even though her hiatus is nearly coming to an end, it doesnât change the fact that hyelim is still bored. sheâs marathonâed through enough anime series and finished enough manga series to fall into a coma caused by media overdose, wondering just how people manage to waste away hours of their day doing this over doing their actual work. she prefers the solid feeling of her pen in his fingers, the solace from watching ink turn curved lines to characters going through tragic moments in her chapters.
maybe if she hadnât gone through that whole ordeal with the hanged man, she would have missed fighting monsters in her magical form too, wrapping them in her whip swords until they explode into bright sparks and foreign guts. but really, the only thing she misses about the magical world are her rookies-- who are probably even more traumatized and afraid from the event as she is right now, still recovering both physically and mentally.
but still, she finds a way to occupy her time in something else-- online games. mmorpgs have long been a thing for her for who knows how long-- especially the cutesy anime ones that have extensive character customization and flashy skill sets. she can never find enough time to sit down and go through hours and hours of questing due to her job-- but now that sheâs taking a hiatus, she has all the time she needs.
and sheâd been having fun... if not for the fact that this obnoxious male avatar keeps pkâing her.Â
perhaps it is her fault for creating a character in a pvp server, but she hadnât realized there was a choice to join a pvp-free server until she was fifty levels in, too far into the game to create a new character and start all over. most of the time, other people would leave her alone-- more occupied in doing their own quests and grinding, finding no fun in killing other characters.
so she grits her teeth when her character dies for the nth time trying to fight back against her random assailant, already angrily opening up the chat box and sending the idiot a private message.
[Cascader] hey can you stop for once im just trying to play in peace?????
instead of the tender kiss of the sun seungyeon is huddled in the conveniently well-conditioned corner of the book store. while it wasnât uncommon for customers to come and stop by to find some relief from the rising temperatures most opted for a cafe or restaurant, which left the store empty as the afternoon continues to drag on lazily. but she doesnât complain, rather she enjoys sitting behind the counter and being left to herself. fingers working on folding a small piece of paper as she makes another paper crane.
âshe rises her head immediately upon the sound of the front bell ringing, signaling someone swinging open the door. she peers over the register to see itâs not her co-worker, who (conveniently) decided not to call-in today, but a customer. probably someone to avoid the heat, she assumes.Â
normally she would stay rooted in her position and move when she notices someone with a quizzical expression, but today she decides to leave the counter in her quest to seek some form of entertainment. the card had always found interest in people watching, and for the time being the woman that walks through would be under her watch.. which she tries not to make obvious.
she lifts the heels of her feet, balancing on her toes as her fingers curl onto the shelf on the other side of the customer. she tries to catch the name of the book the woman picks out, leaning a tad bit too close and accidentally causing a group of books to fall. her surprise comes in two soft, very nonchalant words:
itâs hard to look at things in a brighter perspective now. all hyelim can see when she stares back into her bathroom mirror is a broken woman whose childhood dreams were crushed by reality, accessorized with a eyepatch thatâs an exact replica of ciel phantomhiveâs (a gift from sunggyu) covering her right eye as if it made the situation any better. itâs a pain, not being able to draw or even fight monsters in this condition-- instead waiting at home and apologizing to her assistants for leaving them unpaid for the month.
she can only imagine how her rankings will plummet after she gets off her hiatus.Â
but itâs no good to sit at home and sulk, and the least she can do is go out to buy groceries for the week and other goodies she can spare with the money she has. so she steps into a bookstore in search for any new volumes of manga she hasnât read yet, an armful of groceries still on her person.
sheâs just about to pick up the newest volume of magical girl apocalypse until the crash of books fluttering to the floor catches her attention. she turns to come across a young woman, her single visible eye wide and surprised at the sudden encounter. ah, an employee. so she had tipped them over.Â
but sheâs not angry nor is she annoyed. instead, she greets her with a weak smile and sets down her bags to crouch down and help her pick them up. âhere, let me get them for you,â she offers, knowing fully well that being a retail worker is bad enough. âkind of clumsy there, arenât you? itâs okay. it happens to the best of us.â even when sheâs down in spirits, she wonât reject helping another person-- even if itâs in just the smallest things.
nightmare:Â iâll write my character having a nightmare about yours, or vice versa.
as the leader of rookies, hyelim is expected to be one of the most impressive heroes in the league among the other leaders, presidents, and special class heroes. by now, sheâs perfectly mastered the twin whip swords she gracefully wields in every mission-- never needing any other physical weapons besides the magical powers embedded within every blade, ready to be called out through a simple command.Â
sheâs brought down every single monster and familiar with her powers, her agility, and her precision-- but this one seems to be the most challenging to her, by far. a familiar-- born from the broken dreams and hopes of a likely young magical girl-- from her despair over seeing all of her friends die. a typical reason for young magical heroes turned familiars.
but it seems like this familiar has seen too many casualties that her mind had fallen apart, having let herself die in the hands of monsters like her friends had been-- transforming into a gruesome being littered in the faces and faint voices of her friends-- nearly indistinguishable. itâs enough power to blow hyelim back, and she can barely stop herself from getting blown away, her shows scraping with a loud screech against the ground, her whip swords digging into the floor to stop her body from being affected by too much recoil.
shit. if only a few more heroes had been here to fight with her. this is no easy feat for a magical hero, even for one of hyelimâs caliber. but she knows there is no saving this familiar-- after all, not much is known on how to reverse the drastic effects-- and all hyelim can do is fight it off until she can finally, finally kill her off for good and take her out of her mercy.
but perseverance and her hard efforts arenât enough. the familiar is too powerful, too overwhelming for only hyelim to handle. another negatively black beam hits hyelim hard enough to blow her so far back to the point that she cries out from her leg twisting in the process of her landing. she can barely get up, littered in bruises and cuts, struggling to even sit up with a now temporarily crippled leg. her regenerative powers arenât fast enough to heal it-- and before she knew it, she looks up to find the familiar preparing a more powerful beam-- the very tip shifting into something akin to a sharp drill, the loud whirring immediately bringing hyelim into anxiety.
but thereâs nothing she can do. all she can do is accept that sheâll be impaled, killed-- becoming the very thing she had been fighting. so she takes a deep breath, closes her eyes, and braces herself for the worst.
but then the whirring stops, replaced by a choked, pained sound-- a familiar voice calling for her name.
jiyeon?
she opens her eyes to see her, her only love of her life, crumpling onto the ground all bloodied with an evident hole through her body where the drill had ran through. her single eye widens, her pupil actually shaking, tearing up. she scrambles to reach her body, struggling to sit her up and take her in.
jiyeon is only letting out ragged breaths at this point, donned in what hyelim can only know to be a magical outfit-- confirming that she too is a magical girl. and she never even told her.Â
or had aku lured her in, persuading her that she can ensure hyelimâs survival if she used the magical powers she would receive in exchange for a contract?
fuck--
âh--hyelim?â
âiâm here-- iâm here, kei--â she can only talk in panicked words, rushing and stumbling over them. the wound is ugly on a beautiful girl like jiyeon; a perfectly round hole with nothing but sinew, blood, and flesh right through her lower abdomen-- obviously having went through one of her vital organs.
she wonât live through this.Â
âi was too late-- i-i couldnât use your powers to save you-- i c-couldnât kill it--â jiyeon whimpers out, shutting her eyes so tightly that itâs as if sheâs squeezing hyelimâs heart along with it.
âshh-- sh--shh-- jiyeon-ah, donât talk--â hyelim tries to beg out of her, hugging her close to her chest. âwhy did you do that for me? fuck, you shouldnât have done that for me-- why did you-- why had you--â
âi-i-- i was too weak to save you from-- from losing your eye-- i thought-- i wanted to protect you--â
âjiyeon...â
hyelim canât do anything. she doesnât have the powers nor the cards to heal jiyeon more rapidly-- and all she can do is hold onto her hand tightly, hold onto everything of her tightly, trying to press her hand against the wound to keep it from bleeding out more. but itâs not enough-- itâll never be enough-- only enough for jiyeon to finally scream out in sheer pain, letting her soul be engulfed by darkness before her body can finally decease, her soul rapidly leaving its shell to transform into a familiar.
hyelimâs eye is shaking, watery, and she canât bring her head up quick enough before she feels not one, but two familiars impede on her.
hyelim shoots up from her bed immediately, drenched in sweat and shaking all over. she takes a shaky breath, taking her surroundings in, turning to find kei looking up at her in concern-- occupying one side of the bed ever since she agreed to stay the night with her hours and hours ago.
it had only been a nightmare.
âunnie?â jiyeon whispers quietly, and all hyelim can do is surge down to hold the other girl tightly in her arms, taking in her warmth. âunnie, youâre all sweaty-- whatâs wrong? did you have a bad dream?â
âno, um, yeah, but--â she tightens her grip around her. âjust-- just let me hold you...â
game â iâll write a drabble of my character playing videogames with yours.
âno, no, no-- youâre supposed to use this button--â
hyelim makes an agonized noise the moment the card fumbles long enough to holster his gun for the zombie to catch up to him, watching as his character gets helplessly torn apart from the undead creature biting into his neck and ripping at the skin. she tries to catch up solo, but unfortunately enough, a horde of zombies were waiting for her to turn around the corner and pounce on her enticing flesh.
the words âgame overâ flash across the monitor in bloody red letters-- indicating that theyâll have to start all over from the most recent savepoint, which had been far from where they had been before they died.Â
she sets down her controller in defeat, turning over to daniel with a look of disbelief, eyebrows furrowed and his lips pursed downwards. âoi, is it because youâre a card that you donât know how to handle technology, or because your human form is so old that you physically canât?â
âwell, thatâs just rude. my formâs just in my late thirties--â
âold.â considerably old, in the eyes of a woman in her early twenties. she picks up the game controller again, brushing her hair away from her shoulder and blinking over to him. âso-- are you going to be better at this game this time?âÂ
âi-- can try, but--â
âif you die before i do, that means i get to capture you for myself~!â
the want to go home after all she has experienced after being pulled in by the portal is still strong. kei was one to always want to go lots of places. but considering the fact that she was at an expo, a gigantic chess game, a cavern, and now, a place that looks like an abandoned amusement park, she feels as if she was about ready to pass out due to exhaustion. she hasnât had this much excitement in ever. it was too much excitement for her to deal alone. well, technically she wasnât on her own. she had a bunch of other strangers experiencing the same things along with her.Â
though it didnât look exactly beautiful, this wasteland was still a place of relaxation for some after what everyone had gone through. the little amusement that was created didnât exactly have to look presentable. as long as it had working rides and no one gets severely injured on them, anyone could enjoy their time here. there still will be people whoâd have to fight the strange looking beast that came along with the gift of a land with rusty rides. but for people that needed a break, they wouldnât really have to worry about much⊠right?
due to the fact that kei had no amazing abilities that would classify her as an amazing hero and she had no weapon other than her purse and umbrella in it, she was basically defenseless. so she decides to spend some time with a good friend of hers on the ferris wheel. she tells herself to relax and not pay attention to anyoneâs battle with the beast. but instead of that, she worries about her injury.Â
with the fact that something happened to her right eye, kei wonders how she could admire both of her pretty eyes now. then again, at least there was one left. and it wasnât like kei liked hyelim because of her eye. she obviously liked her for more than that. but even so, something that serious looked extremely painful. âare you sure youâre alright?â she asks for the second time, concern written all over her face as she looks at the other. âthat looks really bad. you really should go to someone about it if we ever go back.âÂ
the need to go back home and settle in a warm blanket with some hot chocolate and a rerun of love live is even stronger within hyelim. this has all been too much, too overwhelming for a magical girl like hyelim. she has always grown up to know that being a magical girl is as lighthearted and heroic as it had looked in most magical girl anime, their only struggle being the safety of their friends and their loved ones. being a magical girl isnât supposed to be anything like puella magi madoka magica, an anomaly within the magical girl genre.
then again, itâs her fault for thinking that animeâs more realistic than reality itself. thatâs what caused her to lose an eye in the first place; her own childishness and foolishness, along with her naivety. but for now, sheâs done with fighting-- the loss of an eye and killing her biggest fear enough to drive her into her lowest levels of energy known to date-- preferring the company of her biggest crush over dealing with a monster that might take another one of her limbs.
sheâs seen too many magical heroes suffer back on that chessboard, watching blood and limbs fly everywhere, listening to the bloodcurdling screams of her dear rookies. but she has to stay stronger for kei. and she does.Â
âiâm fine.â the remnants of sunggyuâs sleeve that he had wrapped around her head had bled through already, and she has to fight every urge to touch it, not wanting to risk infection. âa lot of us have to go to the hospital after this is all done.â her smile gets weaker, just like her resolve to keep fighting in general. âa lot of the pain had gone away by now. donât worry about it too much, okay?â
the presence of kei is comforting to her, almost enveloping her like the warm blanket sheâs been craving for. sheâs relieved to find that the other girl isnât as bad in terms of physical conditions as the others sheâs seen. after all, keiâs the last person she wants to see getting extremely hurt-- she canât even bear with the idea. âhow about you?â she asks instead, leaning in towards her. âisnât... isnât this all really scary to you?â
manhwa was nothing more than a time pass for junhui, the card hardly having the time to catch up with their plots and twists before moving on to the next semi interesting looking comic.Â
but there was one manhwa that stood out in particular. the story of a girl just out of her teens turning into a magical girl and fighting against the forces of evil (ironic, no? a card, one of those said forces of âevilâ, reading about a girl slaying said forces of evil).Â
well at least junhui found it interesting. and it didnât help that the corner store that he worked at sold copies of the manhwa for very, very cheap.Â
but this newest episode of the manhwa really struck a chord with junhui and not necessarily in the best way. this episode featured a villain with a large hubris â so junhui essentially. instead of having the same sharp jawline and ski slope nose as the card of hubris, this manâs nose was, well, ugly â bent and twisted out of shape, âmuch like his natureâ, stated a footnote.Â
that was no justification for this level of injustice though, and after work, junhui decided to take matters into his own hands. somehow finding where she lived (thanks a lot, google), hubris scaled each step with petty revenge on his mind and a crumpled up manhwa in hand.Â
when he finally got to her door, he knocked, three knocks before stepping back and waiting for her to open up.
surely she would recognize him from the convenience store, right?
ânumber one in the weekly ranks again, unnie! thatâs so great!â
âi wish i could be as great of a manhwa artist as you.â
hyelim smiles in adoration at her assistants, watching them all pack up their things so they can take it easy the rest of the day and take a train home. âone day, youâll all be able to get your stuff published. make sure to bring any storyboards you have done so i can read them and give you feedback, alright?â she says, smiling wider at the immediate affirmations she gets in return. âotherwise, we can finish up the inking for this weekâs chapter tomorrow.â
after saying her genuine goodbyes, she decides to stack up the pages of the final draft that are already inked, organizing them in chronological order and thumbing through the pile to admire her assistantsâ work on the backgrounds and side characters.Â
she had already been contemplating on inking all of her stuff tonight before her assistants roll in the next morning so her editor can pick the final draft early before her ears catch the sudden knocking on her door. she turns in bewilderment, knowing itâs definitely not one of her assistants. they all know her passcode--
she steps over to catch a glimpse of the person on her door monitor, noticing that itâs the man who worked at the convenience store just a five minutesâ walk away down the street-- who she had come across in the midst of buying drinks for herself and her assistants. strange.
but she opens the door regardless, staring up at him in confusion. âum... hello?â she tilts her head, scratching the side of her neck. âdid i forget my wallet at the store or something?â
WOW uh-- looks like iâve been lacking in plots lately since a bunch of my plot buddies have been inactive. so like this if youâd like a random starter? or reply letting me know if youâd like your drabble meme to be a starter / plot with me!
seduce: iâll write my character trying to seduce yours or vice versa
time: a few years ago.
âhey.â
hyelim lifts her head at the sudden attention brought to her at a local bar, fatigued from her recent battle with a monster that had been ravaging a nearby street. she sets down the shot glass of soju that she had been toiling over and turns away to face the bartender, waving him down to order another bottle with an additional bottle of cola to compliment it. ânot in the mood for flirting.â
âthereâs never a wrong time for flirting, you know,â the stranger replies, sitting down in the stool beside her and gesturing for the bartender to make his own order. âiâm not like those shady guys who slip poison into a girlâs own poison.â
âno time for dates, stranger-ssi,â she says, carefully mixing a shot of soju and cola together. âiâm a busy woman with not much time on her hands nowadays.â
well. from the looks of it, this man doesnât look korean. in fact, maybe if she had better ears, she could detect the slight accent in his pronunciation. but heâs cute, good-looking-- hyelim will give him that. but the pent-up stress and exhaustion from newly becoming a magical girl just a few weeks ago doesnât give her much energy nor interest to talk back. (maybe she just canât get such interest in the first place.)
âeverybody has to take a break nowadays,â he says before downing a shot of soju himself, eyebrows raised as if heâs had soju for the first time in his life. âyou know-- iâm cute. youâre cute. whatever. all iâm saying is that maybe i can take all that stress out of you from all that-- busy work youâre doing.â
strange. itâs as if his smile is enough to gradually lure hyelim in despite how skeptical she is. like itâs enchanting but not enough to spark a new disney lovey-dovey fairy tale. maybe her feelings are simply lustful, at least enough to accept this strangerâs offer.
âiâm zitao, by the way,â he introduces himself.
âhyelim.â she searches his eyes for any suspicious activity. âand alright. iâll go with you.â
Sketching! (Pls draw him because Gyu may try, but heâs limited to macaroni art and stick figures)
itâs hard drawing with one eye. many people had said that it wouldnât be a problem when she had looked up the issue on naver, that you can still see plenty as if you had merely covered one eye with your hand. but thereâs still this dizzying feeling she gets whenever she tries to adjust with only one eye now, even though the pain from her severe wound had subsided already-- as if itâs still trying to adjust.
it leaves her antsy, being forced to go on hiatus after her editor had learned of her injury and forced her to according to the editor in chiefâs orders. it had been incredibly depressing to tell her assistants that they might need to find some temporary work with another series while theyâre gone for the month.
so it had been a surprise to find sunggyu coming over after he had also been discharged from the hospital, helping her relax and cope by playing video games with her and drawing together. well, kind of drawing. if you can count sunggyu snatching all of the boxes of macaroni out of her cabinets to glue them into barely distinguishable shapes on printer paper. she had been planning to use that macaroni to make tuna carbonara sometime this week, damn it.
âwhat are you, five?â she remarks, already sliding the macaroni art away from him. âbecause this sure looks like my best work back in kindergarten.â
âmacaroni art is a good, fun activity for children! it enhances their creative thinking skills.â sunggyu exclaims, trying to slide it back towards him. âthatâs why i do it with my rookies once a month.â
âwhat are your rookies, five?â
sunggyu gives that goddamn grandfather-like smile and nods over to her blank paper. âdraw me then. iâll just watch you.â
sheâs weary, knowing that sheâs been advised not to even pick up a dip pen-- but a pencil is far more inferior to the dip pen than anything else. so she reaches for one of her mechanical pencils, gives the elder another look, and goes right to sketching out his facial structures.
itâs as if sheâs unaware anyone else is in the room whenever she draws, even if itâs a casual affair such as this. sheâs lost in every line, every curve, every angle-- and before she knows it, she goes overboard, drawing sunggyu in significant detail for what seemed like half an hour until she lifts up the paper.Â
HOW TO PLAY ! send me one (or more) of the words below and iâll write the corresponding drabble for our muses! please be specific as to who should be doing the action, unless youâd rather leave it to me to decide. remember the rp karma: if you want to receive, then send!
staff note: whether weâll have more memes in the future or not is up to you guys now. make sure to send as many as possible, and that includes checking back after a day or two to see if we have any late rebloggers. if you hit ask limit, you can always use the submit function instead. do your best to make everyone feel included! if we get more complaints of muses feeling left out because of memes, we might decide to forbid them for the foreseeably future. we really love memes, though, so please donât make us do that!
p.s make sure not to send meme prompts to the main!
her nose wrinkles at those two very words. âno way,â hyelim blatantly states, making an x with her arms. âiâm a lesbian. what makes you think i get off from watching awkward japanese anime where dick tips are touching while the bottom is obviously so feminized to the point itâs borderline homophobic-- maybe even sexist. the proportions on every character are always inaccurate, as if the artists have never seen hands in their life.â she takes a deep breath before continuing on. âand harems are one of the most tasteless tropes in anime history. think about it. average-looking hotshot suddenly has a circle of cute girls who deserve better falling at his feet? utterly disrespectful. a joke to the anime industry.âÂ
Knowledgeâs eyes widened as he leaned away from the blades close to her neck. âHyelim⊠Thatâs heartbreaking. You want an artist to destroy his own work? Especially⊠Look itâs you as sailor moon! Like what you wanted for your childhood.â
Taking a few steps back, he smirked and nodded to her, completely unapologetic. Lowering his body, while moving towards her, he took her bag from the floor and moved it to her studio.
âJust admire it for a bit, we could take a wefie together, Iâd make some food for us.â He said, moving through her apartment almost as if she was the guest and he the resident.
âOnce weâre done with food, Iâd clean it up.â He chuckled, giving her a cheesy brow wiggle.
âyou do realize itâs my house, right?â hyelim says, lowering her weapons before transforming back into a human, tying the ribbons around her neck. âlisten, i donât even know how you got into my house-- but i was honestly hoping to settle down with some kimbap and a few episodes of love live.âÂ
but knowing the card of knowledge, he finds interest in things elsewhere. she eyes the painting damaging her wall again, admitting to herself that it really is a nice painting of herself, but she feels more envy than admiration, unable to make her works that much in depth.
she takes a sneaky photo of it anyway.Â
âi hope that card powers can put you to good use, siwon-ssi,â she warns. âi should have just captured you, just so you wouldnât bother anyone else like this.â
âlike... sailor... uniforms?â her eyes practically shine at that, imagining cute girls clad in blue and white school uniforms akin to those in typical shoujo anime. âoh-- oh gosh-- imagine how incredible itâd be to eat a girl out while sheâs in a short little sailor skirt--â look at what youâve done. sheâs far gone now, already sketching cute-looking girls (kei) in school uniforms (still just kei).
âWe can save money on gas if I do the weekâs shopping right now,â he says. He decides to toss both the teenage vitamins and avengers band-aids into the basket. Marvel products were always more pricey than the plain, beige band-aids. But, he likes treating his kids even when coupons donât always apply.
Sunggyu pulls out his wallet, where snippets of coupons and a rewards card were carefully organized. Heâs more frugal than his Auntie, and thatâs an accomplishment. âI think I have discounts for chips, pretzels â oh, a three for the price of one on overstock!â
He proudly waves the coupon in the air, as if it were some grand victory note.Â
âWhat do they want for drinks? We could buy them those Capri Sun packets â maybe some of that Hawaiian Punch juice. It has tons of sugar in it, but they can wash it down with something else later. Oh, and fruit! We need fresh fruit! I forgot about having a healthy selection.â
hyelim watches images of captain america flash before her eyes before the box lands right into the basket, her right eye almost twitching, unsure of whether the kids sunggyu was referring to were actual kids, siblings perhaps, or his rookies who were most likely twelve years old at the minimum. but at this point, she shouldnât bother to ask any more questions, not unless she wants him to ramble on the importance of omega-3 fatty acids.
âa full serving of hawaiian punch has the daily amount of vitamin c your body needs though,â she mutters under her breath, checking the nutritional facts on the back of a gallon-sized bottle. itâs unlike her character to care about whatâs healthy and whatâs not-- but sheâll do anything to get this grocery trip over with. âdo they even have fruit at a 7-11, ahjussi?âÂ
through her knowledge, the only thing sheâs aware about 7-11s is that theyâre notoriously known for their junk-laden shelves, a to-go stop to grab samgak kimbap, ramyun, and coffee milk for the days where she canât pause for even twenty minutes to munch on something substantial when thereâs a big deadline coming up that she has to meet.Â
â7-11 doesnât really have everything that we need...âÂ
âlike..... the ingredient or the type of sex?â she asks with the tilt of her head. âbecause i use vanilla scents all the time on myself, and i wouldnât mind smelling it on a girl iâm spending the night with-- but iâm not absolutely head over heels towards the idea.â she pauses, contemplating over the second possibility. âif you mean... the type of sex, well--â here comes the blush. âitâs... itâs my favorite kind of sex, but i can only do it if i have a girlfriend, you know?â
âmmmm, not a big fan of it! iâd like to be myself when iâm having sex, you know? and roleplaying sounds more like itâs something for fuck buddies or you and your partner. unless you mean-- the anime kind of roleplaying on public forums.â she twiddles her thumbs. âitâs really fun to write intricate threads as kyoko sakura, okay? donât knock it âtil you try it-- sheâs the best character to write a lesbian out of--â
