#elders of the interwebs

[thatstormygeek]

Obviously it's a big country and participation varies at the local level, but we've had Green candidates on local ballots in Missouri (and we always have Libertarian and Constitution Party). So it's not true that 3rd parties just ignore local elections.

The system is set up to keep 3rd parties out. It is. The barriers to getting on the ballot are extensive. The monetary support isn't there. And then you have the intense pressure of our recent history of two parties: Red and Blue. The fact that every party beyond that is called a "3rd party" and all parties other than Dem and GOP are collectively "3rd parties" tells you everything you need to know.

I'm not saying don't try - do! Hell yeah. If running for office is something you'd (general) like to do, go for it! But...acting like 3rd parties are entirely made up of people too stupid to understand how the US political system works is unhelpful. The GOP has the power it does because of strategy, yes, but also because the US is a right wing country. It will always be easier to move right. It's difficult to stay in place, let alone move left.

And if we're casting blame, I'd say we put the bulk of the blame for lack of representation at the local level on our other major party, as the Democrats have been happy to abandon red states for decades. They decided we weren't worth their effort long ago and have blamed us for their abandonment since.

I'm glad for Mamdani and New York. I hope he wins the general. And I really hope the fucking national Democratic party wakes up. Because a lot of folks talking about replicating this are somehow not talking about how the establishment Democratic party itself threw its might behind defeating Mamdani. So we're somehow supposed to field progressive candidates in red areas that can defeat the GOP and the Dems. I'm not saying it can't be done, I just won't bank it on happening.

People are saying what happened in New York can’t be replicated. I’m in Texas and two of my six city council members are socialists (about to be 4 next election. God willing, but because the current socialist members won their races so handedly I’m not too worried) and in two years I can almost guarantee there will be a leftist in the mayoral position.

Get involved in local politics I BEG of you. Mamdani is not some unicorn. He is proof that we can make socialism a possibility in America if we work from the ground up.

[thatstormygeek]

boycott target. boycott amazon. boycott walmart.

Ah. So people in the rural midwest are just supposed to...what? Believe it or not, there are things you cannot buy at Family Dollar or a gas station.

"we're not talking about you! only people who can!"

Right. But you're never talking about these folks. Or maybe you're just assuming that nobody in the rural midwest would be progressive enough to want to participate? You tell yourself you know that there are no truly "red" or "blue" states, but when you look at a map of the US, you go ahead and write off the entire bible belt.

I live in a suburban town, so my options aren't as limited as that and we're still struggling to find another location to get the things that we can't buy at Aldi.

"you don't need anything at target. go to a museum." cool. well, there isn't a museum in my town and there is a target, so one is much more accessible than the other. But mainly I don't know that going to a museum is going to help me find my vitamins and paper products. "I can buy my leggings elsewhere." cool. how about toothpaste and skincare products?

"instead of shopping on amazon, go to the store's website and order from there!" sure, that does avoid giving Amazon their cut, so it's definitely worth doing. but the store's website is likely to run on AWS (Amazon Web Services), so you're still shopping on Amazon. Isn't late stage capitalism fun?

I dunno. We could blame the media and their endless "working class Trump voter" stories for encouraging people to not give a shit about red staters. But I've lived in Kansas or Missouri for the vast majority of my 4 dozen years and it's always been this way. Back in the 80s and 90s, we'd run into people who were surprised we had electricity and indoor plumbing in Kansas. We're called "flyover space" for fuck's sake.

The funny part is that I am 100% in favor of boycotting Walmart and Amazon and Target (and more - y'all should see my personal blacklist, f'real). Hell, I've been avoiding Walmart as much as possible since I worked there back in the day. I just wish some of you would crawl out of your own asses at some point instead of living life high on your own farts.

[thatstormygeek]

as far as I know, there was never any kind of press about Briana Boston being released. folks read something on a go fund me (that wasn't associated with her anyway) and saw information on the court website and made assumptions.

Someone was posting updates about her being released on a post I made. I went and looked for any news story mentioning this and there were none.

The original post I saw about the situation - which I didn't share because it did the lovely "if you don't behave like x you're a bad person" guilt trip rather than just sharing information - has thousands of notes, of course. And people are still sharing around the update with false info about release. And nobody can fix this except you.

Yes, you. Individual you. You are the only person who has the power to stop yourself from spreading information you have not confirmed. We all do it sometimes, but it's an important habit to train ourselves out of.

Slow the fuck down. The world will not end if you don't hit share on that post before you have a chance to look into it. But you are actively contributing to making the world a shittier place if you help spread misinformation. So maybe decide what's more important to you and act accordingly.

And hey - maybe that is being the one to share things first, even if they are misleading or outright false. If that's the case, do everyone (including you) a favor and at least be honest with yourself about it.

[thatstormygeek]

nonbinary people don't legally exist in the US and UK and many in our own community defend the use of slurs against us. Such a fun time to be alive.

[thatstormygeek]

It's wild to be a leftist parent in the US with an 18-20 yo kid. The idea that I'm not foaming at the mouth to shove my kid out into the world or sign him up for crushing debt or force him into the machine does not compute with, well, anyone really.

"it's okay to live with your parents as an adult if you're disabled" "it's okay if it's a cultural thing" "it's okay if you're trying to save mon-" shh. listen. it is okay for any reason. you don't need to have a justification. if your parents are alright with it and you're alright with it you can just do it. peace and love on planet earth etc etc

[thatstormygeek]

From the graphic and lede, I knew what this was going to be. Buying into the hype of imminent "AGI," they focused on the science-fiction of it all rather than the actual risks from the "AI" we have today.

Like, say, the risk of having your prison sentence increased because an AI-generated "video" of the victim:

Or the risk of having AI "hallucinations" about your work published in mainstream media articles, thus giving the lie much greater weight:

Or the risk of having an entire generation that can't manage to write even short, personal essays on their own:

Think about your software. Think about how buggy and glitchy it is. And most of the foundational work was done by people who actually learned to code. When all your programmers are cheating their way through school and then using AI to write the code for their products...how long do you think this shit is going to keep working?

[thatstormygeek]

leftists have no power in the US.

Leftists Have No Power In The US.

LEFTISTS HAVE NO POWER IN THE US.

Not just right now. Never in modern history.

This is not defeatism. It's reality. There is zero representation in the United States government for leftists.

I need y'all to understand this. People talk about the Red Scare (which, the one in the 50s was actually the second one) and just somehow miss that a congress that is doing shit like that is not a congress that welcomes leftists even at the best of times.

For your own good, y'all really need to internalize this fact. Believing otherwise is really skewing your risk management calculations.

Like, yes - as the post says, don't share protest photos of people. Just don't. There are many reasons it's not a good idea. But the picture of Edward Crawford they use and point out he's dead? That was taken by a journalist and went viral on twitter. And yeah, don't volunteer or share the names of those you recognize in photos, but again - it wasn't leftists that got Crawford killed.

The only political danger leftists pose is to Democrats because we think they should earn our votes and they think they are entitled to them because they're better than the other guy. We are not out there running entire cities or states, and definitely not the entire country.

Part of the problem is terminology confusion* - the "left" in the US is largely undefined, so some people use "left" to mean communist and some use it to mean progressive and those on the right use it to mean anyone not all in on authoritarian fascism. So basically the speaker can say whatever they want about "the left" and it's potentially true because the term is so loosely applied.

Just...man. I don't know. Develop good habits but keep your perspective grounded in reality.

* I call myself a leftist and reject other labels because we're so far from my political ideal that the details are really unimportant at the moment. If some miracle happened and the world got a hell of a lot better very quickly, sure, I'd need to put in some time and effort to suss those out. Until then, though, that's just wasted energy imo. Then again, I view politics as a directional journey rather than a static label, so that affects things, too.

[thatstormygeek]

imagine taking the leftist critique of your politics as a great idea for a protest sign.

liberals gonna liberal, I guess.

[thatstormygeek]

This is interesting and I'm sure there's a lot of truth in it. It also completely ignores the POV of gay men in favor of how straight women feel hanging out in gay male spaces.

I get that this isn't specifically about bars, but over and over again we have seen pieces by gay men lamenting how straight cis women have taken over gay bars and made them uncomfortable or unsafe for gay men. The commonality of being marginalized genders (female and faggot) allows some camaraderie, but there can be a lot of unexamined objectification and toxicity.

[vvatchword]

Although I've been posting a lot of Elder Scrolls stuff, I wouldn't call my BioShock hyperfixation over. It's just that I desperately needed a break, and... well...

Someone posted this really nice review on Mud-on-Her-Face. I mean. Absurdly nice. They said they got into Morrowind because of me, went on a full wiki-search about the Nerevarine, and said that Muds was their favorite take on him.

After I had finished crying a little, I said to myself: You know what, I haven't felt like writing Muds for me, but I will write Muds for YOU. And since I need a break from the unrelenting misery of my BioShock fanfiction, I shall head straight over to the unrelenting misery of Vvardenfell posthaste. It helps that I can play it as "work," if that makes sense. Even if I don't feel creative, even if I'm depressed to the point I can't move, I can play a video game. By playing it, I can amass information on this subject so that I can finish it properly. And there are so many nice people here on the interwebs who have so kindly given their time and knowledge to me.

It's actually given me some confidence that I can finish Saya as well. If I can approach these stories with even an ounce of interest, I can work on anything for fun's sake.

It's interesting that I don't have the same hang-ups with Muds that I do with Saya, coincidentally... I always feel freshly interested with Muds where I feel a bit embarrassed with Saya. Maybe because you have to be in a hell of a mood to take something like TMNT and Saya's underlying story seriously? I don't know. I think because so many people have been following Saya, including a legend, and there's more weight to a failure should I fuck up. I mean I don't think I'll fuck up but I have too many moving parts and it makes me nervous. This is why I try to finish things first.

I would just like to finish anything, really

[ficandkaboodle]

Imagine, though, growing up knowing that your life is, for better or for worse, carved out for you. You know where your path leads to, your every age is divided up into stations in your faith, of which contains a multitude of principles and a blend of ideologies that, until recently, have mostly just been dour and dreary.

But you have optimism, and you dare to have a vision: You see something brighter, you see what it all could be. You intend to rise up to the position with these brand new ideas, things no one in your group has spoken about on such a massive scale.

You're quite proud of it!

. . . The elders of your society, however, view it very differently. And at best, they take what you've got and bastardize it and make a simulacrum of it until it just superficially resembles what you had in mind. So your faith in everything, in everyone, dwindles with time. But you can't really get out of this, not on your own terms, anyway. So you keep going along with everything, even though your heart's not in it. But others look up to you, even though you know this isn't the real you.

Anyway, you keep doing this, you give them everything you have and even stuff you don't really have or can afford to give. And you're rewarded by the others for it. You show your elders and it's like "Look! Something good came out of this! Look what my ideas have brought!" And you once again dare to believe that maybe there's hope after all. Maybe your thoughts do have worth --

And then you get ripped out of your position prematurely. In front of a crowd of people who looked up to you.

And you have to watch some no-name nobody from within your group take over your job. Worse, the very people who removed you actually seem to like this fucker. Whatever. Whatever. Whatever! You don't know what to do with your premature retirement, but at least maybe now you can finally just . . . What can you finally just??

You never find out: It goes dark one night. You don't see what happens. You don't know that your body is desecrated for the sake of a photoshoot. You don't learn how much the people who looked up to you miss you, or that they still fawn over your visage long after you've gone.

You don't see the people poring back over your works and rediscovering and analyzing what you had really been saying all along, you don't see newcomers looking to the past and finding you and falling in love with you and feeling conflicted for missing someone they had never met.

. . . And then some mufucker on the interwebs goes around and starts suggesting that you need to climb on the kitchen counter just to reach the cereal your stupid taller boyfriend put on top of the fridge --

[thatstormygeek]

"AI can write code!" Can it? Can it really, though? Have you fucking tried to use a single piece of technology lately?!

[thatstormygeek]

At the drive-in: Starman

In an actual theater: The Doors

I know I went to movies before that, but I snuck into that with my bestie cuz we were too young to buy tickets, so that's the one that's burned into my brain.

what's the first movie you remember seeing in theaters? don't try and be all edgy and cool and say like tetsuo: the iron man. be honest.

Go!!

[blu3-j]

Hello, hello, hello, fellow strangers!!

I just wanted to give you all a little life update! (Because I'm sure some of you are wondering "Where in the heck did you go? What's taking so long?")

(And I also kind of think of this as like a personal word of mine to send out into the ocean for somebody to hear and possibly relate instead of keeping it in this dome of mine! After all, the worst that can happen to my posts on here is that no one sees it! :))

So, what's been happening in my life since I graduated? Well, I got my first job! (Professional, anyways.) Additionally, some of you may have noticed in my last fanfic that I wrote how I now have regular interwebs access at my humble abode! So exciting! I can do so much more now! I do have some unfinished and mostly finished artworks here and there I could post. (A good chunk of them are personal doodles, haha!) In fact, here's a sneak peak of one! Just need to do a few last touches!

At one point I became quite discouraged to continue writing and drawing. I felt as though there was no more spark to it all. While before, there was color and life, at that point, it was now just color. So, I kind of took a small break. Went camping with my family and boyfriend for a few days. In that time I got my spark back! ...Kind of, anyways. But that's personal stuffsies I don't need to let you all in on!

I also got an idea for something new! A video game! Small and simple for the most part. Or...well...at least...that's how it started, haha! Regardless, my elder brother and I have begun creating a video game!

Something I find extremely fascinating is how coding works! I love the idea of taking pretty much nothing and creating something out of it! It amazes me to no end, haha! My elder brother thinks the same, and we've both been wanting to create a video game for quite a while now.

Now for the first time, we have all that we need to do it! So, I've begun working pretty darn hard on it! There won't be a beta or demo for a while, but we're working on it! (Let's just hope this isn't a bust, haha!)

Last part: now that we have interwebs access, I've also been tempted to get Splatoon 3 for a while now! Maybe not for another few weeks, but soon! (There's a good chance I'll be a total noob at it for a good long while, haha! I'm not all too good at shooters and online combat games. But it seems interesting! And fun! I'm so excited to try it out!) Who knows? Maybe I'll make a few friends! Maybe I'll meet some of you on there?

Alrighty tighty, then. That should be all for now! I hope you all have a fantabulous day! You all deserve it! And reminder for you all, don't be afraid to send in requests or asks. I love to make chit chat, even if it's small! You all are so amazing! Have a wonderful day or night, fellow strangers!

[absolutebl]

This Week in BL - All the endings

March 2023 Wk 1

Being a highly subjective assessment of one tiny corner of the interwebs. Organized by which ones (in each category) I’m enjoying most.

Ongoing Series - Thai

Bed Friend (Sat YT, GaGa & iQIYI uncut) ep 3 of 8 - Only one of them is in a fuck buddy relationship, and it’s not King Moon-eyes Husband-material. This show is so damn good. I love it when high heat is used to serve the characters and the narrative, as well as us fans. (In other words, take away the sexualized part of this relationship and the whole story would fall apart.) I suppose we should pay attention to Uea’s rules since they will all be broken. Uea has a bit of a demanding spoiled prince thing going and I’m not mad about it. This may be the most neck-kissy couple ever, I’m so happy for them! Yet another  installment in “Thailand, please get that boy to a therapist.” This ep likely has lots of extras so I might watch IQ as well. Child abuse trigger btw. 

Moonlight Chicken (Weds YT) eps 7-8fin - It was a good last 2 eps, and I ended up actually liking the complexity of the messiness more than I thought I would - disaster queer authenticity isn’t usually my thing. (Japan taught me that lesson the hard way). All in all, a stellar a little offering from GMMTV, in the Not Me or ITSAY vein of “I question whether it’s actually BL but like it anyway.” Full review and rating below.

Never Let Me Go (Tues YT) ep 12fin - The climax was rather predictably climatic (as it were). I love that Chopper shot his dad. Better aim next time, sweetheart? The cousins making up was sappy. Chopper & Ben were fine. Frankly, I’m not sure about PerthChimon’s chemistry, a bit nervous for their series now. And then Kdrama separation nation strikes again. Yawn. Question: Did the cute girl at Palm’s bar ever get her coconut juice? Full review and rating below. 

A Boss and a Babe (Fri YouTube) ep 1 of 10 - ForceBook in an office set boss/employee highly camp rom-com. Babe is a bit too slapstick for me, boss is a bit too creepy, and Book is def over egging the pudding. Well meaning chatterbox idiot is not my fav archetype. Bathroom meet cute? Huh. I don’t know. I don’t hate it, I guess?  

The Promise (Thai WeTV & YT) ep 1 of 10 - Popped into my YT feed so I gave it a try. Unexpectedly good! Phu & Nan are childhood bffs from middle school through college (almost lovers). Phu disappears just after graduation. After looking/waiting for him for ages, Nan gives up and self isolates, and the actual story takes place 10 years later. The arbitrary slapstick elements are unnecessary, disjoined, and rough. The show should have had the strength of its convictions just to be a serious drama. But it’s way better than expected (it’s about coffee, I love coffee) and no need to have watched the prequel miniseries Phupha | Nanfah. Phu’s granny and cohorts are THE BEST. Also elder queer rep. There better be a GREAT reason why Phu didn’t reach out to Nan or I will be seriously displeased. 

Chains of Heart (Sat iQIYI) 3 of 10 - I kind of love Ken’s slightly idiot gay couple friends. (I do love all of the queer family we are getting these days.) They better not betray him! Still, this is one of those shows where, despite his competency, we haven’t really been given a reason to like Ken all that much. I’m not super invested in his grief or his new romance. The captions are BONKERS but the sex scenes are good. I hope LueKen deliver as well as DinKen. Gotta say, despite my grumbling, I did enjoy it more this week. 

Tin Tam Jai (Tues Gaga & iQIYI) ep 1 of 10 - I am not a huge fan of the tsundere seme, especially if they are the older character. But this is a really good cast and for a pulp it’s actually okay acted and captioned. It’s cute. Campy. Old school Thai. I do like a flirty uke who knows what he wants. Lots of very prototypical tropes. Is it good? Well, no, but I’m still gonna watch it. 

Love Syndrome (Thai Sat WeTV) ep 1 of 10 - Terrible subs again. They a hot couple but Itt is a revolting character, asshole rather than brat. Day is VERY sexy tho. This one is messy and rough and will likely involve cheating AND the amnesia trope. I might put it onto the binge pile. 

Our Winter (Thai & Korea YT & TikTok under ThaiMiniSeries) eps 8-9 of 14 - TutorYim are cute. And nice to have decent music with Thai actors for a change. 

Ongoing Series - Not Thai

All the Liquors (Korea Thurs Gaga & Viki) ep 1-2 of 8 - Oh my God, breaking up with a man because he picked the wrong restaurant for a holiday meal is v relatable, but the reaction ”how can you break up with me before we’ve eaten?” is the best thing ever. I may identify with our baby party boy hedonist more than any other BL lead ever presented. I adore how Korea is leaning into “out gay boys” these days. Love love love the gay bestie. This is on the New Employee end of the KBL spectrum, no bad thing. Not sure about the alcoholism angle tho. Still, this is a fun show! I don’t even mind the crash into me trope when combined with baby is a floppy drunk trope. 

HIStory 5: Love in the Future (Taiwan Weds Viki) ep 10fin (or 19&20) - Not at all surprised that Vincent (Sam? How many names does this man need?) was pulling a double cross, because from the credits we knew the pairs get along. Couple’s necklaces and a sweet make up sequence for the sides. Nice sex scene and manufactured drama for the mains. Ultra cheese fest ending for all including random H4 couple. Full review and rating below. 

Jack o’Frost (Japan GaGa) ep 3 of 6 - The first time sex scene from the past was sweet and well done. That said, a traditional BL romance is not what this story is doing. It’s about 2 people at different points in a romantic journey, one of whom has memories of a failed relationship (and associated baggage) and the other who does not (so is starting at fresh). It’s using high concept to explore this, but that means (this beaning Japan) HEA is on shakey ground. Also, still running a bit low energy for me. 

It’s Airing But ...

Blue Sky Complex (Japan ???) 5 eps for VR - Kei Ichikawa's manga is getting a JBL adaptation. Weird distribution though, it started Feb 27 sequentially on 360 Channel (SHOCHIKUch) a VR video distribution service. Will inter-fans ever get to see this, and if it’s filmed for VR will it adapt without being overly dark and fuzzy? I have questions. But as usual, you do you Japan and we will wait (im)patiently to see if you remember the rest of the world exists. This is my preferred kind of live action yaoi, so fingers crossed: 

Boyband (Thai) ep 2 of 10 - Stopped airing on YouTube, and only available in Thailand & Japan. Not sure if they’re working a distribution deal or just fucking with us.

Cafe In Love (Thai ???) 10 eps on Ch3+ - Thai pulp, about trying to save a coffee shop. FairyGodBLer came through for me, but I’m collecting to binge just in case. It’s my new policy with the grey stuff.

Destiny Seeker (Tues WeTV Thailand) 10 eps - it’s not on any WeTV I can get ahold of. Bad Buddy the pulp rebirth meets Japanese handsome host club action. Same as above.

Heesu In Class 2 (Korea Thurs unknown, I check Viki Gaga iQIYI) - A gay(er) version of Sex Education. I’m still not sure this one is actually happening.

Finished This Week 

My Beautiful Man 2 AKA Utsukushii Kare Season 2 

These two have such a great DS dynamic. Only Hira would apologize for fucking and wanting to fuck his own boyfriend, but doing it anyway. Talk about a service top with a humiliation fetish. Sheesh. The masochism is strong with this one. (Since I do not deal with humiliation fetishists well, the cringe factor got to me a little.) Still, pouty jealous Kiyoi is the cutest. [One flaw: The photographer dude should have been played by Kenta. Just a little joke.] 

SUMMATION 

All in all, this 2nd season didn’t blow me away the way the 1st did. It was quieter and more uniform in its narrative and messaging - thus more predictable. The basic relationship misunderstanding remained the same - all about value and self worth and how that’s assessed. The result is a dialogue between imposter syndrome and a parasocial relationship. If these 2 only had the language and framework of BDSM to understand each other, than they would, but they don’t so the story is us watching them suffer for it. But that’s part of the fun. Part of their fun too, I think, as if the fighting and misunderstanding is just another one of their many kinks. An engaging and solid second installment that was so consistent, I’m going to keep the rating consistent too. 9/10 

HIStory 5: Love in the Future 

High concept of a man from the past traveling to Covid times and getting involved with a spoiled rich kid soon to be CEO that ultimately made for a dull story. Sides were stellar but intentional miscommunication as a narrative driver never works for me. Good chemistry, nice sex scenes, and a cheesy ending (90% of the time) is Taiwan’s BL brand. I expected nothing less. But there is a little part of me that hoped for something more. 7/10 

Never Let Me Go 

Bodyguard romance where poor boy must watch over rich boy for family obligation reasons. Simple premise well executed with a few bumps that made it feel like it was trying to tackle too much (when it wasn’t). Still, an enjoyable show that benefited from being handed to PondPhuwin who did a stellar job with their roles and chemistry. Is it going into permanent rewatch rotation? No, but a solid GMMTV offering. 8/10 

Moonlight Chicken 

I enjoyed this complicated little show, even though it’s spectacularly messy gay with lots of shrapnel and authentic pain. I thought EarthMix turned in their most compelling performance to date. But it was GeminiFourth who stole my heart.  That said, the most interesting central relationship was that of Jim & Li Ming, their father-son angst mixed with evident affection made me tear up. This was more slice of life than it was BL, but it ended happily so I’m not mad at it. 8/10 

Gossip

Apparently Pavel (my love) has been added to the cast of Pit Babe, a Thai BL series I thought was defunked (it was supposed to be out in Jan). So I’m happy. I also put it back on the 2023 tracking sheet. 

Tia51 announced upcoming sampler pack Thai BL My Universe. Normally I don’t report on Thai announcements, as they are pure speculation, but this one is reported to feature 22 actors, 11 couples, 12 stories, and 24 episodes in August 2023. STOP OR YOU’LL GO BLIND. (FB page BLUpdate2020 has a full rundown of the 12 stories.) No MDL listing that I can find. Giving the War or Y peeps a run for their money? Or just epic Thai BL lever pulp-tastic insanity?

New Pinoy BL Stay announced, 6 eps featuring boys who unexpectedly meet in Los Angeles. More here.

In case you missed it 

Jeff Satur is leaving BeOnCloud. Honestly, who tf didn’t see this coming? He just dropped a MV with SHAUN (Steal The Show). Jeff is one of the biggest Thai indies and Shaun is legacy Kpop indie. Jeff was and is always more focused on singing and that’s busted a pair before. Frankly speaking, he's ambitious and doesn’t need BeOnCloud. I’m a big believer in breaking from an agency if you have the platform to go it alone. And just because he’d not repped by them doesn’t me he can’t still work with them, sheesh calm down KP fandom. (Honestly this seems to be my mantra since that damn show aired.) 

Next Week Looks Like This:

03/08 - Pastsenger (Thai Gaga) 12 eps- Stars Marc (My Gear & Your Gown) and Cooper (My Engineer) both formerly paired with others, in a time travel paranormal that smacks of HIStory 5. Sunshine 90s kid travels to 2022, goes to university, encounters grumpy nerd.

03/09 - Our Dating Sim (Korea unknown) - What happens when two men, friends since schoo, meet again at work to create a dating simulation game together.

03/12 Future (Thai YouTube & Gaga?) 5 eps - Based on a y-novel by Faddest (En of Love - yeah I didn’t know that was based on a novel, either). About, you guessed it, an engineering student and a dentist. Maybe this will be the FOTS we were all hoping for? Fuse (the engineering student) is played by Boom from the En of Love and is kinda the same character (Field). I think we can expect this one to be soft, it’s from the 21 Day Theory people. (maybe March 19 international)

Full list of upcoming in March 2023 is here.

2023 forthcoming BL master post. (see comments, some are inaccurate, NOT KEPT UPDATED)

This Week in Subs of Qua?

THIS WEEK’S BEST MOMENTS

I liked this scene in Moonlight Chicken so much I did a whole post about it. 

Chains of Heart the past relationship. can’t wait to see if they do as well with the present one. 

(last week)

Current Kpop earworm? Peacemaker by P1Harmony (I’m considering stanning this group because their rap line is insane, everyone can dance, Theo is beautiful, and Keeho is an adorable nut job with a great voice. Talk about a boy who should do BL, and probably would without a care in the world. Stop him though, these boys are gonna be the next Monsta X.) 

[until-the-brahmin-come-home]

Compiling potential Dogmeat origins from the poll, alongside my thoughts on each option:

Just a Regular Dog: I guess this is an option. Kinda boring, but hey, a dog is a dog, and I'm happy to have one. Does open up the possibility of someone (probably a ghoul) out there maintaining prewar dog breeds, which is a fun space you could play around in. Maybe they have dog shows.

Synth: We know the Institute has made synthetic animals, and his placement right in your way at Red Rocket is suspicious to me. However, the game has nothing else to say about this. I wouldn't be surprised if he was sent your way on purpose, or else is an escaped synth dog.

Time traveler: Joel Burgess said in a twitter thread that Dogmeat is caught out of time and does not belong. I also for personal worldbuilding reasons associate dogs with time in fallout. And yes, time travel is established in the fallout canon. A couple of times, even. Alternatively, he came from another dimension. @/fetidcursedswamp proposes that the Power of Love ripped a hole in space-time, allowing sole's original prewar dog to hop through (this is very cute but I feel like sole would have something to say about this identical dog lol)

Spirit of the Wasteland: proposed by @/lost-in-interwebs. Exactly what it sounds like. I am in love with this concept and will probably implement it. Also works as a parallel to the Pariah dog from fo2.

Immortality: A couple different versions. As proposed by @/thewordinvention: Dogmeat came into contact with some weird science or maybe magic, and now lives forever. This one is pretty cute. I like to imagine his presence only getting weirder as time goes on as individual dog breeds fade out. @/iwillwalk500miles proposes he's the souls of the american people/everyone who died in the blast compressed into the form of a dog which is...interesting.

Offspring of cyberdogs: proposed by @/gecko-in-a-can. You know what, I can see this one. The Old Worlds Blues ending mentions Roxie and Rex having a litter of puppies, so it is feasible for a pair of (functionally immortal) cyberdogs to have had Dogmeat.

Descendant: Of the dog that sole says is missing at the start of the game (proposed by @/thetruecrystalvixen).

Eldritch entity: proposed by @/murmeloni, @/wingwaver (specifically comparing him to how scooby-doo is an elder god), & @/fuzzydreamin (comparing him to the Mysterious Stranger - very, very cool). Y'know what, there's enough eldritch stuff in fallout that I can see this. Kinda mad I didn't think of it myself, actually.

That's god: why not? by @/lostjediis.

The Thing: by @/jackinaboxx. Admittedly I haven't seen The Thing but from what I know this would be super funny. Murder monster is friends with one (1) human.

A Good Boy: said by many; very true.

Additional note: reincarnation (mentioned by @/reefman-a). I'm glad to see other people share this idea. While it doesn't explain how he's a german shepherd, it is a fun concept - that every Dogmeat, from fo1 to fo4, is the same Dogmeat in spirit. This is another one that's true to my personal version of canon.