French Cup: A Neighborhood Story

Prelude

Hello, I'm SumireHime and welcome to my new serial. I've had this story in the works since June or July of 2022. A lot of the themes are actually based on my own home community, as in I live right in the middle of a LGBTQ community going through the same crisis. Every day, I walk down our famous gay district street and see it's becoming a former gay district. The general consensus is that the population is happy to see us driven out, and the shells of my favorite LGBTQ bars and coffeehouses are rotting in the sun as they wait for straight and cisgender buyers to turn them into yuppie paradise. I'm like, "what the hell did I move here for? My favorite drag bar is gone and now a homophobic asshole owns the building." 

This attitude is shared by the characters in this new story. It is set in Tokyo, because it's simply what I know best. I chose a French theme, because I love French music and food and wish to share it with readers in the way that songs and artists will be mentioned, pastries and other sweets will be detailed in how to make them, etc. It's not something I've really done before to this extent in a book. It is also appropriate, because in my home community, coffeeshops are really where we as LGBTQ people gather, and it's just like us to make an asshole version of Starbucks where the food is fresh instead of individually plastic wrapped and having quality beans instead of crap as a fuck you to corporations. I used to hang out in coffeeshops just like the one in this story with literal long tablefuls of usually transgender people (many of us were drag queens or kings, too, the communities overlap) and shared queer war stories and played Cards Against Humanity well into the night under the stars, with some weirdo playing a guitar in the corner and singing like a crying cat to anyone who'd listen. Many times, these coffeeshops are some kind of European themed, because that's classy and we like to pretend that we are. So, I chose a French themed shop for this story, because I love France. 

In this story, you'll find drag queens, fire dancers, other circus-y folk, writers, artists, musicians, IT professionals, students, and witches. That's simply who we are. 

I intend to tell a simpler story than what I'm used to, one infused with comedy and strange situations. I want it to be as weird and wonderful as the community I remember, and we got up to some weird shit. At its heart, this story is about artists and their disappearing community. The changing of the times and savoring what you have. 

I hope you enjoy it.