#like I said I have a lot of thoughts akdndjendj

[yersina]

For your s class asks, au where Yoojin used to pet sit for his neighbours pets for some extra cash whenever he doesn’t have a job to do. When he awakens, he ended up with an animal taming ability, making him a legit monster tamer (would be funny if it worked with high ranked monsters as well)

When Yoojin sees the terrifying, pterodactyl-like monster heading for his boss’s van, he doesn’t stop to think. Without a single thought in his head other than desperate panic and an overwhelming desire for Lee Soojin and Im Namgi to stay alive, he whistles sharply, the way he does when he’s first starting to train a dog, and shouts, “Stop!” with as much confidence and sternness as he can muster.

Later, he’ll clutch his head and wonder why the fuck he thought this would work, because under any normal circumstances it shouldn’t have. The monster should’ve devoured them both. Yoojin should’ve died with them. But he stands there now, hands shaking with adrenaline and throat still aching with his yell, and watches the monster pause and turn around with a combination of terror and relief.

“B… back away from them,” he adds, since the monster doesn’t seem like it’s on the offensive anymore, and to his utter shock, it does. It climbs off of the car, ignoring the startled yelps of the people within, and instead walks towards Yoojin. “Oh, fuck.”

It slowly creeps forward, using claws on its wings and its short hind legs to unsettlingly and jerkily crawl along the ground, until its giant, sharp beak that was until only a second ago poised to dive into his boss’s car is only an arms-length away. At this distance, Yoojin can see its dark eyes, clear and focused on Yoojin, and how its head is covered in short, iridescent black feathers that almost look like scales. It’d be beautiful, if not for the needle-sharp teeth that poke out of its beak.

“What,” he croaks quietly, not daring to move. There’s a lesson about scaring away wildlife blaring in the back of his brain, but none of them hold a candle to the reality of being stared at by a creature that could undoubtedly kill him with half a thought.

It makes a strange noise in its throat, something between a chirp, click, and purr. It sounds… friendly, bizarrely enough, and the creature doesn’t look like it’s about to rip his head from his shoulders, but Yoojin doesn’t trust that for a single second. He doesn’t dare move.

The moment—if it could even be called a moment, rather than a pause before the creature could eat Yoojin for interrupting its previous meal—is shattered by the ear-piercing cry of another pterodactyl creature. His eyes instinctively go for the new threat, which is flying towards them with single-minded focus, before he remembers that he shouldn’t take his eyes off the thing that could kill him right now.

Instead of having a chunk taken out of him like he expects, though, the creature in front of him whips its head around and lets out one of those same ear-piercing cries and lunges for the other creature. Yoojin has to raise an arm against the dust and gravel that’s inadvertently flung into his face, but when he squints his eyes open again, the first flying creature has already tackled the second one full force and is obviously trying to gouge it in two.

Are they fighting over who gets to eat us…? Yoojin spends a moment staring in disbelief, before he remembers Lee Soojin and Im Namgi all at once and sprints towards the overturned van.

“Boss!” he yells, and is overwhelmingly thankful for the way Lee Soojin immediately pops her head out of the window and waves that she’s okay. “Do you need help?”

“I think we’ll be okay as long as nothing else comes at us!” True to word, she begins hauling herself out of the window and turns to grab her husband as soon as she’s free. Yoojin hurries over to help them both down, and they all duck for cover as soon as they can get their bearings.

“What do you think those are?” Im Namgi asks shakily, looking out at the scene of destruction laid before them through the window of the bank they’re taking cover in. There are other people in here too, but most of them are huddled as far from the windows as they can, apart from the security guard who’d let them through the doors. “They’re not like any animals I’ve ever seen.”

“They look like dinosaurs,” Yoojin offers, “but that doesn’t make sense either.”

“Who cares what they are,” Lee Soojin groans, sliding down the wall and staring up at the ceiling in despair. “They’re still wreaking havoc either way.”

Yoojin turns to join her, but a flash of blue in the corner of his eye catches his attention first. It’s a glowing blue screen hovering in the air, reminiscent of a game window.

[The Awakening of Han Yoojin has been registered.]

Once Yoojin reads that window, another pops up.

[Awakened Han Yoojin

Level 1

Stamina: 6 | Strength: 4 | Agility: 5 | Spirit: 4 | Mana: 2

Titles — Caregiver (S), Monster Tamer (A)

Caregiver additional skills…

Monster Tamer additional skills…

Skills

Strength Up (E): Strength of the target + 5% (Immediate effect, similar and/or identical skills cannot overlap), duration 30 minutes

Agility Up (E): Agility of target + 5% (Immediate effect, similarity and/or identical skills cannot overlap), duration 30 minutes]

Yoojin has to sit down.

“Hey,” he says to Lee Soojin once he’s taken a deep breath. “Is there anything strange in the air right now?”

She raises a sardonic eyebrow. “You mean other than the dinosaur creatures?”

“No, inside the bank.”

She gives him a concerned look, but she gamely gives the entire bank a passing glance. By the time her eyes settled back on Yoojin, she should’ve seen the window. “There’s nothing out of the ordinary here. Yoojin-ah, are you okay?”

“Other than the dinosaur creatures?” he jokes weakly and earns himself a snort. “I’m fine.”

So he’s the only one who can see the windows. He settles back against the wall and takes another look at… whatever the windows are supposed to be. As he scrolls through the information, careful not to be too obvious about his movements, he’s overwhelmingly reminded of video games and fantasy stories. Except—

Except.

This is real life. If his concentration wavers even a little, the screams of people outside are all too audible. There’s the sound of crunching glass, the shriek of metal, the frantic pounding of feet. This is not a video game, and yet somehow Yoojin is a player.

What is happening?

“Oh my god,” someone whimpers from across the room. “There—it’s here. Why is it looking at us? The rest of them have ignored the insides of buildings.”

Yoojin scrambles back from where his back was pressed against the front-facing wall, followed closely by Lee Soojin and Im Namgi and anyone else who’d taken shelter at the entrance. Right there, crouched over the space Yoojin had just been sitting, is one of the feathery flying monsters, peering intently through the glass.

“It’s not attacking us,” someone else whispers. “Maybe if we all stay quiet and still, it’ll go away?”

The creature doesn’t move, and neither does anyone else in the room. Yoojin’s eyes catch on a series of scratches down the creature’s flank, like something had turned a set of sharp claws against it. Like… like another one of those flying creatures.

[Current targets: Agile Devil Pterosaur (C-Rank)], the blue window had said when he’d clicked on the monster tamer title. Maybe that would explain why the first dinosaur that had attacked them had turned on its own kind? Maybe it was something Yoojin did? Is this what the taming skill does?

Without thinking, Yoojin takes a step forward and has his wrist caught by Lee Soojin before he can move any farther. “What are you doing?!” she hisses, eyes wide in fear. “Stay here!”

“I think it’ll be okay,” he reassures, and curses himself for the hesitation that’s audible in his voice. “I… I think it’s here for me.”

“What does that mean?” she demands. Yoojin tugs on her grip until she lets him go, and she curses. “Yoojin, you’re not allowed to sacrifice yourself for us or whatever harebrained scheme you’ve got cooked up! It’ll just come after us next!”

Yoojin breathes out a laugh. “Don’t worry, I don’t think that’s what will happen.” And then, before he meets any other resistance, he strides to the door and slips outside.

It’s loud. Much louder than what he was able to hear inside the bank, and he’d barely been able to ignore it while he was in there. There’s a flying dinosaur creature perched on a car not far from where he’s standing, too far for it to notice him stepping outside but easily within swooping distance. He gulps.

The flying creature—Agile Devil Pterosaur, or whatever it’s called—stays shockingly docile as he closes the door behind him and they both size each other up. It cocks its head when Yoojin fails to do anything other than stare at it, and lets out one of those clicky chirp-purrs.

“Hi.” Yoojin’s voice cracks in the middle of the word and he has to cough awkwardly. “You… Do you understand me?” It clicks its teeth together at that, which would be encouraging if it weren’t so threatening. “Right…”

As if sensing his hesitation, the pterosaur slowly bows forward until it fits the tip of its beak under Yoojin’s hand. This time, the purr is more pronounced, and in combination with the gesture and the way Yoojin can spot its tail wagging slowly back and forth, he has a fairly good idea of what it means.

Oh god, he thinks faintly, I have a pet dinosaur?

“Okay,” he says, because there’s no amount of time in the world that would allow him to process all of this. “Okay.” Just—just pretend that it’s a dog. It’s a huge, feathery, murderous dog. Oh god.

The ground rumbles alarmingly, and Yoojin is forced to throw his arms forward for balance, inadvertently caught by the hulking form of the pterosaur. Further down the street, what looks to be a gigantic tree has split the road in two, cracking the pavement and throwing the sea of abandoned cars into disarray. When he looks more closely, there are people struggling in the branches, temporarily out of reach from the swarm of pterosaurs around the tree’s base but soon to be in danger once they figure it out.

Yoojin looks consideringly at his—his tamed monster? His pet? It looks back at him patiently, feathered tail snaking back and forth, and Yoojin makes a decision. “Let’s do this.”

He whistles, and the pterosaur visibly straightens to attention. “Let’s start by rescuing those people, okay?” He points at the people still clinging to the branches of the tree desperately. “Bring them back here when you’re done. Be gentle!”

The pterosaur lets out a shrill cry and takes off in the direction of the tree. Yoojin takes a moment to scan the street, looking for others that could use help. He doesn’t know what his stats mean, but until he can figure it out, he’ll be treating himself as the same squishy human he’s always been.

There’s a man to his right who’s punching the creatures with a speed and strength that can’t possibly be human, fist glowing red when he pauses to take a rest. There’s a teenager further down the street who weaves impossibly fast between the mess of wreckage around them, light and graceful on her feet as she escorts people to safety.

That’s who I can be, Yoojin thinks determinedly, and squares his shoulder as he spots the first two rescues dangling in the feet of his pterosaur, winging towards him slowly.

Come on, Han Yoojin. Let’s help people.

#robins-on-lea #sina writes #sctir #s classes that i raised #fanfiction #tamer au #hi I have so many thoughts abt this au #my brain completely hijacked this concept after I started writing #i think the monster taming skill/title is canon? i think yj mentions that there aren’t enough high rank tamers pre-reg iirc #which is why the caregiving title + skills are so valuable in comparison #but naturally yj makes it his mission to level it up as much as possible ((to keep up w yh shhh)) #speaking of yh #i think in this au yj and yh actually get along for much longer than canon pre-reg #but yj stays in dungeon break cleanup efforts bc he feels like that’s where he’ll be most useful #esp before organized dungeon clearing efforts become a thing #and he’s horrifically squishy if there isn’t anything protecting him #so yh is just constantly terrified that smth will go wrong and he doesn’t really trust any of yj’s tamed monsters #and yj interprets his hostility and reluctance as disapproval of what he’s choosing to do (instead of like clearing dungeons or smth) #so it’s more of an ideological split. maybe. #like I said I have a lot of thoughts akdndjendj #also yj names the pterosaur to be 공룡이 (공룡 = dinosaur) bc in this house we stan yj’s awful naming ability