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Wednesday Briefs: Torch Song for a Night Ride

What can I say? I was inspired, somehow, despite the fact that midterms were last week and I have a paper due tomorrow morning. I hope y'all enjoy this latest Wednesday Brief piece: it's another stand alone original, and appropriately creepy, given Saturday is a creepy holiday. Sorry, no yokai in this one (although I considered it as a possibility)!

Torch Song For A Night Ride. Prompts used: a train, it's good to have dreams.

The sound of the ten o’clock express hitting the tracks was enough to wake Peter from what had been a very deep nap. He opened one eye, slowly, to see the red blinking light display the time from across the darkened room. Moonlight from the semi-opened window created a grey path that connected the foot of the bed to the faraway dresser.

It had only been about an hour since Peter lay back onto the bedspread, fully clothed, and attempted a decent nap time twice as long as he actually slept for. Papers were spread out on his desk in fan shapes, a desperate method of concentration based on the placement of objects that only worked half the time. A red pen sat on top of the mess, awaiting further instructions.

Fujoshi O'Clock: The (Rather Late) September Edition

October already? Oh, dear...

Fujoshi O'Clock is a monthly feature at Nagareboshi Reviews which focus on boys' love/yaoi news, reviews, and meta. The feature also puts a spotlight on trans/bisexual/genderqueer manga/anime news and articles. For yuri/shoujo ai, see fellow bloggers Yuricon and Yuri no Boke for a more thorough examination of the girls' love genre.

Articles for September: 

• Oguie Maniax, with news for Genshiken fans: a Hato Kenjirou fanzine is going to be a thing. Unfortunately, it looks like submissions are already closed.
• DMP will be adding 24 yaoi/BL manga titles to their digital collection --- authors include Ootsuki Miu, Lily Hoshino, Psyche Delico, and Ayan Sakuragi.
• Two interesting essays from s.e. smith that might be of relevance to those who read/watch anime/manga with trans characters: is objectifying trans women the only way cis people can relate? and what would an ordinary trans narrative look like?.
• The cast for the Hetalia stage musical has been posted; the musical is called Hetalia ~Singing' in the World.
• The anime film for the Dokyusei/Classmates series is now set for February of next year; it will be based on the Asumiko Nakamura manga by the same name.
• Foreign Policy writes about Japan's trans-friendly comic book revolution, citing Wandering Son's popularity as an example.
• Found on Twitter: the animated school system that every good fujoshi wants to enroll in. 

Reviews for September:

• Slightly Biased Manga looked at: the seventh volume of Ai No Kusabi's light novel series; the fourth volume of Earthian by Yun Kouga; the fifth volume of the Junjou Romantica manga. 
• Experiments In Manga read Dr. Makumakuran and Other Stories by Takeshi Matsu, which looks like gay manga in the genre of the Massive anthology.
• BookDragon reviewed volume eight of Wandering Son and volume nine of What Did You Eat Yesterday?, the foodie BL manga by Fumi Yoshinaga.
• Manga Xanadu also looked at the What Did You Eat Yesterday? manga, reviewing volumes six through nine in one post.
• Fandom Post reviewed book one of Our Kingdom by Naduki Koujima, a throwback title to early DMP years.

Spinning A New Story Within The 'Verses of Sword Art Online and Attack on Titan

I am, for whatever reason, utterly fascinated by the choices some authors make when they decide to write spin-offs for their main (and very popular series). In particular, I've been reading Reki Kawahara's SAO light novel spin-off along with the Attack on Titan spin-off from Hajime Isayama and Ryo Kawakami. It might be comparing apples to oranges in a way, since Isayama is actually not the primary author of this particular spin-off, but ultimately the franchise origin writer chooses what stories are told in the spin-offs. And that choice is what is worth examining, especially when one spin-off explicitly marks itself as 'progressive'.

Sword Art Online Progressive (books 1-2): Kirito and Asuna are two very different people, but they both desire to fight alone. Nonetheless, they find themselves drawn together to face challenges from both within and without. Given that the entire virtual world they now live in has been created as a deathtrap, the surviving players of Sword Art Online are starting to get desperate, and desperation makes them dangerous to loners like Kirito and Asuna. As it becomes clear that solitude equals suicide, will the two be able to overcome their differences to find the strength to believe in each other, and in so doing survive?

Attack on Titan - The Harsh Mistress of the City (book 1): With Wall Maria breeched, communities within the Quinta district have been cut off from each other creating famine and chaos. A young field commander named Rita is tasked with a mission to reconnect transit across the massive district while putting her troops and residence right in the vanguard as Titans descend on her town.

Wednesday Briefs: Woman Made Of Snow

It's been a while, but here's a new bit of writing for Wednesday Briefs. It's an original fiction stand alone, based on something I've been interested in recently and which I will probably get side-eyed at for writing about since I haven't studied it that intensely, and my take on the original story is fractured in places, but enjoy anyway, I guess!

Yuki-omba. The woman of snow wakes with the sun. I kinda fucked around a bit with tengu mythology, but whatevs. Prompt used: yokai.

As the sun rose and created a glaze of sharp, cold light across the ice-covered hills of the countryside, so Yuki-omba rose with the sun and prepared for the day ahead. For the thousandth time, she washed her face in the stream, weaved a new kimono out of the snow for her to wear—as stark white and crisp as the snow bank it was born from—and brushed a flower across her lips until the crushed petals turned them blue.

She climbed over the low-lying hills that covered the countryside, gliding over the crust of ice and frost as if her feet did not touch the ground at all. No arctic wind, no blast of chill could slow her descent through the rolling expanse of trees, all bare limbs and sparkling with frozen ornaments from the previous night.

The humans in the nearby village called her Yuki-onna, whispered her name with a mixture of reverence and fear, but she did not feel like a young woman anymore, not after one thousand years of winter. All she knew, from the moment she first opened her eyes and felt the ground with her hands and fell into the fresh snow with her newly born body, was the forever season of winter. In her head, she was Yuki-omba now—the grandmother of the snow.