Here's a more general intro post I can pin - I'm Zero Kirby, Local Psychic! I'm just a humble li'l ace/aro furry artist and hobby game dev who loves games, in particular Metroidvanias and deckbuilders.
I'm not interested in doing commissions or anything of the sort - I'm just here to share and look at cool art, as well as muse about all manner of things. Since I'm not limited to 300 characters here you can expect some wordy posts about stuff like game or character design, that sort of thing.
The end of the year is finally here, so I'm just looking back and taking stock. The alt-text for each image has a transcript of what's written in case you have trouble parsing my not-that-great handwriting. Or you can also visit my Fur Affinity, which has every single image here with a transcript in the description.
Anyway, what does 2026 have in store? Well, I've got some plans, but another thing I'd like to work on is being more active in community stuff. Not just posting my art and only ever posting my art without interacting with other people, y'know? It's tricky since I'm fairly shy, but hopefully I can start getting over it.
Revamped Celeste's design a little bit and figured a good way to practice both drawing her consistently as well as general posing/composition/other stuff would be to draw her in the key art poses of various Smash Bros. characters! Some of these poses were suggested by friends on Discord.
Pokémon Crystal Clear Playthrough: Part 1 - Heh Heh, That's Me
I've been getting into Pokémon ROM hacks lately, which is kind of odd for me, on top of playing, finishing, and really enjoying Legends Z-A. The most recent one I'm trying seems to be one of the most interesting ones I've seen so far, so I figured I'll document my playthrough on here just for kicks. This is me playing Pokémon Crystal Clear.
Back when I was a wee lad, I was a big fan of Pokémon. Started with the cards and cartoon, played a bit of Yellow Version with my new Game Boy Colour, and spent a ton of time on Gold, Crystal, Ruby, FireRed... then I picked up Diamond and... never finished it. HeartGold kept my attention long enough to reach Kanto, but I never cleared all the Gyms and never saw the legendary Red. And I just fell off the franchise.
My recent resurgence through ROM hacks and Z-A has been kind of intriguing to me, as someone who fell off the franchise so hard that every attempt to get back into it even with the games I once loved has failed. So shorts related to them have been popping up in my YouTube feed, and one short demonstrated that in this particular ROM hack, you could change the bike music to Funiculì Funiculà. You know, the pizza delivery theme from the Spider-Man 2 video game?
Of course, everything else about the hack caught my eye. More open world? Getting to pick where you start alongside a much wider selection of starters? Being able to customize your character and even import your own custom sprites for them? Well, I was officially sold. A few hours of amateur pixel art later, I finally booted up the game and got slapped in the face with the intro music to Mega Man 3. That's when I knew I was in for one heck of a ride. Thus, my journey began in Pallet Town with a Pichu named Celeste.
Avoiding a challenge from Red's mother (whom apparently even Professor Oak can't defeat), playing with the various options and custom music, admiring my reflection in a mirror, and getting some extra Pokédex data from Oak's lab on the Kanto starters, I set out for Route 1 to the north. In those familiar grassy paths, I find the usual Rattata and... Hoothoot? Yep, started my game at night, that makes sense. A couple other trainers also staked out here, which threw me off a bit. It's genuinely been so long since I've explored Gen II Kanto that I've forgotten literally everything about it.
After reaching Viridian City, I decide to detour to Route 22 real quick since I remember being able to find some pretty useful Pokes there. My efforts are indeed rewarded - a Poliwag, a Slugma, and a Gligar all find their way into my team. Gligar in particular threw me off, but I ain't sayin' no to them this early on in the game.
Another thing I wasn't expecting was for Blue to already be in the Gym. I clocked that this was supposed to be a more open experience with active level scaling and all that, but I just... wasn't expecting it to be that open, y'know? I train up for a bit, fighting Cal at the big ol' trainer hangout, and then eventually putting away Blue's team in a fairly uneventful battle.
Soon as I walk out the door, the Pokémon League calls me to let me know I won a Badge! Yep, I was aware.
I also decide to take advantage of the re-challenge feature to put Blue in his place at least once more before heading on, for the experience points and the money, and make my way north towards Pewter City. Now, I remember Viridian Forest being, um... downscaled in the original releases of GSC, but here it is in its full former glory, which is pretty cool.
That also means a new batch of trainers to battle, and my decision to start with a Pichu rather than a Pikachu is starting to weigh on me a bit. I mainly went with it because I figured it would be more fun and more satisfying to raise Celeste all the way up to a might Raichu from humble beginnings. What I forgot is that Pichu has the constitution of a paper bag, so her physical defense is... oof. At this point in the game, that's a problem. Polly the Poliwag is carrying for now, especially since she's the one who's gonna need to take care of Brock.
I also have to make a couple notes to return here later: some interesting things seem to be going on here...
We finally reach Pewter City and check out the museum, as well as just... grab that Old Amber that's sitting there. Hey, the guy said I could take it with me, it's cool. Can't make it to New Cinnabar quite yet, so I just keep exploring the town. In one random house, there's... uh, this...?
I decide I don't need the Macho Man's savage services at this point and just make my way over to Brock. Him and his singular crony pose little threat in the face of Polly's aquatic antics, and I'm walkin' away with another Badge as the League feels the need to tell me, once again, that I have two Badges now. I mean, in all fairness, they're also telling me other things that are opening up, so there's that.
With an HM for Cut in my grasp, I teach it to my Gligar (named Elainna - after the Batman Beyond version of Batwoman) and explore a little bit more, fight a few more trainers, and add a Murkrow - named Raven Beak - to the party. And I suddenly remember that Misty, at least in the Gen I games, is usually one heck of a brick wall, even if you're well-equipped to deal with water-types. And right now, my best option against her is Celeste, who can't really take a hit at this point.
So, that's where I am now - I'm challenging Brock a few more times to not only build up my team, but also earn extra money and friendship points for Celeste to get her a bit closer to evolving.
If you've made it this far, thanks for reading! I really appreciate it. I would also really appreciate it extra more if you would NOT tell me what I'm doing wrong or tell me what I "should" do next. I'm very much the sort of person who does not want help when playing games unless I specifically ask for it - I get very annoyed at unsolicited aid for riddles or "cool tricks" that I would likely find way cooler if I found them on my own.
But yeah. I'll be making more of these posts as I play. So, here's the squad I've got right now.
Incredibly Weird Detective has a brother! Meet Immensely Eccentric Investigator. He's got a wide variety of prosthetic horns and antlers he likes to swap between on occasion. Also some lore after the break:
So, Incredibly Weird Detective lives in a demi-plane called Obscuri-City, which has a tendency to "catch" things from other worlds that are coming to an end. Usually these "Salvaged Concepts" are just particularly special objects, but occasionally a whole dang person falls in. Pamlynne here happens to be one such person. She's actually a secondary character from a very old comic I wrote in middle school, whose brother was a legendary, pre-ordained hero with a magic sword. When their world ended, she and the magic sword fell into Obscuri-City, but nobody's sure if the brother - the actual main character of that story - also survived.
Anyway this comic's also on my Fur Affinity if you're interested in going there.
