcome Home, Ireum-nim"

[vampyre-atthestake]

GSGW Segwang City Arc Spoilers & Chapters​ 360-362+ Spoilers​

Kinda a literary analysis of the Disaster? Some parts might not make sense because of how much I'm rambling through... I wrote all of this in one sitting while freaking out over the plot ToT

I just wanted to comment on how absolutely beautiful the concept of the Disaster is written:

To Tomorrow (Connection between the Subway Stations & Disaster Day)

The concept of the entire disaster being that their all stuck looping the same day.... Sealed into the eternal cycle of the Disaster Day​ on May 4th right? That May 4th, the day before Children's Day.

And the Segwang Subway mirrors that, stuck looping in a circle between the 7 stations:

1. Segwang Station (Forest Path of Death)

2. Midnight Station (Body Casino)

3. Late Night Station (Hanbit Library)

4. Twilight Station (Conscience Market)

5. Afternoon Station (Blood Broadcasting Station)

6. Midday Station (Nap Shelter)

7. Morning Station (Balance Court)

So we find out in Chapter 330 that the stations themselves mutated after the Disaster Day, the only station with its name intact being Segwang Station due to it not ONLY being used as a subway station but also having a high speed rail station connecting to other South Korean regions, thus being basically the exit plan of the Disaster.

And the thing I wanted to focus on is how the stations,​ excluding Segwang Station, are the reverse order of the day: Morning > Midday > Afternoon > Twilight (when it's still day but the sun is below horizon, in this context it's between sunset & night) > Late Night > Midnight (when the day ends); before looping back to the beginning (the morning)

Which mirrors the May 4th Loop. The people in the disaster are forever suffering the same day on May 4th; while the survivors and trains, while looking like they've move on to a new day cycle, is actually still stuck on the same cycle, the state of their bodies stuck being what they were before the disaster.

And I don't know how readable my rambling words are but:

It is incredibly fitting how the way to BREAK OUT of this day, this May 4th, is the station in between the Morning and the Midnight. For it is that moment in between that Kim Soleum moves the trains onto the high speed rail tracks and move it towards the tomorrow. So that the survivors will move on from the Disaster day and finally reach the day after.

Names are an important thing in the GSGW world, so it is only when everybody has moved onto the correct timeline in the day after will there be no more Disaster Day, for everyone has already moved on from it.. (Chapters 361-362)

They don't have to repeat the same looping cycle of the morning stations to midnight now. Their on a linear track, speeding high tail out of that goddamn disaster day and moving to the tomorrow! (They can finally CELEBRATE Children's day on May 5th now!)

Fucking chills.

If you look at the stations, also in reverse order it's kinda the stages of the Disaster? (With morning being when the disaster starts and Segwang when it fake ends only to repeat) Or how people reacted to it like stages of grief? The stations 3 and 5 are kinda outliers (maybe that station 3 is 3rd because timeline wise it's when the agents were rescuing the kids or doing the ritual; or station 5 being 5th because also timeline wise it's when darknesses in the city were erased with the "World without ghost stories" narrative). Station 7 (Balance Court) is the agents trying to judge who to save, Station 6 (Nap Shelter) is people's mental states of wanting a normal rest at home instead of dealing with ts (aka denial), Station 4 (Conscience Market) is when the people start prioritising survival but also when they lose their conscience for others (bargaining literally), Station 2 (Body Casino) is when people hit depression mode and start to fully giving up so they start indulging towards self destruction, and Station 1 (Forest Path of Death) is full on active self destruction...

Lowk funny that therapy is what breaks the cycle officially too. Acceptance... Sigh, Director Ho​ ​fucking gave us all depression instead.

So yeah it's really apparent in hindsight now how much the Segwang Disaster Day​ itself has contaminated the Subways Stations.

Also: Kim​ Soleum's Journey

The beginning -> Kim Soleum entering the disaster through the first station

Kim​ Soleum moving for the end of the Disaster, but instead meeting his beginning in the Cocoon. His origin.

I have so many words for how much of a Cycle and theme of beginning and end is fitted into Soleum's Journey here in the Disaster but I have too much rambles to even type out readable words lmao... Not even including how much Director Ho​ is fitted into the beginning and end cycle too but:

It's so fitting that the two main victims of this disaster, Director Ho​ who got lied to by everyone, and Kim Soleum who got brought against his will and unconsciously caused the disaster due to insanity; that they are both each other's beginnings and end; both UNKNOWINGLY being the cause and end of each other's suffering in the timeline of the Segwang Disaster. Ho​ Yuwon whose fox beads was needed for the NAME Summoning experiment to succeed (Kim Soleum's beginning & start of his suffering) but also being the one to help Kim Soleum end the disaster. Kim Soleum being Director Hos beginning who wanted to find the client that escaped to a different timeline and the starting origin of the Segwang Disaster that ruined him, while also being his fucking closure and way to end the disaster (by helping the Segwang victims into the counseling room).

My HoSoleum stocks... Funnily enough I was already on board when they were toxic to each other because I'm a sucker for ragebaiter x ragebaiter dynamics but holy fuck I am not complaining about the plot twist.

Additional Notes

There's also a lot of connecting symbolism that I'd like to identify (?)

1. The Disaster Day​ is on May 4th while the day after is Children's Day​on May 5th, aka 05/05.

-> Number symbolisms have shown up a lot in GSGW, with the whole 130666 thing (seriously all the unlucky numbers); number 7 with the 7 subway stations = 7 being the divine number of perfection or completion where it can also represent cycles (like the symbol of infinity 8) with the 7 days of a week thing (which would also fit the context of time of the day names) and I'm rambling yikes let's move on

-> so 05/05 can be a representation of the number 5, aka the angel number representing freedom and changes! Which fits the new beginnings and tomorrow theme of the train escape. The divine number 555 also symbolize change and biblically means stripping away the old & divine intervention (will Soleum ever beat the ireum-nim implications?)

2. There's an emphasis on protecting kids or celebrating them in darknesses connected to this Segwang Disaster: In the Dark Shadow (Segwang School) was a distress call for help by the agents to at least save the children; the Blue Dragon team are connected to our theme park Blue Dragon who has a very apparent kindness towards good children; AND the blue dragon being connected to the Mermaid palace whose last survivors are literally the children again too (+ both the core culprit of the mermaid palace and Segwang city being the Angels Sigh), etc

-> it's probably moreso that darknesses or anything connected to the Blue Dragon would protect the children above all else but it is ironic how the Segwang Disaster has all these connections when its stuck on the day before Children's Day.

[vampyre-atthestake]

GSGW Chapter 362 Spoilers

[Prediction] Why I don't think the novel is ending anytime soon:

Okay so it's probably nearing the end of Book 2 for the novel (that or we go through one more arc with Cheong Dallae before wrapping up), but there's still too many questions left unanswered for there to not be at least 2 more continuing books. Like, Daydream still has Cheong Dallae and the branch office secrets with the Newbie Orientation Announcer or the hooved special security officer warning Soleum from investigating; the Bureau still has the higher ups covering the Segwang City catastrophe; and we've barely even scratched the surface of the Nameless Cult or the countless questions about NAME now that we know "the world without ghost stories" with the DER contributors = "Name" thing, actually came after the existence of the world with ghost stories.

But it feels like it's nearing its end because Kim Soleum is planning on making the og children's paradise syrup instead of the degraded wish potion this time right? Surely something more powerful will actually be omnipotent enough to finally send him back fr right?

..... So here's my prediction: Kim Soleum can't go back to his og world because that og world's fundamental rule is "a world without ghost stories"

And Kim Soleum... has become an identity intricately tied to ghost stories. Like Kim Soleum himself realized, all the contaminated forms of his and the ghost stories he's become are all Him. The main host of the Segwang Disaster ghost story is Him. The Golden Flower Mascot ghost story is Him.

So, what happens if Kim Soleum, an identity intricately tied to ghost stories now, attempts to go to a world where ghost stories should not exist?

1. The "world without ghost stories" wish by the Cheerful Research Institute was tampered with by Cheong Dallae to be "a world without ghost stories except me" the 'me' being the Kim Soleum who first got summoned but became a victim hosting the Segwang disaster; so perhaps there's a chance Kim Soleum can exist in his og world as the only ghost story left? Maybe existing as the DER text itself?

2. The reason the "world without ghost stories" came to existence is because the Cheerful Research Institute summoned "a being from a world without ghost stories" thus making it so there that there has to be a "world without ghost stories" in the first place for the wish to succeed. Does that mean the "world without ghost stories" is essentially powered by Kim Soleum's existence in the ghost story world? So what happens if Kim Soleum's existence is no longer in the ghost story world; would the world without ghost stories just cease to exist so Kim Soleum has to physically stay in the ghost story world for his friends and family to still exist? Basically Kim​ Soleum is the egg, he is the world without ghost stories. It would fit with all the egg motifs he's been born in...

3. Or: He can't go back. Not without clashing with the fundamental rule of his og world or cutting off the parts of himself that makes up the ghost stories (which we already know is a bad idea due to the fact that their all still him)

He realized...​ That he's changed too much for his home to still recognize him as one of its own and that while he CAN use the paradise syrup to force himself back into that world, his very existence will contradict the rule of "a world without ghost stories" and maybe the world itself would fall apart.

And here's another point: Agent Choi helped Kim Soleum realize he's not exactly a "being summoned from another world" but a being whose spirit got summoned and birthed into the ghost story world, an actual resident now. A ghost story world resident.

...... Oh my god I really hope this isn't true 😭😭 hopefully all of this is entirely wrong and there's still a way for Soleum to go back, I don't even care if it's a deux ex machina, just please let him get a break 😭😭😭

[vampyre-atthestake]

GSGW Spoiler for Chapter 362

The real horror of Cheong Dallae is that she forces you to go to work still, despite you just having had multiple mental breakdowns after another and had yet to even process them.

Like ending a catastrophe disaster? Okay that's our boy Kim Soleum, ofc he's that amazing!

Cheong Dallae appearing in the fucking sky like your boss calling you to make you go to work despite being on leave? Pure Nightmare Fuel.

Let Kim Soleum quit already bro 😭😭

[vampyre-atthestake]

GSGW Spoiler for Chapter 362

Can't even get therapy for the emotional damage I suffered from for these recent chapters because the concept of therapy is the thing at fault for my grief in the first place 😂✌️

Like, I can't even get comforting purrs from my cat as copium too because my mind will go cat > golden mascot > gsgw chapter 361-362 because golden mascot makes a huge cool cameo previously. And then I'd start crying again. Save me.

Might as well just lock myself up in a mental asylum- but oh wait! I'm then reminded of 130666's confinement days because of the similar theme of confinement and then I'd lose my mind again. All roads lead to Soleum, there is no escape from this mental torment, hahhahahahaahahhahahahhaaha!!!