Fiero

Any thing can be made, any sentence begun

[negrek]

One week left before the deadline! There's still time to enter!

Thousand Roads is hosting its seventh annual one-shot contest, and this year's theme is obscure and unusual jobs in the Pokémon World! There are plenty of stories out there featuring trainers on journeys or Pokémon rescue and exploration teams--we're looking for fic about all the other professions that are rarely written about. What does the life of a firefighter, a construction worker, or a mathematician look like in the Pokémon World?

Any genre of story is welcome, whether it's a comedy about an orb salesman in the PMD world or a slice of life about a family of bakers in Celadon City. The jobs being featured can be carried out by humans, Pokémon, or both!

Here’s how it works:

Write a one-shot fanfic of 10,000 words or less that focuses on an unusual Pokémon job

E-mail your story to [email protected]

Sit back and wait for judging to complete!

Everyone who enters will receive the following:

In-depth feedback from our panel of judges

The opportunity to promo their entry in a feature post highlighting contest participants

In addition, the judges will select their top three stories, the authors of which will be featured in our hall of fame with an exclusive interview.

Sound fun? Check out the detailed contest guidelines here: https://forums.thousandroads.net/threads/professional-interest-one-shot-contest.2153/post-81657

Then it’s time to get writing! You have until 11:59 PM UTC on July 5th to submit your entry. Good luck, and we look forward to reading your story!

If you have questions, feel free to comment on this post or send an e-mail to [email protected]. Or, join Thousand Roads' Discord server to talk about the contest with other entrants or discuss Pokémon fanfiction in general!

[negrek]

I thought I'd have a go at doing a card redraw for @poketcg-art's Hoenn series! I was fortunate enough to be able to pick up cradily, one of my top favorite fossils. And a lot of fun to paint.

This artwork is based on otumami's illustration from Cosmic Eclipse. The original card is under the cut!

[antialiart]

Him angy

[negrek]

He's so unhappy to be here! "Not this shit again."

Thank you! <3 You did a lovely job with the shading here; you've gotten quite proficient with that painterly effect!

[negrek]

Last week’s repost/update for Salvage was Chapter Eight, the last of the chapters I revised the last time I went back over the early part of the fic. Which means that I’m probably going to have to do more substantial edits on the next few of them, hoo boy.

One thing I hadn’t remembered going into these edits was that this chapter has one of my favorite pieces of foreshadowing in the whole story! This is probably because what it foreshadows is my favorite scene in the story, which we’re still a ways away from, and because the thing foreshadowed happens exactly as written in chapter eight, but in context it means something completely different than what’s implied here, which is the kind of reversal I’m all too fond of.

The last time I was going through and editing these chapters I remember thinking about this little foreshadowy piece and kind of wondering whether anyone would ever notice it, because to me of course these kinds of things always look screamingly obvious to me and so how could they not? But rereading it with fresh eyes, after a couple years away, I could see that what felt like such a significant moment in my head was actually super innocuous and there was literally no way anyone woud ever guess it was more than a throwaway line. Which I suppose is the way it ought to be, but it was fun to come back to it again this round and see that, yup, still innocuous.

So is anybody ever going to figure out the connection between this one tiny moment in Chapter Eight and one really big moment in Chapter XX? I gotta imagine no, but the thought of even one person noticing fills me with enough delight that I can’t resist picturing it nonetheless. And if no one does… I guess the privilege of being the creator is getting to know a few secrets about the canon that nobody else does, eh?

I had resolved not to make too many edits to these very early chapters, for fear that I would get sucked into reworking them when really most of my energy should be elsewhere, so most of the edits I’ve been making are simple line edits and decongesting sentences. And also editing the protagonist’s dialogue, since some of it reads really off to me now.

Also, wow, was I ever fond of smash cuts. Definitely not helpful with an already disorienting style and lots of jumping around in place/time. Pretty much all of the substantial edits so far have been me going, “Okay, sure, but let’s just… Let’s put an actual transition of some kind there instead of having the scene just… start…”

[negrek]

Bringing this one back because we finally did it, gang, we made it to Chapter XX, which ultimately turns out to be Chapter 62! Way back in Chapter 8, Nate says: “Just you wait, fucker. I’m gonna laugh like hell when you’re on your fucking knees, begging me for mercy…”

Unfortunately when he actually had the protagonist on its knees, begging for mercy, he realizes wait, this sucks, actually. Poor guy doesn't even get to enjoy coming out on top for once.

Nate's return at the end of Chapter 62 is a moment I've been anticipating for a long time, clearly, probably since 2010 or so. I hope that him showing up gives readers some small measure of relief after what is a quite dark run of chapters.

Enjoy your one (1) moment of getting to be a badass, buddy. :P

[negrek]

> me talking about the most recent chapter with Dragonfree: "Yeah, Nate's been gone for, what, a couple years now, real-time?"

> me looking at timestamps: it has been more than four years

[kindykotik]

Mew y two

[negrek]

Salvage: A Pokémon Fanfiction of Change and Rebirth

You lost a lot when you died. Your life, for one, and your name and your family and even your humanity. What you gained was power, and a purpose to turn it towards. You may have died, but Mew hasn’t, not yet. And you’ll do whatever it takes to find her.

Genre: Action, Suspense, Original Trainer, Pokémorph Characters: OC, Mewtwo, Absol Rating: M (strong language, dark themes)

In Chapter 62…

"Those people are Cipher," Ekans says with a shudder that rattles the rattle on her tail. "But where we are, I don't know."

"What they want is easy," the gruff pokémon says. "They want to make you like Raticate here. Hey, Raticate!" Something heavy strikes metal, and a second later comes a furious burst of squeaks and chatters, a nonsense stream of aggression and noise.

"What does Cipher want with any pokémon?" Ekans says quietly.

"But I'm not," you say, your throat closing up so you can only barely get the words out. "I'm not a pokémon."

"Of course you're a pokémon," that gruff voice rumbles up from below. "They put you in that cage, didn't they?"

--

I took longer than I would have liked to with this chapter, given that it was largely written already when I started, but hey. It's done! And it's a fairly pivotal one, sending us off into the final arc of the story. Also probably the darkest chapter of the story, so mind the content warnings.

At this point I think there are only eight to ten chapters left! Getting rough chapter breakdown of the final arc will be one of the things I'm working on alongside Chapter 63. It's much more straightforward than the previous arc, and large chunks of it are prewritten, so I'm feeling good about finally wrapping this beast up soon!

[negrek]

"That's... that's too many hats. I don't need that many hats."

"Don't be silly! More hats means a better birthday, and you're going to have the BEST birthday this year."

"I don't deserve to celebrate in the first place. All my birthday means is we're one year closer to the day when I'll kill you all."

"That's hundreds of years away, Chalenor. Everyone deserves a happy birthday! Now come on, let's celebrate another year of you!"

Happy belated birthday to @antialiasis! I don't think you have quite that many candles on your cake just yet, but time sure flies, doesn't it? Hope you have a lovely year!

[antialiart]

It is once again mine and @negrek's mutual birthday, and for it I have drawn Heracross from Salvage, who is good.

[negrek]

There she is! Objectively the coolest of the Three Musketeers, as I'm sure everyone (mostly she) would tell you. Thank you for the birthday wishes!

[umbrasdoodles]

Happy birthday to two good friends of mine,  @antialiasis and @negrek ! For a mix of old faves and recent hyperfixations here’s Blondie lighting his cigar on a Shiny Slugma. 

[negrek]

Uwaaaa, Tumblr's been eating my notifications again. -_-; Thanks you! I feel like shiny slugma is deep lore these days... Always happy to see one crop up!

[irima]

[playwrongs]

Questions I think to myself a lot when confronted with certain kinds of Online Posting:

Do you want a better world, or do you want revenge on those you think aren’t doing enough to improve it?

Do you want a more just world, or do you want to see bad people suffer merciless punishment?

Do you want a less oppressive world, or do you want the reins of power for yourself?

Do you want to do the right thing, or do you want to feel righteous?

[negrek]

Twenty Years of Pokéfic

As of today, October 4th, I've been publishing fanfiction online for twenty years! I specify "publishing" and "online" since I technically started writing it many years earlier, before I technically knew what it was, primarily for school assignments. And even then I'm not being totally accurate, since I published some fic on the website of the Neopets Pokemon Guild even earlier than I got started on FFN, but all that's long, long vanished from the internet, and I have no idea of the date on it, other than it was probably in the summer.

So: October 4th, 2004, the day I started publishing The Ninetales' Curse on FFN. I banged out 55k words over the course of about a month and a half, writing a thousand or two words every night after dinner. It's a habit and a mindset I could no doubt benefit from getting back to, tbh.

Although I already had plans for a series of epic interconnected Pokémon fanfics at the time I started posting that first one, I definitely had no idea where that first step would take me. (Not into publishing my series of epic interconnected Pokémon fanfics, as it happens.) I've had an incredible amount of fun, learned a ton, and met lifelong friends as a result of making up stories about magic monster fights and sharing them on the internet. It's wild to think that a small number of you were actually there for the beginning in 2004. Thanks to everyone who's been part of my writing journey so far, whether I've known your for one month or 240. I owe a great deal of my growth not just as a writer, but as a human being, to the Pokémon fanfic community. It's been a fantastic ride, and I'm looking forward to another twenty years!

I did have something I've been working on to release to celebrate today, but in the end it's not quiiiiite as baked as I liked. I considered publishing anyway and then releasing a cleaner version later, but since this is a deadline that literally no one is even aware of but me... I decided I'd give it a bit more time in the oven instead. ;) Next Friday, then!

Here's to another twenty years of Pokéfic! I shudder to think of what nonsense Gamefreak will have given us to work with by then. But that's part of the fun, of course!

[antialiart]

Noctowl with some coloring and shading.

[negrek]

Aaa, this turned out so well! You do a lovely job of the tonal range here; great contrast in the lights and darks. Works really well with Noctowl's color scheme.

I really do need to do a little art of the Musketeers. Not this month, but not too far in the future, either...

[antialiart]

Obscure Pokémon I've never drawn before brought to you by Noctowl from @negrek's Salvage, who is very good.

[negrek]

It's the best bird! :D Been meaning to draw the Musketeers myself, but it's great to see someone else putting in a little fanart of them. Here is a noctowl who's the leader of his little family, much to the vexation of a certain person who just doesn't get why. :P

Thanks for the art! It's always so much fun to see. <3

[negrek]

Well, it's been literal years in the making, but I've finally managed to publish Salvage Chapter 60. This (Chapter 60, "oh shit I've got to wrap this up somehow) and the next (Chapter 61, "fight fight fight") are the climax of this part of the story, and have been giving me grief for longer than I care to admit. After them, it's just one transition chapter (62, "the horrors"), and then on to the final arc of the fic!

I have an ungodly amount of not-Salvage stuff to get done in the next couple months, but I would desperately like to get 61 out by November. Let me have NaNo off to do some drafting, post 62 in December, and then start 2025 off strong with my favorite arc of the fic!

It's exciting to be here at last; feels like there's just one more big bump to get over, and then it's all a downhill race to the end! It'll be so satisfying to close the book on this gigantic story at last, and a lot of fun getting through the final stretch, I think.

[negrek]

Salvage: A Pokémon Fanfiction of Change and Rebirth

You lost a lot when you died. Your life, for one, and your name and your family and even your humanity. What you gained was power, and a purpose to turn it towards. You may have died, but Mew hasn’t, not yet. And you’ll do whatever it takes to find her.

Genre: Action, Suspense, Original Trainer, Pokémorph Characters: OC, Mewtwo, Absol Rating: M (strong language, dark themes)

In Chapter 60…

"All right, we got the soda, we got the 'cross; now it's time to get this party started," Heracross says. She thumps a couple twelve-packs of soda down on the crumbling floor, looking immensely pleased with herself...

---

I guess I did the bit about how long it had been since I'd done a Tumblr update post the last time I made one. Now here we are, five chapters deeper, and after a pretty long wait for this one in particular. It's a big one!

Definitely hoping to get 61 out a little quicker. I'm planning to wrap this fic up next year, and am still on track to do so, but it's getting a little tight, heh. Onward! I hope you enjoy the chapter.