The Riddleverse

CURRENT ACTIVITIES - Sidebar links that don't stay in their assigned places! Witchcraft!

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What once was, and will never be again...

Shame I don’t have a time traveling character who remembers PMD-E...

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If the “Kimlup’s Charter” mass table of contents is something you look at on a daily basis, you probably remember that the finale of Arc 3 is a piece called “Mind Over Mother”. It... will probably be awhile before we reach it.

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Fun Fact: By no accident did I draw Kao in Rory’s “Nothing” comic (songmic?) He’s always been an actor! The more you know!

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Jack in the rain after Ebony refused to let her sleep in her nest.

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Drawn back when PK posted the story of Zekrom and Steel City, I imagine.

The god that Miles never believed in.

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An unfinished sketch of Jack’s dad not leaping for joy (Bad back, you know).

I miss Jack. Best tinfoil-hating shiny Turtwig I ever had.

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“It came from the eh-sky!”

“Oh, and it was this big?”

“YES!”

Team Pann were gonna be great, so long ago... I like to think they’re in the Explorers Guild. Maybe I’ll use them as cameos one of these days.

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A very, very old comic from when Brandy was part of Team Brightflare.

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Jupiter...

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“Flecks and feathers… What I’m saying is, I think you’ve lost your last marble. If there are all-powerful beings out there who care about us the way I tried to care about my plants, why not show it? Why not reveal themselves? Why not let us be happy, and live in an untroubled world? That’s the kindly thing to do. What’s the point in leaving us to struggle on our own? The gods don’t really love us.” “How would you know?” he demanded, a threat creeping into his voice. “Have you ever been a stone slab?”

I propped one sore cheek in my right hand. “Rudy, people talk about how your species have special vision, and that’s why you have the big eyes and why you’re always staring at stuff, but have you ever actually seen these oh-so-powerful gods that you believe in?” “Well, I haven’t really thought about it,” he said, turning and hopscotching his way across Marissa’s mouth. He flipped open the cover of his icebox. Even from where I sat, I noticed that it didn’t have ice in it, but apparently he’d stocked it with sodas anyway, because he drew one out with a Telekinetic finger flick. “There are all kinds, y’know? Besides, I’m only eleven.”

“You’re fourteen.”

He shot me a nasty look as he tugged the icebox’s fabric lid back into place. “Cut me some slack. It was either that or potatoes. And saying potatoes is illegal for the next two minutes.” Not sure why I try, actually.

I was actually really looking forward to drawing this scene in “Playin’ Sight” when it was going to be a comic, but the written version came out well too.

Rudy’s original reference was going to be “You have to take the little potato with the big potato” from one of the Children of the Lamp books, but I thought two potato references in a few paragraphs would be too much, so I went with Timothy and the Dragon’s Gate instead. And there’s a Dealing With Dragons reference in there too.

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Ignoring the jibe because I didn’t care about things, I rolled my eye between sockets and pressed on. “These stone gods of yours-”   “Stone and Sky.” “Sure. Sure! Listen to this, Rudy! Here’s a riddle for you! If your false gods exist, then why doesn’t everyone believe in them? What miracles have they performed? What prophets have they sent?” I leaned forward, my teeth tightly locked behind my bony mask. “What makes you so incredibly certain that your precious gods even care about us? What are we? Are we anything more than hundreds of insignificant ink splatters abandoned across a giant sheet of cosmic parchment? Test subjects, puppets, borrowed ideas, plucked up when boredom strikes and tossed aside once we’ve been used like we were never there? I know your religion, Rudy! I know what your people think we are! A cathartic universe full of prototypes, mistakes, damaged goods? 

The unsaveable, the hopeless, the ones who will never be remembered…”

Not a lot of ‘mon in Andalusst can insist they’ve left Rudy speechless, but I did. As he looked at me, I could see his spirit breaking in his deep blue eyes. Lies, betrayal, disbelief. His optimism was slipping fast between his fingers, and I sat back and found it delicious. He studied his bare feet for a long time while I stewed where I sat and plucked at oran seeds stuck between the slats of the table crates. Then the little Gothita glanced at me again. “Are you saying you don’t believe in the afterlife?” “If that was a ghost joke, so help me I’ll kill myself.”

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He jumped to his feet, standing carefully atop the tattered green blanket on the floor. Both hands went behind his back, and he thrust out his thin chest with its oversized bow. The lantern on the table cast weird shadows across his pink face as he proclaimed, “I’m a Fourther. I believe in the Hundred Gods of Stone and Sky, and that they watch over us and want to mold us into the best kinds of people we can be. They’re all around us, helping us overcome our problems. I know with all my heart that one of them is looking out at us and listening to the lilt in our words at this very moment. We were all put here in this world for a purpose. Our destiny is to grow, achieve, and entertain. That’s what I believe.” “… You’re a creationist,” I managed when I found my voice again. “You? Seriously? Man, of all people, I dunno. Somehow I didn’t expect you to believe in the nonsensical fairy tales of Diderot’s Wall.” Rudy’s beaming smile twisted at the corners into an offended frown. He leaned against the nearest crate, propping his chin in one of his hands. With the other, he flicked a finger at me, although this time it didn’t light up blue. 

Ooh…

Tough question. I rubbed my left shoulder. Turned my gaze to the roof of Marissa’s still-open mouth. Squirmed a moment more before finally biting the Seadra and slumping my face into my arms.

“I- I believe the world is shaped like a giant Ekans, monitored by wild running beasts who roam in search of those who destroy the ecosystem instead of preserving it.” That brought a chuckle out of him. Rudy placed his chin on his interlaced fingers. “You Albanies are so funny.”

Kit’s spiritual mindset is named after Benjamin Franklin’s Albany plan, obviously. 

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A drawing that I probably made back in 2013 when I wrote “Tourists” (which is still canon, except set in Jakamira instead of Steel City for PMDU). Miles has always been an avid shuffleboard player!

I think I told you guys that Miles has bristles three seasons of the year and loses them in summer. He looks funny with ‘em. I like it.

Who remembers that he has a Mareep cousin named Darby?

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Some very early designs for Katori Artemis, back when she was a nameless male and was going to join Team Sunflare. These days she’s an NPC, though.

Tadpole was always my favorite Ordinary Boy character.

Lookit her now!

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Sketches I made while working on “Good Spirits”, October-November 2014.

Instead of the Gastly pictured here, Jaime and Skeeter ended up meeting a Golurk, though.

Team Plum Pudding obviously didn’t participate seeing as both Rory and Adrian are terrified out of their fur of ghosts. Kick their rears, Jaime. You might just be eleven, but you got this, girlfriend.

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I brought home a stack of old sketches that I thought I’d share with ya over the coming weeks!

Here’s a throwback to when Rudy was still named Oliver and Marissa was actually named Rudyard. Mirror Coat was later replaced with Heal Pulse.

That Shadow Ball picture was Rudy’s first app art.

[writerofthesky-deactivated20170]

@riddleverse Have a thing!

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A very good thing.