Oct 10, 2021
To:Konoko Asada
Thank you so much, Konoko! You're a very attentive reviewer! You're not the first person to say they avoided Slashers because it looked like a horror story; I'll keep that in mind for future fiction. I'm glad you liked the Blue Nasties and their mean little interactions, lol. I figured out early on that what they really were was a Dungeons & Dragons party in a slasher horror movie setting.
The Dungeon Universe is one of my favourite aspects too. I combined the Warp from Warhammer 40k with my own ideas to create it; there's infinite potential for ideas there, and I'll certainly be using it in future fiction as a link between all the universes in my multiverse. Very cool that you felt captivated by the lore of the Kingdom of Kāmohoaliʻi and Mars, and I completely understand about you being mystified by the Spirit Beasts since I didn't put much effort into fleshing them out. I had a vague idea of the Spirit Beasts acting as the slashers' own personal spirit animals/ancestral spirits/anthropomorphic subconciousnesses/LSD clockwork elves/demons which they would sacrifice their victims to to become more powerful in a deal with the devil type scenario. I wanted them to be weird and cool, but I didn't think people would be that interested their lore. I guess I must have left you with the same feeling I got when Kurapika learned Nen offscreen in Hunter x Hunter: a kind of 'Hey, wait, I was interested in that! What happened there?!' type of feeling. 
Great that you loved Sam (she's by far the fan favourite; based on Kobeni Higashiyama, my favourite character from Chainsaw Man, so that makes sense). Alice was based on Alice in Wonderland and the Lizardman/Erik Sprague, a real life circus freak. If you want more of that wonderful, bizzare language, definitely check out Alice in Wonderland. As for Marilyn, she evolved far more than I initially planned and is still mysterious, but I guess a femme fatale should be mysterious. 'Shrug.'
The humour and philosophy of the novel came more naturally to be than I'd have thought, and yes, you've spotted my anime inspirations, which Slashers is absolutely loaded with.
You're right about me leaving things mysterious and even disputed about the nature of slashers and Jack's backstory. I think that's good. I think the best fiction should be mysterious so that inspires the reader to imagine the answers to unanswered questions and leave them wanting more. Warhammer 40k does that, but Star Wars doesn't; it answers all the questions it puts forth, which in my opinion is why Warhammer 40k has got better and better while Star Wars has got worse and worse. Marilyn's engagement ring suddenly appearing was actually just a mistake on my part; I forgot to upload half a chapter before the deadline, so the Blue Nasties end up going straight to the circus instead of going to the funfair first like they should have. If you'd read that half of the chapter, it wouldn't have seemed so abrupt. If I don't win the contest, I'll put the funfair section back in and message you.
Thanks for your readership! 
It seems that each of my readers has their fav character; I'm glad you found yours in Alice, that little weirdo.