Return to Lynwood, Chapter 7

Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 3 - Chapter 4 - Chapter 5 - Chapter 6 - Chapter 7

Lexora’s tail bushed and she looked down as if she could see the curse on herself, putting her paws on her blouse. “I—what?” she gasped. Mr. Fitchet sat up in his chair and leaned forwards anxiously.

“You can see curses?” Suhel asked Pharazon. To her Werelupe vision, nothing looked wrong with Lexora at all.

“Well, they are a type of magic,” the faerie Draik said. “Magic to me is what smell is to you. I could see Connor’s curse on him, plain as day.”

 Did some doodling last night for a novel concept I've been working on. I kept trying to draw these characters in my usual style, but they just didn't look right until I switched to more of an anime style. Which makes sense as this whole story concept is like an 80's cyberpunk anime that never happened.

Kitsuko "Kit" Nonaka is a 370-year-old kitsune living in late-21st-century Kyoto and working for the city's Youkai Defense Forces. She usually works in the IT department, but also helps on youkai neutralization missions because, kitsune and swordswoman. After a devastating human-youkai conflict a decade ago, Japan became divided between human-inhabited cities and youkai-inhabited wilderness called the Nightlands. However, sometimes youkai make their way into cities (either accidentally or malevolently) and need to be apprehended and returned to the Nightlands.

Kit left the Nightlands a few years ago because she's always been fascinated by human culture and wants to be a part of human society, and her friendly, easygoing demeanor has earned her many friends in the YDF, despite a lingering distrust of youkai in general in the city.

When not at work, Kit can be found in her apartment playing online games where nobody has to know she's a youkai.

Kit's usual partner on missions is Kaede Mizutani, a snarky and blunt ex-soldier with amnesia still trying to adjust to civilian life. She empathizes with Kit as they're both outsiders trying to find their place in their society, although Kaede still has to contend with her own past being more complicated than she assumed.

Together with the rest of the YDF, Kit and Kaede have their hands full managing the fragile balance between humans and youkai... and things get more complicated when a new youkai-battling organization crops up, this one spearheaded by a vengeance-driven part-youkai antihero, and whose objective is not to keep humans and youkai safe from each other, but to eliminate youkai entirely.

It's a story about understanding and having compassion for those who are different from you, about the importance of forgiveness, and how conflicts are not truly resolved unless all parties' needs have been addressed.

 Not sure a derelict research facility where the floors are literally falling apart is the best place to set up your laboratory.

On an up note, I got to draw magnetic tape drives! Who needs solid state, anyway?

Digimon Adventure: and how not to approach a reboot

Two nerd rants in one month? I'm not quite sure what this says about me.

Today I wanted to discuss why the original Digimon Adventure anime worked so well and became so beloved and nostalgic for the first generation of Digimon fans, why the 2020 reboot Digimon Adventure: (often colloquially referred to as Digimon 2020 by fans because the colon is not pronounced, so in speech it's impossible to tell the two titles apart) failed to recapture Adventure's success, and why you really need to think long and hard before rebooting anything (aside from a frozen PC).

Return to Lynwood, Chapter 6

Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 3 - Chapter 4 - Chapter 5 - Chapter 6 - Chapter 7

Suhel’s breath caught in her throat as she waited for Lexora to respond. The Kougra searched the Werelupe’s face, and Suhel wondered if Lexora remembered a certain stubborn little Lupe first-year with a western Haunted Woods accent.

The other Werelupes clustered around their king and his second-in-command, as did Terra and Pharazon. A few of Isengrim’s thanes let out low growls at the Kougra, which Suhel cut short with a motion of her paw. Pharazon stared hard at the woman, his blue eyes narrowing.

Lexora blinked, jaw agape, and finally said, “C-Caradoc?! I thought I’d never see you again! When you left for the Woods and never came back—we all assumed the worst!”

“I survived,” Suhel said. “Well, I did far better than survive, I’d say.”

 Well, at least someone finally found her.

 Also on last Fossil Friday, Ashley mentioned it would be really cool if ankylosaurs camouflaged themselves by putting plants on their back, like the terrestrial equivalent of decorator crabs, and wanted someone to draw that. I thought it sounded like a fun challenge. I love talking to scientists because they come up with so many great ideas that I never would have thought of!

I'm not sure ankylosaurs had the dexterity to pick something up and put it on their back, but I did think it plausible that they could roll in mud, get dirt caked on their backs, and then let plants grow in the dirt! I'd love to see something like this trundling around the desert.

The ankylosaur in question is Pinacosaurus from the Djadokhta Formation in Mongolia. The only flora found in the Djadokhta Formation so far are conifers, so I essentially had to come up with the shrubbery carte blanche. Aside from a few sapling conifers, I also populated this guy's back with a mix of plants currently found in the Gobi Desert, and shrubs found in the American West such as manzanita, sagebrush, and yes, good old tumbleweeds. I'm not saying these plant groups were definitely present in the Djadokhta, but the climactic conditions were similar enough that similar plants were probably present. It's a fudge, but a well-researched fudge.