#the genders are swapped for korea

[olivedoesmagic]

Olive Brimstone book 2 episode 2

for screen reader:

So i was passing off all day. Hanging out with myself wasting away the entire weekend after meeting some hot shot yakusa ne? This is just how thats talked about in japan. Which in english means: this is how that group talks overseas. Anyways. All realities have an overlap. And I learned my experiments worked, i cant stop reality shifting. Problem with me wanting a pet snake. I am always for long periods of time returned to modern day 2023 BTG (before teh gate0 in the 20th century, in reality 2.5 which is the dominant timeline because its a reality that incorporates all other forms of media. Which means, that popcultlure magick is real in this world but thus theirs the sacredness you call upon the real shit, and then the ficitonal counterpart it pretends to be the fake shit, but that for this stuff all that shit feels so weird its encompulated. Also selife on ai.

Yep. So i visit alternate realities now in my sleep. Sometimes to reality shift you have to be in a meditative state, because in 2.5 all realities collapse into your history on this one, but to fully recall it you must have a history of respwaning. Heres one reality. 1.7AB, i was messing with snakes and a wormhole was in my backyard that zapped me since it appeared in 2 x-y = blank, over phrase? Thus? We as the whole family were teleported to modern day america. Only it looked like england. It really did. Rocco was my father my older teacher and my hair was stark blonde, and i was zapped from multiple realities into one and carried on my wayward my other friends cus teh multiverse was dying. I had one reality where i was my own twin brother who was a hot chick i wanted to bang,.

The best part about sliders is technically the math on the board is correct you could make a reality hopping compas that way, but it would be so dangerous that you woudn’t find oyur way home for 6 whole years, but the technology would all stay in one universe. COLD WORLD. Reality shifters and sliders if they had a gendre would be camp and truecrime. Its so weird. You know this by charintg style through patterns over teh years, and applying those histories of those patterns which are things that repeat again and again, over the same billboard. So lots of dots over not dots, stripes together, frillys over time. And everything has patterns since patterns are numbered, everything has numbers. Tihs reality shift taught me math.

[image shows a dark haried korean like but whiet and pale almost labino with dark features and rosebuds lips, chizled face, with awavy black hair and a pointed chin in warm lighitng on the cheeks of rose like nature and then an illstration next to the ai photo of him in a red female hooded cloak with a frilly fuzzy pattern]

f you reality shift always have someone elses youtube videos saved and know how to book bind. One day you’ll do it for real and you never know when they will be a world iwthout books.

[the pattenrs are layers of 3 or 4 like fingers on a hand. In different artsitic shapes, such as cubes, diagnals, and circles and smeers and blocks. over and over again one in black and white repeated pictures again and again and one in colors thats just squares with diffrent feelings like that of the colors. making layers of it. to test out patterns if your blind hold something shaped the same or trace teh lines on your hand again and again.]

Im not translate the title look up bookworm anime cus it honours that exact princess.

QUICK SOMEONE TRANSLATE THIS NOVEL INTO SPAIN-’S SPANISH.

Patterns.

"image portrays more phychodelic pattners with more abstract shpaes and fungus/mushroom like shapes, in rainbows with a book of a blue haired middle eastern girl light skinned like a doll holding a giant red book in her 3 year old lap. with soups and breads surounding her".

Im not translate the title look up bookworm anime cus it honours that exact princess.

QUICK SOMEONE TRANSLATE THIS NOVEL INTO SPAIN-’S SPANISH.

Patterns.

this last photo just kinda works on most adobe dragonspeak screen readers but not all.

same with this one.

live it from my perspective knowing it was an alternate reality. So i respanwed ended up in another reality for a while and came back to this one. Also guys, its okay to masturbate to me, it helps me with my slut shaming reputation and right now given the sex slaming chart were at the level slut shame or freak in the sheets. Take cults 102 on youtube, you’ll learn about libido. Just know my friend got sugery to look like childhood me which these photos recreate i look white and fat now, and you shoudnt masturbate to her unless you can make it special like here:

Ddlc and here

She is lie this but for her triggers you must approach her for spells by me for the next two years. 🙂

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2QVMQbslWM&ab_channel=JadeSleiman thats right moths and watermelons the dolls of dollvinia have moved off tick tock.! BUZZ BUZZ -chloe the queen bea.

Also i want to kidnap paitinings, by training them to be like something the artist is afraid to not finish and then being kind and being like, i’ll prevent that gimme paitning here your moeny. Arrt actually acan be arthouse and ifne by not being finished and sketches are the best example of this.

Examples removed for priavcy.

By artist powderlue based off a commission i did. By the national art institute even tho its “HRRRRHG ARNIME” this is the nicest art in the best style on earth. LIterally. Finite. Proper high end art. If she did coloring books she coild make alot more. But saying this to eym is rude, so im not goign too. I aquire the rights to teh art i love it very much. Its about me and master, and its worth it. Its just him and I who do the work. He pays for my art, then i use it in reality shifting and he reaquries it. Zone is so cool guys. We lie to people and say we’re painting it like the ideas of the thing, but we’re not with zone captor aka the original doctor it really is just like that, with the zeroith doctor. Or im skisooprhenic. ID ont kno i gots coffee. I smeared hennah on my wrist and it smudged to look like a sea turtle my totem. Not spirit animal totem. Totems are aglic, or gaelic and thus cant be approprietated, while spirit animals totally can tho unless your cherokee..

Check this out and 

Amd

Lastly i went back to bed mid entry, and woke up, im exhausted, and had a dream about kim jong un my uncle and being in north korea. Which iw as, and trying to turn round abouts. And evil sea momsters after me to drown me underwater. Why do so many mermaid like things think that that is a game?

-Olive Brimstone

7/31/2023

8:22 AM

#reality shifting #time travel #korea #teddybear #kim jong un #olive brimstone #tea boy #secret mask #identity #north vs south #civil war #the genders are swapped for korea #Youtube

[old-wild-child]

⚠️🖍🤔

⚠️Which wip your most likely to finish or update next?

Either my Psycho 3 redo fanfic or the one where Maude visits Harold as a ghost. They’re both only one chapter long so I’d like to focus on either one to get them out of the way first.

🖍Post Any sentence from your wip

“Three years?” Hawkeye questioned the television program the kids were focused on. “Three years on a deserted island and there wasn't any success in rescuing them?! That’s like being stuck in Korea for eleven.”

This is from my unnamed post war Houlihawk fanfic. I wrote this piece after my own frustration over the unrealistic elements of Gilligan's Island.

🤔What’s a story you’d love to write but haven’t even started yet?

A gender swap noir with a woman detective and man femme fatale (or homme fatale). It was inspired by this post, but was have yet to write it (as either a novel or screenplay, whichever works best). I would love to create such a story, but I don’t consume enough noir films or novels to make my own.

[idontwanttowhy]

Review: Mr. Queen (2020)

Joyously Utterly Ridiculous with a dash of Politics

Synopsis

So there's this outspoken Blue House head chef, Jang Bong Hwan, who gets in some trouble and is running away from the police when he has a near-death experience. But instead of regaining consciousness in the 21st century, he wakes up in the body of softspoken Kim So Yong, the Queen Cheorin in the Joseon period (19th century). Here he gets thrown into marriage preparations to King Cheol Jong, and swept up in the secrets of the palace.

AC Overall: 9/10, just good fun at first...and then I really got into the plot

Lord Jesus when I tell you I CACKLED at the mere premise of this womanizing man waking up in a Joseon woman's body--and a Queen much less! So I watched the first few eps just out of sheer awe of the plot and hilarious shenanigans that ensued. And honestly didn't pay the rest of the plot much attention...

But then it became something worth paying attention to, and it grasped me until the end of the drama. Very thoughtful. This is a comedy with some political undertones, and a romance (or 4) to die for (lol).

Favorite things about the drama: the silly comedy, the plot, the character development, the list goes on. And kudos to the team for not making the gender swap too weird, I've seen other dramas do it less tastefully. It's a step.

AC Review (spoilers)

Let's face it, Bong Hwan as So Yeon was the best thing that happened to that palace, to Cheol Jong, Bong Hwan himself, to So Yeon herself, to the country...etc. The ~growth~ Bong Hwan went through as a result was *chef's kiss*. From the jumping-into-any-body-of-water-to-get-back-home, to establishing the "no touch" rule between him and the King, to being willing to further ~explore~ romance, sex , pregnancy as a woman, was beautiful, thoughtful, even intriguing to watch, and didn't seem abrupt or distasteful. Do wish we could've seen So Yeon in 21st century Korea as a man more too, though we did get glimpses of her trying to unsuccessfully bag some men at a club and then engaging with a woman in the kitchen's storage room as Bong Hwan himself used to do. I suppose Mr. Queen's developing attraction to Cheol Jong could be imagined as being from/because of So Yeon's co-habitating yearning soul but, I prefer to believe he organically developed that soul-soul attraction while So Yeon's soul was galavanting around Seoul.

Now, I'm a fan of Welcome to Waikiki (S1...couldn't watch S2 it was so...not Waikiki) so it was hard for me to see Kim Jung Hyun as anyone other than goofy ass Kang Dong Gu. And honestly, his acting here was...aight. His way of portraying the King as comely-in the agreeable sense only imo-was by lowering his eyelids and looking like a zombie. Forgive me, but i. wanted. more. nuance. They had a hard time convincing me he was pretending to be meek around the palace and was truly a force beyond. Shin Hye Sun's acting carried the drama, she was a star in portraying Bong Hwan's soul and So Yeon's soul at the right moments. A little extreme at times...but the drama called for it.

And I can't not shout-out the side characters here too. Court Lady Choi and the Royal head Chef need a spinoff, they were so cute together, and maid Hong Yeon deserves the man of her dreams--maybe the King's best friend Hong, maybe not. I was so proud of her for turning down Kim Hwan so beautifully...and let's be real, he deserves someone too, such a sweetheart! Both Prince Yeongpyeong and Byeong In needed a happy ending too...why was it that both these men looked like they had been crying in every scene??

Speaking of my Byeong In...in every drama I have a "man", which is usually the one who could do no wrong because he's so good to look at (both inside and out, thankyouverymuch). Most of the time it's the second lead, and that held true here too. My man...I know his character's a little gross for romantically loving his (adoptive?) cousin the Queen, but I kept rooting for him, even when he became a bad apple and tried to force her to be the Kim family's puppet. And I must admit Mr. Queen had a point when he accused Byeong In of not noticing the change in his loved one after the soul switch. How could he still believe that was his So Yeon?? But I forgive him, he redeemed himself by letting the Queen live, get away, and ultimately find her King and make it back to the palace for some sweet revenge.

(Not gonna mention the family drama or Eui Bin here, it was exhausting enough to watch. But Eui Bin redeemed herself too, I guess.)

All in all I really loved this drama, and it's something I know I wouldn't have appreciated before this year, honestly. Lots of laughter, good chemistry between the King and Queen, and the storyline wasn't bad either. Give it a watch if you need some silly laughs with a dash of romance and substance.

P.S.: Kinda mad that in the end, the real So Yeon got to ride the wave of love from the King that had developed for Bong Hwan's soul...So Yeon didn't earn his love! And I felt bad for the King too, having lost Bong Hwan and his ~energy~ without so much as a goodbye. (And it would've been cool to see Mr. Queen give birth...) But hey, they all needed a happy ending after everything they went through those last few eps.

MZ Overall: 6/10, i needed to know how this whole thing would end

AC described this as a "comedy with some political undertones" but I would say the opposite: a political show with some comedic undertones. WAY too much plot. I was not trying to follow all that. AC also said to me that this romance was a "slow burn" which was JUST A STRAIGHT UP LIE. I was struggling at the end. There is a lot to like about this show if you like physical comedy and politics. I'm very whatever about this show though.

MZ Review (spoilers)

As usual, AC and I have disagreed completely on a drama. Firstly, this show did NOT need to be 20 episodes. After 10 I was truly asking myself if I was going to invest another 10 hours of my life in seeing it through. That was when I decided to watch it while crafting, so I'll see the major plot points (dramatic background music is a universal language!) without feeling like I had to have my eyes peeled.

By the end, I was staying to figure out how they were going to resolve the whole thing with Jang Bong Hwan. Would he go back? Would he stay and somehow fuse with So Yong? I don't know what I wanted but what happened was.... not it.

Ok, so I wasn't staying only to see how it ended... I was also there for Lady in Waiting Choi. She had the absolute best bit in the whole show, with the smutty kaleidoscope. Why was I ROLLING when she brought it out? The writers did not have to do her like that but there it was and I loved it. The side characters are generally good in this show overall, which also made it fun to watch.

I would use the rest of this time to complain about how Lady Uibin and Kim Byung In were terrible love rivals, but that is quite frankly my most boring take. Instead, I'd like to talk about queerbaiting. I am from the era of fandom tumblr that was held in a chokehold by gay ships such as Merthur, Destiel, and Johnlock, so I am no stranger to this concept. What I haven't made up my mind on is how queerbaiting shows up (or not) within k-dramas. And while I'm completely comfortable with accusing white people of the global west in engaging in this sort of practice, I would not extend this lens to cultures I only know through slivers of the media they produce. Which is to say that I can't speak to one of the hallmarks of queerbaiting: trying to "lure in" queer/ally audiences using these suggestions of representation.

So for the purposes of this blog, when I say "queerbaiting," I'm referring to how showrunners write/create visuals/otherwise hint at romantic relationships between people of the same gender, but who are ostensibly straight. I'd say this is part of the undercurrent of Mr. Queen, and particularly the relationship between Bong Hwan (as So Yong) and Cheol Jong. It is usually played for laughs: So Yong's body has physical responses to Cheol Jong, that Bong Hwan mentally fights off. Bong Hwan still has his urges, leading him to seek out courtesans, pick out the concubines for Cheol Jong, and TRY TO KISS HONG YEON AS SO YONG. The writers go through great pains to establish Bong Hwan as a Straight Man (TM), which begins to crumble after he and Cheol Jong have sex (but he's drunk and in a woman's body and thinks he is having sex with a woman, so it's not gay, just lowkey sexual assault!!!). What begins to dissolve is how much Bong Hwan is portrayed as pushing back against the affections of So Yong towards Cheol Jong. Especially towards the end, how much of the kissing, affection, and care was Bong Hwan? This is a question that is up for the viewer to decide, even up to the end.

When Bong Hwan wakes up in his body back in the 21st century, the first thing he does is attempt to find out what happened to Cheoljong. He then figures out that their lives changed forever because they met each other. He learned that he can ~fight injustice~ in any era blah, blah, blah. No addressing how he was about to die for Cheol Jong, or how he had fully even stopped trying to get back to his body, or how Cheol Jong felt like he "lost something" after the fight.... No, just Cheol Jong being straight with So Yong and Bong Hwan getting to go back to his life as a Man.

Listen, I know this show was not supposed to be a rom-com, but am I so wrong for still wanting some kind of resolution for this? They really wrote themselves in circles trying to make sure we know they are straight, and yet they throw in just enough doubt... In my view, classic sign of queerbaiting.

And to disagree with AC again, I have seen genderswap/gender changing done MUCH better in other shows. Take You're Beautiful (2009) for instance: when the heroine has to pretend to be her twin brother to join an all-male band, one of the bandmates never figures out that he is a girl, so struggles with his growing attraction to her. This show was far from perfect, but we actually see the characters deal with the fallout of the gender swap rather than just be like "oh that happened." We see something similar in Coffee Prince (2007), which sees the main male lead struggle a lot over his attraction to the main female lead, who presents as a man. Both of these, while far from perfect, at least portray something about what means to contend with sexual/romantic attraction in homophobic/transphobic society. Both of these shows were made over 10 years ago; you would think that by now we'd be doing a bit better.

#Mr. Queen #kdramareview #kdrama

[guam-671-dv8]

NYTimes: Blowback Over Griner’s Release Exposes Depth of America’s Divisions

Blowback Over Griner’s Release Exposes Depth of America’s Divisions https://nyti.ms/3V0NMH7

"LIVE See more updates: Russia-Ukraine War

6m ago

6m ago

Blowback Over Griner’s Release Exposes Depth of America’s Divisions

Past hostage exchanges have sparked criticism, but the response to Brittney Griner’s homecoming has been fueled by the politics of race, gender and sexual orientation.

Image



A mural by Isaac Campbell in Washington that depicts Brittney Griner and other Americans detained abroad.Credit...Olivier Douliery/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images



By Jonathan Weisman and Ken Bensinger

Dec. 9, 2022

Sign up for the Russia-Ukraine War Briefing.  Every evening, we'll send you a summary of the day's biggest news. Get it sent to your inbox.

There was a time when the release of American citizens who had been unjustly imprisoned by a foreign adversary was a moment for bipartisan relief and celebration: the 2018 return of three men from North Korea, secured by President Donald J. Trump, or the 1991 freeing of Terry Anderson, an American journalist, after years of captivity in Lebanon.

Those moments felt like sepia-toned artifacts on Friday as Brittney Griner, the women’s basketball star, slipped quietly into a military base in Texas for evaluation following her release from Russia, while a Fox News reporter peppered the White House press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, with pointed questions about an exchange that he said had sent the “Merchant of Death” to Russia for a “professional athlete.”

Within hours of Ms. Griner’s release, much of the right wing was in full outrage mode, seizing upon both the man Ms. Griner had been exchanged for — Viktor Bout, a notorious Russian arms merchant serving time, in part, for endangering American lives — and the Biden administration’s failure to secure the release as well, or instead, of a former Marine, Paul Whelan, who has languished in a Russian prison since his 2018 arrest on espionage charges.

A considerable amount of attention was also paid to who Ms. Griner is: a Black woman, a celebrity, a married lesbian and, though it had gone largely unnoticed until now, an assertive liberal — one who, at the height of the Black Lives Matter protests, called to stop playing the national anthem at her team’s basketball games.

ADVERTISEMENT

From the early days of the Cold War through the protracted conflict in Afghanistan, hostage releases have carried political risks, especially when they involve prisoner exchanges, said Danielle Gilbert of Dartmouth College, an expert on such deals. The scenes of joy and the human drama of a return to freedom must be tempered by the knowledge that victory was attained through a deal with an adversary — almost always involving a concession that the adversary dearly wanted.

And, of course, legitimate questions can be raised about these swaps, including whether they encourage still more hostage-taking or could endanger Americans, like Mr. Whelan, who are left behind.

Image



A photo provided by the Russian Federal Security Service of Ms. Griner on a plane after being released on Friday.Credit...Russian Federal Security Service, via Associated Press

Image



Ms. Griner arrived in San Antonio on Friday.Credit...Suzanne Cordeiro/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

The Biden Presidency

Here’s where the president stands after the midterm elections.

A New Primary Calendar: President Biden’s push to reorder the early presidential nominating states is likely to reward candidates who connect with the party’s most loyal voters.

A Defining Issue: The shape of Russia’s war in Ukraine, and its effects on global markets, in the months and years to come could determine Mr. Biden’s political fate.

Beating the Odds: Mr. Biden had the best midterms of any president in 20 years, but he still faces the sobering reality of a Republican-controlled House for the next two years.

2024 Questions: Mr. Biden feels buoyant after the better-than-expected midterms, but as he turns 80, he confronts a decision on whether to run again that has some Democrats uncomfortable.

Representative Kevin McCarthy of California, who hopes to be speaker in the Republican-controlled House next year, touched on that when he appeared on Fox News to condemn the “trumped-up charge” against Ms. Griner but to say that the exchange with Mr. Bout had “made us weaker.” He added, “It’s made Putin stronger, and it’s made Americans more vulnerable.”

ADVERTISEMENT

But Ms. Griner’s case has gone beyond such calculations, into the fraught arenas of race, gender and sexual orientation, and at a time of make-no-concessions partisanship, when large swaths of the American public are steeped in the grievance politics and adversary demonization of Mr. Trump and his acolytes.

The former president’s son Donald Jr. swiped at Ms. Griner’s identity when he wrote that the Biden administration “was apparently worried that their DEI score would go down if they freed an American Marine,” using the corporate-world acronym for diversity, equity and inclusion.

His father, the former president, took issue with Ms. Griner’s political views, declaring that she “openly hated our Country.” Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia called the prisoner swap “another reason to impeach Biden.”

And those were among the more tame comments from the Trump-dominated right.

“There’s that underlying sense that this is part of the Democrats’ focusing on someone who is sympathetic to them and leaving a Marine behind,” said David Silbey, a military historian at Cornell University. “It fits nicely in the narrative that a lot of the right is telling America, about who gets the privilege in Biden’s America.”

Prisoner exchanges have long been politically difficult, especially for Democratic presidents. Mr. Whelan was taken prisoner when Mr. Trump was in the White House, and his sister, Elizabeth Whelan, a supporter of Mr. Trump, pleaded with officials close to the president to try to win his release. In the summer of 2019, Mr. Whelan begged Mr. Trump for his assistance — “Tweet your intentions,” he shouted to reporters from inside a glass cage at the Moscow City Court — to no avail.

Yet it is Mr. Trump’s successor who is taking the heat."

[wd-min]

THE FACECLAIM:

Full Name: Park Jimin

Group/Band/Occupation: BTS – Kpop idol

Nationality: South Korean

International Age: 27

 

THE MUSE:

Name: Park Jimin

Nickname: Min, Minnie, Mimi

Age: 156 ~ appears as 27

Date of Birth: 13th Oct 1866

Gender: Genderfluid/ Androgynous

Secondary Gender: Omega

Preferred Pronouns: He/They

Race: Werewolf

Sexual Orientation: Homosexual

 

PHYSICAL APPEARANCE:

Skin Color: Olive

Eye color: Silver

Piercings: Ears, Lip

Tattoos: Moon phases across the spine

Hair color: Black  

 ──・──

 

 Jimin is a reserved man. Despite his sub-gender and all the traits that come with it, he tends to keep to himself, but at the same time he can be very friendly when the opportunity presents itself. He’s very whimsical, head-in-the-clouds type of person, always seeing the romance in everyday life. Due to his noble heritage, he can seem a little superficial and snobbish, but in reality, he is very easy going and a free spirit. His upbringing has also helped in making him very cultured and curious about the world; Jimin speaks many languages although some of them have slipped his mind with the passing of time.

He can often be found at family-owned restaurants and little coffee shops writing or reading. His degree is in philosophy although when you’ve been around for a hundred and fifty-six years, your areas of interest change. His current fixation is history and magick, which he gets help learning from a local coven that has all but adopted him as their own.

His house is bigger than one person could ever need, so he shares it with his cat and the occasional weary friend that stays the night. He loves the rain and horror movies and his favorite holiday is Halloween.

Min has lived through many of humanity’s eras. He’s seen them evolve from global conflict and its horrendous effects, to taking leaps in the areas of science. He’s wanted to feel like he, too, could be a part of something bigger than himself, something that could help ease this feeling of not fitting in with modern day humans. In the past, people believed in mythical creatures, they had curiosity to drive them, their imagination ran wild and sometimes… sometimes they got it right. Nowadays, in the age of advanced technology, only few souls remain curious to explore the realm of his existence; the realm of witches and vampires and werewolves, the realm where nearly everything their ancestors used to fear is true... just hidden in plain sight.

Born into nobility, he had an unfair advantage during the human prosecutions of his kind. He was only a pup when his parents fled to Europe until things had settled. As he grew older, however, he felt the injustice of living a life of luxury while his kind was chased and murdered, so he returned to South Korea to start a life of his own where he eventually presented as an omega. Things weren’t easy, but he soon heard about a place where many supernaturals lived in peace, so he uprooted his life once again and settled in. He opened a small restaurant, putting his passion for cooking to good use and swapped tales with his customers over cups of mulled wine and beer. 

 

 ──・──

 

 ROLEPLAYER

Name: Theo

Age: 26

Pronouns: she/they

Time zone: GMT+2

Favorite tropes, themes: strangers to lovers, enemies to lovers, unrequited love, smut, fluff, mild angst, supernatural, historical fiction.

NOTES: replies may be sporadic but I will be online more often than not.

#krp oc #kpop rp #idol krp #new krp #bts rp #bts roleplay #literate krp #kpop roleplay #krp ad #alpha beta omega #omegaverse #omega rp

[nettlestonenell]

Perfect image from Nose in a Book’s review is perfect.

Secret Garden –

I want to say that only in a kdrama would you find a body and gender swap situation that’s not EVEN the main plotline of the show?

*That said, it’s got to be one of the more inventive body swap plotlines (involving both gender switching and intermittent swapping over multiple episodes). An absolute field day for the actors involved.

Watched for Hyun Bin, b/c reasons, his performance, and that of the female lead’s carry viewers through this 2010 early Hallyu romcom written by KES. The internet swears HB’s elevator scene was a one-take wonder, but even if it wasn’t, it’s still epic (and that’s not overspeak). 

Holds the distinction of ovary-melting-ist kdrama kiss (enacted on a public dancefloor, no less) in my viewing history thus far (okay, so it’s not just a single kiss but a full-on filmed foreplay session). 

There was a lot to like, and I appreciated many aspects of the plot as spun, here, but for pure enjoyment on my part, HB doesn’t even take first place. No, for me it’s all Oska.

- - - - 

Aside: the number of kdramas with classical titles of Western Literature is so MADDENING! *and not just b/c I need a Korean period Pride and Prejudice, like, yesterday, but b/c they steal the titles and then the plots have NOTHING to do with those titles. Here, the title “Mystic Garden” would work better, as it was translated several times in the subtitles on Viki.

#nell watches kdramas #secret garden 2010 korea #hyun bin #ha ji won #hyun bin bc reasons #kdrama #more like okay: drama! #rakuten viki #secret garden korea #secret garden #kim eun sook #gender swap #body swap

[the-comfort-den]

Masterpost

You can ask for Heacanons of any characters on this list, and the link bellow has info about asks! Please do not ask for anything on the ‘topics i wont do’ section, I will ignore your ask,

Post type masterpost here!

Masterlist here!

Note! i only do male or gender neutral readers!!

-

Fluffy alphabet(Link here): Open!

SFW alphabet(Link here): Open!

Angst alphabet(Link here): Open!

NSFW alphabet(Link here): Open!

Headcanons(General and x reader): Open!

Headcanon ask additional info(Link here)

Scenarios: Semi-Open!

Imagines: Semi-Open!

Character max: 10(say for bitties)

Topics i wont do: Pregnancy(Uncomfertable), things like incest, anything nsfw with minor characters, things with characters and large age gaps, or unhealthy relationships, unhealthy themes are fine but no abuse with the ships!

I also feel uncomfortable doing much with female readers, tho im afab/transmasc myself and she/her pronouns are hard to write for, i just prefer ftm or amab or gender neurtral/nonbinary readers!

Au’s:

Mythical au(Link here): Open!

Bittybones(ask me for bitty cards and ill give them to you! they count for everyone(and yes i run Fantasy Fields lmfao but the bitty cards here wont be as detailed, and a bit more specific!))

-(character list below!)- (Note, these are all with my headcanons and interpretations and au(with my boyfriend) so they mind not line up to what you your hcs are nor canon)

Pokemon:

Here!

-

Fnaf:

Here!

-

Creepypasta:(Og au, soft au, chaos au)

Here!

-

Inner world(My oc’s!)(Character post here)

Insanity, Sanity, Morality, Anger, Joy, Sadness, EDD, Paranoia, Anxiety, Depression, Imagination, Fear, ODD, Monophobia, SPD, Enochlophobia, Algophobia, Hyper, Cryophobia, Empathy, Apathy, Disgust, Bipolar, Astraphobia, Thermophobia, Trypanophobia, Athazagoraphobia, Acrophobia, Achluophobia,  Cynophobia,

-

CountryHumans(Character post here)

America, Australia Canada, China, Egypt, England, Finland, France, Greece, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Norway, Poland, Russia, South Korea,

-

Undertale:(heigh chart/list here)

Here!

-

John Doe: 

John Doe, Human!John Doe

-

House Hunted: 

Maison Talo(Maison), Soft au!Maison(Talo), Hotel!Maison(Utel), Hospital!Maison(Haigla), Arcade!Maison(Portico), Movie Theater!Maison(Kino), Restaurant!Maison(Etterem), 

ocs(technically): Dom, Inzu, Maja, Hus, Ty, (info about them here!)

-

Spooky Month:(og au(with headcanons ofc), chaos au, chaos swap au(no swap og for now!),)

Here!

-

The lost boys:(my au, and Sam, Alan, and Edgar are just out of high school(18-19))

David, Paul, Marko, Dwayne, Alan Frog, Edgar frog, Sam Emerson, Michael Emerson,

(other notes: in my au the Emersons are werewolves, as in my au non humans(like werewolves and vampires) are pretty common, so the boys dont have to hide either, Max and Lucy are married and they have a funky mixed family(i will so ramble about my au if you ask)

-

Hazbin hotel: 

Adam, Lucifer, Alastor, Peter, Vox, Valintino, Lute, Husker,

(notes:(my au) Alastor is Demi/Demi(still ace, and it takes him months to care enough, other than that he’s pan), Val doesnt rape people in my au and prefers things to be consensual, still a hot head though, Lute is trans(ftm) so when writing for him ill be using he/him pronouns)

-

Helluva boss: 

Stolas, Blitzo, Moxie, Crimson, Wally Wackford, Stricker,

(notes:(my au) Crimson isnt an awful father, he’s not the best but he’s not horrible, he just didnt get Moxie(he was a lot softer than Crim), but he tried and got his son out of the Greed ring so he could be somewhere safer, well, as safe as he could be in hell-,

-

The Walten files:

Jack Walten, Felix Kranken, Rosemary Walten, Linda Thompson, Susan Woodings, Charles Brook,

(notes:(my au) a lot is different but the main thing is that Jack is an alternate(his mom ended up being infertil despite wanting to be a mom, so she ended up trying something not the best, but she loves her son and she still has her soul(and her husband still loves her lol) i will happily ramble more about this au! 

Also Jack is bi and poly, Rosemary is pan and poly, Linda is also bi and poly, and Felix is gay(panromantic tho) and poly, jack is married to Rosemary and dating Felix, Felix is married to Linda(and loves her romantically) and is dating Jack, Rosmary is Dating Linda and Married to Jack, and ofc Linda is dating Rosemary and married to Felix! Charles is bi and Susan is a lesbian(tho as i dont write for fem readers im willing to bend my own rules lmao this is a place for fuckery and fun not rules XD))

#Masterpost #ooc

[gunsatthaphan]

~ Monthly BL Breakdown: November 2021 ~  

Disclaimer: All shows can be streamed here, here or here! For more info about shows, check out their MDL pages!

- Updates coming every month - feel free to add stuff! -

What came out this month? (green tick = seen or currently watching)

🌟 Love With Benefits - November 1st (Thailand) ✅

🌟 Nilundon - November 7th (Thailand)

🌟 2Gether The Movie - November 11th (Thailand - cinemas)

🌟 Utsukushii Kare/My Beautiful Man - November 18th (Japan)

🌟 Money Boys - November 19th (Taiwan - cinemas)

🌟 Baker Boys - November 24th (Thailand) ✅

🌟 Paint With Love - November 26th (Thailand) ✅

🌟 Loveless Society - November 26th (Thailand)

🌟 The Couple - November 27th (Thailand)

🌟 Mr. Cinderella - November 28th (Vietnam)

Monthly likes/dislikes

❣️ Baker Boys & Paint With Love are my highlights this month. They both had amazing kickoffs; I’m loving the humor in Baker Boys and the vibes in Paint With Love. It feels different and especially Tae’s character is so on point lol I love it. Another thing I cherished a lot this month were the Between Us specials! They were consciously incoherent but super sweet and they made me even more hyped for the series!! 🤩 Another obsession this month remains Bad Buddy bc episode 5 was a masterpiece. Also the Not Me trailer. Holy hell.

👎🏻 Nothing I specifically disliked but lemme just say that if that My Broccoli series is actually happening then WabiSabi’s credibility is compromised lmao. I’m still waiting for the SIKE moment but it looks like it’s not a joke which..... if the plot ends up blowing me away then maybe we can talk. But for now it’s ridiculous lol.

New show announcements

🎥 Season of the Lost Forest (novel adaption) - Date TBA (Thailand)

🎥 Bungee Jumping of their Own (starring NCT’s Jaehyun) - Coming 2022 (South Korea)

🎥 Tinted With You (starring ACE’s Jun Hee) - Coming December 2021 (South Korea)

🎥 The Witcher (novel adaption) - Date TBA (Taiwan)

🎥 Club Sapan Fine ss2 - Date TBA (Thailand)

🎥 춘정지란 (manhwa adaption) - Date TBA (South Korea)

🎥 Cupid’s Will (starring EarthMix) - Date TBA (Thailand)

🎥 Dangerous Partner - Coming January 13th (Japan)

🎥 Future The Series (starring Boom Nattapat and BigBoom Jirayu) - Date TBA (Thailand)

🎥 Cafe In Love (starring Nanoob from LoveSick) - Date TBA (Thailand)

🎥 Our Dining Table (manga adaption) - Date TBA (Japan)

🎥 Pumpkin Time (gender swap theme) - Date TBA (South Korea)

🎥 Cherry Magic the movie (sequel) - Coming April 8th 2022 (Japan)

Other news from the bl world

❗️Tul Pakorn confirmed in an interview that him and Max will have another project together next year. It is likely to be the novel adaption of “Transplant The Series”.

❗️NCT’s Jaehyun will star in a remake of "Bungee Jumping of their Own” (the Thai remake was Dew The Movie), which is set to be released in the second half of 2022. Lee Hyunwook will play his counterpart.

❗️The new version of KinnPorsche is set to air in April 2022.

❗️Studio WabiSabi announced their lineup for 2022/2023: Between Us (starring BounPrem), My Only 12% (starring SantaEarth), Absolute Zero (starring TorMix), We Are The Series (no cast announced yet), My Broccoli (starring Boun), Dear Doctor The Series (starring NutKarn, filming has started)

❗️The upcoming thai bl “My Ride The Series” has been announced to air in January 2022.

❗️The director of FUTS tweeted about filming a sequel with the hashtag #FishUponTheSky2 but deleted the tweet shortly after, which sparked rumors for a possible season 2.

❗️A second season for the mix-bl drama “Club Sapan Fine” has been announced. OabGun have been confirmed as the mains, along with Up, PunPun, Max and others. Filming has already started.

❗️EarthMix will most likely star in the upcoming BL novel adaption “Cupid’s Will”. They were seen shooting the pilot trailer which will probably be part of the upcoming GMMTV 2022 lineup. 

❗️The cast for the upcoming bl “Till the World Ends” has been announced. Art Pakpoom (What the Duck) and Best Anavil will be the main pairing, along with Michael Kiettisak (CIWYW) and others.

❗️ACE’s Jun Hee has been confirmed as part of the cast for the upcoming bl “Tinted With You”, which is set to be released in December.

❗️Korean singer Holland revealed that he is currently filming a BL.

❗️The streaming platform LINETV has announced its shutdown by the end of the year. There is no further information on if and how their content will remain available yet.

Upcoming shows & movies for December

☝🏻 What She Likes - December 3rd (Japan)

☝🏻 Never Too Late (part-bl) - December 6th (Thailand)

☝🏻 Not Me - December 12th (Thailand)

☝🏻 Komorebi - December 17th (Taiwan)

☝🏻 GenY 2 - December 21st (Thailand)

☝🏻 Tinted With You - December 23rd (South Korea)

☝🏻 Love at the End of the World - December 30th (Philippines) 

#doreens monthly bl breakdown #thai bl #bl drama #upcoming bl #update #bl news #so much stuff happening this month #FUTS2??? im listening #although idk if i want that djkhgf #also im YELLING about club sapan fine ss2 omg #oabgun supremacy 🥺 #yaaasss #also the kpop-bl agenda is continuing which is good thank you #jkdhgkdfg #lets hope these ppl can act though #hmpf #never too late is coming next month which im excited for as well #the holland news made me emotional too 🥺 #lgbt actor playing lgbt character? i feel warm inside #im really confused about the linetv shutdown? like what is that all about #i hope they really do continue making shows though #ive always really liked them :( #ok monthly rant over lol

[ggukpov]

♡︎ 𝐟𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐭 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞 𝐩𝐞𝐠𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐠 • 𝐣𝐣𝐤 ♡︎

𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐧𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫 𝐣𝐤 • 𝐫𝐨𝐥𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐚𝐥

“Hey Jk~” the director exclaims his gravelly voice bouncing off the walls of the set grabbing everyone's attention also bringing all eyes on him, the director walks closer to him arms open. It was no surprise that the man in front of him was sucking up for the chance to get him in more of his porns or for the intent Jungkook would drop a recommendation for the said director. Jungkook was one of the if not the biggest pornstars in Korea making him somewhat of a celebrity in the porn industry and any director makes a deal with the devil to even be in the same room as him. He’s done everything from amateur to full-out professional movies. But this was something he has never done before.

He was going to be dominated.

Jungkook never thought in a million years he would partake in a femdom scene. Jungkook ran his fingers through his hair looking down at the outfit some assistant gave him. He was embarrassed to say it peaked his interest even before putting it on. Still zoning out the sound of the director kissing his ass he spotted a woman around his age coming out of the dressing room wearing a white button-up blouse, black pants and leather dress shoes making her look like a gender-swapped businessman Jungkook almost drooled his eyes scanning the mysterious woman burning her in his brain. The director slapped his shoulder bringing him back “ok! Now go get changed” Jungkook speeded to the changing room quickly locking the door even if the whole room will soon see him fully naked in a couple of minutes. Still knowing it was a role-play the sight of the slutty maid outfit made him flustered. Jungkook shook out the unneeded thoughts then stripped, put the costume on. He couldn’t help but stare at himself the built-in bra pushed up his pecks giving the illusion he had small breasts, how it showed off his small waist from how tight the fabric was, he loved how the white lace sown on the end of the black felt against his tanned skin.

Unlocking the door he took a deep breath walking on the set “so your character is going to clean the bedroom and sees a strapon in one of the drawers then walks in y/n she flirts with you for a bit then we’ll cut the prepping out and then boom you start fucking” Jungkook looks at the director with his doe eyes starting to feel nervous. He nods and grabs the duster then runs into position behind the door “action!” The director yells Jungkook gulps his shaky hand slowly opens the door.

To calm himself down his hums a random song stuck in his head well dusting. Kneeling in front of the nightstand he once again brings his shaky hand over the knob pulling the wooden drawer open meeting head to head with the six-inch clear dildo he slips out a moan. “What are you doing!” The demanding voice of the actress behind him says he snaps his head looking into her dark eyes “I-I was um ah” Jungkook wasn’t acting he genuinely felt like he just got caught his body crumbles as Her body towers over his her arms behind her back “I think I should punish you for snooping around” she taunts placing a hand around his throat. A gasp leaves Jungkook “please punish me miss I’ve been so bad” the words slip out before he could object, surprising both of them. The sound of a low chuckle surrounds the room making Jungkook slip into an unknown mindset his eyelids getting heavier. “Get up” she demands letting go of him Jungkook obeys quickly standing up, even if he was physically taller he felt small under her strong gaze. Y/n nodded towards the bed sending a silent demand Jungkook felt like he had no control over his body as he blindly followed her as if she cast some sort of spell on him. She hummed in approval seeing him get on all fours showing off his bare ass and semi-hard member, Jungkook wasn’t the only one drunk with lust for the latter she felt possessed walking over to him she placed both her hands on his ass Jungkook bit his lower lip at the contact she spread his posterior to show his shaved pink hole Y/n almost moaned at the site “such a pretty hole” she whispers bending over giving the back of his thighs quick pecks. “You want me to eat you out bunny?” She spoke using the name of the animal he reminded her of and giving his ass a firm squeeze “yes please” Jungkook whimpered looking back curiously.

Lining up her mouth with his asshole she stuck out her long muscle licking it harshly leaving a trail of spit. Low moans left Jungkook’s mouth as repeated the actions before inserting her tongue in his pathetic hole Jungkook released a small scream “you like when tongue fuck like a slut” she says taking a firm grip of his hair “yes!” He gasps when she ghosts over his prostate. Getting on her knees she pushes him on his back, getting in between his spread legs she lightly grinds her body on his letting him feel the strap-on she was already wearing making him whimper “what do you want?” She replies to his whimper “misses strap please” submits giving her his doe eyes “well let me stretch you first” she says taking a hold of the lube under the pillow. “Safeword or colour system?” She asks covering her fingers in lube and rubbing them together warming it “colour system please” he smiles.

“You ready,” she says “mhm” he responds making her snap her middle finger forwards Jungkook’s hisses at the burning sensation but he loves it. He grinds his hips against her biting his bottom lip “more” he whispers Y/n obeys adding her ring finger rotating her wrist and moves to a quicker pace. Jungkook’s eyes roll back as high-pitched moans left his pretty mouth “I need-I need you inside me now” he begs hands curling into fists. Y/n chuckles before speedily taking off her pants revealing her 12-inch strap on Jungkook moans at the sight unconsciously pushing his legs closer to do his knees touch each of his shoulders showing more of his now gaping hole.

She teasingly slaps her fake cock against his asshole “is this what you want?” she asked “yes! I need you, please” Jungkook begs. Without hesitation, y/n plunges herself deep inside him a scream erupts for the young male as he feels like his guts are being played with. Moving her hands from his thighs Jungkook places them on the indent on his tummy the dildo is making every time she rapidly moves her hips forward “I love seeing your cock in my tummy” Jungkook whispers cutely slipping further down into his submissive mindset. Y/N groans at his word moving her face into the crook of his neck giving him wet kisses “how are you so fucking cute?” She asks no one, forgetting about the fact they both were currently shooting porn. Jungkook tightly hugs her feeling the warmth of the skin peeking through her dress shirt “wan off” he whimper lightly pulling on the fabric y/n stops and sits up unbuttoning her shirt quickly as Jungkook makes grabby hands for her making her reveal a smile before returning to her old position and rapid pace. “Ah ah ah” Jungkook moans loudly arching his back “c-cumming” he says barely above a whisper “you can cum baby” y/n whispers kissing him deeply as he released on their stomachs. Breaking the kiss but still pressing their foreheads together Jungkook sighs in content “that was amazing” y/n giggles at his words.

“And cut!”

The director yells making Jungkook and Y/n jump as they completely forgot about their surroundings. “Shit” y/n mumbles look back down at Jungkook “Um hi...” she trails out as she realized she doesn’t know his name “jungkook my names jungkook” he clarified “ah my names y/n” she smiles “hopefully we can do this again sometimes” she leans down to his ear “without the cameras of course” she whispers biting his ear lob. Taking herself out of the stunned male she gets off the bed and walks back to the dressing rooms.

“Bye baby!” She yells closing the door.

#subjungkook #sub jungkook #bts #sub bts #bottom jungkook #bttmjungkook

[absolutebl]

Paranormal BL

In the romance fiction world this would be called, PNR, or paranormal romance and it usually means a contemporary setting but with magical elements or fantastical monsters like vampires, werewolves, ghosts. 

Here’s a list of all the one’s I’ve encountered in order of my personal preference. 

Color Rush (Korea) 10/10

Korea does PNR really well, it’s just mostly het. Their concepts are always clean, bright, and well written, Color Rush is no exception. I love this BL so much I wrote a whole post about how amazing it is. 

Cherry Magic (Japan) 9/10

Definitely one of the best sweetest PNRs to ever happen. The paranormal elements is an audio conceit allowing for voice over, but a good one that doesn't rely on CGI and it’s a great story well acted. Can’t ask for more, really. 

He's Coming to Me (Thailand) 9/10

One of GMMTV’s most underrated BLs about a boy who can see ghosts and falls in love with one. They move in together and try to uncover that ghost’s murderer. Good friendship group, great plot, and one of the best coming out sequences in all BL. 

Close Friend (Thailand) the KimCop episode 7/10

Kimmon & Copter did a really fun idol meets and falls in love with fan only through the medium of VR. Technically this is sci-fi not PNR but I really enjoyed it and it’s only a short 30 minute episode. 

The Guardian (China) 6/10

Guardian is an urban fantasy with a procedural framework. It's completely censored obviously BL to the point where there is even a secondary BL couple. But nice production values and fun supernatural elements. Buffy level CGI. 

Great Men Academy (Thailand) 6/10

As body-swaps go this one is actually one I liked. Also I really enjoyed the story, support cast, and filming techniques. Frankly, of all the actors to portray a girl in a man’s body James is one of the best. However, technically this isn’t BL because, ya know, gender. 

HIStory: My Hero (Taiwan) 6/10

Body-swap is one of my least favorite paranormal tropes, mostly because the actor has to have a VERY strong sense of physicality to actually take on the mannerisms of someone else. This one isn’t the best. Also not sure if it qualifies as BL, see previous entry.

So Much In Love (Thailand) 5/10

It might not be rated high because it is pretty low level pulp and the subs are terrible, but the paranormal concept is actually quite strong. A boy who can see ghosts encounters one at the swimming pool and they fall in love, although the ghost might not actually be dead,. Has a touch of horror but it all ends happily. 

Y-Destiny (Thailand) Ep 7-8: Thurs and Ep 11-12 Sat 5/10 

Ep 7-8 Thursday, is a ghost story about a boy who pretends to see the dead to con his friends, then starts actually seeing a spirit and falls in love with him. Ep 11-12 Saturday is a timeslip friends to lovers story a little bit like the movie Big.

PickRome’s Our Skyy episode (Thailand) 5/10

You need to know the OffGun characters from their previous series Puppy Honey to get this episode. It is cute, but do I believe they swapped bodies? Not even a little bit.

PeteKao’s Our Skyy episode (Thailand) 5/10 

A sort of serendipity/luck based episode so only sort of qualifies. Will probably only make sense if you already know the TawyNew couple from their previous Kiss series.   

The Fairy Fox (China) - 3/10 

Kitsune sort or warrior spirit comes to live with ordinary high school boy because he is the reincarnation of a king he once loved. Well cast but very censored and really odd ending. 

Youths in the Breeze (China) - 3/10

Three different PNRs one of which features a cat that turns into a human. Korea has done this one het and it didn’t work there either. It’s an odd concept to make romantic. This one ultra censored and there’s two other PNR stories in the series that I can’t remember. 

Close Friend (Thailand) the JaFirst episode 3/10

See above, cat boy not really my thing, much as I like cats. 

My Dream (Thailand) - 3/10 

Some spirits/fae creatures get involved with some ordinary boys, for odd contrived reasons, including one that can be either a man or a woman depending on the bathwater. Very confusing ending. 

The Cupid Coach (Thailand) - 3/10 

The spirit of cupid comes to life to learn about love, falls in with a boy, disappears. One of the worst of the pulps with terrible pacing, crap production, and mostly piss-poor acting. 

Hidden Love (Thailand) - dnf

A group of students trapped together get embroiled in the tragic love story of two ghosts. 

Wuxias are not included on this list as they are kinda their own thing not PNR. 

I made a My Drama List for this. 

(source) 

#pnr #gaypnr #gay pnr #paranormal romance #asianbl #asian bl #korean bl #color rush #japanese bl #live action yaoi #adapted from a manga #cherry magic #he's coming to me #thaibl #thai bl #guardian the series #chinese bl #HIStory: My Hero #taiwanese bl #Great Men Academy #So Much In Love #Y-Destiny #PickRome #our skyy #petekao #The Fairy Fox #My Dream #peach of time

[electronswrites]

Electrons Fic Masterpost

Fight

My first AO3 fic, started long ago. Inconsistent quality. Frequently interrupted by unpleasant IRL events. Controversial ending. Complete.

Zuko makes the decision to join the GAang during CoD and the story goes completely AU after (and before) that. The fic is mostly about dealing with the trauma of childhood abuse and cultural differences.

Juxtaposition

In progress. Inconsistent tone. Funny and angsty in a way that could be intentional tonal dissonance or could be bad writing, for you to decide.

Teenage Lu Ten finds Aang instead of Zuko. He's a bit more of an entitled dumbass than Zuko was and way less traumatized (for now). This fic is mostly about complicated family dynamics and becoming a better person.

Silence

Little mermaid AU! Just kidding, unless... In progress. Scary AF. The story many people have told me they tried to read and had to abandon because of the spooky elements.

The GAang battles spirit shenanigans of many different types while also struggling with their identities and trauma. This story is about self-expression and being/finding your authentic self.

The Avatar and the Doctor

First story is complete and works as a standalone. Will eventually (hopefully) have five stories, one for each modern Doctor (no, War isn't invited, sorry Mr. Hurt). Premise seems like crack, but actual story is weirdly very sincere and heartfelt.

The Doctor lands the TARDIS on the Avatar world and befriends the GAang. They go on adventures, both in the Avatar world, Earth and [redacted]. Time travel abounds! Suki gets to talk to Kyoshi. Fun is had. This story is about combining my two favorite completely dissimilar franchises and weirdly (IMHO) making it work.

After the Comet

Is this even still a thing? IDK. In progress (I guess). About the struggles of post-war reconstruction. I had lots of plans for this. They're unlikely to ever materialize. I had a whole thing about Katara's complicated relationship with motherhood, gender dynamics, the diaspora, etc... Anyway...

The GAang tries to heal the world while also coping with their own struggles. This story is about perception, ours of ourselves, others of us and ours of others. It's also about how impossible morality is sometimes. Oh, and birds; it's about birds.

Tag-along

The in progress story that started out as random musings and became the story I get asked to update the most. Is formated nonlinearly, wasn't a super popular choice. I'm in the process of rearranging the chapters to make it a linear story.

Aang and Zuko are age-swapped. That's it. That's the plot. I mean, there's more to it than that, but you get it.

Covenant

In progress. The fic I spend the most time thinking about. I have this plotted out all the way to the end. If I actually finish this, it will probably be the longest thing I ever write. I'm not even 2% through it though, so...

This is an "element" swap with a bit of a twist. Katara is a war child and a Firebender, while Zuko inherits waterbending from Avatar Roku. This story is about the many different types of love as well as self-acceptance.

When My Name Was Keoza

In progress. Probably. Odds are I will abandon this soon. This story is based on my favorite book from my childhood, When My Name Was Keoko, about the Japanese occupation of Korea during the second world war. I was a very fun kid.

Katara is discovered to be a Waterbender and taken away from her home to the Fire Nation, in a way similar to how Native American children were often forced into reservation schools. She is raised to be a loyal Fire Nation citizen, and this changes, well, everything. This story is about cultural genocide.

Other

A comedic Salvage spin-off where Zuko gives people The Talk.

An abandoned WIP where Yue finds Aang instead of Katara.

Two gift fics for an exchange event about Hama and Jetko.

Whatever the hell This is.

#avatar the last airbender #doctor who #fanfic #by electrons

[chthonic-cassandra]

Some recent books, fiction (a weird selection) -

[warning for some specific discussion of representations of trauma and sexual violence]

- Frances Cha, If I Had Your Face - intertwined narratives of four young women grappling with sexism, poverty, and beauty standards in contemporary South Korea. This was vivid and powerful in parts, but ultimately didn't quite come together for me; I think it might just have been too much for one novel. Each individual woman's story could have taken up more space, and so the whole ended up feeling somewhat scattered and unsatisfying. Two of the protagonists also ended up reading as more fully realized and thought-through as characters than the others, which made the whole feel lopsided. I'm glad I read it, and will look out for what Cha writes next (this was a debut novel), but didn't love it.

- Tessa Gratton, Lady Hotspur - gender-swapped retelling of Henry IV, Part 1, set in the same vague fantasy-version of England that Gratton previously created for her King Lear retelling, Queens of Innis Lear. I really wanted to like this (it ships Hal/Hotspur and they're both women!), but it didn't work. Gratton's Lear worked as well as it did because of Lear's fairy tale elements, the formal architecture of that play which can be lifted and reset so effectively. 1HIV is a very different kind of story and not, I think, one that benefits from the vague mysticism of Gratton's fantasied England. The characterization and plot were messy and confusing; Falstaff makes no sense in this setting; the kingship stuff at the heart of the play made no sense as Gratton framed it. Alas, I can't recommend this.

- Kevin Wilson, Perfect Little World - a teenage single mother joins a somewhat cult-like decade-long psychological study on communal child-rearing. This was a weird little book, and had its problems, but I enjoyed it a lot, and it gave me a lot to think about. Wilson has a gaze on the peculiar dynamics of his characters' world which is at once curious and sharp and largely compassionate; I enjoyed his focus on the emotional and relational dynamics of the study and interest in following them through to their conclusions. There were places in which the plot was a little too contrived, though this fit the whimsical style of the novel; more significantly, the book handwaves issues of race and queerness to a distracting degree. However, I would recommend this to many people. I enjoyed it way more than I should have been able to enjoy a novel with this much focus on meat preparation.

- A. M. Strickland, Beyond the Black Door - a girl with the ability to enter others' souls when sleeping finds herself tangled up in political and mystical intrigue. This was perfectly serviceable YA fantasy with some notably strong imagery and a couple of interesting character dynamics marred by bad pacing and some poorly thought-through world-building. As far as the latter, the element which most bothered me concerned the 'soul-walking,' which our protagonist learns in secret from her mother (who can also do it) because it is criminalized and punishable by death except in highly regulated circumstances when performed by priests and priestesses. The novel treats it as uncomplicated that this law is evil and our protagonist needs to keep her abilities hidden, but doesn't deal meaningfully deal with the fact the entering someone's soul without their consent would be an enormously violating thing to do, and you actually shouldn't be allowed to do it! This is only vaguely gestured towards in one moment when a love interest asks the protagonist whether she went into his soul without his knowledge, and she says that she did but only very briefly which is apparently enough of an assurance? But then she goes on entering people's souls without asking their permission first and often without their knowledge and while I don't think the death penalty would have been an appropriate consequence this was clearly not okay and it very much distracted me.

The protagonist of the novel is asexual, a fact which was incorporated into the story in some places quite well (I particularly like the way Strickland created a villain/heroine romance that was explicitly nonsexual, the way that the villain love interest offered a type of magical connection that was alluring to the heroine because it sidestepped the issue of sex altogether), but in some places more clumsily (the scene where the priestess creates a "soul chart" for our protagonist relying on the split attraction model comes to mind). There were also some elements of the plot where behavior from characters that I read as quite sexually abusive and incestuous was treated as problematic only because it was being directed towards our asexual protagonist, and that made me uncomfortable (I think there was something messy here where the narrative was trying to be nonjudgmental about sex work, but ended up presenting as positive the deeply concerning situation of a mother offering to "tutor" her own daughter in how to practice sex work, and backing off only because the daughter is asexual, which...maybe activated some of my own stuff a little too precisely, but it was an issue).

- C. A. Higgins, Lightless - an interrogator tries to get information out of a notorious intergalactic thief who may or may not be part of a large-scale rebellion movement, while an irritated mechanic tries to fix the computer he and his partner messed up while they tried to commandeer her spaceship. This was fine, but way more bland than it should have been given its premise; the book needed to build on taut tension, and Higgins did not establish or maintain any. I kept having glimmers of attachment to the characters, and then they would slip away. I saw a review that compared this to knock-off Cherryh, and that feels accurate. And reminds me that I should be reading more Cherryh.

- Gayl Jones, Eva's Man - a woman, in prison for murdering her lover, reflects on experiences of sex and violence and sexual violence throughout her life. This was artful as Jones' novels always are, and also deeply, unremittingly unpleasant to read. I'm glad I read it, but I didn't get as much out of it as I did out of Jones' earlier novel, Corregidora, which was doing a thing with historical echoes that somehow made the bleak painfulness of the content easier to sit with. I'm glad I read it, though.

- Kiley Reid, Such a Fun Age - the relationship between Emira, a young Black woman and Alix, the wealthy white woman who employs her to care for her 3-year-old daughter, comes into focus for both of them when Emira is stopped in a supermarket on suspicion of kidnapping Alix's daughter. This was thoughtful and in many places stingingly effective; I appreciated the way Reid shows us Emira and Alix both missing each other, the moments when connection could have happened and the way that Alix's inability to imagine Emira's perspective gets in the way of that. I also especially liked the nuance of how Reid writes Emira's care for Alix's daughter, and how real that is even when Alix's actions are hurtful to her. But there were places where the emotion and the natural pace of the story got sacrificed for snappy, tv show reveals, and the characters got lost in overly specific detail about brands and status symbols. Worth reading, not revelatory.

- Evelyn Skye, Crown's Game - YA fantasy; two teenagers in a version of Imperial Russia with magic compete to be the royal sorcerer. This was really bad and really boring, like a prototypical YA fantasy with all the air taken out. Don't bother.

- Jo Baker, The Body Lies - sort of a thriller; a creative writing professor deals with the threat posed by an increasingly obsessive student. This left a bad taste in my mouth in its use of trauma as narrative device, in the vagueness of its gaze on what trauma actually looks like. I don't know. I need to sit with why it bothered me for longer; I'd be interested in hearing from other people who read it.

- Jennifer Saint, Ariadne - incredibly boring Greek myth retelling. Just so boring! At every turn always making the less interesting narrative choice! I did not understand why Saint wanted to write this book, what her angle on Ariadne's story was. Extremely disappointing.

- Carolyn Ferrell, Dear Miss Metropolitan - experimentally told narrative of three teenage girls who are abducted and held captive together for a decade. I had extremely complicated feelings about this book. I have a strong investment in stories about this kind of violence being written and treated as serious literature; I wanted to like this book and to be moved by it. However, as I was reading it two things became clear. The first was that Ferrell's sense of what this kind of captivity might look and feel like felt to me very disconnected from reality; this, I could put aside as my own pickiness and personal biases getting in the way of my reading, though it was making me deeply uncomfortable.

The second was the the book was based, with quite a deal of specificity, on the abductions perpetrated by Ariel Castro in Cleveland. I have read the memoirs of the survivors of those abductions; it was clear that Ferrell was using many very recognizable details of their experiences, but changing a lot of the salient emotional dynamics (as well as resetting the events in a different part of the country and changing the racial identities of both victims and perpetrator). The more I thought about this, the more angry it made me. I don't think it's ethical to use the stories of living people in that way, certainly not with that level of specificity. I felt very troubled after reading the novel, and kept wondering if others had the same unease; the critical response seems to be absent this kind of critique (compare this to the furor that erupted around My Dark Vanessa, a much more thoughtful trauma narrative not based around any single publicly known survivor's experience). I read interviews with Ferrell where she talked about reading about Castro's crimes on the news and being shocked, not understanding how this kind of thing could happen and go unnoticed; this seemed to me a deeply concerning place from which to decide to retell someone else's story. I finished the book several weeks ago now but I still feel upset about it.

#books #long post #trauma narratives

[my-faves-said-gay-rights]

my faves said gay rights part 3 - Sunmi

For pride month this year I thought I would live up to my name and post about all the times my faves supported the lgbtq+ community! So let's go ahead with our lgbt queen Sunmi!

1. She LITERALLY said "gay rights" at a concert after a fan asked her to

2. She also said happy pride at a concert before taking a rainbow flag and wrapping it around herself

3. The iconic day when sunmi said "I have many different sides of me like dorky and LGBT queen". I know some of us misunderstood and thought she was coming out but this is still massive because she's saying that her support for the community and the love we give her are an important part of who she is as a person. And in the tweet later clarifying her statement she outright says she supports lgbt people

4. At concerts sunmi has held many lgbt flags, here are some pictures for your viewing pleasure

The first pic she posted herself on instagram (I remember freaking out lol), and in the last one she told the fan who gave it to her that she adores them

5. She held up these fan made signs at a concert

6. At her lalalay showcase: "When asked about her LGBT fans, she said she believes in equality. She also said she disagrees with forcing one's belief and ideas on others when people are morally responsible and not harming anyone"

7. In an interview with cosmopolitan korea she said this

(you are pretty and cool miss)

8. All the times her back up dancers have gender swapped so she does the more suggestive choreo with women, and of course the iconic bisexual choreo in tail

9. On the first day of pride she posted her eating the Baskin Robbins 'over the rainbow' taste of june flavour

Okay I think that's everything but if you know anything else please let me know! Have a happy pride miyane and know that sunmi loves you :D

Edit: okay there's something I forgot! For sunmis tail comeback, her yt channel had fans react to the mv and then meet sunmi. Sunmi said to two women in the video "If there is a man who will fall in love with me…you should prepare to be madly in love!". Then one of the women asked "How about a woman?", and sunmi responded "It is possible!". Thanks to @faithforgottenland for reminding me, sorry it took me so long to add it but I just kept procrastinating lol

#my faves said gay rights #lgbt queen #sunmi #miyane #kpop #lgbt #lgbtq #pride month #wonder girls #miya-ne #gay #lesbian #wlw

[save-the-data]

So far THAILAND is taking out the top spot for most BL’s in the year with 55 either ended, on-air or upcoming projects already. PHILIPPINES is a little behind and has some catching up to do with 24, VIETNAM next with a solid 11, then TAIWAN close behind on 6, SOUTH KOREA on 4 and last but not least JAPAN with 2 (or arguably 3 depending if gender swap is considered in the list).  Whilst CHINA has offered 2 heavy BROMANCE or CENSORED BL’s for the year thus far. 

And we’re not even half way into the year yet!  Full List Here

This is by means not a complete list, just the projects I’ve watched or aware about, so if I have missed anything would love to know to share. 

#BKPP #BL Master List #Thai BL #Pinoy BL #Vietnam BL #Taiwanese BL #South Korea BL #Japan BL #China BL #BL Drama

[striving-artist]

Ok, I just want to show you something about moral purity and the grey miasma that is where decisions are actually made in fandom. Incidentally, this also is an explainer on why section 230 is a big deal. This isn’t about the literal references or examples, though, you’ll probably recognize what I’m referencing. It’s about the fact that nothing is black and white.

So lets start with the assumption you think that any writing about incest is bad and wrong and should get you perma-banned. Okay. That’s your stance. You’re entitled to it, and for this exercise, you’re all powerful. You’re running your own website for fanworks and YOU decide all the rules. So; cool, those are all banned along with the other Bad and Wrong works. Because you want to have a space that isn’t like those other sites.

And then this movie comes out, and your user count starts doubling weekly, and the biggest ship - it is The Ship for the series. It’s everywhere. It’s beloved. There’s more fic for it than a single person could read. But that’s just two random folks, lets call them Jack and Jill, happy, healthy, nothing problematic at all. So you’re thrilled with the extra traffic.

Then the third movie comes out, and the big twist is that Jack and Jill are siblings. Scandal! Fear! A shock wave travels through the fandom!

And you now have a problem.

It wasn’t incestuous when people wrote it. It wasn’t their intention. But now, according to canon, it is. Maybe most authors go back and add a tag or a note saying ‘THEY AREN’T RELATED IN THIS FIC’ ... but is that enough? I mean, canon is right there. And what about the other fics? The ones that the author doesn’t come back to retag? Do you take those down? How much tagging is enough? What about people who come to read these later, who don’t remember when people didn’t know they were related? Are they going to think you support that? Do you just prevent any new posts and add a disclaimer?

For the sake of the exercise, and because imaginary!You has drawn a firm line in the sand here, you delete them all. Anything with that ship. Even if its background or mentioned. Maybe you give 24 hours notice, maybe you don’t, but that doesn’t matter. You’ve decided that the Ship is Bad and Wrong, and is now banned. The people who hate you, leave, the people who love you, sing your praises. You’re okay with that. The ones that left must have liked things that were Bad and Wrong.

Then, a few months later, there’s a new Big Fandom, and in it, there’s two camps. One camp sees this pairing as having a sibling dynamic because they were raised by the same person. The other says they weren’t raised together, and they have a romantic dynamic. They aren’t literally related, but group one has chosen their hill.

The two sides are invested, and angry.

The first group comes to you and says the others are posting something that is Bad and Wrong and should be removed. Per your policies, if you agree with them, it should be removed. Someone thinks they’re seeing something Bad and Wrong and you said you wouldn’t tolerate anything Bad and Wrong. And you want the readers to have a safe environment.

And maybe you agree with the second group, but you’re scared of first group’s yelling and threats. Or maybe you agree with the first group, so its no big deal to remove the works. It doesn’t matter. Down it comes. Anything with them in a romantic ship, deleted.

But now you’ve said something new.

It’s not a Black and White line anymore. It’s not just blocking things that are Bad and Wrong. Now, you’re banning anything if the crowd is loud enough. You’re also implicitly saying you personally disapprove of those things, which, by transitive property, means anything that’s up there still is something you approve of. That’s dangerous. Have you read everything? Seen everything? Are you moderating every single post for anything Wrong and Bad before it goes live? You should probably start. 

You think that’s bad? Wait a second.

Societal morals are always changing. Not that long ago being trans wasn’t fun, but it didn’t get much media attention, because people were too worried about The Gays. That’s changed now. The mob won’t come after you for slash fics today, probably. But you’re going to have people up in arms over gender swapping, and trans characters, and race issues, and the wrong kinds of kinky, and that’s assuming the T*rfs don’t decide to paint a target on you first.

You’ve lost a lot of writers by this point, and your site probably isn’t popular anymore. It only takes one big decision like that - one big, sweeping, arbitrary decision - for the creators to stop trusting you. From there, it’s over, just a question of how long the death rattle lasts.

All this? This is two things.

It’s why Section 230 protects platforms from liability over what their users post. It’s the safe ground between a free for all, and total moderation to an ever changing standard. Without 230, platforms have to either say ‘we moderate nothing, and cannot be held accountable for anything’ which means they can never remove anything. Or. They say ‘we moderate and stand by everything on this site’ We, the users of the internet, want neither of those outcomes. 230 stops the spiral.

It’s also why Ao3 is what is, and why it draws so much fire right now. You think you’re arguing for your one little thing. Your single topic or ship that is Wrong and Bad. I know you think it’s both small, and completely reasonable. But. Anything you think you’re going to ban beyond the existing rules is an open door. Give me an initial crowd-driven ban-topic and ten minutes, I can use that open door to censor ao3 hard enough to make North Korea proud.

#free speech is hard #ao3 #censorship #you think its small and I know you mean well #but its never just one thing #and once the crowd knows they can shout down their enemies? #its over #you just haven't seen it die yet #fun fact: I watched this happen in my hs #one group of parents got upset that there was an implied gay kiss #in a show at a different school #it took four months for us to go to #Everything Must Be Approved by the Mob #which meant it was all white bread from there on out #if there's typos #I don't care #the vertigo is a challenge

[joezworld]

📂

What in the HECK happened with Scotsman, Dominion, and Dwight during the Great Gathering?!

(Also, since Dutchess of Hamilton has also been to the US during the 1939 NY World’s Fair, did she get involved?)

Warning - extremely long post below

So, first of all, Duchess of Hamilton never went back to the UK.

Duchess of Hamilton (6229) and Coronation (6220) had their nameplates swapped by the LMS when an engine was sent over to the US. 6229, in the guise of 6220, went to the US.

Streamlined locomotives were all the rage at the time, and railroads practically fell over themselves to get Coronation (as she was now known) onto press trains. The B&O railroad in particular was so impressed with her capabilities that they extended a formal offer of employment to her for service on their streamlined Royal Blue service. The LMS were surprised to get an offer to "purchase" their locomotive, but accepted nonetheless, as it meant a welcome infusion of cash in the dark days during the beginning of WWII.

Coronation fit right in with the Americans, having only been about a year old when she was sent to New York. Following the end of steam traction on the Royal Blue in the late 40s, (the B&O were early adopters of diesels.) she and her B&O coworkers found good employment on the New York Central, where she still runs to this day.

Since then, she's fully "gone native", marrying a J3 Hudson, (yes one of the streamlined ones) adopting both an American accent and three children, and being fully repainted to NYC silver by 1956. Flying Scotsman met her in Albany in 1970, and neither one of them recognized the other.

Actually, most UK expats don't recognize her, to the point where a common interaction is for her to be held up as an example of "look at her, she's integrated well into the US", only for the British engines to say "that's preposterous, she isn't English".

When it's pointed out that she's still obviously an LMS Coronation, the next response is usually screaming.

All that being said, she has no interest to come back to the United Kingdom, and wasn’t asked by the NRM anyways. 

---------------

Second of all, the Great Gathering was... an event.

So, there are (officially) 6 preserved Gresley A4s.

Mallard - static, National Railway Museum (UK). Also an asshole.

Bittern - running, private owner, UK based

Sir Nigel Gresley - running, owned by a trust, UK based

Union of South Africa - running, private owner, UK based

Dwight D. Eisenhower - static (officially), National Railway Museum (USA)

Dominion of Canada - static (officially), Exporail (Montréal)

This is the official list, and for the first 4 engines, it's the truth.

However, things are a bit hazier on the other side of the Atlantic...

-----

So the thing that needs to be made clear right up front that in a sentient vehicle world, museums aren't like the NRM, where locomotives sit static for years on end, although obviously the English have museums like that because of course they do.

Rail museums in the rest of the world are much more like Colonial Williamsburg - a living history center staffed by volunteers who act out a prototypical setting from [insert decade here].

British Rail, being British Rail, didn’t know that and didn’t care.

-

4496, Dwight D. Eisenhower, having been named after the General-turned-President, had been earmarked for preservation by BR, and was summarily shipped off to the US National Railway Museum in Green Bay, Wisconsin.

In an entirely unintentional move, this donation MONUMENTALLY snubbed the Smithsonian, who refused to have any dealings with BR for decades, even for archival purposes. This, combined with the fallout from Operation Smash Hit, and the fact that the Smithsonian is Petty AF, meant that there was virtually no official trans-Atlantic cooperation between British and US museums for decades.

Dwight hit the shores of the US in 1964 New York City and was greeted by a marching band, a ticker-tape parade, and Presidents Johnson and Eisenhower, who were on-hand to personally make the engine a US citizen.

Always keen to curry favor with the government, the Southern Pacific railroad had a job offer waiting for Dwight right alongside the Presidents and the parade, and when he accepted, he went off to Sunny Southern California - someplace so opposed to Britain the he fell in love with the place immediately and refused to leave!

The ladies may have also had something to do with it as well - while most engine classes fell into a typical 50-50 gender distribution, the SP GS-4 class was all female...

[Pictured above - one of 28 very good reasons to live in California if you're a single British steam engine.]

Dwight does not kiss and tell, but at his wedding in 1974, all 28 GS-4s showed up - and he was only marrying one of them!

Since the 70's, he's become a mainstay in California, having been repainted into Daylight Limited colors in 1969, and retiring from railroad duties in 1999. After that, he went into the movie business, and is currently the head of digital media development at Disney.

His wife Irene (SP 4437) is also an interesting figure as well - following in the wheelmarks of the great female locomotives before her, she had an eye for business and a Stanford education before she married her husband, and was an initial investor in multiple tech companies in Silicon Valley during the 70's and 80's, but stopped doing that after her investment in Apple proved very lucrative. In 1996, she was convinced by a few people in the Stanford Alumni association to invest in another tech startup, this one an "internet search engine" called Google.

So yeah, Dwight Eisenhower kept falling up and up and up all his life, and is now married to the richest woman in the world.

--

4489 Dominion of Canada was donated mostly by accident, having been forgotten in the back of Darlington sheds until 1966, when she was shipped off to the Canadian Railway Historical Society in Montreal.

As stated elsewhere, the Canadian Government considered any locomotive built in the UK to have UK citizenship, and therefore treated them as commonwealth citizens under existing Canadian law. (remember that Canada was still a colony at that time)

CN, the national rail carrier, was obligated to offer her a job under their charter, and she accepted, moving to Toronto to run intercity trains between Toronto, Montreal, and Ottawa.

Within two years she was displaced from those duties by the introduction of a new, shiny, jet turbine powered train, and was summarily demoted to local commuter runs in the Toronto suburbs.

Moving to suburbia did one thing more than anything else - expose her to the people who live there. They all had complaints, they all had problems, and they all had no idea on how to fix them.

Being a helpful sort, Dominion decided that she could help, and promptly ran for Toronto city council in 1974. She won, and has been a fixture in local Toronto politics ever since - she even got to be Chairwoman of Metro Toronto (the closest thing to being mayor because Toronto's governmental structure is weird) until 1998, when Toronto was merged with the surrounding area to create a massive new region.

Having then done everything there is to do in municipal Toronto government, Dominion went on to become the Chief Executive Officer of Metrolinx, the agency that controls almost all of the transit agencies in Ontario, because, as she puts it, "I'm still a commuter engine at heart".

She's now painted in the current GO Transit paint scheme, and still does commuter runs- which is really weird looking now that there are double deck commuter coaches in a push-pull configuration, with a Gresley A4 doing the pushing.

------

Now, I mentioned that those 6 were the only ones officially preserved - there were two unofficial preservations as well...

-

4486 Merlin was properly Shanghied - he was yanked off the docks in Southhampton by a cargo ship in August of 1965, and was spirited away to parts unknown.

Those unknown parts turned out to be South Korea. There, he was given citizenship by the US-aligned military dictatorship (Korean history is wild) and was employed by the State-run rail operator.

As the military government began a hardcore plan to increase their country's wealth and industrial output, rail lines were being built across the country, and Merlin was soon awarded a position on the fastest train in the network, the Seoul-Busan Saemaeul-ho.

Because of his experience in running high-speed express trains, Merlin not only became the public face of Korean high-speed rail, but also became an "honored elder" amongst the other Korean engines, a position he still holds to this day - as despite being over 70 years old, he still runs daily trains on the fast services, easily keeping time with the Korean schedules as well as training the new high speed trains, including the KTX sets. He's on his 24th boiler by now, and has more parts from Hyundai than Doncaster.

An additional fact - Merlin actually has had a linguistic effect on Korean railroading, as his strange amalgamation of an accent - a strong Yorkshire accent that tried to be Received Pronunciation for 30 years, mixed with almost 50 years of middle-to-upper-class Korean - has filtered down through the ranks of KoRail, because all of his students want to sound like him out of respect. Human British expats in Korea will occasionally hear a locomotive speaking in English, and the engine will sound like a Yorkshireman every time and the Brits cannot handle it.

---------

4495 Golden Fleece is the only A4 to preserve himself - he saw the writing on the wall in the early 60s, and hopped a car ferry to France at the end of 1962. From there, he bounced around Europe for a bit before making it to the United States in the late 70's.

Of the 8 surviving A4s, he's probably led the quietest life of all - he moved to Miami before it got nice, and basically got in on the ground floor of CSX when that merger happened in 1980. He's now the head of terminal operations for the Port of Miami, but he's generally kept a low profile - not even having a chance to meet Scotsman due to his time in Europe.

He's still in contact with Dwight and Dominion, and has no real bitterness over not being "famous" like they are - he likes the quiet, and still lives in a modest house in Boynton Beach with his long-term girlfriend.

----------------------

Soooo... the Great Gathering.

It was supposed to be a meeting of the 6 surviving A4s - a two year event held at the NRM in honor of the 75th anniversary of Mallard's record-setting run.

"Record setting" is a past-tense term here. While there have been no official runs, every single one of the Pennsylvania Railroad's T1 and S1 locomotives claim to have gone faster than 126 without meaning to, and numerous other locomotives on unofficial attempts done late at night on flat stretches of land across the country have hit 130+.

British Expats have also done better than 126 - Coronation claims to have hit at least 140 on a midnight mail train in 1980, and in Korea, Merlin claims to have hit 128 on a test train, although that was judged by timing mile markers as his speedometer wasn't functioning properly.

Problems arose before any of the engines had even reached the NRM, as Mallard's already sizeable ego had swelled to massive proportions, and several engines in the great hall were planning a justifiable homicide.

Then came the time restraints - none of the foreign locomotives were willing to uproot their lives and jobs for two years just to sit motionless in a shed. A two year exhibition was eventually negotiated down to a 6 month gala, much to the irritation and confusion of the NRM, who could not understand that the engines were still in service.

Then came the extra engines - Dwight and Dominion thought that the NRM knew about Fleece, and were quite insulted on his behalf when he wasn't invited - they threatened to not attend unless arrangements were made for Fleece to attend as well.

An utterly baffled NRM agreed, but also tore their record archives apart, as they knew that Fleece had been scrapped. The fact that his picture was plastered all over CSX's Florida Division website was all the more confusing as a result.

-

Meanwhile in Busan, nobody knew that Merlin had escaped the scrappers' torch and therefore did not invite him. He was only informed after K-Pop star Psy texted him from London to ask if he knew about the event, which was being advertised on television.

Merlin, having missed his friends from the LNER, decided that he would just crash the party, used some of his many vacation days, and took off for England on a cargo ship.

-

By sheer coincidence, all four foreign A4s hit the dock in Southhampton on the same day, and were delighted to see each other - especially Merlin, considering that everyone else had thought he'd died.

Meanwhile at the NRM, delight was not the word one would use. Befuddled, confused, shocked even, but not delighted. Their plans had revolved around 6 A4s, most of which wouldn’t be running - only to now discover that there were 7, all but one of which were functioning! (Mallard, the star of the show, was the odd one out, and it drove him crazy) 

Then they got a phone call from their man at the docks saying that another one had showed up, looking like he’d driven out of a K-pop album cover, and they just gave up and started screaming. 

-

Screaming is also what happened when the cavalcade of foreigners showed up in York - first of all, the quartet of new engines sounded nothing like they had when they left England. 

Dwight had willfully unlearned his Upper Crust British accent by 1971, and had fallen deep into a California accent (quite similar to what Scotsman sounds like - coincidence? No.)

Dominion and Fleece hadn’t tried to unlearn their accents, but 40+ years of living in North America can really dilute the Britishness. It doesn’t help that Dominion has developed most Canadian vocal tics eh?

As stated above, Merlin has a weird fuckin accent, and now he speaks English with a strong Yorkshire accent, but will occasionally and without warning drop into a Korean/Yorkshire hybrid accent.

The screaming also happened because the NRM had wanted to repaint the duo trio! quartet?! into LNER garter blue, and were promptly informed that “we’re painted like this for work! Don’t touch it!” (the sole exception was Dwight, who hadn’t pulled a real train in 14 years, but he liked his Daylight Limited paint), so instead of the new arrivals showing up in LNER colours, they showed up looking like THIS:

Having their long-lost siblings show up looking and sounding like THAT had quite an affect on the A4s and the other NRM engines: 

Bittern could not believe her eyes - to the point where she actually began making noise about seeing an optometrist

Union of South Africa almost backed through a wall

Sir Nigel Gresley was speechless for two days

Mallard was so angry that he actually chipped a tooth during one of his rants about “the impropriety of it all!!”

Evening Star laughed so hard that he managed to derail himself without moving

City of Truro almost cracked a piston from shock

Alycidon spent the entire gala coming up with more and more laser focused jabs at Mallard - who was so easy to fluster that the Deltic needn’t have bothered 

Oliver Cromwell and Green Arrow made fast friends with the new arrivals, and spent the entire time learning ‘Americanisms’ to annoy the other engines with.

But what about Flying Scotsman? Where was he in all of this? He was generally considered to be the “leader” of the NRM fleet (much to Mallard’s annoyance), and was usually who the other engines turned to when things started getting out of control. 

Did Scotsman calm things down? Like hell he did. The inmates were running the asylum from the moment that Scotsman saw the other A4s - more importantly saw Dwight - and immediately greeted them in flawless Californian. 

This actually set off the building’s security alarm, as Flying Scotsman saying “DUDES! Wassup?!” caused such an uproar that the noise broke several exterior windows. 

----

And all of this was in the first few days - there were six months left to go. 

--

There was one railtour attempt. It was supposed to feature Bittern and Sir Nigel running in tandem, but instead featured Dwight and Merlin, mainly because Bittern wanted to see what would happen. 

They exceeded the max speed limit for steam traction within 15 minutes, sparked a thorough investigation by the RAIB, and got all future steam powered railtours for the Gathering cancelled immediately. 

On the plus side, the two engines did prove that it was still possible for a steam train to hit 100 safely. 

--

One thing that baffled the other engines was the inordinately large number of people who turned up just to see Dominion, and the one person who kept turning up to see Fleece - it took a lot of explaining for them to understand that Dominion had been married three times, and had children (adopted) and grandchildren from all three marriages coming to see her. A similar amount of explaining was required to explain that Fleece’s girlfriend/partner wanted to see him too. 

The normally chatty Dwight and Scotsman would suddenly clam up whenever Dominion and Fleece teasingly tried to ask about their love lives, something which wasn’t unnoticed by the other engines, but got similarly nowhere. 

The answer to why they both shut the hell up was explained when a lot of shouting broke out in the yard of the NRM one day about a month into the exhibition:

Irene Eisenhower, not content to sit in California and count her billions, quickly grew bored without her husband, and decided to go to England and be with him. The fact that she definitely did not fit the UK loading gauge was never even a consideration, and so she just showed up in York on the back of a lorry, having informed no-one of her arrival, and content to just pay off the requisite people if a fuss occurred. 

A fuss did occur, and it was only ended when Scotsman managed to convince the museum’s curator (who at this point in his life was regretting ever thinking of this damned gathering) that Irene was a ‘temporary donation’ to the museum. 

[Scotsman, who definitely hid his Cali accent from museum staff the entire time, has one of the best poker faces in the world]

Dwight was overjoyed, and so was Scotsman, for initially unclear reasons. Then Irene managed to grab both her husband and Scotsman, dragged them behind a shed, and [THIS IS A PG13 HEADCANON] the both of [PG13]. Turns out that while Scotsman may have slept his way across the US a few times, he was actually ready to settle down with Dwight and Irene - they were a throuple way back in the 70s, and those passions haven’t faded. When Scotsman reluctantly left the US in 74, a lot of the reluctance was because of those two. 

This bombshell of a revelation went over interestingly at the NRM. Some engines (Green Arrow) were happy for them, some were incensed (Mallard - although it was for anti-American reasons, not homophobic ones), and some were intensely curious about what was going on in the outside world (Bittern). 

-

The ‘foreigners’ (as Mallard had taken to calling them), were deeply displeased at how their fellow engines were being treated - while a lot of them were ‘in steam’, some were not and might never be again, something they found abhorrent. Unable to do anything at that time, as the NRM was not a for-profit entity and therefore did not have anyone to bribe, (Irene’s solution to things is to throw money at the situation) the engines started talking about how life was different in the outside world - namely that engines were still working hard, even when they were over a century old and running on steam power. 

This was of great interest to engines like Evening Star and (6220) Duchess of Hamilton, neither of whom were likely to be steamed again, and Bittern, who was growing more and more curious with each passing day. Dissent began to slowly build against the NRM curators, and the culture of the United Kingdom in general.

-

One thing the foreigners did try do something about was Ellerman Lines. The poor bastard had been sectioned to show his inner workings, much to the jaw-dropped horror of the foreign A4s, who made such a stink about it that he was moved outside the museum by NRM staff, who must have thought that the engines lacked object permanence or something, because that didn’t make it better!

-

Irene Eisenhower, who was beginning to get really sick of the nonsense that the NRM called preservation, (Scotsman was not in running condition, and had been hastily reassembled mid-overhaul in order to be cosmetically ready for the event, and let’s not forget poor Ellerman Lines) elected to bring the event to a close on her own after only three months. She did this by eventually putting her immense wealth to good use, and called for a haulage service to rescue the engines from the NRM without the knowledge of the museum staff. Aside from the A4s, she also took Ellerman Lines, Scotsman, and Bittern (who had asked to go) with her, and only bothered to inform Ellerman and Bittern - she was not about risk Scotsman having another “think of England” moment and staying. 

The haulage firm was efficient and the cargo ship was waiting, so the engines were in international waters before the NRM opened the next morning. 

Much swearing occurred in England that day, and the NRM’s image has yet to fully recover from the PR story that they had sold Flying Scotsman (and Ellerman Lines) to a reclusive American billionaire. 

Privately though, the NRM does not care, as that story is a lot better than “Someone stole our engines and we’re not allowed to get them back because as it turns out we’re slaveowners, so no international court will help us.”

Also, despite their multimillion dollar “donation" from the I. Eisenhower Opportunity Fund, they still haven’t been able to fully pacify their engines, all of whom have somehow gotten the idea that they should be running in main line service like they live on Sodor or something...

--------

Dwight, Scotsman, and Irene all live happily together in the sprawling Eisenhower estate in Malibu. Irene is currently lobbying the California state government to legalize polygamy, with moderate success. 

-

Ellerman Lines, after a lot of therapy and a full rebuild, is now working on a short line in Wyoming. He likes the scenery.

-

Bittern followed Dwight, Irene, and Scotsman to Los Angeles, and used her ‘connections’ (Dwight) to get a supporting role in Avengers: Age of Ultron. Since then, she’s gotten several roles based on her own merits, including an Emmy nomination for Best Guest Appearance in a Comedy.

-

Merlin spent a few months in LA before he went back to Korea. He is very thankful that he was able to reconnect with his brothers and sisters, and that his homeland has good internet, as he video calls his family across the Pacific almost every day.

-

Golden Fleece still lives a quiet life in Florida, but finally decided to tie the knot, and married his girlfriend in 2017. The ceremony was supposed to be quiet, but Irene Eisenhower has no idea what that word means. 

-

Dominion of Canada continues to baffle non-local trainspotters when she runs commuter trains into Toronto. She is now a great-grandmother. 

-

7 years later, and the term “Great Gathering” is still a forbidden phrase in the back rooms of the NRM.

#ask response #long #really long #I wrote this for like me and two other people at most #national railway museum #flying scotsman #Headcanon #ttte #ttte adjacent #bittern #mallard #train headcanon #locomotive rights headcanon #extremely specific headcanon #headcanon