Shadow Play, Chapter 8

Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 3 - Chapter 4 - Chapter 5 - Chapter 6 - Chapter 7
Chapter 8

Terra and her family ate breakfast in their suite the next morning. They’d stocked the kitchen with groceries, for days when they didn’t feel like mingling in the cafeteria, and today was one of those days. Terra liked the extra bit of downtime to lounge in her pajamas, and after the emotional whirlwind of yesterday, she wanted to give herself some extra TLC.

She’d just taken a bite of her rainbow toast when someone knocked softly at the door. “I’ll get it,” Isengrim said as he moved to the door and opened it. “Ah—good morning, Zoltan.” Terra tensed a bit and concentrated hard on her toast, hoping Zoltan would not notice her, or at least would not have anything critical to say about her.

“Good morning,” the Kyrii replied, clearly more out of politeness than because he truly found anything good about the morning. The harsh edge seemed to have gone out of his tone—Terra wondered if he’d overheard her conversation with Isengrim in the hall last night. She couldn’t decide whether that would be beneficial or embarrassing. Probably both, but if it was beneficial she was okay with it.

 

 This of course is a reference to how Professor Oak next appears in the Sinnoh games. :)

 Yesterday I was sitting in on a cosmology lecture by my buddy Chris Lintott, and (in true Chris Lintott fashion) he included a mysterious wedge of cheese on the title slide of the lecture, and proceeded to not say anything about it until the end of the lecture when he tied the holes in the cheese into inflationary theory.

When I commented on it afterward, he told me it was Chekhov's cheese. So then I just had to draw that.

One of the many reasons I enjoy hanging out with scientists is because they give me the best ideas.

 It's definitely one of my science journalism pet peeves when something about aliens gets shoehorned into as many article titles as possible. Psychological manipulation at its finest.

 A couple of weeks ago on Virtual Fossil Friday, my friend Maggie Jo gave a great presentation on the thylacine (colloquially called the Tasmanian tiger), and I mentioned the presentation made me want to make an amigurumi plush thylacine, and Maggie Jo said "if you make one, I want it", so I made one for her. :)

This was a very involved project as I designed the pattern myself, but it was a lot of fun. It didn't turn out 100% perfect, but I think it's not bad for a first go. Those toebeans came out absolutely precious, IMO.

I've got a long list of other cool critters I'd like to design amigurumi for, and I'll keep posting them here!

Also, if anyone wants this pattern, I can sell you the PDF for it! Just get in touch with me via email.

 I loved how Lance's actual line in the game "This is all getting a bit too noisy" worked so well in this situation.

Also, in retrospect it probably would have been more satisfying to have Chikorita (now a Meganium) deliver the blast-off to Oak, but Jynx's Ice Punch made more sense from a choreographic perspective.

 I just had to make a Redbubble design featuring the ever-adorable Vampyroteuthis! Always looking for excuses to sneak vampire squid into things. <3