Sled dogs took me down a rabbit hole

Recently and very randomly I've been thinking about the movie Balto at work (when you're not having fun, what else is there to do but replay movies in your head, lol?). Such a good movie -- James Horner's beautiful score, animation, vocal performances, just about everything. 

I was also thinking about the characters, including three certain ones -- Nikki, Kaltag, and Star. They're my favorites, although I like everybody mostly (with two certain exceptions). Even though they gave Balto a lot of crap, their saving grace was 1) actually being funny, and 2) having their own thing going on between the three of them. They're like the movie's Greek chorus. Like in the scene where Balto and Steele are fighting, or rather, Steele is just manhandling Balto, I'm not laughing at what Balto's going through as much as I am Nikki and Kaltag's cold commentary on everything (before they realize both Steele's sanity and competence are highly questionable). I'm finding that I tend to be more forgiving of bully/antagonist type characters if they're actually funny and that humor isn't solely based around them making fun of another character (there's at least one other character I like that falls into this category I'm probably going to be talking about in the future. I have a feeling it's gonna be a somewhat controversial post). The trio's other saving grace was that they put the job ahead of themselves, unlike Steele, and they started really respecting and rooting for Balto after the "fight" scene.

That snowballed into my going on YouTube and watching couple of videos about the movie. Then I decided to see if I could possibly find any voice acting compilations (something I enjoy doing because it's fun -- I've always been interested in voice actors, and even as a kid would get excited if I recognized voice actors in the shows I watched) for Jack Angel, who voiced Nikki (the gold/cream-colored member of the trio). This led my discovering that he apparently died all the way back in 2021. 😞 This was the only thing my search turned up. It's... not very extensive:

 

There's also a lot of Transformers related stuff for him as well. I'm wondering if it's because many of the series and movies he was in aren't available online/or maybe they're copyrighted by whoever owns the rights and they don't want people posting clips? 

Whatever it is, it sucks. I dunno, feels like a lot of older voice actors from the early nineties and before that time don't get their dues these days. Also, I miss it when animated movies and shows would use professional voice actors alongside celebrity voices (and quite a few shows predominantly used professional VAs). Now just about all you see are celebrity voices. Did we really need Rosie Perez to speak only one or two lines of dialogue for a character that only ever showed up one time in Elena Of Avalor?

Well, here's to you, Mr. Angel. And dear reader(s), if you've never seen Balto before, go watch it.

An actual proper status report for December 2025

Forgot to wish readers Happy Thanksgiving last time, so Happy (belated) Thanksgiving, or whatever it is you may celebrate in November. :)

New Dogs, New Tricks: Almost there! It's maybe like 97% complete, I'm just filling in a few blank spaces here and there, as it were.

My brain also decided "Yeah, you definitely need to start on two new stories." One is yet another crossover one-shot, and the other's a multichapter story.

Also been working on notes for Predatory Drift and a new Character Corner entry.

The Character Corner: Exile's Extras

 

Hey, it's dog eat dog. *is shot*

 

What he said, lol. Also, comparing that hot dog to how food usually gets drawn in anime is like night and day. So unappetizing-looking.

EXTRA HEADCANONS

1.) Forgot to mention that at the start of the the STARS-verse series Exile is twenty-eight years old. So that's why I said before that when it comes to shipping Blitz and Exile I personally don't. A nearly thirty-year old guy does not have anything in common with a nineteen-year old. Blitz like to rib him by calling him "Greis", the German word for "gray", a reference to his age, and otherwise acting like Exile's a grandpa lol. Again, wanna make the teasing between the two of them feel more like two friends bantering, rather than things being more one-sided like they are in canon.

2.) (Note: This is EW's idea) Exile's official role here would be the team mechanic and computer expert primarily. I also seem to recall him being the one who'd pull out a gadget of some kind during missions, but not as much as I remember him messing with computers and vehicles. He's also the third in command, and if either Hunter or Colleen are unavailable, then he steps up as deputy under either one, or leads the group in their stead if neither is around.

3.) I find that I make Exile more mature and more of a peacemaker within my stories. You did see this side to him in the last episode, "A Day In The Life", where he chatted with Hunter and Colleen respectively about their issues at different points. So I think he's a shoe-in for this role. Granted, I do try to highlight all the canon Rovers using their heads during tough situations more so then they did in the cartoon, but Exile's the one who keeps the peace and calms things down, which I think the others need. 

This is in response to fan writers often making the Rovers aggravatingly stupid and goofy in their fanfics. I mean, they were goofy and self-involved in the show quite a bit too, but fanfic ramps that mess up to twelve. They'll have some dark storyline going on, like the villain OC succeeds in getting away with all these elaborate plots and murders like a million nameless cannon fodder Rovers and innocent civilians, all while the canon Rovers (as well as the writer's OCs) sit around doing stuff like cracking on Blitz, going on day trips, or telling unfunny jokes. And I'd be sitting there reading this stuff going "Why are these characters so dim? Is Hunter seriously thinking about having a public wedding ceremony while he and the others know full well that the bad guys are actively gunning for them? Maybe they all do deserve to die."

My official stance on drama

When I say "drama", I'm referring to situations where people are trying to start something with me/or someone else (or have done so in the past). But I've decided I'm not going to talk about that kind of stuff on here, with two exceptions: 

1) It's something related to my writing. For example, there's a Disney AU story I have planned that unfortunately would have never come about without somebody who I eventually ended up having to cut ties with. So it's kind of part of the history of how the whole concept came to exist in the first place. 

2) Someone is seriously smearing my name (like accusing me of something serious, i.e. pedophilia, since that's like the go-to accusation people love slinging around online these days), and I don't have any choice but to come with receipts and defend myself.

Outside of those things though, I will not be giving any attention to toxic people. There's a saying that goes "don't feed the alligators, because all you'll end up with is bigger alligators."

"It's Halloween -- everyone's entitled to one good scare."

In honor of the spooky season, I've written a little story: click me! Just be warned, it does get dark. BTW, from here on out all my Sonic stuff will only be uploaded to A03 (I need to post that announcement on my Fanfiction.net account as well).

I do have my concerns if readers will understand the intent behind the story. I can see people going "Sally's a martial artist/blademaster/whatever, I don't understand why she doesn't fight back and get away." And it's like, okay, but that's not the point of the story. Predatory Drift is not a traditional straightforward action-adventure story like many other Sonic stories are, it's psychological horror. Think like a Shirley Jackson story, Psycho, The Shining, Hereditary, The Babadook, etc, in that readers are supposed to be feeling a sense of dread and such, especially when the climax hits. That's not going to happen if Sally's up there kung fu fighting, y'know? 

Also, I wouldn't dare post PD on deviantART or FF.net. If I did, I'd more than likely end up having to go into hiding Salman Rushdie-style. 

A summary/blurb for Sonic And The Guardians Of Acorn

Since I've had Sonic The Hedgehog on the brain a lot lately (for reasons you'll hopefully see soon), I've been brainstorming for my Sonic reboot. Here's a very basic rundown of the plot:

Sonic is a teenager living in the town of Emerald Hill with his guardians Tom and Maddie Wachowski. He keeps in contact with his globetrotting uncle Charles "Chuck" Hedgehog, who's an adventurer and researcher. One day Sonic is approached by the titular Guardians, who inform him that Chuck has gone missing while trying to locate the seven legendary Chaos Emeralds. They then ask Sonic for his help in looking for him, as he's become famous there in Emerald Hill for his speed. Of course Sonic is up for the challenge, and that kicks off the whole story. During his search, Sonic meets new friends and new enemies, as well as discovering the strange and fantastical secrets Mobius holds.

S&tGoA is a homebrew of my own ideas combined with elements from various branches of the Sonic franchise (of which you can see a few of already) as well as fan ideas, including fan art. Many characters have been reinterpreted from before -- think of how franchises such as the Batman mythos, He-Man, Transformers, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles will reboot themselves with new takes on familiar characters and concepts.

ETA: Okay, I did come up with a little summary. I'll just post it here. Don't know if it needs any work or not: There exists a distant planet of sophisticated technology, mysterious ancient ruins, and magical creatures. This is Mobius, and it's a world where a certain speedy blue hedgehog sets out to find his missing uncle.

Oh, also, I had a Knight Errand reader from before, Dukect, mention wanting to see Sonic and Antoine actually become friends. Well, this just might be the story for you then.

Disregard that last post, I am a liar lol

Yeah, so turns out that I'm not as close to finishing New Dogs, New Tricks' rough draft as I thought I was. Amazingly enough, watching something on YouTube kinda disrupted my plans, but in this case it's actually a good thing because it's hopefully gonna make the story not only more interesting to follow, but better explain certain character motivations as well.