tyrantwombat

[tyrantwombat]

love that stw's biggest fans who love him sooooo much are also his biggest headaches. there's a 1:1 mapping there. past a certain amount of affection for this guy you become his problem

#sctir #I love this whole thing and agree with it wholeheartedly

[tyrantwombat]

and another rant i have built up over jinjae is their everything around food. the first instance i can remember is the courtesy chocolates SHJ brings HYJ after the Babar dungeon, when he's in the hospital (chapters 80/81), which he says is for HYJ due to the stress he must be feeling over HYH. and then immediately kills any goodwill in the very next sentence by going Wowww you're so useful and i'd love to acquire you etc etc. HYJ's not even the one who accepts them from SHJ, that's BYR, and later HYJ says he only eats them because he has nothing better to do (no other option than SHJ, huh...) and even then the Dokkaebi ends up eating half the box. gift that's barely accepted.

the next instance i can think of is post-human trafficking auction in chapter 127 where SHJ makes him eggs, but. well. literally as he's cooking they have this exchange:

(this got so fucking long i had to put it under a cut. takes your hand come with me on this journey)

[SHJ] “I’d like for you to stay unharmed until I grow bored. Mentally, I mean.” [HYJ] “And my body doesn’t matter?” [SHJ] “If your bulk decreases, you’ll be easier to carry around.”

so "i'm making food for you" but also "i don't care if your health deteriorates and/or you lose weight, as long as you're useful". an interesting combination of messages to send, given that HYJ's also struggling in this scene to figure out what SHJ wants from him, what with seemingly looking out for him and his loved ones by lending Sillekia to BYR for fighting HYH, but also still continuing with this "my item" shit and only looking at him for his usefulness. but this instance IS notable in that it's the first time SHJ cooks for HYJ. a slight turning point in their relationship...?

it does seem so cuz after that... HYJ becoming sick of orange- and apple-flavored mana potions because he chugs them so often, and SHJ responding to this in chapter 185 (birthday arc, before HYJ admitted he stole his memories) by acquiring swiss chocolate-flavored mana potions for him. already he's started with the little treats.

and then. sorry i'm feeling the 216 feelings. 1 minute. Okay normal. and then. yes once again it's chapter 216, when SHJ first starts making readably genuine attempts at kindness towards HYJ, starting the entire interaction by making him a drink that "looked like it was just juice, but it was actually sweet. Tasty." normal behavior from SHJ to rent out the entire rooftop pool and bar to show off his bartending skills to HYJ btw.

then the VR dungeon arc, where SHJ can't see HYJ until he installs the first disc, but the moment he does he starts being absolutely unbearable, the relevant part being when HYJ's reached Achates and is stressed out over HYH's treatment to the point of losing his appetite, at which point SHJ sends him the "Must Eat Well" quest to coax him into eating, rewarding him with chocolate-flavored mana potions, which HYJ himself admits remind him of SHJ:

‘But why are they chocolate-flavored?’ It made me think of that person. It had tasted good.

we're told in chapter 249 that SHJ needs to expend tremendous effort to give HYJ quest rewards and that whatever he gives usually gets cut down (he's talking about point conversions there but i suspect it applies to other rewards as well). so to specifically seek out two potions, especially ones he knows HYJ will prefer more than the common fruit-flavored ones... [puts on my large jinjae-shaped sunglasses like that shit they sell for new years]

and ok i jumped ahead to 249 for the rewards thing but come back to 245 with me and look at that series of cooking quests SHJ sent HYJ to guide him through cooking dinner for himself and HYH. copying over my discord messages from when this chapter dropped for this part of the analysis:

ALSO SPEAKING OF SHJ that chain of quests at the end. he is driving me crazy but yes the cooking quests. like. okay. I mentioned before [...] that I considered this a jinjae scene chapter because. the layers of it all right. he sees hyj wants to cook for his brother but can't decide what to make/how to make it cuz the decision paralysis is hitting after the longass day he's had. so he goes ahead and picks a meal and gives him step by step instructions. overly specific so hyj doesn't hit some dumb roadblock like "idk where the spatula is" and lose it for real. it took multiple quests to give the instructions it might've been easier to give him a prepared meal from whatever store he's picking these rewards from but he spent that time anyway because I'm pretty sure going through the process soothed hyj. normality after the Everything of it all. and then at the end of it because he Knows hyj is prone to not eating when he gets stressed he baits him into eating with rewards. like. Bro. Bro like. OUGH. he cares. he cares.... AND ALSO THAT LAST FUCKING QUEST "made with a spoonful of your partner's love" IS NOT SOMETHING THE SYSTEM WOULD SAY SHJ I KNOW YOURE LEANING INTO "OH NO THE SYSTEMS ALTERING MY MESSAGES DW" AND LETTING YOUR FEELINGS SHOW. YOUR PAPER THIN MASK overemotional over cooking. god. god and even after the cooking thing knowing that hyj would freak upon waking up and not seeing hyh and so keeping an eye on hyh and sending him a quest to tell him where he is.... like fuck dude. FUCK!

ok that's enough of that excerpt this is starting to derail from food analysis. wait hold on actually 249's point about the cost of sending quests and rewards makes the cooking quest series even more impactful because how much did SHJ spend to go to that level of detail and care for HYJ!!!

anyway back to food analysis. 256 where HYJ dies to the inscription process and SHJ purposely serves him bitter tea and sweet cookies to point out that he shouldn't take rewards that come at great costs. SHJ you really love communicating things to people through food, huh? but the fact that the second he's understood SHJ takes away the bitter tea and replaces it with something less bitter and more savory. the fact that when the scout finds him, the last thing SHJ does, even after draping his coat over HYJ to protect him from the shards of falling sky, is refill his teacup. the fact that HYJ drinks it and thinks about how it's warm.

GOD!!! do you see my vision. do you see. SHJ and HYJ and cooking and eating as an act of caring. an act of love.

#sctir #YES THIS #and the food thing KEEPS COMING BACK #thinking of at least four-ish different events in the next like...40 chapters (or something like that) #it's so good though #and they're all REALLY interesting #also it's basically mentioned here but what I always think of with hyj's sweets thing is like #one of the first lies you probably tell a kid when you can't afford more than a small treat for them #or they only have a little and want to share it with you but you know they won't be getting something like it again anytime soon #might be something like: 'oh no thank you I don't like sweets. you enjoy it!' #hyj to hyh trying to encourage baby!hyh to eat his treats: 'oh I don't like sweets!' #and just...kept doing it #hyj probably started this as an 8-year-old or something #hyj being caretakered right back is my favorite thing in the novel #there's even a conversation soon in the translation (or already happened?) where SHJ's 'caretaking' impulse/vibe is talked about #in regards to people who just happen to be in his party at a given point in time not even people he really cares about #idk idk his narrative role next to hyj is just really fun and interesting #I'm not saying anything I'm just verbally jumping and down excitedly #that's what tags are for

[tyrantwombat]

sth about this dialogue really got me

#sctir #han yoohyun #han yoojin #I've been fumbling communicating my feelings about this whole plot and now I have an cat shoving her way into my lap to demand attention #I am typing with one hand and fighting for keyboard privileges and will definitely be losing them imminently #so I will just leave it at #😢

[tyrantwombat]

"Come to think of it, there was a time when I couldn't remember Sung Hyunjae's hair color."

!!!!!!!! THAT ACTUALLY MEANT SOMETHING?!

!!!!!!!!

#301-310 #reading sctir mtl i don't know what's happening #no it's actually a thing though!!!! #look let me have this #I'm going to be proud of myself

[tyrantwombat]

I don't know why I'm even surprised, it's not like this is news, but Yoojin being stared at with open and vicious hostility by someone who is probably the most dangerous person on the entire planet at the moment, and this fucking man is like "...it was kind of thrilling". He laughs.

"It was possible [Sung Hyunjae] had never looked at anyone like this before."

"Even with two other S-Class Hunters in the room, Sung Hyunjae still looked only at me."

#301-310 #reading sctir mtl i don't know what's happening #Totally Normal Guy Yoojin being a totally normal amount of absolutely fucking obsessed

[tyrantwombat]

"What I need right now is help, not protection. It's the same for Sung Hyunjae." ... Song Taewon gritted his teeth and reluctantly nodded.

OHHHHHHH HE DID IT.

I'm having feelings similar to the birthday scene where Han Yoojin and Sung Hyunjae person-ed each other, don't mind me.

#301-310 #reading sctir mtl i don't know what's happening #look it's not that yoojin hasn't roped song taewon into helping him out instead of herding him away in the past #it's just that he's never flat out said it like this or made song taewon agree #this is a big deal! #he usually just manipulates him into it by making a big show about how it's the only way song taewon can REALLY protect him #letting song taewon assist without having to confront the major upset to the worldview his sanity is clinging to by a thread #and letting han yoojin maintain that shield he's got of 'i'm just a lil guy' #but that shit just got CUT #I don't know I may be reading too much into this but it hit me the same way as the shj/hyj relationship development so #I am clinging to it until proven otherwise

[tyrantwombat]

ah yes the popular korean onomatopoeia of lol moomoo.

#reading sctir mtl i don't know what's happening #301-310 #I had to record this. for history. #mtl knocking it out of the park #in actuality it's more like “Kehk-! Guh. ...Ugh.” you know. choking sounds. #but I don't know I think this has a certain something

[tyrantwombat]

There is a lot happening right now, but the authorial decision to relay this to the reader by putting Song Taewon, Han Yoojin, and Sung Hyunjae alone in a room together had to have been The most chaotic way to go about it.

Case and point: Song Taewon heard 'possibility of double suicide' and didn't think twice. Sung Hyunjae is lovingly feeding them personally baked goods while nearly actually vibrating with the desire to absolutely murder both of them. Han Yoojin - the man who walked into this building prepared to blow it up with a bomb as an expression of disgruntlement - is currently the acting voice of reason as he desperately tries to referee this shit with a gun.

Some highlights:

SHJ: I'm still trying to decide if I should kill you.

HYJ: *oh free juice!* Officer Song, sit down please, he said he's still thinking about it.

---

STW&SHJ: *very literary showdown scene, very dramatic**you who are better than I at stripping away the monster and swallowing it whole-* *pst use looting* *pst I got it*

HYJ, in background: *staring into camera like he's on the office are you seeing this shit*

--

HYJ: You know you could die, right?

STW: I'm fine with that.

HYJ: Of course you are.

---

HYJ: WILL YOU BOTH JUST SHUT UP NO ONE IS DYING THIS TIME

---

STW:

STW: why

STW:

STW: why is there a child?

---

HYJ: okay but hear me out...

HYJ: what if you could kill me?

#suicide tw #sctir spoilers #301-310 #reading sctir mtl i don't know what's happening #this chapter is actually pretty hard to understand but I think I got the gist well enough #a lot of serious things got covered that I'm not fully touching on yet (prereg stw and shj holy shit) #but I think I need more context or a better translation before I really want to dive into that #the humor on the other hand... #also shj in an apron and the constant feeding of whoever will take food from him as all this plays out like why are they like this #this definitely gives some horror movie vibes to shj interactions before this and after the dungeon though #his fight with stw? #how long it took him to start to the point even stw noticed. his odd holding back in the first opening disguised as teasing #(testing himself?) #how quickly he left mid-fight #increasingly drifting into the background while in Japan #dancing around being alone with yoojin or even focusing on him too much #like we knew something was off but not THIS off #man's self control is through the roof

[tyrantwombat]

HE'S GOT A COUNTDOWN TIMER

YOOJIN

i can't convey my shrieking donkey laughter through text

"If I don't hear from you by 3PM tomorrow, I'll go visit you."

I'm really going to bring a bomb.

#301-310 #reading sctir mtl i don't know what's happening #plus the fact he's keeping Yerim and Yoohyun out of it because 'No. Officer Song is tired.' #like 1) this is actually going to decrease song taewon's stress levels in any way whatsoever #and 2) the idea that song taewon would LET anyone else handle han yoojin #much less han yoojin AND sung hyunjae at the same time #hilarious #edit: texting shj every hour why are they LIke THIS?! '7 hours left. At least evacuate the poor fish.' #I'm cackling

[tyrantwombat]

YOOJIN

i can't convey my shrieking donkey laughter through text

"If I don't hear from you by 3PM tomorrow, I'll go visit you."

I'm really going to bring a bomb.

#reading sctir mtl i don't know what's happening #this whole scene is just #what was shj expecting with this though honestly #this isn't even the FIRST building hyj would be blowing up in this lifetime #at least he warned him? #ghost han yoojin at your own peril #there is no reaching han yoojin escape velocity man is tenacious as a terrier just ask prereg yoohyun #...okay that was a bit mean #also 17yo yoohyun had better be glad he had Little Brother privilege and also that it took a few years for yoojin to reach Max Feral #haeyeon would not be standing

[tyrantwombat]

"Even if there were ten or a hundred thousand S-Classes, there would be no one like Song Taewon."

#290-300 #reading sctir mtl i don't know what's happening #'hyh with confidence: 'NO ONE'S as weird as song taewon' #no but really #they like him! in their own special s-class sort of way #also yoohyun 'I'm sure all the other s-classes agree with me' #and also yoohyun apparently unable to stop 'I mean SHJ doesn't care about him for no reason'. #and ALSO yoohyun with the air of a consulting expert 'well obviously he died it would be MORE surprising if he didn't' #'you know - suppressing himself like that' #and EVEN YOOJIN standing there utterly flabbergasted at this hypocrisy #he comes by it honestly yoojin #really just WHERE could he have learned it from

[tyrantwombat]

"But what about your leg? Can I ask about that?"

"...What? Oh. That."

pfffffthahaha nevermind I was a fool to underestimate Han "Only One Priority" Yoohyun. RIP, Yoojin.

HE JUST BLURTED IT ALL OUT THERE WHAT

he just told him holy SHIT

#290-300 #reading sctir mtl i don't know what's happening #yoojin wriggles out of it like a frantic dying fish actually managing to flop back into the water against all chances #but still

[tyrantwombat]

I've read it over again like three times.

They love each other so much.

HE JUST BLURTED IT ALL OUT THERE WHAT

he just told him holy SHIT

#290-300 #reading sctir mtl i don't know what's happening #yoohyun trying to tell yoojin he doesn't have to tell him if it's hard #yoojin breaking down and dimly aware he's starting to raise his voice as it all just pours out of him but he can't stop #'It was a trap! It was a trap and you went straight in- You DIE. You were the best and you just DIE-!' #the way he gets almost incoherent as he goes #yoohyun hanging onto the hem of yoojin's clothes #being so gentle with him #and THIS: #'I'm glad you came back to me. It's only natural that I'd save you but I wouldn't want to leave you alone.' #LIKE GOD WHAT #tjrjrnrnrnrnenenemenahahhhhhhhhhhh #he doesn't KNOW #he means it so much and yoojin thinking about prereg hyh with this context and it breaking his heart but also he doesn't KNOW #and ofc yoojin 'You are Not Allowed to do that again.' and yoohyun 'Sure hyung. But more importantly-' #YOOHYUN

[tyrantwombat]

HE JUST BLURTED IT ALL OUT THERE WHAT

he just told him holy SHIT

#290-300 #reading sctir mtl i don't know what's happening #WARN A READER #and now he's in a sharing mood I guess??? #oh my god were those toads full of invisible myth frade truth serum gas or something??? #what the hell #gonna tell everyone ALL the things is yoojin #except for how he hurt his leg like yoohyun actually asked that is #yoojin will tell you anything you want tonknow except the things you ask him about directly #like he's some mindbending riddle given flesh #niw to watch him run off to try and pull this same shit on shj let's gooooo

[tyrantwombat]

"After seeing the engraving, that smiling face will become ugly."

Should have thought of THAT before volunteering yourself for experimental pseudo-neurosurgery, probably.

Twice.

Yoojin hasn't yet seemed to grasp the bullet he dodged that Young Chaos fixed the MAJOR problem before Myeongwoo had a chance to find it instead, though. Like, could you imagine? Myeongwoo scribbling away on three days microsleep and it suddenly hits him exactly what this was doing to Yoojin's body??? Could you imagine?

Actually, no promises he won't realize what it should have been doing to Yoojin anyway and only isn't by some random ("random") ("surprise backalley surgery with a stranger but yeah sure random") miracle.

Appearing in looming sleep-deprived vengeance in Yoojin's door armed with the moral high ground and adult communication skills.

He's not mad, Yoojin. He's just disappointed.

#290-300 #reading sctir mtl i don't know what's happening #i'm reminded of when myeongwoo very calmly but clearly very upset relayed to yoojin that #he hadn't given him eunhye so he could throw himself into MORE danger #and he didn't like it #and yoojin felt like SHIT #ymw has a secret weapon and it's called candid communication #yoojin has no defenses #no but really and also imagine him trying to reassure ymw that it's fiiiiine now because a random guy he met in a dungeon fixed it #just some random guy #random superpowered guy #just doing some surgery in a dungeon #so see it's totally all right now #ymw would kill him and even hyh would have to be like 'okay yeah that's fair'

[tyrantwombat]

J28

#...okay I don't usually do this but it reminds me so intensely of That Chapter and I physically can't scroll by #han yoojin #absolutely han yoojin #'even if there is a grave in my chest. still. I want to live.' #I don't even care if MTL mangled that line it hits like a freight train #he just wants to be where yoohyun is #but he has so much to do #(and he has so much to do) #anyway I love this novel thanks #sctir

[tyrantwombat]

That said, as cool as the visuals are, they made the choking thing so dramatic again. I get the visual medium thing, and needing those high energy beats, but Sung Hyunjae is just so casually menacing about it in the novel and Yoojin just.

Barely registers it.

Can't be bothered.

#sctir webcomic #I think what they do in the comic is try to show what EVERYONE ELSE is/would be feeling when these things happen #like when they drew yoohyun as a literal cloud of darkness as a child #to highlight how absolutely balls-ass bonkers yoojin is when he's able to just shrug it off #and that makes sense too because in a comic format we ARE 'the other' perspective. we're third party. we're normal people on the sideline #shitting our pants when sung hyunjae decides to pull a peacock #In the novel we're so close in to yoojin's perspective we need to rely on context clues to pick up on things like this #because yoojin sure as hell isn't going to #and getting better at it as you slowly realize how unreliable yoojin is as a narrator is part of the experience #the comic has its own way of trying to approach the issue and it REALLY likes those visuals #which I understand entirely because DAMN those visuals #(I hope they keep this energy for yoohyun oh my gooooosh) #but it still misses that casual something of sung hyunjae 'easily' tugging yoojin in close with a light tone and freezing eyes #and a death grip on his neck #to which yoojin (who is LASER FOCUSED) just. *impatient parent voice* noah sit down I'm fine #yoojin mr 'if I can still talk they aren't trying very hard now are they?' #but that's the POINT he's NOT so this is just a business discussion #he's so focused and convinced he's in control here his fear resistance doesn't even pop up and that's the POINT #(I just checked though and EVEN MORE HILARIOUSLY yoojin is like 'well damn I definitely would be scared if not for fear resistance lol' #but #he never got the notification #yoojin all like 'phew sung hyunjae's a little intense right now glad I can't feel fear' and it's like. yoojin. buddy. #look at this and understand why song taewon is losing his shit about this man #and sung hyunjae just delighted watching the world's most hilariously fucked up little guy go