Nichijou

By day, a wild-mannered accountant; by night, a mild-mannered swordsman.

Honey

Emma, MO

Heading west on Interstate 70 through Missouri at midday offers many picturesque views of a rural and hilly America. Even with the sun overhead, the chiaroscuro of hills and the occasional tree is evident, and the light lends that golden hue reserved for sunset pastoral scenes in landscape calendars. Everything appears still at seventy-five miles per hour; and though there are many barns, houses, and other structures for a place so remote, there are no people moving about.

The city (or town?) is Emma, MO, and if you don't recall seeing the Welcome sign, it may be that you have already left its legal vicinity. Emma, MO is 0.43 miles in area, all land, and is shaped roughly like a cheap diary's key laid north-south. The drive across the northern end, on I-70, lasted approximately 21 seconds at highway speeds. It is one of those cities where the calculated population density is a larger number than the present population. The post office closed decades before alternative written communications were invented.

Supposedly named after Emma Bemetrio, a local minister's daughter, you may anticipate a story of a father's loving dedication to his daughter; or, perhaps, a show of affection of a suitor who would very much like to offer the world to the one he loves, but only has the funds for a thin slice of Midwestern farmland. And would Emma have stuck around with such a gesture, or make the less than a minute commute on to bigger ventures? What is apparent is that the Interstate was built through it after its founding (fortuitous, or the founder's gamble in buying such a long, thin strip?), and Emma will be remembered by those who travel the road.

Mushishi: Belldrops

Lost Highway

Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojo

Road Sorcerer

Sorcerers have two main methods for overcoming the obstacle of slow drivers on the road, and the choice of method is based on skill and indicative of that sorcerers personality.

The first method involves the car falling to pieces, in the pattern of an explosion, with the parts flung around the slow drivers and recombining at the head of the pack. This is flashy and intended for an audience, but requires little skill and is used by the, usually young, cocky sorcerer.

The second method is more subtle and controlled. The sorcerer, not wanting to draw attention, will act well before becoming part of the slow-down on the road, and will act only during night to remain unseen. If one follows with headlights off, the sorcerer may not notice he is observed. The vehicle will appear to get four flats at once, but without the sparks of rims scraping on cement. Gradually, the vehicle itself will appear to get flat as it submerges underground, and the sorcerer will drift through substrate until well ahead of the obstacle, and reemerge. It is a myth that sorcerers become more powerful with age; as they become older, their power simply becomes more inconsistent. For this reason, unless safety glasses and hat and scarf are worn, it is not uncommon to see sorcerers with pocked skin from rocks and chips of material that have penetrated their guard.

Caution

Through an Empty Place (The Fox Emerging from Shadow), Beth Cavener

Nichijou

Made in Abyss

Fading Light

Melissa Johnston

Spirit of Winter

The parents melded through organic chemistry
amateur engineers coalescing proteins and minerals
making the instinctual body, instructions not included.
The people grow weary of unrelenting Summer
of atoms shaking with energy until they fall apart.
The collective dream of gears slowing to a halt
in the quiet of cold fill the body. The peasants
have revolted, and the Knights of Summer
have fallen, and all becomes anew.

Sleeping In

Untitled, Bill Henson

Images of Love

Bruno Ripoche

This Isn't Happiness

Yozakura Quartet OVA

Noodles at 2am by Koutra

Nisekoi

Spirit of Winter

For someone who loves Winter's cold
you sure keep a lot of insulation, She said
dragging fingers along the walls made of books
Two feet deep of paper separating the world, realities
black ink ideas keeping out the Winter of Others.

Those walls are real in a world of propped up facades
and the natural cold of Winter did not burn his skin blue
like the air conditioning under which humans basked
Won't you fight reality with me? He asked
She didn't know if his unreality could beat reality

He recalled Tennessee Williams departing
with no certain place to go

I was human out of curiosity and, in time, I forgot who I was
The speed, distraction, and subtle intricacies of human living
I don't know who or what I am, only that I must go, find out
And you may find in the end that I was never there to begin with

In the Meantime

"A young woman who'd never been in love fell for a stranger she met through the chat program on her phone, but she discovered he was only a perfect bit of conversation software. Yet, the digital boy loved her back, and they happily spent a lifetime together. After the woman died, a record of her life - her frowns and laughter, her actions and reactions - was uploaded to the cloud, and she became the shared goddess of people and AIs."

- Xia Jia

Yozakura Quartet Hana no Uta

Field of Dreams

Ashes of Time Redux