CLAMP*NEWS

Title: Fear Factory
Universe: VR Troopers, Big Bad Beetleborgs
Character(s): OCs
Rating: U
Warnings:
Summary: Winter, 2003. Fresh snow, stale breath, starving men with their hands above their heads, star spangled metal.
Length: 2169 words
Author's Notes: This isn't very subtle, I'm afraid. also: external link.



( Fear Factory )

“I will not entertain the notion for even a moment.” He scoffed, crossing his legs, folding his arms. “Counterfeit cards being trafficked on the Tonakailiner. What dross.”

I started writing a new book before I had even shared the last one with you. I had the feeling even before Rei had completed the cover for that first book that I was now unable to let go of this minor character who had appeared in two episodes of a Kamen Rider show in late 2023, and that now whatever I have imagined I had seen in her character had condemned us both to spending an eternity together. Through the early months of 2025, I spent my time imagining this train journey, trying to build not only on who I felt Harima Shiori was, but also who I thought her partner in the Investigations Department, Kugimiya Licht might be. I became obsessed with the idea of these two as a kind of awful Mulder and Scully, and I became fascinated with the idea that, through circumstance and poor execution, the episodes they share and the one summer movie in which Kugimiya appears sets up this scenario where both of these characters who are working together are antagonists on behalf of differing causes. It felt like Hitler and the Devil going out for dinner and neither of them realising the other was a bad guy also; it was stupid, I felt like I had to take it seriously.

Whilst writing the last book, I realised I had gone in a direction that presented the end results of a world in which evil is always the obvious outcome. In writing this one during the cold months of winter and the early spring, I realised I wanted to explore what steps you might need to take to reach that bad ending. In addition, I wanted to be a little defiant, I wanted you to know that I think Harima Shiori is the kind of character you can tell a broader array of stories about than her roughly fifteen minutes over two episodes give her credit for. I may have played my hand with this too early, having already shared two different stories in which I tried to push Kugimiya and Harima into their roles as awful Mulder and Scully, in which I tried to make the Investigations Department mean something more than their role as bad guys for two episodes before the franchise's traditional Christmas and New Year cliffhanger. Along the way, I was greatly inspired by not only Rei, but linky, luckyzukky, and likealighthouse also, all of whom I owe a great debt to that I can never repay. Likewise, Stewart, who is now possibly more experienced with shepherding me than he would like to be, really helped ensure this work made sense before finally being placed in your hands. When writing this, the Black Saturn community humoured me with more kindness and patience than I deserved as I spent a year posting allusions in one thread to every possible base instinct humanity is known to possess. As a companion piece, I also wrote the final story in our Kudo Mina cycle, this last part acting as a sort of epilogue to one specific thread found in this book.

I wanted to both show you that Shiori was more important than the two episodes she appeared in gave her room to prove, and I wanted to try and challenge myself to write a kind of story that was different from anything I had previously made. This book went through numerous titles before we settled on this. The final title is testament to my firm belief that everything you might possibly want to say sounds better when spoken in Spanish.

I wanted to write about the moments before the fall, the moments in which you are so convinced you are doing the right thing that you don't stop to think about what the outcome of those actions might be. I think that's at the heart of Shiori's character, I think that's what makes her so relatable. I want you to see her like I see her; I want you to listen to what she is telling you even though you know you can't trust her. Perhaps, in a way, I'm also asking you to extend this courtesy to me.


gif by likealighthouse

¡Locomoción! | cover and illustration by Rei | written by me | edited by Stewart Sheargold | published by Black Saturn.

Now please ask me if I have already started work on a further Shiori book. :p

On Saturday, I went into a print shop to buy a card and ended up with a handful of bookmarks and a lot of questions about a this picture by artist Tsuchiya Kōitsu, initially printed in 1934 and simply entitled Nezu Shrine. I am uneducated, friends, I don't really understand art or art history, and I recognise enough that anywhere that sells "prints" of "famous pictures" is mostly for people searching for souvenirs of time spent away from home or reminders of places they once knew, but I keep thinking about this picture: why is the lady standing alone in the snow? Who is it that is ahead of her? Are they together? Do they know each other? Are they lovers who cannot be seen together or are they simply strangers that arrived at the same time in the dark amidst the virgin snow? The lady is looking ahead but it almost seems to me that such forward focus comes only after a time of looking back, she seems like she has just turned her gaze to the path again, that she is reluctant to go ahead but she knows she must. I imagine it is New Year, maybe, that this is a hatsumode, if you like, that this lady has reached some crossroads, that she has made some resolution.

I'm reading a lot into this. It's 5:33am on a Monday morning. In my sleep, I kept waking and thinking of the snow at Nezu shrine.

Title: Long Long Ago, 20th Century
Universe: Kamen Rider Black RX, Kamen Rider Ryuki
Character(s): Morita Yousuke, Kanzaki Shiro, Kishida Tomoko
Series: The Unspeakable Oath | Between To-day and To-morrorow | Pagliacci | The Ghost of a Flea | Dangerous Days | dérive | In Accordance to Natural Law | Shadow Moon | Wake Up the Hero! | Rêve | Channelling the Power of Souls | Evanescent Quietude | Pearls Before Swine | One Day Closer to the End of the World | The Nobodies | Breath, Held | Collectors | International | Vice-Versa | Lonely, Lonely Heart | Life Eternal
Rating: U
Warnings:
Summary: “I read your paper on Crisis technology,” the younger man continued. “I was especially interested in your personal experience with the Crossover Mirror Technique.”
Length: 974 words
Author's Notes: I have so many things I haven't posted yet and I'm desperately trying to force myself into sharing them. also: external link.



( Long Long Ago, 20th Century )