I knew something was off. Definitely not that side of the globe, 
this side! 
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Miss Willow, ever-careful to have many ready-to-eat snax and ever-careful to avoid any activity even remotely like cooking for herself, listened with interest to tales from her co-workers of spicy Brazilian dishes they had eaten as she sat at her desk, awake and ready for a late, late lunch after a refreshing nap at her desk during the morning and early afternoon.
âFish grilled in hot ashes on a volcanic island. Sounds muito gostosa. My type of food. I have a flame-proof stomach.â
"Clear out the bathroom,"announced the dually named Porky/Pine-Sama. âSheâs awake after seven hours of some kind of caffeine-induced coma. Caffeine is a worse diuretic than alcohol!â
âI wouldnât talk if I were you,â yawned Miss Willow. âYou Japanese currently seem to have a fixation on and coffee-related products that puts me to shame.â
Porky/Pine-Sama sighed. âI donât know what else I can say to correct your impression of my cultural heritage. I live in San Francisco, but Iâm not Japanese.â
Miss Willow nodded. âI know. You are so culturally confused you donât know what you are. Thatâs why I have intuited your essence and read your aura and whatnot and assigned you the beautiul name of Pine-Sama.â
Miss Willow yawned and stretched. âIâm hungry for a nosh. Oh, Niles, be a dear and bring me a cup of tea.â
âSorry,â said Niles the talking koala. âIâm busy playing Go-Stop with the shrimp kami.â
Miss Willow saw that he and the shrimp kami that had infiltrated Badger Productions in bags of Japanese snak puffs were indeed playing cards, poker to be exact, using OSPD-nim as their playing surface.
âFine,â said Miss Willow and picked up her smartphone. She pressed the quick dial icon on the home screen. âBack parking lot? Is this the attendant? Yes, could you fetch me a case of Light Nautical Bikki Stix fromm the pallet out there? You say Iâve already consumed the entire pallet of snax? How is that possâoh, never mind. Can you send somebody to fetch me something to drink from the convenience store? Oh, thank you so very much.â
For ten minutes, Miss Willow sat with her eyes closed, softly singing to herself.
She opened her eyes at the sound of the front door of the office clattering open.
âGâday, mate,â said Nigel as a corgi trotted in, dragging a carton of almond milk.
âFor you maybe,â growled the corgi as Miss Willow took the carton from its mouth.
(Giphy)
OSPD-nimâs eyes widened. âIs that another kami?â
Nigel shook his head. âNo, just a talking corgi working part-time to pay for obedience school. Not every non-human creature in our neighborhood is mythical.â
OSPD-nim smiled weakly. âGood to know.â
The corgi waddled up to stare OSPD-nim in the face. In crisp Received Pronunciation, it announced, âI am completely cognizant, Iâll have you know, of your less than salubrious reputation as a purveyor of adult entertainmentââ
âDirector of videos of a thoughtful nature for lovers of fine Asian films and television series,â said Niles.
"Fine, said the corgi. âWeâll do it your way.â He growled slightly at OSPD-nim. âWhatever tawdry mode of employment you are currently engaged in, if you do not forthwith stand and deliver in the amount of 250 Euros, I will bite your nose off.â
âWhat?â hissed OSPD-nim. âFor a carton of almond milk? Thatâs highway robbery!â
âI donât care what you think. Pay up or suffer the consequences.â
âYouâd better listen,â said Miss Willow, delicately sipping almond milk from the carton. âYou should know better than anyone here that corgis are fierce little dogs bred to hunt badgers.â
(Giphy)
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Well, actually, I do know my ancestors for several generations. Iâm your basic 'merikin mutt. Even though my sisters would tell me I was a changeling when I was a kid, they are in fact, my sisters. I have ancestors from Japan - 5th generation and Macao, China. Also, Terceira in the Azores, Peru, Colombia, Mexico, Taino, several counties in Ireland, Bohemia and Sweden. Just about every continent Except Australia. BUT NOT DANISH! Uh, Yea, so Iâm from San Francisco. And I DO like my fusion foods!
âFine, as long as you do not insist I am Danish!â porky paused and thought a moment. âHowever, I will accept the fine danish pastries from Neldamâs bakery on Telegraph in Oakland, CA!â
âWhat! They went out of business!â porky panicked. âOh! Good! The bakers and building owners opened a new bakery in the same location!â
https://tastedenmark.com/#8c5691b9-8acd-4010-b32e-f442eced29de
Now, to get back to the business of being a business, How are we going to add in all of our favorite dishes into this drama?
Oh. By the way. Where is this drama being held again? Location has a big impact on the product placement foods choices. I can tell you that there was not a single mocajete to be found in Manila and Quezon City the last time I was there. 
âHmm. The Codfish stew with gochujang is a go if we are anywhere near Korea.â
[Guess what Iâm cooking for dinner tonight!] Uh-Oh! Iâve been playing here too long. Itâs 4 PM! Time to cook!
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Smashing! This is the place for entertainment, laughter at every turn. Never a bore! My imaginary chocolate abs are aching from laughter! 
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Location is Seoul, Korea. Since Haruto is Japanese there is plenty of potential to food placement Japanese cuisine, however
Those of a hungry disposition best look away, hide behind pillows and cushions when that horror scene comes on the screen.
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Vivi pushed up her glasses. They never slid down her nose but it still felt like the screen-writer thing to do.
âAll right⊠so whatâs the main plot of this story?â she asked no one. Picking up her notebook filled with plot outlines and EXO sketches, she tried to find something suitable.
âDo the kami causing wreckage and the couple become dirt poor while paying for everything and now have to navigate the miseries of poverty? The kami ruin the coupleâs married life and the couple has to salvage their relationship? Oh wait, the kami are supposed to be good.â She flipped through the book.
âSo do the kami grant some wish of theirs and that leads to weird stuff happening? Like an Aladdin/18 Again mashup? Or do the kami reveal to the couple that Ha-Neulâs parents are drug-dealing criminals and now they have to hunt them down? Do the couple become a badass detective duo? Or do they discover a giant eyeglass-wiping-cloth scam and vow to bring justice to all those who wear eyeglasses?â
That last one had come off the top of her head. Her plots were getting weirder and weirder, and her imagination was running wild.
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A quick recap of the story. Starting with MissWillows synopsis, I came up with a couple of ideas. One a darker drama where the power of the Kami is unleashed for a supernatural battle type drama with a kill the Kami/banished ending or a Kami is unhappy being removed from itâs natural habitat and needs to be returned.
The darker story was very unpopular so was immediately scrapped from the running.
Further refining the get Kami home arc, a time element was introduced that prevented the couple from immediately return the Kami, Japan in lockdown, couple canât get permissions to enter the country. This delay element stretches it out from 5 episodes to a possible 16 episodes. 
The 2 shamans were inserted to be an aide for the couple and also to be the vehicle for a âbromanceâ type of characters/dynamic.
Further refining the arc.
Summary
For the next stage of development I was about to put together a post to get get some ideas from the inmates everyone at Badger Productions.
From the time the couple find out about the Kami and the events that had been going on with the elements aspect(via the shamans) the drama shifts to the Kami doing what it did in the past but using the Super-Wipe business a metaphor of prosperity of the land/battles.
Your post kind of pipped me to it but it does the same.
This is where I wanted to encourage people to share ideas like yours. Basic concepts, doesnât need to be detailed that we can all offer ideas, have discussions over them, accept/reject/refine them.
This part of the drama has the potential of filling lots of episodes until the finale of the Kami being returned home!
These are my ideas for this part of the story.
- The rival cleaning company are âthe baddiesâ they want to beat the competition (metaphor of neighbouring warlord battles wanting to invade the neighbouring prefecture) Their tactics becoming more and more underhanded as the power of the Kami slowly ramps up.
- The rival companyâs vans are WHITE! Super-Wipes are (any other colour)
- The shamans are heavily involved at this stage of the story as they are the only ones with the gift of seeing and communicating with the Kami.
- The shamans act as go between for the couple and the Kami.
- The shamans are also the ones minimising the effects of the Kami so there is a gradual transition in increase in power/decrease in the success of the business, maybe in the form of thwarting each underhanded tactics of the rival company with the use of spells and talismans.
This is an excellent idea. It opens up lots of avenues for refining the story. Starting from @entwyfhasbeenfound synopsis whirlwind marriage high and gradually deteriorating as the power of the Kami increases. A kind of reverse romance story, genius! 
As for your other weirder and weirder ideas, as the rival companyâs underhand tactics increases in dastardliness, weâll need differing levels of craziness, some of them can be adapted, like Ha-Nuelâs drug-dealing parents, are not actual drug-dealers but framed by the rival company to try and ruin the companyâs reputation. So not weird at all!
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Yes. Ha-neulâs parents framed by rivals. Cool.
K-drama business rivalry with relatively benign, respected, trusted and known figures having their lives thrown into turmoil.
But doesnât some event have to occur that makes this potential chaos believable? Something in the background of the parents or the cleaning industry or something?
Or!
What a perfect opportunity to do . . . Dad gets hit on the head and gets amnesia or undergoes some personality change . . . maybe? But done with a bit of finesse. Itâs a trope that is so traditional, but it doesnât have to be heavy-handed, does it?
There are several K-dramas from about ten years ago where a power coupleâs relationship has hit a snag and they are about to call it quits. They are, if I remember correctly, pretty nifty explorations of what it means to be committed, to care, and to support loved ones in an important relationship at whatever level . . . dating, marriage, family, neighborhood, community.
And they provide opportunities for great dialog!
Only . . . letâs not have quite the level of amnesiac silliness as in Homemade Love Story. I refer to Jeong Bo-seok as Woo Jung-hoo. Love the actor, but that story arc got just plain silly.
(Wikipedia)
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I am thinking of a very recent C-drama in which two fashion industry rivals (one male, one female) end up in New York City without the usual luxuries of life. Lost luggage? Stolen credit cards? Mistaken identity? I forget, but this throws them into relying on each other instead of arguing with each other.
And what happens, class? Thatâs right!
The rich girl (in this case SHE has the advantages) discovers she has a lot in common with the poor guy (who of course is top dog because he is the classic âdragon rising from a ditchâ).
And they both get to look gorgeous in ripped jeans, t-shirts, no fancy skin products, clean unstyled hair, and bare feet!
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THE
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I have yet to watch an amnesia trope drama that I truly liked. I hated most of them⊠Shopaholic Louis made the best use of it, in my opinion. I donât remember any others I liked. I never mind cliches or tropes as long as theyâre done right. For example, with Police University, the cliches are done SO WELL that I actually find myself waiting for them to happen and then enjoying everything so much.
This is my favorite genre so I have definitely studied it in detail and feel quite ready to try writing my own.
I like this. Since this couple married all of a sudden, there will obviously be rocky patches, and the Kami help to heighten the drama.
Iâm glad PD-nim approves!!
So weâve got a couple who come to Seoul after a whirlwind marriage and unknowingly bring the Kami. Are we going to take the poverty route? What starts the conflict between the ML and FL? Maybe the way they each handle/react to the situation upsets the other?
Arc 2 is the company struggles. Since weâre dealing with cleaning companies, we could make this funny. The parents can all be wackos who are obsessed with cleanliness. The shamans can be the comic relief. One is uninterested and the other is way too excited with his powers. The couple and the shamans share the same relationship our other reality showâs (Badgersâ Productions) OSPD-nim and Miss Willow seem to have They work together but do it while annoying the heck out of each other.
Edit: I posted this as soon as PD-nim posted his, and Iâm amused and glad that the shamansâ characters are the same in both our posts!
Also, @ninjas_with_onions I thought the Kami were good? Why are they doing all the bad things here? We could excuse their antics with the couple by saying that the Kami are trying to bring the couple closer by forcing them to see each othersâ worst sides, but what about the dadâs amnesia part?
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Sure, why not. I have already thought of something to tie all of this together.
The Kami causes the dad to get hit on the head - amnesia. {getting framed plot?} The shamans swing into action to counter the misfortune. This is an ideal opportunity to embellish the bromance dynamics of the two. One starts to chant and shake bells and spin in circles around the amnesiac dad. The other shaman does nothing, looks on silently and rolls his eyes slightly. Pulls out the rubber mallet he brought along and whack the dad on the head, who instantly recovers his memory. The chanting shaman freeze framed in mid spin, one leg raised and arms out stretched to the heavens.
But I am getting ahead of myself as this is getting quite detailed and I donât want to distract from fishing for more ideas.
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Oh, I love the idea of two shamans who annoy the heck out of each other. Related somehow? Giving completely opposite readings for customers? One is trying to update the profession, while one is trying to be more traditional?
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Well, we donât know everything about the shaman field, but I was thinking more on the lines of:
One shaman uninterested, just there for the money while the other wanted to be a detective but couldnât pass the police test or whatever test detectives had to take so he became a shaman and now heâs way too excited about this Kami case
Iâm making up stuff while typing so you all might have to look out for any plot holes I create Iâve always been like this because Iâm an Entertainer personality and I had to spin stories off the top of my head to keep my brother entertained when we were younger 
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Kamis can be both good and âbadâ. In olden times bring prosperity or misfortune to the land of the people depending on how they treated them/their environment (or âprayedâ to for a plentiful harvest, or success in battle) This Kami having being accidentally removed is making it feelings know in a way it has always done, through misfortune.
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Shamans working with the police is a K-drama trope.
https://asianwiki.com/The_Guest_(Korean_Drama)
Crimes caused by mysterious powers take place. A psychic, a Catholic priest and a detective fight against these crimes.
Yoon Hwa-Pyung (Kim Dong-Wook) is the psychic. He was born to a shaman family. Yoon Hwa-Pyung seeks out those possessed by evil spirits and attempts to expel the evil spirits.
Choi Yoon (Kim Jae-Wook) is the Catholic priest. He is cynical and cool-headed. He doesnât like having relationships with others. He is recognized for his abilities as an exorcist.
Kang Kil-Young (Jung Eun-Chae) is the detective. She doesnât believe in evil spirts or exorcisms, but her views change because of Choi Yoon and Yoon Hwa-Pyung.
However, I generally donât watch those because they are too intense or . . . I donât know what.
But Iâm all for gentle send-ups of some of the classic characters and tropes.
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Most religious systems, well all the ones I can think of, deal with good and evil in humanity and in the natural world. And itâs usually what I would call non-human powers that humans cannot control that can end up wreaking vengeance on selfish, ignorant, materialistic idiots.
(Giphyâitâs David Tennant!)
In our case, maybe there could be some research that uncovers the potential kami have for destruction that is both educational, slightly sobering, and funny.
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Not at first. At the time when the couple learn of the Kami from the shamans, the business is successful and the couple very much in love. But as the Kami increases the intensity of the misfortunes that besets the company, so too does the love of the couple for each other start to decline because of the sheer stress and worry slowly overwhelming the couple. Now you could write it so that by the finale the couple have strayed into the arguing/conflict stage or just to the level of it being the absence of love but not conflicting. Depends how evil you feel playing God (or The Sims) with their lives.
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What about the idea of the kami causing problems simply because it is out of place, unhappy, trying to get home, and trying to get attention . . . and our cleaning supply love birds suspect each other of petty meanness?
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I think that could start at the initial stage. When they are still finding things out about each other, like suspecting each other of leaving the taps running, being a terrible cook, etc as they have not gone through the usual process of living together and discovering each others bad habits. But itâs not quite petty meanness, more the misunderstanding trope (and not a very popular trope at that as itâs a real frustration builder and a real turn off and should be avoided near the start of any drama)
I canât think of it being a sustainable plot once they learn of the Kami but it could be one of the symptom of the stress and worry they are going through starts to manifest in actual petty meanness rather than just them suspecting each other of.
Or perhaps use it as a lead up to them resorting the âLove, Money, Careerâ services of the shamans? ( I feel there may be a bit of comedy in there somewhere)
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