James Hiwatari

12th January 1995 Dear Unidentifiable Diary, It’s quiet in the house now. My housemates are off to school and Lóránt is working on some boring administrative thing in their room. I’m bored. Apparently I’ll go to school too once I get better and have some basic understanding of the local language. Lóránt said they would normally put me in a fairy school so the language barrier wouldn’t hold me down, but my situation makes it obviously impossible. I want to start those language

It means the cake is there as long as you believe in it.

Sounds like an adventure... I've always lived in big cities (I was born in a place that's 2x Glasgow) and that's one of the reason I don't necessarily want to live in tiny places in the middle of nowhere. That said, it's also the reason why I would want to move to Northern Finland and be surrounded by snow 200 days/year. Contradictions. Contradictions.

You're of course right. The plot is heading somewhere. Nessa is currently not liking that somewhere.

Yes, people can ask for asylum for a lot of reasons. But the situation I know most about is LGBT Asylum in the UK, where most asylum seekers are from Africa/Middle East and the Home Office has a notoriously poor track record of accessing applications fairly and sensitively. It's actually really fun to learn about the cultural differences (not the asylum applications or the reasons people flee their homes, though). Many places see the spectrums of sexuality and gender in a different way than we do, and I love learning about it.

I would say Lóránt is one of my favourite characters too, but I kind of like all of them... (yes, even Kris, though not on the "I want to hang out with you" level). You're asking a few too many plot-relevant questions. Demons in general seem to be after other people to make their armies strong. Which may or may not mean they're specifically after the people guarded by Lóránt. Which is my way of saying you'll have to keep reading to find out.

That sounds like an... interesting? read... Suicide and all? I'm sure you had fun with that one! You make a good point. I could scare people for the sake of it if I wanted to. Not that I don't already get weirded out looks from people who can't process seeing a beard and boobs in the same body. Fun times... Here's hoping you survive the blizzard! And good luck with your own writing too!

Hold your horses about the floating city! I can't give details until some other key characters show up, but here's a virtual cake for mentioning something that is totally a thing in this thing. And I'm sure all those things are making all the sense now. Confusion is a valid strategy to deflect from possible spoilers. The cake is totally not a lie, though. Sort of.

I'm in Glasgow, so I feel you. Yesterday I though the snow period was over, only to be greeted by fresh snowfall early in the morning (though since then it's rained and most of the snow is definitely gone). That said, I had the time of my life playing in all that snow. I've been here for 10 years and that was the most snow I've seen, so I enjoyed it as much as I could (and then shut myself indoors while it turned to slippery ice so I don't risk aggravating my existing injuries...) Welcome back, you're only half way through now!

I like your mistrust of those people. That's generally a healthy attitude to have. Or you can be a serial optimist and be glad that there are some decent police people somewhere. Maybe? Hopefully? Nessa is going to have to deal with a lot of cultural differences if she's staying in Daisen for the foreseeable future. Some of her convictions may or may not be shaken beyond repair. Others she will cling to until they have to be forcefully yanked away from her and it won't be pretty.

I like how you say "things are getting back on track" followed by "serious stuff is about to happen". The definition of "getting back on track" is highly subjective here, I think... I'm sure Nessa thinks it's exactly the opposite that's about to happen.

Yes, Mr Stranger is gone for now. Forever? We may never know... (I mean, we will, eventually. If he never comes back than we know he was gone forever. But that ruins the dramatic effect, so we can just conveniently brush past it.) Learning about Asylum Seeker experiences is one of those things that makes you want to strangle a government official. They have to be doing it on purpose - put the most clueless people in charge of "assessing" whether someone is LGBT or not. The level of cultural sensitivity (being "gay" means different things around the globe) and even financial sense (they must prove they're gay by buying gay magazines and going to gay nightclubs, never mind we demand they live on £5/week for all their needs and so obviously don't have spare money to do those things even if they want to) makes you lose faith in (the privileged) humanity sometimes.

Well, you got one of your options right. At least for now... Writing while sleepy sometimes leads the most amusing stories when you look back into it once rested. It's like being on drugs (if you're tired enough, anyway). If I was a shape-shifter I would have long, flowing purple and blue hair, the "You're worth it Lóreal style" type just because I could. And I would be taller than my current not-quite-1,60m. What would you be like as a shape-shifter?

Daisen is pretty much this future sci-fi tech land compared to what Nessa is used to. As for the brutal sadness, we'll have to see for ourselves. Talk about milestones: for me personally it wasn't so much "leaving home" as "mum got a job in another city, and since you're already grown up and living with your partner, I'll be the one leaving". Not that this compares to being forced to leave your home when you're not anywhere near ready, but it hopefully still makes for an amusing story in the middle of Nessa's current low point.

If only she knew how much it was changing... (Also good to have you back! I was wondering what happened to you...)

12th January 1995 Dear Diary of Cereal Puns, I didn’t have the best night of sleep after after the whole… argument? Fight? Intimidation attempt? I don’t know what to to call it - After whatever happened between me and Kris. It’s surprisingly hard to empty your mind when you think there’s a chance your new housemate is out there to get you. Who would've thought? (Can you feel the sarcasm dripping through your pages?) But I actually feel a lot better now. You see, I woke up

And that's all the comments answered! Yay! (Remind me to never let them accumulate like that again) I wouldn't like Kris either if I was in Nessa's place. Arseholes are not generally fun people to have around. Though we may or may not find more about Kris's personality over this next week...

We have to spread the word! Find a marketing department! Convince people this is the best story they'll ever read! And then I'll be ready to take over the world be a millionaire have a lot of meaningful and fun interactions with people who enjoy Nessa's story. Also, you're probably one of Nessa's favourite people by now.

Merpeople's water tanks do function similarly to wheelchairs, and face much of the same obstacles. You won't see Unn going up the stairs anytime soon. Fortunately for her, though, Daisen has generally much better infra-structure than us (particularly for our 1995 standards), so even if Unn can't go up the stairs, she'll still find her way up through other means. After reading your comment for Scene 28 I'm liking the way your opinion about Kris is changing. Makes me want to keep throwing curve balls just to confuse you. The other characters will appear more soon, so we can see if your perception of them changes too.

Then tell your friends! Tell your neighbours! Tell that annoying door-to-door salesperson who seems to know your daily routine better than you! That said, it is good to know I've got someone really enjoying this story.

I'll never say no to that. Who knows what kind of interesting creatures live among the completely normal fairies, demons, angels, and the likes? Is that a unicorn I see passing by?

Whenever Nessa gets the chance she definitely puts colours everywhere. One day her diary will be regarded as a work of art, not just for its words, but for its appearance. Thanks for the comment, I hope you keep enjoying the story!

11-12th January 1995 Dear Sneaky Diary, I didn’t find my juice. I found the kitchen, but instead of something to soothe my nerves, I found Kris. He was lurking in the kitchen too, sitting at the breakfast table basking in the moonlight that came through the window. (I should’ve ranted before about how small all the windows are around here too. It’s like people really don’t want anything to do with the outside world!) Kris was already intimidating enough when he was avoidin

11-12th January 1995 Dear Diary of Boredom, It’s still dark out, too “late” for proper bedtime and too “early” for anyone else to be up already. But I’ve been asleep for so long that I’m just… not in the mood to keep sleeping? And the wound still hurts a little when I move. And my last dream was a strange nightmare with the demons. So yeah, I would rather stay bored and awake. I did promise I would talk about the house at some point, so maybe now is the time for it.

11th January 1995 Dear Sociable Diary, I don’t want to say I feel happy and safe for the first time since my horrible crime but… I feel happy and safe. This place… it’s like home, but at the same time it’s so different from home that I can’t even understand how it feels so homely. I’ve known my housemates for only a few hours, but we’re already like family. They made me laugh, told me stories of the worlds they left behind, and for the first time made me fe