#og.sin

I'm not sure where I am going with this rn, just noting some points about Hyunje. A lot of this largely comes from Geunseo's post-canon Q&As

(Beware: Spoilers for the novel)

Despite being so fashionable, he doesn't have any particular style of dressing he likes, he knows he'd look good in everything, so he goes with whatever his stylists recommend and prioritizes fashions that will have him perceived as older/powerful/stable and bring positive public perception. He is explicitly mentioned as dressing for the specific reaction it will engender in whoever he wants to get a reaction from, not because he himself likes or dislikes a look.

Despite being an amazing cook, he doesn't particularly have any favorite foods or preferences in taste, he just cooks dishes 'as per their ideal state' and in fact on his own he'll just eat some bread or dungeon rations and call it a day. We know he doesn't apparently eat as much as he should. I think the only thing we know about his tastes is that he personally finds coffee made to Yoojin's tastes to be too sweet for himself.

Initially, one would think that the choice of the Alps for his retirement pre-regression was based on his own likes and dislikes, but according to Q&As - nope he actually selected the location based on it being something that would suit Song Taewon and that Taewon would like in addition to the location being far from Yoojin.

His hobby (and his interest in people) is called 'raising livestock' - which is defined in the novel as 'arranging for the livestock to have everything they could need and to manipulate them into making choices that would make them 'the best versions of themselves' (aka 'the versions most of use to him/the world in its fight against dungeons') while they think of it all as their own choices/the only obvious choices'.

me (seeing the above chibi moment): wow, soyoung is in heaven

the webtoon in the literal next panel:

🤣😂

These days however I have a new source of information - the korean webnovel 'This Novel is Not My Novel', where it now becoming a running gag that the 'Vaguely European Rofan' setting of the book the MC has isekai'd into is an anachronistic mess (they have Korean food despite having no Korea, and also technology such as fridges and mikes etc despite the vaguely Regency-with-magic setting)

Things I learnt about from this novel

Dubai Chewy Cookies (i tried irl, interesting texture)

Thinking of Han Yoojin's Baby Count For Reasons of omegaverse poll and also the reveal of the above image as part of the merch with the upcoming Taiwan physical set

Spoilers, since we are talking all the kids till end of novel and beyond.

By my count, we are looking at 10 at the absolute minimum to like anywhere like 20+ or more.

Anyway, no wonder we don't have any art with the entire baby parade in one image!

Humanoid-form or speech having kids (5 to 9)

3 babies he grew in his body and gave birth to (GBS trio) 1 child that he adopted (Yerim) 2 kids that he is raising that he didn't give birth to but is related to / somehow kinda responsible for creating at the same time (Yoohyun + SPOILER) 1 child by marriage to parenting partner who is also sibling to one his kids and also kinda related to him sorta (SPOILER) 1 foster child - IDK if Noah really fits here, but maaaybe? Foster kid who stayed with Yoojin for a little while before gaining the strength to stand on his own feet and moved out while staying in touch, building his own separate group of friends and family. Riette certainly canonically counts both Noah and Bellare as their joint kids, lmao. Though I feel she's lost custody of Bellare completely by now. She dropped B off at Yoojin's almost as soon as B was born, I don't think B has any connection to Riette anymore at all) 2 eggs incubated (Irin, Sanho) - Again, they could be said to have been raised more by Yoohyun and Yerim. But at the same time, I would consider them both more like their familiars instead, they seem to have been born at the level of maturity of their contractors. So they don't really feel like Yoojin's kids entirely. Irin and Sanho are the same sort of being - but one of them looks like a lizard and one of them looks like a tiny mermaid, but I put them under this category because both of them can talk like humans fluently.

The kids with only no humanoid forms or linguistic ability as of now* (4 to 8)

*as of now because as per canon at least 4 of these kids have strong potential to eventually grow up to either gain humanoid forms and/or linguistic ability 3 monster babies who are full-time living at home with dad (Peace, Chirpie, Bellare) 1 monster baby who has grown up and has now become independent and flown the nest unlike the rest of the house-bound appa's kids (Blue) -> Yoo Grace/Eunhye. Yoojin and Myeongwoo's child option seems to be winning in my Eunhye poll. She clearly is sentient/sapient, but she lives inside an item 99% of the time, and also is actually responsible for taking care of Yoojin instead of the other way round entirely, so unf she often doesn't entirely feel Yoojin's-kid-like in the context of the work to me. @Port4shippers mentioned her feeling like YMW and Shalos' kid and I kinda like that idea. She's a child in the Han home, but as a working apprentice/intern sent there with an important job to do by her dad. -> Horang-ie and Mareu both feel a bit more pet/mount like than kid-like. They largely stay at home with them most of the time but still don't feel as integrated into the larger family and as close to Yoojin as any of the others, instead they have a different Yoojin-kid they are more attached to. I think Mareu, being a water dragon has limitations in her being able to be around with the family all the time. Also Horang-ie definitely feels like they have a crush on Peace, so like... neighborhood orphan child Yoojin took in, and is fostering, who clearly has has a giant crush on handsome oppa (gn) Peace. Sidenote: Lehanahi's egg is like… grandbaby. So Yoojin does already have One (1) Grand-eggbaby. Or maybe a baby who ended up having to be brought up by older sibling because of absent parent. Yoojin truly dropped the ball on this one, Bellare had to do the hard work of incubating this egg and ended up growing up too soon, ending their carefree days of playing around with Chirpie. I really need Yoojin to take more responsibility for this little guy. Please, a tiny itsy bitsy cutie naga baby would be so adorable.)

Joint Custody and Foster Kids (3 to innumerable)

1 monster baby with legal joint custody (Song-ie) 2 monster babies raised but now fostered out (Sorok, Comet) -> I guess all the ones he is raising specifically for other guilds like Vare-nim the Pegasus, the Liefnil, the Buffalo monster and the two Unicorns, and the wolves, the monsters he is raising for BurnCave Guild etc etc are more like brief foster kids.

@saurberry pointed out one could very well also count another SPOILER here due to complicated reasons aka Sigma. He's definitely kinda sorta somehow part of the family through various ways of being related eventually and Yoojin for sure thinks of him as a kid.

Stardew Valley isekai except Stardew Valley is experiencing dungeons and corruption etc. Look at the cover - it could be so them (HJYJ) during the Stardew Valley portion of the Sysadmin games...

Anyway MC = Kang Raon, and ML = Carlisle Lightinger.

MC wakes up in the stardew valley equivalent world, except as a player he had married every single romanceable female NPC and 1 notoriously difficult-to-woo male NPC in the game, and then divorced them after their storylines were done to move to the next target. And all the NPCs remember this. He is everyone's despicable heartbreaker ex-husband.

Overall plot was frankly Okay-ish. Cute, but the ending does get a bit rushed and not all the aspects are well-thought out and actually get used. Overall I'd say 6.5/10?

But I can't stop thinking of the HJYJ AU possibilities. You would definitely need to change some of the things up - but all of those would be ways which might actually tighten up the plot. Frankly it wouldn't even need to be a complete AU - this could the what if instead of Game of Life being set in Mirangloon, it combined with the Stardew Valley segment instead.

The Landsneckt were the ultimately successful German competitors and bitter rivals of the Swiss Mercs - the Reisläufer, but the colorful and shocking costumes were similar across both groups. They were very well paid, and thanks to their violent and often short lives they were given exemption from the "sumptuary laws" that dictated what nobles vs non-nobles could wear in Europe. Thanks to this they mostly spent their money on fashion - outrageous and daring fashion.

Also a staple of their dress - huge extra-stuffed codpieces. I guess SHJ might not need to stuff his. 🤭