Chapter Text
Jin-Woo had never been that into Halloween, but as she got older Jin-Ah started getting more and more into it. Thankfully she had never tried to drag him into it, probably not wanting him to ruin the fun or be uncool, but he didn’t mind, he was normally too busy anyway, and gates didn’t care if it was a holiday or not.
But once he became S-Rank, and the world started paying far too much attention to him for his liking, she suddenly decided that it was desperately important that he do halloween right.
Especially when she found out that there was a Halloween party being hosted by the Association and all of the S-Ranks were invited.
“No, brother you don’t understand, the costume is the most important thing!” she said, scrolling through her phone at lightning speed. “It’s too late to do anything actually elaborate and cool but we can totally still make it work.”
“Jin-Ah, I’m not even sure it is a costume party,” Jin-Woo glanced at the email he’d been planning to simply let rot in his inbox until the time had long passed.
“Well if Choi Jong-In is going there’s gonna be some sort of outfit competition,” Jin-Ah muttered, holding up her phone to compare whatever she was looking at to him, before making a face and moving swiftly on. “Song-Yi said you have some sort of inventory with winter coats in it, do you have anything else in there?”
Reminded to once again ask Song-Yi not to discuss anything that happened in the red gate, especially with his sister, Jin-Woo dutifully opened his inventory to look. He was pretty sure he didn’t have much in there other than weapons, and even scrolling through the pages he didn’t often see there was nothing even close to a halloween costume.
So he turned to the shop, surprised to find the general category was pulsing a slightly brighter white occasionally and marked with a label that read *NEW*.
Apprehensively he opened it to find a new item right at the top, baring the same label of *NEW*, called the Book of Layered Armour. The description read:
Book of Layered Armour
Your equipment is all currently set to Hide.
This book allows you to set it to whatever looks you already own.
Owned looks include armour drops, store bought items, non-store bought clothes, defeated monsters, stored shadows and their original forms, and looks requested from others.
Set which look you wish using this book.
Some looks can be mixed and matched, others act as a set.
The System really was spying on him at all times wasn’t it?
He bought the book and he materialised it into his hand. The option of viewing the original forms of shadows meant that he couldn’t let Jin-Ah actually control the options, but perhaps if he flipped through the pages she could design the outfit.
“Well Jin-Ah, let me show you the armour and looks I can wear, then you can decide for me, alright?”
His original plan had been to sit on the sofa together, flick through the book and have Jin-Ah either build or choose his costume, but he had severely underestimated the appeal of giving his sister the ability to basically dress him up how she wanted. It felt like Han Song-Yi mysteriously teleported the moment Jin-Ah had control, and suddenly he was stood in front of them as they giggled together, flicking through the books’ pages so quickly that Jin-Woo lost track.
They also kept up a running commentary of the clothes that he owned. Thankfully if they chose clothes he’d owned before his System-induced growth spurt they simply appeared on him at the correct size, so perhaps he might continue using this outside of halloween.
He was grateful that when they chose any of the ‘defeated monsters’ options that it was still recognisably himself. Song-Yi refused to let Jin-Ah choose the Ice Elves, and then immediately skipped over the orc a few pages later before Jin-Ah could fully think about it, but they enjoyed making him look like various different demons - Jin-Ah liked the horns - and Song-Yi couldn’t stop laughing at the ‘tall goblin’ look. They decided any of the undead monsters looked too scary for a halloween party, even though they had enjoyed the novelty of being able to see through him when he was a skeleton.
“Okay listen Jin-Ah, I know we said no undead, but we could totally Dracula him up,” Song-Yi said.
“But the vampires looked so grey and creepy, and he doesn’t even get the fangs!” Jin-Ah argued.
“No no, look…” Song-Yi took the book and started flicking back and forth. “There was this long white-haired guy, and we take his hair…” According to the book it was Igris, and Jin-Woo felt slightly bad that he hadn’t even considered who Igris was when he wasn’t the Blood Red Commander. “And then the chest of the Arch Lich, with the ribs and cool glowy bit…”
“And the shadow cape from his knight summon!” Jin-Ah was cottoning on to Song-Yi’s plan.
“We gotta go demon face right? They weren’t weirdly pale, and they have red eyes and pointed ears and everything!” Jin-Woo was surprised to realise they’d chosen Esil’s face, and was glad that unless they chose the set he didn’t actually look like a girl.
“No monster arms, but we give him the cool gold bracers on those naga,” Song-Yi flipped through to Jima, and the way the shadows of both the cape and the chest blended down under the gold bracers did look cool. “Okay, now do we go smart suit for the trousers? Or more armoured boots kinda thing?” Jin-Ah flicked through a few pages, face thoughtful.
“Not full armour, but I think the waist piece of the same demon that we’re using for the face would be enough of a separator that we could just use normal trousers.” The gold of Esil’s armour was the same as Jima’s bracers apparently, and helped pull the outfit together.
“You’re right, we just need suit trousers and shoes,” Song-Yi nodded, and Jin-Woo was thankful that it was the actual suit and shoes that he owned.
Jin-Woo turned to the mirror and had to admit, the girls had designed a cool looking costume. And Dracula adjacent was an accurate description.
“Do you know what would really finish it? Baek Yoon-Ho’s beast eyes,” Song-Yi said thoughtfully.
“A vampire with gold eyes? Are you thinking about Twilight?” Jin-Ah grinned at her.
“Dude, you know the red of the eye markings would clash with any red eyes. And Baek has black sclera and it would look so creepy but cool!” But a blush had also risen in Song-Yi’s cheeks.
“And you only thought of that because you were thinking about Twilight!” Jin-Ah poked Song-Yi in the side, making her flinch before she gently slapped the hand away.
With a sigh Jin-Woo snatched the book from the two girls before they started getting too boisterous, using the favourites page to save the costume before deactivating the whole thing.
“If there is a costume contest, I’ll be sure to say who designed mine,” he smiled.
“Only if you win!” Jin-Ah grinned at him.
“Baek Yoon-Ho wasn’t in the book, but if you can get his eyes I guarantee you’ll win,” Song-Yi pouted.