Father Michael has tried to avoid getting involved with supernatural activities or beings as much as possible, preferring a quieter life of ministering to a neighborhood community, doing good works for those in need, and maintaining his old church.
Privately, Michael Belmont identifies as a homosexual, but one who does not and has not acted on his attraction towards other men, instead choosing a life of celibacy. His reluctance to address or acknowledge his own feelings stems in part from his strict Catholic upbringing, and in part from his own anxiety around what his identity means for himself.
Spoilers for Chapters 1-6
About twelve years after Portal Day, Father Michael Belmont was possessed by a succubus named Yael, who sought a human body in order to establish a foothold in this world. Yael, though still intangible, began appearing to Michael in visions, dreams and the occasional physical manifestation, attempting to convince him to give in, trick him into blasphemous worship of her, or cause him to release sexual energy. All of these circumstances unleashed energies which Yael used to slowly change Michael's body, one part at a time, to become a mirror image of her own so that she could assume full control.
Spoilers for Chapters 7-27
Father Michael did his best to conceal and disguise the changes to his body, with the help of his lay assistant Susan Sunghi Miller. Eventually, after the Siege of St. Andrew's he was forced to take a leave of absence. Michael and Susan decided that the best way forward, especially with Yael comatose after the siege, was for Michael to seize control of the transformation by owning it and exploring a new identity--in effect becoming a succubus by choice. Michael began tentatively presenting as a woman calling herself Micki Belmont. (See Micki Belmont entry for more.)
An ancient demoness who currently lacks a physical form. Like other demons, she is a being of energy who torments mortals in various ways, including and up to taking over their bodies to use as her own. Demons were relatively uncommon, thought by most to be fanciful stories, until portals to other worlds ripped open about twelve years ago. Since then, it's become much easier for demons to travel to this plane, even without being summoned. Yael is a succubus, a demon that feeds on and manipulates sexual energy and desire.
Susan Miller is a lay assistant who works in various capacities assisting the clergy at St. Andrew's Church in the West Village of New York City. Outside her work, she's also pursuing graduate studies in theology, with a specialization in occult studies and demonology. These are subjects that the Catholic Church considers forbidden, ever since portals opening onto the Earthly plane made magic and demons frighteningly common; even schools of theology frown on such studies. Susan, however, has never been one to repress her own inclinations, despite her Catholic upbringing and faith. Compared to other (such as Father Michael Belmont, who she assists regularly) she seems to have little problem reconciling, or simply ignoring any contradictions between, her religion and her other leanings, whether it's towards the occult or her strong sexual curiosity and desires.
Father John Hayes is the junior priest at St. Andrew's Church, one of the smaller parishes in New York City, located in the West Village of Manhattan. Father John was assigned to the parish after the retirement of the senior priest, Father Antoine Boudreau, and has collaborated closely with the pastor, Father Michael Belmont, ever since; he's gained a reputation for handling all sorts of tasks and throwing himself into chores, services, and community events with consistent vigor. Father Hayes is originally from Atlanta, and grew up in a large family of railway linemen, but struck out on his own to work first as a counselor in local community organizations, then a licensed social worker, and finally a priest after attending seminary.
Monsignor Albert supervises some of the parishes of New York City in lieu of the Bishop's or Archbishop's offices, although it's not a matter of clear record how certain parishes are assigned to his oversight. He's known as a stern pragmatist, not above excising problems in his sphere of influence in order to avoid unnecessary trouble or scandal.
Spoilers for Volume 1, Chapters 25-36
Micki is the name taken by Father Michael Belmont as she began to identify as female, in part due to the bodily transformations caused by the ancient succubus Yael, who sought to take over and transform Father Michael’s body as her own. While Yael lay dormant, recuperating from a supernatural battle with the minions of Mastema, Father Michael and Susan hatched a plan to take control of these transformations: let Micki own the process by embracing and guiding her change into a demi-succubus. As a semi-demonic being in the process of hatching into a full demon, but under her own free will rather than the control of a demon waiting to harvest her, Micki found solace in the arms of her lovers Susan and John, community at queer BDSM parties like SUBMISSION, a whole new wardrobe and public persona… and one awkward attempt to resume her old role as pastor of St. Andrew’s Church. Unfortunately, she also attracted the attention of the Vatican’s top exorcist, Monsignor Thomas Kincaid, leading her to flee Susan’s apartment for a quieter borrowed apartment in Brooklyn.
Until twelve years ago, the history of New York City was much as we might know it. Then, on an otherwise ordinary day that came to be known as "Portal Day," the fabric of reality tore. The first portals opened in Central Park, creating doorways that led to New York from other realms, where elementals, dragons and demons dwelled--not to mention all sorts of other, less noticeable visitors and energies. Fortunately, the portals were random accidents, not the design of some invading dark lord; but no matter the intent, the world had changed forever.
Magic, summoning, vampires and supernatural activity had once been the subject of superstition, rumor and conspiracy theories; now they were incontrovertible reality, and sometimes the stuff of everyday life. Tourists, migrants and predators from a hundred other dimensions arrived, first in New York City, the most famous site affected by portals, but soon in other locations all over the world. Some of those who visited this world came from realms with advanced technology, rather than magic; others hailed from places where the laws of physics were entirely different, or where magic and technology had fused to become one art. The formerly mundane systems of government, law enforcement, immigration and science struggled to adapt to the onslaught of unfamiliar realities, and it took years for the chaos to subside--which, according to many, it never has.
The story is very interesting and has characters that you can enjoy shortly after they're introduced.
As the tags suggest, the transformation of the protagonist is slow, almost torturously so at times. With the upload patterns, it is not that bad, however.
The further the series progresses, the more changes are bestowed upon the protagonist.
Unfortunately, many of the interesting changes, such as the ones to the protagonist's hair or facial appearance are all in dream sequences.
It leaves you wondering who to root for. The protagonist, who wishes to maintain his own self, or the demon, who needs the protagonist's life to do the same.
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I am sorry, but it has become too "hopeless" for me. I am completely fine with most body changes (I am completely fine with things like the tyranids or zerg and their series form of body horror), but having a trans, I assume or at least something in that corner seeing how Micki feels about her new form and her reluctance at reverting to the old one, person locked or morphed into a wrong body after a transformation to a more fitting one is one step too far for me. And I could live with that, if it were temporary/well handled, but the violation of her mind, her very core of existence and self, being freely manipulated and her perception of self being twisted so completely and without even a hint of perception of this fact by herself until after the event, both by Spencer's commands, though the manipulation isn't even detected after the fact even though it very much should (who in their right mind would put themselves in a straightjacket without special circumstances and not notice such a blatantly obvious flaw in logic?) and now Mary, who has come completely blind-side for our MC, which also shouldn't have happened, as they are currently in a hostile environment and just up and trusted an unknown person, giving name, permission to enter the dream and even alter it, while very possibly under "attack" by another one of Spencer's manipulations or a myriad of other possibilities. All in all I have to say that the charakters are fairly well made and enjoyable, especially with the in-depth introspection and gradual self-exploration, but there have now been a couple of problems even with that and the bad arc right now feels too... forced, for lack of a better word. There were other ways of getting the MC into a bad situation like we have right now, other than higher power. The higher power being mind control that is capable of turning your mood, intention and action 180° around with just a few words. The MC could have been prepared, warned and in a good position and it would still not have made a single difference, as the scene with Spencer right after the Sadist-Harpy-Nun made perfectly clear. But for me personally there is one very important thing, which is why this very chapter is the straw that broke the camel's back: The change back into the other gender, at pretty much her own hand (or succubus powers) and even the mentioning of the potential or rather the use of the phrase "...I lock thee..." in conjunction with "... bind thee by thy name..." very problematic, as it connects her new name, her chosen female/neutral name, with a male/wrong body. That can be very painful for anyone already struggling with dysphoria. Combining that with your "gender bender" genre tag and "tansgender" content tag I have even debated reporting this story, as it has very much hurt my heart and made me upset enough to bring me to tears. This kind of situation should also, if the charakter is done well enough which I would say you have managed mostly so far, leave serious mental scars, which I emotionally can not cope well enough with in real life to be able to withstand reading about it. You both (AI and Editor/Author) have done pretty well so far with this story, better than a lot of others on this site. There have been a couple little things and the story has some room for improvement, as I have pointed out briefly above, but no one is perfect and the story was all in all an enjoyable read until now. That is it from me, hope you will continue with your good work and not let this comment impact you too much. Goodbye and maybe until future stories.
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One of the best novels I ever read in my time here on scribble hub. It is dark especially post ch. 35 but I really love the character development
Edit: how I already said once vol. 1 is finished I will write a bit more so here I am. The ending was great! I really loved the last few chapters and hope volume 2 completely shatters my expectations ;D I would love some more "peaceful" chapters especially after the last like 15 chapters but that's to the author to decide. I was really sceptical when the mind controll stuff first appeared but it turned out pretty good in my opinion. The grammar Is good and I like the fact that I don't feel the plot armor as much as I do with other books
Imma update this once vol. 2 Is fully out.
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love the book I can't wait for more. The only complaint I have would probably be that the writing may need some more editing to make it transfer more smoothly to the next chapter.
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