W_L

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

A paperboy exhibit should be created in a museum somewhere, next to a typewriter and a VHS player.

Well, I'm heading out to the Alaskan Tundra in a few days and hope to do some side-reading with some modern low-fantasy based on a system. For those unaware of the subgenre or the genre: The genre of Low Fantasy is based on our normal modern world with a twist of fantasy elements like magic creatures, races, abilities, and so on. Harry Potter for instance is an example of low fantasy (Low does not mean its quality is lesser than High fantasy, it's just a matter of world crafting) Now, the subgenre of low fantasy that I am looking for is "System", where the main character is assigned or obtains a job from the ordinary Warrior to the tragically shunned Necromancer, then they need to develop skills with a level system similar to an RPG video game. The main characters and others in this fantasy setting are assigned classes based on their abilities, levels, and achievements. Here's one class ranking: F-Class : Lowest level, baseline human E-Class: Weakest use of job specialty or item, slightly better than most humans when describing people D-Class: Adequate use of job specialty or item, better than most humans when describing people C-Class: Decent use of job specialty or item, Incomparable to human ability B-Class: Proficient use of job specialty or item, better than most associated with job or "rankers" in the area A-Class: Master use of job specialty or item, One of the best in the associated job or "rankers" in the area S-Class: Transcendant use of job specialty or item, Peak of associated Job, stands above almost everyone else Now, the SS, SSS, and EX classes are usually used to describe main characters or beings transcending the power of Gods, essentially the main character's endgame in most of these stories is going to become a being beyond transcendent, sometimes as a result of their journey and other times to face off against foes at this level to tear down an unfair or unjust world created by God or Gods (Basically in these stories, it's the living answer to Nietzsche's impossible nihilist question, supreme transcendence). Any suggestions with a gay main character?

The remaining decade was a time for progress, development, and growth. On our way back to England, Robert, Francis, and I took a few weeks to enjoy the hospitality of the nascent Dutch Republic in Bruges. I’ve heard a lot of interesting rumors about the Netherlands in my era, including wild libertine sex. During the medieval period, the prosperous region of Flanders was a pragmatic cosmopolitan area with a lot of prostitution, brothels, and sexual freedom that did not exist in many areas of Euro

Chapter 29 As I noted I'll be on vacation for a bit, I'll leave a few short stories just so folks get some more info on side characters and stories. As for this chapter, it's an interesting culmination of effects. In the 16th century, the forces of the Calvinism Protestants and Counter-Reformation Catholics were very powerful movements that warped society and enforced a lot draconian moral rules. Places like the Netherlands, which traditionally were far more liberal and cosmopolitan due to their location as major trade hub were radically altered by internal conflicts. However, in my timeline, the Protestant lost the Civil War in the Holy Roman Empire/Germany and Switzerland where Calvinism had its roots was conquered by New Rome/Catholic Church forces. In the vacuum, new movements and ideologies are taking the place of traditional Protestant factions. The main theme in this chapter is "how can you defeat tradition", whether it's religion, entitled rights, or views. Eli was never a fan of Christianity, or any religion for that matter, based on his past life and would probably champion the fall of organized religion in favor of individual freedom. At the heart of it, Eli desires a society that isn't bound by tradition. However, to achieve this goal, Eli needs to create a new kind of thought process, known as "Noncomformist" ideology. This little known philosophy was at the heart of the scientific and industrial revolutions in the 18th and 19th, when mankind stopped being held back by tradition and strived towards progress. In particular, one of scions of this philosophy created Charles Darwins' theory of evolution, a concept that threatens the very existence of creationism and in fact theological traditions across the world. If Eli wants to break the power of Habsburg Empire and New Rome, such a philosophy has to become a major school of thought. Feel free to take a look the historical "nonconformist" philosophy and its rejections of traditional Christian orthodoxy, it's an interesting history lesson. However, before Eli can do anything, there are major issues based around traditional power systems such as the English nobility. While they may not side with Habsbuirg Empire or Catholic Church, their ideology is based on a different kind of "tradition", one based on the supremacy of ownership. It's another important fact in history that English nobility had far more power and wealth than most monarchs due to how things worked. An entitled elitist group of individuals, who acquired everything due to an ancestor's ability, exploits their positions and prevents a lot of things. One of the things that England developed from this concept of land ownership is slavery. The entitled landowner and the servile farmer/laborer were well-entrenched concepts. Thomas Radclyffe is the foil in my story to the kind of English nobleman that served Elizabeth I, someone who is by nature a self-interested noble with desires of personal wealth above all. In our history, he was also infamous for his campaigning Ireland. In my story, he's a greedy war criminal with a scheming nature. Despite being such a morally and ethically questionable person, Elizabeth I relied on him to put down rebellions. However, Eli could not accept this kind of quid pro quo for the needs to break the power of his enemies over ideology. As for the solution, a series of rigged carnival games entices players to give up more money than the prize. The games play off the pride of individuals. It's a quintessential truth human beings cannot accept losing and will sacrifice a lot to win a pyrrhic victory, especially if they feel victory should have been easily obtained. As for birthdays, I have introduced my version of William Shakespeare, or should I call him Will Tudor-Walsingham as he's the son of Eli and Francis after an experiment in "double stuffing". We also have both Mary Queen of Scots' son James VI of Scotland and Eli's Omega son Jamie Tudor of England, Jamie's lover being called George at the end of the chapter is George Villiers, also known as Duke of Buckingham, the historical boyfriend/partner of King James. This week's law of power is the 21st law, "Play a sucker to catch a sucker, seem dumber than your mark", it can be seen in how Eli manipulated Earl Thomas Radclyffe to give up a fortune and his own lands in order to win something that ultimately would bankrupt him. Eli appeared to give in and placate the Earl with 20,000 gold coins, then offered to double that and showed favor by slapping Eddie, who was like a son to Eli after so many years. In order to fool the Earl and the other landowners, Eli acted like a fool and showed he feared Earl of Sussex to the point of giving up a lot to win his favor. In the end, the Earl and all the others lost everything to Eli. Notes: 1. Yes, Flanders, where the Netherlands are now, had a history as very lively place in the middle ages to late medieval era, when it was a major trade hub. Sexual freedom was higher there than in many other regions. I was inspired by this fact and modern Dutch culture to create a society that would be similar to their modern counterpart. 2. As for Novikov's self-consistency principle, it's a time travel concept that argues you can't change the past even if you go back in time. Instead, your actions will help create the event in question due to your actions. When applied to "real" probability, the concept is used to explain away why certain outcomes appear fixed no matter what factors. In my universe, I'm using a variant of this concept: History doesn't repeat itself, but it does rhyme, meaning you can maintain historical events and outcomes by creating alternative routes to reach that outcome. That is how Mary Tudor and Charles V lived passed their dates of death. It's an important world building rule for how time travel mechanics work in my universe. There are of course things that violate self-consistency issues that also exist in my story from prior chapters.

In the fall of 1563, after the Act of Primacy was passed by Parliament and the garrisons in London left, Francis Walsingham returned to my side from Navarre, along with the nine-year-old prince Henry Bourbon, who was nominally sent to my court for education by his mother. In truth, Henry left Navarre due to a planned coup d’etat by Philip II of Spain, who wanted to end the threat of a possible schism between the French line of succession due to Henry’s nominal position as fourth in line to the F

Chapter 28 FYI, I'll be heading on vacation soon, so I might be a bit spotty for a few weeks in terms of posting new chapters. An homage to the Field of Cloth of Gold is what I consider this chapter to be, where we see a bit more of the sophistication that commercial applications of technology have brought into existence by this point. These are luxuries without modern manufacturing or shipping would only be possible for world leaders that had nation-level resources. Like the historic meeting between King Henry VIII and Francis I in 1520, it's not unheard of to have dinner party meetings out in the open by rivals like this. I also wanted to give folks a geopolitical map of the world as it exist in my universe in 1563, Habsburg Empire is massive multi-continental titan, Ming China has moved its territory into Central Asia, Japan has occupied Korean Peninsula, India has occupied southeast Asia, and Russia is at a similar size to Warsaw Pact USSR. There's also a lot of animosity hinted in this chapter between these future factions. Interesting thing that readers may miss, but the place where the Cores were discovered in our timeline was revealed in this chapter, it's Luna aka the Moon. As of right now, US, China, Russia, India, and Japan are the 5 nations that have landed on the Moon. It's why I chose them to represent the five time travelling factions in my novel, since the prerequisite would be the "Cores". Also, private space launch firms like SpaceX and Blue Horizons are sort of the forerunners for Corporate Consortium competing with the big nations to gain resources like the Cores. The 2nd Moon Race in my universe has much bigger rewards than just bragging rights or a stepping stone to Martian Conquest as some might desire, especially with the discovery of unknown possibly alien technology. This week's law of power is 20th law of Power, "Do Not Commit to Anyone", it essentially means to leave your options and your opponents' options open. Eli in this chapter did not side with any major faction from the future, rather choosing to retain autonomy. It's an example of practicality and creating opportunities. Notes: 1. Alexander Farnese is considered a major European master of Warfare in the 16th century. He was one of the shining stars in history among the Spanish/Habsburg Counter reformation against Protestant powers. Shrewd and tactical, but sadly being a bastard grandson of Charles V meant he had a ceiling on his position, compared to his cousin, King Philip II, who was legitimate heir. 2. One of the goods mentioned in this chapter used for display of national power is "Bone China", which is an English porcelain product that gained immense fame in the 19th century as a competing product against Chinese made Paste Porcelain. The reason is due to the incorporation of animal bones into the creation of the material creating a beautiful finish that could serve as templates for artistic designs.

Starting on a new Gay Historical Fantasy book, (I wasn't the first one to come up with this particular concept for gay fiction) The Emperor and the Endless Palace by Justinian Huang, where two gay lovers are reincarnated through three lifetimes from Ancient China to 17th century China to Modern US. Reincarnation + Gay Historical Fantasy + a lot gay erotic scenes (I didn't go as heavy as this author in Of Pride and Power, based on what I've read so far) Since I am writing in the same genre right now with my setting in England versus Asia, it's a good thing to see what a published writer did successfully and what didn't work for me. For instance, romance-wise, his deuteragonists were more hot-sexy than mine continuously. On the other hand, I think the actual plot and history weren't built up enough; it's why I chose to create an entirely different timeline rather than stage things in history. "Based on" versus "Inspired on" concept is important to writer mentalities in this type of genre.