#trick.txt

The smell…

                   …of the ocean…

It feels like I am aimlessly floating inside myself.

The sound…

                    …of the waves…

My movement is sluggish, even within my own subconscious. Reaching the waking world feels so close, yet so far.

The feel…

                …of the sand…

The more I push towards consciousness, the harder it feels to do so, as if something is resisting-- and yet, after a minute, I surface with such suddenness that it almost surprises me. Blinding light greets me when I attempt to open my eyes, and it takes a few moments of playing peek-a-boo with the waking world before I am able to keep my eyes open.

The sky… is a beautiful shade of cloudless blue. I reach up towards it, and flinch. Memories drift back to me in fragments, of red and gray and the endless, striking blue of the sky, blocked only by my own hand reaching for something… something…

I can't remember what.

I can't remember much else, either. Assuming the worst-- always the worst, rather than get my hopes up-- I push myself upward, until I am seated, making room for sand and water to join the sky in my immediate field of vision, and begin to test that my body is functioning properly. Better to distract myself than to overthink, since overthinking means wondering how long it's been, which means wondering if--

Enough. I lift my hands and begin to pat myself down, checking that everything was in the right place.

Head. It's attached, certainly, which is always a good start. Both sets of eyes are out, which usually isn't a problem, but probably means that either my mimicry is stunted for the moment, or… whatever fauna is here isn't really human enough for it to be a concern.

Arms. Two of them, fully attached and functional. The nail polish Styx had done before the attack was still intact, surprisingly. I don't typically like nail polish but… I leave it. Perhaps as a sort of reassurance and hope that she's okay, perhaps because I'm too lazy to remove it.

Torso. No wounds, at least. I seem to be wearing light, comfortable, cream colored clothes-- a slightly-too-long t-shirt and shorts. Different from my usual clothing, which is typically what I reform with, no matter the state of it. My staff is still on my hip, which is good, as well as a strange sort of mask. My bag, however, is nowhere in sight. 

Legs. Humanoid, fully attached and functioning. I don't seem to have any footwear, so it's a good thing the sand covering the area is rather fine and not very hot. 

Tail, wings? Missing, it seems. Not great for my balance, but I assume the main population is human enough not to have them, perhaps? 

Conclusion? I reformed fine, which is always good, even if my somewhat fragmented memories hint at a particularly violent death this time. The local population-- which I have so far seen none of, unsurprisingly, considering that I seem to be on an isolated beach-- must be human enough that extra limbs are unusual, but not little oddities such as my bonus eyes. My clothes are quite different, so perhaps they mostly dress the same, and I simply reformed differently to compensate? The mask also seems to be important, if it came on its own, rather than as something I had before, like the lantern-staff.

A mostly humanoid species that dressed mostly the same and wore masks. I don't think, in all of my planet-hopping experiences, that I've met a species with this strange sort of uniform.

This is bound to be an interesting trip...

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hihihihihihi okay so i am a firm believer that everything in skzverse from hellevator to the hop mvs are connected (loosely) but i must note that that is not necessarily!! a common opinion to have so i am telling you skz lore how i interpret it which may be significantly different than how some other stays do!

first thing to note: between levanter and go live, they switched directors, so it gets a lot more convoluted there bc post levanter i think each of the albums have their own universe everything everywhere all at once style.

hellevator-

anyway, start with hellevator. two different versions of skz from two different universes manage to cross over using an elevator. the main character here as far as im concerned is jisung, because neither jisung are happy in their current world, so they switch??? kinda??? the two versions of skz want very different things. one version wants to leave their home and explore, while the other is happy in their current life. the jisung from the ones who want to leave is the only one who wants to stay, while the jisung from the ones that want to stay is desperate to get out, so he takes the elevator to (what some stays call) eden, where the other group of skz follow him. these versions of skz don’t??? really come back until the cle series iirc? idk man im a little rusty.

i am series -

hello! new version of skz here.

district nine sees chan staging a revolution against the cookie cutter, ordinary system that they were all indoctrinated into. when we look at the i am not trailer, it clearly establishes the boys as those who need to go against the grain and establish themselves as individuals instead of a part of the collective (though we see some of the pressures of the collective take effect, most notably with jisung, when he turns and stares directly into the light like everyone around him. it’s a reference to this philosophical theory that i genuinely cannot remember right now i am so sorry). there are some stand outs here for their i am series intros, but i really want to highlight minho and jeongin. minho fully uses his position to attempt to relay the same message that is being put out, that this collective is not the only thing that exists. its why he writes ‘i am NOT’ on the chalkboard, in front of so many others (which i think is important bc everyone else’s experiences seemed pretty private, seungmin painting over his painting, changbin choosing not to watch the television anymore, hyunjin taking off his eyewear), but i really wanna emphasize jeongin in the i am not trailer, because his experience immediately suggests the multiverse aspect, because he sees himself at the bus stop; a version of himself that is not him. this is so important oh my god bc astronaut okay im going insane im getting so ahead of myself,,, but chan manages to get the words out to all of them, that the system can be broken. he sees the dome in which they live glitch, actual sunlight pouring through illuminating the red flower, and finds the drone with broken glass surrounding it at what can only be described as the edge of their universe,,, so he rounds up his boys and drives a bus through it to escape their oppressive system and create a home for themselves referred to as district 9. they kinda explore that through the rest of the i am series but really the heavy lore comes in around

miroh -

miroh is when they kinda realize,,, uh oh, we traded one oppressive system for another, and they try to overthrow the government,,, that’s the whole miroh mv honestly, i have to go back and rewatch it but the cle series is also,,, really centered around hyunjin and jeongin,,, ohhhh my god those two,,, but i am getting ahead of myself. their attempt at overthrowing the government is a horrible fucking failure lol because of course it is, but they find a key, to an elevator, and when they use that key, it takes them to their next dimension and album,

yellow wood -

yellow wood is where we get a little spooky a little crazy a little fun and funky. this is where we see how the versions of themselves are made; split off into choices, it’s so very everything everywhere all at once if you haven’t seen that movie it’s the best example i can give of kind of what’s happening. with side effects; you see one version of stray kids at a bus stop, having made it to the yellow wood. they have tickets to the bus, but the screen splits, and suddenly you see that only one group takes the bus—the easy way, while the others decide to brave the elements of this new world. tensions rise, they fight each other, but hyunjin, as the main keeper of the keys, feels the pressure on him to make it work. it’s why they find him passed out at the end of side effects and they pick him up; they don’t blame him for their shortcomings. but there is one last key at the end of side effects that leads into

levanter -

levanter is when we see the return of hellevator skz. that final key is the one that leads back to hell (eden) and the portal is opened between the worlds, and soon we figure out! oh! there are two versions of skz interacting on the same plane of existence! and the very make up of the world starts to crumble because they’re hit supposed to interact. they’re not supposed to see each other, because then other realms and dimensions become transcendent;

when the moons merge in levanter, two worlds collide, and stray kids, themselves, gain the power to hop through these different universe, and, later, create their own (that’s maniac). we see it with jeongin, who has known about this from the start, with astronaut, and also in astronaut, hyunjin, who is exploring the in between, where his friends are trapped; minds tethered between worlds. when he frees them, they gain the power to interact with these other universes, which we see prevalently in their next couple japanese releases (all in, circus). it isn’t until noeasy where we start to see them stop taking from other universes and start creating their own (i think about lee know in thunderous specifically), and then it’s later emphasized in maniac, when we get to see the inner makings of lee know’s brain, and how they all exist within that realm as well.

maxident and five star,,, my babies,,, conceptually they were just throwing shit at a wall. then we get to rockstar and the fuckin film club verse which goes all the way back to go live and i will make a separate post on that if you ask me to,,, from oddinary on it’s just been me trying to decipher whose universe is whose. like i know ate is very jisung heavy, giant is really chan heavy, and then we get to hop and i think the front runners for self awareness is lino and jeongin, but there’s a lot of levanter symbolism in the hop marketing, and in WoW specifically, they seem to be haunted by versions of themselves that they don’t seem to know exist, so i think we are looking at a new skz for hop, while our main ones are trying to eliminate them from existence before they become aware of the multiverse around them and further collapse the structure of their own universe.

season 5…