(Sorry for weird formatting--rest is under the Read More!)
Reincarnate
So I made my brother my rescue team partner in the DX remake, and after seeing the term “reborn” used somewhere in the dialogue for the human-to-Pokemon transformation, I got a little carried away with the idea of reincarnation!
Sorry for the weird “Read More” formatting! ^^’ The quality and size of the images was terrible in the compilation format but I didn’t want to make a super long post, either.
Here we are... the first anniversary of Galaxies Above; one entire year of writing and drawing to create a story to be shared on the internet. That's a long time to be dedicated to working on something like this!
(I’m going to ramble for a bit here, so out of curtsy of those who would rather not have a long post taking up their feed, I’ll be leaving a “Keep Reading” here.)
When I first got the idea for this story, and the motivation to actually write and share it, I didn't expect it to make it this far. I feared that I would lose motivation mid-way, or that it would just prove to be too challenging. After all, I've tried comics and stories in the past (never sharing them online though) only to give up, and I've seen dozens of creators get too busy and stop before they can finish. But here we are, after an entire year, and it's still going. We're almost done the first arc, and there are plans to keep going and take a more original turn in this (which I will go into more detail when the time comes).
Galaxies Above has a funny origin really. I had restarted playing Red Rescue Team with, you guessed it, Team Galaxy. As someone like myself does, I got hyperfixated on them, and began imagining their story, and different aus. Eventually, I began thinking about the Explorers games. In the past, they hadn't interested me terribly much. I disliked how you couldn't insert yourself as the protagonist so easily because there was already a backstory. But despite that, I love the characters, especially Grovyle, and I wondered what would happen if I could save Grovyle. One thing lead to another, and I ended up looping things back to the Rescue Team games, spurring the idea for Galaxies Above.
It could have stayed there; just an idea, a simple daydream. But I loved these characters to bits, and now that I had combined two games, there was so much more to explore and so much more to change, fix, and edit from the originals. Eventually, I wondered if I should do something with this. I made a post on tumblr asking if I should go on and do it, and got only one response. Despite this, the thought of working on this further than just a daydream had stuck with me. I decided that even if no one ended up liking this, that I would still do it. After all, I do hope to make writing and art as part of my career, and this would be some good practice for me. I promised myself that no matter what, I would stick with this until the end, to teach myself how to probably schedule and stay focused on one big project.
So, I did. And I can never express enough how glad I am that I did stick with this. I not only achieved my goal of improving my work, but I've met so many great people in the PMD community! This story has had its highs and lows, and sometimes I did feel like giving up, but I pushed on.
Of course, I have all of you to thank for that. I'd be lying if I said this is super popular. It's not. I barely ever get a few notes on each chapter, and it can feel like I'm just throwing all my work away to be ignored. But I know that's not true. Even if many of you never leave even a like on the chapters, I know that there are many of you that enjoy this. I know that I have silent ghost readers, that may not say anything, but they still read and enjoy. And in the end, that's what matters. I never did this to be popular. All I wanted was to practice my work and to share a story to the world; and that's what I did. But, that doesn't mean that I did this alone. Even if many of you are silent, I thank you for reading my story and sticking with me through thick and thin. It really means a lot to me. So thank you.
On that note, I would like to thank some specific people.
@eev99art is one of the few that pushed me to do this at the start. I hesitantly sent in an ask, questioning if my idea was good and if I should do it, and she told me yes; even promoting the first chapter and doing her best through her busy life to keep reading.
@volcanicbakemeat is one of the early readers, and also the first to start leaving reviews. Recently that has slowed down, as life gets too busy to be able to keep up with fanfiction sometimes, but those early reviews really did help push me at the start. Plus, they’ve sent probably the most asks for the Ask Team Galaxy out of anyone, so thanks for being able to provide motivation in my inbox.
@kaidacreator also began leaving reviews, and is still going! Whether it’s in the tags, or in the comments, they’ve been doing their best to keep on top of things and keep telling me what they liked. It really means a lot that you’re still going and still leaving little notes about each chapter!!
@hawktalonflame has not left comments here on tumblr, but on the AO3 version of GA. They’re not a big tumblr person these days, so when I set up the story on another site, they jumped right up to reread the entire thing, and have even begun leaving some comments every few chapters! They’ve even been picking up all the little details that I sprinkled about, and it’s really heartwarming to see that they didn’t go unnoticed.
And finally, @dragonkinglover, who has been consistently reblogging each chapter for awhile now. They’ve never said anything, but just those extra notes really makes my day sometimes.
I’m probably missing someone, no one’s memory is perfect after all. But these are the people I immediately thought of. This doesn’t mean that they’re the only people supporting, of course. They’re just the ones I’ve shouted out this time.
Galaxies Above has made it to one year, and I hope it makes it to two, at the very least. I still have plans, and I’m still working strong through this. So expect the story to keep going! And expect more art today for the occasion!
And if you read up to this point, thank you. I ramble a lot and this post has gotten long, but you read through it and have probably read through a lot of my other really long posts, so thanks.
