(no subject)
Um, so I kind of had a vague idea of something for Nanowrimo last year that never really came to fruition. I did write these three 'one-shots' of the verse, though. They involve a bit of explanation, I suppose...
tl;dr summary: A Korean sword-swallower's adventures in a European traveling circus in the 1920s/30s-ish.
The fics (summaries and fics make more sense after you read the character list):
one of saejin's sword swallowing acts
saejin's first lesson with jian
saejin and aleks are drunk and stupid (this is mostly crackfic for my own enjoyment)
CHARACTER LIST
Saejin:
He began life typically enough- born to middle class parents in Korea and raised in a nice family. They weren't rich, but they weren't poor either. They weren't a disrespected family, but they weren't nobility, and this is where things began to go sour. Saejin has demanded respect and admiration from a young age, and his station in life simply did not lend itself well to his perceptions of himself. So he did the only natural thing to do, and ran away from home at the tender age of 16, doing his best to make it big on his own.
Unfortunately, he was only on his own for a short while before he was captured by the occupying Japanese soldiers for use as a female sex slave to other Japanese soldiers. They'd mistaken his feminine looks, and assumed he was one of the many Korean girls dressed up as boys by their families to protect them from such a fate. An officer took a special interest in him, and ordered that Saejin be allowed to no one else but himself. He received a bit of a nasty surprise that night, but as it turned out, didn't particularly care that Saejin turned out as a boy. He did know, however, that his colleagues might, and so forced the boy to keep up the pretense of being female until they returned to Japan.
Saejin manipulated the situation to his benefit, gaining the trust and love of the Japanese officer. Once they were in Japan, then, it was easy to give the nasty old man the slip, and suddenly Saejin was loose in a whole new country. He continued to make a living doing what he did best, whoring himself on the street until he had enough money to live quite comfortably. But one too many run-ins with the law had Saejin fleeing to China, where he took up with a Chinese magician who attempted to teach him some tricks of the trade. Saejin had a short attention span, and was only able to learn the art of sword-swallowing. Saejin's relationship with the magician was a crude sort of puppy love, Saejin believed he had found someone he could be with forever, the magician felt otherwise. They received the offer to join a Chinese circus, on their way to perform in Russia, but the magician ran off on the road, and Saejin never heard from him again. He had nowhere else to go, so, heartbroken, he remained with the circus and traveled out of China.
It was here he found Jaesang, the young boy little more than a slave of the other circus workers. Saejin groomed the largely neglected boy as his own personal servant. Their circus performed in Leningrad to critical acclaim, and Saejin began to realize that if he just played his cards right, the circus may be able to bring him everything he wanted. He took Jaesang and ditched the Chinese circus, taking up with a smaller European circus which was happy to have him as an exotic addition to their repertoire.
What they didn't know was that Saejin was only using them as a vehicle to bigger and better things. He traveled with them across Europe, leaving them behind without a second thought when he found better prospects with a different circus, and continues to do so as he searches for his ultimate, unknown goal.
(23 years old in the present tense of the story)
Jaesang:
Jaesang doesn't know much about his history, and neither does anyone else. He can't remember what happened to his parents, and no one has ever bothered to tell him. At some point a Chinese circus got their hands on him, and he was basically a set of extra, unpaid hands to some of the lower-ranked circus workers. It's assumed his father was among them, though the man never stepped forward. He was raised among the small sub-community of Koreans in the circus, themselves little better than slaves of the Chinese managers.
Once Saejin found his way into the circus, however, Jaesang's life changed. The older boy took him under his wing, so to speak, grooming him to serve Saejin above all else. Jaesang was just so happy to have someone pay attention to him that he did all that was asked of him, growing to adore the older boy and devoting himself to him. He follows Saejin blindly from one circus to the next.
(8 years old in the present tense of the story)
Jian:
The Chinese magician...
(Age unknown, roughly ten or so years older than Saejin when they meet.)
Aleks:
The rather eccentric carousel operator of the current circus, Saejin's drinking buddy and partner in crime (and occasional fuck buddy). 18 years old in the present.
(I had more characters sketched out but they're not present in any of the bits I have written...)
tl;dr summary: A Korean sword-swallower's adventures in a European traveling circus in the 1920s/30s-ish.
The fics (summaries and fics make more sense after you read the character list):
one of saejin's sword swallowing acts
saejin's first lesson with jian
saejin and aleks are drunk and stupid (this is mostly crackfic for my own enjoyment)
CHARACTER LIST
Saejin:
He began life typically enough- born to middle class parents in Korea and raised in a nice family. They weren't rich, but they weren't poor either. They weren't a disrespected family, but they weren't nobility, and this is where things began to go sour. Saejin has demanded respect and admiration from a young age, and his station in life simply did not lend itself well to his perceptions of himself. So he did the only natural thing to do, and ran away from home at the tender age of 16, doing his best to make it big on his own.
Unfortunately, he was only on his own for a short while before he was captured by the occupying Japanese soldiers for use as a female sex slave to other Japanese soldiers. They'd mistaken his feminine looks, and assumed he was one of the many Korean girls dressed up as boys by their families to protect them from such a fate. An officer took a special interest in him, and ordered that Saejin be allowed to no one else but himself. He received a bit of a nasty surprise that night, but as it turned out, didn't particularly care that Saejin turned out as a boy. He did know, however, that his colleagues might, and so forced the boy to keep up the pretense of being female until they returned to Japan.
Saejin manipulated the situation to his benefit, gaining the trust and love of the Japanese officer. Once they were in Japan, then, it was easy to give the nasty old man the slip, and suddenly Saejin was loose in a whole new country. He continued to make a living doing what he did best, whoring himself on the street until he had enough money to live quite comfortably. But one too many run-ins with the law had Saejin fleeing to China, where he took up with a Chinese magician who attempted to teach him some tricks of the trade. Saejin had a short attention span, and was only able to learn the art of sword-swallowing. Saejin's relationship with the magician was a crude sort of puppy love, Saejin believed he had found someone he could be with forever, the magician felt otherwise. They received the offer to join a Chinese circus, on their way to perform in Russia, but the magician ran off on the road, and Saejin never heard from him again. He had nowhere else to go, so, heartbroken, he remained with the circus and traveled out of China.
It was here he found Jaesang, the young boy little more than a slave of the other circus workers. Saejin groomed the largely neglected boy as his own personal servant. Their circus performed in Leningrad to critical acclaim, and Saejin began to realize that if he just played his cards right, the circus may be able to bring him everything he wanted. He took Jaesang and ditched the Chinese circus, taking up with a smaller European circus which was happy to have him as an exotic addition to their repertoire.
What they didn't know was that Saejin was only using them as a vehicle to bigger and better things. He traveled with them across Europe, leaving them behind without a second thought when he found better prospects with a different circus, and continues to do so as he searches for his ultimate, unknown goal.
(23 years old in the present tense of the story)
Jaesang:
Jaesang doesn't know much about his history, and neither does anyone else. He can't remember what happened to his parents, and no one has ever bothered to tell him. At some point a Chinese circus got their hands on him, and he was basically a set of extra, unpaid hands to some of the lower-ranked circus workers. It's assumed his father was among them, though the man never stepped forward. He was raised among the small sub-community of Koreans in the circus, themselves little better than slaves of the Chinese managers.
Once Saejin found his way into the circus, however, Jaesang's life changed. The older boy took him under his wing, so to speak, grooming him to serve Saejin above all else. Jaesang was just so happy to have someone pay attention to him that he did all that was asked of him, growing to adore the older boy and devoting himself to him. He follows Saejin blindly from one circus to the next.
(8 years old in the present tense of the story)
Jian:
The Chinese magician...
(Age unknown, roughly ten or so years older than Saejin when they meet.)
Aleks:
The rather eccentric carousel operator of the current circus, Saejin's drinking buddy and partner in crime (and occasional fuck buddy). 18 years old in the present.
(I had more characters sketched out but they're not present in any of the bits I have written...)