It's a Long Way Down

IALWD is a story that takes place on the world of Rhune. It follows Demonhand, a human originally from Earth who transported to Rhune by a collapsing portal after he accidentally killed a demon. The portal the demon took to Earth collapsed on itself and pulled him into it. He woke up with a weak memory and zero understanding of what's happened to him, and frankly he didn't care. He just wanted to go back home. He commissioned two adventurers, a ximazan named Offal and a basytier named Deya, to escort him to a city dedicated to the archival of all types of books, hoping it would hold information on portal generation and dimension hopping.

That was a great plan for awhile, until Demonhand and Offal grew closer and closer and ended up developing crushes on eachother... Hilarity ensues.

More Info Goes Here Eventually Wuh Oh

Rough and Nasty Plot Summary

This is the general plot synopsis, if you want details or to know more about individual characters or places, you'll have to read their bios on toyhouse. Do note that this is the most accurate and up to date article on this story, if you notice any inconsistencies, just know that this here is the one that's correct. I've been trying to keep this as up to date as possible.

Oh yeah, spoilers ahead btw. Also none of this is set in stone literally at all

Demonhand, not his name at the time of course and around 19 at the time, used to be a human on Earth. Because of his shitty home life he attempted to run away from home, stealing his mother's car and driving for several hours in the middle of the night. When the car ran out of gas just outside a city, he impulsively abandoned it out of fear of being tracked through its license plate. As he was walking through the city, he heard a sound coming from the alley he was walking past. He tried to walk faster, but was quickly grabbed and pulled in by some sort of monster.

What happened next was all a blur and all Demonhand knew was that his arm was torn off and the beast impaled itself on a pipe when it lunged for him again. As it died, its portal began to collapse, pulling them both into it.

The portal's collapse led to the demon's corpse being lost in the in-beween, and Demo was transported to where the portal was originally opened- a random empty field in Rhune just outside a town called Oryeltouro. He was found alone and unconscious in a pool of blood by [TBN]. She took him to a healer, and then to her home, giving him a place to stay for the forseeable future, so long as he helped out from time to time. That person ran a business that was half inn and half restaurant.

Demonhand slowly recovers while staying in Oryeltouro. He spends a lot of time talking to the customers and discussing the world with them, slowly piecing things together and realizing what he could do. He decided that he needed to go to the City of Libraries, which was at the northern end of Pethylia. Oryeltouro is on the southern end of Pethylia. But there was no way he could make that journey on his own, he needed someone to take him there.

One day, a long ximazan appeared at the inn and requested some food and a place to sleep for the night. After talking a bit, they stated that their name was Offal and that they were travelling north. Realizing the perfect opportunity this was, he requested to tag along with them on their journey, and they agreed.

Everything below this needs rewritten lol

The trio set off for the City of Libraries and have some miscellaneous misadventures along the way. Mostly just travel stuff and learning about the planet through everyone's experiences becuz offal and deja are not seasoned at all this is the very beginning of their own trek. As time goes on, Demonhand and Offal begin to develop crushes on each other. Gay hilarity ensues.

By the time they're almost to the City, Demonhand and Offal accidentally kinda confess their feelings to each other in a way, but both quickly screw it over and double back because they have chronic low-self-esteem-induced-self-destructive-tendencies disease. Demonhand thinks Earth is where he belongs so whether he wants to stay on Rhun or not doesn't matter. Offal feels like expressing their emotions would be manipulative and would pressure Demo into staying, so they keep quiet about it.

Nonetheless, they make it to the city and find the building dedicated to magic theory and begin their research. They are helped by the librarian, a kralagkine named Jem. With Jem's help they figure out what they need to within a month.

They open the portal and Jem steps in, confessing that they were kind of selfish and mostly helped because they wanted to use the portal to go someplace new. They leave the trio to themselves as they venture through the in-between to find a dimension they're interested in. Demonhand steps up to the portal and prepares to leave, but Offal and Deja give a few words letting him know he's always welcome with them and that he doesn't have to go, but he once again goes on about needing to go to where he belongs. They exhange a few more words, and eventually Offal gets a bit fed up and starts going on about how he doesn't have to do this and how he's punishing himself for no reason. They eventually talk some sense into him and he confesses, with words this time, that he has feelings for Offal and that he wants to stay no matter what. As he finally decides to stay for good, the portal they opened closes for good anyways.

Part 1 begins with Offal and Deja saying yes to taking Demonhand to the City, and it ends with Demonhand's decision to stay on Rhun for good. It lasts around 7 months.

While entering their relationship and staying together was all fine and dandy, they quickly realized there were still questions that needed answers. Why was there a demon on Earth who’s portal led to Rhun? Why did killing it cause its energy to fuse with Demonhand? Why was his arm Like That? What ARE demons??? Where are demons FROM????

They had already read all there was to read about demons at the city, they decided they needed to talk to some experts. Many academic articles seemed to be linked to one specific author, and thus they set out to meet him and speak to him directly about demonology. They figure the best place to find him would be through the university his papers were published with.

So they set out again, this time towards the university of i-dont-have-a-name-for-it-yet.

Uhh something something they get a wyvern too because fucking DRAGONS bitch.

More stuff happens idk.

Nothing past this point is set in stone, so here's some bullet points of future plot points just for funsies and clarity's sake. Some of these events may be moved to Part 2, but you know how it is. They find the author who published the papers and it turns out he's a true vampire, not a fucked up one like Demo. He's friendly and helpful. I don't know what becomes of this.
A bounty hunter is hired to kill Demonhand.
The trio meets Paragon and are trained by her.
The gang enjoys a fancy hotel indulgence after killing a demon tormenting a nearby sirrcay town.
De probably also goes to the demon homeworld, Heaven/Hell, eventually.
Speaking of which he is also harassed by a demon that takes the form of a long yellow snake.
Oh yeah demo gets his monster form eventually too.
the gang meets a demon infused sirrcay who causes problems on purpose
the gang enjoys a sirrcay summer festival
I was thinking of the story ending with Dem losing his powers and arm and just chilling and living an actually pretty peaceful life but idfk.
Demonhand uses magic to manifest his monster form as another being and he kills it and stuff but it comes back probably. This changes its appearance forever.

Last updated: 3/8/22