Unlike the Gen I games, Gold/Silver/Crystal have you start out in a black void where a disembodied voice is talking to you and asking you to set the time. Which is actually pretty terrifying if you stop to think about it too much like I have!

Return to Lynwood, Chapter 12

Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 3 - Chapter 4 - Chapter 5 - Chapter 6 - Chapter 7
Chapter 8 - Chapter 9 - Chapter 10 - Chapter 11 - Chapter 12

For the rest of that day and the first half of the next, they travelled further south, deeper into the ancient Woods. The rain continued off and on, which Isengrim appreciated as it drowned out any scent trail they might be leaving. Nevertheless, he did not see any more V’s slashed into trees. He guessed that Vakhtang probably operated more northward, where there were towns to raid. This increased their chances that the iron-hearted Werelupe hadn’t stumbled upon the artefact—but not enough for Isengrim to stop worrying.

If there was any upside to the situation, it was Connor becoming slightly more personable. Although still quiet and far from chatty, he no longer seemed so sulky, and by the twitching of his ears seemed to actually be listening to the others instead of outright ignoring them.

Isengrim was not sure if the pup had taken to heart his companions’ promise to protect him, but it looked as though Connor at least found them better company than Vakhtang. Although the dark-furred Werelupe could hardly consider that a compliment. He was fairly certain a mutant Kiko with the Sneezles would be better company than Vakhtang.

 

 Aaaaand welcome to Book 2!

I'd been wanting to make a chapter covering the Johto games since the very beginning of the comic; Gen II is my favorite Pokemon generation and Gold/Silver/Crystal are some of my favorite core series games. Unfortunately, at the time, there was a bit of a snag--the Gen II cartridges released in America are notorious for having unusually low lifetimes for the save battery, meaning my games didn't save anymore. 

This was back in the day before virtual re-releases on newer consoles, so I did what any dedicated fan would do: I bought a new battery for my Silver cart and a friend of mine helped me get the cart open so we could replace the battery. Miraculously, that worked, and I was able to have another Johto adventure.

If you know anything at all about those games, you're probably wondering what Kris is doing as the player character when it's supposed to be about Silver Version. I did indeed base these comics off Silver (so no, no Eusine or Suicune subplot here, sorry), but Crystal was the first core series game to allow you to choose the gender of your player character, which, being a girl, I really appreciated. So I decided to honor that by making Kris the main character of chapter 2. (No shade to Ethan, but Kris is kinda more fun to draw anyway.)

So buckle up--the adventure starts tomorrow!

 And thus concludes the Gen I story(?) arc of Trainer Wants to Battle!

After this, I took a break for a few months because the comic was a lot of work and I needed a breather. But this definitely wasn't the end of the story. Nor of Oak's reign of terror over the Pokémon world.

Gen II starts tomorrow!

 I drew this to put on graphics in my stores. Because whenever you say the phrase "dinosaur renaissance" this just keeps popping into my head.

Apologies to Dr. Bob Bakker. But he'd probably like this so I'm not too sorry.

(Yes, I know what the actual dinosaur renaissance is. That's why Deinonychus is playing the role of da Vinci.)

 Oak is a terrifying person to have as a grandfather.

Return to Lynwood, Chapter 11

Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 3 - Chapter 4 - Chapter 5 - Chapter 6 - Chapter 7
Chapter 8 - Chapter 9 - Chapter 10 - Chapter 11 - Chapter 12

The next morning dawned just as cool and foggy as the last. This was usual for the Haunted Woods, and Isengrim enjoyed the frequent cloud cover over the region. Werelupes were creatures of the night, and the sun often hurt their sensitive eyes and overheated their thick-furred bodies. Isengrim and his pack used to be largely nocturnal, but over the past few years had eased into being more active during the day, to better facilitate relations between them and their diurnal allies.

Not to mention his owner was a morning person. By the time Isengrim was ready to open his eyes, Terra was already up and about, nibbling on a bit of bread and dried fruit for her own breakfast before she helped a groggier-looking Pharazon get Gwyneth fed and watered. Suhel and her packmates had gone off on another hunt. Connor was still asleep, while Lexora had been woken up by her own coughing a while ago, and never managed to get back to sleep.

 

 Yeah, no, 10 years old is waaaaaay too young to be coming of age.

Takeshi Shudō, the head writer for the first seasons of the Pokémon anime, wrote some novelizations of the first episodes of the anime where he went more in-depth about the society of the Pokémon world as shown in the anime. In the anime universe as Shudō envisioned it, people were legally considered adults at age 10, which is why Ash and Misty can romp around Kanto without any adult supervision, and why 10 is the minimum age one can be registered as a Pokémon Trainer.

Seeing as Professor Oak shows up at the end of the game to congratulate Red on becoming Champion... it was the perfect opportunity to unleash his insanity upon readers again. :)

Return to Lynwood, Chapter 10

Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 3 - Chapter 4 - Chapter 5 - Chapter 6 - Chapter 7
Chapter 8 - Chapter 9 - Chapter 10 - Chapter 11 - Chapter 12

The trip to the old keep would take two and a half days from here, but they would be far from boring ones, Isengrim thought as they began their march through the forest. The Haunted Woods was full of wild beauty, and the company couldn’t be beat. The only things dampening his mood were the curse, Connor’s struggles, and the nagging fear that someone or something might have found the staff by now. After all, it had been nearly fifteen years since that keep was destroyed—more than enough time for looters to comb through the ruins.

But he tried not to let that get him down. After all, the air was cool and clean, the trees were aflame in autumn colours, and he and his party chatted and sang as they went. Lexora was quite good company, and the secondhand shopkeeper had a great deal of secondhand stories from her father about his globetrotting business exploits.

Isengrim was fascinated with everything Mr. Fitchet had seen and done in places like Shenkuu and Krawk Island. Someday he would have to figure out a way to travel over Neopia more widely without causing too much trouble. The fact that he still had business ties to quite a few individuals on the wrong side of the law had made his dealings with other kingdoms complicated, and lately the fact had begun to set less and less well with him. He thought that when he returned home, he should devote some time to trying to figure out a solution.

 

 I feel bad for Blue, honestly. He seems to spend most of his time waiting around for Red to show up. Who knows how long he had to sit in that Champion's room bored out of his mind.

 Agatha's line when you challenge her is a really intriguing bit of character development... that never gets brought up again. Also she's nowhere to be seen in Gen II which takes place three years after Gen I. I dunno, maybe she and Oak got married and she realized there's more to life than Pokemon battles?

 More doodling, this time for a My Little Pony fanfic I've been working on (which explains last month's geek rant). 

This is a concept design for the evil version of mirror-universe King Sombra, as the fic is a follow-up to the MLP:FiM graphic novel storyline “Reflections”. That story arc revolves around an alternate-universe Equestria where moral alignments are reversed, meaning that universe’s versions of Celestia and Luna are evil while King Sombra is good. Regular Celestia finds her way into this universe during her studies under Starswirl the Bearded, and she and Mirror-Sombra strike up a relationship that is severed when Mirror-Sombra absorbs the evil inside Mirror-Celestia and Mirror-Luna to prevent them from trying to take over regular Equestria. Celestia is also forced to seal the passageway between the universes to prevent them from becoming inextricably entangled.

 

 If you see somebody bothering with Victory Road, do you even need to ask that question?

My friend Ashley Hall is moving on from Museum of the Rockies and won't be co-hosting Virtual Fossil Fridays anymore! I'm sure Maggie Jo will continue to do a wonderful job hosting, but I'm going to miss seeing Ashley every week too. I drew her a couple of things to express my appreciation for everything she's done for science outreach at MOR during her time there.

She asked me to draw a picture of her riding a Parasaurolophus (her favorite dino), so I had to remember a lot of things I forgot about horseback riding from when I would go to visit my equestrian aunt as a kid. (Horses kinda terrify me with their extreme jumpiness and their ability to sense your lack of confidence. Carnivores are more my speed.) I also included her cat Samhain because I always look for excuses to include cats in things. :)

 

And then I drew her as an actual Parasaurolophus because why not. She used to work at the Page Museum at Rancho La Brea*, so I drew her with Smilodon, one of the tar pits' iconic species. Love that place. I hope I get to visit it again someday.

Thanks for everything, Ashley! I'm secretly hoping she organizes another chapter of Virtual Fossil Fridays in her new location. Double the paleontology, double the fun!

*For those not in the know, "la brea" is literally Spanish for "the tar". So when you say "La Brea Tar Pits" you are saying "the the tar tar pits". Let's be less cavalier with our linguistics, shall we?

This message has been paid for by the Coalition Against Tautological Place Names.

Return to Lynwood, Chapter 9

Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 3 - Chapter 4 - Chapter 5 - Chapter 6 - Chapter 7
Chapter 8 - Chapter 9 - Chapter 10 - Chapter 11 - Chapter 12

Isengrim awoke to a twinge in his leg and the smell of breakfast. No—to call it just a “smell” would not do it justice. The aromas wove a rich tapestry that told tales of sizzling bacon, hot mushrooms and tomatoes dripping with their juices, hearty black pudding, sweet and savoury beans, buttered toast, and potatoes browned to a perfect crisp.

His mouth watered as his eyes remained shut. Then someone playfully whacked his shoulder. “I was wondering when you’d get up, lazybones,” Suhel’s voice said.

Isengrim opened his eyes to see her standing over the sofa with a smirk. He offered her a grin. “How did you know I was awake? My eyes were still closed.”

She let out a few coughs and took a swig of tea. “You were drooling, milord.”

 

 Back in the early days when there was a limited pool of Pokemon to pull from for NPC teams, some type specialists didn't always have teams that strictly fit the theme.

See also: Sabrina and her Venomoth (Bug/Poison-type in a Psychic Gym?!), Agatha and her Arbok (definitely not a Ghost-type), Bruno and his Onix (I'm surprised there aren't more fan theories floating around about him being Brock's dad or some such).

 Today on Virtual Fossil Friday, we were talking about the dwarf sauropod Magyarosaurus and how it was the perfect size for riding, and Ashley and Maggie Jo wanted me to draw this. :)

Return to Lynwood, Chapter 8

Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 3 - Chapter 4 - Chapter 5 - Chapter 6 - Chapter 7
Chapter 8 - Chapter 9 - Chapter 10 - Chapter 11 - Chapter 12

“Millie!” Lexora grimaced and stood up. “I’m sorry, dear, did all this fuss wake you up?”

The grey Ogrin nodded, still staring at the odd scene below her. “Yes, and my brothers—“

A scrawny little yellow Moehog and a slightly larger, portly white Skeith pushed past her, scrambling halfway down the stairs before they, too, saw the Werelupes and stopped. “Wow!” the Skeith said as he and the Moehog poked their heads through the banister. “Mummy, are those real Werelupes?”

“We certainly are,” one of Isengrim’s thanes said with a toothy grin.

“We’ve got real Werelupes in our house!” the Moehog squeaked, although he looked as though he couldn’t quite decide whether to be excited or terrified.

 

 Ever notice how no matter how many times Red visits home, Red's mom is just loitering in front of the TV? Really makes me wonder about her parenting skills.

 The trope of an awkward nerd endlessly spouting scientific information is subverted when somebody actually wants to hear that information.

I find scientists so easy to strike up conversations with. All you have to do is ask them what they've been working on lately, and they get to talk at length about their current research, and you get a free lecture. Everybody wins.

 I liked that Cinnabar Mansion background so much that I just recycled it for this comic.

Also, now this Scientist makes sense.

Return to Lynwood, Chapter 7

Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 3 - Chapter 4 - Chapter 5 - Chapter 6 - Chapter 7
Chapter 8 - Chapter 9 - Chapter 10 - Chapter 11 - Chapter 12

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
Chapter 8 - Chapter 9 - Chapter 10 - Chapter 11 - Chapter 12

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.

 There are some surprising Pokémon who can learn Surf, like Tentacool, Mudkip, Goldeen, and Sentret. I dunno, maybe they tow you in an inner tube or something. (But the fact that the Pikachu line can learn Surf is totally normal, of course.)

 Last Fossil Friday, Maggie Jo was gushing about Velociraptor (and why wouldn't one) and she came up with the pun "Velocirapper" and then she wanted somebody to draw that. Good thing there was a mad doodler in the audience.

 Maybe don't stay in the ocean too long though.

Return to Lynwood, Chapter 5

Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 3 - Chapter 4 - Chapter 5 - Chapter 6 - Chapter 7
Chapter 8 - Chapter 9 - Chapter 10 - Chapter 11 - Chapter 12

When they emerged from the trees onto the main road into Barrowmere, Connor started and jerked forward. Before he could take off in a run, Isengrim grabbed his shoulder and held him back. “Stay with us,” the Werelupe King said. “Remember… you do not look like yourself anymore. We will keep you safe.”

Connor looked crestfallen, but he seemed to have an ounce of sense as he moved behind Isengrim with a sullen pout.

“The good news is,” Isengrim said as he led the way onto lantern-lit cobblestones, “we have arrived late enough that there should not be many Neopets on the street. They should not give us too much trouble. Connor, would you direct us to your house?”

“Right—go down the high street for a bit,” the boy said, “and I’ll tell you where to turn.”

Rain had recently passed through the area, leaving puddles that the pack occasionally splashed through. The Werelupes clustered closer together now, craning their necks to look at lit windows, smoke rising from chimneys, and carriages parked on the side of the street. Barrowmere seemed as alien a place as Kreludor. It was certainly not the comfortable caves of the Werelupe Burrows.

 

 What, you thought he was talking about the ocean? :)

 I swear so many criminals are self-defeating due to their own stupidity.

Return to Lynwood, Chapter 4

Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 3 - Chapter 4 - Chapter 5 - Chapter 6 - Chapter 7
Chapter 8 - Chapter 9 - Chapter 10 - Chapter 11 - Chapter 12

Suhel hated getting sick. It was all just a big bother, having a scratchy throat and a stuffy nose and being weak and tired. She wanted to be at her best for Lord Isengrim and their pack, not dial back and have to recuperate. Although she kept herself in excellent condition so that she did not fall ill often, it still inevitably happened from time to time. That didn’t mean she had to like it, though.

But this illness felt different. She had never coughed so violently before—it shook her whole body and made her ribs hurt, and there were times when she struggled to breathe. And she felt so lethargic, like someone had put a heavy weight on her, making everything except sleep more difficult.

For the past few days, she had tried to ignore it, but the symptoms had been steadily worsening. Suhel only hoped Isengrim would find what he was looking for soon, and then they could go home and she could curl up on her bed of comfortable furs and sleep it off.

 

 Don't ask for a mouse unless you want one, friendo.

 Well, this one was fun!

Last Fossil Friday, we were talking about sauropods (yay <3) and how many of them probably ate cycads, which are toxic. Fellow paleoartist Amanda Perry had the great idea that maybe sauropods themselves were toxic because of this. And so of course I had to conjecture that they were colored like poison dart frogs. And then she was like "DRAW THAT", so... what else was I supposed to do? :)

As a result of this, I got to draw lots of lovely sauropods (and I snuck a basal sauropodomorph in there too)! You may notice (if you're as big of a nerd as me) that there are no brachiosaurids or rebbachisaurids in this bunch--that's because those guys appear to have been high browsers and very low grazers, respectively, so I'm not sure they would be eating cycads which were more of a mid-height food. This is scientifically accurate wild speculation, people!

I tried to make this look like a poster you could buy at a museum in an alternate universe.

 Friendship is magic! 

 Finally got another idea for one of these! Mars Climate Orbiter is... a cautionary tale.

I love JPL. Back when I lived in Los Angeles, I lived about 30 minutes up the freeway from Pasadena (assuming decent traffic), and once I got to go to JPL for one of their public lectures, after the Curiosity rover landed. I was in heaven. JPL is basically Disneyland for aerospace nerds (much less expensive, too).

(To be clear, I am in no way making fun of JPL with this or the Mars Polar Lander comic. Space is hard. I feel so bad for everybody involved when a spacecraft is lost--it represents years, often decades, of the blood, sweat, and tears of an entire team. I can't watch launches or landings/orbit insertions live because my anxiety shoots through the roof and I don't want to see the looks on people's faces if something goes wrong.

But mistakes inevitably happen. It's a part of being human. What's important is that people learn from those mistakes. And judging from everything JPL has accomplished since 1997, they learned a lot. And twenty years down the line, those mistakes will, hopefully, be something they can laugh a little at.)

(Also Chris Lintott thinks these are funny, and that's what matters.)

Return to Lynwood, Chapter 3

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

Chapter 8 - Chapter 9 - Chapter 10 - Chapter 11 - Chapter 12

For what felt like a long while, they moved in silence. Above the cloud cover, the sun crept across the sky, and with every gust of wind, fire-coloured leaves swept through the air, catching in the Werelupes’ fur and Terra’s hair. They followed a trail that existed only in Isengrim’s mind, as he and his pack had traced this strange old forest forwards and back during the long years they lived here.

He wove his motley little party through the endless maze of trees, around briar patches and over rough shoulders of bare rock that reached out like giant stone hands trying to grab passers-by. Eventually they stopped going uphill and started going downhill, and then the sweet, clean smell of water filled Isengrim’s nose. Below them, a river snaked through the trees, cold and dark.

Although Werelupes could swim, no one wanted to get wet if they could help it, so Isengrim took them a kilometre downstream, where an ageing wooden bridge arched across the water. The road on either side had long been overgrown, but Isengrim, who had been around for quite some time himself, remembered when there had been a road here, and remembered where it led.

 

Why My Little Pony Generation 5 Failed

… Wow, I think that’s the nerdiest thing I’ve ever typed on this blog. Hopefully this essay will lay to rest all doubts about my geekiness.

As I’ve been trying to get my nieces into My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, I’ve been thinking a lot about the MLP franchise as a whole lately, and I guess I wanted to put into words my thoughts about why Friendship is Magic has been so phenomenally successful, why the succeeding generation fizzled, and what Hasbro can learn from this about handling its franchises moving forward.

And then I’ll go outside and touch grass, promise.

 

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 - Chapter 3 - Chapter 4 - Chapter 5 - Chapter 6 - Chapter 7

Chapter 8 - Chapter 9 - Chapter 10 - Chapter 11 - Chapter 12

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 - Chapter 3 - Chapter 4 - Chapter 5 - Chapter 6 - Chapter 7

Chapter 8 - Chapter 9 - Chapter 10 - Chapter 11 - Chapter 12

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.

 When you're a huge geek trying to explain your passion to someone else.

 

Nope, if you've lost the ability to verbalize vocally, there's no other option. Now go get those gross dentures back, kid!

They actually color-coded the locations in Pokémon Yellow and when playing Red and Blue on the Super Game Boy peripheral for SNES. It was glorious.

 On the very same Virtual Fossil Friday as the one that inspired the previous graphic, Ashley, Maggie Jo, fellow VFF regular Amanda Perry, and guest speaker Dr. Kirk Thompson concocted a fantastic idea for a public service announcement poster about fossils featuring Mary Anning. I got the okay to create it, and I had so much fun putting it together.

 Today on Virtual Fossil Friday, Ashley and Maggie Jo got to talking about pickled specimens in museum collections, and Maggie Jo coined the slogan "We Can Pickle That" and said she wanted it on a t-shirt. I asked her if she wanted me to make her one, she was very excited about the idea, and so here we are. (Always great when I can get an excuse to draw a squid.)

You can get the design on apparel, stickers, and other stuff in my store!

 In Let's Go Pikachu and Eevee, where Legendary Birds can be found roaming in the sky on the overworld, this could actually happen!