This is mah buddy who got me a subby!
You want whacky adventures of Dr Frysworthy, the time traveller? You want some cool sci-fi fictions? Or you just some pretty cool photo manipulation stuff? You go there!

And this is mah buddy who has a Fanfiction.Net account She's currently writing the novelisation of Breath of Fire 3. Check her out, you won't be disappointed.

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It has been a while since my last journal. Been quite busy with working life and all....
But thanks to all of you who commented in the last journal. I really appreciate the advise and the support.

Anyways, the purpose for this journal entry is what the title said; to show a little appreciation for Byako Round Robin, the tourney that I and many others have participated for nearly a year. If my memory serves me right, Byako started sometime in February 2008. Now why the heck did it get THIS long? The high number of contestants was one factor, along with the intensive round robin fights; we fight everyone in our designated branch. That, and many delays and extensions did contribute to it, but it was mostly because of the round robin fights.

Up to date, I've done a total of 10 rounds for Byako alone. TEN! There's officially 9 rounds but there was an extra round; the Tie-breaker round. Now that I'm in the finals. Along with me are 7 other contestants, equally persistent and determined to compete to the end; , , , , , , and

But a long tourney is not without consequences. A great many had to forfeit. In my case, creativity was dying. That, and Setrina had always been a problematic character for me to develop. At round 6, the struggle began and I hit rock bottom at round 8 (hence the frustrated last journal).

Upon thinking, I realize that I am glad to have reached this far. Seeing the other 7 still competing encourages me to keep going in. But I feel that the long tourney has taken a toll on some of them as well. 'Twould appear I might not be the only one having motivation problems for this tourney. I fear that I might face the motivation issue again, and for the others too.

Of course, most of us couldn’t do our entries in time because of being really busy and real-life issues. But for those who have motivation problems; we need to figure out a way to beat this down.

One way I could think is to think back on the last 10 rounds, to reflect on my entries, my opponents and etc. So here goes.

Audition entry

Haha, I remember I was still in the heat of Sadcat's Haunted Palace Final Round when I decided to join Byako. Charcoal was doing really well, and I figured Setrina could really use a tourney journey, she really needs all the help. Setrina's reason for joining Byako was typically cliche, to be a real hero and hence need to be stronger and yadda yadda.

Round 1
Opponent: 's Footloose
Byako random event: Custom officials are inspecting all tournament entrants and giving out magic stickers to those who pass their bizarre and unusual examinations
Status: Lost

O, the irony! I was up against this fellow again! ~greenfrostfire you devious cunning fellow, you. I read up all the Byako info to see what I can use for my entry. BillBob and Andre, NPCs of Byako, were roped in because of the compulsory random event. We first see Dumdomaz and Nikenikki as the custom officials (this was the first and last time they were ever featured though). I remember that I wanted to do this round with a twist, making full use of the random event. I had 3 tests; strength test, pilling cans and arrange them creatively test and the hygiene test. The first two were made out on the fly. I cannot recall what made me came up with the hygiene test. I think it was because of the usual drug test that athletes had to take? And then Footloose's profile did mention something about hygiene problems. It turned out to be a good idea because it led to that "ALL HAIL MUDDYIANA" joke. Bathroom fights. Towel-clad girls slapped with mud all over. Heh heh. One of the few funniest entries I've done, I'd say. Even I still snicker about it. I lost because QG pulled a more interesting twist on her own entry; defeat by muffin. And thus the Muffin Goddess title was born.

Round 2
Opponent: 's Serenette
Byako random event: Pervy fangirl space warriors riding polar bears while wielding stoves who wear mucklucks have become obsessed with you
(you as in the character you entered)
Status: Won by forfeit

My first thought when seeing the random event was: "...............Huh?"
My first thought when seeing Serenette as my round 2 opponent: "........ Uh Oh. O_O"
My first thought when seeing ~keithtellaron's incomplete round 1 entry: "........_Eep!"
Once again, I wanted to do something different for this round instead of just fighting. Again I made full use of the random event. Instead of just Setrina having fangirls, I gave Serenette her own fangirls. Setrina's fangirls' costumes were based off on Power Rangers while Serenette's fangirls' costumes were from Star Trek. I don't know how I did it, but I managed to ink the entire entry. I had to do some research on the guns as Serenette uses a real life Mauser gun and a real kick-ass machine gun. I was very much inspired by ~keithtellaron's round 1's action scenes, so I tried to come up with intense fights between Setrina and Serenette. There was heavy intervention between the fangirls from both sides, and Serenette's guns were effectively disabled. With no such guns, she wouldn't make it far as Setrina has been fighting unarmed all her life. And thus, Set wins with a swift hard kick. ~keithtellaron couldn't finish in time. A pity, because I still think he could have easily wiped the floor with me, had he finished his entry.

Round 3
Opponent: 's Meado
Byako random event: All contestants must change their costumes to rock and roll gear
Optional event used:
*Unusually random weather has swept the city
*a mysterious figure seems to be following you
*also be on the look out for entrant eating shotgun wielding editors from hell!
Status: Won by forfeit

Before the start of Round 3, ~King-of-Diamonds wrote a spectator entry called Between Drinks 2. In it, Setrina had to kiss his Vintage Price to ward off the fangirls. I was initially surprised at this; he did ask permission to use Setrina but I didn't know what he was up to. But now the idea turned out to be irresistible; which was evident in the cover page of the Round 3.

I jammed Setrina into a rocker costume but also included the 3 optional random events. The most heavily emphasized random event was the mysterious figure part, where bad-guy Anthony Otherbody was stalking contestants. I decided to throw in Afos to make the entry more interesting. In fact, I got so intrigued that I entertained the thought of drawing the fight between these 2 NPCs. But to do so would make the fight between Meado and Setrina far less interesting. That, and I didn't have time so I had the scrap the idea.

Meado earlier fought Serenette in round 1. I was once again inspired by ~keithtellaron's round 1 entry and wanted to do some real kick-ass action with Meado. Plus, Meado was comically fun and had potential to fight real good. But when I saw Meado had to be stuffed into a kitty-girl costume, I was initially miffed. I wouldn't be able to utilize Meado's full potential when he's stuck in a skirt. But on second though.... skirt. Opportunities for hilarity. I decided to go for the hilarity instead. I could only think of one joke for this, even though it wasn't the best. Instead of actually defeating him, I made Meado KOed when he pushed Setrina and Afos out of harm's way. And to make the plot thicker, I made Snydren hide into Anthony's hair.

Another win by forfeit. Real life did a smackdown on =JoeXseries.

Round 4
Opponent: 's Mia the Puppet Master
Byako random event: Fight using a fortress
Optional event used:
*ice cream monsters is causing trouble in the city as he looks for delicious tournament entrants
*Scrap junkers are petty thieving your fortresses.
Status: Won

Howl's Moving Castle animation movie really caught me good, so I was inspired to draw a fortress like that. There's NO way I could draw anything as detailed, so I had to do a little substitution. Dragon + Tower = Fortress!

The first few pages were inked but I had to draw the rest in pencil because I was out of time again. Nothing much to say but I really liked drawing Mia, kinda pretty and a cute personality to boot. Plus, a fight between a mecha fortress and a dragon fortress was something I've never done before. Most interesting: P The ice-cream monster was used to help Setrina get the win. It attacks Mia's mecha and Setrina tries to help. Tower magic telescope malfunctions and instead of hitting the ice-cream monster, it hits Mia instead! And so Setrina wins.

Once again ~King-of-Diamonds suggested to link our entries by an event, where his Vintage Price gets KOed by Anthony Otherbody. The round 4 entry ends with Setrina receiving the bad news of his hospitalization. The story continues with another spectator entry Between Drinks 3 by ~King-of-Diamonds, where innuendo of the pairing was used rampantly. Mwahaha. There was also another spectator entry done by ~SSBFreak because his character Firefox had become friends with Vintage. The hospital won't let him see him because apparently the girlfriend should be the first to do so. O, pairing-innuendo, how irresistible thou art.

~draconess02’s entry, although short, it was terribly funny because she made that dragon-tower a stubborn one.

Round 5
Opponent: 's Miriam Hmett
Byako random event: The clan leaders will test your worthyness to advance to the final eight
portray your character receiving a test from at least one clan leader in your entry (can have multiple tests or tests from different clan leaders but thats your choice)
Optional random event used: Beware of flaming forum trolls wielding painful fragmented posts!
Status: Won

This was presumably the last round within the branch. So I wanted to make it slightly epic and challenging. With the previous heavy plot involving Anthony and Afos, you'd think I'd be using Afos to test Setrina. But instead I got Queen Aki and Lutia to do the testing, to set a near-impossible challenge for Setrina; fight in the sky WITHOUT wings or parachutes.

Miriam Hmett was a replacement fighter but day-mn! That's one hell of a replacement fighter! Her design was seriously intricate and detailed; it gave me a challenge to keep at it. Miriam Hmett has wings, so naturally, she would have a greater advantage in the skies. I wanted to include a scene where Boogie and Woogie (the ghostly cameramen) were recording the fight live and Setrina's past opponents were watching the fight eagerly, along with Vintage's response to this fight as well. But alas, time constraints forced me to cut corners again.

Setrina wins after steeling up her resolve to continue fighting till the end. I must say that although rather tedious, Miriam was fun to draw. ~Neon-Chalk drew an illustration on her part where Miriam and Setrina engaged in Texas Hold ‘Em Poker, with Desta Onesevive watching over the game.

Tie-breaker round
Opponent: 's Mia the Puppet Master, again!
Byako random event: Tag team match-up with your plushie! If your plushie loses, you do to.
Optional event used: *A suspicious batch of pancakes
Status: Won

Our scores were tied, so we had to do another fight. Wooh! When I read the Byako random event, the first thing that hit me was.... tag-team = WRESTLING!!!

I was getting a little tired fighting all the time. So why not do a fight ala wrestling style? This time, Setrina teams up with her plushie counterpart, who seems to have developed some alcohol addiction. I've added a twist to Mia's plushie; the Plushie Wrestling Federation champion. Hahah! The fight was greatly interrupted when Jasae wolves down some pancakes and releases the world's greatest fart, taking down the entire arena full of people.

It was a lame win because I made Mia accidentally slip and fall on her head. A bit of a killjoy there, if you ask me. >_<;

~draconess02’s entry was interesting because Mia’s plushie also has a set of mini-puppets as well. And the way she included Setrina’s annoyance at the weirdness of the tourney was most appropriate.

The Finals: Round 6
Opponent: 's John Cleese
Byako random event: Your final eight acceptance letter has been divided amongst the people from your previous branch, retrieve them all to advance.
Optional random event used: *murderous soda cans are on the rampage!

This is where the struggle begins. Despite having a real cool opponent character to fight with, my head was totally blank until the last minute. It was terrible. >_<; I wanted to do a lot but had to cut down so much. The saving grace of this entry was that I included previous opponents from my branch and =jetpilot55's branch to fend off the murderous soda cans. I really wanted to wanted to do more for the Byako random event... but I couldn't. The main thing I really liked about the whole entry was when John Cleese leapt from a building to do a sneak attack at Setrina. John Cleese IS that cool.

Actually, a really far out idea for this entry hit me at first. John Cleese was a computer game character that emerged into the real world. I wanted to draw the entry in this manner; starts out with me (yes, my own self) getting frustrated for thinking up ideas and decide to play video games: Byako RPG. Setrina would be the main chara and whenever she’d talk, there’ll be several options for an answer. And naturally, the available options could border between normal responses like “Hi, how are you?” and downright eccentric ones like “LOL U SUCK”. Imagine Setrina saying that, or at least being given the option to say that. But again, I had trouble going about it and forgo it for the typical scratch and fight scene. Damn.

=jetpilot55 pulled a worthy entry, demonstrating John Cleese’s abilities at fighting. Ironically, we both had the same resolution to our fights; drop the sail on our opponents!

The Finals: Round 7
Opponent: ’s Arvid D’Nil a.k.a. Lord Viking
Byako random event: Costume theme Mascot! Get a mascot or dress your OC into those suits!
Optional event used: *The Red baron Pizzaria is challenging people to dogfights.
Status: Won

Lord Viking was a tough, tall and bulky character with powerful abilities. I wanted to go all out and make full use of his abilities (and make Setrina’s life hell trying to even fight him, mwahaha). But…. I don’t know why, but I… lack the inspiration and ideas on how to go about the fight.

Although, this round turned out to be a real treat. Because of the costume event, Lord Viking got stuffed into a flower suit and Jasae Plushie was forced into a dress. As to what I think of him in a dress, I quote Boogie, “HOLY SHIT, BOSS! You’re in a dress and you’re HOT!” You can tell that I really enjoyed this particular incident, I really de-masculined Jasae in the entire entry. If that wasn’t enough, there was that Red Baron Pizzaria who mistook him for a girl and was in love and then wanted to get hitched.

Oh man. That was the worst character-abuse I’ve ever done. And it’s not even my own character! It was after I drew the whole session that I started to think that maybe it would really piss ~greenfrostfire off for real. Luckily for me, ~greenfrostfire was a real nice guy and didn’t mind it….. much. _{Nevertheless, I made a mental note NOT to go so far next time.}

Since I couldn’t whip up a good fight, I decided to take things differently and give Setrina a wake-up call. Up to this point, she never encountered a situation where chances of victory were really slim. In other words, emo-demotivated time for Setrina. And then make her laugh her ass off at Lord Viking’s costume. The fight became focused on fighting the Red Baron Pizzaria, conned by Boogie and Woogie to get the Baron away from the distressed ‘bride’-to-be. I dragged in ~Eviltwinears’s Era il Lupo because I needed someone to make a plane come alive for Setrina to ride on. Setrina later sees Lutia and somehow convinces her to return the confiscated Golden Mace to Lord Viking, who surrenders out of gratitude. And hence the entry with Setrina doubting her abilities to scrape through impossible odds.

~LordViking wrote a really detailed and interesting starting part for his entry but he couldn’t finish it. A pity, because he was quite a good writer.

The Finals: Round 8
Opponent: ’s Jake
Byako random event: The Kabina wind festival has come to Byako thanks to the much talked about couple Aki Ko-kou and Afos Nad Sem!
Rides, attractions, games, events. The Wind Festival promises to be fun for all!
Optional event used:
*Some of the buildings of Byako have caught a cold. Expect much sneezing and coughing should you be fighting near one, or worse, inside one!
*Crazy villians are abound and you have been signed up for dance lessons!
Status: Won

Round 8, codename; Hit Rock-bottom. This is where the real frustration begins. ~Silence-Draconis had a nice cowboy western character who came to Byako to save his sister. Plenty of plot opportunities were rampant here. That, and the villains optional event really got me riled up. I had a pair of bad-girls characters that I wanted to put to full use.

But nooooooo. My brain just had to go through a meltdown. I remember it was really at the last minute that I decided to just…. Wing it! It was so bad that I remember I wanted to write it down instead of drawing it. But when I got to the 2nd part of the writing… I gave up. Writing was NOT my thing. Whoever said that writing is easier than drawing needs to get… get…. SHOT. With CLAY PELLETS. PAINFULLY. I can tell you this, it takes skill to come up with words that not only make sense, but to word it in a decent style. I’ve rediscovered my greatest weaknesses in writing; repetition and being long-winded. I was already late anyway, so I made the great pencil dash and draw whatever got to my head.

I remembered that the Wild West bug bit me. Or rather, it was the Wild Wild West movie bug that bit me. Since Afos was involved in round 8, I actually entertained the thought of bringing Afos back on stage, singing and dancing the Wild Wild West theme song, to ward off Anthony! But… *sigh* I got stuck. >_< So I had to scrap it. What a waste of a good idea!

Anyways, for this round, there was absolutely no fight between Jake and Setrina. At all. Instead, I made them fight against the villains to save Jake’s sister. Jake’s nemesis was another cowboy called Cory McCoy and he was a dang good character to write and plot for. I’m just a big sucker for villains, go figure. I was terribly disappointed with how I utilised my own baddies. Why is it that other people’s baddies are so much more fun to write for than my own?! *angst*

The Kabina castle makes the great Sneeze and a random flying plate crashes right onto Jake’s head. Easy(?) win for Setrina.

I still wished I could have pulled a better entry. ~Silence-Draconis deserved to see a better entry. I really liked her take on her entry, done in a picture and story style.

The Finals: Round 9
Opponent: ’s Dan
Byako random event: Costume event – theme; Kanareshii
Optional random event used: *Undead protesters are rioting in the street and causing dissent and mayhem over the sudden and mysterious disappearance of Leeshay the lich king and Vitriol!
Status: <Results pending>

The latest round of Byako. My opponent this time was Dan, who was previously in the Sadcat Haunted Palace. It was like a little reunion and I really wanted to show off a good fight with Dan. Plus, Dan was quite the fun character and despite being in the form of a 7 year old kid, she can really pull strong moves, especially with fire involved. For this round, Setrina got into a tarot-card-based costume called “The Fool”. Dan wore a pilot-based costume. I was really glad because in this get-up, her hair bangs had to stand upward. At least I can worry less about the hair bangs blocking her face unnecessarily!

It was as though the period of frustration is over. I actually had ideas. And got stuck, but for once I wasn’t…. blocked completely. ~King-of-Diamonds approached me with the idea of Vintage meeting up with Setrina. Then I remembered ~Dadrick’s round 8 entry where poor Vintage was stuck in that Jasae-the-girl costume. And so…. . The majority of the first 18 pages of the entry were actually… unnecessary. But looking back, I wouldn’t want it any other way.

The cover was coloured, which is REEEAAALLY rare of me to do so. Now why on earth did I do so? Confession time; I was prowling about and read some of the entries. One contestant, ~Mangakawa made the effort to colour the comic pages (and there were a lot of pages too)! I was ashamed of myself! This lady coloured the entire entry and got it done in TIME. I, on the other hand, struggle with just inking – wait, no, PENCILS alone, and have NOT been in time for the past 2 rounds, including this one! It was a stark realization that I was not improving at all, or making the effort to! It really humbled me and it gave me some motivation to press onward in this tourney and make the entries as best as I could, and to complete Setrina’s character development.

It was quite refreshing to draw Dan in action, because she was mostly a melee fighter like Setrina, with fire abilities. I wanted to get them done in ink, but because of working life getting hectic, I resorted to pencils. In the entry, Setrina’s confidence problems re-emerges (because at round 8, she nearly got killed by my baddie). Dan layeth the smackdown and Setrina actually gave up. Dan then gave a barrage of a serious speech and got Setrina back on her feet, who won barely by a scrap.

I enjoyed drawing the fight. I finally rediscovered the joys (and some pains) of drawing comics in pencil. When I attempted inking previously, it really set back my pencil abilities greatly. It was good to be apt with the pencil again, like in the good ol’ Haunted Palace days. But nothing beats drawing the 2nd last panel of the last page.

~Bunni89 had to go an exam, and couldn’t draw the fight. Awwww. Oh well, I hope she aces that exam.


……

HOLY CRAP. I WROTE A FREAKING ESSAY!!!
This, my friends, is the reason why I shouldn’t be a writer. Thank You, God, for comics!

Anyways… yeah. It was a real journey, that Byako one. I’ve got 3 more rounds to go. The ones that are left for me to fight on are ~Dadrick’s Trenton, ~Kenton-Alkemi’s Mack and Sam and ~King-of-Diamonds’s Vintage Price. Wooooooh. The finals ain’t gonna be easy, I tell ye. All the more reason to do my best.

But now that round 9 is done, I think I’ll just sit back and relax first.

To the remaining Byako contestants, to solve motivation issues, I would suggest reflecting back on the progress that’s been made on your OCs. You could read up on the entries at , it’s bound to give some extra added interest and inspiration.

If you’ve actually read this far, thanks a lot.

Till next time, folks!

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A note to you all: Please correct me if my England skillz is very the bad.

Tutorials that I learned from:

Lineart tutorial - when you use a blue pencil to sketch by :[link]

Speedline tutorial by : [link]
Rain tutorial by : [link]

You can learn from them too! Start clicking on those links!

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