This little number here is what you might call an... experiment of sorts. I suppose its primary purpose is for me to show off whatever I feel like showing off. For the most part "whatever I feel like showing off" means my fanart, but it could also include fanfiction, other fan articles/content and the occasional spontaneously-changing site layout. There's also some other stuff here and there, some of it free for you to use, some of it just random crap I felt like putting someplace. You might find something vaguely interesting if you look around for a while!
The above is really all you need to know, but if you want more detail about anything then read on. In particular, if you wish to use, repost or remix any content on this site, jump down to here.
Updates and Update Frequency
Most of the updates are going to consist entirely of fanwork, often artwork but occasionally (hopefully) writing as well; other content, such as articles/essays or tools, will appear less often. You will see me reiterate this further down the page. Note that I make no promises about how often I'll add new content of any sort; my schedule and my current content-related interests can fluctuate pretty wildly. I will, however, do my best to keep the site from dying entirely!
Content Rating
By and large, I want all of the content featured on this website to be work-safe and generally family friendly. There may be a modicum of mild language here or there, and some of the artwork I upload or stories that I write may not be entirely appropriate for young children, but most everything here shouldn't be offensive to anyone. That said, I would still give the site an overall rating of PG-13 to be on the safe side, simply because there's no real rhyme or reason to when and where the possibly slightly offensive bits may show up (there will be clear warnings when something really "bad" is posted, however). Browse this website at your own risk.
If I've posted anything that you feel is particularly distressing or otherwise inappropriate and you don't think you had enough advance warning about it, please feel free to let me know about it via the contact page. I'll gladly see what I can do to denote any potentially mature or triggering content more carefully.
A Note on the Fandoms Featured Here
If it isn't painfully obvious already, the vast majority of the content on this website is Pokémon-related. Pokémon is probably my favorite fandom and the one I spend the most time dealing with. Heck, even if something isn't Pokémon-related I'll probably find a way to link them together. (Witness all the Tales of Symphonia/Pokémon stuff. It's sad, really.) As a result, I can't guarantee you'll find much of this interesting if you aren't a big Pokémon fan. If you snoop around long enough, however, you'll find stuff relating to the other games and things I like: currently Tales of Symphonia, Phoenix Wright and Fire Emblem would be the most prominent, a little Golden Sun, Homestuck and Harry Potter here and there. There are other fandoms I like as well, but I can't currently think of any big ones with any significant presence here at all.
I guess the proper target audience for this site would be people who like Pokémon and a few of the other things I like, then. I doubt I'll be updating the site with Phoenix Wright content anywhere near as often as Pokémon content, so if that's what you're looking for then I suppose you'd best look somewhere else. Sorry!
The Fanart
A lot of what I do when I'm not staring at my monitor is sketch pictures, usually of Pokémon, fakemon or dragons. I won't upload my original stuff here—there are other places for you to look if that's what you want to see (my DeviantArt gallery, for example, though even then that's kind of overrun with fakemon at the moment). The art sections are where you'll see most of the non-Pokémon content. A large portion of the site's updates will be artwork.
My sketches (and my more polished artwork) can be found on this page.
The Fanfics
I don't write anywhere near as often as I'd like to; it would seem that I have a pretty gnarly case of perpetual writer's block and an evil "inner editor" that demolishes any tiny little scraps I do manage to put on paper/the screen. On the off chance that I do actually finish something and am comfortable with putting it up here, though, I will. (I'm working on making this a more regular occurrence!) As with most things the vast majority of the fanfiction content will be Pokémon-related, but I do have some non-Pokémon ideas I've been working on here and there and would like to post at some point in the future.
Any fanfics that manage to fight their way out of my head will end up here.
The Nonfiction
Articles, essays, guides, ramblerants... fan-related nonfiction, basically. I can't really think of a proper generalized heading right now. You probably won't see many nonfiction articles that aren't Pokémon-related.
The fanarticleramblerantessayguides can be found on the Nonfiction page.
The Animé-Style Battling
Animé-style battling, or ASB, is a post-based Pokémon battling game found on several forums. I happen to be fond of it. Sometimes I write crap about it even though I doubt that the average visitor to this website cares all that much. Oh, well.
Seriously, though, you should try it sometime. It's fun. And then, once you know what the heck I'm blathering about all the time (this might help), all those ASB-related updates won't seem so pointless! Yay!
The Games
Occasionally I dabble in puzzles and a smattering of game designs. The fandom-related fruits of those efforts can be found in the "Games" section of the menu.
The Everything Else
I also work on several other online projects that I have lumped into a "network" with this one. Links to those projects can also be found on the menu under "Network", so give them a visit if they look interesting.
A Note on Using/Reposting/Remixing Altered Origin's Content
Generally speaking, I am okay with the stuff I create and post to Altered Origin being mentioned on other sites. I'm even okay with some content being reuploaded to a site like Tumblr (NOT deviantART or FanFiction.Net or any other site where it's automatically implied that you created the work instead of me), pictures being used in sigs/avatars, stuff like that. I am okay with these things only on the condition that you credit me as the original artist/author/creator and that you don't claim that aspect of the work as your own. That bold bit is important; plagiarism is not a good thing, kids. I'm a bit more relaxed when it comes to permission to use/repost/remix my stuff—I'm not going to force you to ask me every time you want to use or share some part of Altered Origin. That said, however, I would appreciate it if you did run anything major by me first just so I'm vaguely aware that you're doing it. Also note that while I like to think I'm reasonably chill with other people using, sharing or remixing the content I create for most purposes, I do ask that if I see what you've done and it really makes me uncomfortable that you respect my wishes and take it down.
If you're just downloading something to your own computer and don't intend to share it with anyone, e.g. an image you'd like to use as a wallpaper, you don't need permission or credit or anything; just go ahead and do it. :)
If you're going to share something with people, e.g. on Tumblr, I'd prefer that you either link to it here or from deviantART/my own Tumblr/wherever. You can repost yourself it if you absolutely must—and I really cannot think of a valid reason to do this with writing so please don't—but if the content you're sharing is an image then please try not to hotlink it from my server (e.g., download it to your computer first and then upload that to Tumblr, or save the image to Photobucket or something). I'd rather people not leech my site's bandwidth if it's all the same to you.
Fanart/fanwork of something I've done, if for some ungodly reason you feel inclined to create some, is always appreciated and you generally don't need permission to go ahead with it unless there's some reason you think I might not be okay with it (in which case please do check with me first). I do still ask that you credit me as appropriate. I'd also appreciate it if you gave me a link to the work when you've finished with it—I'd love to see it!
If you think someone else is using my stuff without permission/credit/etc., I'd appreciate it if you let me know about it.
tl;dr, stealing is bad, leeching bandwidth is bad, sharing/remixing stuff is okay as long as you give credit and you are awesome forever if you ask me first/show me the end result. Capice? Wunderbar.
(This "blanket permission" does not apply to Altered Origin's network sites, such as the Pokémon Turquoise forums. Other sites may have other rules governing use/posting/remixing of their content; you're expected to read and respect those specific rules. For example, the majority of the Phoenixdex's is actually freely available under a Creative Commons license, but I don't have permission to let you use whatever you like on Pokémon Turquoise. Please respect the wishes of myself and any other people who may have made content available on those sites.)
That's everything. You can go away now.
I may add a history section down here somewhere. Maybe. Don't know yet.