Webcomic / Yokoka's Quest

Yfa (left) and Yokoka (right)

"Wow, our first quest! This is it, isn't it? The start of our adventure! We already get to help someone out!"

— Yokoka

Yokoka's Quest is an RPG-themed Fantasy webcomic written and illustrated by Chris H. Riley, aka ClefdeSoll. The story separately follows Half-Human Half-Demon Cat Girl Yokoka discovering the larger world for the first time, and her broody twin brother Mao, in a dual-perspective story. While there is plenty of foreshadowing of a bigger overarching plot, the titular character has yet to become aware of it.

Yokoka's Quest can be read for free at yokokasquest.com, and also on ComicFury, Tapas and Webtoons. The webcomic began in September 2015, and has been regularly updating on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays since, with the exception of short hiatuses between chapters.

There will also be some upcoming marked and unmarked spoilers, so if you've not read the comic yet, read this article at your own risk!

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Yokoka's Quest provides examples of the following tropes:

• Accessory-Wearing Cartoon Animal: Vivi only wears a necktie. Misha only wears a cape, ribbon, and headpiece. Yfa only wears a bow, and typically so does the rest of his family (with the exception of his sister Raya).
• Accidental Kidnapping: Anyone who wanders through Betel's barrier ends up settling in the village and forgetting their previous lives. After leaving the barrier, Kalliv just wants to go home to his real family (but can't remember where it is), and Yfa's family are shocked when he shows us after having disappeared for years.
• Accidental Misnaming: Azha slowly enunciates Yokoka and Yfa's names (saying "Yoko... kah and ee-fah, right?"), after which Yokoka compares his speech to a kid's ^note (even though it's already been mentioned that he's learning the language).
  • A form of All There in the Manual, as Azha provides the reader with a phonetic pronunciation guide due to the author repeatedly being asked how to pronounce Yfa (it's like Aoife). Their pronunciations can be also be heard in the Kickstarter video.
• Adventure Rebuff: Valyn refuses to take Yokoka with him on his journeys. Yokoka heads home and almost immediately decides to run away on an adventure anyway.
• Aerith and Bob: Cisum has characters named Yokoka, Yfa, and Betelgeuse, alongside characters named Grace and Clyde. Some of the more regular names belong to humans, while others could plausibly have been human-influenced.
• The Ageless: Spirits don't age in the conventional sense - they don't even have an age listed on their bio pages.
• Alchemy Is Magic: Pinky utilizes "weapon alchemy", a Metals elemental skill, to create a "Rose Whip" weapon for Mao using a king centipede's fangs. Pinky and his apprentice Inky are shown doing this in a wallpaper.
• Alice Allusion: Grace wanders down a museum basement ^note (rabbit hole analogue) into the world of Cisum ^note (Wonderland analogue), meets the Cat Girl Yokoka ^note (Cheshire Cat analogue), and forms a pact with rabbit spirits ^note (White Rabbit analogue) born from a pack of cards ^note (living playing cards analogue). Grace also has other recurring card suit motifs.
• All There in the Manual: Details such as Yokoka and Mao's immunity to poison, Yokoka's Moon Clan allegiance, Yokoka and Grace's elements, and so on, are detailed on the between-chapter status screens long before they become relevant to the comics.
• Alphabetical Theme Naming: Blinky, Pinky, and Inky are all rhyming names (which, together with Clyde, are named after the four ghosts in Pacman).
• Alt Text: Most comic pages on the main yokokasquest.com site have alt text. The same comic pages on Webtoons and Tapastic lack this feature.
• Always a Bigger Fish: In Kalliv's flashback dream, a hawk-wolf which is carrying him away gets attacked by a larger boar-mandrill, leading to him being dropped. ^note (the big koi-catfish is a different trope)
• Amazing Technicolor Population: While many demons have skin tones within human ranges, a lot of them do not. Kalliv is green, Hurricane is greyish purple, and some background characters have even more vivid colours including yellow and purple. Their even more colourful body markings, Facial Markings, and hair further adds to this.
• Amazing Technicolor Wildlife: Misha is a green cat. Other animals, both real and fantastic, come in a variety of unusual colours and colour combinations.
• Amnesiac Resonance: Yokoka surprises herself when she instinctively remembers how to put on clothes, despite being a cat for as long as she can remember.
• Animal Eyes: Demons, including the half-demons Yokoka and Mao, have slit pupils. They often also have unusual eye colours.
• Animal Lover: Azha is shown to have the "Animal Lover" ability on his bio page. Misha is his cat familiar, and Chirpy is her pet bird - aside from those he hasn't had an opportunity to show a particular interest in other animals yet.
• Animorphism: The beast/demon and demon/beast characters are able to switch between their demon (humanoid) forms and a beast form. They mostly appear to be able to do this freely, though Kalliv is shown to be unable to switch to demon form when scared.
• The Apprentice: Inky's bio refers to him as an apprentice to Pinky, a "weapon alchemist". He mentions having to help out at Pinky's shop, and is shown working with crafting materials in a wallpaper.
• Arbitrary Headcount Limit: The between-chapter status screens show 5 slots for members of Yokoka's and Mao's parties, which implies an Interface Spoiler that their parties will max out at 5 characters each - though Chirpy is shown in Misha's character slot, and other characters often accompany the parties without being included at all.
• Arboreal Abode: Kalliv and his family are shown (as mice) living in a hollowed out tree during his flashback.
• Attack Its Weak Point: Kalliv suggests that Mao shoots a fireball inside the king centipede's mouth, as its insides would be more vulnerable. Mao's method of doing this is to goad it into biting him using Kalliv as bait, and then cast a fireball inside it.
• Attack Reflector: Yokoka blocks and reflects a stream of water fired at her teammates, using her sword, back at an attacking tunnel dweller.
• Author Avatar: Chris appeared in the third Q&A strip (but not in the actual comic) to answer reader questions. The author uses some of their characters, particularly Copycat and Yfa, as their profile pic across a number of sites, but these aren't author avatars.
• Ax-Crazy: Hurricane, after Yokoka challenges her to a fight, which promptly becomes a Curb-Stomp Battle.
• Bad Vibrations: The ground shook before the emergence of the tunnel dwellers on both occasions. Lady Pachi and her team were aware of what the shaking signified, though on the second occasion mistook the heavier rumbling for a big tunnel dweller rather than two tunnel dwellers.
• Bag of Holding: Subverted, in that Misha retrieves a bag containing food from a "storage dimension", but there is no indication that the bag itself is special.
• The Bait: Mao uses Kalliv in mouse form to bait the king centipede into biting him, so he can shoot a fireball inside its mouth.
• Banishing Ritual: After the tunnel dwellers are beaten and bound in chains of light, Blinky casts a spell to banish them; its incantation implies they're angry spirits being sent back where they belong, which Yokoka later describes as "back to the Spirit World or whatever".
• Be Careful What You Wish For: Yokoka is looking forward to getting into fights after leaving the underground village, despite advice not to. Within a few pages she picks a fight against Hurricane, which turns into a Curb-Stomp Battle.
• Become a Real Boy: Mao was a half-human prior to becoming cursed as a child, which left him as a catboy. In his efforts to break his curse and become human(ish) again, he's befriended the dangerous spirit Copycat, travelled to the Darkness Clan, and risked his life to get stronger by fighting giant beasts in an arena there.
• Beast Man: Demons can range from just having Animal Eyes and Pointy Ears, to being a Little Bit Beastly, to full-on Beast Man.
• Bespectacled Cutie: Grace spends her waking hours wearing glasses, and fits the stereotypes insofar as her friends describe her as cute, and her stats page says she's intelligent and a fast learner.
• Big Storm Episode: There is a storm raging during Yokoka's encounter with Hurricane (who was also the cause of the storm).
• Bilingual Backfire: While Azha is having a conversation with Yokoka in Forest language, he reverts to Moon language to say to Misha, "This will be a real pain in the butt". Yokoka immediately replies in Moon language, "What's a pain in the butt?", to Azha and Misha's surprise (and to Yokoka's confusion, as it's possibly the first time she's heard or spoke it since losing her memories).
• Bilingual Bonus: The names of the individual spirits in the Poker Gang are the French names of their respective card suits: Coeur (hearts ♥), Carreau (diamonds ♦), Trèfle (clubs ♣), and Pique (spades ♠).
• Black Bead Eyes: Yokoka and Raya have on occasion had just black dots for eyes, giving them a slightly chibi appearance.
• Black Eyes of Crazy: Mao gets scary black sclerae with red irises at the start of his fight with Yokoka.
• Black Speech: Darkness Clan language appears as jagged grey text on a black background, or as jagged markings if the perspective character doesn't understand it. It's described as sounding screechy and hurts the throats of those not used to speaking it. It's also the language of curses.
• Blood Knight: Yokoka begins turning into this after her training in the underground village, wanting to get into fights for fun, despite advice to the contrary.
• Blue Means Cold: Yin, has blue horns and wields ice magic. Her voice is also described as sounding cold by Yokoka when she first hears it.
• Blush Sticker: Raya sports these on multiple occasions, with the first clear example being together with Puppy-Dog Eyes to maximize her cuteness, when convincing Kagi and Yfa to let her go and look for a mushroom with Yfa.
• Boring, but Practical: In a setting where people throw fireballs, conjure lightning, place curses, and perform other impressive magic feats, the only spell that Yokoka has learned is one that lets her see in the dark.
• Born Lucky: Yokoka and Grace are shown to have high Luck on their stats pages.
• Born Unlucky: Mao is shown to have incredibly low or zero luck on his stats page.
• Break the Cutie: Mao is shown as a cute child in the prologue and as a cute cat in the first chapter. As a young adult, he's very angry and messed up over being kidnapped.
• Bubblegloop Swamp: Yokoka and Yfa travel through a colourful swamp in chapter 4, where they meet Yfa's siblings Raya, Kagi, and Tomo, who are temporarily residing there.
• Cain and Abel: Mao fights his twin sister Yokoka in chapter 2. During this his sclerae turn black and his red irises shine through, and he suggests he "should just do everyone a favour and get rid" of her.
• The Cameo: Haro and Lee from the webcomic A Mirror's Tale appear as background characters (and as demons rather than humans) in the village that Mao and Kalliv visit.
• Can't Hold His Liquor: Kalliv is seen inspecting a drink and being encouraged to drink it at the end of chapter 4, then appears to be hungover when woken up in chapter 5. He is incidentally just 13 years old.
• Casting a Shadow: Copycat is able to disappear into, appear from, and travel between shadows. He also caught a fleeing mouse form Kalliv with a shadowy hand.
• Cat Girl: Yokoka becomes a catgirl after leaving Betel's Forest at the end of chapter 1. Mao becomes a catboy shortly after this, though has downgraded to Sprouting Ears and tail as of chapter 9.
• Cat Smile: Many characters feature a permanent or occasional cat smile (including the cats, unsurprisingly). Often leads to showing off their Cute Little Fangs.
• Censor Box: Mao flips off Yokoka, with a censor box over his middle finger, in a a Q&A strip.
• Cheerful Child: Raya is by far the most hyperactive and happy child in the comic, even while her little brother Tomo has gone missing.
• Chekhov's Gun: The ribbons that Vivi gave to Yokoka and Yfa and Mao are used by Vivi to magically keep track of them outside of Betel's Forest, which is only revealed 7 chapters later.
• Chekhov's Gunman: Vivi is introduced as the guy who delivers the mail and Yfa's friend. It later transpires that he was keeping track of Yokoka, Yfa, and Mao after they left Betel's Forest.
• Child Mage:
  • Mao is shown casting a (tiny) fireball as a child during a flashback, and states that he and Yokoka have known a spell to see in the dark since they were kids.
  • Kalliv is a 13 year old boy whose only meaningful contribution in combat was to bind the king centipede with magic vines.
  • Inky is a 14 year old boy who provides Light elemental healing and support magic for his party, as his father won't let him use attack magic until he's older.
• Civilized Animal: Kalliv's family appear to occupy the space between Talking Animal (they slept huddled together as mice, in a hollowed out tree, and Kalliv was snatched away to be eaten) and Funny Animal (the walls of their home had household objects and a written notice attached to them), though Kalliv mentions they would "go to the market and stuff" in their demon forms. Yfa's parents are a fruit fox and spirit bird who run an inn together.
• Clothing Combat: Yokoka and Mao wear ribbons on their wrists which they can transform into weapons at will in the earlier chapters. Yokoka changes hers into a sword, and Mao changes his into both a whip and a dagger.
• Color-Coded Elements: Each spoken language, associated with a particular element, has its own speech bubble and font style and colour, to make them easily distinguishable. Of particular note, Dream language is purple.
• Constantly Curious: Grace is constantly trying to learn about the new world she's found herself in. Yokoka has her curious moments, but can't hold her interest in topics which don't interest her.
• Convection, Schmonvection: When Yokoka enters a volcano to visit Yang's shop she walks dangerously close (and barefoot) to lava, and suffers no physical harm.
• Coordinated Clothes: Azha wears a very similar outfit and colour scheme to his cat familiar Misha's cape and bow, which is named Matching Outfit on the between-chapter status screens.
• Courier: Vivi is the cute critter who delivers the mail in Betel's Forest, though this is depicted more in art outside the comic itself.
• Crying Critters: Sapient animals have been shown crying for a variety of reasons, including Tomo, Kalliv, and Mao.
• Crystal Ball: Blinky uses a crystal ball to determine Yokoka's and Grace's elemental affinities, and also wordlessly reveals her own Dreams (Fortune) element when she touches it.
• Crystal Landscape: The underground village and caves leading to it in chapters 6-8 feature glowing crystals protruding from the ground and walls.
• The Cuckoolander Was Right: Grace is treated by her Las Vegas friends as a nutty conspiracy theorist who could go on to do great things if only she applied herself more seriously. It turns out that she was right about Cisum though.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Hurricane breaks Yokoka's sword, then proceeds to mauls her into a bloodied mess between pages. It probably would've gone a lot worse if Grace hadn't teleported her out of the battle.
• Cursed with Awesome: Mao wants to remove his curse, at the expense of his cat-like features (which Copycat likes the look of, and nobody else has ever mentioned as being out of the ordinary), and sharper instincts. Yokoka either doesn't know or doesn't care that she is similarly cursed.
• Cute Little Fangs: Practically the default for demons, beasts, and spirits. Notably, the human Grace and Half-Human Hybrid Yokoka and Mao lack fangs, though Yokoka's reference sheets do say "cute little fangs in Fan Art is great!".
• Dark Is Not Evil: The Darkness Clan isn't evil, though their society does seem to have lax attitudes to violence.
• Day Hurts Dark-Adjusted Eyes: Mao's party spend a few months in the aptly named Darkness Clan, and after being teleported out of it, Mao and Cadmium are dazed by the sun, despite not being a particularly bright day. This is also Cadmium's First Time in the Sun, having been raised in the Darkness Clan.
• Deadly Gas / Death World: Yokoka and Mao's original home had toxic air, which has given them an immunity to poison through long exposure.
• Deliberately Monochrome: Yokoka on her status screen after chapter 8, after having her HP reduced to zero.
• Disease-Prevention Aesop: After Yokoka comes down with a fever, Yfa suggests that she should have dried herself off better after jumping into a river.
• Do Not Taunt Cthulhu: Yokoka challenges Hurricane, a dragon, to a fight. Yfa even tells her that messing with someone able to control the weather is a bad idea.
• Double Take: Raya glomps Yfa when she first meets him, but then realizes Yfa wasn't the brother she was looking for. Cue the double take (and second glomp) when she realizes that he's the brother who's been missing for two years.
• Dragon Hoard: Fahrin has a hoard comprising of swords, jewels, skulls, various Earth technology (including a CRT television and Nintendo Switch), books, food, and other junk, all encircling her bed. If she wasn't a dragon, you'd probably just think she had a hoarding problem.
• Dramatic Thunder: The storm that Hurricane was controlling, in the lead up to and during Yokoka's fight against her. Thunder and lightning accompanied most of Hurricane's attacks.
• Dream Walker: Copycat was able to enter Mao's dream and converse with him, though Mao recognizes that he's an intruder, and who he is from his eyes. Copycat implies that other people might either have accepted his appearance as being a regular part of their dream, or might have forgotten him after waking.
• *Drool* Hello: After Mao has retreated from fighting small snake-centipedes, the much larger king centipede introduces itself by pouring poisonous drool onto his shoulder from above.
• Dude Looks Like a Lady: Yokoka says she thought the Longhaired Pretty Boy Azha was a girl. Grace mistakenly refers to Yfa as "her", though this may have been based on his voice.
• Easy Amnesia: The barrier around Betel's Forest, among other things, makes people forget about their life prior to entering the barrier. Different characters seem to recover their memories at different rates after leaving.
• Elemental Nation: Each character (aside from Grace, as the Token Human coming from Earth) has allegiance to a particular elemental Clan.
• Elemental Weapon: Mao sets his whip aflame, and sends electricity through it to shock Yfa and Cadmium.
• Equipment Spoiler: Yfa's feathers and Grace's lucky card deck appearing in their weapon slots on the status screens give indications of how they fight before this is ever shown in the comic itself.
• Establishing Character Moment: Copycat gets his after Mao defeats the snake-centipedes he was raising as pets, when Copycat's rants to Fahrin make it clear that he does what he wants regardless of the safety of others, and he has no qualms against killing people... unless they're pretty boys, and Copycat absolutely counts Mao as one.
• Eternally Pearly-White Teeth: Everyone, including people in animal form, and members of the Darkness clan (who are implied to eat carrion and other rotten foods), has clean white teeth. Actual animals, such as the snake-centipedes, don't all have white teeth however.
• Expressive Ears: Yokoka in cat form is especially emotive, with her ears changing along with her expression almost every other panel. Many of the other animal characters follow suit to a lesser degree, as do Yokoka and Mao in their cat person forms.
• Extra Eyes / Eyes Do Not Belong There: Copycat has a (sort of) Game Face, where he occasionally reveals additional glowing, stylized eyes, which float around him. It isn't clear whether these eyes are tangible or functional.
• Eyes Always Shut: Vivi has his eyes shut the majority of the time but opens them for some expressions. Vidula has her eyes shut all the time.
• Eye Motifs: Copycat's Shapeshifter Default Form features eye Facial Markings and clothing patterns, as well as a (sort of) Game Face, where he occasionally reveals additional glowing, stylized eyes, which float around him. The Dreams (Fortune) element also appears to share a similar motif, judging from the design on one of Blinky's tarot-like divination cards and the symbol shown when she was handling her Crystal Ball (this is incidentally also one of Copycat's two elemental affinities).
• Eyes Out of Sight: Kalliv's eyes aren't visible beneath his hair while in demon form, though Copycat notes after copying Kalliv that his eyesight is awful, even without hair in the way. His eyes are uncovered while in mouse form.
• Facial Markings: Demon characters feature a variety of facial (and body) markings - it hasn't been made clear as to whether these are natural or tattoos.
• Fairytale Wedding Dress: The final page of chapter 7 is the debut appearance of Blinky in her wedding dress, who together with her new husband Clyde, get a full two-page spread to show off the moment. It's a layered white dress with a veil and flowery hair ornament, all with glowing orbs running through them, made for her by the seamstress spirit Yin.
• Familiar: Misha is a talking cat who is Azha's familiar. According to Misha, in the Moon Clan, it's a familiar's job to carry their master's belongings (by keeping them in a "storage dimension"). Misha can also shapeshift into a big saber-tooth cat, allowing Azha to ride her, though that may have nothing to do with being a familiar. When not doing any of the above, she mostly just acts like a pet.
• Fantasy World Map: A map covering an area of Cisum that Yokoka's Quest takes place in was first included as an extra in the Yokoka's Quest printed book, and is also shown at the bottom of the Archive page.
• Fearless Fool: After Yokoka has finished her training in the underground village, she just wants to fight, without regard for how dangerous her opponent may be.
• Feed It a Bomb: Mao casts a fireball while his arm is already inside the mouth of the king centipede, which then blows up inside it, but doesn't immediately kill it.
• Fetch Quest: Yin asks Yokoka to deliver a letter to Yang. Yokoka and Yfa even refer to it as their "first quest".
• Fiendish Fish: Yokoka wrestles a giant koi-catfish in a river (between pages, though it was later depicted in a Q&A strip), which is then cooked and eaten by the party.
• Find the Cure!: Raya and Yfa have to find a mushroom which grows on the back of a frog, to make medicine for Yokoka.
• Finger-Snap Lighter: Mao does this to light a cigarette he was given by Grace, and immediately starts coughing ungraciously.
• Fireballs: Mao's primary use of magic in combat is to throw fireballs. He also tries to scare Yin away with a fireball as a child.
• Fire Is Red: Yang, has a red horn and wields fire magic (and runs a shop in a volcano).
• Fire/Ice Duo: Yang and Yin respectively, though so far they've only been seen together or using their magic in bonus artworks (such as free/Patreon wallpapers).
• Flipping the Bird: Mao flips off Yokoka, with a Censor Box over his middle finger, in a Q&A strip.
• Forced Transformation: The barrier around Betel's Forest, among other things, turns people into a beast form as they pass through it. Anyone who can normally shapeshift is also afflicted with Shapeshifter Mode Lock.
• Forgotten Phlebotinum: Yang gives Yokoka some Lava Powder, which is a medicine to cure fevers - she then forgets to use it when she gets a fever in the next chapter, and it is ruined ^note (the inventory listing is updated to Soggy Powder) in a fight a few chapters later.
• Fortune Teller: Blinky uses a deck of tarot-like divination cards to determine Yokoka's and Grace's elemental edges and flaws, a Crystal Ball to determine their elemental affinities, and a Magical Incantation to determine Yokoka's Clan allegiance.
• Fourth-Wall Mail Slot: The author has taken questions from the readers for three anniversary events, with a selection of them being included in Q&A strips featuring either the characters or the Author Avatar giving the answers.
• The Full Name Adventures: The name of the webcomic is Yokoka's Quest!
• Funny Animal: Yfa's siblings are nomadic animals who can talk, wear some clothes or accessories, stay in a furnished tent, own and presumably read books, make medicines, and so on. Yfa's family are later encountered living in an inn that the parents own and run.
• Funny Background Event: Yfa and Kalliv are playing hide-and-seek in the background while Grace is talking with Mao. Their conversation then becomes the background to Yfa catching Kalliv a few pages later.
• Fun with Homophones: Yfa mentions "the sea". Yokoka doesn't know what this is, and thinks he's talking about "the see" (which she later misremembers as "the look" and "the sight"). The French version has her mistake "la mer" for the homophone "l'amer" ^note ("the sea" for "the bitter"), with the ensuing dialogue and illustrations adapted to fit.
• Gambit Pileup: Multiple parties appear to have plans which involve Yokoka, at a minimum Betel and Yokoka's mother (who isn't Betel).
• Game Face: Copycat has game facial features rather than a game face per se - he occasionally reveals additional glowing, stylized eyes, which float around him. He's shown these when being menacing, irritated, or when travelling through shadows.
• Geometric Magic: Kalliv and Mao find a summoning circle which Copycat had made, from which Kalliv infers that "something really strong" must have been summoned with it (the king centipede).
• Girls with Moustaches: Lady Pachi has subtle chin stubble when introduced. She shaves it off for Clyde and Blinky's wedding, and as of her last appearance it hadn't regrown yet.
• Give Him a Normal Life: Yin suggests that Mao can go back to a normal life with his real mother and "leave all of this behind", after having lived most of his childhood under the protection of his apparent kidnapper Betelgeuse. He opts to work on breaking his curse and finding Kalliv's home instead.
• Gladiator Games: Mao asks if there's a dedicated place to train in the Darkness Clan, in order to grow strong enough to break his curse, and Copycat tells him about an arena "where you can fight to your heart's content". After a Time Skip, the next chapter begins with him fighting a giant boar-goat in that arena.
• Glamour Failure: Copycat always retains his purple eyes when copying another person's appearance. Mao recognized who Copycat was from his purple eyes, and identified that someone wasn't Copycat (who Copycat had previously mimicked) from his lack of purple eyes.
• The Glomp: The first panel that Raya appears in has her glomping Yfa. After a Double Take, she glomps him again two pages later.
• Gorgeous Garment Generation: Copycat is able to shapeshift into different outfits, and Yfa also does this when he shapeshifts into a human. It is implied that this is a spirit bird ability; other characters shapeshift into the clothes they were wearing when they were last in that form.
• Guest-Star Party Member: The high level Azha and his familiar Misha appear in Yokoka's party's status screen even though they only travelled together for that single chapter.
• Guest Strip: The comic has had a number of guest strips, since moved to the Extras page of the main site, presumably to not interrupt the flow of an Archive Binge.
• Half-Dressed Cartoon Animal: Yin covers her torso with a cape/poncho/shirt, and Raya covers her torso with a poncho, both leaving their legs uncovered. Yang covers his legs with pants, leaving his torso uncovered. Yin and Yang fittingly have a full outfit (sans shoes) between them.
• Half-Human Hybrid: Yokoka and Mao have one demon parent and one human parent ^note (presumably a demon mother and human father, judging from the Pointy Ears being visible on the long-haired silhouette rather than the bearded silhouette).
• Hammerspace: Misha has access to a "storage dimension", and is shown keeping a bag and a small parcel there (the bag itself is presumably a normal bag and not a Bag of Holding. Suggested to be a common ability, by Misha stating that familiars are expected to do use this to carry their master's belongings, and her presumption that Yfa can also do this (he can't). Clothing seems to also go into hammerspace during most shapeshifting.
• Happily Adopted: The barrier around Betel's Forest, among other things, makes people believe that Betelgeuse is their mother, and in turn that everyone else is their sibling. Combined with Easy Amnesia, most inhabitants end up living there with their new family in blissful ignorance.
• Healing Potion: Blinky pulls out a healing potion after Pinky and Inky are knocked out in one blow at the start of the fight against two tunnel dwellers.
• Hidden Elf Village: Kagi states that he knows most locations in the Forest Clan but has never heard of the village in Betel's Forest. This is likely due to the magic of the barrier around it.
• Horror Hunger: Kalliv frequently worries that other people or creatures want to eat him in his mouse form. Justified, as some of them do.
• Hospital Surprise: After Yokoka is beaten unconscious by Hurricane, she wakes up in someone else's bed, too injured to leave it, with her wounds bandaged up, and her torn and bloodied clothes removed.
• Humans Are Ugly: Copycat thinks Mao looks better with the cat ears from his curse, than he would as a human.
• I Just Want to Be Normal: Mao wants to be rid of his curse. As indicated by Copycat and Fahrin, this would mean losing his cat-like features and sharper instincts.
• I Just Want to Have Friends: After passing through Betel's barrier and losing his memories, Yfa tells Yokoka that he doesn't know where he is and he doesn't have any friends. While still lacking his memories, he then went on to make a lot of friends in the forest.
• Identity Amnesia: The barrier around Betel's Forest, among other things, gives those who enter it Easy Amnesia. They forget who they were before, and think the other inhabitants are their family. Some characters also gain Name Amnesia as part of this ^note (Betelgeuse and Yfa are examples of characters who specifically retained their names).
• Idiot Hero: Yokoka, though currently more idiot than hero.
• Imagine Spot: Yokoka wonders how Yin knows Betel (a giant manticore who can't really move around without wrecking her forest), and mentally pictures a younger Betel as a bipedal, sword-and-shield-wielding, famous explorer (who is still a manticore).
• I'm Not Doing That Again: Yfa is seen carrying Raya when he tells her "Never do that again", after she launches herself at a frog to retrieve a mushroom from its back.
• Ineffectual Death Threats: Mao as a child threatens to hurt Yin with a tiny fireball if she comes any closer. She appears unfazed.
• Innate Night Vision: Lady Pachi's glowing moth antennae allow her to see in the dark, meaning she doesn't require the earrings which the other underground village inhabitants use to see.
• Interspecies Adoption: The inhabitants of Betel's Forest all believe that they are Betel's children, despite Betel being a manticore and the rest being a wide variety of different species.
• Interspecies Romance: Humans and demons are able to produce Half-Human Hybrid offspring, such as Yokoka and Mao. Beasts and Spirits are able to produce hybrid offspring, such as Yfa and his siblings, though it hasn't quite been explained how that works.
• Invincibility Power-Up: Mao instinctively used a skill when he thought he was about to die against the king centipede, which provided him a surge of adrenaline and allowed him to continue fighting for longer.
• Item Crafting: Pinky is a "weapon alchemist", and Inky is his apprentice. Mao's reason for visiting the underground village was to get Pinky to craft him a new whip, using materials obtained from the king centipede he killed previously. While the actual weapon crafting happens between pages, it is depicted in a wallpaper.
• It May Help You on Your Quest: Subverted: Yang gives Yokoka some Lava Powder, which is a medicine to cure fevers - she then forgets to use it when she gets a fever in the next chapter, and it is ruined ^note (the inventory listing is updated to Soggy Powder) in a fight a few chapters later.
• Kidnapping Bird of Prey: In Kalliv's flashback dream, while he's in mouse form he gets snatched away by a hawk-wolf, and is only dropped because a boar-mandrill attacks the hawk-wolf.
• Language Barrier: Each of the 12 elements has its own language associated with it, in addition to the humans who speak regular English. Different characters know and learn different languages, with some only able to speak and/or understand a particular language, without learning how to read/write it, leading to frequent language barriers.
• Large and in Charge: Betelgeuse is a giant manticore and in charge of the village in Betel's Forest. Fahrin can transform into a large bat dragon and is leader of the Darkness Clan.
• Leave Me Alone!: After teaching Grace a few phrases in Forest language, Mao tells her "Never talk to me again, I don't owe you anything". When Mao realizes that Copycat had watched his entire dream flashback, he walks away and tells Copycat and Kalliv "Leave me alone".
• Lessons in Sophistication: Grace dresses up Yokoka for Clyde and Blinky's wedding, as Yokoka has no idea how to dress for a wedding, what a wedding even is, or even basic grooming skills like how to brush her hair.
• Letters to the Editor: The author has taken questions from the readers for two anniversary events. The answers to these were made into Q&A strips, with either the characters or the Author Avatar giving the answers.
• Life Meter: A Life Meter and Mana Meter are shown for each character in Yokoka's and Mao's parties on RPG-style status screens between chapters.
• Light Girl, Dark Boy: Yokoka has light skin, yellow eyes, and her hair is white with pink streaks, while her twin brother Mao has more tanned skin, brown eyes, and his hair is brown with black streaks. Their cat forms also have a similar colour scheme. A Q&A strip explains the colour differences as Yokoka having a type of albinism.
• Lightning Lash: Mao sends lightning coursing down his whip to shock Yfa and Cadmium in battle.
• Lions and Tigers and Humans... Oh, My!: The world of Cisum is populated with humans, demons (ranging from resembling pointy-eared humans to full-on beast people), people with animal features (both naturally and due to curses), people who can shapeshift into animals and dragons and such, animals who can talk (ranging from otherwise regular animals to acting like people), animals who can't talk (both real and fictional), spirits born from emotions, and mixes of many of the above.
• Lint Value: When Kalliv reveals a single coin and tries to buy fruit from a market stall with it. The Alt Text a few pages later indicates that he failed to buy anything.
• Little Bit Beastly: Demons can range from just having Animal Eyes and Pointy Ears, to being a Little Bit Beastly, to full-on Beast Man.
• Longhaired Pretty Boy: Azha, who Yokoka mistakes for a girl, and Copycat's initial form, who Mao correctly identifies as "he".
• Luminescent Blush: Yokoka, Mao, and Azha feature this at times.
• Magic Knight: Mao fights with a whip and dagger, and also by throwing fireballs and lightning.
• Magical Incantation: Many spells require an incantation in the language corresponding to its element. Both Yokoka and Yfa have been shown to struggle with learning spells due to not knowing certain languages.
  Yin: You don't need to know what it means. If you learn the words, you can also use the spell.
• Mana: When fighting the king centipede, Mao mentions only being able to cast one or two more fireballs, and Kalliv mentions only having one shot at his vine spell. At the end of each chapter is an RPG-style status screen which shows the MP gauges of Yokoka's and Mao's parties, giving a visual representation of their capacity to use magic. Yfa describes being able to shapeshift in exchange for some "energy", suggesting this is the everyday term for the concept on Cisum.
• Mana Meter: A Life Meter and Mana Meter are shown for each character in Yokoka's and Mao's parties on RPG-style status screens between chapters.
• Manly Tears: Pinky cries at Clyde and Blinky's wedding.
• The Marvelous Deer: The Forest Goddess, Methuselah, is depicted as a deer when Kalliv talks about her.
• Mega Neko: Betelgeuse is a manticore with a feline body, who is so large that she never leaves her cave to avoid accidentally demolishing her village.
• The Missing Faction: Each element has its own Clan associated with it, with the possible exception of the Dreams Clan, which is said to only exist in myths and legends.
• Mistaken for Dyed: Grace questions Yokoka, "Your hair is such a nice colour, is that natural?". Yokoka doesn't understand the question, as she's presumably unaware of hair dye.
• Mistaken from Behind: Mao mistakes another person for Copycat (justifiably, as it was a person who Copycat had previously mimicked), but realizes his mistake when he sees that they don't have Copycat's purple eyes.
• Mix-and-Match Critter: A lot of the critters and creatures are a mix of two things: snake-centipede, mushroom-frog, hawk-wolf, red panda-sloth, to name a few.
• Morning Routine: Grace is introduced with her morning routine: Her phone alarm going off (possibly for the 5th time), begrudgingly getting up, having a shower, drinking a coffee, getting dressed, and applying makeup. The first hint that she's not your average girl is the conspiracy board in the background as she's leaving the house.
• Morphic Resonance: Copycat can copy the appearance, abilities, and languages of another person, but always retains his purple eyes. Mao has used this to identify him and distinguish him from who he's previously copied.
• Morph Weapon: Yokoka and Mao wear ribbons which they can transform into weapons at will in the earlier chapters. Yokoka changes hers into a sword, and Mao changes his into both a whip and a dagger.
• The Mothman: In response to Grace talking about Cisum, her friend says "Just last month you were going on about Mothman or whatever", and her other friend classes them both as fairy tales. But as Cisum turned out to be real...
• Multiple-Tailed Beast: Valyn is a five-tailed lion chimera beast, and Vivi is a two-tailed Scottish Fold/puppy beast.
• Must Have Caffeine: Grace requires a coffee when waking up, and stops at Starbucks for another, before arriving at school. She's also heartbroken to discover that Cisum doesn't have coffee (but later finds out that it does, and Yokoka just had no idea what coffee was).
• Name Amnesia: The barrier around Betel's Forest, among other things, gives those who enter it Easy Amnesia. They seem to gain differing levels of Identity Amnesia: Mao is shown to have forgot his own name, as well as Yokoka's and Valyn's names; Yokoka seems oblivious to even having a previous name; Betelgeuse and Yfa remembered their names while inside the barrier (other characters outside the barrier who knew them used the same names).
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Fahrin the Reaper, the feared and respected leader of the Darkness Clan. Hurricane, a dragon capable of Weather Manipulation.
• Names to Trust Immediately: Raya means 'friend' in Hebrew, and Tomo means 'friend' in Japanese.
• The Napoleon: Azha is teased about his height by his familiar, Misha, and more rudely called out as being short by Yokoka:
  Yokoka: Why are you so tiny and your hair is long and I thought you were a girl-
• Nice Guy: Yfa and Grace in particular have been shown to always be nice, and never even playfully be mean to others.
• Night-Vision Goggles: Grace, Clyde, Blinky, and Inky wear earrings which allow them to see in the darkness of the underground village, and Pinky also wears these when not wearing his monocle (implying that his monocle also serves this function). Yokoka, Mao, and Yin know a spell which lets them see in the dark.
• Non-Humans Lack Attributes: Critters with fur have no attributes to show (the comic is for all ages).
• Non-Human Sidekick: Yfa acts as the animal sidekick to Yokoka a lot of the time, though he's fully capable of acting independently of her too.
• Not a Game: After Yokoka witnesses Lady Pachi lead a team to defeat a tunnel dweller:
  Yokoka: Please teach me to be this badass! I wanna kick butt just like you did!
  Lady Pachi: What do you think this is, a game?
• Not a Morning Person: Grace is a squinting, bed-headed mess after waking up, and even after having her first coffee and a shower she continues yawning until she's had her second - she even sleeps in a "Not a Morning Person" t-shirt. Misha is also very much Not a Morning Cat.
• Ocular Gushers: Kalliv cries massive tears on numerous occasions, including when reuniting with Mao, after believing he'd been abandoned, after waking up from a nightmare about being abducted and almost eaten, and upon learning he'd been deliberately fed spoiled food the past few months. Raya similarly gushes when telling her recovering amnesiac brother not to forget her again as he prepares to depart.
• Odd-Shaped Panel: Every two-page spread features at least one borderless panel ^note (this is a lot more apparent in book form than when viewing only one page at a time online). The exception to this is when Yokoka is passing through Betel's barrier, to represent that she is literally inside a border.
• Oh, My Gods!: Yokoka exclaims "Oh my goddess!"; given her amnesia it's possible she can't remember her goddess's name, though Mao uses it later (but less emphatically). Another example includes Kagi's "Where in Methuselah's name have you been?".
• One-Hit Kill: Pinky and Inky both get knocked out in one blow at the start of the fight against two tunnel dwellers, requiring Blinky to revive them with a Healing Potion.
• Only a Flesh Wound: Mao's right wrist gets bitten by a snake-centipede, though it's not clear how deep it pierced his flesh. He continues using that hand to throw fireballs and Kalliv without difficulty later in that same fight.
• Only One Name: Most characters have only ever used one name (Grace's bio being the exception), though a few have titles such as "of Eridanus" or "the Reaper".
• Ordinary High-School Student: Grace is an ordinary (aside from being a conspiracy theorist) student at the University of Las Vegas before she travels to Cisum.
• Our Demons Are Different: The people of Cisum were first called "demons" by the humans who wandered in, and the name stuck. There's nothing traditionally demonic about them.
• Our Dragons Are Different: Fahrin is a bat-like dragon. Hurricane is an eastern-style dragon. Betelgeuse is a somewhat dragon-like manticore. And all of them are people who change into these as their beast forms.
• Our Manticores Are Spinier: Betelgeuse is a manticore with a feline body, draconic wings, ram horns, a scorpion tail, and a forked tongue. She's also so large that she never leaves her cave to avoid accidentally demolishing her village, and her usual form is that of a person.
• Our Spirits Are Different: In the world of Cisum, spirits come in a variety of forms:
  • Spirit: Yin, Yang, and the four members of the Poker Gang are all spirits. Yin and Yang appear to live relatively normal lives, despite being spirits, as a seamstress and merchant respectively. Yfa could feel that a spirit was "still deciding what it wants to be" within Grace's lucky deck, and later they would "need the final touch", for Grace "to call out to them", before the Poker Gang would be born. Grace then forms a pact with the Poker Gang, making her their summoner. Blinky explains that "emotions, intent, mixed with the energy of the planet [are] what the spirits feed off of". Spirits have no age.
  • Spirit bird: Copycat, Kagi, and Yfa's father are spirit birds. Mao refers to Copycat as "some kind of lesser spirit". Kagi was previously only part bird ^note (as shown in an old photo and more clearly in a Side-Story Bonus Art wallpaper) but became "a full bird" by the time the story takes place. Spirit birds are noted to be able to shapeshift into anything they can imagine. There are also birds who aren't spirits, such as Chirpy.
  • Beast/Spirit: Yfa, Raya, and Tomo are all beast/spirits, sharing a beast mother and a spirit bird father. Yfa is able to shapeshift into anything he can imagine due to being part spirit bird. It's not been shown whether other mixes exist, such as human/spirit or demon/spirit.
  • Tunnel dweller: Three tunnel dwellers, resembling a mole, axolotl, and pangolin, caused tremors around the underground village, before emerging and being fought on two occasions. After being beaten and bound in chains of light, Blinky banishes them with a spell; its incantation implies they're angry spirits being sent back where they belong, which Yokoka later describes as "back to the Spirit World or whatever". Yin also refers to them as beasts.
• Painting the Medium: Each spoken language, associated with a particular element, has its own speech bubble and font style and colour, to make them easily distinguishable. Of particular note, Dream language is purple.
• Pajama-Clad Hero: After leaving Betel's Forest, Yokoka is given starry pajamas by Yin, which she wears from chapters 2-6, until she's starts training in the underground village and is given a martial arts uniform to wear instead.
• Pale Females, Dark Males: Yokoka's cat form has white fur with pink stripes, and yellow eyes, while her twin brother Mao has brown fur with darker stripes, and red eyes. Their humanoid forms have a similar colour scheme. A Q&A strip explains the colour differences as Yokoka having a type of albinism.
• Palette Swap: Mao and Yokoka are basically palette-swaps of each other in cat form, and would be this normally if not for hair length and clothing differences. A Q&A strip explains the colour differences as Yokoka having a type of albinism.
• Panthera Awesome: Misha can shapeshift into a big saber-tooth cat, large enough for Azha to ride as a mount.
• Pardon My Klingon: Mao says "What the helck", a portmanteau of hell and heck, when he finds out that Kalliv was in his pocket for his journey to the Darkness Clan.
• Partially Civilized Animal: Misha is a talking cat who is Azha's familiar. Aside from using magic to access a "storage dimension" and to shapeshift into a big saber-tooth cat, this seems functionally the same as being a pet. Azha even dresses her in the cape and bow she wears, as she presumably can't dress herself.
• Pelts of the Barbarian: Hurricane's fur cape.
• Pet Dress-Up: Azha is shown dressing up his cat familiar Misha, in a cape and bow which matches his own outfit. Yfa also had to tie Yokoka's ribbon to her foreleg, as she couldn't do this herself while in cat form.
• Pet Monstrosity: Copycat was raising the venomous snake-centipedes and the much larger king centipede as pets, without regard to the safety of the villagers living nearby, until Mao defeated them.
• Pink Means Feminine: Subverted: Yokoka has pink streaks in her fur/hair, but she rarely acts feminine.
• Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Yfa, despite his small size, is able to pick up heavy objects and Yokoka with ease. His high strength is also shown on his stats page.
• Playing Card Motifs: This is a frequently recurring theme for Grace:
  • She worked as a croupier at a Las Vegas casino.
  • She wears earrings featuring all four card suits with her croupier outfit, is given conveniently diamond-shaped earrings which let her see in the dark, and also has diamond suit earrings.
  • Her phone case features the four card suits on the back.
  • The mirror path she went through features the four card suits in the background.
  • She brought her lucky deck of cards to Cisum, which her spirits, the Poker Gang, were born from.
  • The Poker Gang are each based on, and named after, a particular card suit.
  • The visual effects of the Poker Gang's teleportation magic features all four card suits.
  • Grace and the Poker Gang are playing a card game together around Yokoka's bed when she briefly wakes up under Grace's care.
• Playing with Fire: Mao's primary use of magic in combat is to throw fireballs, and in chapter 9 he also sets his whip aflame. He also tries to scare Yin away with a fireball as a child.
• Pointy Ears: Demons, including the half-demon Yokoka and Mao, have pointy ears.
• Poison Is Corrosive: Mao's ribbon weapon in the form of a dagger is dissolved by a snake-centipede's poison, and their poison blackens anything it makes contact with, including Mao's clothes, his skin, and the ground.
• Poke the Poodle: Copycat first enters Mao's dream in order to get revenge on him for killing his snake-centipede pets, but ends up doing little more than stalking him (and providing advice, helping Mao break his curse, protecting Kalliv, etc).
• Power Copying: Copycat can copy the appearance of another person (except for their eyes), which also copies their abilities and languages. He only turns into pretty boys however, even if he thinks they're weak.
• Prefers Going Barefoot: Yokoka says in the first Q&A strip that she goes barefoot because she was never given any shoes, but she likes walking barefoot anyway.
• Prone to Tears: Kalliv cries a lot, sometimes Ocular Gushers.
• Punched Across the Room: Yokoka gets sent flying by Hurricane. She just gets back up and charges into the fight again.
• Puppy-Dog Eyes: Raya sports these together with blush stickers to maximize her cuteness, when convincing Kagi and Yfa to let her go and look for a mushroom with Yfa. Grace also develops these in reaction to seeing Raya for the first time.
• The Quest: Presumably Yokoka has one, judging from the webcomic title, but it's not revealed what the quest is yet (unless it was the Fetch Quest started in chapter 2 and resolved by chapter 3).
• Rat Stomp: Subverted; Mao takes on a quest to drive out 'some kind of vermin', but the vermin in question turn out to be giant poisonous snake-centipedes, rather than the rats he was expecting.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Mao gets scary black sclerae with red irises at the start of his fight with Yokoka.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Yang and Yin respectively. Yang is lively, restless, happy to interact with his customers, and has a red horn and eyes. Yin is lazy, calm, likes to plan things out, and has blue horns and eyes.
• Residual Self-Image: When Copycat enters Mao's dream, Mao is wearing a recently acquired set of clothes that Copycat hadn't seen before, and that Mao wasn't currently wearing (as he's asleep in his nightwear). He also appears as a cat boy, despite hating his aspect of his appearance and wanting to revert to being human.
• Retcon: The prologue and chapters 1-3 were retouched prior to being printed in book form, with some of the changes essentially being retcons. These are mostly inconsequential, such as Yokoka and Yfa's home going from an empty room to being furnished with a rug, pillows, and a pile of feathers that Yfa sleeps on.
• Ridiculously Cute Critter: Raya is a cute furry Cheerful Child who especially fits this label to a tee. She cutely pleads with Puppy-Dog Eyes and Blush Stickers to Kagi and Yfa to let her go and look for a mushroom with Yfa. Grace reacts to Raya's cuteness when seeing her for the first time with her own Puppy-Dog Eyes.
• Sapient Steed: While Misha is normally just a small talking cat, she can shapeshift into a big saber-tooth cat, allowing Azha to ride her.
• Saying Too Much: Yin, mostly talking to herself, speculates out loud on inconsistencies relating to Yokoka's name, Yokoka's mother, Betelgeuse, and Betel's Village. The trope is mostly subverted, as while Yfa picks up on bits of it ^note (such as Betel probably not being Yokoka's mother), Yokoka seems oblivious to what was said or any of its implications.
• Scarf of Asskicking: Mao gains a scarf as part of his chapter 9 outfit, which he wears while fighting a giant boar-goat in an arena.
• Scary Shiny Glasses: Grace's glasses flash entirely white for a frame as she begins geeking out while introducing to her spirits, the Poker Gang, to Yokoka.
• Scenery Censor: Yfa manages to conveniently place himself between Yokoka's chest and the reader when she wakes up naked in Yin's house. This continues across multiple pages until Yin gives her some clothes to wear.
• Scenery Porn: The backgrounds generally look great anyway, but this is especially the case for the splash panels which cover their entire two-page spreads, featuring mainly scenery with minimal dialogue or action. Some examples: (1) (2) (3).
• Sdrawkcab Name: The world is named Cisum, which is music backwards.
• Set a Mook to Kill a Mook: Mao happens to position himself such that the king centipede attacking him bites and kills a smaller snake-centipede.
• Shadow Walker: Copycat is able to disappear into and appear from the shadows, and invisibly spy on Mao from them. He can also travel between shadows, including travelling to and from the Darkness Clan, and was able to take Mao and Kalliv along with him while doing so.
• Shapeshifter Default Form: Copycat usually copies other people's appearances and powers, but has a form that he describes as having his actual face, though his true form presumably resembles a regular vulture.
  Copycat: What! How rude! I'll have you know that was my actual face, I came up with it myself!
• Shapeshifter Mode Lock: Anyone who enters Betel's Forest is turned into a beast form, and those who can normally shapeshift are unable to revert while remaining there. Kalliv couldn't revert until chapter 3, despite leaving the forest in chapter 2.
• Shirtless Scene: Mao and Kalliv both get a shirtless appearance, though justifiably, as they were in bed.
• Shoulders-Up Nudity: Yokoka's back is shown while she's undressing for a bath, followed by her knees and shoulders being visible above the water line once she's in the bath.
• Shout-Out Theme Naming: Blinky, Pinky, Inky, and Clyde, are named after the four ghosts in Pacman, the first three of which are also rhyming names. Lady Pachi also more subtly fits the Pacman theme.
• Sibling Yin-Yang: The siblings Yin and Yang are opposites in terms of personalities, elemental magic, and colour schemes.
• Sick Episode: Yokoka has a fever through chapter 4, so she has a lesser role while Yfa takes the lead in trying to Find the Cure! together with his sister Raya.
• Side-Story Bonus Art: Bonus wallpapers are available to Ko-fi/Patreon supporters, and are later made available for free in the Ko-fi store. As well as general bonus art, these include less canon elements such as the characters wearing Christmas sweaters, a Crossover with A Mirror's Tale, or characters as Pokémon trainers.
• Significant Wardrobe Shift: Yokoka switches from wearing starry pajamas to wearing a martial arts uniform after she begins training in the underground village. Mao changes from one casual outfit to another after his first set is ruined fighting snake-centipedes, and more significantly changes outfit again (gaining a Scarf of Asskicking) once he starts fighting in the Darkness Clan's arena.
• Silent Scenery Panel: Silent scenery panels are occasionally used to indicate characters travelling or entering a new area. Many of these are splash panels which cover their entire two-page spreads, and often double as Scenery Porn. Some examples: (1) (2) (3).
• Slasher Smile: Hurricane wears a wide, sharp-toothed grin as she's mauling Yokoka.
• Smoking Is Not Cool: Grace gives Mao a pack of cigarettes. After lighting one up, he immediately looks disgusted and starts coughing.
• Sniff Sniff Nom: Yokoka sniffs and licks mud off her hand in a Q&A strip, thinking it might be chocolate. She then does exactly the same again with the mud on her other hand.
• Solar and Lunar: There are Sun and Moon Clans, elements, and languages. The Moon Clan has featured prominently in the story, with the Sun Clan having far less representation so far.
• The Spartan Way: The Darkness Clan is a dangerous place, for both its inhabitants and outsiders, best described by its leader in the below quote:
  Fahrin the Reaper: But if you're looking to get stronger, this is the best place. No one's gonna go easy on you, and if you don't have what it takes to survive, no one will hesitate to kill you either.
• Speech-Impaired Animal: Tomo is a small critter who is mute. He still has speech bubbles (in forest language colours!), which have so far contained either a circle of dashes, or an exclamation mark.
• Splash Panel: Each chapter has a splash panel as its cover page, and there are further splash panels beyond those. These splash panels cover their entire two-page spreads ^note (when reading online, these spreads are shown in full at double the width of a regular page, rather than as individual pages), and often feature little or no dialogue and particularly detailed scenery. Chapter cover examples: (1) (2) (3). Non-cover examples: (1) (2) (3).
• Spock Speak: Moon language is typically spoken without any contractions, though they may be used if the speaker is too emotional to speak formally (unnamed woman chasing Betelgeuse in the prologue), is an idiot (Yokoka), or doesn't care enough (Fahrin). The longest dialogue is between Azha and Misha in chapter 9, and shows how stiff the language can be when spoken correctly without contractions:
  Misha: You do not know the meaning of that word. This is supposed to be a vacation, is it not. You have not taken a single break.
• Spoof Aesop: When Mao justifies the extermination of creatures he originally intended to only drive out:
  Mao: So much for trying not to kill them... but I guess... they almost got me, so... it's fair.
• Sprouting Ears: Mao's curse makes him a catboy for the first 8 chapters, but after some work towards undoing that curse, he now only has his cat ears and tail pop out when he gets emotional.
• Squishy Wizard: Inky gets knocked out in one blow at the start of the fight against two tunnel dwellers (though so does Pinky).
• Stalker with a Crush: Copycat takes a liking to Mao, and often invisibly follows him around in his shadow and in his dreams.
• Stellar Name: Betelgeuse (of Orion) and Meissa ^note (Mao's pre-amnesia name) are both stars in the Orion constellation. Azha (of Eridanus), and his sisters Theemin and Rana, are stars in the Eridanus constellation. The goddess Polaris is named after the North Star, and Vega is also named after a star.
• String Theory: Grace has a conspiracy board, complete with red strings, in her home. Judging from her friend's mention of her "going on about Mothman or whatever", Grace probably has an interest in multiple conspiracies, so the board may or may not relate to her Cisum theories.
• Stumbled Into the Plot: Grace wanders into a basement, which just happens to contain the mirror path, the focus of her conspiracy, and route into Cisum.
• Summon Magic: The king centipede that Mao fought was summoned from the Darkness Clan with a summoning circle. Grace forms a pact with spirits born from her lucky deck, and has summoned them to teleport her and Yokoka away from a battle, to heal Yokoka, and to play poker with.
• Technicolor Magic: Anything associated with the Dream element tends to be purple, including the speech bubbles and font for Dream language, spell effects, dreamscape backgrounds, and Copycat's eyes.
• Tarot Troubles: Blinky uses a deck of tarot-like divination cards to determine Yokoka's and Grace's elemental edges and flaws. Each card in the deck represents one of Cisum's 12 elements or 12 sub-elements, and is filled with aura of its respective element.
• Technically Naked Shapeshifter: Spirit birds are able to transform freely, which includes being able to shapeshift into different outfits, while other characters who shapeshift wear actual clothes and change into them normally. Yfa doesn't wear anything in his base form, but shapeshifted into a fully-clothed human. Copycat's base form hasn't been shown, but being a bird is presumably naked, and has shapeshifted into many different forms and outfits.
• Talking Animal: Most residents of Betel's Forest appear to be regular animals who can talk, though it's possible that some are only animals due to the barrier's effects. Elsewhere, the creatures bullying Tomo were able to speak Forest language but didn't show human-like behaviour beyond that. There are also civilized and funny talking animals, such as Yfa's family and Misha.
• Tentacle Rope: Kalliv casts a spell to bind the king centipede with magic vines, allowing Mao a clear shot to cast the fireball which killed it.
• That Cloud Looks Like...: While Yokoka and Yfa are lying on the grass to relax, Yfa points out a heart-shaped and a person-shaped cloud.
• Theme Twin Naming: Yin and Yang are twins, named after the concepts of yin and yang. The Poker Gang are quadruplets, named after their respective card suits in French. While we don't know Yokoka's pre-amnesia name, judging from the Moon Clan's pattern of naming after stars, it's likely that she's named after a star in the Orion constellation like her twin brother Mao (Meissa).
• Three-Act Structure: The comic has three parts to it in total, each 8 chapters long. So far the first part is complete, and the second part (chapter 9) has just started.
• Through a Face Full of Fur: Yokoka blushes out of embarrassment while in cat form after waking up in Valyn's house, and Raya manages to display Blush Stickers when she's giving Puppy-Dog Eyes. One page shows something similar to but even more unlikely than seeing a blush through fur: Azha's blush is so bright, it's seen through his hands as they cover his face!
• Time Skip: Between each chapter is a time skip of a few weeks or months. The durations aren't explicitly stated, but can be inferred as lasting longer than just a few days from hair growing longer, learning to speak a new language, becoming adept at swordfighting, etc. Less than a year has passed in total between chapter 3 and chapter 9.
• Token Human: Grace is the sole fully human member of the cast shown in the world of Cisum so far, though there has been mention of other humans living within the Metals Clan.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: As the tomboy of the party, Yokoka wears whatever pants and shirt she's given, has no accessories beyong her ribbon weapon, and does nothing with her hair. She likes to fight, though she does also like to hug. In contrast as the girly girl, Grace wears makeup and skirts, accessorizes with a handbag, bracelet, and a variety of earrings, styles her hair in multiple ways, and is happy to help Yokoka with her attire and hair for a wedding. Grace has shown no interest in fighting, and would rather learn about the world of Cisum.
• Took a Level in Badass: Yokoka specifically asks Lady Pachi to teach her "to be this badass" after she leads a team to defeat a tunnel dweller. Yokoka then spends the next couple of chapters receiving combat training.
• Toplessness from the Back: Yokoka's back is shown while she's undressing for a bath, followed by her knees and shoulders being visible above the water line once she's in the bath.
• Tracking Device: Yokoka, Yfa, and Mao are magically tracked using the ribbon weapons that Vivi gives them.
• Tracking Spell: Vivi is revealed to be using magic to track Yokoka, Yfa, and Mao's locations and emotional states via their ribbon weapons.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Yfa is often shown eating apples, and rarely anything else ^note (Yfa is seen eating carrots and rice which Azha prepared), both in the comic and in other artwork. He even talks about his favourite type of apple in a q&a strip. Raya has a similar preference for grapes, though this is only shown in works outside of the comic itself so far.
• Training Boss: Mao asks Yokoka to transform her ribbon into a sword, before he begins battling her. After throwing fireballs and whip attacks at Yokoka, he proclaims defeat and leaves after merely tripping over. The end of chapter status screen following this shows Yokoka on low HP and Mao with nearly full HP.
• Training the Gift of Magic: Spells involving a Magical Incantation require the caster to be able to speak the words in the correct elemental language, and characters have an "edge" element that they should be naturally good at using. Yin teaches Yokoka a spell to see in the dark, and Yfa fails to learn it due to not knowing the language for that spell. Inky also fails to teach Yokoka any Light magic, despite Light being her edge element, as she can't comprehend Light language.
• Transformation Is a Free Action: Transformations appear to be instantaneous, with characters often transforming in a single panel.
• Translation Convention: Each spoken language has its own speech bubble and font style and colour, to make them easily distinguishable. These are shown as illegible text if the perspective character doesn't understand it.
• Trapped in Another World: Grace travelled from Earth to Cisum via the Mirror Path, located in a Las Vegas museum basement. It didn't appear as though travel back to Earth the same way was possible, though Grace is enjoying her time as the Token Human, and hasn't been shown even trying to find a way back. There has been mention of other humans living within the Metals Clan.
• Tree Top Town: Everyone in Betel's Forest lives in treehouses (aside from Betelgeuse as she's too big), with some at ground level and others among the branches. There are steps between the levels, though Yokoka jumps down or climbs up the trees instead.
• Troubled Backstory Flashback: Mao has a dream flashback, which details the events immediately following the prologue. This shows Mao and Yokoka turned into cats, Mao worrying over the unconscious Yokoka, Yokoka's continual disregard for Mao, Mao realizing that he's suffering from Identity Amnesia, Mao escaping from Betel's Forest, and Mao returning so as not to abandon Yokoka.
• Troubled, but Cute: Mao is this. Copycat even judges from his dreamscape that he's tormenting himself, and calls him cute.
• Two Lines, No Waiting: Yokoka and Mao are protagonist and deuteragonist, who the comics follow separately aside from when their paths occasionally intersect.
• Undressing the Unconscious: When Yokoka passes through Betel's barrier, she changes back from being a cat to an adult person, in the same clothes she last wore, and passes out; her ripped child-sized clothes are removed by the time she wakes up in Yin's house. When Yokoka is beaten unconscious by Hurricane, her ruined clothes are removed and replaced with bandages when she wakes up being cared for by Grace.
• Universal Poison: Poison is a discrete concept in Cisum, and the secondary element to Wood. Yokoka and Mao have the "Poison Immunity" ability due to being raised somewhere with toxic air, and this ability also protects Mao from snake-centipedes' venomous bites and drool.
• The Unintelligible: If the perspective character doesn't understand a particular language, its speech bubble is shown as illegible markings (with each language having a corresponding style of markings).
• Unreliable Narrator: Yokoka is an unreliable narrator at the start of chapter 1, opening with "My name is Yokoka. I've lived here all my life!"... though the prologue immediately prior tells the reader that this isn't actually true.
• Utility Weapon: As a giant boar-goat is charging at Mao, he uses his whip to latch onto chains bordering the arena and swing out of the way of danger.
• Variant Chess: When Fahrin is first introduced she is playing a solo game of what appears to be chess with unorthodox pieces.
• Villainous Crush: Copycat is introduced as a villain, raising snake-centipede pets which would have preyed on the nearby village, and entering Mao's dream to get revenge on him for killing said pets. He develops a crush on Mao and stops doing anything particularly villainous, and sticks to stalking him.
• Vine Tentacles: Kalliv casts a spell to bind the king centipede with magic vines, allowing Mao a clear shot to cast the fireball which killed it.
• Visible Silence: Many characters use ellipses in speech bubbles to indicate silence. Tomo uses a circle of dashed marks to indicate being mute. In both cases, the speech bubbles are still colour-coded according to the language.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: The beast/demon and demon/beast characters are able to switch between a demon (person) form and a beast form. They mostly appear to be able to do this freely, though Kalliv said he's unable to switch to his demon form when scared. Misha is also able to shapeshift into a big sabre-tooth cat. Spirit birds, such as Copycat, and part spirit birds, such as Yfa, are able to shapeshift into anything they can imagine.
• Waking Up Elsewhere: Yokoka passes out going through Betel's barrier at the end of chapter 1, and wakes up in Yin's home at the start of chapter 2. Yokoka is beaten unconscious by Hurricane at the end of chapter 8, and wakes up bandaged and being cared for by Grace at the end of chapter 9. Both times she lost her clothes, though for different reasons.
• Weather Manipulation: Hurricane is the cause of the storm at the end of chapter 8.
• Webcomic Time: Chapters generally seem to cover a one or two days of in-comic time, while taking months to be posted at a typical rate of 3 pages per week. Between each chapter is a planned hiatus, usually lasting for a few weeks of real time, during which there are in-comic time skips of a few weeks or months (not explicitly stated, but inferred from hair growing longer, learning to speak a new language, becoming adept at swordfighting, etc).
• Wedding Episode: Yokoka meets Yin in the underground village, who just happens to be there to take measurements for Blinky's dress, for her wedding to Clyde ^note (Yin is also shown making the dress in a Side-Story Bonus Art wallpaper). Yokoka, Yfa, and Grace are invited to attend their wedding after staying in the village for a while, and Grace has to dress Yokoka and teach her how weddings work beforehand. The chapter concludes with a two page Splash Panel of the bride and groom.
• Whip Sword: Mao primarily uses his ribbon weapon in the form of a whip, though he also changes it into a dagger. After it gets dissolved, he obtains them as two separate weapons instead.
• White Magic: Inky is shown using Light elemental magic to heal his allies and bind enemies in chains of light.
• Witch with a Capital "B": The unnamed woman chasing Betelgeuse in the prologue angrily calls her "Witch!" (despite her being the one casting a curse on that same page).
• Wrecked Weapon: Mao's ribbon weapon in the form of a dagger is dissolved by a snake-centipede's poison, and Yokoka's ribbon weapon in the form of a sword gets slashed to pieces by Hurricane.
• Yellow Lightning, Blue Lightning: The lightning element icons on the between-chapter status screens have a yellow outline and blue fill.
• Youthful Freckles: Raya has fur markings on her cheeks which resemble freckles, contributing to her Ridiculously Cute Critter appearance.

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