Sooyoung stepped out of the Astral Plane, fully expecting to meet her doom. A crushing, painful death as she was into the center of this random gas giant, light years from her home, cursing Joohyun’s name even as her molecules were torn apart.

    That didn’t happen. Instead, she found herself in a dimly lit, high-ceilinged building. Men in tailored suits and women in fancy dresses lounged around, chatting and drinking and smoking, barely taking note of the two women who had just appeared from a hole in space. Soft string music played from speakers. The smell of tobacco, alcohol, and various colognes filled the hot, stuffy air.

    “Come,” Joohyun said from beside Sooyoung, walking into a well-lit portion of the room.

    “What is this place?” Sooyoung asked, looking around, blinking as her eyes adjusted from the dimness of the Astral Plane. They were clearly in a bar, one that was furnished in an authentic, 70’s-style design. Wooden stools, visible planks making up the walls, moss green carpet floor. There was none of the filth that usually came with these establishments; the surfaces were polished and lacked any scratches or cigarette burns. 

    “This is Blattea’s Galactic Lounge,” Joohyun said offhandedly, finding them two seats at the mostly-empty bar. A young, plucky-looking man came to take their orders. He wore a suit similar to the one that Thomas of Earth’s Galactic Lounge wore. Sooyoung felt a stab of melancholy, then turned her attention to the menus they were provided.

    “Does every planet have its own Galactic Lounge?” Sooyoung asked, discovering the menu was identical to Earth’s.

    “Not every planet, no,” Joohyun said, reaching over to accept a glass of blood red wine from the bartender. She hadn’t even ordered anything yet; apparently, she was a regular here. “Just certain ones that Representations tend to gather at.”

    Sooyoung chuckled at the idea of a universe-spanning franchise. For gods and goddesses, the Representations tended to act very human.

    “I’ll have a hot chocolate. You know, with the foam on top?” she said to the bartender. Then, noticing how empty her stomach felt, “And one of those sausage and biscuit platters. With as much gravy as you’re allowed to give me.”

    The man nodded, grinned. “Good choice, ma’am.”

    Sooyoung turned away from ordering and was met by Joohyun’s scrutinizing stare. The older woman looked away slowly, taking a drink of wine. For what felt like the millionth time, Sooyoung found herself wondering just what the hell Seulgi saw in her. Sure, Joohyun was a beautiful woman, but wasn’t every Representation? Her personality was so frigid, so uninviting compared to Yerim’s.

    Thinking of the blonde made Sooyoung sadder, exacerbating the strain that had already been placed on her from the day’s travel. She occupied her mind by looking around, taking in the crowd, getting a feel for them. They all seemed so lofty, so carefree, so unaware. Laughing and smiling while planets were consumed, while billions of lives were in danger. Had she really been like that, too?

    “You said we needed to rally other Representations against Geulim Ja, right?” Sooyoung asked, accepting the hot chocolate from the bartender. The glass was warm in her palms, and she cupped it, inhaling its sweet aroma. “Because these people don’t look like they can be easily rallied.”

    “More of them support our cause than you would think,” Joohyun said.

The Representation turned in her seat, pointed to a cluster of men at one of the tables. They appeared to be playing a card game. All wore pale white suits without ties, and were haughtily drawn into themselves, as if they belonged to an exclusive club. They reminded Sooyoung of frat boys. Self-absorbed, exclusionary, and a little dumb. “Those men, the Representations of various galaxies, have always held a negative view toward my husband.”

Sooyoung felt her jaw slackening in awe. “Galaxies… like, the Milky Way?”

“Yes, I believe one of them is a Representation of your galaxy.” Joohyun glanced at Sooyoung and pursed her lips. “No need to look so amazed. They are, technically, less powerful than us.”

Sooyoung ran a hand over the metallic chain of her earring, the smooth gemstone at its end. “No wonder people think you guys are the only ones who can take down Eodum.”

Joohyun shrugged. “That’s yet to be seen.”

More cryptic responses. I’m gonna get tired of that real fast.

Deciding that the drink had cooled down enough, Sooyoung took a sip of her hot chocolate. Its flavor was identical to the one she’d had on the night she met Yeri, and left Sooyoung wondering why she had ordered it when she knew that it would have this effect on her. That terrible tightening in her chest intensified, and she caressed her earring again.

Don’t worry, Yeri. I’m coming for you.

Sooyoung’s food came then, and she dug into it with the zeal of a starving woman. It was flavorful and cooked to perfection, just like everything she’d ever had at the Galactic Lounge, but she barely tasted it. Eating was a religious act now, as though she were feeding her soul rather than her body.

Joohyun watched on in amusement. “How do you find navigating the Astral Plane?”

    “Hard, ty, weird,” Sooyoung said, shoveling more gravy into . “I think I’m starting to get the hang of it, though. Maybe. Got any tips?”

    “Truthfully, no,” Joohyun said, looking uncertain. “Moving through the Astral Plane is something that comes natural to us Representations. We don’t normally need to learn how to do it.”

    Sooyoung shrugged, took a gulp of water to wash down her food, and wiped her chin with a napkin. “Great. Why would anything be easy for me?”

    She then turned back to the half of her meal that was leftover, though she still felt Joohyun’s eyes on her. The Representation took the hint well enough, and waited for Sooyoung to finish eating before trying to restart the conversation. It didn’t take long, anyway.

    “I am going to go mingle a bit, try to get a feel of the other Representations’ sentiments regarding my husband,” Joohyun said, standing and motioning for the barkeeper to refill her wine. “In the meantime, you should get some rest. I want to leave here within two hours.”

    Sooyoung nodded, though she didn’t feel tired at all. The food seemed to have repaid whatever toll traveling through the Astral Plane had taken on her body.

    “We can leave sooner, if you want,” Sooyoung said, stretching. “Honestly, I feel better than I thought I would.”

    “That would be Yeri’s Vis fueling your bodily functions,” Joohyun said. “I would prefer to wait a couple of hours in order to ensure that you aren’t drawing too much of my sister’s power at a time.”

    Sooyoung furrowed her brow. Since Yeri had been stolen from her, the connection between herself and the earring had changed. Previously, utilizing its power was like being fueled by an intermediary of sorts, with Yeri serving as the primary source. Now, the energy - Vis, or whatever Joohyun had called it - seemed to be coming directly from the gem itself. Sooyoung could feel it deplete in real time. Right now, it was at about fifty percent of its capacity, though that number was gradually rising.

    “Are you sure I’m using her power?” Sooyoung asked. “It doesn’t feel like that at all. I can feel how much is left in the earring, but I can’t feel Yeri at the other end of it. If that makes any sense.”

    Joohyun paused, a thoughtful look coming over her face. “You shouldn’t be able to use her Vis at all. My husband’s planet has a barrier around it that prevents Representations from projecting their Vis beyond its confines.”

    “Well,” Sooyoung said, trying to search for an explanation for her apparent ability to break ancient magical rules, “Maybe it’s the power of love. Or friendship. Or whatever.”

    “I doubt that,” Joohyun said flatly. “It would make sense for you to have your own Vis if you had created a Representation, but you have not. I am not sure what exactly is going on here, but it’s better to be safe. We don’t want to cause Yeri any more discomfort than she’s already in.”

    At the thought of accidentally harming her already undoubtedly distressed fairy, Sooyoung was promptly convinced. “Alright. Two hours it is.”

    Joohyun nodded solemnly, then turned and began sauntering over to the table where Mr. Milky Way and his companions sat.

Belly full, Sooyoung sipped idly at her hot chocolate and played with a ball of Vis she conjured. Gyrating slats of dark and light played on and around her face as she held the small sphere, absently watching it turn about on her palm. Mentally, she traced the source of the energy and found that it definitely came from the earring. Normally she would feel Yeri’s presence there, feeding the earring, but that was no longer the case. The positive side to having her own power was heavily overshadowed by Yeri’s absence.

With a sigh, Sooyoung allowed the ball to dissipate, breaking into tiny, feather-like puffs of light that faded as they floated away.

“That’s a neat trick,” the bartender said, watching her. “I’ve never seen powers like that before.”

Sooyoung raised a skeptical eyebrow. “With all the Representations that come through here, you’ve never seen anything like that before?”

The bartender shook his head, blonde hair bobbing around his head as he did so. “Nope. Most of them are planets or moons, so they have the same powers, you know? Lots of fires, ice, and water tricks. But nothing with pure light like that. Stars are the closest things I’ve seen to it. What type of Representation are you?”

“Uh, to be honest I’m not sure,” Sooyoung said awkwardly. The young man gave her a questioning look, and she showed him her earring. “I’m actually a mortal.”

Sooyoung wondered if she should really be telling this bartender these things, but it didn’t seem like it mattered. An evil Cosmic overlord was already trying to kill her, what more harm could it do to tell some pimply bartender on a planet so ridiculously named “Blattea”?

“What a coincidence!” the bartender said, grinning widely, holding out his hand to shake. “I’m a mortal, too. My name’s Anbir.”

Sooyoung shook the man’s hand, noting the lingering touch in his grip, the way he glanced away whenever she prolonged eye contact with him. It reminded her of the boys she’d meet at parties and in clubs, those with thinly veiled intentions that they tried oh so hard to hide.

“You can just call me...” Sooyoung paused, wondering if she should even be giving out her real name. “Joy.”

“A pretty name for a pretty girl.”

    She put real, palpable effort into preventing her eyes from rolling. She’d heard that particular line at least fifty times since she’d started college.

    “What planet are you from? Is it Earth? Do all the mortals have access to Vis there?” Abnir continued, picking up a glass from the dishwasher below him and polishing it. He was beginning to ask too many questions for Sooyoung’s taste, and she already hadn’t been in the mood to talk.

    “I don’t give away all my secrets that easily,” Sooyoung said with a wink, scooping her drink from the bartop and preparing to go join Joohyun.

    “Ah, alright,” Abnir said, deflating. “I was just gonna ask if you were fleeing Earth. Especially since you’re with… her.”

    “Why?” Sooyoung asked, purposefully sounding naive and unaware. “What’s happening on Earth? And what does it have to do with my friend?”

    Abnir chuckled, seemed to realize that Sooyoung wasn’t joking, then frowned. “Joohyun hasn’t told you about what her husband’s doing on Earth?”

    Right, I forgot that this guy has met Joohyun enough times to know what she always orders.

    “She hasn’t mentioned it to me, no,” Sooyoung said. She hoped that Abnir would just think she was being coy or mysterious rather than just a blatant, incompetent liar. “We’re old friends, but we only met up again recently. Right before we came here, actually.”

“I see,” Abnir said, then leaned in and spoke in a conspiratorial whisper. “You do know who her husband is, right?”

“Of course,” Sooyoung said, trying to sound mildly offended. “Who doesn’t?”

The bartender held up a hand in concession. “Sorry, sorry. Some mortals don’t really understand the greater universe.”

“It’s fine, I get that all the time. You were saying?”

“Right so,” Abnir glanced over at where Joohyun was seated, chatting with the Galaxy Gang. “Apparently, Joohyun has taken a lover.”

Ah, .

“And her husband - you know, Him - he’s not happy,” Abnir said, shaking his head sadly, “Who would be? Can’t find loyalty anywhere nowadays.”

Sooyoung felt her brow scrunching against her will. “Uh…”

“Sorry, I’m getting off topic,” the bartender said with an apologetic smile. “Apparently her lover is from Earth, and He’s already started invading. I heard the Galactic Lounge there got raided. Bunch of Representations got killed.”

Sooyoung masked her tense swallow by finishing the remainder of her hot chocolate. “Sounds horrible.”

“Yeah, kinda scary, honestly,” Abnir said anxiously. “You’d think he would have brought her back to his planet, but she’s here instead. Kinda makes me nervous, you know? And I’m sure some other people agree.”

Sooyoung did a sweep of the room, paying close attention to the demeanor of the Representations. They were relaxed, yes, but in between their jokes and animated exchanges, Sooyoung caught hidden glances and whispered words. Tiny glimpses of their true bearing, an underlying level of suspicion, even resentment. It was all directed toward Joohyun.

“It’s not like she’s putting anyone in danger on purpose,” Sooyoung said, words sounding weak even to her own ears.

“No, she’s not,” Abnir said. “But that’s how she’s always been. She’s known for keeping secrets, getting innocent people in trouble. Not on purpose, nope, but it’s still her fault if she knows the risks.”

Sooyoung was quiet for a moment. “I could see that, yeah.”

“Sorry to talk bad about your friend,” Abnir added quickly. “She’s nice otherwise…”

“Trust me, it’s not that tight of a friendship,” Sooyoung said with a bitter laugh. “We’re just both headed to the same place.”

Abnir was about to speak again, but he glanced over Sooyoung’s shoulder, shut his mouth hard enough to make his teeth click, and busied himself with his thoroughly-polished glass.

Joohyun returned to her seat beside Sooyoung, looking annoyed.

“Another glass of wine.” she said to Abnir, who rushed to obey.

“Any luck with the galaxies?” Sooyoung asked as the bartender left.

“Not much. They wish for freedom from my husband’s influence, but not enough to openly oppose him.” Joohyun said, glaring back at the table she’d been talking with. They were all huddled together now, discussing amongst themselves. “They are being cowards.”

“You do realize that none of them are in the same position as you, right?” Sooyoung asked, feeling her temper beginning to rise. “They’re not all protected by a close position to Eodum.”

Joohyun exhaled hard through her nose, but withheld her response for a moment as Abnir had come to refill her wine.

“You know how dangerous my position is,” Joohyun said indignantly. “Yerim’s kidnapping is proof of that.”

“You said yourself that she’s safe though, didn’t you?” Sooyoung asked. “Or was that a lie?”

“No, of course not!” Joohyun said in a furious whisper.

“Right, good,” Sooyoung said, working to keep herself from exploding. “So you have an affair, then try to kill your husband, and he responds by babysitting your sister.”

Joohyun stiffened, nostrils flaring, eyes filled with flame. Sooyoung continued before the stunned Representation could speak, however. 

“But for anyone else, the consequence of fighting against Eodum is a painful death. Even for the people who aren’t fighting him, you know, the mortals like me and Seul, the ones who aren’t involved at all, they have their minds erased and their bodies used as tools for his destruction. Have you seen how he kills people? They get covered in that disgusting slime of his and melt away like they’ve been doused in acid.”

Sooyoung stood, barely aware that the bar had gone silent. She was breathing heavily, muscles taut, mind clouded by rage. To her, this outburst was a long time coming, precluded by her loss of control at the Galactic Lounge, when she’d punched Joohyun. Sooyoung had the restraint to avoid physical violence this time, but the honed edges of the words she flung were impossible to stop.

    Yeri wasn’t there to hold her back.

“You weren’t there when he first attacked the Galactic Lounge on Earth. He killed every Representation in there, in the exact way I described. Drowning in acid, helpless and confused, not even understanding why they were dying in the first place! And you… you have the balls to call these people cowards for not wanting to get involved?”

Sooyoung jabbed out with a finger, viciously pointing at Joohyun to enunciate each word.

“That isn’t the worst of it, though,” Sooyoung said, a lunatic’s grin setting itself on her face. Every eye in the bar was centered on her, thunderstruck expressions on each perfectly sculpted face. An audience of gods and goddesses for a mortal’s catharsis. “You put a whole planet - seven billion lives - directly in the path of Eodum’s wrath just for some . But that’s fine, because it doesn’t matter to you. As long as you get what you want, everything is ing fine!”

Sooyoung punctuated her final sentence by pressing the tip of her finger against the older woman’s chest.

Joohyun backed up, cheeks painted crimson by her embarrassment, eyes filled with a fractured mix of anger and hurt. She looked around, flush deepening. Then, she turned and hurried away. 

Sooyoung watched as Joohyun threw open the front door and vanished outside. For a few seconds, she stood beside the bar, panting, adrenaline receding, clarity returning. She pointedly did not look at Anbir.

Then she remembered that this planet had no solid surface.

Cursing to herself, ignoring the stares, Sooyoung sprinted after Joohyun, gathering Vis as she went. The door flew open as she kicked it, one of the hinges coming undone. She sprinted headlong outside, a bubble of Astral energy surrounding her, prepared to weather the storm.

Sooyoung straightened as she stepped on solid ground. She looked up, perplexed. This version of the Lounge seemed to exist on a roughly carved slab of rock. Above, the sky was a palette of alternate shades of blue, laid atop one another like the stripes of a flag. They raged around endlessly, appearing to move in every direction at once, each ribbon of color manipulated by a different invisible force. Despite the obvious power of the storm, the air was perfectly still on that little island of rock.

    Joohyun stood at the precipice of the isle, back to Sooyoung. She was motionless, a raven-haired statue before the roiling wall of destruction that lay beyond.

With careful, tentative footsteps, Sooyoung went to her, then stood awkwardly in place, uncertain of what to say.

    “Nothing you said was wrong,” Joohyun said softly without turning around. “Whether you knew it or not, you were accurately summing up my entire existence.”

    “Oh,” Sooyoung said, her own harsh intonations echoing in her head. “I… I’m sorry. That’s, uh, unfortunate.”

 Jesus Christ, you sound like Seul.

Joohyun turned, expression unreadable, stoic to the point of near-blankness.

“I understand that my attitude towards life is flippant,” Joohyun said. “It always has been, and I know that it’s a terrible flaw. But the length of time I have been alive, the things I have seen, and the infinite number of lives that have passed me by - mortal and Representation alike - have ultimately jaded me. For beings like me, my sisters, and my husband, our reality is fundamentally different.”

Joohyun ran a hand through her hair, gaze distant and unfocused.

    “That is no excuse, but hopefully it is enough to help you understand why I act the way I do. To you, my actions may seem selfish. But the scope you have is much narrower than that of Seungwan and myself. There are millions of moving parts to this equation, decades of buildup to the events that are happening. I implore you to take those into account.

    At times, it is hard for me to quantify the exact weight of each individual life. I have seen so much death, strife, and pain during my time in the Astral Plane. So much so that it no longer impacts me in a meaningful way. Perhaps that’s a way for my conscience to separate itself from responsibility, the role I played in allowing those things to happen. If I didn’t, how would I function? The guilt would crush me. How would you have me change that?”

    There was a genuinity to Joohyun’s voice that Sooyoung had never heard in the Representation’s tone. It was refreshing compared to the usual cold, ambiguous detachment that Joohyun usually spoke with. No sarcasm, no sense of implied superiority. It almost made Sooyoung wish that Joohyun had just started yelling.

    “That I don’t have the answer for,” Sooyoung said. Thinking of her previous outburst made her feel cruel, but she didn’t regret it. As Joohyun herself had said, Sooyoung was simply telling the truth. “But I would start by being more open with us about your plans. We’re in this show together, right?”

    Joohyun sighed heavily. Ageless as she appeared, there was an exhaustion on the Representation’s face that made her look ten years older. She stared out beyond their island. Sooyoung found the prolonged silence a little overdramatic, but Joohyun was dealing with a lot; it was understandable.

    “Then we will start with that.” Joohyun said quietly. She then lifted her chin, shoulder blades tightening to draw her into a more dignified position. She looked past Sooyoung. “I will go settle the bill inside. We should be continuing on soon.”

    With that, she strode into the bar, carrying an aura of importance that she hadn’t commanded before. Feeling satisfied (and somewhat confused), Sooyoung sighed and waited for Joohyun to return.

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A little more character building between Sooyoung and Joohyun, because I figured interactions with them could be interesting, just like interactions between Seungwan and Seulgi would be. Next chapter will focus on Seulgi/Stardust, and after that will probably be a brief time skip for Sooyoung and Joohyun to arrive on Blackstar.

Remember to upvote/comment if you enjoy the story so far!

Thanks for reading (: