Cleopatra Caesar: A Twilight Histories Map

A new map of mine based on The Twilight Histories episode Cleopatra Caesar. Among other things in this world:


Julius Caesar was not assassinated. Caesar went on to establish an empire stretching from the British Isles to India, and in time he would be known as Caesar the Great. Caesar married Cleopatra and they had a son named Ptolemy; Caesar lived to a ripe old age and died a very happy man. However, the good times were not to last. A group of senators, lead by Marcus Brutus, assassinated Ptolemy and all of the senators from the eastern provinces. Not long after this a slave rebellion broke out, lead by a slave named Draco the Greek, and soon Brutus was assassinated.

Cleopatra was able to escape to Alexandria along with a group of loyal servants. With Rome occupied with the salve rebellions, Cleopatra set out to reform Egyptian society along Roman lines. Eventually, Rome was able to quell the salve uprisings, but also enacted reforms to prevent future uprisings and paved the way towards greater rights for slaves. Rome, somewhat begrudgingly, granted Egypt its independence due to the overtaxing of the empire's troops and money on the slave uprisings. Before long Egypt began to expand south in search of gold and other resources. Rome had begun work on a canal connecting the Mediterranean and Red seas, but it would be Egypt that would finish the canal.

China never experienced the An Shi Rebellion and remained the primary power in Eastern Asia. Rome has maintained trade relations with China since the days of Caesar, and Egypt has also established trade relations with China. China was the first nation to experience an industrial revolution, but other nations, such as Rome and Egypt, were soon to follow. Despite China's dominance Japan managed to establish itself as a regional power, and has carved out a small empire of its own.

Roman expeditions across the Atlantic lead to the discovery of the New World, or Terra Nova as it was soon known. Before long several nations were scrambling to establish colonies on new continents. The Mande Empire established a series of colonies in Brazil, but it wasn't long before Rome took control of the colonies. Meanwhile, Egypt and Japan competed with each other for control of Australia. Australia had first been discovered by Srivijayan fishing boats, but it had gone largely ignored until this golden age of exploration.

Egypt and Japan also competed with each other in South America. Eventually, it was decided that Japan would have Australia while Egypt would take the southern half of the Incan Empire. Despite the loss of nearly half their empire the Inca managed to maintain their sovereignty.

Rome's colony in Brazil was a unique blend of Roman, Mande, Egyptian, Japanese and native culture. This unique heritage lead the colony, known as Tupia, to develop as sense of identity as something other than a province of Rome. After a few centuries Tupia declared its independence from Rome. Around the same time the Roman province of Mexica, also very much the product of unique ethnic blending, declared its independence as well. After a lengthy war both colonies were granted their independence. Rome's primary North American colony, Occidenta, remain loyal to the empire despite the Tupia and Mexica uprisings.

Mexica established a constitutional monarchy much like Rome and many other nations, but Tupia defended itself as a republic like in the early days of Rome. The Mayans had been able to resist colonization for the most part, and the Mexica quickly formed a defensive alliance with them. Meanwhile, Tupia established good relations with the Incan Empire.

Traditional polytheistic religions are still very much alive and well, but there have been several popular cults over the years such as Mithras, Isis, the three daughters of Allah, but by far the most popular have been Buddhism and Christianity. However, it should be noted that Christianity has had significant Hindu and Buddhist influences to the point of looking almost unrecognizable. For example, Jesus is believed to be an avatar of Vishnu and his teaching emphasized breaking free of the cycle of reincarnation. Due to Christianity and Buddhism emphasizing compassion for all living things vegetarianism is more widespread than in our world.

Despite not having large empires, several nations have become economic and trading tigers in recent years. Such nations include Siam, Mande, Kongo, Lunda and Srivijaya. Japan has also been doing quite well, and is currently in negotiations to possibly purchase some of China's possessions.

Things in general have been looking up for this world. Over the years Rome, Egypt and Mexica have become republics. Rome, Egypt, Tupia and China have all launched missions to orbit; Rome has event sent missions to the Moon. Even nations that are monarchies generally have some from of representative government. Old tensions are dying down and a spirit of international cooperation is spreading throughout the world.  

Hannibal One: Twilight Histories Maps

I've got new maps for my readers based on the Twilight Histories episode Hannibal One.  I've got two maps, one of Earth and one of Mars.  So, among other things in this world:

Carthage, under the leadership of the general Hannibal, won the Punic Wars and thoroughly obliterated Rome.  Carthage would go on the expand and create and empire spanning all the continents of the world.  Several great cities, libraries and centers of learning were established throughout the Carthaginian Empire.  The canal was established in Egypt to allow for easier trade with the east.  

Gwanggaeto the Great managed to survive longer than he did in our world.  Eventually, Gwanggaeto was able to take advantage of political turmoil in China to cease the Mandate of Heaven and establish a massive Korean Empire.  The Korean Empire would go on to become Carthage's primary rival for world domination.  

As Carthage and Korea began to expand their empires they frequently got involved in boarder skirmishes, and territories often passed back and forth between the two empires.  In particular, this occurred in India on more than a few occasions.  However, the frequent invasions did wonders for Indian unity as now Indians throughout the subcontinent had a clear goal: keep Carthage and Korea out.  In time India established its own empire that, while not as vast as Carthage or Korea, could still give the empires a run for their money.  

With Carthage occupied elsewhere, the Lithuanians were able to able to expand throughout Eastern Europe and establish and small empire of their own.  Lithuania fell increasingly within Carthage's sphere of influence as the years went on, but ultimately remained independent.  The two empires remain on good terms with each other, and their citizens have been known to get into friendly rivalries over whether Baal or Perkunus would win in a fight.  

Carthage and Korea discovered new lands, such as Australia and the Americas, as they continued to expand.  However, they weren't alone in their exploration.  The Norse also sent expeditions to North America and established settlements; all the while forging alliances with multiple tribes of natives.  Eventually, the Norse settlements and tribal alliances grew into the nation of Skraland.  The Norse we able to establish good terms with Carthage and Korea, but still had to frequently deal with both empires nibbling around the edges of Skraland.  

The Mayans formed an alliance to resist colonization as Carthage expanded into Central America.  Like India before them, this unity allowed for the establishment of a Mayan Empire.  India has also historically been a supporter of the Mayans against Carthage and Korea.  The natives of the Great Plains also faced the prospect of colonization, but they managed to avoid this mostly due to Carthage and Korea being occupied elsewhere.  Unlike the Maya, however, they failed to adapt to the reality of the new socio-political landscape.  As a result, combined with their lack of natural resources, the Confederation of the Plains has the highest poverty and unemployment rate of any nation on Earth.  

The Incan Empire managed to survive by playing Carthage and Korea off of each other.  They've allied with India and the Maya.  The Inca have managed to take quite a bite out of South America, the bits Carthage didn't claim anyway.  Meanwhile, the Creek Confederation decided the best survival strategy was an alliance with Carthage.  They're well within the Carthaginian sphere of influence, but remain independent, if somewhat in name only.  

The Zulu were able to establish an empire in Southern Africa at a time when Carthage was dealing with the effects of accidental hyperinflation resulting from their gold and silver mines in the New World.  With Carthage's relentless expiation temporarily paused, the Zulu were able to use their vast mineral wealth to fund their new nations and their diplomas courted good relations with other nations.  The Kingdom of Lunda also experienced a period of growth and expansion around this time.    

Carthage, Korea and India produced several inventions and advances in technology over the centuries.  Before long all three nations experienced industrial revolutions, and it wasn't long before several other nations industrialized as well.  Within a matter of decades air travel was achieved, and before long the first manned missions to space were launched.  Carthage was the first to launch a human into space, but Korea was first to land on the Moon.  

Korea's victory in the Moon Race prompted Carthage to achieve their next goal.  They vowed not only to send a manned mission to Mars, but a one-way mission of colonization.  Carthage achieved this goal with its mission Hannibal One; launched on the 1000th anniversary of Hannibal's sacking of Rome.  The success of the Hannibal One mission prompted Korea to speed the production of their own Mars mission known as Gwanggaeto One. 

 Both missions suffered numerous set backs.  The crew of Hannibal One experienced bouts of religious fanaticism to the point of performing multiple human sacrifices.  Meanwhile, the crew of Gwanggaeto One suffered multiple technological failures and were forced to throw one of their one out of the airlock after the life support systems received critical damage.  Despite the hardships, both missions were ultimately successful in no small part due to international cooperation.  The crew of Hannibal One provided critical  replacement equipment, while the crew of Gwanggaeto One provided human companionship in the harsh and isolated environment.  

Over the years several more missions were sent to Mars; including ones funded by third party nations.  Numerous discoveries were made, but perhaps the biggest the the discovery of native Martian microbial life.  This provided a major moral quandary due to the discovery occurring in the middle of terraforming negotiations.  Ultimately, it was decided that terraforming would be delayed, but only by fifty years.  Currently, terraforming efforts have raised temperatures and atmospheric pressure to Earth levels.  

The immense distances between Earth and Mars have created challenges for the administration of the colonies.  Recently, a Carthaginian colony declared its independence with little resistance.  Other off-world colonies have also begun to consider self-governance, and this has prompted a revaluation of the administration of the colonies.  In any event, the Martian colonies have always been friendlier with each other than their mother countries ever were with one another.  

Having said that, there's still been quite a bit of increased international cooperation recently.  Old tensions are dying down and the world in general is becoming a more peaceful place.  Attendance at the temples of the gods is slipping, and secularism is on the rise, but there is still religion.  Missions have been sent to the other worlds of the Solar System, and there is now talk of a possible mission to Proxima Centauri.  Geneticists have been able to revive long dead Ice Age animals, but it's still a matter of debate whether Neanderthals should be revived.  Recently, advances have been made in the field of AI technology to the point that a scientist is currently on trial for the attempted murder (read: deletion) of an AI.  

It's a crazy and different world, but they're working out the kinks.  Hey, they made it this far and the future is looking pretty bright for everyone.  

Poem: The Love Song of N.C. Griffalco

Time for another poem, The Love Song of N.C. Griffalco.  This was a poem I wrote when I was feeling particularly sad that I hadn't gotten up the courage to talk to a girl I liked in high school, but I got over that, and I'm all better now.  This was a few years ago in any event.  N.C. Griffalco is a reference to Nicholas Caraway Griffalco, a character from series of books I never published, and that we will discuss in a future blog post.

As you might guess from the title, this was inspired by TS Eliot's "The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock" and the style and themes reflect that.  Prufrock has always been one of my favorite poems.  As usual, this and all of my poems can be found on my Fictionpress account.  

And now, the poem:  

I remember when first we met

You were so bright and shimmering

I knew not what to do

As days turned to weeks and months to years

Over high Aeolian Mount you made my sprit soar

When my world was dark you were a shimmering light

Dante had Beatrice

Shakespeare had his shadowed lady

And in you I found my muse

In you my art found reason

In you my art had meaning

In you I had inspiration

Alas, your heart belongs to another

But I don't blame you my dear

Why wouldn't you pick him?

So much more dashing than I

So much more savvy of human culture than I

So much that I am not

So here I stand

Cured to love but never be love

To walk the earth as a mortal immortal

Often lie awake at night nigh and cry

In my sorrow I weep "Oh what could have been had I only been stronger!"

How many more shall I love only to have my heart shattered?

For so long my life was like a dream

But dreams don't last forever

Eventually we all must wake up

Nile High

So now we get to the prose I made for Fictionpress, but I should probably do some explaining first.  Fictionpress is the original fiction version of FanFiction.  You can write what you want in a wide variety of genres as long as what you write is original and only owned by you.  Not the most exciting of descriptions, but there you have it.

So, my main prose work on Fictionpress is called Nile High.  Imagine if various gods from across mythologies were teenagers attending the same boarding school.  That's the basic premise of Nile High.  Told from the points of view of the Egyptian god Thoth and the Greek goddess Athena.  It started off fairly episodically as a wacky romantic comedy, but there was always something of an overarching plot simmering in the background.  Admittedly, I was kind of making it up as I went along, and eventually things did get more cohesive, as well as a little bit Darker and Edgier.  By the later chapters it had turned into an epic battle for the future of the world.  Of course, I do love happy endings, and so naturally everything works out for the best in the end.  

The world it took place in was an intentionally anachronistic setting that ran on essentially Bronze Age Flintstones technology.  Basically, the gods and goddesses could encounter pre-modern civilization I wanted while still having modern tech like TVs and cellphones.  Essentially, I had a sort of anything  goes mentality with the series.  There were also little touches to reminded the audience that the main characters are deities, like how they say "Oh My Me!" instead of "Oh My God"  

Speaking of anything going, one of my favorite parts of the series was the way that I got to write about multiple pantheons of gods and goddesses coexisting and interacting.  It was equally fun working out what everyone's personalities would be.  I also indulged in a bit of satire by portraying the various heroes as Hollywood (or Helenawood, as the case maybe) stars that long to go to school like everyone else.  As the the teachers of the academy, I recruited the finest figures form Arthurian Legend, the 1001 Arabian Nights and various other sources that I could find.  Presiding over it all is none other than the good wizard Merlin.  

Admittedly, the Greek and Egyptian pantheons got the most attention, but that was kind of to be expected give that the story is told by an Egyptian god and a Greek goddess.  Still, I like to think I did a fairly good job representing the other pantheon.  There's hardly any myth or legend I consider too obscure for my purposes, so if you aren't careful you just might learn something new.   

You can tell I was a younger writer when I wrote Nile High, but that is to be expected.  Since I made it up as I went along there's things I'd probably change now that I have clearer image of the plot and characters development, but overall I'm still very happy with how it turned out, and I often find myself rereading it from time to time.  

It was a labor of love, there were a lot of grammar and spelling errors (I was busy and had a lot on my plate at the time), but it was worth it in the end.  I had ideas for similar "unusual boarding school" series involving everything from aliens, to superheroes to a squeal to Nile High.  However, Nile High ultimately turned out to be a tough act to follow, and those ideas never got very far.  

Fear not, for there is a light at the end of the tunnel.  Nile High was just such a great idea and just had so much potential that I couldn't just abandon it.  I'm going to revive the concept as a series of short stories, and perhaps one day a novel or two.  I'm going to be tinkering around with things and there will be some differences to makes things more cohesive.  However, I hope to preserve the spirit of the original Nile High.  

So, a few thoughts I had on the alterations I'm going to make for the new Nile High stories.  I might have the Egyptians be students for as long as everyone else rather than recent transfers.  The Roman Pantheon will exist as well, but I'll possibly have them and a few other pantheons at a different school.  I had sort of set up Triton to be Athena's rival, but it never really went anywhere; in the new stories I'll have Kymopoleia, goddess of violent sea storms, to fill that role.  

I'll probably have the heroes and monsters at schools for their own.  Thor will be a bit more articulate and won't refer to himself in the third person.  However, he'll still lovable and book dumb, and he'll be co-best friends with Anubis.  Similarly, Nike will be there from the beginning, and that means Persephone might end up with a more reduced role.  I'm also considering incorporating the Lovecraft Mythos at some point.  

Since the only real limits are my imagination, there's room for all kinds of stories.  I've already got plans for a story set in Tartessos that'll be a send up to Spaghetti Westerns, and I've even got plans to send the gods and goddesses into space.  I might even do a Victorian Steampunk alternate universe story at some point.  Whatever I decide on, I know it'll be a lot of fun, and I know you'll love it.  

I also figured I could included stories set from the points of view of characters other than Thoth and Athena.  Hey, there's a lot of gods and goddesses out there and a lot of potential stories to be had.  Naturally, it wouldn't be one of stories if there weren't satire and pop culture references, and that means even more plot opportunities.  Only thing I'm seriously left to figure is who'd be the best magazine to sell the stories to once they're written, and which podcast would do them the most  justice.  

It's the pride and joy of my Fictionpress account, then again it's the only thing I wrote on Fictionpress besides my poems, but it's still great.  Go ahead and check it out, and I'll keep you guys posted on any developments with the new Nile High stories.  

The Saracen and the Cross

I figured it was about time for another of my maps.  It's got it's flaws, yes, but overall I'm reasonably happy with it.  I'm also happy to report that this map received a gorgeous cover by another map maker.  I will be posting that map, along some bits of art I've had commissioned, in a future blog post; though the map wasn't commissioned, but it still deserves to be featured.  Anyway, let's talk about the original.  It's set in the early 19th century and among other things:

Things first deviated from our world when the Egyptian general Saladin converted to Christianity in the middle of the Crusades. Exactly why this happened has never been confirmed, but sources say that Saladin claimed to have received a vision from God telling him to fight in the name of Christianity. Of course, many of the symptoms he experienced while in the middle of these visions bore a notable resemblance to epilepsy, so who can say?

Regardless of the source of this revelation, Saladin and his forces helped to reclaim the Holy Land for Christendom. At the same time, the Kingdom of Abyssinia supplied troops to aid the war effort as well.

Saladin and the Abyssinians later went on to usurp control of Egypt from the Fatimids and established a new ruling dynasty. In time Saladin would be canonized as a saint by the Orthodox Churches of Egypt, Abyssinia and Greece.

The Islamic world remained fractured and disjointed as result of Saladin's conversion to Christianity. Though Persia would remain something of a regional power there would never be another great Islamic power in the history of this world.

The success of the Crusades meant that the Byzantines didn't have to be concerned about invaders from the east or the disaster of the Fourth Crusade. As a result the Byzantines were able to stabilize and expanded northwards into the Balkans. The Byzantines also became long term allies of the Egyptians and Abyssinians.

The got interesting in the Iberian Peninsula. On the one hand, the Reconquesta proved less than successful. On the other hand, much of North Africa had returned to Christianity thanks to the efforts of the Egyptians and Byzantines. Facing the possibility of potentially becoming an international pariah, the Moors made a token conversion to Orthodox Christianity (as they viewed the Orthodox nations as most likely to become the next great powers), but still retaining much of their culture as it was during Islamic times. This blending extends to the title of the rulers of Hispania being named both King and Emir.

England won the Hundred Years War due to a combo of better tactics and Joan of Arc getting kicked in the head by a very temperamental horse. After the war France was annexed and the two nation became known as the United Kingdom of England and France. Intermarriage between English and French nobles was encouraged to make the transition smoother. The United Kingdom would go on to conquer Ireland, and Scotland would join around the time it did in our world.

Russia was hit even harder with famines during the Time of Troubles. This, along with the Cossacks never rebelling against the Poles and the Romanovs failing to rise to power, lead to Poland-Lithuania annexing Russia and becoming the great power of Eastern Europe.

Like in our world many nations searched for a easier route to India during the Age of Exploration. Egypt and Abyssinia, due to their location, had the easiest time of this. Hispania attempted to take what they believed to be the long way, but instead discovered something even better: the Americas. Their first expeditions landed about where the Southeastern United States is in our world.

Byzantium attempted the reach India by sailing around Africa and they established a colony in Southern Africa. However, one of their expeditions blew off course and landed in Brazil. The Byzantines claimed the land, figuring they find some use for it eventually, and indeed they did after they entered the sugar trade.

The United Kingdom claimed what would have been Canada with their first permanent settlement being at Mount Royal (Montreal). Ironically, of all nations it would be they who should act as the arm of the Catholic Church, with the pope more than willing to grant request to the nation's rulers. Missionaries from the United Kingdom would even find their way to the Far East.

In China, the Manchu were only partially successful in their conquest, with much of Southern China being ruled by the Southern Ming dynasty. The Southern Ming instigated many forward thing reforms while the Manchu clung to outdated traditions.

In Japan, rulers proved much more receptive to Catholicism, albeit a form heavily influenced by Shinto. This would prompt Japan not to turn it's back on the world. Japan sent missionaries to Southern China and Korea, and they established an colonial empire in the name of spreading the gospel (or so they claimed anyway).

Unfortunately, peaceful relations with the Catholic Church weren't to last, as before long the Church decided that Japan was incorporating too many elements of Shinto and Buddhism and threatened the nation with excommunication. In response, Japan mailed a sword to the pope with instructions on how to commit Sepukku. China and Korea soon followed Japan's example and established their own state churches as well.

Though the Catholic Church still held saw over much of Europe, they still worried about the potential threat posed by the Orthodox powers and the churches of the Far East. Although the United Kingdom was a powerful ally they needed a backup plan. To that end the Chrurch put much effort into aiding the unification of the Holy Roman Empire. The balance of powers of the Holy Roman Empire were directly modeled off of those of the United Kingdom. However, Brandenburg didn't join the empire due to being part of the Polish-Lithuanian Empire.

Despite the best efforts of the Catholic Church, however, many nations, in the wake of an alternate Reformation of sorts, have established their own state churches or otherwise distanced themselves from Catholicism. Outside the United Kingdom and Holy Roman Empire the Catholic Church is considered something of a joke and no longer as powerful as in the past.

Denmark has established colonies in the new world as well. Nearly half of their colonists come from nations other than Denmark. This results in New Denmark having a very cosmopolitan feel to it.

The Dutch, owing to less religious conflicts, have remained united and have established colonies in the Gulf Coast and northern South America. Like New Denmark they receive many colonists from outside the Netherlands. Some of the colony's notable cities include New Amsterdam (New Orleans) and Albany (Shreveport).

Hispania has allowed Egypt to establish a joint colony in what would have been Virginia. Egypt agreed in order to get in on the trade New World goods such as tobacco and to be able to set their own prices on such goods.

Because of the role the Abyssinians played in the Crusades, many Europeans view Africans as their equals. This mutual respect has proved benefits to many African nations. The Wolof Empire has established a colony in what would have been French Guiana. The Swahili City-States have formed a loose confederation and are slowly becoming a minor trading power.

The Inca have managed to avoid conquest. Conflicts among early would-be colonizers gave them time to recover from the effects of disease. Though much of their empire would be lost they were able play the various powers off of one another to avoid being conquered. 

Poem: We Live on Rapanui

With this post I though I'd begin introducing some of the poems I've written and provide a bit of commentary on them.  This first poem, We Live on Rapanui, was something I wrote on a whim, but it reads one of my favorite poems.  The title and general rhythm scheme were inspired by the poem "We Wear the Mask" by Paul Laurence Dunbar.  The writers of the Harlem Renaissance have always been among my favorites, and it's only natural that they would influence me.

The subject matter is a reference to the island of Rapanui, better known as Easter Island.  Once home to a thriving culture that had to abandon the island after they overtaxed its resources.  You'll probably spot a reference to Stephen King's Under the Dome.  In both cases, they serve as a microcosm for the world as a whole.  Figured I'd give my readers mental food to chew on.

That should be enough background for the time, and I'd like to point out you can see this and all of my poems on my Fictionpress account.  This poem also appear in the news paper of Centenary College of Louisiana.  And now, the poem:

We live on Rapanui

We dwell under the dome

We cut the trees for timber

And timber for our homes

The sea gives fish

The trees bear fruit

We light the oil

We hack the soot

In past there were few

In present are many

Where now is little

Long ago was plenty

What did we think

That faithful day

The forest gone

One tree remained

We lived on Rapanui

We dwelled under the dome

We cut the trees for timber

Now no one dwells within the homes

Adventures of the Silver Bullets

So in this post we're going to talk about the other pride and joy of my fanfiction career besides Penjackson.  This post is all about Adventures of the Silver Bullets.  I conceived it as a massive crossover with the entirety of fiction at my finger tips.  Basically, the thinking I had for the series is that all fiction is true, but not all fiction is an accurate representation of what happened.  This allowed for characters being slightly off kilter and for me to thinker and juggle things around for the sake of plot.

The setting is actually a multiverse so that anything mutually contradictory could be relocated to a different universe.  Of course, travel between universes is pretty common in these worlds.  Anyway, the plot is that L, the great detective of DeathNote, has assembled a team of young heroes to fight crime in the city of New Avalon and beyond.  Said team includes Percy Jackson, Kurumu Kurono and Mizore Shiriyuki, Edward and Alphonse Elric, and Mako and Bolin.  Joining them would have been a wide selection of former heroes to serve as their mentors including Tenzin, Izumi Curtis and Major Armstrong, and Kraft Lawrence and Holo the Wise Wolf.   

As the title suggests, I originally intended it to a lighthearted Silver Age of Comic Books-esque parody of various tropes and conventions with a fairly episodic nature to it.  Before we go any further I should point out I only ever put out two posts of it, I hit a block with the third and got side tracked by various other things.  So, most of this will be about what I had planned more than what I actually got out.  Just letting you know.  

Anyway, as I planned the series out in my head I decided to keep the lighthearted and episodic tone, but I wanted to allow for character development and exploring some of the darker aspects of the various worlds and characters I used.  For example, Percy start out with a very silly, goofy, happy-go-lucky personality and a perpetually sunny disposition.  Later, however, it becomes apparent that this is a mask he wears to deal with the pain and loss he experienced fighting in the Titan War.  Mizore, meanwhile, has to deal with the whole yuki-onna are sterile by their mid-twenties thing.  That, and dodging repercussions from the yokai community, lead to her wondering about moving to America permanently.  

Then there were the things I figured would make interesting plots, but might have gotten me in trouble with various fangirls.  To start, I was planning on having Mako come out of the closet.  Given how Korra and Asami are canonically lesbian this was pretty Hilarious in Hindsight.  Other people slated to come out of the closet included Nico Di Angelo, and keep in mind that was before he canonically did as well.  However, the biggest shocking swerve was a heterosexual romance.  I was planning on pairing Percy and Kurumu together.  I had originally intended them to have a brother-sister relationship, but the more I worked it out in my head the more I liked them as a couple.             

The villains would very from affably evil punk clock evils, to down right scary.  They were to be part of an organization known as the League of Evil People Doing Evil Things in a Very Evil Way.  They were from across fiction, but lead by the mysterious Man in the Ivory Mask.  The big real was that he was in fact none other than...Harry Potter.  Yeah, in the world of the Silver Bullets the Harry Potter books didn't exactly match up with what actually went down.  That was really an end of series reveal, nothing would be the same and there would be no going back after that point.  

The biggest factor to the cosmology of the series would have been L.  One of the big revelations was to be that he was in fact an immortal almost god-level being, and I could never quite name what his kind would be called.  He would have been thousands of years old, and would have been involved in a polyandrous relationship with about four wives and one husband; said group included Urd, Princess Celestia, Kraft Lawrence and Holo the Wise Wolf.  However, his favorite was always Elsa, but she'd died many years ago, and he would have still been very much impacted by her passing.  

Another big revelation would have been that L was secretly the father of one of the Silver Bullets.  Quick, which if the Bullets looks most like L?  If you said Mizore, then ding, ding, ding, you said the magic word!  Speaking of sudden relations it was going to be a plot point that Percy and Mizore were both descendants of the royal house of Arendelle via Anna and Kristoff, and thus indirectly Elsa as well.  

Well, enough seriousness, let's talk about some of the fun I had planned.  I had so many great ideas that I never got around to realizing.  I had plans for an episode (as I call the chapters) that had Inuyasha team up with the Bullets, but he gets in trouble for destruction of public property and has to perform community service.  Said community service being to volunteer at a summer camp, and having to deal with Percy's perpetually sunny attitude.  Inuyasha initially tires to get fired, but comes to find he likes working with kids.  Also, Lovecraftian monstrosities show up and ass-kicking ensues.  

Another planned idea I had was for the Bullets to enter a racing competition, either for charity or because some villains were in the competition as well.  Ed was to be the driver with everyone else as pit crew, but he gets amnesia in a training accident.  While everyone else tries to get Ed's memory back, Al and Mizore go to train in the art of "car-ate" under the guidance of Keiichi Morisato.  Unfortunately, they don't have a car, but Ms. Frizzle loans them the Magic School Bus.  At the end of the episode the Ah! My Godess character move in with the team.  

I'd also planned for the Silver Bullets to travel to the planet Zur-En-Arrh to team up with their counter parts.  I'd also planned stories featuring alternate universe counterparts to the Silver Bullets, including one universe where they're villains rather than heroes.  Of course, since the Silver Bullets are an international organization with multiple branches, there was always the potential for exploring other teams, or teaming up with other characters.  I'd even had a big event involving Bullets from multiple teams temporarily becoming Power Rangers.  

You're probably wondering why I had them in a fictional American city if I had so many anime characters.  The reason is that I know how to fake an American city better than I can fake a Japanese city.  Also, it came with some great Fish Out of Water moments.  I also planned a series of recurring gags, like Ed not believing Percy is really a demigod, Bolin lusting after Kurumu while she lusts after Ed, Mizore and Al having weird skills they learned from late night TV, and much more.  

I could go on, but I'd be rambling.  Hey, it my blog and I can do whatever I please.  No, I should wrap it up.  Clearly, I was very excited about Adventures of the Silver Bullets.  I still think about it and get new ideas a lot.  Maybe I'll update it again some day, or maybe I'll post snippets of ideas here to the blog.  All isn't necessarily lost, however, I've recently commissioned some art based on the fanfic on Deviantart, and I've got to tell you I'm very excited and please with the results.  Expect that in a future post or two.  

Now that we've covered my FanFiction we can move on to my poems and prose I posted on Fictionpress.  That's a post for next time, and I'll see you then.