I, and many other professional astronomers, are extremely tired of people blowing pareidolia out of proportion. Yes, sometimes things are almost sort of shaped like other things if you use your imagination. No, it's not aliens. It's never aliens. It's going to take a lot more than these sorts of shenanigans to convince me it's aliens.

... Now I'm hungry for poutine.

 I'm honestly not sure what's so scary about someone being able to see into your soul? Like... now they know your favorite color, I guess?

I had way too much fun with those little ghosties.

 If you average out the power of every Trainer the player character has encountered up to this point, this Medium probably has like level 20 Pokemon, tops.

Also, I just really enjoyed drawing the ghosty effects.

Shadow Play, 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

Once they cleaned up after dinner, Terra placed her new weapon on the living room table, and Hyren ducked into his room and brought out his sword-maintaining tools. They were tucked neatly away in a leather holder than he unrolled onto the floor, pulling out a metal mallet with a punch that unscrewed from the top.

Meanwhile, Zoltan held his paws over the sword, closing his eyes as the purple streaks on his fur and mane surged. “No curses or evil magic,” he reaffirmed. “It is bursting vith light magic, however. As for enchantments… zhere’s a strengthening enchantment to prevent zhe blade from breaking… and an ever-sharp enchantment.”

Hyren turned to face the blade, mallet in hand. “An ever-sharp enchantment?” he asked. “Only faeries know that one.”

“I thought you vere not one for magic,” Zoltan said. “How do you know zhat?”

“Not most magic,” Hyren said. “But magic relating to weapons? Let’s just say I research weapons a lot. All righty, let’s see how well-made this blade is…” He moved aside some of the leather binding on the grip to reveal a metal peg that ran through the hilt. Flipping the sword over, he found the smaller side of the peg, and he carefully used the punch and mallet to work the peg out.

 

 Because you can totally grab people's attention just by announcing that astronomers have discovered something. Anything.

 Yep, he actually went through with it. And he's going to need a chiropractor.

Shadow Play, 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 return to Defenders HQ thankfully passed without incident. The gum-covered Zafara Rogue got plenty of odd looks from passersby, but considering their party also included a Werelupe and a glowy Halloween Kyrii battlemage, Terra was more than used to odd looks by now. The Nimmo receptionist in the Defenders’ lobby also did a double-take at their motley group, but Terra also figured double-takes were par for the course with her family.

The receptionist informed them that Judge Hog had already left to retrieve his artefact of choice, but Aisheena was currently holding down the fort in his place, so they went to talk to the white Aisha Defender.

Terra had never been in Aisheena’s office, and it looked markedly different from Judge Hog’s office, with plush faerie furniture and paintings on the walls of relaxing landscapes. It was funny, Terra thought, how one’s workspace said a lot about them.

The Aisha looked up from the book she was studying, and lifted an eyebrow at the Zafara Rogue’s strange condition. “Well, good morning,” Aisheena said. “You’re the Zafara Rogue, aren’t you.”

The Zafara nodded with a bit of a scowl. “They told me you could help me,” she said, squaring her shoulders. “I’m trying to—to make things better.”