Did more sketching!

Doodled an entelodont from memory (the head should be bigger), and tried to make it look more interesting than just being a large pig. Actually it kinda turned out looking like a spotted hyena and I'm not even mad. Entelodonts are so rad. I've been to the American Museum of Natural History and saw the real live actual type specimen (and only specimen) of Andrewsarchus, which is nowadays widely suspected to be an entelodont relative. I remember reading about it when I was younger and how it was speculated to be an absolutely massive carnivore, before further research gave it a firmer phylogenetic placement. That's one of the fun things about paleontology--our vision of the past is constantly being updated by further discoveries and research.

And then something completely different: ponies. I've been on a bit of a My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic kick lately, and I've even been making plans for an entire blog post essayrant about everything Gen 5 got wrong that Gen 4 (FiM) excelled at, because I am an Ultimate Nerd. I've also been working on a fanfic that explores what Princesses Celestia and Luna might get up to after the events of FiM season 9, because I really don't think they'd be content to laze around forever after their retirement. They need adventures!

Anyway, these are two OCs of mine who I've written about in previous fics (maybe I'll put my MLP fics up on the blog once I'm done posting all my Neopets stuff). Princess Radiant Dawn is an alicorn who rules the kingdom of Daybreak, which she saved from a tyrannical lamia queen. Radiant Dawn is the Princess of Happiness, and Daybreak is home to many ponies whose special talents lie in the realm of spreading happiness. Ray is quiet and shy, but won't stand for injustice, and strongly believes that when all ponies are allowed to follow their passion and their dreams, everypony benefits. She has a real soft spot for foals, because she used to be a schoolteacher before becoming an alicorn.

Below is her husband, Prince Ironclad, the erstwhile general of a pegasus city-state. The two met when Radiant Dawn was called in to Ironclad's homeland (er, homecloud?) to help expose a government conspiracy, and although they got off to a rough start, they discovered they made a great team. Ironclad is hard-working and no-nonsense and can come across as gruff, but he shows his warmer side toward his family.

 And pony versions of Tam and Carrie from Ravenscrag. I was kind of experimenting with getting more dynamic with my pony drawing; I've been studying the artwork in the FiM comics and trying to render my ponies with more fluidity. In the past I haven't strayed far from the original look of the TV series with its fairly rigid Flash assets, but I felt like that was making my artwork too stiff. 

Okay, I'm off to do more nerdy stuff.

 Heading onto Cycling Road, where the local roughnecks gave me lots of great comic fodder. What, you thought they were saying this stuff to be mean and tough? :)

Return to Lynwood, Chapter 2

Chapter 1 - Chapter 2

Isengrim led the pack as they edged around the trunk. Soon an opening came into view, revealing that time and the elements had hollowed the wreck of wood.

“Are you all right?” he called. “What’s wrong? What happened to you?”

No reply. He moved closer to the shadowed opening.

“Careful,” Suhel muttered from over his shoulder. “There are plenty of ghouls who emulate a Neopet in distress to lure in their victims.”

Isengrim nodded. “And this fae blade can dispel them,” he said, turning the claymore in his hand so the ancient runes etched in the steel caught the grey sky above. The faerie-forged sword had been a most gracious gift from Hyren, easily the best weapon in Isengrim’s collection. It certainly came in handy in times like these.

 Wrong universe, Cucco!

This poor guy just has the worst luck with his bird calls.

 If you're playing the original Red, Blue, and Yellow on a regular monochrome Game Boy, the walls in Fuchsia Gym really are invisible. But if you're playing on a Game Boy Color (or an equivalent console that supports color), you can actually see them a little! I played on a GBC, so navigating the Fuchsia Gym wasn't quite as challenging as Koga may have intended. 

 I guess Voltorb and Electrode are really the only Pokémon this works for. 

Best zoo ever.

Return to Lynwood, Chapter 1

Chapter 1 - Chapter 2

Has it really been over two years since the last time I posted a Neopets fanfic here?

I've had a lot going on, and my editor has also been extremely busy, so I'm happy to finally be able to start posting chapters of this fic. Hopefully there won't be any more protracted delays in the future. Getting all of my Neopets fanfic up on this blog has been an important goal of mine for a while.

Anyway. After I wrote Farewell to Lynwood, I found myself wanting to follow up on Lexora--she was too impactful and sympathetic of a character to just relegate to someone else's backstory. I wanted to find some way to reunite her with Suhel so they could continue the friendship they didn't really get the chance to start as children. 

I had also been tossing around ideas for further adventures for Isengrim and his pack; I thought it would be interesting to see how they'd interact with a new, much younger Werelupe, especially since (with the exception of younger Terra and Blynn in Worth Fighting For), I realized my Neopets cast didn't contain any children, and I wanted to explore that dynamic. 

I also thought it would be really interesting to see what would happen if Isengrim encountered a new, much more sociopathic Werelupe King. In a way, Vakhtang is a little symbolic of me as Isengrim's writer fully abandoning my initial concept for his character; it's as if I took all the dysfunctionalism of Isengrim's former personality and transferred it over to a new character who serves as a great foil for current Isengrim's generosity and nobility. In this story, I feel that Isengrim has fully moved on from his past and has become a full-fledged hero in his own right, making it a satisfying ending to that segment of his character development.

And, after writing The Spirit of Black Keep where Pharazon began to come into his own magically and move forward from the events of Worth Searching For, I really wanted to write him into an adventure where he would have an opportunity to do proper wizard stuff--as well as heal his relationship with Suhel.

Each of those elements on their own wasn't enough to build a narrative... but I found when I put them all together, they worked perfectly. An important thing I've learned in writing long-form fiction is that it's crucial to have a plotline that has enough going on in it to sustain the reader's interest through a protracted story. Multiple challenges to overcome, character arcs for characters besides the main protagonist, and complications in the journey are essential--otherwise, you'll just have a very thin plot that you're stretching to be tens of thousands of words longer than necessary. It taxes the patience of both the writer and the reader. 

That's why, if I come up with a plot idea that I just don't feel has enough to it for me to make a good meaty story out of, I'll hold on to it until I come up with other ideas to add to it. I think that's much better than rushing a barebones plot hook into production and inevitably finding you can't come up with more than two thousand words.

I also had a lot of fun returning to the Haunted Woods for this fic. In canon material, the Haunted Woods generally ends up looking more like the Halloween section of Wal-Mart exploded, but I enjoy envisioning the locale as sort of a combination of Mirkwood, the Appalachians, and the Black Forest--ancient, thick woodland saturated with magic of a quiet and eerie sort.

Anyway, enough rambling from me--on to the fic!

The Haunted Woods has two seasons. They are autumn and slightly-warmer-autumn.

It was at the end of slightly-warmer-autumn, when the trees put on their grand display of yellows, reds, and oranges before curling into brittle brown, that the Werelupe King ventured back to his old home for the first time in years.

The massive dark Werelupe, bedecked in bone-and-fang regalia, crunched through dead leaves on the forest floor, one large forepaw on the hilt of the sword across his back. His ears were high and his crimson eyes darted about, looking for signs of danger as he smelled the scents carried in the cold, wet wind.

After a moment surveying the space in front of him, he let out a satisfied sigh. “All clear,” he called behind him.