paces in a circle. following the story bit by bit is actually great for contemplating it. i know the splitting chapters into parts is a TL thing but pacing in circles after 120.1 and now reading 120.2. hooh.
like okay fucking call me the metanarrative guy but i've been contemplating the beginning of the story. kim soleum loves horror stories. he does. but he never says this. never outwardly expresses it. but he must.
because he keeps reading them.
he says he's terrified, and he is, but he keeps coming back for more. He even wrote some himself. He loves these stories, and he loves the Dark Records universe.
The nightmare high school is an amazing case study of this, actually, mirroring the story he wrote. And his story was about understanding the scenario through the eyes of the monster. That the monster is hunted, too, that it's scared, too. He mentions that people left lore hints in the previous records of this Darkness, but he was the one to tie them all together into a narrative.
all the Darknesses are like escape rooms because what he loves about these stories is trying to figure out what makes them tick. he wants to know their rules. how to survive them. it's a very specific sort of interest in horror that can only really apply to something like SCP because there need to be rules like this for a collaborative universe.
And he extends a lot of empathy to the monsters as well, re: the story he wrote, seeing through their eyes. But there's other things, like pressing the button for his double in the elevator. Like endulging the blue dragon mascots that want to play with him. A lot of it is politeness born of terror but it is politeness nonetheless. He's trying to see their point and purpose.
Assimilation. A dangerous tactic.
There's this running thread of them trying to draw him in. Keep him in this world. And yes the most obvious example of that is Braun right now of course questioning whether Kim Soleum wants to go home in the first place. But there's also the blue dragon mascots and the cabin's contract and those tattoos. There is a Repeating Pattern of him delving into the stories just a little bit too far and strungling not to survive them but to untangle himself from them. Most evident in his friendship with Braun. And also everything else.
And I think about how the entire story starts. With Kim Soleum getting a funny little fake ID badge for Daydream Inc. and he is so deeply embarrassed about it. He is so deeply embarrassed to be at the pop-up store to begin with, to be seen indulging when he is a grown man with a job. This is teen stuff. He's not supposed to be here. Not supposed to be in this story.
But he's still here. Why? Because he loves this world. Loves the community behind it. Loves these stories.
Something abt sincerity I dunno man. It's a pattern. The entire world of Dark Exploration Records has drawn him in and refuses to let go because he loves it beyond the horror and sees so much more in every facet of it. There's something to be said about looking beyond the surface of a story and trying to gauge its intent and its message and its rules, and I'm thinking about the train to Tamra, and how it's a cesspit of misery and endless torture yet he still draws a purpose out of it from the bits and bobs whatever original author of it laid out.
He just meets every story where it's standing. A man after my own heart, really. Of course the stories don't want to let him go. Of course they love him back.
Spoilers for Chap. 127 and Divorce arc (to whom it may concern)
Mentally I'm still at Soleum saying "And when that happens, you'll get bored of me fast..." Like wow... okay character reader!!
As a reader I was gagged, but to imagine Braun?
Braun must've been so surprised, cuz not once in his immortal life he has stopped to ever think of getting bored by Kim Soleum. Afterall, all these times his performance has been nothing but immaculate. If anything he felt offended Soleum would ever think of him that way, but he didn't say anything immediately. He stopped to reflect on it. Is it true that he'll ever get bored of Kim Soleum? And to think that he has a deal of thinngs going that way nonetheless? Braun must've hated the fact that he internally agreed to it--Soleum was spot on. And he tried so hard to brush the thought aside.
But in the end he can't, cuz that's just how he is. A great host with heart and passion for entertainment, the moment he deemed something is boring the faster he wants to get rid of it. But he doesn't want to get rid of Kim Soleum, he genuinely thought this is good for Kim Soleum too, deep down. Because despite being contaminated Soleum looked happy, less tired and fulfilled. He thought Soleum is made for stage, for entertaining, for audience. Afterall he has the talent and eyes for it.
And then Soleum breaking his train of thought with "So I have to go back, it'll be much fun for you this way too..."
Oh, so you (Soleum) ALSO doesn't want your friend to get bored of you, huh? Oh my god, Show bussiness. I want to put both of them in a jar and shake them to oblivion. This is madness. Madness I say. And then Braun emitting strange gleam from his screen. Happiness... you can just say happiness auhtor. That's what it is.
GSGW would be such a funny setting for an otome game.
Like consider that the major characters that KSE meets are love interests in the game and If they fall in love with you, you get their various endings which in turn have their own endings.
Imagine KSE isekais into the Otome!GSGW world and is constantly freaking out about a character falling in love with him and potentially getting the bad endings with those characters. He’d be internally screaming about monsters and ghosts stories while also crying about how he doesn’t want to get involved with the characters in any kind of romantic way.
Kim Soleum during this probably:
It makes it even funnier if he doesn’t realize that ghost stories themselves can be love interests as well. Like maybe there weren’t any records of monsters falling in love with humans or something since they’re too busy killing them, idk just a fun thought if he’s oblivious to the thought nonhuman wanting a piece of him too, sometimes literally…
KSE: I just need to make sure I’m unlovable and super unappealing!
Proceeds to save and make everyone fall in love with him even if he technically screws them over.
KSE: no one will like me now! It’s a perfect idea!
The ending of this would either be really funny or really tragic. I’m not too picky. Funny would entail a lot of shenanigans like the love interests following KSE back to his world or him deciding to stay but still oblivious or awkward about his unofficial harem, most of whom hate each other. On the tragic end, he’d return and they all have to come to grips with no longer having the love of their lives with them anymore…
Damn…I just made myself sad…
Regardless, it’s be a fun idea to play around with. What do you guys think?
Also here’s the fanart that sparked this idea in me. Really great artist!
one thing really fun about gsw's gendered writing is that the men are all obsessed with kim soleum while the women are very normal about him.
but VERY importantly. they are not normal. every single woman is her own special little kind of freak. they just treat kim soleum specifically like a normal coworker.
Eun Haje? Risked her life to gain access to a torture potion. Jin Nasol? Needs to be convinced to not commit mass-murder at every oppurtunity. Cheong Dallae? Psychological warfare. Kang Yihak? Would believe the sky is green if you paid her to. Lee Seonghae? Kills her coworker and jeapordizes her entire mission because she hated his vibes, laughs and goes tehe ⭐ about dragging corpses through a gore parade. Agent Haegeum? Hardboiled godslayer.
Actually Go Youngeun is pretty normal. my theory is that its because she's the female lead in a toxic yuri webnovel secretly happening adjacent to Kim Soleum's horrible no-good very bad life
Rereading gsgw for Go Yeongeun has made me shamefully realize how much I trusted Kim Soleum's version of the story/how little I paid attention to the other characters. I share a lot of mental shortcuts and perspectives with Soleum that I just ended up speedrunning the webnovel and missed out on a lot of things! Like, I was not reading these things properly lol... Did I read it with my eyes closed? Might as well...
For example, I only remembered Yeongeun and Saheon beefing in MOTB because I found their whole goat off thing incredibly funny, and also the spider robot usher thing because I found the idea of it to be really cool. But I didn't realize Both BSH and KSE got mad at the R squad leader on her behalf, that they ended up hitting him at the same time, and so much that even BSH straight up offered to decapitate him (a very extreme reaction hinting that he might have experienced something like that too...). And she really appreciated them both for it... It's really sweet... I really like this trio.
It occurred to me then... How much I've been swayed by KSE's pov that I hadn't read more closely...
(i'm truly, honestly, utmost sincerely sorry but my brain suddenly went brrrrr and so i made this bad joke---- and then i remembered your ryuchoi meme about agent Choi eating glass so i'm just gonna quote your post and leave it here i hope you don't mind-- sorry again😭)
i am sincerely sorry for spamming in your TL.......................HOWEVER,
i'm gonna do this once again (srry)
made these so i'll hope you enjoy at least part of it.
the next ones are things from my head, so i'm not sure if they're funny. CW: probably some bad jokes and OOC idk
also the last one is based on my headcanon that agent Choi makes some funny/weird/etc typos from time to time and doesn't notice them immediately because he's typing really fast and doesn't bother with any proofreading (maybe this hc is just me self-projecting idk)
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