iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Valscarie Howlla @valeriehalla.dicot.moe · 23/09/2026

#CURSEKISSCUTE #2: Name of the Helper, Part II has finally begun! > So WHAT if Nathan Small just got his shit cursed to smithereens by the Femboy Fairy? He doesn’t have TIME for a Gender Situation right now—he’s late for his WEREWOLF ROCK BAND JOB INTERVIEW!! READ IT HERE: → www.dicot.moe/ckc-2 ←

The cover art for CURSE/KISS/CUTE #2: Name of the Helper, Part II by Valerie Halla. On the cover, a smizing wolf-eared woman looks down on the tiny skirt-wearing boy in the palms of her hands. The pouting, sparkling boy emits mars symbols in protest of his smallness and skirt-wearingness.

In the background, a quote from the woman:

“I guess I don’t know what’s going on inside your *head*, Small—but I’ll tell you what I see from out *here*.

*I see a boy who can’t stop apologizing for wearing a skirt.*

What’s up with that?”

Character profiles from CURSE/KISS/CUTE. The text reads:

Nathan Small: A human software engineer fresh out of college and newcomer to the City of Monsters. As a matter of survival, Nathan Small navigates social situations by making himself as uninteresting as possible. This strategy has recently been complicated by a fairy’s curse that turned all his boy clothes into girly-girl girl clothes for girls.

Listen: Don’t read into this too much. In fact, don’t read anything into Nathan Small at all. If this whole skirt situation is making his heart beat funny, maybe that simply means he has a garden-variety cardiac arrhythmia. Didn’t think of that, did you?

Anyway, he has to go interview for a spot in a rock band now, so please just be cool, alright?

Rinne Alexandria “Lexie” Kamitani: Guitarist and lead singer for Dodecadendron, a punky underground rock band. Make no mistake: Lexie Kamitani is Kind Of A Lot. Charismatic, laid-back, and easily amused, her cool exterior belies a remarkably intense individual with a profound passion for truth, love, and art. She exclusively fucks with people who Give A Shit.

Although born a werewolf, she spent her teenage years among humans, during which time she developed her extreme distaste for authority. Most monsters don’t fit neatly into the categories of “cis” or “trans”, but Lexie loudly self-describes as a trans woman.

An excerpt from CURSE/KISS/CUTE. The text reads:

“I lost a bet,” says Nathan to his assembled audience of crickets.

“I lost a *bet*,” he says again, but differently.

“I...*lost a bet*. Actually, the *truth* is, I...lost a bet. Well, see—basically—I lost a bet? *Lost* a bet. Lost a *bet*? Lost...a bet?”

He frowns.

“Oh, you lost a bet? So basically, what you’re saying is that you think wearing a skirt is sort of a, kind of a joke? You don’t get the job. In fact, I’m calling the police. *Idiot.*” He punts a stick twenty feet in the air.

He slides with his back against the wall. “All my clothes fell in a lake. Of fire? My clothes went to hell. So I had to borrow my...sister’s clothes?” He puts his palms together in prayer. “My sister, who has all my same measurements and doesn’t own a single pair of pants...and the bra straps? Um...the bra straps are...tactical?”

His ass touches down in the grass. He pleads to the moon above. “My name is Nathan Small. My name is...Natalie?” He shudders.

He thinks.

He tilts his head.

“Nathan? No, no, no. I said my name was *Nat*. Nat Small. It’s actually unisex.”

He nods, slowly.

The clouds of the moon loom overhead. He watches for a while as they silently storm.

“But the *truth* is,” he whispers, “even though I look like this...I’m actually a *boy*.”

A cricket jumps up his skirt. He shrieks.

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Valscarie Howlla @valeriehalla.dicot.moe · 20/09/2026

another bustling night at Selené’s Chips & Coffee... (spot illustration for CURSE/KISS/CUTE)

a bustling diner scene viewed from outside. from behind the bar counter, a ten-foot-tall woman in round glasses engages in a hushed conversation with a tall wolf-eared girl who has her back turned. further down the counter, a pantsless cowgirl rests her tired breasts on the counter as a blushing human wearing inadvisably form-fitting spats looks on indiscreetly. in the foreground, some sort of cherry-shaped reptile enjoys a cocktail; meanwhile, a bug-eyed soap slime is having the time of its life cleaning the window which frames the scene.

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Valscarie Howlla @valeriehalla.dicot.moe · 18/07/2026

1:54 am means it's time to post the Real stuff........... don't like it? go to Bed.................... #NoFilter

a low-resolution doodle of a wide-hipped flat-chested woman with short hair, freckles and a beach tan wearing a white one-piece swimsuit, short shorts, and sandals. one diagram label, pointing to the woman, reads "THE PEE PEE GIRL WHO PEES"; another label, pointing to an elliptical outline beneath her feet, reads "PEE (NOT SHOWN)"

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Valscarie Howlla @valeriehalla.dicot.moe · 01/07/2026

Now up on Patreon: CURSE/KISS/CUTE - “Name of the Helper, part II” - Chapter Four!! > In which several large women loom, and Nathan finally gets a jacket. Read it here!! → www.patreon.com/valeriehalla...

a promotional image for CURSE/KISS/CUTE. in the included illustration, a buff werewolf girl looms over a boy wearing a skirt and an overlarge jacket. it's giving boyfriend shirt. the accompanying narration reads:

He opens his eyes.

Lexie is just standing there, hand on hip, looking exasperated.

“Now put your arms through?” she suggests. “It’s got sleevies and everything. Keeps your arms nice and warm.”

Nathan cautiously slides his arms through. Still Lexie’s jacket does not detonate.

“There you go,” she says, and zips it all the way up for him.

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Valscarie Howlla @valeriehalla.dicot.moe · 08/04/2026

seems like a bit of a stretch... i dunno...

the boy from earlier, extremely frazzled, arguing with an audience member. a dialogue transcript follows:

AUDIENCE: ...So how long have you been wearing that under there?

BOY: Wh—I was NEVER wearing it! You SAW the fairy, right?! It's just a trick!

AUDIENCE: A fairy, huh... how convenient...

BOY: I KNOW YOU SAW IT!!!

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Valscarie Howlla @valeriehalla.dicot.moe · 08/04/2026

this boy(♂) thought that he had escaped the easter fairy* simply because "easter was two days ago"? how foolish... *that is not the easter fairy.

a masked fairy summons a swarm of magical moths to yank off a boy's shirt and pants, revealing an easter-colored bunnygirl outfit beneath. the boy is blushing with tears in his eyes, but this is ok because he is killing it and we all love him

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Valscarie Howlla @valeriehalla.dicot.moe · 01/04/2026

it’s always tricky fishing out representative prose snippets for promo purposes that also include illustrations, so i end up repeating myself a bit. here’s my guarantee: there are several words in CURSE/KISS/CUTE not in the screenshottable vicinity of an illustration which are Also good

“Ap-ap-ap-ap-ap!” Nathan pushes him away. “This doesn’t mean I like you, okay? You’re still a—a weird little pervert, and as soon as I figure out your name...”

“Excuse me?!” he gasps. “Now I’m a pervert?!”

Nathan glares. “Where do I even start? You broke into the bathroom without knocking, for one. What if I’d been peeing or something?”

“I knew you weren’t peeing...”

“See, there you go. Why would you know that unless you’re on some pervert stuff?”

“Why—I—never!” huffs the fairy. “You know, you’re on an awfully high horse for someone who had a pretty little skirt-boner forty minutes ago!”

Nathan chokes. “I-I don’t know what you’re talking about??”

“Really?” The fairy folds his arms behind his head. “Maybe it was just a banana in your pocket. Oh, wait...”

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Valscarie Howlla @valeriehalla.dicot.moe · 31/03/2026

happy #TransDayOfVisibility. in lieu of viewing me, consider reading CURSE/KISS/CUTE, my 100% homemade queer web novel about humans and monsters chilling in a spooky wood on a chaotic collision course with each other’s lips. two juicy issues await with a third on the way!! → www.dicot.moe/ckc ←

the cover art for CURSE/KISS/CUTE issue #0: “Aster Asks!” in the illustration, a baseball-capped human races amid a montage of colorful monsters.

an excerpt from CURSE/KISS/CUTE issue #0, the transcript of which follows:

“A boy once faring on a moonlit wood
There ling’ring dared unfix his hood: whereby
At intervals between the nightingales
He heard the Phosphor’s Lure.

“He turned, recalling not the song by fame
Nor witting he what curse it claim: but chased
Among the snags like daggers in the vale
That wicked Phosphor’s Lure.”

Selené flicks her cigarette. “Old human poem. Supposed to be an admonition, one presumes.”

“One presumes,” Aster assumes.

“But here you are,” she says. “Chasing. Among the snags like daggers in the vale.”

Aster kicks a pebble into the water. “Well, there’s plenty to like about snags. Owls live in those things. Bats, too. Squirrels, funny mushrooms...slimes...”

Selené laughs.

an excerpt from CURSE/KISS/CUTE issue #0, the transcript of which follows:

What’s happening right now? How are they supposed to deal with this?

Do they...need to deal with it?

Aster looks back up at Selené: she’s smiling. She seems, if nothing else, pleased enough with her handiwork.

Quietly, haltingly, inappropriately, Aster asks: “D-do you think I’ll ever change for real?”

“Everyone changes for real, Aster,” she sighs. “Every day of our lives.”

Then she’s blushing; she’s scratching the back of her head, oddly bashful for the first time since Aster’s met her. “Not, uh—not to put too fine a point on it,” she mumbles; “bloody hell...”

“She’s so into this, Aster,” says Sandy (still smelling like pine). “Don’t let her fool you. The mom stuff? This is what she lives for.”

“I’ll actually kill you,” she says.

Aster snorts.

The tears are gone without a trace.

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Valscarie Howlla @valeriehalla.dicot.moe · 28/03/2026

Now up on Patreon: CURSE/KISS/CUTE - “Name of the Helper, part II” - Scene Three!! > In which Nathan Small gets himself into it. Read it here!! → www.patreon.com/posts/154190856

an excerpt from CURSE/KISS/CUTE. in the background of the top illustration, an angel and a bunny girl have a hushed debate; in the foreground, Nathan Small tries not to explode. the narration reads as follows:

“It’s not that she’s, er, trans-gender,” he whispers.

Nathan’s spine straightens at the word. It sounds oddly foreign in the angel’s mouth, like maybe he’s not entirely up to speed on the concept.

Kimberly creases her brow in disbelief. “Huh?” she hisses back. “What do you mean? Isn’t this, like, exactly that type of situation?”

“It just seems like a bit of a leap to me...”

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Valscarie Howlla @valeriehalla.dicot.moe · 22/02/2026

aaaaAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! after like 15 years of playing nethack i finally ascended a wizard.

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Valscarie Howlla @valeriehalla.dicot.moe · 16/02/2026

incidentally, this is what my files look like zoomed all the way in. note the jaggies! many cartoonists use non-antialiased brushes to make the inking and coloring process more consistent. the jaggies get smoothed out when the image is scaled down. this kind of detail can't be restored by upscaling!

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Valscarie Howlla @valeriehalla.dicot.moe · 14/02/2026

valentine art for my valentine creature @musuwi.mom ♥♡♥♡♥♡♥♡

a colored line drawing of two cartoon characters. on the left, a colorful rat furry (with big boobys btw) sits politely. on the right, a tiny leaf-haired fairy-thing pelts her with cupid's arrows, which bounce ineffectually off her boobys (big btw).

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Valscarie Howlla @valeriehalla.dicot.moe · 31/01/2026

Now up on Patreon: CURSE/KISS/CUTE - “Name of the Helper, part II” - Scene Two!! > In which Nathan Small forgets to wear pants to his job interview with a werewolf. Read it here!! → www.patreon.com/posts/149610...

An excerpt from CURSE/KISS/CUTE. In a central illustration, a werewolf and a skirt-wearing boy rise from their seats in a moment of excited fervor. The surrounding narration reads as follows:

“Well, fuck!” yells Lexie.

“Piss!” yells Nathan.

She bursts into laughter.

So does he.

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Valscarie Howlla @valeriehalla.dicot.moe · 01/09/2025

Cascadia (a.k.a. Drippy) (from my web series CURSE/KISS/CUTE www.dicot.moe/ckc)

a flower-haired cowgirl in colorful clothes strikes a cute pose. she isn’t wearing any pants. between her boobs, pudgy belly, and panty-clad bulge, there is a powerful aura of softness about her.

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Valscarie Howlla @valeriehalla.dicot.moe · 01/09/2025

cascadia (her friends call her “drippy”)

a colorfully-illuminated cowgirl shown from behind. note that “cowgirl” in this context means “girl who is part cow”. despite the angle, both of her breasts are in view, due to her condition (cow). flowers dot her hair. she isn’t wearing any pants.

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Valscarie Howlla @valeriehalla.dicot.moe · 07/06/2025

anyway. part ii is coming along well ^◡^

We have discussed at length some of these impossible odds—the miniskirt, the bra, the slutty panty-ribbons and so on. After several hours in their company, Nathan has, somehow, managed to forget their presence—though for how long remains to be seen.

The *greater* portion of the impossible odds is currently sitting *across* from Nathan. Her name is Lexie Kamitani, and a non-exhaustive list of the impossible things about her includes:

- how tall she is;
- how cool she is;
- her night-black hair and massive wolfly tail;
- that she is somehow bringing back fingerless gloves; and
- that she seems genuinely to find Nathan Small amusing.

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Valscarie Howlla @valeriehalla.dicot.moe · 30/05/2025

it’s femboy friday!!! improve your day by reading about this one. (but don’t tell him i said that. nathan small is pretty sure “femboy” is an offensive thing to call someone and he really doesn’t want to be seen whipping around such loaded terminology, like surely it’s not his word to reclaim, and

“What happened to not caring what you looked like, hmm? I’m just giving you a helping hand. From one cute little boy to another.”

Nathan shudders. Every part of his body is confused. His shoulders are naked and his boobs are supported and his thighs are squishing where his socks end, even though he respects the LGBT community and has a college degree in not bothering anybody.

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Valscarie Howlla @valeriehalla.dicot.moe · 24/05/2025

#CurseKissCute “Name of the Helper, Part I” is now LIVE! → www.dicot.moe/ckc-1 ← > Don’t get it twisted! Fresh-faced college grad Nathan Small is as normal as humans come. He only has one problem in life: the giggling little fairy-thing that just transfigured his slacks into a miniskirt...

Cover art for “Name of the Helper, Part I”. An extremely flustered boy looks on as a masked fairy emerges from beneath his skirt. The tent in the skirt formed by the fairy resembles a boner.

Nathan Small is sitting alone on a train. You can tell he’s normal because he’s wearing a button-down and a tie. He is twenty-two years old, and you had better *believe* he has a degree in software engineering.

He blinks his bleary eyes, then again. He pauses his music, pulls off his headphones, checks his watch. He has managed to sleep for a whole twenty minutes. He isn’t sure why he’s thinking about pentagons.

*It’s because they don’t... fit?*

“This your first visit to Charmside, short stuff?” The slime (whose stuff is quite a lot shorter than Nathan’s) is sorting through a stack of pamphlets as they ask the question, not even looking at the boy. Their voice is squeaky, thickly accented.

Nathan clears his throat. Natural alto though he may be, the task before him represents extinction-level peril for his psyche. “Well, um, yes,” he lilts, and winces. He fixes his hair, then fixes it again. He pecks a crease in his sweater straight. “And it’s going great, so, y’know, yeah!”

“Don’t seem like it,” says the slime. “You’re all agitated and your aura’s gone Kiki out to here. I take it you just got changed?”

Nathan shrugs. A rivulet of sweat runs down the back of his head. He clasps his hands together in a dainty gesture he hopes is more on-putting than off-. “W-well, define ‘changed’...”

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Valscarie Howlla @valeriehalla.dicot.moe · 23/04/2025

CURSE/KISS/CUTE - “Name of the Helper, part I” - Scene Two is now up on Patreon: www.patreon.com/posts/127317... in which Nathan Small navigates dire social straits, has a breakdown in the bathroom, and looks in a mirror.

A promotional excerpt from CURSE/KISS/CUTE “Name of the Helper, part I”. A transcription of the snippeted text follows:

“This your first visit to Charmside, short stuff?” The slime (whose stuff is quite a lot shorter than Nathan’s) is sorting through a stack of pamphlets as they ask the question, not even looking at the boy. Their voice is squeaky, thickly accented.

Nathan clears his throat. Natural alto though he may be, the task before him represents extinction-level peril for his psyche. “Well, um, yes,” he lilts, and winces. He fixes his hair, then fixes it again. He pecks a crease in his sweater straight. “And it’s going great, so, y’know, yeah!”

“Don’t seem like it,” says the slime. “You’re all agitated and your aura’s gone Kiki out to here. I take it you just got changed?”

Nathan shrugs. A rivulet of sweat runs down the back of his head. He clasps his hands together in a dainty gesture he hopes is more on-putting than off-. “W-well, define ‘changed’...”

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Valscarie Howlla @valeriehalla.dicot.moe · 31/03/2025

happy TDoV. while i, a trans person, only become visible once per year on this holiest of holidays, i'll tell you what's visible all year long: CURSE/KISS/CUTE, my free, ad-free, 100% handmade, fully illustrated adult queer web novel whose novella-length pilot is already out: → www.dicot.moe/ckc ←

Selené cleans her hands on a spare washcloth, observing this sorry scene for a moment in silence.

“You know, Aster,” says Sandalphon quietly, delicately. “I just want to say—I mean—just because you’re not a...”

“Oh, to hell with it,” huffs Selené in exasperation. “Aster, and I mean this with all due respect, but you’re fuckin’ cooked if you think you’re not a monster, mate.”

Aster smiles blankly, lips still closed around their straw. “Wh...?”

“What,” she challenges, “so ice cream hair doesn’t count, then? Fair enough. Give it another week. Hell, another day. The Phosphor doesn’t exactly post its schedule up on the forum wall for us to read, does it?” She throws down her washcloth. “But let me tell you what I think. I think a monster is a monster.”

“But I’m—”

“No,” she interjects, commanding Aster’s attention with her finger. “I told you this morning, didn’t I? You can’t tell what’s in someone’s heart just by looking. You spend enough time in this town, you’ll meet monsters that look every bit as human as you. It doesn’t matter. Being a monster isn’t about what you change into. It’s about changing, full stop. That’s the rule. And to be clear,” she adds—leaning in—shading Aster’s whole world by her titanic frame—“they made that rule. Not us.”

And as she says this last word, us, she gestures with that still-outstretched finger to herself, to every monster in the packed diner—and to Aster, as well. They stiffen, retortless, as she studies them.

At length she softens.

She continues, in a tone now strangely gentle: “Aster, this whole thing—it’s about fear. You know that. Who can say why humans are afraid; your guess is as good as mine.” She shifts her weight. “But I know what they’re afraid of. And it isn’t the horns or the teeth. It’s the attitude. Changing’s one thing, but letting yourself be changed? Wanting to be changed? God forbid, having fun with it? Liking it?”

Aster’s eyes widen.

“That’s you, yeah?” she presses. “You want it, right?”

“Y-yes—yes, I do,” Aster haltingly admits. “I want it.”

“You want it,” Selené repeats. “Just like I wanted it. And that feeling—that’s the part that scares a human. So they decided it wasn’t a human thing to feel. Better for their world that nobody thinks it’s even on the table. So where does that leave you, then? I mean, do I have to spell it out?”

And she grabs Aster’s cap up off the counter, and slaps it back on their head, and says, “Wildflower, you’ve been a monster since the day you got on the damn train.”

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Valscarie Howlla @valeriehalla.dicot.moe · 18/03/2025

Name of the Helper, Part I is maybe a third the length of episode 0 but i think it’s been the most fun to write per sentence out of anything i’ve ever done.

Listen: Puberty hits some like a truck and others like a two-door sedan. Nathan Small is twenty-two years old, five foot three inches tall, and freckled in all the round places. He is well used to being the most boy-shaped thing in any given crowd of men. Any discussion about masculinity or manliness begins with Nathan seated about six doors down the hall, wondering if his invitation got lost in the male.

Obviously he is not going to masturbate in the train terminal bathroom.

“Witness my fae handiwork, you incurious lug!”

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Valscarie Howlla @valeriehalla.dicot.moe · 03/03/2025

not for nothing but i'm really feeling like We're So Back with this one.

an illustration from the CURSE/KISS/CUTE episode “Name of the Helper, part I”. in the image, a freckled boy is surprised to discover he is now wearing, among other things, a skirt and thigh-highs. in the background, a fairy raises their wand in triumph. cartoon sparkles abound.

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Valscarie Howlla @valeriehalla.dicot.moe · 01/03/2025

CURSE/KISS/CUTE - “Name of the Helper, Part I” - Scene One is now up on Patreon: www.patreon.com/posts/123339... in which the thing happens to Nathan Small.

A promotional excerpt from CURSE/KISS/CUTE “Name of the Helper, part I”. A transcription of the snippeted text follows:

Nathan Small is sitting alone on a train. You can tell he’s normal because he’s wearing a button-down and a tie. He is twenty-two years old, and you had better believe he has a degree in software engineering.

He blinks his bleary eyes, then again. He pauses his music, pulls off his headphones, checks his watch. He has managed to sleep for a whole twenty minutes. He isn’t sure why he’s thinking about pentagons.

It’s because they don’t...fit?

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Valscarie Howlla @valeriehalla.dicot.moe · 23/02/2025

selected CURSE/KISS/CUTE Q&A's from tumblr

question: Can Lexie have chocolate?

answer: i have no strong opinion about lexie eating chocolate. however, answering "no" here would imply that lexie can't eat things that are poisonous to dogs. and that would mean she couldn't, for example, chug a Monster® Energy drink—which i feel strongly that she could. therefore, it must be safe for her to eat chocolate. Q.E.D.

question: Um, why doesn’t [Drippy] wear pants or a skirt? Is it a confidence thing or does she not care?

answer: some people become monsters and it takes them a long time—maybe a lifetime—to fully scrub the grout of human social mores from between their brain-folds. for others, it's like sloughing off a bad pair of jeans after a long day. it's not about confidence and it's not merely an ambivalence to the concept of pants. a new body is an opportunity to redefine the terms and conditions of how people think about and interact with that body. in other words, it's about control. but most importantly of all, it's about looking cute in cute underwear

question: [not actually a question just someone drooling over sandalphon in my inbox]

answer: from a story engineering standpoint i originally slotted sandalphon into episode 0 as sort of a DEI hire to increase the hot boys quotient in an otherwise girls-heavy pilot episode, but he ended up being my absolute favorite character to write for. please mentally read all of his lines with a james from team rocket type of accent. he's vers by the way.

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Valscarie Howlla @valeriehalla.dicot.moe · 18/02/2025

this afternoon, read CURSE/KISS/CUTE, my illustrated web novel for queers 18+. features include: - hope - flirting - emotions - good emotions - the inherent sexiness of change - vaguely scary deep lore (also sexy) - forcefem (woke) - jokes it's literally free: www.dicot.moe/ckc

“I feel like I get it,” Aster mumbles, staring down at the knotty wooden planks. “I mean, I—I feel like I get it, is all.”

Their heart’s pounding: never has it been so clear that they’ve stuck their head somewhere it doesn’t belong. What are they even trying to say? They get it? Who do they think they are? Do they even know the first thing about this woman?

And yet:

Selené grins. And with one massive dinner plate of a hand descending like an axe from above,

she ruffles the fuck out of Aster’s hair.

“Oh my God. What. What.” She’s blushing, for some reason, trying her best to glare daggers at the angel: butter knives extrude limply instead.

He shrugs, folds his hands behind his head, innocent. “Nothin’...”

“What, motherfucker!”

He casts Aster a conspiratorial glance. “Did it sound like a cute guy?”

Aster has a premonition that the answer may constitute a risk to their health, but they did in fact have this exact thought, so they figure they’re honor-bound to report it. “I mean—he sounded pretty cute, um, in my estimation.”

Lexie’s wolf ears are angled back in annoyance. “That’s literally not what it is.”

“Not what what is?” says Sandy.

“Whatever it is that you think is something!”

“But there is something that it is?”

“Dude, you don’t know what you’re talking about.”

The angel flicks a lock of fluffy hair aside, melodramatic. “You’re right,” he mourns. “An innocent country cherub like myself couldn’t know the first thing about liking cute boys. If only I had a master to teach me the ways...”

“I am going to nail you to the fucking cross,” she groans through gritted teeth. Her face is brick-red.

Obliquely they ask: “You really don’t know nothin’ about liking cute boys?”

Sandy narrowly avoids spraying pink fluid in a fit of laughter. A few heads turn as he kicks up a minor gale flapping his iridescent wings to keep from falling off his stool. He sets his miraculously-unspilled drink back on the counter. “Truth be told, I might know a thing or two,” he chokes, utterly amused.

Aster’s index finger draws cautious little circles on the countertop as they peek at the angel from beneath their baseball cap. “S-so, just so we’re clear...is ‘boys’ the heading you’d file me under?”

“I see we’ve skipped right past ‘cute’,” Sandy notes.

“What about ‘girls’?”

“I wasn’t put on this Earth to render such judgements,” he insists, and pauses to take a sip. “I’m not that kind of angel.”

Aster studies his expression. “Hmmm...?”

“Besides,” he says, “it’s really the less relevant of the two words, here.”

The human sits with that a while.

But their body seems to decide before their brain that they like this answer, and a big silly grin spreads unaccountably on their face as they melt over the countertop again.

Aster smiles blankly, lips still closed around their straw. “Wh...?”

“What,” she challenges, “so ice cream hair doesn’t count, then? Fair enough. Give it another week. Hell, another day. The Phosphor doesn’t exactly post its schedule up on the forum wall for us to read, does it?” She throws down her washcloth. “But let me tell you what I think. I think a monster is a monster.”

“But I’m—”

“No,” she interjects, commanding Aster’s attention with her finger. “I told you this morning, didn’t I? You can’t tell what’s in someone’s heart just by looking. You spend enough time in this town, you’ll meet monsters that look every bit as human as you. It doesn’t matter. Being a monster isn’t about what you change into. It’s about changing, full stop. That’s the rule. And to be clear,” she adds—leaning in—shading Aster’s whole world by her titanic frame—“they made that rule. Not us.”

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Valscarie Howlla @valeriehalla.dicot.moe · 13/02/2025

this one features a scene you surely have not seen before in a previous incarnation of this project which definitely didn't go maddeningly unfinished until now... ^◡^ "Coming Soon" #cursekisscute

an illustration of a train rushing through high-desert shrubland at sunset, mountains towering on the horizon

an illustration of a fairy wearing an unusual hand-shaped mask. his panties are slightly visible (this is standard fairy behavior)

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Valscarie Howlla @valeriehalla.dicot.moe · 18/12/2024

NEW RELEASE: CURSE/KISS/CUTE episode 0: “Aster Asks!” Read it for free in your web browser right now: www.dicot.moe/ckc CURSE/KISS/CUTE is a new episodic erotic web novel about cute gay monsters hooking up in a cursèd wood, with full illustrations and an original soundtrack. 🔞 For adults only! 🔞

NEW: CURSE/KISS/CUTE episode 0: “Aster Asks!” - Aster, a human journalist new to the city of Charmside, just can’t seem to stop meeting cool and cute new monsters. Now, a chance encounter with a pink-striped cowgirl has their mind reeling over the possibilities of shape and form... if you catch our drift. But can the only human in the City of Monsters *really* bring themself to ask the questions burning inside? Or would that just be *inappropriate*?

23k words · 95 minute read · 41 illustrations · 10 BGM tracks

THERE IS A DARK AND MAZELIKE FOREST INTO WHICH NO ONE DARE VENTURE, FOR IT IS SAID TO CURSE THOSE WHO BECOME LOST THERE, AND TWIST THEM INTO MONSTROUS SHAPES...

Or so they always say. But as it happens, there’s no shortage of individuals in this great big world for whom the prospect of becoming something *new* and *strange* is anything but frightening.

Thus it is that for countless centuries a steady influx of humans has disappeared into the Middle Wood, into the pocket world it enfolds and protects, *fully on purpose*. Follow in their footsteps, and deep within the forest you’ll find their new home:

The sprawling metropolis of Charmside, City of Monsters.

CURSE/KISS/CUTE is a new episodic erotic web novel with illustrations and an original soundtrack. You can read it right now, for free, in your web browser!

Please look forward to the following exquisite delights:
- Monster girls
- Monster boys
- Yaoi angel
- Big titty cowgirl
- Ten-foot-tall Australian woman
- Nerd that gets pet several times
- Eventually they are all going to date and have cute gay sex about it (they’re not dating yet though (it’s still episode 0 okay (but don’t sleep on this thing (you’re gonna wanna get in on the ground floor (of this thing))))

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Valscarie Howlla @valeriehalla.dicot.moe · 12/12/2024

CURSE/KISS/CUTE - Episode 1, final scene is now up on Patreon: www.patreon.com/posts/117800... in which Aster finally lets it all out.

A preview of CURSE/KISS/CUTE - Episode 0, scene 8, in which Aster and Sandy share a moment in the hallway.

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Valscarie Howlla @valeriehalla.dicot.moe · 11/12/2024

there comes a time in every web developer's life where they have to make One Of These Things.......

a call-to-action box containing a set of buttons for sharing, subscribing, etc

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Valscarie Howlla @valeriehalla.dicot.moe · 30/11/2024

i did do that by the way. CURSE/KISS/CUTE coming THIS fall okay? #valeriehallart

A mysterious masked fairy boy flutters by in this close-cropped extract from a larger illustration. His freckled, panty-clad ass is fully out, Tinker Bell-style.

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Valscarie Howlla @valeriehalla.dicot.moe · 17/11/2024

it just occurred to me that a few weeks ago was the tenth anniversary of the first comic i ever posted, and here i am now, somehow drawing the same boy for the first chapter of a completely different story. well, you know what they say about things changing: the more they do, the more they don't...

A page from the now decade-defunct webcomic "Portside Stories", in which Nathan Mint frets over being caught crossdressing.

An illustration from the upcoming web novel "CURSE/KISS/CUTE", in which Nathan Small lurks girlfully in yet another doorframe.

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Valscarie Howlla @valeriehalla.dicot.moe · 15/11/2024

corridor moment (spot illustration from CURSE/KISS/CUTE) #valeriehallart

Angel-monster Sandalphon and human-monster Aster share an oddly flirty moment in a backlit corridor.

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Valscarie Howlla @valeriehalla.dicot.moe · 02/11/2024

i used math to answer the important question: "what if we did halftone printing with a pentagonal grid of dots instead of a square grid"? FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS: Q: wait, there's no such thing as a grid of regular pentagons A: i know, right?!

A commonly-used stock image of a parrot, rendered in black and white stippling with a pentagonal lattice of dots. The dots form aperiodic star-shaped clusters due to the fact that regular pentagons cannot tile the plane.

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Valscarie Howlla @valeriehalla.dicot.moe · 17/10/2024

hi: i’m Valerie Halla. you might remember me from “Goodbye to Halos" or “Animal Girlfriends”. if you’re old, you might even remember me from “Portside Stories”. right now i’m working on CURSE/KISS/CUTE, an illustrated web novel for adults (coming this fall)! it will have all of these things:

CURSE/KISS/CUTE will have “Atmospheric”.

Most of all, CURSE/KISS/CUTE will have “Whimsy” and “Magical”.

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Valscarie Howlla @valeriehalla.dicot.moe · 05/10/2024

like, i suppose *i* was the type of second grader who *would* read a sentence like this and go “SO TRUE!!!” but i’m not given to believe that that is usual

Text: “To look at her is to have all of your mind’s senses plushly pulverized by a driver’s-side airbag of roundness.”

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Valscarie Howlla @valeriehalla.dicot.moe · 04/10/2024

CURSE/KISS/CUTE - chapter 0, scene 7 is now up on Patreon! patreon.com/posts/113372... → in which Aster finally notices the change.

A screenshot from the web novel CURSE/KISS/CUTE. The illustration and accompanying prose depict a pantsless cowgirl’s big entrance into Selené’s diner.

A screenshot from the web novel CURSE/KISS/CUTE. The illustration and accompanying prose depict a green-haired Aster venting their frustrations.

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Valscarie Howlla @valeriehalla.dicot.moe · 30/09/2024

anyway hello and hi. i’m working on a homegrown illustrated web-novel for queer cartoon perverts called CURSE/KISS/CUTE (coming this fall). there’s plenty you can say about CURSE/KISS/CUTE (coming this fall), but you can’t say i didn’t nail the web typography.

A passage of text (with accompanying illustration) from CURSE/KISS/CUTE. The text consists of a lengthy paragraph of inner monologue in which a funny little human tries not to freak out about the cute cowgirl sitting next to them at the bar. The typography is, frankly, flawless.

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Valscarie Howlla @valeriehalla.dicot.moe · 30/09/2024

updated bluesky impressions since my last investigation a year ago: they've tightened up a lot of the UX it seems like. However: the hated devil arises. for shame!!!

A snippet of the inline CSS served by BlueSky, showing that, on a Windows computer for example, the entire website will be rendered with the font “Segoe UI”.

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