Vacation Time Bay-bee!

Est. Read Time: 27min
This Month's Font: Merienda

Hey, peeps! Have I mentioned yet how good I am at hitting deadlines?

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So, probably surprising absolutely NO ONE at this point, here's my JUNE blog update... over half way into JULY!

If you couldn't guess on the reason behind my (yet again) delayed update... the burn out hasn't really eased up in the past month.

Granted, I didn't have to deal with minor psychological torture this time, but I also haven't had the breaks I needed to recover. Welcome to adulthood, I guess, where you truly never get the time to recover from burn out. Weeeeee.

My manager realized how much PTO she had built up, and, quite frankly, the job hasn't been treating her the greatest lately, mostly with regards to her paychecks. So, she figured "screw it, I'm not going to feel guilty about taking time off anymore." I praise her for doing so. She earned those days off, she SHOULD take them to recoup and just enjoy life!

Problem being that there is no coverage at work when one of us takes time off via PTO or sick days. So June was another month of loooooong weeks between my days off. Partly due to Manager taking four-to-five-day weekends twice. And she still has something like TWENTY (20) PTO days to use up before the end of the year! And next year should be her 10yr anniversary with the company, which means she'll be earning even MORE vacation time per year! (Also, yes, that is a shit-ton of PTO, which is AMAZING, but we also always feel guilty about actually USING it. See above)

Tanuki
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by Yanare Ku

I think what made everything a little bit worse for me was that my manager and coworker kept referencing my "vacation" at the end of June because I'd be gone for four days.

Peeps, this was NOT a vacation. Not the way *I* would define it, at least. It SHOULD NOT COUNT as a vacation simply because I was off of work more than 2 days in a row. 

First of all, I wasn't taking any PTO. I couldn't. I have my PTO spread too thin to begin with, between my ACTUAL vacation to celebrate my 40th (which I officially started when I clocked out yesterday - EEEEEEE), another mini-vacation to visit my family for Thanksgiving and to celebrate Hubby's birthday, and then there's my sister's wedding right after Hubby's and my anniversary in October. So, to save my ACTUAL PTO for all of that, I simply requested that my normal two days off per week got shifted so they were back-to-back: Friday and Saturday being my two days off one week; Sunday and Monday being my two days off the following week.

Which means I had to go over a week between my previous day off - of which I only had one that week due to covering for Manager's vacation - and my long weekend. Then, I ended up losing a day of pay the week I came back from said long weekend.

Yeah. Despite it being a national holiday, and therefore the store is closed on Independence Day, it is an UNPAID holiday if you work in the stores. They just consider it one of your two weekly unpaid days off. Since this was actually my third day off that week - having requested Sunday and Monday off - I either had to use PTO to cover one of those three days, or simply lose 8hrs of pay. And well.... as I mentioned, I don't have the available PTO, sooooooo....

Being an adult is FUN, you guys!

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Needless to say, going into this long weekend was stressful and added to my burn out. Coming out of the long weekend was financially stressful. And the weekend itself? Eh. Didn't really do much for the recovery part.

OK, so what did I even DO during this long weekend that made it worth taking off in the first place? Well, it was my sister's bridal shower, as well as the Jack & Jill party; a combined bachelor and bachelorette party so the bride and groom can celebrate together.

The weekend started off with me staying up way too late on Thursday trying to get everything prepped for the weekend and actually crashing - full-on passing out - mid-activity. Hubby forced me to go to bed before we were done packing up for our trip (fair). This meant waking up earlier than planned so we had enough time to get showered and finish packing before running to the eye doctor's to get Hubby's lenses updated in his glasses. Once that was done, it was time to hit the road for a 4hr drive (of which I do all the driving; Hubby can't drive). We had some fun with summer road construction traffic (note the sarcasm). We then got to my mom's in time to say hi and sort out how her kitchen was now set up (she re-arranges A LOT) before Mom had to head off to work. While Mom was gone, Hubby and I headed to the store to gather up the ingredients needed for Hubby to make a cheesecake for the potluck portion of the Jack & Jill the next day. Hubby baked while I took advantage of my mother's washer and dryer and washed over a week's worth of laundry via three separate loads. There was a LITTLE bit of relaxing in there - Hubby and I watched a movie - before we hit the hay early in an attempt to try to catch up on sleep.

Saturday was just a ball of stress leading into the Jack & Jill. No need to air out the drama, but it was not a relaxing morning leading into my heading out to the party at 1:30. There were also a few hiccups during the party itself. Some financial stress as we hopped from one venue to the next before finishing at the groom's brother's house for the potluck. Some awkward lull here and there as we only really knew my sister, her fiancé, her future in-laws, and one of her high school friends. All-in-all the party was positive and we did have fun, but it was far from relaxing.

Sunday, Hubby and I helped my poor mother scramble as she tried to finish the prep-work on the bridal shower. It was originally going to be outside, but there was a bunch of weather reports predicting high winds and thunder storms. Mom had already lost a LOT of branches from her tree in the backyard, and did not want to chance more branches falling - or lightning striking - while people were outside! Fair enough! Except, my mom has a TEENY little house and it was a FEAT to try to cram 20+ adults into this tiny home. Add in that it's the summer, we've been going through heat waves, and the humidity just WILL NOT BREAK. My mom only has two window AC units, so she was doing whatever she could to make those units work overtime, assisting them with a train of fans trying to circulate the cooler air throughout the house. The already relatively limited floor space was also overburdened with collapsible chairs to try to get enough seating for everyone.

Add in that the predicted storm didn't actually show up until the tail end of the party, and only lasted about 20min. Which meant that, for the majority of the party, people were a touch passive-aggressive about being in the hot house instead of outside (despite us stating multiple times that they were welcome to grab their chairs and some food and hang outside if they preferred). I also spent a large portion of the day chasing after my mom to remind her to sit and drink and eat and just SOCIALIZE with the guests she was hosting. 

All while my patient and understanding husband was pretty much exiled to the guest bedroom in the attic, with no AC to be seen..... for the duration of the 4hr party.

On the plus side, it truly was nice to see friends and family that I haven't talked to in person for at least a decade, if not longer. All-in-all, it was a lovely party. Just... not a very RELAXING one.

And, MY GOODNESS! The SPREAD! Trying to sort out where to put all of the FOOD! First, where was my mother going to store it prior to the party? Then, where were we going to go with the left-overs? Not to mention us scrambling to sort out where to put it for the party itself now that Mom couldn't put out collapsible tables like she would for the backyard! Let alone preparing it all in the first place! My mother does not know how to do things by halves, that is for sure!

Here we have punch, four different pinwheel wraps, veggie cups with three types of dip, tossed green salad with a row of dressing options (along with other toppings that you can't see in the picture), potato salad, meatballs in the slow cooker (not pictured: another slow cooker with sausages, along with packages of rolls for the sausages and meatballs), fruit salad, and orzo salad done two ways due to dietary restrictions. There was also a pitcher of sweet tea and a pitcher of lemonade.

And across my mother's coffee table we have just one giant charcuterie board! Toddler unintentionally used for scale....

In my sister's old room were the desserts that I forgot to take pictures of! Along with making the aforementioned meatballs and sausages, the mother-of-the-groom had baked cookies and cupcakes! My aunts provided the fruit salad and helped put the charcuterie table together (Hubby also helped with the charcuterie). I believe the groom's aunt provided the potato salad? I forgot who brought that.

Point being that there weren't even 30 people at this party! And my mom had MORE food in the fridge in case we needed to refill anything! I don't think my mother has to grocery shop throughout the entirety of July! Hubby and I were sent home with three decent-sized containers filled with the left over fruit salad. A baggy of the variety Babybel cheese also came home with us. As did a log of mozzarella.

That doesn't even include the Jack & Jill the night before, where we had maybe an even BIGGER spread! There were around 15 of us by the time we ended at the groom's brother's house for the potluck dinner... where said brother bought basically a large pizza for each of us, two cookie sheets worth of chicken nuggets, a party platter of soft pretzel dippers, and a tray of seasoned French fries. Their kitchen table was also bursting with snacky things like a variety of chips and dips (provided by some of the guests). Other guests - including me and Hubby - brought a variety of desserts: cookies, cakes, s'mores fixings (which we didn't end up touching), and a fruit salad. And my sister decided to make her own charcuterie display. Not as massive as Mom's was the following day, but still impressive none-the-less.

It may have been a stressful weekend, but it was also a well-fed weekend!

Also, my sister seemed to have enjoyed herself in the end, and that's the important part.

The initial point still stands, however, that there was FAR too much food, and both prepping it and figuring out how to store it were all added stressors that my mother clearly didn't need to take on.

Anyway, rounding out the long weekend (emphasis on "long"), after the bridal shower, Hubby and I followed my sister back to her new house. Primarily, it was to help bring the gifts the happy couple received at the shower back to their home. It also gave us an excuse for Sis to give me and Hubby the grand tour. The place really is cute and quite lovely. I'm happy for them. 

While at Sis's place, we finished up Hubby's mixed-berry sangria cheesecake from the Jack & Jill. (Like I said, it was a well-fed weekend!) Then it was time to head back to my mom's.

Monday, I attempted to get some relaxing in finally. I was up early with intentions of getting reading done or working on this very blog post or even finishing up edits on my fanfic (more on that in a moment). Things did not go as planned. I won't get into it, but... my "me time" moments were frequently interrupted. I eventually waved the white flag and instead stole my mom's laundry room one last time to clean everything we wore over the weekend. Only clean clothes coming home!

Before we were ready to head out, though, Mom wanted to take me dress shopping for my sister's wedding. Sis doesn't have an official wedding party and therefore no official bridesmaid gowns. I just needed to find a new wedding-appropriate dress to wear. So we store-hopped between something like 4 or 5 places dress shopping. Most of the time I couldn't find a dress in the desired colors or the right feel for the wedding theme or even within my size. We won't even talk about poor Hubby. He pretty much gave up on ever finding a dress shirt in his size after the 2nd store....

Clothes shopping? Definitely not relaxing for us. Far from "retail therapy". But, I did end up finding two dress options, both under $30 a piece. Mom bought both of them for me, sent pictures to my sister to see if she had a preference on which dress I should wear, and then we headed back to my mom's for a late lunch. Time to pack up. Then on the road we went... about an hour later than I wanted.... weeeeee. More fun in the road construction traffic! Wee again. Then unpacking, making our bed (we took the sheets to my mom's for cleaning), and getting clothes prepped for work the next day. WEEEEEEE.

All-in-all, the weekend may have been more fun than anticipated, but it certainly left no room for recovering from burn out or relieving much stress. That's for sure!

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Granted, my coworker could probably say the same thing about her vacations, but she OPTS to go to Disney World multiple times a year. She could just stay home, but Disney is her Happy Place. So.... yeah.... not the same thing. And DEFINITELY not the same as when Manager uses her PTO to stay at home to recoup, catch up on house work, relax, go visit her daughter and grandbabies, etc.

Sooooo, TL;DR... definitely NOT a "vacation" that I could use to recoup from my burnout.

Another thing that probably didn't help was my frustration in my lack of writing time. Between my work, Hubby's work, and preparing for the long weekend, my free time to hide away to work on writing just vanished.

Remember how I said that I was working on a Hailey's On It! fanfic after watching the finale in May? I had already feared that I was too late to the party, as it were, since I didn't write the fic in November when I first thought of it, or even in March when the back half of the first season of HOI was going to air. Well, I just added to that anxiety by taking over a month to write this supposedly simple little one-shot. A one-shot I had already plotted out back in December. Something already planned out and relatively short should not have taken me so long to finish! Normally, it wouldn't take so long!

In truth, I had the majority of the story written out around the 15th of June, but as I went back to edit I ended up reworking whole sections. Ya know, how revisions NORMALLY work for writers (but definitely not how it works for me, who tends to edit as I write). For something that I had already kinda-sorta pre-plotted, I was surprised that the story went through three or four revisions before I was done.

Speaking of, I thought I was finally done on the 27th. Perfect! I could publish it before my long weekend, and get it locked in as my third story in as many months! Score!

I just needed to read the story one last time, start-to-finish uninterrupted, to make sure it flows the way I had intended. I wanted to read it the way one of my readers would.

It was while I was giving the story one last read - hidden in the bedroom so I wouldn't get distracted - that I passed out due to exhaustion. Hubby told me to just officially go to bed. He'd get everything prepped before he went to sleep, and that way we could speed-pack the next morning. I assumed that I could do my final read-through and publish the story while at my mom's the next day, given that she would be out of the house and I would presumably have downtime. So, I agreed.

As you saw above, there, in fact, wasn't any downtime to be found that Friday at my mom's. Nor was there any pre-party on Saturday or Sunday. I thought that I finally found some on Monday. Sure, it was July 1st at that point, but I could mentally fudge the numbers. It would be fine! Except.... nope... interrupted yet again.

I just can't find 30min of uninterrupted "me time" anymore. (Part of why this update is published so late.) And I'm not even a parent!

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Edited by LycoRogue

After the weekend, it was back to work. No free time there to read uninterrupted either. I was getting tempted to just say "screw it" and publish the story without that last read-through.

Finally, it was Independence Day. I was off. Sadly, Hubby still had work. On the plus side, that would mean that I would have the place to myself for a few hours! Maybe I could actually get this story sorted out!

Nope. I had energy and the desire to clean. A rare occurrence. I'm sure just about all of you understand. When you get the urge to clean you ride that wave as far as it will carry you! Screw you, writing!

In case I wasn't distracted from my editing enough, Aurora Morgen had dedicated the 4th to binge-watch Hailey's On It! so ne could read my fic and better understand my squeeing about the show. And Aurora decided to live-blog via text nir reactions to the show as ne went. A couple of hours of back-and-forth commentary sucked me in. I ended up ignoring my HOI fanfic in favor of just rewatching the final 4 episodes. I mean, I wasn't getting an uninterrupted read-through anyway. Why not?

I was determined to get this story published, though, and when Hubby decided to turn in EXCEPTIONALLY EARLY (like... 8pm early!), I ignored everything else and FINALLY sat down for 30min to just read my fic! I officially gave it the seal of approval and published it at 8:45pm on the 4th. I had hoped to have the story done earlier in the day, so that those who were off for the 4th had time to read it, but I'll take whatever victories I can. 

True, I didn't ACTUALLY publish the story in June, but it was WRITTEN in June (minus that final edit sweep). So, I'm still counting it.

I completed a new story every month of spring!

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Scott's List Item

Summary: When Hailey offers for them to try to cross off one of Scott's list items he knows exactly which one he wants to try. It's one that he's been itching to complete for a little while now. Hailey suspects a plot afoot, however, and her suspicions may implode the whole thing.

• Fandom: Hailey's On It!
• Rating: General Audience		• Word Count: 4,802
• Status: Completed one-shot		• Est. Reading Time: 20min

• On ArchiveOfOurOwn		• On FanFiction
• On DeviantArt		• On Tumblr

As for the story itself? Well... it went about as well as I had expected considering it was published late on a holiday (that was also a weekday), over a month after the finale aired, and in a dying fandom.

24 Hour Stats

AO3: 21 hits, 2 kudos, 2 bookmarks, and 1 comment
FFN: 17 views, and nothing else
DA: 98 views, but no other engagement

Total Results: 136 hits/views, 2 kudos, 2 bookmarks, and 1 comment

Tumblr Notes: 1 like

AO3 Review:

1. So adorable ♥

Not.... great... but, like I said, HOI is sadly a seemingly dying fandom. (Although, the number of fics DID seem to go up post-finale....) So, it's to be expected. Comparatively, I had published Sparks for the Moment around the same time back in 2019: July 5th. It was also to a relatively inactive fandom, considering the book my story was based off of - Bitterblue by Kristin Cashore - published 7 years prior. Plus, SftM has an Explicit rating, which is bound to weed out even more potential readers.

Regardless, I NEEDED to put my vision of Saf and Bitterblue getting together out into the world. Likewise, I NEEDED to dump what I thought would be a cool conclusion to the Hailey and Scott romance plotline out of my head and available for the world to see. In the end, it felt like fairly similar situations for these two stories. Except, Scott's List Item is also General Audience rated, so it SHOULD be welcoming more readers to the table.

I wish I had SftM's 24 hr stats to compare against. Is SLI on-par for the situation the story finds itself in within the fandom? Or is it underperforming?

Regardless, my other 2 stories from this year are far from underperforming. I'm pleasantly surprised at the love they're still getting.

Stats from Last Update

You Pretended Not to Care

• AO3: 627 hits, 62 kudos, 7 bookmarks, and 4 comments
• DA: 131 views; probably will never get any other interaction
          on the story, if I'm honest
•  
• Total Results: 758 views, 62 kudos, 7 bookmarks,
                          and 4 comments
•  
• Tumblr Notes: 6 total; 4 likes and 2 reblogs

I Think I Like You (Maybe More Than I Should)

• AO3: 611 hits, 66 kudos, 7 bookmarks, and 8 comments
• FFN: 178 views, 8 faves, 5 follows, and 3 reviews
• DA: 258 views, but no other engagement
•  
• Total Results: 1047 views, 74 kudos/faves,
                         12 bookmarks/follows, and 11 comments/reviews
•  
• Tumblr Notes: 10 total; 5 likes and 2 reblogs off of my post,
              plus 2 likes and 1 reblog off Ladynoir AO3 Feed's post

Comparatively, here's my stats now, 37 days later.

Current (at time of publishing) Stats

You Pretended Not to Care

• AO3: 1117 hits, 108 kudos, 13 bookmarks, and 6 comments
• DA: 141 views
•  
• Total Results: 1258 views, 108 kudos, 13 bookmarks,
                          and 6 comments
• Growth: 500 views, 46 kudos, 6 bookmarks, and 2 comments
•  
• Tumblr Notes: 11 total; 9 likes and 2 reblogs
•  
• New Comments:
• My crops are watered, thank you! 😭
• I find Killian's confusion in chapter 20 interesting.
  He is used to having feelings for Rhyse, and even with mind control, it is noticeable that he sees Rhyse on a Santa pedestal and not as a woman.
  With Edith (Suna) he experiences for the first time what it's like to be with an imperfect woman, without a pedestal, who sees him with his flaws and likes him anyway. And that's what will make your relationship powerful.

I Think I Like You (Maybe More Than I Should)

• AO3: 884 hits, 95 kudos, 14 bookmarks, and 9 comments
• FFN: 250 views, 10 faves, 5 follows, and 3 reviews
• DA: 645 views, but no other engagement
•  
• Total Results: 1779 hits/views, 105 kudos/faves,
                         19 bookmarks/follows, and 12 comments/reviews
• Growth: 732 hits/views, 31 kudos/faves,
                7bookmarks/follows, and 1 new comment
•  
• Tumblr Notes: Same 10 total;
              5 likes and 2 reblogs off of my post,
              plus 2 likes and 1 reblog off Ladynoir AO3 Feed's post
•  
• New Comment:
• Love the imagery of Adrien doing cartwheels in a business suit.

By the way, one of those bookmarks for I Think I Like You... is a recommendation with the added caption of "so accurate". Teehee. Love it!

Might as well finish up this stats-fest with my current stats for that HOI fic now that it's past that 1st week mark.

Current (at time of publishing) Stats

AO3: 118 hits, 9 kudos, 4 bookmarks, and 2 comments
FFN: 68 views and 2 faves, but still 0 follows or reviews
DA: 275 views, but no other engagement

Total Results: 461 hits/views, 11 kudos/faves, 4 bookmarks, and 2 comments
Growth: 325 hits/views, 9 kudos/faves, 2 bookmark, and 1 comment

Tumblr Notes: 3 likes

New Comment:

1. Thank you for this! It helps the delulu :)

Granted, in all of these stats I have to kind of squint at the number of DeviantArt views and wonder how many of those are actual humans instead of bots. All of my stats feel bloated due to those DA views. Even without those, though? The stats for my first two stories still impress me. And, having the growth I did in 12 days for Scott's List Item is a bit more reassuring. Maybe the fandom is just slow to realize there's more content now. One of the downsides of a dying fandom; you never know when there's more fan content to consume. Especially if it's from a new creator.

Either way, it's nice to see my stories do numbers. Even modest ones. If you're one of my readers, thank you so much for giving my stuff a try. It must be weird (maybe refreshing?) to see me in two new fandoms this year. Heck, these past few months! I hope it's been as enjoyable for you as it has been for me, at least.

OK. I know this update has gotten pretty epic as I briefly recapped June, MASSIVELY updated you on that long weekend away, and then recapped my writing journey. However, there's one more journey to talk about: reading.

Well, to start... I've again failed with Dracula Daily.

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There was just this magic when it seemed like all of Tumblr was reading Dracula together back in 2022. I was incentivized to read in real time with everyone else so that I could enjoy the memes everyone was sharing and get into the discussions people were having. It just felt like a giant book club, and it was fantastic.

Since that initial 2022 spark, fewer and fewer people seem to be participating in Dracula Daily still. Less interaction means less incentive for me to participate outside of my own drive.

Of which I am LARGELY lacking right now....

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See above about burnout, and all that...

I had a little bit of hope this year. One of my new mutuals seemed to be doing the Dracula Daily event, and Aurora was as well.... And then Aurora fell off as other things came up and reading became a lower priority. And with Tumblr the way Tumblr is, unless I remembered to specifically go to my mutual's page, their Dracula content was quickly buried on my dashboard.

I felt like I was doing this alone, and therefore it kind of slipped down on my priority list as well. Especially since I already failed this year at staying on top of reading the entries the day they came in. The fact that I already know what happens in the May through September entries probably doesn't help keep me motivated. So what if I'm a bit delayed in reading about Jonathan's discovery of Dracula in his coffin? So what if I miss out on a few entries about Renfield collecting insects and spiders and birds? So what, if I'm not on time when I read about Mina arriving at Whitby?

Let's think positively, though! I still have time. I am officially on my nine-day vacation, and the next entry isn't until tomorrow. I can reset again. I can take some time today to race through the end of June/beginning of July entries. I'm only 5 entries behind. I've got this!

Also, now I can stream The Last Voyage of the Demeter. So, maybe I'll take the time to watch that during the Log of the Demeter days to hype myself back up about reading this novel. Maybe I could get Aurora back on board too....

While I will admit that I've slipped when it comes to my overall reading between last update and this one, I am still trying to stay on top of my webcomics, at least.

I'm currently caught up with Double the Trouble, Twice as Nice. So, much like From General to Bride, I am now stuck either waiting for more free content or for the funds to just buy the next chapters. In the meantime, I'm debating if I should switch over to a different manga to read on Comikey - such as starting a new series or getting back into The Lady Likes a Nerd over Princes or My Housemate Sano-kun Is Just My Editor! - or should I use this time to focus on my massive reading list over on Webtoon instead.

Speaking of, since I didn't have Double the Trouble to read anymore, I did opt to start up Retired Demon King (whose full title is actually When I was Retired from Being a Demon King). Refresher on the premise:

When the Demon King feels challenged by the hero to find love, he infiltrates the school for human adventurers where romance thrives the most, only to find that the school is under the holy church... which main purpose is to kill the Demon King.

Man, I understand why MostLovedGirl had suggested this story to me! This thing is so delightfully unhinged. I find myself laughing so hard that I'm crying. I'm determined to have Hubby - who has been in a Demon King Isekai kick lately - read this comic as well! It's gorgeous. It's hilarious. I'm in love with each of the main characters. They are such a delight.

First, you have the titular Demon King: Dazzael, aka Dazz. He's handsome, and surprisingly wholesome... considering he's the demon king. He is absolutely clueless about humans and human culture or even human feelings, such as love... which is the inciting incident. I'll get to that. Dazz is mortified that he doesn't know really anything about humanity, but is too proud to admit it. Instead, he puts in honest efforts into learning, but it's always misinterpreted by the other two main characters; resulting in chaos that is delightful to read. Also, Dazz is single-handedly destroying the human economy! He doesn't understand the value of gold. He just knows that he has a shit-ton of it, so it is essentially worthless to him. However, he DOES understand that it is the currency amongst humans. Which means, any time someone asks for a favor, or Dazz purchases something, or someone simply comments about needing money in passing, there's Dazz just lining the streets with gold going "This should be enough, right?"

He's not QUITE a himbo since he just... doesn't know... but he's definitely a precious, weirdly-naïve, little bean. Must protect!

Next up is the Hero of the story, the Saintess Silvia. She's still a teen, I'm guessing she's about 15 or 16 (I can't recall if her age is actually stated). Her holy powers are off the charts, which allows her to combat the Demon King and his army while keeping humanity safe. She'd adorable and a bit socially awkward since her divine powers manifested more-or-less at birth and she's been isolated most of her life in order to hone those powers. This results in fantastic misconceptions and over-reactions. Especially because she's understandably untrusting of the demons and is constantly misinterpreting what Dazz does; assuming the worst each time.

Finally, we have Dazz's right-hand-man. The first general of his army, and his trusted advisor: Levirion, aka Lev. This guy is the classic "simp". He is willing to do anything or be anyone that Dazz wants, regardless of his own comfort level. All because his king wishes it (and maybe Lev will get more brownie points and attaboys). He is the one that Silvia should really worry about, because he's the one always plotting and planning ways to finish off the demons' human opposition. The reason he never succeeds in his plots is because Dazz ends up reining him in. Much like Silvia, Lev frequently misinterprets Dazz's actions as being for nefarious reasons. The difference here is that Lev clearly encourages this perceived evil. For someone presumably capable - to be Dazz's confidant like this - with a great desire to destroy humanity to be so comically harmless is fantastic.

Honorable mention to Dazz's second general and Lev's greatest rival: Gale, the Raging Tempest. This man is just pure chaos. Dazz left him in charge of the army while he (Dazz) and Lev were away, but instead of feeling honored by this responsibility, Gale is jealous that Lev is on a "secret mission" with the king. But also... Dazz's servants won't let Gale sit on the throne even though he's effectively acting king for the time being, so that takes some wind out of his sails. Gale tries to help out his king, but, since he's clueless as to what Dazz is trying to accomplish, Gale tends to make things more difficult for Dazz. Also, watching Gale and Lev have that classic Anime Trope style rivalry is fantastic. For instance, Lev doesn't care that he has more responsibilities and is clearly more honored and trusted by Dazz. Lev only cares that the humans have more information about Gale to strategize against, and Lev isn't even mentioned once.

OK, set-up now complete, I HAVE to talk about the inciting incident of this gloriously bizarre story! Yes, I already gave you the premise, but it is so much more unhinged than presented. First of all, Dazz is about to wipe out a joint army between the races opposing the demons (i.e. humans, elves, cat-people, etc). Silvia manages to swoop in and, with her divine powers, break though both Dazz's magical shield and his chest armor, nearly piercing him. He's dumbfounded that a mere human could possess that much power and earnestly asks her what makes her so strong. The teen was caught off guard, panicked, and blurted out, "It's something you're incapable of understanding, demon!... It's... LOVE!" (Yes, she realizes after saying it how cringe and cliché that response was, and she hates herself a little for it...)

Dazz takes her at her word and panics. He had no clue love could be powerful enough to create a spell capable of destroying his "specially forged bloody manticore spine dark matter armor". These panels are just a crumb of the comedic skill this author - Cheezemate - has mastered.

Man, just seeing Dazz sweat like that is so funny to me. He's supposed to be this intimidating demon king, and Silvia is able to disarm him with a few cliché words. Fantastic! I love it!

I can't forget the panels that MLG sent to me to get me into RDK in the first place:

Anyway, in an attempt to save face, Dazzael tells Silvia that of COURSE he knows ALL about love! And he's TOTALLY capable of it! If it's something a measly human can master then it's clearly no match for him, the demon king! ... He then instantly retreats from the battlefield to go sit in the corner of his castle to brood.

Eventually, he decides that he has no choice but to infiltrate Human lands in order to covertly learn about Love so that he could then wield this superb power and finally defeat The Hero (Silvia). Since no one else was there for the confrontation between Silvia and Dazz, no one else knows about Silvia's claim that Dazz could never learn about love, or how important it is for Dazz to prove otherwise. Of course, Dazz is too embarrassed about this supposed gap in his tactical knowledge, so he won't say anything to anyone. He just ups and leaves for the Human lands, with Lev faithfully in tow without a clue as to what they're planning on doing. All he knows is "where my king goes; I go." The simp.

They end up in a Human town, and Dazz observes a man attempting to flirt with a woman. Assuming this is what Silvia meant by "love", Dazz decides to use the same tactic on the first woman he sees.

The first woman he sees just so happens to be Silvia in her Saintess garb. Since Dazz didn't recognize her outside of her armor, he still tries his hand at flirting. Once she turns around, though, and Dazz finally DOES recognize her? Well, we're gifted with this gorgeous panel.

I adore how the author doesn't treat her main characters too preciously. She doesn't fear making them look goofy or ugly, and it makes the best comedic impact.

I won't spoil this part by stating how they manage it, but Dazz and Lev end up enrolling into the academy despite Silvia instantly recognizing them in their human forms. Added bonus? Due to her familiarity with Dazz, a lot of the campus believes the two of them are dating. You can imagine the chaos that erupts from that little misunderstanding.

The whole story thus far is a fantastic comedy of errors. You can see Dazz becoming more affectionate towards humans as he learns to appreciate them. Where Lev grows more disdainful with every new thing he learns about humans, Dazz finds them increasingly intriguing. For her part, Silvia is begrudgingly starting to trust Dazz a hair. She is also very clearly attracted to Dazz's human form and is dealing with S-Class denial about it. 

Oh, yeah! There's also a small body-swap arc only 9 episodes in. This author really goes hard, and it is fantastic. This is a high recommend. Definitely in my top reads along with Not Your Typical Reincarnation Story, I Will Live the Life of a Villainess, The Dragon King's Bride, Punderworld, and Rental Hero.

Sooooo, yeah! I may not be reading Dracula, and I may be slipping a bit about reading nightly, but I AM still reading a decent amount. I'll take it. As I said before, you have to take the wins where you can get them. Especially when you're as burnt out as I am. Man, I truly needed this vacation. Happy early birthday to me!

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