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A Fun Interview with ONEIRIC ROPER, the Creator of My Pet Hellhound
What happens when you fuse your childhood pet with your childhood best friend, add a cursed game manual, and shrug off the responsibility of preventing an apocalypse at a prestigious art school?
You get My Pet Hellhound — a story packed with magic, madness, mythology, and the kind of chaotic friendship that could save (or destroy) the world. We sat down with the creator to talk about their genre-bending, rule-breaking, and soul-revealing new web novel.
👿 So… what is “My Pet Hellhound”? Give us your pitch — the weirder, the better.
In its simplest form—it’s about friendship between a boy and his pet. But at its heart, it’s a powder keg of magic, mystery, myth, and chaos.
Billy Bramwell-Gates—a street magician, role-player, and student at an elite art school—finds his life upended on a day of personal, unmitigated mayhem. Unknowingly, he becomes the unwitting holder of a mysterious “rule” book—one he assumes is just part of his game. His curious fascination with the book leads to the summoning of an actual human-beast hybrid hellhound. The crazy part? She’s an important figure from his past.
Once the beast is out of the bag, a firestorm of events ignites surrounding his campus’s urban legend, evil entities, and a doomsday cult.
🎭 Billy’s clearly not your average school protagonist. What makes him stand out — and what do you love (or love to torture) about writing him?
Billy has the heart of a loner, yet fate blessed him with a close-knit circle of friends. He is hyper-aware that maintaining those bonds takes considerable inner work—but he does it.
At his best, he’s driven by a willful determination to live life on his own terms—despite the weight of inherited obligations. Most dismiss his claims of harnessing real magic as delusional, but he remains firm in his convictions, even as he accepts the limits of his abilities. He believes in himself. And there is wicked fun in testing his convictions.
At his worst, he is impulsive, lacks a filter, and is too damn willful—yes it’s his best quality but it often leads to trouble.
🔥 The Hellhound herself — who is she? What can you tease about her personality, powers, and the wild dynamic she has with Billy?
The hellhound is, literally, the stuff of dreams.
Curious about gaming companions, Billy attempted to create one. But when he uses the unusual rules from his mysterious guidebook, he accidentally summons a hellhound—a flesh-and-blood fusion of his childhood best friend and his favorite pet.
She’s a unique type, too: a hybrid hellhound—a human woman that can transform into a massive, terrifying beast-dog at will. To complicate matters, she’s a figure from Billy’s past with whom he once shared a deep bond.
As far as wild dynamics go, I’ll say this—some people are not happy to see Billy walking Hellie (in human form) across campus with a collar and leash. But seriously, he is doing it for their protection.
🔋 The tone swings between hilarious, horrifying, and heartfelt. How do you balance the absurd with the emotional — and why does that mix hit so hard here?
Life is absurd on so many levels. Which is easy to check… just open social media.
I approached My Pet Hellhound like a mad alchemist, sprinkling in a dash of comedy, part terror, part myth, and a whole lot of mystery.
The main ingredient is the cast, their relationships, actions, and reactions blend so well together. But honestly, the hellhound is the secret sauce. We all love our pets.
🎲 There’s a strong gaming thread in this story — roleplay rules, summoned companions, reality blurring with fantasy. What inspired that angle? Are you a gamer yourself, or were you channeling something else?
I love games.
They’re a sweet, sweet source of inspiration—adding texture and layers to storytelling. I especially enjoy drawing parallels between the games we play and events in the real world. Having Billy discover that many of his game’s fantasy elements are real is pure fun to write.
What if the spells and monsters in your game were real? In My Pet Hellhound, they are.
Ask yourself this: the next time you play a game or watch TV, and something from it shows up in your real life—was it coincidence, or by design? That’s the kind of question Billy will have to face as his story unfolds.
Using tabletop role-playing games as a backdrop was a no-brainer. The genre is rich in mystical lore and built around togetherness—both core themes of My Pet Hellhound. That little VR side quest with Guitar Slasher? It’s a nod to my love for the Isekai genre and a perfect way to highlight what I think is crucial to wizardry: timing. (There’s quite a bit of foreshadowing baked in there, too.)
Personally, I love a good RPG. But fighting games? That’s my jam.
🧠 What’s something you discovered about yourself while writing this story?
That like Billy, I have magic, too. Not the fantasy sort—but just like Billy reaching into the void to craft a spell, I reached in and returned with this story.
Pulling together threads of My Pet Hellhound, weaving them together, and watching fate align in the process is a fun and beautiful thing to be a part of. It’s magic in every sense of the word.
Those reading closely—honestly, it’s right up front—will see that I believe we’re all magicians, creating our worlds from nothing every single day.
🌋 Final question: Why should someone drop everything right now and dive into My Pet Hellhound? What are they in for — and what might they walk away with?
I’m all about urgency, but “drop everything”? Haha. If they do, much appreciated! But how about giving My Pet Hellhound‘s web novel a top priority spot in their reading list?
The tale I spun is packed with dark and magical undercurrents that will crash to the surface—dark magical systems, spiritual warfare, and hunts. Lots of hunts. The cast will experience the bizarre, fragile, heartfelt moments, and the revelations of who their true friends and/or enemies really are.
All of it culminates in worldbuilding that will span across three volumes, each wildly different from the next, all made up of 30+ chapters.
Right now is the perfect time to get to know Billy and his pet, Hellie. We’re part of a summer-long reading appreciation drive, so BOOK ONE is available for free on phantasyunderground.com.
And the plans don’t stop there: audiobooks, collected light novels, and a digiepic Webtoon are all in the works! I’d love for you to be a part of it—not just as a reader, but hopefully one day a fan.
