Season 5, 13, and 16 are also favorites of mine (16 is a very close second here), but 12 had in my opinion the best set of contestants they ever have (so far).

*shamelessly

I've always had kind of a fraught relationship with fan art, and I think Cris here bears that out. I like the things I draw to be unconditionally my own, but fan art is a great way to be part of a community, and I think that's something I've been missing lately.

Crystal, as she was called back in the day, was the creation of a body-sculptor who shameless plagiarized what she saw in other worlds. Cris never even knew what a Pokémon was, let alone that she was modeled after one. With a little help from Neena, she became more her own thing.

The silence when the mortars cease
The breaths we held and now release
The fear recedes as hopes increase:
Tomorrow we just might know peace

This world of ours is full of stuff,
But scouts like us can't get enough
We'll scour the trails and climb each bluff
(No, don't chew that, they're much too tough)

The numbers in each circle are postal/telephone area codes; for instance, phone numbers in Unicorn Coast are all 41-xxxxx. Annex's numbers go from A0 to A9; this is possible because Elseways phones include the A–D buttons that are part of the actual standard but that get left out.

Oh, come and cross that road, my dear
The way is short, the traffic's clear
It's not just that I'd love you near;
The grass is greener over here

I was feeling uncommonly inspired yesterday (there are a bunch of other posts that bear that out). I think I knocked some blockage loose in my head.

Goods aside, the single quote after Fall is making me twitch.

"Palindrome Aviation: We Get You There And Back" is his company slogan, and he gets lots of complaints that there's nothing else palindromic about it. His name isn't even Bob or Otto or something.

Solomon hears the complaints and doesn't care. His skills speak for themselves.

That van has character. As in "this is the home of a fictional character I want to see stories about".

The feather sewn into his forehead is a real cuckoo feather, but the rest of him, like all Clothlings, is a mass of stuffing sewn into a soft shell. Farran's cover is mostly cotton, but his legs and beak are canvas. He has a closet of spare limbs that can be sewn on quickly in case of damage.

Hallo, genial folks.