jakho 이야기

But what is Jakho, you might ask?

a no-fantasy, semi-alternate historical universe focused around a few characters from Yul Country, a 1:0.9 replica of the Korean Empire

irreverently mashes up events and trends across the centuries, but most closely resembles the 1800s

plot-wise, an ace attorney-like murder mystery slice of life legal/political revenge drama

gay gay homosexual gay sapphic nonsense

their character is still wack to me. but they seem to be remaining an energetic golf pro whose career provided for many things and created a lot of stress that they decided to cope with by reading many filthy webcomics and envying/idolizing their american rival and actually being non-binary but noooooobody knows that (not even their brother) so who even cares. when i type that out i realize they're just searching for someone to really understand them, and they mistakenly think that's vivian. i think.

eugh

today I finished rough outlining case 2 but now case 3 (the longest one) is up next

dragon justice's working title has shifted to fragrant justice per the recent magic system changes. the working backend title for the magic system is thumiamancy.

i've decided to make good on the 3-pov approach and already have rewritten the first part of the outline. doryeong is left out of the rotation because that distance benefits the character. I was having trouble on characterizations because they kept changing throughout each outline but here's how they stand now:

Yuryeong: Frantic, exuberant, unhinged. Comparable to metal.

Doryeong: Confident, unflappable, concealed. Comparable to water and fire.

Xuan: Angry, relentless, awkward. Her legal name is now Vernaud. Comparable to wood.

Baram: Compassionate yet realistic and doubtful. Comparable to wood.

In a gameplay setting, Yuryeong crafts incenses using their keen sense of smell and observation to weasel their way into a business deal with Doryeong's family, intending to steal back their family's plantation from them. Baram helps people defend themselves in court, ace attorney style. Xuan might be redundant since Yuryeong is directly working against her to prevent her from sniffing out Noe's trail (literally, this time). If I had to, I'd cut Xuan as a POV.

Yuryeong's plan has changed, now hinging on stealing back the plantation and feeding the Cheongsanjak hallucinatory incense rather than forcing a confession. I think that the way it shakes out is that Yuryeong gets Doryeong to commit a politically convenient murder and has Baram/Xuan reveal that in order to trigger a contract clause giving compensation to Yuryeong's boss. Even though Yuryeong gets found out too, they're protected by extraterritoriality and will face no trial until repatriated to Bellia.

Since there's incense/olfactory magic, Xuan has an easier, MUCH more plausible reason to go all the way to Yulguk to find a needle in a haystack for her boss. She starts out with a smelling dog/creature and a scent sample that deteriorates with time. Yuryeong gets pinged but is able to convince Xuan that they simply have some ingredients that resemble said sample, and so Xuan compels them to work as a better sniffer + try to replicate the scent sample to distribute among the Yulais cop dogs so that the search can go on faster.

Baram just likes helping people. She no longer has to learn to help people again; she just keeps doing it even after all her hardship. She helps a drunk, angry Xuan recuperate and then later helps Xuan in a confrontation/fight just because. This helps her bargain with Xuan for her help in the trial. That makes Yuryeong notice her and Xuan as potential pawns in their scheme.

Doryeong is now going to run for censorate (incense pun intentional) instead of city council. Censors in this setting are like super powerful prosecutors reporting to the ruler to sniff out corruption/anything the ruler doesn't like in government. The process relies on a combination of scmhoozing/nomination and in-trial performance auditing of current prosecutors, usually newer/younger ones. Doryeong has his father and mentor Naun do the schmoozing, while he relies on his own performance in court. This would make a "perfect record" make sense to matter so much to a prosecutor.

Onjo is Doryeong's hidden antagonist. His mom dies (rip) which makes him go on mourning leave and reckon with his filial repsonsibilities. When he comes back and his first trial is against Baram, which he loses, he announces his engagement and intended marriage to smooth things over. This ticks Doryeong off because they'd agreed on a truce to not marry, because neither wanted to. But contrary to past drafts, Doryeong no longer hires a thug to attack Onjo (things got too messy and implausible). Instead, a random robbery occurs and makes Onjo/others THINK that Doryeong did it (although Noe being there at the wrong time makes him the defendant). This suspicion hurts, and maybe contributes to Doryeong going back to his murderous ways when influenced by Yuryeong.

originally had him take german in high school. since he goes into business immigration later i think i'll retcon that to mandarin instead

like darcy, he has some crazy exes. one was definitely a psychotic dl korean international student in college. he had another one in college that really wore down his self-esteem, which is highly unusual. ki-jung helped him break up in a crazy way (method tbd). I think there are about 4 in total and the other half were okay.

he also helped/forced ki-jung to get out of his job bartending at a gang-owned club

worst/best book he's ever read was The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind because that's the worst/best one I've read

he's a cynic that can't help but like people and want the best for them. a good friend and honestly, bleeding heart. i think I've been pairing him with Yeonseok ("STEVE") so much these days because they're both weary romantics that guard themselves in very different ways (apathy vs rigid principles)

i'm still formulating the details of his birth but his mother is quite the character and garnered the ire of ki-jung's religious, conservative parents, which poured down to him. this is really different from the original canon where their families were chill and benign.

he only agreed to play cyrano for vivian for darcy because he genuinely thought that vivian would make his cousin happy, which was true to an extent

he once was interim president of his college KSA. it was a lot of work but the previous president was his friend so he got looped into it unilaterally, which caused backlash/drama from the other executive members

after taking a gap year as viv's golf caddie I think he starts to balance his work and life priorities better and stops having such a huge quarter life crisis and becomes happier. I think he also professionally 'comes out' if that's such a thing

if I could still place an acting career breakthrough it'd probably happen in his late 30s via one of his friends' indie films winning at Cannes or something else magical

Unbeknownst to them, the peculiar Finder that they are relying on, Joie Delaguerre, has her own intentions—and so do the various allies and enemies that they gather upon their return to the land sometimes called Yulterre.

One of them is Heukganggom Baram, whose personal investigation of the Jacques- Montbleu (Cheongsanjak) was shut down by their second son’s public humiliation of her and her family.

Meanwhile, the members of the Cheongsanjak family internally contend with tensions of inheritance, marriage, and political aspirations, which explode when their first son is nearly assassinated by justice activists.

Straight from my Notes

Central themes:

Family (blood and made)

Truth

Justice (revenge, punitive, restorative, forgiveness)

Secondary themes

Trauma

Belonging/exclusion (xenophobia, “home,” etc)

And the social construction of those categories

Aka ethnicity and nationalism and gender

Searching for family, truth, Justice

And how imperialism/colonialism/empire affects how things work

Family, truth (scientific vs traditional), justice, belonging/exclusion, social categories

How imperialism/nationalism developed over time

Tertiary themes

What love means in the context of family, social obligation, and truth/lies

How we define our self-identities in the context of others

can you exist without those around you? Who are you if not for those around you?

What do the horn and tails represent?

They show how cultures construct meaning and symbolism

As extra protrusions, they physically mirror how the characters feel extra deeply and humanly

They represent dignity and humanity, and their treatment/abuse can stand-in for other forms of trauma or humiliation

They physically show the branching of inheritance/family

They rep the genetic diversity of irl humans

Main characters(?):

Heukganggom

Baram

Ppalgangil

Yukyang

Yangseo

Vu 백남무/Baeknammu (Ly) Hongnamri

Xuân (Khanh)

Cheongsanjak

Doryeong

Onjo

Side characters

Cheongsanjak

Heungjin (dead)

Noljin

Widow

Gramps

And Gram

Heukganggom

Bari

Ppalgangil

Yonggi (dead)

Cheonha (dead)

Bukho 북호

Daeran

Nam

????

Baram’s inside friend

Summary (long):

Eight moments will culminate in desperation with horn and tail.

The first is the adoption of a northern waif by a grieving father.

The second is the little-regarded corruption trial of architect, Hongnamri Geondeok, and his cryptic death.

The third is the framing of the diplomat Cheongsanjak Heungjin for the murder of Cheongsanjak Noljin, and the exposing of Ppalgangil Yonggi.

The fourth is the Great Metounais Fire, which killed many.

The sixth is the murder of Deodat Delamer.

The seventh is the trial of Heukganggom Baram.

And the eighth is the death of Sa Leyulais, mired in debt and sickness.

Yves Leyulais discovers their father’s diary, pointing a finger into the heart of the Cheongsanjak-ssi.

Yannick Leyulais is delivered by a letter sent too late.

Joie Delaguerre is harassed by the children of the woman who disappeared her father.

Heukganggom Baram defends a laborer accused of a murder on cursed ground eyed by a seaslicker.

Cheongsanjak Onjo hires a man with no roots to protect him from everything but his own family.