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About Anny

Blogs about games, VNs, anime, manga, comics, and books. Writes about self-confidence building, self-acceptance, nonbinary/binary folks, straight/gay/bi/pan/aro/ace characters, breaking stereotypes, overcoming past, witches, mages, kings, elves, nymphs, dragons, undead and way more stuff. Quadlingual. They/them, ey/em, and all other pronouns. Bookworm. Gamer. Fujo/danshi. Writer. Illustrator. Mum. Agender. Ehlers-Danlos Warrior. Depression, Personality Disorder and Panic Disorder Juggler. Proud Aro-Ace. Awareness Fighter. Invisible Illness and Disability Advocate.

Demon Summon: Prologue

Time to Read:

6–8 minutes

Story Information

Full title: I Summoned a Demon, who Made Me Sign a Contract
Genre: Fantasy Comedy

Note: This is (supposed to be) a funny omegaverse story that absolutely doesn’t take itself too seriously. There’s some more information on the story’s page.


Prologue

Clouds gathered above Rivergloom University, slowly swirling and turning the evening sky into an ominous dark grey. The scent of rain was getting stronger, the air growing cold and raw. The howling wind grabbed hold of the trees, pushing and pulling them to bend at its might. Leaves were mercilessly ripped off the branches and swirled in the whipping gusts of the wind. Students, scurrying on their way to the dorms, pulled their thin autumn jackets tighter around them. The frigid air was relentless and snuck in through the gaps, chilling them to the bone. Cars passing the school accelerated, seeking shelter before the oncoming storm finally broke out.

The streetlights flickered, trying to hold on, to keep the campus within their soft glow. It only took a moment before the first light succumbed and shut down, followed by another. Starting at the outskirts of the campus, the lights died out toward the centre at an increasing speed. The entire campus was plunged into darkness as the school’s power supplies completely failed the very moment the last of the streetlights went out.

In a shadowy classroom, a tall figure let out a sharp yelp when even his phone’s torch died. He bumped into a chair, toppling it over, and it clattered against the floor. There was a gentle thud as the book on it fell off. A slight scraping noise suggested it slid across the floor, but where it went, he had no idea.

The sky crackled as green and purple lightning cut through the air, painting the university campus in eery flashes of light. Thunder rumbled, and Jasper Green took a few stumbling steps backward when a particularly loud boom shook the entire school.

Glasses askew and golden-brown hair tussled, he turned to the heavily lopsided summoning circle. Amidst the noise outside, a quiet hum had appeared. As the hum turned into higher in pitch, the array began glowing like coal. It pulsed with what soon turned into a harmonic note. The colour shifted with every pulse until it eventually shone blood red, casting an eerie red, strangely chilling glow to the classroom. The shadow of Jasper’s tall, lanky frame, stretched long behind him, every slim limb turning longer and more slender. It flickered in the light, moved with the static filling the classroom when a bolt of lightning struck a tree in the nearby forest.

The sound of soft steps reached Jasper’s ears. At first they were just the echoes of gentle taps, but each measured tap of a heel against stone grew louder, the echoes reverberating more. Jasper’s breath caught in his throat, stuck together with his heart. He wasn’t certain if his heart had settled to the same measured pace, or if it had stopped altogether. It could just as well have been the clacking that sounded in his chest cavity.

He swallowed the lump in his throat when the sound stopped somewhere in front of him. There wasn’t anybody there, and it was clear to him that the steps didn’t come from the hallway. He still turned to look toward the locked door. He expected to see some apparition flickering in the red glow of the circle and among the flashing lights of the bolts marbling the soot-coloured clouds.

He stared long and hard. When he saw nothing, he let out a relieved breath he hadn’t realised he held.

And yet, as soon as he had exhaled, he sensed something was wrong. Heart racing, Jasper turned to the summoning circle again and—

“AAAAAH!!”

He tripped over his feet and crashed right into the desks behind him. He fell heavily on his butt. Pain shot through his back, but he didn’t have the mind to care.

A pair of red eyes glowed brightly in the shadows of a hood. A pale chin reflected the red glow from below while the cheek facing the window took a green and purple shade whenever the thunder struck. The expression was empty of any emotion as the figure dressed in black peered down at him as if he were not worthy of more than a cursory glance.

The hem of the black coat floated in the air, unaffected by gravity. Pale hands with slender fingers moved to push the hood down, exposing the face of a beautiful youth about the same age as Jasper himself.

Jasper couldn’t help but think someone had pulled that black clothing off a film set and put it on possibly the world’s most beautiful circa-twenty-year-old.

“How boorishly unpleasant.”

The voice was smooth, but as cold as ice, the sound of it making the temperature of the room seem to drop by ten whole degrees. Jasper shivered.

The young man took one step, two steps forward, leaving the red glow of the summoning circle. Suddenly exposed to gravity outside the lopsided circle, the hem fell to hang just above his knees. He squatted and stared long and hard right at Jasper’s face, his eyes narrowing while scrutinising the bespectacled man.

“You are acceptable enough,” he concluded.

Jasper looked at him wide-eyed.

What was he enough for?

Who was this?!

What the hell was going on???

Why was there (a very good-looking) boy right in front of him??!!

Jasper’s brain seemed to crash from the information overload while simultaneously not getting enough information to process what was happening.

It booted back up when a subtle cold, yet sweet, scent reached his nose. He stared bewilderedly at the pale face that looked back at him expressionlessly.

He finally found his voice. “Who, wh-who, who are you?!”

The irises glowed a more intense red as the youth narrowed his eyes at him again. He stood up once more.

“I go by the name of Orion Blackwood.”

Orion placed his hands behind his back and bent slightly at the waist. He stared intensely into Jasper’s eyes as if he was going to suck out his soul. Black strands of hair slipped out of the collar of Orion’s coat and swayed slightly, occasionally catching red light from the summoning circle behind him.

The thunder must have stopped because the silence was deafening in Jasper’s ears.

Then Orion supplied him with another piece of information.

“I am the demon you…” There was a suspended pause before he finished, “…summoned.”

Jasper figured he must have gone mad.


Author’s Note

I’ve wanted to post chapters of my stories for ages, but I tend to second-guess myself. My husband finally nudged me into posting, so here we are. Chapter one will be up soon, and I’m revising chapter two now. I already have the first arc drafted, so I got plenty to share.

I have chosen to write the story like this: Aside from the prologue and epilogue, the main story is in first person multi-POV, while the extras are in third person, just like the prologue and epilogue.

The setting is two separate world, and I will try to feature both in every arc, but I won’t force it if it doesn’t work for the story.

The core dynamic: so, nerdy golden retriever alpha x perpetually offended, fiercely independent black cat omega

Anatomy in one of the worlds are different than in real life. There are also several species, which have varying biology too. Don’t think about it too deeply. Do know male pregnancy is possible though. This will come up.

Chapter one begins twelve hours before the prologue, so bear with me. We’ll get there.

If there are typos or grammar mistakes, feel free to let me know. I sometimes fail to notice when the spell and grammar checks don’t do their jobs. But I tried!

I hope you enjoy my silly (not-so) little omegaverse story.


Last Edited:

Wolf Girl and Black Prince

Time to Read:

1–2 minutes

When Shinohara Erika is asked to show a picture of her boyfriend, she usually deflects. During lunch, he seems to call every day, and she leaves. As she hides in the bathroom after asking her friend to give her a call, she overhears the other girls say they don’t think she actually has a boyfriend. Desperate to make sure she fits in, she snaps a shot of a random handsome guy to show them. Unlucky for her,it turns out to be Sata Kyoya from her school, a popular guy in her year. Lucky for her, when she explains her situation, he agrees to help.

That is, if she’s willing to pay the price…

Continue reading

WIP Wednesday #7

Time to Read:

10–15 minutes

I skipped the whole winter, but hey, here I am!

To be honest, I get sick so easily that even as I’m writing this, I’ve still got a runny nose, a cough, a sore throat, a headache, and bone-deep exhaustion. It’s hardly any different from back when I wrote my goals for the year over 3 months ago. So if I sound a bit loopy, it’s because I still haven’t fully recovered. I think I’m getting there though.

Before I start for real, though, let me just suggest you donate. More about that in the Behind the Scenes section.

WIPs

Last month, I got a comment here on the site. I replied back then, but I want to take a moment to reflect on it. It’s not to stir the pot or start drama. I essentially wrote the below at the time as well, but more focused on the post itself that got the comment. This, I suppose, is a bit more general.

First of all, I like people commenting. I enjoy discussion. I think people disagreeing with me or having different interpretations of what I consume is fun! Getting my interpretation challenged isn’t a bad thing. I very much welcome it, especially if it helps generate a dialogue. This also applies to criticism, as long as it’s constructive. Fiction — and reviews of it — will never benefit from echo chambers. It’s instead unhealthy and critical thinking withers quickly when there’s no discussion of viewpoints.

Besides, I don’t expect anyone to like the exact same things as I do, nor do I believe my opinion is superior. It’s in fact very likely people don’t like some parts that I do, or they might like the same type of content I do, but only partially. Maybe we like the same type of otome games, but have wildly different opinions on what light-novels featuring otome games are good, or we like different types of romanceable men, but enjoy the same types of plotlines. All this should be common sense, but common sense is only limitedly common, so I guess I have to say this part out loud (as I have certainly done before, but it’s been a while).

However, when a comment’s message boils down to, “I don’t like this review, because other people dislike this genre” while sort of putting the blame on me by telling me to, “do better”, it’s not constructive nor does it open a discussion. It’s not productive and doesn’t even engage with the content I actually create. It’s just finger-wagging. If I wanted that, I’d go ask my aunt about religion.

I decided to reply to it at the time, because I am, as I have always been, open about the fact that I am a human being. This is really stating the obvious, but… Here we are. I have human emotions and hence, regardless of what others may claim, I have biases. Everyone does.

Truth is, that means I cater to a certain group of people — those who enjoy the same things wholly or partially — while offering a singular opinion based on my interpretation of the content I review.

I have more than once been open about the fact that, when it comes to romance, I prefer there being at least one male or masc-identifying character in the dynamic. This is why my preferences will always lean toward heteroromantic media, Boys Love and MLM. Thus, this is also the target audience I have.

This isn’t a place primarily for people interested in all queer media, nor for people only interested in queer media. That’s not my lane.

Do I hate Girls Love, baihe or WLW because I like BL more? No. That’s like telling me I hate tofu because I can’t stand peanuts. Sure, they’re both legumes but I can still dislike peanuts because I can’t stand the smell, and like soy-based products. And honestly, I can’t handle all soy-based products because they make me feel ill — that’s on my body, not the soy beans or the way they’ve been processed. Likewise, I’m not going to pretend I like GL the same way I like BL or just as much. And I don’t even like all BL equally. I lean dark and gritty, or swing entirely in the opposite direction and go for romcom, and even then it’s as a subplot. I’m not a romance person; that’s just how I’m wired.

So saying that “this is GL, so don’t read it if you’re uncomfortable with that” isn’t “disdain”. It’s a courtesy. Especially if my blurb or the cover is ambiguous. People aren’t going to read the tags a lot of the time. If they did, I wouldn’t even need to write the title of what I was reviewing! Just, you know, read the tags! But that’s just an inconvenience for everyone. In the end, I’m not gatekeeping, just making things clear.

Let’s be real for a moment: not everyone is comfortable with every sort of pairing. Comfort zones are a thing in the content we consume, and this absolutely applies to GL, BL, het, kink, poly, or whatever else you may like. And that’s okay. Not being comfortable consuming certain content is not the same as being uncomfortable with it in real life. You shouldn’t conflate the two, because it would be really weird if someone immersed themself in another person’s love life in real life, the same way they can immerse themself in a character and their love life. Like, it would be incredibly creepy to do the former — the latter is healthy normal behaviour.

So, if the argument is “if you like BL, you have to like GL” or anything along those lines, then the argument can just as well be “if you like sweet romance, you must like dark romance” or “if you like human romance, you got to like monster erotica” but they’re all nonsense arguments. People can like their eggs scrambled, boiled, sunny-side up, every way, or not at all. And that… is all fine and perfectly valid.

As I see it, this shows an issue that’s further widespread, though. It’s a combination of not thinking critically, of dehumanising content creators, a steady nosedive in media literacy, people not acknowledging their own biases, feeling a need to hate on people with differing opinions, and people trying to either create drama or not knowing how criticism should be made. I can’t increase media literacy, but I think it should be obvious enough that I don’t expect people to think the same way I do. I literally acknowledge that people like The Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System in my reviews of the books, and say in my review of the fourth one that I understand why people like it, but I still hate it passionately.

Anyway, this was just a really long build-up to say I’ve been working on a new Q&A page. I already planned on making a new one — the current version is nearly a decade old. It was just bumped up to a high-priority spot on my to-do list. I hope to publish it soon. I still want to check through the old one for any reusable questions, but the new format will be more compact and reader-friendly — like my Terminology page, with toggle sections for each Q&A.

Now, how do I smoothly move on to my other sort of work… eh… I don’t think there’s a smooth way to move to the next item on my list. So I won’t even try.

Aside from the Q&A, I’ve also been writing. I have three things I’ve worked on recently.

One is another Blood of Destinies Rewritten author fic. It’s set in the canon setting, but is, naturally, not canon. I have also read through two of my canon divergent ones and want to post them soon. I haven’t worked on The Amnesia Tonic though. Oops? I guess the tonic is fermenting.

The next one to bring up is I Summoned a Demon, who Made Me Sign a Contract, which is my omegaverse one. I have been editing chapter 1, trying to trim it down a bit. I’m almost done, at the time of writing and may have moved onto chapter 2 by the time this posts.

I have also worked on more chapters for it and have worked on what I realised will be a second arc. I realised recently that what I had written was really mostly arc 1. Should have been sort of obvious to me, but apparently not??

And finally.

Remember I would only write one omegaverse story? Ah, well… about that. I started writing a werewolf one set in the same setting as above, just a wholly different part of that world. I’m currently posting it on AO3. Tear My Heart Gently is just a lot of hurt. Total emotional carnage. I mean, it’ll get better, but it’s definitely one of those where it only gets worse before it can get better. I’m enjoying destroying Yuriy’s life.

I have also created a few other things since October: I have an idea for a third one in the above setting and it’s dark, I have written on a somewhat silly little story involving a buff flower shop keeper and a demon, and of course I’ve also written the flash fic the refrigerator.

WIP Quote

“How primitive,” I commented, looking at the spells, interrupting Jasper, who had gone off on some tangent about calligraphy used in “medieval” times.

“…”

Jasper stared at me for a long time, allowing me to gaze back at him.

He really had many features akin to elves, but his violet eyes weren’t. Where they came from, I had no idea — he said his mother had green eyes, but presuming it was from his father’s side was silly. If direct lineage mattered so much, I wouldn’t have black hair.

“Calligraphy isn’t primitive,” Jasper eventually said.

“Cheap little stone, I meant these incantations. Never speak any of them ever. With how your spell circle work looked, you would kill someone and yourself in the process of heating a cup of tea.”

“There were spells in here for heating tea??”

“No. Obviously not.”

Jasper gave me a helpless look before he asked, “Okay, so why do you call these primitive?”

I got my phone out and opened my app with stored spell circles. I lifted one out and let it hang vertically in the air.

“This is a commercial spell. Anyone can use it as is.”

“Your world sells spells?”

“What exactly is the difference between selling a spell book and a spell circle for everyone to use?” I fired back.

“Fair.” Jasper looked at the spell spinning in the air. “So what does this do?”

“Heat water,” I said simply. “‘Tis very useful and stands on its own. Once activated, it will only do a limited amount of heat while it also has a large margin of error, so even if someone copies it slightly off-centre it will not kill anyone. Though with your specific type of lopsided circles, I daresay ‘tis still a death trap.”

“Ah… You mean I’d set the house on fire.” Jasper nodded.

From chapter “Orion 12” of I Summoned a Demon, Who Made Me Sign a Contract

Behind the Scenes

It’s that time of year. You know the one — annual site bills coming up. They aren’t due to the same month, but I pay both in May, usually. One is for the domain, the other is for WordPress’ Starter plan. I remember when that was called a Personal plan, but they added a new tier and called that Personal. I feel like I honestly lost some features, but I don’t quite remember. Lovely. Not.

I talked about it last year with my husband, agonising about the fact that I need some of the features on the next tier, or at least that I can pay for individually, but I wasn’t sure then if I could cover the expenses for the domain and the plan back then, and I don’t know now either. I rely on the money kind people donate to keep the site ad free and for the domain — and, honestly, to have any newly released review material too.

So, if you have a spare couple of Euro, I’d be eternally thankful if you donate them through PayPal or Ko-fi.

You can give a comment if you want to see more of something, and I’ll try to prioritise that. It can be what you might want to see me review, or it can be wanting to see more of my creative writing or encourage me to post my art portfolio already (that’s long overdue, I know). I don’t take requests, but I do take recommendations.

This applies to anyone, not just donors. You can tag me on Twitter or Bluesky to ask if I plan on reading/watching/playing a title or recommend I do. If you have a service you want me to review, feel free to let me know about that as well!

Other than agony over the upcoming site bills, I am also agonising over the World Anvil one. It’s also this summer. April through August is probably just deep financial anxiety and agony for me every year.

Additionally, me and my husband are looking for a place to move to. We’ve done this for a while now, and the plan was really to move this year, but his university messed with him so he can’t graduate this spring. Next year, fingers crossed.

And when this post goes up, it’s Easter Break, so I’m not entirely free, but hey, I’m trying to get things done anyway.

Currently…

Reading

  • Thriller Tour Group (JJWXC)
  • Kai-hen Wizards (VIZ Manga)
  • Dawning Vol. 2
  • Case File Compendium Vol. 1
  • Case File Compendium (JJWXC)
  • The Husky and His White Cat Shizun Vol. 1
  • Remnants of Filth Vol. 1
  • Case Files of Jeweler Richard Vol. 1
  • Hello, I am a Witch and My Crush Wants Me to Make a Love Potion Vol. 1
  • Magi (VIZ Manga)
  • My Special One (VIZ Manga)
  • Komi Can’t Communicate (VIZ Manga)
  • Heaven Official’s Blessing Vol. 1 (Re-read)
  • Golden Terrace Vol. 2 (Re-read)
  • A lot of fan translations
  • No webcomics

Watching

  • Ouran High School Host Club
  • Tiger and Bunny
  • Dead Boy Detectives
  • Ojamajo Doremi
  • Wonderful Precure!

Playing

  • The Sims 4
  • Tales of Zestiria
  • Persona 5
  • DRAMAtical Murder
  • Boyfriend Dungeon

Recently dropped

 N/A

Recently finished

  • Dawning Vol. 1

summons

Time to Read:

9–14 minutes

Dawn sat by the craft table in their room while Dusk was lying on the floor drawing. A bottle of glitter glue was next to her, while the crayons Dad had written Dusk’s name on were spread all over the floor.

Dusk hadn’t found any paper sheets big enough, so she was doodling directly on the floor. Dawn had said Father would get angry, but Dusk argued back that Dad would understand.

Dusk started by drawing a big, big star. Not one of those boring five-point stars. No, she drew that sort of many-point stars that Father had painted in their fathers’ bedroom. She lost count of how many points she had drawn after she had counted to nine. It was fine. Father had made many points anyway, so as long as it was many, it was okay.

She got bored drawing it and crawled up to the centre of it and started scribbling in the centre of it. A few flowers here, a cat over there, that pretty letter Dad used when he was writing in his journal for work.

She began to decorate the arms too, drawing pretty symbols she had seen, her favourite letters, her favourite numbers. Some were pink, others green.

Dawn looked over as she finished with the plastic beads. She held up the string.

“Look, Dusk, I made a pwetty necklace!”

Dusk looked over. “For me?”

“No, Aunt Jade.”

“Oh.”

Dusk lost interest in it immediately and continued her drawing on the floor. It took up almost the entire space where Dad would put the play mat. The chairs of the crafts table were in the way, though. She started to move them.

Dawn looked at the drawing. She should tell Father, but it was kind of pretty, so she didn’t want Father to wash it away. She couldn’t resist and took her own pack of crayons. “Can I help?”

“Mm.”

Dawn took her favourite purple crayon and began connecting the points with scribbly, curly lines. Dusk went over to the crafts drawer and grabbed a sheet from there.

While Dawn continued with her purple crayon, she put unicorn and rainbow stickers in the gaps that appeared around the star when the arms were connected. She added glitter glue on top of the stickers to make them even prettier.

Dawn finished her curly lines. She borrowed the glitter glue to make a second row around all of it.

“Dad can’t wash dat off,” Dusk pointed out. “No gwitter goo on the floor.”

“But Father can take it off,” Dawn argued.

Dusk thought about it and then nodded in approval. “Add more!”

They just about fit the last of the glitter glue row by squeezing it between the curly connection line and the wall. Dawn might have glued a bit on the baseboard. And maybe the wallpaper. It was fine. If Father could remove it from the floor, surely he could from everywhere.

They looked at their masterpiece. It was the prettiest star ever! Dusk grinned proudly while Dawn applauded them both.

They looked at each other, giggling happily about how pretty their art was.

“Play house?” Dusk asked.

“Play with dolls,” Dawn replied.

“House!”

“Doll!”

The glitter glue shimmered in the sunlight filtering through their blue and purple lace curtains. Slowly the crayon scribbles shifted in colour, melted into fully connected lines. The glitter glows green and purple, red and blue. The glow moved inward and grew stronger.

Clouds moved in front of the sun, and the ceiling lamp flickered before it went out. The twins fell silent and looked at the lamp above them, then at each other.

“You look like the moon. But puh-puw,” Dusk told her sister.

“You gwoll too. But pink,” Dawn replied.

They looked at their masterpiece. It was pulsing in light, shifting colours.

There was a bleating sound that made them both jump. Dawn skittishly hid behind her sister while Dusk grabbed a pair of scissors from the crafts table and wielded it like a sword.

“Baaaaaah!” Smoke rose from the drawing, growing dense. A dark, creaky, bleating voice sounded from it. “WHO DARES TO AWAKEN ME AFTER SO MANY—

It got broken up by coughs. “Why does the incense smell like hellhound fart? What sort of chalk was used?!”

The smoke was waved away, and on the drawing stood a goat. It had a goat’s head and goat legs, even though its arms looked more like a monkey’s because it was so hairy, but had similar hands as the twins. Normal hands with five fingers. The nails were a bit long, and Dad would decisively cut them if they grew their nails that long. But the goat unmistakably had monkey arms and human hands.

“Do you eat childen?” Dusk growled, trying to sound threatening. “I have shissosh and two dads!”

“Oh, a goat-man!” Dawn exclaimed excitedly. “Can I bwaid your hair?”

The goat-man stared at the twins. The twins stared back.

“…Where’s the summoner?” the goat-man asked.

“Sahm-mon-uh?” Dusk asked, confused.

“What’s a salmoner?” Dawn asked, equally bewildered. “Do they fish salmon?”

“I don’t like salmon,” Dusk said.

“Me neither. I like ice cream!”

“I like cake.”

Dawn turned to the goat-man. “What do you like?”

“I like eating—No! That’s not important!” The goat-man bleated, “I want to know who summoned me.”

“Well, I want to play house!” Dusk responded.

“I want to play with dolls!”

“House!”

“No, dolls!”

Dusk turned to scissors at Dawn. “I say house!”

“Dad says not to point scissos at me!” Dawn squeaked and pointed at the goat-man. “At him! At him! Point it at the goat! Maybe he bites!”

Dusk looked at the goat-man with big eyes. “Do you bite?”

“…I have teeth,” the goat-man says.

“Do you bite childen?”

“Goats bite children!” Dawn replied for him. “Dad said so!”

“Dad lies all the time.”

“Does not!”

“Father said so!”

“Father lies all the time too!”

The goat-man bleated. “Spawns, that’s enough! Just tell me who—” He looked down at his feet and saw a thirteen-point star with various symbols and squiggly lines that were absolute nonsense. There were even some flowers drawn in the centre with some weird hell-creature with dot eyes, triangle horns sticking out of its round head, and a squiggly line for a mouth.

“…who made this abomination?”

“I did!” Dusk said proudly. Then she whispered. “But don’t tell Father. He will get angy.”

“I helped! But I didn’t put gwoo on the floor! It gooed itself!”

“…” The goat-man looked between the girls and then sighed. “What do you want? Pick one thing.”

“Dolls!” Dawn said excitedly. “Let’s play with dolls!”

“…Fine,” the goat-man sighed again.

“But I want to play house…” Dusk said, lip quivering.

“…Then we’ll play house…” the goat-man replied.

“DOLLS!!” Dawn shrieked in anger.

Dusk stomped on the floor. “The goat is mine! We’re playing house!”

“No! He’s mine! I named him Cupcake!”

“He’s mine!”

The goat-man bleated, silencing the girls. “Are you fae, the way you try to break my ears with your voices? In my thousands—”

Dawn raised her hand. “Dad says to never make a deal with the fae.”

“But the elves are okay!” Dusk added. “Are you fae?”

The goat-man groaned. “No, I’m a demon from—”

“Then it’s fine! Demons are okay. Father says we never need to be scared of demons!” Dusk said and put the scissors away. She didn’t need them anymore, if it was just a demon.

“Father calls us something-something imps sometimes. He says we are miss… miss… missivous!” Dawn claimed.

“Father calls Dad ‘quaint’ sometimes. I know what an imp looks like, but not what a quaint is,” Dusk added.

“Father calls him bald, too. But Dad had long hair. It’s the colour of waffles.”

“I think it looks like syrup,” Dawn pointed out.

Dusk simply declared, “It’s the same colour as syrup on waffles!”

“He plays the dog when Father hots a tea party with Sir Gwiffin. He woofs and licks our cheeks. Dad is a good dog.” Dawn began clapping her hands. “Tea party! Father isn’t here, so I can be Queen Dawn, and you can be Queen Dusk, and Cupcake is our guest! Load Cupcake!”

“And the dolls are the cot!”

“Not cot — court,” Dawn corrected.

Dusk went to get Teddy and Goldilocks and the Barbie dolls and that weird thing Dad called a haunted voodoo doll, but that Father said was perfectly harmless. Dawn grabbed Cupcake by his hair monkey arm and pulled him to the crafts table.

“Sit down!” she commanded. “I’ll make you look like a proper load!”

Cupcake looked at the tiny chair and then sat down. He sighed and bleated something the girls couldn’t understand. He buried his face in his hand. It didn’t bother them.

Dawn began to braid the hair growing from the goat-man’s chin and used a Hello Kitty hair tie to tie it off. She added some gold stickers to his horns and some lace ribbons. She wanted to put a tutu on him, but he was fatter than Dad, so it didn’t fit. She put it around his neck instead, like a necklace.

“Pwetty!” she exclaimed.

“I’ve invited all the guets!” Dusk announced.

She had placed the plushies on the chairs, and the dolls sat on the table. Everyone had a teacup and saucer.

Dawn and Dusk sat down side by side.

Dusk cleared her throat. She sat a little straighter and flattened her hair. “We have gaddered today to welcome our new cot sigh-bet, Lord Cupcake.”

“Father wouldn’t say that.”

“Father sounds just like that.”

Dawn remained firm. “No, he doesn’t.”

“Then you welcome him, and you pour the tea!”

Cupcake bleated. “I can pour the tea.”

“NO!” Both of them exclaimed.

“Father says guets never pour the tea! It’s the hot’s duty!” Dawn said with conviction.

“It’s diswescepful!”

Cupcake just wanted to go home.


As the door opened, an odd, burnt-but-not-quite smell hit Jasper in the face. His brows drew together as he opened the door fully. The first thing he faced and got eye contact with was a goat-headed minor demon with a pink tutu skirt around the thick neck, which was covered in grey and black fur. The black horns had ribbons wrapped around them and were decorated with shimmering star stickers. In the clawed human hand was a much-too-small teacup with a rainbow on it. 

His eyes moved to the side, and he saw a half-blackened, half-melted, lopsided summoning circle glittering with glue. Right there, in front of their reading nook.

He looked at his daughters, who looked at him like they had been caught stealing cookies from the enchanted jar again. He couldn’t even get mad.

At least their circle had looked better than his, and they didn’t summon anything remotely close to as powerful as Orion.

“Ah… Guess the salad will need a lot more lettuce,” Jasper said as he looked back at the demon.

If that had been what he had summoned years ago, he might just have either squealed from joy or peed his pants — he’s not entirely sure. He looked at the two girls.

“Sweethearts, clean this stuff up, then wash your hands. I just finished making lunch — it’s lasagna. But next time you make a new friend and have them over, tell me first. I don’t want to add extra greens to the salad out of nowhere.”

As an afterthought, he added, “And no more glitter glue! I’ve told you before that I can’t get that off the floor. As soon as he’s back home, I’ll have your father banish all of it to the void until you are adults and responsible enough to use it!”

And he’d tell Orion they got to magic-proof the house from now on. A single magic accident was already a hundred too many.


Author’s Note

This is, technically speaking, a story related to I Summoned a Demon, Who Made Me Sign a Contract, but I wrote it because it was said in a Discord server I’m one of the admins of, that the user wanted to read a story about a child summoning a demon by mistake with crayons. It was related to the story, though not directly, and I happened to have a headache, so I went with the flow since serious writing or editing was out of the question.

This hasn’t been proofread, although I’ve tried to go over it a few times for grammar and spellchecks, at least. Will it be edited in the future? Absolutely. But that might be years in the future, since I’m still writing the main story, so I decided to post it as is so that it could be read by those who wanted this silly little piece.

I think I might have to post the prologue of the main story very soon. It’s weird to write something canonically related to a story and post it before I even posted the prologue, but here I am doing so anyway!

Also, if any of the mispronunciations or mistaken words confuse you, feel free to ask in the comments, Twitter or Bluesky.

List of (some) mispronunciations and word mistakes:

  • bald: bold
  • gwoll: glow
  • load: lord
  • puh-puw: purple
  • sigh-bet: subject

the refrigerator

Time to Read:

2–4 minutes

When you and those other people moved me, I thought you meant to retire me. That I would end up in a dark corner of a new world was not what I thought that meant.

You occasionally came to check on me. You made sure that everything was fine, that the cooling worked as it should, and that the electricity was running. You spoke a few words to me, or perhaps to yourself. You gave me a friendly pat and called me your old buddy.

We are good buddies, I remember. You came several times a day when I was young. Back then there were more of you. Plenty of you. You all look the same in white coats. There are perhaps some minor differences, but I couldn’t tell you apart.

It was very lively when I was young. Many opened my door, many spoke. I had to keep many items secure for you. I held onto them sometimes for a short while, sometimes it would be dark and quiet until you returned. Sometimes it loops and loops and you add new items that you retrieve before you take the oldest out.

I still wait for you to return. I hold an item for you and I keep it secure.

It’s difficult these days when no one comes to ensure that everything is functional. The night has been very long. Each time I lose power, the display resets.

I lost count of how many times I turned warm when there was no electricity in the wall. I’m not sure the temperature is as cool as it used to be. You set it back then. It’s still the same. The meter says it’s the same.

The little container is still safe. It’s on the same shelf you placed it. In the coolest spot in the back.

You have to dig me out because there are lots of things that would hinder you from reaching my door. If only you would see it now. So many things are in the way. I can’t tell you want. I can’t see what it is. But when you come back, to retrieve what I’m holding onto for you, you have to put it all away elsewhere. Where, I don’t know.

There are many things I don’t know. I can’t know. My purpose is not to know. It’s to preserve. To retain what needs to be a certain temperature in the same state. And what I hold is very important. I know this.

It’s something “society” needs not to know. It’s always been that way.

So when you and those other things hauled me away, I thought you meant to retire me. That I need to wait in a dark corner in a new world is not what I thought that meant.


Author’s Note

This is some flash fiction based on a prompt. I don’t remember the exact prompt, but it was something like, “A forgotten sentient refrigerator in a suburban basement holds the last piece of evidence of a governmental secret, but its memory is cracking”, and above is the result.

Because it’s not something that would fit into my canonical universe, I put it under Kitty Castle, since nothing under the name Kitty is supposed to be canonical.

I hope you enjoyed it. At least I had a fun time with the little writing exercise this is.

The Boy and the Heron

Time to Read:

1–2 minutes

When Maki Shouichi (CV: Kimura Takuya) brings his son Maki Mahito (CV: Santoki Souma) out of Tokyo during the war, Mahito isn’t exactly overjoyed about the prospect of having a new mother, or a younger sibling. However, he quickly realises that the grey heron (CV: Suga Masaki) that lives by the pond isn’t a normal bird after he hurts himself.

Continue reading

Happy 2025!

This is going to be a very short post. I’m down with a pretty bad cold, so, you know, I’m feeling half-dead at the time of writing this, and if one half of me is dead, i guess the other one can be described as buried.

Buried in bed.

I still wanted to take a second, or minute, to just write a little.

Continue reading

Nan Chan vol. 1

Time to Read:

4–5 minutes

A carp in a bowl had gained consciousness as it lives with Jinglin, a recovering man who mostly slept. It had gotten into its head that it wanted to devour its caretaker. And when Cangji gained a human body as a result of nearly becoming fish feed himself, that’s the pledge he made… But it would have to wait because their lives were further flipped upside down when Cicada Haven was disturbed and Jinglin had to leave to get his bell back.


“Have you ever wondered…” Jinglin turned his head, cheek brushing against Cangji’s fingertips, yet his eyes remained aloof. “…who will ultimately end up devoured—you or me?”

“Doesn’t matter if it’s me.” A spirit’s cunning flashed across Cangji’s eyes. “As long as I end up with you.”


Thoughts

Right off the bat, I’m going to tell you Nan Chan is one of my favourite novels. It’s no secret that Golden Terrace has my heart captured completely and it’s my “cosy” comfort read, but Nan Chan is definitely not far behind that number one spot that Golden Terrace holds.

This story has quite a Buddhist theme to it with a base premise of the eight sufferings. Chinese Buddhism is also influenced by Taoism and Confucianism so there are parts that might not resonate as Buddhism to some as other parts. And, although there are eight sufferings in this story, the number of sufferings can vary depending on the source, and they aren’t exclusive to Buddhism either. Additionally, we see Chinese mythology and folklore with various types of spirits making appearances, immortals are mentioned, and deities are named. There are also cultivation aspects and if you’re unfamiliar with Chinese fantasy that might throw you off a little bit, but probably not as much as… just about everything else I just mentioned. That’s especially true if you’re, well, as not Chinese as I am.

I find that Tang Jiu Qing writes relationship development between characters really well, and when I get around to reviewing another translated work by Tang Jiu Qing, Qiang Jin Jiu, also known as Ballad of Sword and Wine, I’m likely to mention this again. You can feel the dynamic between Jinglin and Cangji change and progress in a way that doesn’t feel forced while it doesn’t overpower the other plot elements, and, instead, the development is very integrated into other plot elements. The plot pushes them forward in their relationship but the plot is also pushed by the change in their dynamics.

I also like the way Tang Jiu Qing uses flashbacks in Nan Chan. It allows the reader to get a glimpse of something from before the story and we do get a little bit of that in Volume 1. Personally, I like the way perspective has been used in this novel and I find that weather also sets the mood very well.

A problem in, for instance, Peach Blossom Debt by Da Feng Gua Guo, which I reviewed recently, was that side characters were expendable and lacked depth and sometimes value. They could be tossed aside as soon as they had achieved their purpose. This is not an issue one can expect with Nan Chan, as side characters actually do matter, even when they have small roles. They hold a lot of depth and are incredibly valuable for the story and its progression.

The translation (also by XiA, who translated Peach Blossom Debt) seems pretty good, but I can’t be the only one who reacted to the fact Jinglin and Cangji and other names have been written as a single name, although a lot of resources will write them separately. I don’t have a particular answer to why this choice was made, obviously, as I’m not the translator or the publisher, however, I do see a benefit in doing this. There is no common family name between Jinglin and his siblings, for instance, so an occidental mind will be more likely to read this as just given names. However, Jinglin also looks like such a funny name in context and combined with the copper bell and it’s even more clear when the word jingling has accidentally passed editing capitalised. It doesn’t take away that I think Jinglin is a really cute (???) character. Cangji is also pretty sweet (???) and I love them together.

I definitely would say this is one of my recommended reads. However, much like my other favourite books, it’s not particularly light in tone. It can be funny but also very grim, which makes sense considering the theme of the eight sufferings in Buddhism. But, still, to reiterate, some of the plot points really are very grim.

It can also be a bit difficult to follow if you don’t understand any of the symbolism in there, but I think it can still be an interesting read even if you don’t. I didn’t understand everything the first readthrough, and yet it did resonate with me because of the characters and the things they went through.

So if you do like deeper, not-as-easy-to-digest fantasy fiction with well-written characters and relationship developments and complex side characters and backstories, this is a series you ought to get.

Guardian Vol. 2

Time to Read:

1–2 minutes

With the Lunar New Year around the corner, people are suddenly collapsing and then writhing in pain at the hospital. Not understanding what sort of poison is causing this, SID is brought in to investigate. It’s not long before Zhao Yunlan and Shen Wei find themselves in the middle of conspiracies and battles of wits.

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WIP Wednesday #6

Time to Read:

6–10 minutes

WIPs

Recently I’ve been posting The Amnesia Tonic, but I had to put that a little to the side for a while. I’ve gotten back to a little bit, but I’ve had to focus on other matters, which has resulted in the posting being temporarily halted. I hope to get the sixth chapter up before the end of the month. I also need to rewrite some chapter to combine them, and shorten the story slightly and remove some details. I might go back and do the same for older chapter too, but I’m not entire sure if I will. I don’t want it to be too long, after all. I might put 25k to 30k words as the roof, although I wanted to be around 15k.

I have also written on Blood of Destinies Rewritten and a scene with U’il-šanad being the age of 15, near the New Year celebrations. I wanted to worldbuild some instruments and because I couldn’t draw any at the time when I wanted to, I wrote instead. For context, The New Year is according to the Fubaž the first full moon after the March equinox. I haven’t decided if the story is a side story or a story part of the flashbacks in the main story yet. I’m leaning toward the former.

Related to this, I’ve been working on conlanging for the language the speak in Zuladiar at the time of Blood of Destinies Rewritten. I’ve been working on the vocabulary some, as well as developing the syntax, mophology, and phonology. I have made decisions about how morphemes are used as well. A feature in my document that I’m making is actually including things like etymology. An example of this is the word ažerlü, which is the name of the First Blood Prince and U’il’-šanad’s eldest brother, which developed from morphemes that make the meaning of the word literally translate to “limbed sky fish”. That’s what they see a dragon as, a limbed sky fish. I thought things like this would be a lot of fun. I’ll likely, eventually, make the document public, in a distant future. Or “Soon” ™.

In terms of my Mahou Shoujo Guide, I’ve worked on transferring data from my old spreadsheets to my Notion-based database. It’s taking a lot of time, especially since I have nearly 10 years of updating to do as well, and so I need to add entires that have appeared since I last worked on the research project in 2015, which is quite a lot of new entries. I’d be more than happy to hear if there are any magical girl titles (Japanese or otherwise) that have appeared ins 2015 that you’d like to mention. But god, I’ll need to catch up to a whole decade in my research. The genre can very well have changed massived in this time.

I posted the review of Da Feng Gua Guo’s Peach Blossom Debt yesterday! Finally! I needed to rewrite a lot of it because I had only read half of the book when i wrote the review originally. then I read the rest, and needed to change some things.

In the time I kept procrastinating that review, I finished priest’s Guardian Vol. 2 and that post will be available tomorrow. I didn’t write in the review, but I think it’s already a given that I will be reading the final book of Guardian. I mean, I read all of The Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System, and Guardian is easier to digest. I don’t want to throw the volumes of Guardian on the ground, stomp on the  and set them on fire after all.

But on the topic of priest novels, I’m stoked about Silent Reading being licensed. I’m curious about who the translator will be. I’m slowly developing preference of danmei translators, so some are more exciting than other. Well, I’ll see who it is, eventually.

WIP Quote

The prince raised his sleeve to chuckle behind it. “I only know a few notes. It is nothing to pride myself upon.”

Çetžak knew better than to try to say otherwise, so he played along, saying, “Even these handful of notes are enough to make the most beautiful performance for any one person’s eyes and ears.”

The prince smiles behind his sleeve. “You flatter me, Züčan; I am not that good-looking.”

“If Your Highness says so,” Çetžak replied conscientiously, even though he was inclined to disagree. He then changed subjects, given the price another once-over. “Are you not cold?”

Before the prince had even responded the guard removed his own wool cloak and stood up. He had to bow in front of U’il-šanad to properly fasten it around the prince’s shoulders.

“Do not catch a cold, Your Highness. Your servants will be held accountable for the offense if it is a severe illness.”

From Blood of Destinies Rewritten

Behind the Scenes

Recently, the kids went back to school and naturally… I got sick. However, my doctor updated my medical leave during these past few weeks, so for a few more months I can be sick a lot without too many worries, I hope. I’ve also applied for disability benefits. I expect just about nothing coming out of that, but it’s worth trying anyway, especially as my husband and I have plans on moving together as soon as physically and financially possible, and the benefits would help the household a little bit.

On a more pleasant note, it’s what I call chocolate season! That means autumn is here. I might drink hot chocolate all-year-round, but autumn and winter seem to be the best seasons for it. In fact, I would say that it’s more akin to winter being around the corner where I live. As soon as we go into October, it’s like everyone changes wardrobes from warmer season to colder season overnight. It’s always interesting to see. This year September was unusually warm, but October hasn’t been very warm. Just very rainy. And rain, of course, fits perfectly together with chocolate! Does anyone else have a specific winter half of the year kind of drink?

Something I’ve been trying to do is post daily on Twitter. The idea is to post on my art account, my author account or my blog’s account at least once. It’s been going so-so, but I’m doing my best. Some habits take extra effort and time to get into. I hope to expand it to posting more on Instagram in the future as well.

Books arriving from group order: Rosmei order through Happibess at Twitter, comment on Nan Chan vol 1 (fav novel) and How to Survive as a Villain vol 1( reviewed manhua twice already), and Do You Love Me vol 1 (new) if I have the book, otherwise share about waiting and Happibess experience.

Finally and most importantly! Earlier this year I made an order of some books from Rosmei. As they’re based in Singapore and have a license to distribute in Singapore, I needed to be part of a group order or use this one Polish store. The Polish store didn’t feel like a viable option, while the group order manager that Rosmei would ship to has a lot of positive feedback on Twitter, so naturally I picked Happibess! It was really pleasant, not gonna lie. I pre-ordered How to Survive as a Villain Vol. 1 because I’ve reviewed the manhua not once but twice and it makes sense to review at least the first volume of the original novel, Nan Chan Vol. 1 as it’s one of my favourite novels, and, as a wild card, Don’t You Like Me Vol. 1.

While I was still waiting for my order, I also took the opportunity to buy a café set that Happibess put up for sale, and had it waiting until my books could be shipped. They arrived last week, and there was so much stuff with the bonuses and everything!

I took the above picture for Twitter, which I also used on Instagram. To take it, I had to steal the bedside lamp because I don’t have great light at my workspace in the evening, but you can see everything I fit into my workspace. By the time this post is up (it’s the Sunday before at the time of writing), I’ve probably already started writing on my Nan Chan review, regardless of whether I finished it yet. I haven’t decided which of the others to read after Nan Chan, so if you have a preference, let me know!

Currently…

Reading

  • Nan Chan Vol. 1
  • Case File Compendium Vol. 1
  • Case File Compendium (JJWXC)
  • The Husky and His White Cat Shizun Vol. 1
  • Remnants of Filth Vol. 1
  • Case Files of Jeweler Richard Vol. 1
  • Hello, I am a Witch and My Crush Wants Me to Make a Love Potion Vol. 1
  • Magi (VIZ Manga)
  • My Special One (VIZ Manga)
  • Komi Can’t Communicate (VIZ Manga)
  • Heaven Official’s Blessing Vol. 1 (Re-read)
  • Golden Terrace Vol. 2 (Re-read)
  • A lot of fan translations
  • No webcomics

Watching

  • Ouran High School Host Club
  • Tiger and Bunny
  • Dead Boy Detectives
  • Ojamajo Doremi
  • Wonderful Precure!

Playing

  • Tales of Zestiria
  • Persona 5
  • DRAMAtical Murder
  • Boyfriend Dungeon

Recently dropped

 N/A

Recently finished

  • Peach Blossom Debt
  • Guardian Vol. 2