Beyond the Field: BL Stories of Athletics and the Future
These short BL stories are narrative snapshots, presenting moments captured mid-scene or pages torn from an expansive narrative. They are fragments designed to ignite the imagination, inviting readers to consider what came before each encounter and what destinies lie ahead for the characters. This format encourages a deeper engagement, transforming reading into an act of co-creation.
Boy’s Love, or BL, encompasses a diverse genre celebrating romantic relationships between male characters. Known as Yaoi or Shōnen-ai in its earlier forms, BL originated in Japan and has grown into a global phenomenon, appreciated for its rich character development and emotional depth. It serves as a powerful medium for exploring themes of acceptance, identity, and love, resonating with a vast international audience across various countries.
This collection is part of an experimental research and storytelling program operating at the intersection of human creativity, interdisciplinary arts, and applied artificial intelligence research. The project explores how digital tools can support writing and publishing processes, shaping new forms of storytelling and scriptwriting while enhancing digital literacy skills and workflows. It also comes from a sincere love of BL stories.
This collection merges the competitive spirit of Sports BL with the imaginative landscapes of Sci-Fi BL, incorporating elements of Slice of Life and Contemporary Campus settings. These unique stories, from Jamie F. Bell and Leaf Richards, transport readers to worlds where athleticism meets futuristic possibilities.
We invite you to explore these short BL stories. Engage with the characters, ponder their fates, and allow your imagination to complete the narratives, making each reading a unique, personal experience.
Today’s BL Short Stories
Spikes and States
Author: Jamie F. Bell | Category: Popular Culture | Genre: Sports BL
A deserted high school track field at midnight, thick with humidity and unspoken tension.
Just Breathe, Idiot.
Author: Jamie F. Bell | Category: Slice of Life | Genre: Slice of Life BL
In the cramped, dusty backstage of a regional theater, moments before a career-defining performance, Hana succumbs to a crushing panic attack. The air is thick with the smell of old wood, sweat, and cheap stage makeup, as Jin, his usually detached manager, abandons his headset to confront the raw, overwhelming fear. Autumn chill seeps through a cracked window, a stark contrast to the boiling anxiety in the room.
The Scuffed Locker
Author: Leaf Richards | Category: Espionage / Spy Fiction | Genre: Contemporary Campus BL
Near the end of senior year, in a deserted, dimly lit hallway of Northwood High, Kakeru finds himself cornered by Asahi. The air is thick with the residue of their complicated past—a year riddled with misunderstandings, social pressures, and hidden truths that fractured their fragile connection. Snow falls silently outside, echoing the quiet tension between them.
“Look At Me”
Author: Jamie F. Bell | Category: Contemporary Fiction | Genre: Sci-Fi BL
On a heavy, humid evening in a coastal reclamation zone, two boys walk the shoreline. The atmosphere is thick with impending rain and the hum of atmospheric scrubbers. They are hours away from a permanent separation.
The Incident
Author: Leaf Richards | Category: Espionage / Spy Fiction | Genre: Contemporary Campus BL
Kakeru and Asahi stand before Principal Mateo and Mr. Halloran in a stuffy, over-decorated office, confronting the fallout from their exposé. The air is thick with unspoken tension and the smell of stale ambition.
BL Storytelling and the Arts, Skills Development and Digital Transformation
AI-Assisted Storytelling and Automation: Our research at the incubator actively explores AI’s transformative role in creative development, particularly within the dynamic landscape of BL storytelling. These case studies, spanning genres like Sports BL, Slice of Life BL, Contemporary Campus BL, and Sci-Fi BL, exemplify how AI tools are being studied to address unique BL-specific challenges. We investigate AI’s capacity to assist in intricate world-building, craft compelling suspense in Sci-Fi scenarios, generate authentic dialogue for Slice of Life narratives, and streamline the overall scriptwriting process, pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in narrative creation.
Creative Talent Development and Training: Beyond technological integration, our project examines the evolving skill sets crucial for creative professionals in an AI-augmented future. The iterative process of developing these BL short stories and chapters offers invaluable insights into the future of digital publishing, narrative design, and film production workflows. We emphasize the critical importance of digital literacy, advanced storytelling techniques, understanding process automation, and developing proficiency in managing diverse AI tools, ensuring artists remain at the forefront of innovation.
We’re excited to learn about these new technologies and how they can be applied to expand the boundaries of human storytelling. We encourage you to keep reading, keep imagining, and keep exploring the incredible potential that opens up when creativity meets technology.
About the Project
By design, these stories have no beginning and no end. Many stories are fictional, but many others are not. They are snapshots from worlds that never fully exist, inviting you to imagine what comes before and what happens next. We had fun exploring this project, and hope you will too.
The BL Stories. Unbound. collection is an interdisciplinary arts and narrative storytelling experiment. It is part of a creative arts and research program by The Arts Incubator Winnipeg and the Art Borups Corners collectives. This project focuses on two key areas: AI-Assisted Scriptwriting, exploring AI for generating ideas, plot structures, and alternative story arcs; and Talent Development and Training, studying the skills and training needs for creative professionals managing AI and immersive technologies to inform future training curricula. Funding and support were generously provided by the Ontario Arts Council Multi and Inter-Arts Projects program and the Government of Ontario. We thank them for supporting the arts, digital transformation, and applied Artificial Intelligence (AI) research for northern innovation in Ontario.
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