Chapter Text
“So this is Papyrus’ home?” Dokja asked as he stepped out of the portal from the Context of the Constellations. “It’s impressive.” The portal opened into a large square in part of Benben, Papyrus’ homeworld. The square similar to the one they left: it was high tech, with lots of traffic, and constellations and incarnations walking in many directions, to shop, to talk, or simply to get somewhere else. High-tech ships flew in the sunny blue sky, and tall buildings rose in the distance. It was early in the day, and the sun was high.
Junghyeok kept his usual scowl as he gazed around the area.
Part of Dokja felt an urge to explore the place, and see what it was like. It was so impressive. But they had work to do.
Junghyeok started walking towards the scenario portal for Contendings, which was already thronged with other hopeful incarnations. Contendings was one of Papyrus’ giant stories, so it was a big lure.
Dokja followed Junghyeok, keeping an eye on their surroundings. Han Suyeong and Jeong Huiwon had pushed this on the pair of them as a sort of vacation gift, which neither of them were particularly happy about, and it meant that Dokja hadn’t had time to plan for it properly.
“You have to complete it as a couple,” Suyeong said with a grin. “It works perfectly.”
Dokja had to admit he didn’t exactly want anyone else to get the story if they could avoid it. Contendings would help make their team a bit stronger against later scenarios. Their only other candidates were really Huiwon and Lee Hyeonseong, and neither of them were suited for the part of the scenario Dokja knew of. The issue was that Dokja didn’t know the whole scenario, so he wasn’t as sure of things as he could be. Junghyeok in other turns tended to just run wild and kill everything… which wasn’t exactly what Dokja planned to do. But it also meant that although Junghyeok knew what the first two matches were, he never learned what the third was.
Dokja and Junghyeok waited patiently in the throng before confronting the portal itself. They were finally scanned by a humanoid figure with a large black beetle for a head, and allowed in. Transmission was a lot faster than going to the Context of the Constellations, but then again, Papyrus was a lot more powerful than even Bihyeong.
Junghyeok was gazing ahead with his arms crossed, and Dokja really hoped he wasn’t just planning to kill everyone. It was a fast method to earn the story, but one that Dokja didn’t want to pursue unless they had to. But before Dokja could think what to say, they were through.
The other side of the portal was in Heliopolis, and opened into a sunny courtyard before an ancient palace near the Nile. Dokja gazed up at architecture he’d only seen in textbooks and online. It was tall and majestic, covered in brightly painted art and fine statuary. The crowd here was smaller than the one in Benben, given incarnations were still arriving, but still large, and they sized up Junghyeok and Dokja with almost tangible hostility.
The story is already at work, Dokja thought as he walked to the side to get out of the way of the portal, with Junghyeok following. The breeze from the river cooled his face in the heat of the sun, and he was grateful that his coat was designed to keep him from overheating as well as somewhat warm. A central problem with getting Contendings was that the story and made its participants more hostile to each other, and more likely to kill, largely due to one of the central characters in it.
[A private message has arrived from the constellation, Falcon God of the Sun.]
Dokja blinked at the message screen and looked around. Everyone around him looked like an ordinary incarnation. Up ahead was a pale stone dais, atop which sat a line of empty thrones. As he watched, constellations materialized before the thrones and sat down, calling attention from the gathered incarnations. The heat became more impressive as more of them appeared and settled down, and released some of their status. It was hard to tell at a distance who was there, though Dokja knew that the constellation who sent him the message was not one of them.
‘Midday Sun’, Ra, sat at the center of the line, grinning out over the incarnations chatting with each other. She was a tall, muscular woman, with warm brown skin, long, curly, dark hair, and bright golden eyes, and covered in jewelry. Unlike other myth-grade constellations who would normally not bother with such scenarios, she was sitting calmly, waiting for things to happen.
A narrative-grade constellation, Maat, goddess of truth and justice, walked up to the front of the dais, and looked at the portal, which closed. All the incarnations to participate were gathered. Maat was tall and slender, with dark brown skin and long dark hair. She wore a tall white ostrich feather in her hair, and a long black dress, and had a neutral expression on her face. The gathered incarnations grew quiet under her look. [Welcome to the battle for the throne of Egypt. You will represent Horus, working on behalf of the heavens.]
Wind swirled to Maat’s right, and a large bird dove down from the sky, landing in center of the small tornado. It turned into a tall, muscular man. As the wind died, the constellation gazed down with an unreadable expression at the audience. He had dark brown skin and wore a bright blue headdress ending in a white and gold falcon mask that covered the upper park of his face. He wore a thick golden usekh, armlets, bracelets, and anklets, and a white shendyt with a golden belt. He radiated the energy of a narrative-grade constellation.
Dokja clicked accept on the message.
Up on the dais, Horus was quiet as Maat continued, [Your opponent will be the supreme god of Egypt, the usurper, Seth.]
Sand gathered in a mound to Maat’s left, and ominous laughter filled the air. The sand rose up high and formed itself into the figure of a tall, muscular but lithe, man. He had pale skin, and wore a white headdress with a long black mask with tall ears and red eyes, that covered much of his face, save for his white-toothed daring grin. He wore a thick golden usekh, armlets, bracelets, and anklets, and a long black shendyt. He crossed his arms and scoffed at the incarnations. [What a pathetic-looking lot this round.] His voice was arrogant and filled with disgust.
Horus looked at Seth as angry mutters filled the air. But the chatter grew no louder than mutters.
Seth also exuded the power of a narrative-grade constellation, one even more powerful than Horus. He was the god of war, and no one wanted to test him. The air grew even hotter with him standing there. All the narrative-grade constellations and one myth-grade constellation gathered in one on its own was nearly suffocating, even for Dokja. It didn’t bode well for the scenario.
The main scenario window popped up before Dokja’s eyes:
[Main Scenario #49 – Contendings]
Category: Main
Difficulty: ???
Clear Condition: Win at least two out of three matches.
Time Limit: 3 days
Reward: Giant Story related to ‘Contendings’, goodwill from the Nebula <Papyrus>, 4,000,000 Coins, ???
Failure: -
Dokja appreciated that at least the failure state was open-ended. The stakes were a little lower, at least from the Star Stream Administration Bureau. But he knew their real opponents weren’t the Bureau or even the two constellations on the platform. As Dokja gazed around at the other incarnations listening in, hungry for more info, it was quite obvious whom Dokja and Junghyeok would have to worry about.
[The winner of the most matches will take the final prize,] Maat said. She looked over the assembled incarnations. [But there can only be one winner.]
She’s warning all of us, Dokja thought. He could see it in the eyes of the constellations watching, as they gazed hungrily at the gathered incarnations. The real story they were interested in was in the incarnations fighting each other, as always.
Maat raised a hand and a tall, pale jar appeared before her. She reached inside and pulled out a slip of papyrus, and then unrolled it. After she finished reading it, she looked back up at the crowd. [The first match will be underwater breath-holding!]
[The constellation, Abyssal Black Flame Dragon, scoffs.]
There were eyerolls at this. Holding your breath underwater was a skill easily buyable for a lot of incarnations at this point. But that wouldn’t be the main issue.
[Only one member of each group may participate in this match,] Maat continued. [You must choose which of you will go.]
Scenario windows appeared before all the incarnations.
[Sub Scenario – Underwater Breath-Holding]
Category: Sub
Difficulty: D-F
Clear Conditions: Hold your breath underwater longer than Seth. Only one participant per group can participate in the scenario.
Time Limit: None
Reward: 2000 Coins
Failure: Seth will win the round.
Dokja and Junghyeok looked at each other.
[The character ‘Yu Junghyeok’ has activated Midday Tryst.]
--I’ll go. This will be simple.
Dokja glanced around at the other incarnations talking quietly to each other. It was a good idea to keep their plans where no one else could hear them, and Dokja knew that Junghyeok would be the correct choice for this match anyway. But there could still be issues…
--Just remember to stay below the water. If the fighting gets bad and you get kicked out…
--I know what I’m doing.
Dokja smiled and shrugged. When it came time to choose, Junghyeok clicked the window to say he was going.
After all the incarnations made their choices, Seth laughed on the dais. [Well then, let’s get going!]
Dokja and Junghyeok both looked down when sand began to churn beneath Junghyeok’s feet, and then pulled him and one member of all the other parties to the riverbank. Seth rode a moving sand tornado of his own, a grin on his face and the white train of his headdress floating over his neck.
Dokja didn’t say anything through Midday Tryst, knowing it would just annoy Junghyeok. Powerful as Junghyeok was, combating Seth himself could be an issue. Seth was one of the most powerful constellations in Papyrus, even though he was only narrative-grade. In certain turns, he became a myth-grade status, and took over fighting Junghyeok after Ra’s defeat. While he’d be weaker now, Kim Dokja’s Company, even with Junghyeok, wasn’t strong enough to take on all of Papyrus. And the Junghyeok whom Dokja knew wouldn’t be so stupid as to push that. So Dokja would trust Junghyeok to keep his wits about him and survive.
The remaining incarnations approached the riverbank in caution, all looking at each other. Dokja could feel them all wondering if they should do something now: get rid of the partners of those underwater to leave them weak when they emerged. You needed two partners to complete the entire scenario, so losing one was a disqualification, unless you could team up with another sole incarnation already present, which was risky.
Dokja glanced at the dais, where the constellations sitting on the thrones were either chatting or gazing at the river themselves.
Maat stood where she was before, her expression neutral.
Horus had his arms crossed and also gazed at the water. The surface was still. Whatever was going on beneath, nothing was showing.
Dokja refused to check a clock. He believed in Junghyeok. Breathing underwater for prolonged periods was nothing for him. And he’d fought more opponents than those who had gone into the river, and in worse conditions. There was a similar water fight in one of the earlier turns, and even then, Junghyeok came out victorious.
Though Dokja also thought about how if Junghyeok was doubtless fighting other incarnations, which he could still manage. Worse, though, Seth was also down there. And Dokja felt colder at the idea that Seth was also fighting and perhaps killing off incarnations.
One of whom was potentially Junghyeok.
[A private message has arrived from the constellation, Falcon God of the Sun.]
Dokja accepted the message and read it just as he had the first.
[Your comrade will be okay.]
Dokja kept himself from looking up at Horus. It would be too risky. The other incarnations of Papyrus wouldn’t support Horus interfering this way. But this new message was strange. Was this Horus using his stigma, ‘Intuition’? But why did he care about Dokja’s state of being? It wasn’t necessary for their earlier agreement. Though Horus said he’d used Intuition earlier to contact Dokja in the first place.
[I know you’re the ones who will win.]
Dokja gazed out at the water instead, trying to take Horus’ words to heart. Intuition was similar to other prophetic skills. He had to trust that Junghyeok would be fine. The man had dealt with far worse, after all.
The waters began to churn. Incarnations on the shore began to talk loudly, some demanding, “What’s going on?!”
The first incarnations began crawling out of the water, where their partners came to meet them. Many were simply damp and breathing hard. But as more returned to shore, some sported injuries that often bled freely on the ground.
The waters churned more violently, and those on the shore backed off a little. A number of incarnations were tossed out of the waves, landing on the beach, most unconscious. Some crawled off.
But Junghyeok was not among those ejected from the waters. So Dokja watched. He tried not to let his unease about the whole scenario fill him. It wasn’t just Horus’ message, [If you promise to help, I can help you], or that Dokja couldn’t see what was happening underwater. It was also the way Papyrus conducted this. For instance, they weren’t relying on the dokkaebis at all. Normally, a dokkaebi would be performing Maat’s role, even if it didn’t quite fit the scenario. But Papyrus was an ancient and powerful nebula, and they did things their way, and Maat being present better fit the giant story. And they could have mere incarnations face a narrative-grade constellation like this. This was far harder than the current form of Gigantomachia.
Two hours passed (eventually, Dokja had to check the clock, based on the alert he set when Junghyeok went into the water). More incarnations emerged from the waters. More of them were injured, some likely too badly to continue the scenario.
Another two hours. Dokja stopped himself from tapping his fingers or reaching out to Midday Tryst to contact Junghyeok that way.
[The constellation, Demonic Judge of Fire, is very worried.]
[The constellation, Prisoner of the Golden Headband, is excited.]
Forty more minutes passed, and the waters roiled. A whole group of incarnations were shoved onshore, followed by a giant hand made of wet sand, which dragged something forward. A mop of dark wet hair was visible, along with part of a familiar black jacket.
Dokja ran forward to where the hand stopped and pulled Junghyeok out of it. The man was unconscious. There were bloody cuts over his face. But he was breathing, and Dokja sighed deeply in relief. He’d come through okay.
[You have failed to clear the scenario.]
Seth rose out of the water riding his sand, which deposited him neatly on the shore. Fresh sand picked him up and carried him past the fallen incarnations to before the dais, where Maat looked up with a grave expression and said, [The winner of the first round has been decided. The winner of the first match is Seth, God of War and the Desert!]
Seth smirked and looked at the dais where Horus stood.
Horus only gazed neutrally back at him. It seemed like the air grew tenser between them. Perhaps there would be another fight after the match? It wasn’t against the rules of the scenario for constellations to do battle.
Dokja held Junghyeok’s shoulder, ready to pull them both to safety if he had to. A fight between narrative-grade constellations would be messy. They still had at least one more chance to win, but if Horus and Seth really fought here...
Seth finally snorted and turned away, before marching into the palace.
Dokja breathed more easily and squeezed Junghyeok's shoulder. Next time, then.