Pamasak-Butas: What's Next and the Afterthoughts · 5:49pm Dec 23rd, 2019
Before we get to my afterthoughts on Pamasak-Butas, a heads-up on what's next.
For those patiently waiting for A War's sequel, this is going to be my main project for the foreseeable future. No ifs, no buts. This will be the story I will focus on for 2020, and I hope to get it out before the end of that year.
I'll provide updates on my progress as I progress past the milestones.
I also said something about another anthology for Magical Curiosity in the vein of A Magic Turn of Events but on a smaller scale, with chapters containing fewer than a thousand words. I'm still on the fence about it, but I'm considering it; I can't write about the same story for a year or more without creatively fatiguing.
With that, my afterthoughts on Pamasak-Butas. Spoilers for those who haven’t read the story to the end.
Apir!|Minda and Vi Wallpaper by Crystal Magic 6
Pamasak-Butas' indirect inspiration is my fascination of the Earth-meets-Equestria scenario. It's fun to think about how the world would go if there was this interdimensional connection with Equestria all along—and I don't mean the scenarios with dramatic first contact events. Just day-to-day life, from a peaceful first contact until, say, a decade from then. A lot can come from this happening: comparing the reality of Equestria versus what's shown in the show, an Equestrian taking job opportunities on Earth and vice versa for humans, sightseeing the portal hubs where the worlds converge and both humans and Equestrians interact in an interdimensional airport-like place... the possibilities are endless.
Slowly, though, I realized that there was no Earth-meets-Equestria fic set in my country. The ones I usually saw were set in North America and Europe. I liked those fics, but checking the comments sections reminded me that I'm looking from the outside-in, somehow out of the loop. People would share this or that experience on this story or chapter's subject and, nine times out of ten, I couldn't relate nor did I believe I had any experiences that were very relatable to them.
Thus, the entrepreneur in me saw an unfulfilled market as an opportunity and I kept it in mind.
While publishing the chapters of my previous story, In Our Loving Memory, I got a blog post on my feed. It was Admiral Biscuit's Labor Day blog post that started the whole Pony-on-Earth "Contest" thing going on these days. By then, I was preparing to go full-time with A War's sequel since it was going to be a huge project; I wanted to get that sequel out ASAP. However, the blog post reminded me of that Philippine-set Earth-meets-Equestria idea, and I said to myself, "Just one more story... it's for the experience, no?"
So it began.
Hanggang Saan Aabot ang 20 Pesos Mo by jhayarr23
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Brainstorming was the first step, especially since I did not have any definite idea yet; the only thing I had going was an Equestrian selling Filipino street food. I and Venerable Ro talked back and forth about possible story ideas and characters until things coalesced into a rough plan on what the story would be.
Beta ideas included:
- Showing a bat pony because the Philippines has lots of bats; in fact, bats fly around at night where I live. However, I shot the idea down: there's a legendary bat-like creature known as the mananggal that terrorizes pregnant women. I don't want to say more because I'd be treading on dangerous ground but, needless to say, a bat pony in the Philippines may not do so well, at least within the first few years.
- Referencing the tikbalang, a horse-like mythical creature who differs depending on who's telling the story: in some cases, they're demonic tricksters preying on forest travelers; in others, they're guardians of fairy-like kingdoms.
- Mentioning that Garlan lives in a nearby apartment. Would make the griffon a bit too much like a pony if he told a random stranger (Macario) about where he lived.
After brainstorming was actually writing the story out. To prepare for this, I took on as many chances I could get to ride on jeepneys and buy street food despite rising health concerns about "dirty" cuisine, especially when it rains. I tried to take on lots of details: the permanent ones like the overhead rope you pull on to signal the driver to stop, and the temporary ones like the ever-shifting make-up of the passengers. What do they look like? What are they doing? What are they probably feeling right now?
However, in hindsight, I had an unusual time writing the story.
Firstly, it was because I was writing it in English. Sure, it was a necessary compromise if I was going to post it here: all the readers here read a lot in English, not to mention the official rule of publishing only English stories. However, that was because this is the first time I'm writing a story that's not set in a mostly English place. Writing in Equestria and the Earth of Equestria Girls was no problem, and my stories set there fit in with most others here. However, for Pamasak-Butas, I was consciously using English in a place where it wasn't the sole language king—like being aware that I was breathing and, for a few moments, breathing manually. In my life alone, I hear Filipino radio, listen to Filipino songs, interact with people who speak in Filipino... this and more were done in a language that I wasn't writing in.
Secondly, I was doing something close to home. Writing in Equestria and Equestria Girls Earth made me mentally go to far-away places, and the human analogues were something I'm only familiar with in a second-hand sort of way: lots can be talked about Trottingham, Hoofington, Manehattan, and so on, but not something like the Fillypines. Reading Earth-meet-Equestria fics closed the distance because there was talk of real-life humans and real-life Earth, but they still talked about places and cultures I've never even been to, much less very familiar with. I want to say that I know the States very well, but just because I'm more than decent at English doesn't mean I'm more than decent at knowing the culture.
Since I've consumed so much international media, the lead-up to writing this story was a journey to come home. I read Filipino essays from a man born in the same village that Macario came from (more on that later), and autobiographical tales of people from around the capital. Even earlier this year (before even thinking about this story), I read my first modern-day Philippine-set novel in quite some time, and it was a different yet comforting experience: reading about places I really know of, that my friends and family have been to, of words and cultural things I can attest to. It was much different than imagining something else, somewhere else, with some people else.
This way, writing Pamasak-Butas was a contemplative time. An anomaly, even. The next story I'll write will bring me back to Equestria, to a place far away from where I belong. True, I want to write that story; it's a passion project of mine that I want to put to reality. However, it will be impossible to rival this Earth-meets-Equestria story where, for once, I came home.
Welcome!!! It's more fun in the Philippines by Gary Todd, on Flickr
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Aside from setting an Earth-meets-Equestria story in an unconventional place, there's four other things I had in mind to make this story differ from others like it.
The first one was factoring in the My Little Pony franchise along with Hasbro. While it didn't play a huge role in the story overall, I wanted to have that "this is the real thing" feeling in the background. This means having lots of "unrealistic" things be real and normal things in this setting, even if in another world. With all the news and info that would probably swirl around first contact, the show and the franchise in general will provide some ground for people to base their assumptions of Equestria on, and it would be fun to see how those assumptions meet the road of facts. It also opens up an avenue for further exploration of the other universe: the show focused mostly on the ponies, so humans would end up becoming curious over the details and lore of other species' cultures.
The second thing was breaking away from the (stereo)typical depiction of ponies in Earth-meets-Equestria situations, which is why you don't see any cuddling or otherwise very cutesy pony interactions with humans. I confess, I haven't read dozens upon doezns of such fics, but I've read a handful. I've observed that humans tend to be very cuddly with ponies and that, for some reason, ponies are okay with submitting to that and being treated like pets. I can get it if it was based on how horses may like having their ears scratched. However, ponies formed a mature civilization with a long history behind them; even if it's all based on friendship, I don't believe that they're going to act like pets for an alien just because they're taller than the average pony and treat their own horses like pets—a sense of dignity should be there as fellow sapients.
The third thing, related to the second, was putting out a less-than-stellar view of ponies in general. In most of the slice-of-life Earth-meets-Equestria stories I’ve read, interaction between humans and ponies was mostly ideal, which was all fine and dandy with me. However, I sometimes got the feeling that humans kept seeing ponies as the ideal; it helped that ponies lived in a friendship-based society. I wondered, what would happen if there were some ponies that didn’t act that way? Or, at least, there was a human who didn’t have high views of those ponies but merely treated them as people just like other fellow humans?
The fourth thing was to bring along other species, hence having Garlan around as well as the worldbuilding talk of other species and how they’re going through this first contact/portal hub thing. Rare is the slice-of-life Earth-meets-Equestria fic with non-ponies in the spotlight. Not much else to it, really, but the idea of having those other creatures interacting with humans and their world opens up a lot of possibilities that I believe have been untapped.
Speaking of other creatures, I felt obligated to cameo a changeling somewhere in the story. I’ve always had a soft spot for the reformed changelings, especially with their implied journey of figuring out what to do in a whole new society… and now what would happen when faced with a whole new world of potential friends and love-sharers?
Let’s run down the list of major ponies.
I remember seeing a pony with a chili cutie mark on the show before (or was it a fire cutie mark?), but Hot Shot isn’t based on any of them. I wanted to put in a farmer pony in the tourist trio because Equestria still seemed to be an agricultural society; it was just very good at it that there was no high need for industrialization until recently. As for her being a chili farmer, it was merely a fun idea, but it could be expanded into a whole slew of agricultural lore: the Chili Clan in the likes of the Apple family, wondering how ponies would deal with other crops, how spice would be put into pony cuisine (other than Pinkie’s jalapeno red velvet omelette cupcakes)…
Weatherwise’s appearance was inspired in part by Midnight Strike, but other than that and being a pegasus, there’s no relation or similarity between the two. To be honest, the story alone gives very little of him, but I like to imagine that he’s a more laid-back Rainbow Dash when it comes to handling the weather (but less lazy).
I couldn’t have all the ponies’ names be obvious or easy, so I named the unicorn tourist Skittles and based everything else off of that: not the candy, but the chess term which really does mean an informal or casual game of chess. Unlike the stereotypical chess player/pony season manager, Skittles was depicted as a bunny-eared lawyer: (supposedly) good at her job of managing the seasons and great at chess while also being the craziest of the bunch. A halfway point between Twilight Sparkle/Amethyst Star and Pinkie Pie.
Blueberry Tart strikes me as an idealistic worker, and given the happy reputation of pony baking in the show, it’s no surprise that Tart is very passionate about her work. However, things like the muffins and cupcakes seen in the show aren’t as prevalent in here as compared to other countries—the major “baked goods” here, if you could call them that, are rice-based delicacies like puto which is a baked rice cake and suman which is another type of rice cake. Despite that, I honestly would like to be with Tart if only because she is positive all the time.
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What would you do if, one day, you woke up and the morning’s breaking news was first contact with Equestria?
As much as I like to say that I’d be level-headed, it’s more likely that I’d react the same way Boyet did: with great enthusiasm, or perhaps too much. Thing is, Boyet isn’t mentioned to be a fan of the show, or if he is, he only became one after first contact and after everyone started paying attention to this interdimensional show thing.
Given the interactions I’ve seen between humans and ponies in Earth-meets-Equestria fics and given the general popularity of such fics (especially the human-in-Equestria stories), I believe that, in peaceful first contact, humans and Equestrians would get along well. However, it’s also likely that humans may get along with Equestrians so much, Equestrians become easier to talk to than other humans. Part of it comes from this attitude: encountering a human from another country can mean getting worried about what to say, what to do to respect them and what not to do so as to not offend them, and so on. As for complete aliens, however, all bets are off; mistakes and awkward situations will be made, and there’s no use fretting when just bumbling along into normal conversations is the better choice here.
I have experience of this—not with Equestrians but with foreigners in general when I encounter them in real life. For some reason, I’d like with talk them more, get to know where they come from, how they do things from their homeland, and how they think of my homeland; with other Filipinos, there’s this familiarity that negates some of the wonder from learning about someone else. (It could also be that the Philippines is a rather homogeneous country: simplify all the local ethnic groups under the term Filipino, it’s more often than not that you’ll only meet other Filipinos in one week even in the major cities.) That’s a flaw I’ve heightened in Boyet. True, he may be going over the moon meeting magic unicorns and what not like a dream come true. Beyond that, however, I believe there’s this more general sense of that “grass is greener on the other side” when it comes to talking with non-locals, whether it’s someone from across the ocean or from across the multiverse.
This Is Almost Eerie by thelivingmachine02
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There are numerous barangays (the term coming from balangay, Malayan for a sailboat) or villages across the entire country. In cities, they’re the little districts that make those same cities up. Some don’t get the luxury of a proper name: just go to Manila proper and the majority of villages you’ll find are named by numbers: Barangay 1, Barangay 10, Barangay 100, Barangay 101, Barangay 102, et cetera. Many others get the name treatment though: Tondo, Manila which is the home to the Manila North Harbor Port; Alabang, Muntinlupa which is a business powerhouse housing multiple company headquarters such as the local branches of Hershey and Shell; Dasmariñas Village, Makati which was touched by modern history as a location of hidden weapons for the 2003 Oakwood mutiny against the president; and Addition Hills which is actually two adjacent barangays in two cities: San Juan and Mandaluyong.
While San Juan’s Addition Hills is home to a couple off-the-wall restaurants and a college, I don’t really remember much of Mandaluyong’s Addition Hills other than as a place to pass through or pass by, though according to the 2015 census, the latter is much more populous than the former. Perhaps it’s because the Mandaluyong side is mostly residential whereas I remember San Juan’s side having more famous establishments. My memories of the Hills (in both cites) are mostly dull: houses upon houses with the occasional store here and there.
While Macario’s financial firm isn’t real, the location is. It’s a tall multi-purpose commercial building with leasing available (on the San Juan side: a gross error I’ve made, referring to the workplace as if it were in Mandaluyong; it’s fixed though). Its surroundings are purely residential, which makes it an odd non-home island in a sea of homes. In the real-life present day, a tutorial center and a surplus shop occupy it. I believe it’s reasonable that, in a few years, the occupants would change into the financial firm/trucking office/laundromat trio it is in the story.
As for where Macario lives, it’s La Loma, Quezon City.
There are thousands of barangays in the capital, so I don’t know even a tenth of them. I ‘ve never known about La Loma, much less been there, until recently.
The story began in university when I was tasked with finding a Filipino essay to write about from a given reading. Said reading was a collection of narrative essays about the author writer/poet’s life and upbringing. The essay I chose was the last one; my intuition was that the last essay would be more poignant than the others because it’s the last one.
In summary, he reminisced over what he deemed his unmemorable hometown. Unlike popular or famous barangays, La Loma just was. Now, it wasn’t wholly bland or generic: it’s known for its lechon (a whole pig roasted on a spit), its local cockfighting pit, and its similar name to the nearby La Loma Catholic Cemetry (plus, it’s also near to another cemetery, the more famous Manila North Cemetery). However, the author was aware, sometimes painfully, of how unknown his village was—or, if other people knew of it, than it was only by the above stuff. At one point, he was proud when he saw that his village played a part in history: specifically on Februray 5, 1899, the day after the start of the Philippine-American War, where Lieutenant José Torres Bugallón fought and suffered fatally… and after that, not much else in the annals of history for the town.
When he was a child, he wanted to walk over to a tower in the distance: the Quezon Memorial. After many streets, it never seemed to get any closer. Then, he encountered one of his schoolmates and asked him about reaching the tower. He was told that it was too far, and that he could never reach it on these roads.
He could never reach it from La Loma, his unmemorable hometown.
I’ve checked Google Maps for how La Loma looks like today. It’s only slightly gentrifying, with a few apartments. Many of the houses there are old, and there are a couple slum-like areas there too. A tourist would never go there unless there’s a loved one living in the village. There are hundreds of other places to go to for lechon, hundreds of other cockpits to go to, and the cemeteries themselves are the landmarks, not their adjacent neighborhoods.
Which was perfect for a Macario who isn’t that much different from many of his age.
Iconic Jeep by Jun Acullador, on Flickr; distributed under the CC BY-ND 2.0 license
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Pamasak-Butas, to quote the synopsis on the story’s page, “is an entry into Admiral Biscuit's Labor Day Challenge/Working Ponies Contest Thing (PoE) bookshelf.” Thus, whatever happened later on in the story’s life, its major thrust in the beginning was the idea of work.
The numbers say that the country is improving economically. However, numbers don’t mean much if they aren’t personally affecting the people in said economy. I’m reminded of the hoopla over rice tarrifs and talk about rice farmers not being paid enough or given the machines and the education to farm smarter, not just harder. Of over two million Filipinos having to work overseas in a foreign country, many of them to pay for their families’ bills and their children’s education back home. Of companies skirting over fully paying their employees by doing their best not to regularize them.
With the not-a-contest’s focus on Equestrians working on Earth, the overwhelming choice of pony and their cutie marks lead to ponies having a talent or passion written out for them; it’s a helpful guide to knowing what job to apply for. While there will always be cutie mark problems, I’d wager that ponies have a headstart when it comes to work and labor, especially with ponies like the Cutie Mark Crusaders helping others out with their cutie mark problems.
But having a gruff griffon as the story’s focal Equestrian is a realization of a cynical thought I had: ponies are what we dream to be, griffons are what we really are—though maybe not in an attitude sort of way. Given the dire state of Griffonstone, there’s not much to have in that place other than to move out of it. Yet, griffons also have to work in order to eat just like ponies.
With that in mind, Garlan’s view of work would end up being different from the average pony’s. Labor becomes stripped of ponish ideals of being unique, showing off one’s talent, and so on. For Garlan, labor is distilled into its simplest form: a way to survive, to sustain one’s self and family, whether he wants it or not—surviving and living are much more likable and important to him than worrying about a job matching whatever passion he has. Everything else is a hopeful bonus that may or may not befall on him. And that’s not to say how other creatures would see labor in lieu of ponies and their cutie mark-present culture.
The local news and the food carters alone would relate to Garlan more than some pony’s cutie mark story.
The chapter titles alone tell as much.
Ibong Sawi, Ibong Malaya; Pugad o Ibayong Dagat.
Roughly: an unfortunate person, a free bird; nest, or the other side of the sea.
Philippine eagle ... #philippineeagle #onlyinthephilippines #flyhigh #maehabasolophotography by Renzelle Mae Abasolo, on Flickr; distributed under the CC BY 2.0 license
It’s fitting that this story comes at the end of the year, with Christmas coming around and then the build-up to the New Year as the trend to remember what happened earlier in 2019 comes along. Fitting still that the story comes at the end of the decade so everyone’s going to be hyped about remembering what happened in the past ten years.
Surely, while one remembers the things past, there’s the things present replacing them. Sometimes, they come in and take the place of something or someone dear, doing their best to fill a hole that feels unfulfillable with nothing or no one else.
Such is the nature of the term pamasak-butas. Literally, it’s what one puts in a hole to fill it. As an expression, it’s someone standing in for somebody else.
Much is said about the people I’ve met and now don’t see at all. Others seem to replace them. I have Facebook, but, to be honest, I don’t have much motivation to reconnect with most of them. (I need to get that fixed.)
And yet, I can’t idolize the past, can’t try to keep living in it, can’t get hung up on it. There’s a present out there, with present people to be with and present things to do. I can’t be with them forever or at least not as much as I used to.
So Macario moves on from Fermin and deals with Garlan as who he is, not as a mere stand-in. This is the present.
So this story tells me, “Prepare to move on, and treat the present as what it is, not as a mere stand-in.”
For a fic I wrote to teach myself how to write better, it’s certainly taught me wisdom too. Such is the serendipity of God.
When I started writing my own story years ago, one of the first things to come out was the character's Polish ancestry. But that was just a characterization choice, and not so much a plot decision, and when it came out that the story wasn't actually in Poland, I sensed some disappointment.
It certainly would have been different that way, but I was not prepared to attempt such a thing, not being Polish myself.
But hey, that's just one thing that made this such an interesting story to me: I had the same reaction as you have, as an outsider who just doesn't fully get it.
5173907
I was the opposite: I tried it anyway, though not with a Polish setting but an American one. It seemed easy at first, but I was very lucky that I didn't come off as pretentious. One of my flaws then was describing the place a bit too much or, rather, in a tour guide-esque, listy sort of way.
I recognize the irony of what you quoted and I own up to it! At the same time, though, I'm amiss to not mention the positive side of looking at all these stories and places from the outside-in: that I end up looking at these real-world places with lots of wonder. It's one thing to know about, say, London and to list a hundred fun facts about it; it's another thing to read a story set in it and experience it as if I was actually there. They end up breaking whatever stereotypes I have of them and enrich my knowledge and thoughts about those places and their people and culture.
Easily one of the most pleasant reads I've had in years, great work!
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I am flattered! I'll just do away with humblebragging and say that I am quite proud of this story especially since it is a dream project of mine to see some horse words set in my country. It's good that you've enjoyed yourself with it.
A very unique story, I'm somewhat lucky in that I have had a few experiences that took me far from home. That said a globetrotter I am not. I want to travel more, It's the actual doing that evades me.
Your somewhat cynical office jockey main character is something I can relate to, like if Equestria came to earth, I might in the first days or weeks be excited, but my inner critic would probably tamp that down before long.
some profound wisdom from a story involving the happy-go-lucky race.
Some of your other thoughts got me thinking for example how does Equestria keep from oversaturating various markets, especially when you have lots of ponies with similar talents/cutie marks. If Equestria has a total population of around 1 billion (similar to Earth circa mid-19th century) and 100 million have cooking/baking related talents does Equestria have staffing issues or unemployment?