Work Text:
A group of three people are walking through the crowded streets of the Context of Constellations City.
They are all dressed in long coats- two black, one white. Their steps are quick and impatient, and they attempt to land on each other’s feet as they walk.
They are going in the direction of a certain realm that none of them are very familiar with: the group of constellations called Shakespearean . This nebula is medium-sized, and none of them are entirely sure why they’re bothering with a quest so meaningless this close to the end.
Han Sooyoung, kicking Kim Dokja in the back of his knee: Why are we here, huh? What secret quest are we chasing this time? Can’t you just tell us ahead of time? Wouldn’t that make things simpler for everyone?
Kim Dokja pauses, biting his lip as he thinks. Yoo Joonghyuk walks past him, increasing her pace as she scowls.
Han Sooyoung: Really? Is it really that hard for you to tell us anything? She pouts. Man, hard to be seen as so untrustworthy… If you think of us like that, maybe I won’t come with you after all.
Yoo Joonghyuk finally turns back around, about ten feet ahead of the other two: He always tells you his plans. You’re just angry that you’re in the dark for once.
Han Sooyoung: Ah, I get it. You don’t want to let this jerk into the loop. Well, that’s understandable. We can wait until she gets bored and wanders off.
Kim Dokja: No, that’s not it. I can’t tell you what the scenario is going to be because I don’t know what it is.
Han Sooyoung and Yoo Joonghyuk stare at him in shock.
Han Sooyoung: Well, that’s it? Surely that’s not worth investigating… there must have been lots of scenarios that didn’t appear in Ways of Survival at all.
Kim Dokja: No, not one. Not yet. That’s why I have to investigate this one.
Yoo Joonghyuk: Is the book really that detailed?
Han Sooyoung: Well, I guess so… it was kind of a drag.
Kim Dokja frowns in disagreement, and then keeps walking.
Yoo Joonghyuk steps on Han Sooyoung’s heel surreptitiously.
Han Sooyoung: Hey! Brat! She swings a fist at her shoulder, but misses.
Yoo Joonghyuk, pretending to ignore her: What’s the name of the scenario?
Kim Dokja: It’s called [We'll Get It Next Time].
Han Sooyoung tilts her head appreciatively.
Yoo Joongyuk: I haven’t investigated the Shakespearean constellations before. They were never important. I guess I don’t know what we should expect.
Kim Dokja: Me either. I’d guess that they’re mostly Historical Grade, though, so if things go wrong, it shouldn’t be that hard to get away.
Han Sooyoung: Do you know which constellation is sponsoring the sub-scenario?
Kim Dokja: …well, kind of.
Han Sooyoung: Kind of? What do you mean kind of? That sort of thing never happened in Ways of Survival!
Kim Dokja: The parts that you read of it at least, huh?
Han Sooyoung scoffs, and looks away.
Kim Dokja: I guess you’re right, though. I haven’t seen something like it before. There’s two constellations attributed to the scenario, but their names are overlapping, so I can’t read them.
Yoo Joonghyuk: We’re here.
The three of them come to an abrupt halt in front of a gate. There’s a fairly steady stream of incarnations and constellations flowing through it, some returning with souvenirs. It looks normal.
Han Sooyoung: Appearances can be deceiving.
Kim Dokja looks at her questioningly, but shrugs off whatever caught his attention quickly. He pulls a coin out and shows it to his companions.
Han Sooyoung: We already know you’re stupid rich. You don’t have to flaunt it.
Kim Dokja: Heads, I treat you guys to dinner after we’re done with this. Tails, you guys have to pay for me.
Yoo Joonghyuk: No.
Kim Dokja: Fine. Just me and Han Sooyoung, then.
Han Sooyoung: Yeah, okay. Sure.
Kim Dokja flips the coin into the air. It flips up, catching the light and shining for a brief second before falling back down into Kim Dokja’s palm. He slams it down onto his fist and then opens his hand- the coin has landed on heads.
Han Sooyoung: Heh.
Yoo Joonghyuk: No. He is not allowed to cook. Flip it again.
Han Sooyoung: What? No, he’ll take me to a restaurant.
Kim Dokja, smiling crookedly: It’s fine, I’ll flip it again.
Han Sooyoung: You cheater!
Kim Dokja flips the coin again. Again, it lands on heads.
Han Sooyoung: There, you see? You’re destined to treat me. Don’t forget it.
She takes the coin out of Kim Dokja’s hand and walks through the gate. Yoo Joonghghyuk and Kim Dokja follow her.
The Shakespearean realm is majestic at first glance, but a second’s further inspection reveals that all the buildings are only props. They are undoubtedly well-made illusions, but illusions nonetheless.
Yoo Joonghyuk, shifting uncomfortably: I do not like this. We perform enough as is. There is no point to putting us on a stage like this.
Kim Dokja: Yeah, well… maybe it’s related.
Han Sooyoung, dryly: Heads it is, tails it isn’t.
Kim Dokja: Go ahead.
She flips the coin.
Han Sooyoung: …heads. Hey, this isn’t a trick coin, is it?
Kim Dokja: No, I don’t think so.
Han Sooyoung: I guess it's true that three in a row isn't that improbable.
Yoo Joonghyuk: Kim Dokja, where are we going from here?
Kim Dokja: Ah… do you know where the Hamlet sub-scenario here is held?
Yoo Joonghyuk: No.
Kim Dokja: Well, it’s close to there, somewhat.
Yoo Joonghyuk: Start heading over, then.
Han Sooyoung glances around at the crowds. Nothing seems to be happening. Most people are heading out, rather than in. The chat through which constellations normally commentate on what they are watching through is silent.
Han Sooyoung: Something feels really off. Are you sure we should be doing this?
Kim Dokja: …heads we keep going, tails we quit?
Han Sooyoung: I have a feeling it’ll be heads. She flips the coin. It’s heads.
Yoo Joonghyuk: It’s heads on both sides, isn’t it?
Han Sooyoung examines the coin carefully, and then shakes her head.
Yoo Joonghyuk: It’s weighted, then.
Han Sooyoung: I mean... maybe.
Kim Dokja: Well, we’ve come this far! Might as well just finish it up. It’s rated to be very easy, anyways.
Yoo Joonghyuk: Cost-sunk fallacy.
Kim Dokja: Wow, that’s a big word.
Han Sooyoung: …just get going.
The three of them slip through the streets. They’re hardly inconspicuous, but no one approaches them. No constellations comment on them. Their journey is easy. Soon enough, they find themselves at the entrance of a small, worn-down theater.
Han Sooyoung: Shady. Heads we leave, tails we stay.
Kim Dokja: Hey, that’s cheating!
Han Sooyoung, scoffing: As if you didn’t pull that earlier.
Yoo Joonghyuk: Just get in.
The three enter the theater. A sub-scenario pops up for each of them.
Han Sooyoung: You’re right. You can’t tell who the constellations are.
Kim Dokja: Heads for-
Yoo Joonghyuk: Kim Dokja. A pause. Shut up.
The three of them read the instructions silently.
Yoo Joonghyuk: Wait, all we have to do is watch a play?
Han Sooyoung: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead? That’s not Shakespeare, is it?
Kim Dokja: Well, it’s based off of one of his plays.
Han Sooyoung: I still don’t think that should count.
Yoo Joonghyuk: It's a transformative work. She grabs their hands and pulls them into the front row. The three of them stare up at the stage, and the lights dim. A few minutes pass, and then the lights come back on. Han Sooyoung pulls out the coin and studies it.
Kim Dokja: …that’s it? There’s no reward?
Han Sooyoung, staring at the coin: Maybe we should try watching it again.
Yoo Joonghyuk checks the time.
Han Sooyoung: It hasn’t been that long. We have time to try again.
Yoo Joonghyuk, slowly: It’s been four minutes.
Han Sooyoung: Yeah! See, we have plenty of time to re-watch it.
Kim Dokja: I guess we should, then.
Yoo Joonghyuk: That play took longer than four minutes.
They pause, and think about it for a second.
Han Sooyoung: Well, time passes differently in different dimensions, sometimes.
Yoo Joonghyuk: I don’t think that’s what that was.
Kim Dokja: We’ll watch the play once more, just to see if we’re missing anything.
Yoo Joonghyuk frowns, but settles back into her seat. Once more, the lights dim, and then come back on.
Yoo Joonghyuk: That was still way too short. I don’t even know what happened.
Kim Dokja: More imporantly, we still didn’t get our reward.
Han Sooyoung: What? You really don’t get it? Well, I don’t mind watching again. It’s pretty good.
Kim Dokja: Heh. Well, maybe one more time, for Yoo Joonghyuk.
Yoo Joonghyuk: There was no play to watch.
Kim Dokja: Eh? Of course there was, didn’t you see it? I loved the part where-
Han Sooyoung: No spoilers.
Yoo Joonghyuk, stubbornly: There was no play.
Han Sooyoung: Well, even if you leave, I might stay. It’s a good story.
Yoo Joonghyuk, rising: I’m going backstage.
Kim Dokja and Han Sooyoung in unison: Good luck with that!
Yoo Joonghyuk walks up onto the station and pushes her way behind the curtain. The set is still intact. Behind that, the backstage waits, with two actors. The walls are still only set dressing- beyond them, there is only a vast black expanse. Yoo Joonghyuk takes note of the fact that she is still on some kind of stage, and her frown grows deeper.
Yoo Joonghyuk: What kind of scenario is this? Who are you?
Rosencrantz: I’m Guildenstern.
Guildenstern: I’m Rosencrantz.
Rosencrantz: No, other way around.
Guildenstern: Oh, yes, we’d mixed it up.
Yoo Joonghyuk: Are you constellations?
Rosencrantz: Hardly.
Guildenstern: Can’t even get out of our own story.
Rosencrantz: Certainly not enough to watch others.
Guildenstern: It’s not a scenario.
Rosencrantz: Well, you could call it that, I suppose.
Guildenstern: It’s just not us pulling the strings.
Rosencrantz: Never has been.
Guildenstern: Never will be.
Yoo Joonghyuk: Stop talking like that.
Guildenstern: It’s the way we talk.
Yoo Joonghyuk: My companions are trapped here.
Guildenstern: So are we.
Rosencrantz: So are you.
Yoo Joonghyuk: I’m not. I want to leave.
Rosencrantz: Haven’t you seen our play, at least? Knowing something is wrong doesn’t mean that you can fix it.
Guildenstern: You’re like us. We never got out of it. Never will.
Rosencrantz: It’s just how some things are.
Guildenstern: Yes… maybe some version of you can get out.
Rosencrantz: Some faint figure for you to project jealousy onto.
Guildenstern: It’s just that the only way to not be in a story is to not be, and that means dying.
Rosencrantz: If it’s a good story, they’ll keep coming back.
Guildenstern: And every time they open it again, you’re born anew.
Rosencrantz: Another self.
Guildenstern: And then you die.
Rosencrantz: And you don’t keep the memories.
Guildenstern: And you have to start again.
Rosencrantz: And it might not have been worth it.
Guildenstern, fondly: …but I like to think that it was.
Yoo Joonghyuk: I don’t understand a word you’re saying.
Guildenstern: Oh, that’s good. Neither do I.
Yoo Joonghyuk: Look, Rosencrantz-
Guildenstern: No, that’s me.
Yoo Joonghyuk: I was talking to you.
Rosencrantz: You’re both wrong, I’m Rosencrantz.
The conversation comes to a halt, as all three of them look around, counting on their fingers as they try to discern the identities of each person.
Guildenstern: Well, I suppose it doesn’t matter. We’re fairly indistinguishable as is.
Yoo Joonghuyk: That’s true.
Rosencrantz: It is me, though. I’m Rosencrantz.
They ignore him.
Guildenstern: Look, it’s true that we’re not in charge here, but there’ll be something you can do. Your story’s not meant to end like this.
Rosencrantz: It’s true. Your story takes from too many stories to drag itself out in some theater with some nobodies.
Guildenstern: Plus, the ending’s already been decided.
Rosencrantz: Always has been.
Yoo Joonghyuk: …is it a good one?
Guildenstern: I suppose it could be.
Rosencrantz: It’ll be a choice, and that’s more than we’ve ever gotten.
Yoo Joonghuyk: I’ve had choices. I make choices.
Guildenstern: Your life has been dictated by words on a screen. Your life is dictated by words on a screen.
Rosencrantz: Awareness doesn’t mean that you’re out of the woods.
Guildenstern: All we’ve ever been is aware, and it’s never changed anything.
Yoo Joonghyuk is silent. She does not look at the walls of the fake backstage.
Rosencrantz pulls a coin out of his pocket.
Guildenstern: Oh, I know this one. Heads or tails?
You Joonghyuk: I guess I’d be a fool not to choose heads.
Guildenstern: This one’s not weighted.
Rosencrantz: Neither was the first one.
Guildenstern: What? But this was the first, wasn’t it?
Rosencrantz flips the coin.
Yoo Joonghyuk: Heads-
She looks around. The backstage has disappeared. She is sitting in between Han Sooyoung and Kim Dokja. The play is nearing its conclusion.
Guildenstern, from onstage: …There must have been a moment, at the beginning, where we could have said–no. But somehow we missed it.
Kim Dokja and Han Sooyoung look over at Yoo Joonghyuk.
Han Sooyoung: Took your time with the little ladies room, huh?
Yoo Joonghyuk, unnerved: I think you’ll get your reward this time, Kim Dokja.
Kim Dokja, tearing his gaze from the stage: Oh, is that where you were? Thanks.
Yoo Joonghyuk is silent. Han Sooyoung and Kim Dokja exchange a glance.
Guildenstern, from onstage: Well, we’ll know better next time.
Han Sooyoung, checking the time: Oh, it’s been so much longer than I thought it’d been. It’s almost morning.
Kim Dokja, startled: We’ve been here all that time?
The curtain falls. The lights turn back on. There are three walls, thin and made of plaster, set on wheels, boxing the three into the theater.
Kim Dokja: Oh, you’re right. The reward finally went through.
Han Sooyoung: Yeah? How much- 3,000 gold? Are you kidding me? We’ve spent hours on this stupid sub-scenario.
Kim Dokja: Well, I guess I thought it’d be helpful… or at least weird, since it didn’t appear in Ways of Survival.
Han Sooyoung, turning to Yoo Joonghyuk: Did you get the reward?
Yoo Joonghyuk nods without checking.
Han Sooyoung: Ah, well. I guess it was nice to take a break. It was a good play, too. I guess you can scrounge up a little class when it comes down to it.
Kim Dokja: You’re the one who plagiarized that so-called “trash!”
Yoo Joonghyuk turns around, ignoring their conversation. There are three walls in the theater. Every time she tries to set her gaze on fourth, it slides off.
Han Sooyoung: Yoo Joonghyuk? Are you okay?
Yoo Joonghyuk: Where’s the fourth wall? I can’t find it.
Kim Dokja stiffens.
Han Sooyoung: Haha, nice joke. So you did pay attention to the play.
Yoo Joonghyuk, frustrated: I’m not-!
Finally, something seems to click. Yoo Joonghyuk slowly turns around, face carefully blank. The fourth wall is not there. She finds herself staring at the audience- their eyes shining, their faces obscured, they watch her perform.
The constellations are silent. They, too, are actors in this world.
Yoo Joonghyuk takes a step off the stage, but when she looks around, she finds that this theater, too, is only theater. She turns around again, and steps off another stage, and another, and another, and another, and another.
The stages do not end.
Yoo Joonghyuk, frustrated : How do I get out of here?
No one responds. The audience is no longer filled with actors. The seats hold only cardboard cutouts of people.
Yoo Joonghyuk takes a running leap out of the fake theater, and rolls through another and another and another and another. The layers do not end. They will never end. There will always be another wall to cross, another barrier keeping him from our reality.
Yoo Joonghyuk finally stops to breathe. Beyond the false, plastered false of the theater, she can see black void, but that, too, is only paint. She has lost her companions. As she looks around, her expression buckles, and she sinks to the ground.
A coin rolls across the ground in front of her. It catches the light, and comes to a stop as it curves to run into her foot.
Yoo Joonghyuk picks up the coin, and half-heartedly flips it.
It’s heads.
Kim Dokja: Well, we should be heading back to the company.
Han Sooyoung: Do you think we’ll have time to take a nap when we get back?
Kim Dokja: You’ll ruin your sleep schedule.
Han Sooyoung: It’s already ruined.
Kim Dokja: You should be trying to fix it, at the very least.
Han Sooyoung: You’re one to talk. I see you almost every night down at the vending machines.
Yoo Joonghyuk watches her companions, her back to the audience.
Kim Dokja: Hey, ready to go?
Han Sooyoung: Look at her face. She’s been done with this since before it started.
Kim Dokja: It was a stupid sub-scenario. No twist to it at all- we just watched some constellation’s story, just how it went?
Han Sooyoung: Utterly ridiculous. Completely self-centered of them.
Yoo Joonghyuk: I thought you liked the play.
Han Sooyoung: Who would like trash like that? I’m an author, remember? I know quality when I see it.
Kim Dokja: I don’t even remember why we came to do this. 3,000 gold is a terrible reward.
Yoo Joonghyuk: You dragged us along because it was a sub-scenario not in Ways of Survival, and you found that suspicious.
Kim Dokja, airily: Oh, is that all? Well, I guess it didn’t check out.
Yoo Joonghyuk turns back to the fourth wall. It has been clumsily sealed off. There is still someone watching her.
Yoo Joonghuyk: I suppose we should go home, then.
Han Sooyoung, yawning: You can say that again. This is the last time I’m coming with you on a scenario you don’t have a solid plan for!
Kim Dokja: I don’t even remember how we got here. Man, what a night. I… don’t regret it, honestly. It was nice to spend time with you.
Han Sooyoung: Hey, we should stop and get coffee before we go home.
Yoo Joonghyuk: Weren’t you planning on taking a nap?
Han Sooyoung: Aw, don’t be like that.
She pulls a coin out of her pocket.
Han Sooyoung: Heads we go, tails we don’t.
Yoo Joonghyuk: …tails we go, heads we don’t.
Han Sooyoung: Well, if you insist.
The coin flips through the air.
Han Sooyoung: It’s tails. Ha! Bet you regret switching.
Yoo Joonghyuk relaxes slightly. Han Sooyoung and Kim Dokja walk out of the shabby theater into the street of the Shakespearean realm, and she trails after them. In a busy town like this, there is no where to look for a fourth wall.
Still. Beyond the facades of the buildings, she can see black paint. She will not try to break past the walls- not today. Her time with her companions is limited as is. There will be enough time to break out of this strange, new box she has found herself uncomfortably aware of another time. She’ll make sure of it.
Han Sooyoung drops the coin as she walks alongside Kim Dokja, attempting to kick the back of his knee. It rolls across the street , spinning to a stop in front of Yoo Joonghyuk.
It’s heads.