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It’s a wonderful review—thank you!

I was wondering why my phone was randomly going off. lol.

From InBrightestDay on November 21, 2025 Leaffall I've read several of your "Land" stories, and it is interesting to ponder if this takes place in the same setting. I didn't quite get that vibe, in spite of the heavy emphasis on dealings with fae, but I could be wrong. It does do a really nice job of suggesting a wider world and history outside the story, but not going so far that you feel like there was another chapter you were supposed to read I also loved the way things are established here, piece by piece. It kept me asking questions, and the answers were a really cool slow reveal. At first, I was extremely alarmed by the "youth" being dragged in attached to a rope, thinking "Uh-oh, is Darri a slave trader or something?" Which rapidly led to greater concern when Angaine turned out to be chained to her workstation, which led eventually to the reveal that Angaine isn't his slave, and in fact Darri is the only human who's nice to her. I also found myself curious about the "sky ore" concept. My first thought was that it was a reference to iron harvested from iron meteorites, but the references to it throughout the story seem to indicate it's pretty common, and in the first mention Angaine describes her captors having mixed iron with the sky ore, so maybe it's actually something else. Aside from the story taking place on a sort of equivalent holiday (a fall festival), the story also has an appropriately dark tone. I remember that the exact moment the Cailleach Mhara offered Darri a "trade"... “Oh, I think we can find something,” the ancient fae said. She smiled, and it was the same shark’s grin as the fae youth had. “You’ll barely even miss it, I think.” "...Your SOOOOOOUUUUUL!!!" Except, uh, actually yes, that is what it is. If there is one lesson to be taken from this story, it's that if a fantasy creature offers to trade you for something, and says you won't miss it, they mean your soul. For the record, it was either going to be that joke or bursting into "Poor Unfortunate Souls". It was a coinflip really. Joking aside, the dark tone carries through, and the story ultimately plays out as a somewhat different version of the tragedy I'd anticipated. As soon as the trade was mentioned, I figured Darri would sacrifice his soul for Angaine, and then something bad would happen to her. I'd assumed it would have something to do with him losing all of the things that made her think relatively fondly of him, and that might have happened given enough time, but instead she's killed after getting well away from the town, since the sea fae's response to Darri being taken to be sacrificed was the magical equivalent of a strategic nuke, and she was clear of the village, but not clear enough. His choice still results in her death, just in a somewhat more indirect manner. Still, while the sea fae didn't exactly ingratiate themselves to the reader, no one deserves to die out from slow poisoning, and at least Darri's sacrifice ensured that an entire species wasn't about to die out. All in all, a suitably grim, moody piece for the creepiest season of the year, and one that showcases your talents for really engaging the reader! First of all, wow! Thank you! Leaffall is set in a quasi-Celtic ‘verse, only because I have a serious fae problem, and I’m embracing that. Fae, elves, whatever, bring ‘em on! I decided against using more traditional Irish lore because I’m pretty sure I’ll wind up on some list somewhere if I keep abusing the Irish, and I want to be able to go back to Dublin… It’s a Halloween story so someone had to die, and I didn’t want it to be overly obvious who was going to be the victim. I’m glad that part worked! And while Angaine was a relatively non-villainous character, there’s no hard and fast rule in life that being mostly decent will save you. Not that Wavesinger was particularly awful, either. If I had to pick a villain, it would most likely be the Cailleach Mhara, who knew what she was doing to Darri, and did it anyway. While she did promise him sanctuary among the sea fae, she made it clear he’d always be an outsider among fae and human alike. Sky ore was just me playing around with the notion of something other than the usual “fae can’t tolerate cold iron” trope. That, and my Elderspawn had been discussing the way Vikings learned to forge iron into carbonized steel using bones during the forging process, along with the technique of pattern welding to blend iron and steel. (The things that stick in my brain are legion.) In any event, I’m glad I was able to entertain you! After all, that’s why we all write!

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Alright, that took longer than I’d expected. Invidia also has my apologies if there are a million notifications for a review, because I kept trying to fix a problem with the review of BW’s story, which meant deleting the review and resubmitting it. I put emphasis on “trying” because ultimately, the site seemed insistent upon crunching the entire review into a single block of text, removing all the spaces between paragraphs. I am sorry for how much of a pain that is to read, as it was not my intention. 😅

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From InBrightestDay on November 16, 2025 Interregnum "Surreal" might be the best word to describe this one. There were definitely a few times I thought I knew what the rough outline of the story was, and then it turned out to be sort of a red herring. Alot of moving pieces I’ll admit but I think I did well. At first, this feels like a relatively mundane story about an officer getting called to an abandoned building, albeit with hints that this takes place in a dystopian future (the walls around the city, the fact that certain spaces are measured in tank widths, etc.). Given that my only experience with the abbreviation comes from the Gundam franchise, I thought FCS meant Fire Control System, like on a warship. Then I learned what it meant here and thought this might be a reverse WitS (that was rather flattering, I have to add). However, then things went a different direction again. I do have to admit I'm not sure what the significance of the FCS being broken was. Open at the close! Strange Days Indeed when a Demon decides to rise. Humanity proved infectious to a hellborn thing. The final test could a demon at their Nadir give it all up? The Answer was Yes. He is the one who speaks in BOLD. An echo. An impression left behind. The walls around the city and whatnot do ultimately make sense when the exact nature of the setting is revealed, but I'm not sure about the statue. The inverse and parallel of Luzurial. Couldn’t help but pay a tribute. That a demon had to willingly accept his own sacrifice. His story ends there. New Haven is just out of range of where the dead of a lost world crash against a hellish bulwark of trenches and fortifications. Enough to make both world wars blush. And they can sense their living brethren and like Einherjar. They return endlessly. The final reveal is pretty cool. It's unclear if anything happened to the Earth, but I got the impression that this city is no longer on Earth, and periodically in order to maintain its status, someone needs to be...assigned, I guess, to be the ruler of the Hellspore, presumably until someone else kills them and takes their position. I could also have misinterpreted that, so apologies if I did. Close. She was the 127th sacrifice. One hundred and twenty six victims. Jenna takes betrayal personally. As her commanding officer found out just before she put a tent peg through his temple. She made sure he knew who she was. Think of the Hellspore as a budding thing its mycelium network spreading to worlds and many other places in-between. Losing its master even as the agreement held. Now it has a new Mistress. I am admittedly somewhat confused about the presence of Hachishakusama in the story. She's something of a modern yokai, a being out of Japanese urban legend, so I'm not sure what she's doing in what feels like part of Hell. Then again, the Hellspore may not be region-specific, so it's possible any and all supernatural beings could show up here. She might be modern but ever have Yokai been tricksters and not all faces are true. Especially when shapeshifters are concerned. Some monsters of Asia seem to be able to cut off their hunting grounds from the rest of the world so their victims can’t be helped or get to safety. Either pulling the area into a spiritual/liminal zone or pulling the victim into one. Thus Shrouding. She might have been able to overpower Jenna initially but her fatal mistake was that she played with her food as it were. It turned into horror movie for her. Prey that turned out to not be prey after all. There are worse things than to become a Handmaiden or be destroyed. Jangsan Beom comes from the same region as Jenna’s Mother. Its good that Private Daniel learned early he was at the bottom of the totem pole. He’s not going to be able to outsmart a Black Dog. Canines understand hierarchy better than people do. And Rex knows Jenna’s Will better than anyone else. I would not wish to be the council members cause they’re dead by dawn. Of course, I do have to mention my appreciation for a gorgeous tall lady as your protagonist. Jenna must have a specially made seat in her cruiser given her height! She’s actually around the same height as power armor. So ironically she benefits from her size. She’s definitely taller than Cal-141 and Linda-058

Well, as you all know, I was able to make progress on The Lake House, but not to finish it by a week after Halloween. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, though, because I was struggling with how to integrate the theme of the piece into the ending, and it wasn’t until after the deadline had passed that I realized how I might be able to use it. So the extra time will (hopefully) lead to a better end product when it’s finally completed. I’ll keep working on The Lake House, and will either post it when it’s finished or throw it into the ring next Halloween season (fingers crossed that things are still stable for me next Halloween). In the meantime, I’m working on Meaningful Gifts again and have left reviews for both Invidia’s and George’s chapters of the Halloween story. I’ll read BW’s chapter on break at work tomorrow!

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