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War is not new to humanity, let alone civil war. One of the earliest settlements on Earth in Mesopotamia, known as the City of Ur, was destroyed by invasions and internal strife. Its inhabitants were slowly integrated into various neighbors. Their literature became more hierarchal with relationships, most apparent with pederastic lovers in stories replacing equal homoerotic partnerships like Gilgamesh and Enkidu. I hoped to prevent such a dramatic destruction of social and cultural ideals throug

He was a hero, It would have been a massacre if the original plan occurred at Jamie's birthday party later in the day with a full complement of the invisible legionaries (the name of the unit is called the Phantom Legion, which will be revealed later) rather than everyone being spread across London on various mundane tasks. Though Gard and Marc would be there, they couldn't protect Robert and Eli along with everyone else. An old battlefield strategy concerning counter infiltration tactics is to spread your forces away from the centers of power, while maintaining active coordination and control. As long as your leadership isn't in one of the centers and cohesion is maintained, you can effectively reverse the infiltration, surround your foes, and eliminate them.

In this era of chaos, death is inevitable for everyone. My father claimed that the Gods abandoned us, when Nippon’s people abandoned Shogun Ashikaga for the usurper Hosokawa clan, bringing about the Sengoku Jidai. Our lands in Mikawa province bordered the cunning Oda Clan of Owari province in the west and the powerful Imagawa clan of Suruga province in the east. When I was five years old, I was abducted by the Oda clan. Before my abduction, my father Hirotada Matsudeira had arranged for me to be

A tote bag, a few stickers, a T-shirt, condoms and lube, and a thermos from CapitalOne. Not a bad haul from Pride this year.

Make that 20 donations, I didn't know there was a gofundme page

One more interlude, then I'm back to the main story

Interesting, can I have a loan alongside my pride flag if I visit Interesting, I know we had discussed holding it in October after Covid restrictions got lifted, but it went back to June a year later. While June may be Pride Month, it's not set in stone. I know some guys would have a ball if it was Halloween. Beyond Drag, you can have all the old leather guys, the bears, otters, wolves, and unicorns dressed as their type, and the furries (Oh the adorable Zoomers) 😛 being out and proud. (In terms of timing: To be fair, the old Boston Pride org and the current one are two different orgs, so the date going back to June might have been a matter of trying to carry the torch.)

Hey Guys, Gals, and NBs I'll be running (mostly walking) the Road of Rainbow 5K in Boston this Saturday June 8th, it's a separate charitable event from the Pride Parade/festival and I thought it would be good to do something beneficial and help my own health at the same time. I'll probably drop by the festival grounds near city hall, where the parade passes after the run/walk. https://runsignup.com/Race/Events/MA/Boston/BostonTheaterCompanysRoadofRainbows I wonder what other people in your neck of the woods do for Pride Month? Do you guys go to festivals, parades or have fun events, like a charity run?

Odd dual definition and etymology, I guess context must be applied to its use.

Eighteen years of training and service to the Duke of Somerset, who became our sovereign, Aelfric Elias Tudor have led me to my current life. Nearing the third decade in my life, I have no regrets about my choice to follow Lord Eli after the foiled robbery attempt, I made. During my visits to the Palace, I would regale the young princes with the tale among many others I have picked up over the years out at sea. Of course, many of these visits after the war for the throne were marked with restles

Thanks Everyone, I took the idea of rising tension with the nobility and land reforms from what happens in history a century later. During the reign of Charles, James' son, the nobility and monarchy had a severe falling out that would result in a series of civil wars and ultimately the first time in history a King was executed by Parliamentary forces (The French Revolution was not the first time in history people actually performed "Off with their heads" ). Aristocracy, through a noble title or generational wealth, is a dangerous concept. While it is praised as the first step to Democratic institutions as these forces won many of the civil wars in European history, their actions also led to unrest and destabilized nations, which allowed other powers to swoop in and gain lands/influence. Eli's move to reduce their power is going speed up the problems that Charles would face in the 17th century, but it's a necessity, when you want to speedily industrialize your nation. As an Otaku, Eli uses a model of reform similar to the Meiji period of Japan, but the Japanese attempt also resulted in a civil war (Watch Last Samurai for some cinematic reference to the Boshin Wars). It's a dangerous attempt, but if successful, it will allow England, (eventually the Britainnia Imperium) as a whole to advance hundreds of years in industrial output within decades. In comparison to the "Core" reliant technologies and resource networks from colonies with the continental and international powers, it's going to narrow gaps fast.

In history, the peace of the 1560s was also a lull in Elizabeth I reign. This peace allowed for several plots and issues to arise due to the significant reforms that occurred. One of the underlying problems in international policy during this era was a belief in "temporary peace" and "eventual triumph for the side of God". Catholic and Protestants were gearing up for an eventual showdown that will happen across the continent in a few decades (Historical Spoiler: The Protestants won Then they fell into War against each other ). Essentially, the period is the first cold war in European history.

God as my witness, I am doing the correct thing. I deserve far better than what the unholy scion of King Henry had dealt me. The former King Henry and his son, King Edward through both regents Seymore and Dudley, gave me titles and rich lands. The former Queen Mary made me a supreme commander of her forces in Ireland with over a hundred thousand Irish slaves at the height of my abilities. In exchange, I was the kingdom’s greatest sword, eliminating all their enemies. Then came the abomination, E

Aye, most stories would allow the good guys to get a nice speech in or something, but a lot of the time partial messages are all you have. The bad guys aren't stupid, there were a lot of chances and holes in Harry's harrowing decision and attempt to warn. As the national emergency broadcasting system was not a top secret project, it was a matter of time to realize why someone fitting the crown prince's description would enter the White Tower, relay it to awaiting enemy forces, and enact countermeasures. While Cloaking/Invisibility is a powerful technology, it isn't perfect

When I was five years old, my omega father once told me about several fictional worlds living under a system, an artificial order of the world based on rules and rankings defined from the beginning of time. Humans, animals, and resources were predetermined; even though, sentient actions or interactions were not fixed. In his prior life, these applied ideas formed elaborate fictional stories and games called RPGs. While all of these things may seem childish on their surface, despite the fact that

3 Chatpers away from the event

There was a line from Souma Kazuya in Realist Hero Who Rebuilt The Kingdom, that went like this, “Seen from the past, the future is always a series of coincidences. Seen from the future, the past always looks like it was inevitable. Then what of the present? For that... we just have to trust in our own choices”. Ultimately, Robert and I trusted in our choices up to the point when coincidences became certainties and plots were inevitable. We had prepared for a northern uprising just as history ha

Chapter 30 A closer look at the young preteen Crown Prince Harry Tudor in my story, who is one of those kids that you probably would see tearing apart motors, wires, and circuit boards to create motors. I've met a few kids like him in my life, they are highly solution-driven and look at the world as a puzzle that can be solved. Also, sexuality isn't at the top of their thought process, so I imagine Harry as being asexual. Asexual awakening is an interesting concept, unlike straight, gay, or bi/pan guys getting hardons for opposite, same sex, or both, the realization that nothing sexual interests you is seldom described like I did with Harry. Sadly, Harry's solution-driven mindset would lead to his early death due to the bigger plot elements built over the last ten chapters. The internal attack has begun. The problems probably began many chapters ago, like cancer within the kingdom over the decade. I started my chapter by quoting a realist hero because at the heart of my story is realism, despite the sci-fi and fantasy elements. I had mentioned that Queen Mary's spread a lot of nationalistic ideas promoting English supremacy against minority Welsh, Cornish, and especially Irish. Though she is dead, the repercussions of promoting such ideas have lasting power just as we in the modern world are confronting issues that people dealt with nearly a century ago. Dissident movements grow from those who don't like status quo, they also are prime targets for foreign agents to use against the current government. People will think I am just talking about the current problems between Russia and US or China and US. However, numerous historical examples can be drawn from US assistance in the overthrow of the South Vietnam's government with anti-Communist dissidents, Russian involvement in overthrowing Czechslovakian government, and China's action in Hong Kong recently. It's a common trick to use factions to topple governments. In my story, nationalism is just a facade for greed. The nobles haven't received any corrupt bargains or good lands from Eli in the last decade of reign. Those who served under the old system established from the Lancastrian and Tudor eras are pissed with their lack of financial gains. Worse, the religious elements within the realm are quite divided despite the new laws that Eli had created. As I mentioned in my prior chapters there's a major religious issue with the Anglican church, which is dominated by Protestant nobles. Of course, you already can tell from the mention of the Baltic sea that it is the Russian faction acting behind the scenes. This is the introduction of another major faction in the alternate timeline with advanced technologies as you can tell from their communication jamming, espionage, assassination, and "invisibility" devices (Think cloaking device). I mentioned a few characters in this chapter as well, who play important roles in Elizabethan history like Henry Cary (Elizabeth's Lord Chamberlain), Nicholas Bacon (the Lord Chancellor), and his son the famous Francis Bacon (Chancellor for James I and father of the Scientific Revolution in our history). There are a lot of plot points I am playing with in this chapter. This week's law of Power is the 18th law, "Do not build a fortress to protect yourself, isolation is dangerous", Eli made the mistake in trusting various established mechanism and traditional practices to secure the royal family and peace in English society. An industrial revolution in history also disrupted the ancient order of things as well, creating major social reforms and unrest. Even if you pay people well, greed cannot be removed. References: 1. Callbacks were made to the Battle of Heath Woods with John Cary, the teenage soldier who was a fan of ale. He's technically a fictionalized version of the historic son of Mary Boleyn and William Cary; though, she was rumored to have an affair with William Stafford. 2. Francis Bacon is an interesting character, even though he's just a kid right now. He became a major figure in scientific history and it is rumored that he and William Shakespeare were close (Will is 5 at the moment and Francis Bacon is 8, just in case people were wondering. If I pursue that route, it's age-appropriate, though Anne Hathaway is going to show up. If I go down that route, maybe we can finally understand Shakespeare's final words on why she was only "Second-best bedmate with furniture" ) 3. Harry's death is going to be explored in a side story, I am not sure if I should make it an interlude or a short story. I also want to explore how each side-character sees the uprising in London and its consequences across the kingdom. Eli/Jamie/John are at Parliament, Francis/Takeychiyo/Will/Francis Bacon/others are Whitehall Palace, Harry was at White Tower, Robert is at Port of London near the River Thames' Estuary with Puck/Edward/Ambrose/their child, Frances Howard is in Cornwall, and the triplets are with the bulk of the Royal Army in the north. There are 4-5 short stories at least surrounding this major plot point.

For folks wondering, if there was ever such a story. Sadly a discontinued story inspired this request. I was reading up until January 2024. The Dragon without a System by Mike Sythias I hope the author continues this interesting fantasy series It's hard to find good gay male characters and fantasy world-building like this. It's one or the other usually. Even on GA, most writers don't go in this direction for fantasy, which is quite a shame. It's a story that I think some fans of gay fantasy might enjoy as well.

https://www.businessinsider.com/time-travel-possible-changing-past-isnt-physics-says-2020-9#:~:text=A 2020 study offered a,you couldn't change history. https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1361-6382/aba4bc I mentioned this weeks ago in my story about time travel, using the principle known as the Novikov's self-consistency principle, but I thought it might be a good idea to discuss and explore this topic with other writers and readers. For my story, I wanted to use a realistic concept around time travel being possible, but results from history cannot be changed. This kind of concept is based on the nature that the universe as a system recalibrates itself around results. You cannot exist without the results matching the causes. If the theory and math hold true, the underlying idea around "Free Will" is kind of moot, except for minor variations. It opens up a lot of deeper questions around natural law, the limitations on chaotic elements, and human philosophies that invest heavily on absolute free will. Does that mean destiny and fate are real? Are we just a Thanos snap of a finger away from "inevitability"? It's an interesting thing to consider for human beings.

And then there's "Baby Reindeer"....Oh boy, Netflix has a complicated miniseries with a realistic damaged bisexual guy. It's not clear cut and pure as a lot of modern LGBT fiction try to be, but it's probably the dark reality that a lot of people avoid describing. At the heart of the miniseries, it's a failure of actualization and acceptance. These are two things that haunt people with histories of abuse. In the series, it led Donny down a cycle of victimization. He couldn't accept the shame of being raped by a guy he idolized, perhaps loved, but he was too ashamed to admit it. He needed the attention of a dangerous woman, who threatened him and alienated him from others. Maybe, there's a bit of self-loathing embedded in his need to keep "Martha" around to hurt him. He couldn't accept the love of a trans person who he genuinely had reciprocal feelings. In the end, his life is sad and there are no easy answers to the problems a lot of LGBT people face with that kind of background. I wouldn't recommend the series for anyone not in the right mental state or trying to find closure if they've suffered from sexual abuse. You won't find any answers here just a reflection of a person drowning in life. That's my thoughts on Netflix's latest hit series that has drawn over a million viewers.

Now you know how the side characters met up before 1558 and the various historical threads I am pulling together. I find the historical Antonio of Portugal to be quite interesting, born of a Jewish mother from lower nobility (merchants who converted to Catholicism nominally and bought their title) and a royal prince, grew up in a Catholic Monastic order, became a warrior monk (sort of), supposed had several dozen affairs and bastard children (He would make Casanova blush), and even claiming the Portuguese throne at least for a month in our history. Same interest goes with Tokugawa Ieyasu, the third unifier of Japan and the originator, who grew up in the household of his enemies. He was kidnapped in a Japanese tradition to turn him into a vassal of Imagawa clan under Imagawa Yoshimoto. I added the additional aspect of his captors selling him off as a slave as Japanese people during this period were sold into slavery to Portuguese and Spaniards, who had arrived in Asia and claimed several ports like Goa and Manila. Either rising Oda Nobunaga or his ambitious peasant-born commander Toyotomi Hideoyoshi, the other two hegemons of Japan, with knowledge of the future would want a potential rival removed.

I remember my first time interacting with GFD, Gone from Daylight, I was still figuring myself out at the time as a gay teen. Comsie was a bright spot in a dark world. Later as an amateur writer, I learned he spread his knowledge about writing, experiences, and hope without filters or conventions across various platforms and groups. RIP @Comicality You will be missed and hopefully you are enjoying the paradise of eternal bliss.

Over the next years, Queen Regent Jean of Navarre managed to maintain a positive relationship with all the major nations bordering Navarre by courting Spanish nobility and promising concessions to French nobles. The Church received enormous rewards from extraterritorial rights, which was why their priest acted with impunity. However, beneath the surface, she wanted freedom and independence for her people away from the predators surrounding her kingdom. While she did not know at first that I was

It was not the only time that I intervened in the affairs of Navarre or disrupted the affairs of the Habsburg Empire and their lapdog priests from New Rome. The quotas that I obtained from the Bishop caused only a slight stir, the priest and his guards went missing on the road without witnesses except for the basque boy and the elderly tanner, who did not know my true identity or purpose. Sadly, Habsburg and church agents did enter the area and sought out locals and the appearance of the boy liv