Barcast Interview - The Transcript pt.2 · 3:05pm February 2nd
And here's part 2. For those who somehow found their way here oddly, the first half can be found here. And the annotations for this section are here.
Enjoy!
AP: gargling noises? So hey Priest.
FP: Hey.
AP: So, um, did you know that we don't just like fuck around and hang out with our handful of viewers and interview a guest?
FP:I thought all we do is play video games now.
AP: Yeah all we do is play video games right now. Um, the other thing we do is we give money to charity!
FP: What?!
AP: Yeah, we donate all of the money we get from viewers - either in the way of bits or through donations to our patreon or if you just like put dollar bills in our hot little hands - we give that money to Redwings Horse Sanctuary in central California. Uh, Redwings Horse Sanctuary supports horses that have been displaced from their land, have been mistreated, can no longer be cared for, and gives them a good life with all the care that they need.
FP: How do I get my money back?
AP: Well you don't get your money back. Instead what you do is your money goes to a horse that we sponsor. His name is Lil' Bit, and he's a little shit. Um, I say that because he's lovable, he's cute, and Flam's met him and he's a very soft boy, isn't he.
FW: Indeed, and that is a legit name that everyone calls him because he loves to try and escape into the fields.
AP: So if you want to help support this horse and, uh, you want to help support us, you can subscribe to us on patreon, donate to us, and if you're really curious there's links in the chat right now. And if you want to donate directly that's okay too. Go to Redwings Horse Sanctuary to learn more online.
EO: G-give us money so we can feed it to the horse.
AP: What do you think about all that, Priest?
FP:How do we even know this horse is real? I think we need to go see it.
AP: I think we do need to go see the horse. That's- that's a goal of ours, uh, we've already interviewed the horse a little bit30 - we being Flam and Enigma - but we have genuine intent to go see that horse. So if you want to see us do that, let us know in the threads and in the comments.
FP: Yes, very exciting. Also, let me double check because I've gotten several people saying to me privately that I'm a coward for not reading the uh the Navy Seals copy pasta.
TC: laughter
AP: Did you not? I left, did you not read the Navy Seals?
FP: No I didn't. I think it's– I have to read it now. We'll do it, we'll do it for the ad read. Also thank you Sergeant Tinman for five gift subs; thank you Emptyplotfiller for the gift sub; thank you Emptyplotfiller for the 2,000 bits and here's your Navy SEAL copy pasta for you. For the gram. What the fuck did you just fucking say about me, you little bitch? I'll have you know I graduated top of my class in the Navy Seals, and I've been involved in numerous secret raids on Al-Quaeda, I have over 300 confirmed kills. I am trained in gorilla warfare and I'm the top sniper in the entire US armed forces. You are nothing to me but just another target. I will wipe you the fuck out with precision the likes of which has never been seen before on this Earth, mark my fucking words. You think you can get away with saying that shit to me over the Internet? Think again, fucker. As we speak I am contacting my secret network of spies across the USA and your IP is being traced right now so you better prepare for the storm, maggot. The storm that wipes out the pathetic little thing you call your life. You're fucking dead, kid. I can be anywhere, anytime, and I can kill you in over seven hundred ways, and that's just with my bare hands. Not only am I extensively trained in unarmed combat, but I have access to the entire arsenal of the United States Marine Corps and I will use it to its full extent to wipe your miserable ass off the face of the continent, you little shit. If only you could have known what unholy retribution your little "clever" comment was about to bring down upon you, maybe you would have held your fucking tongue. But you couldn't, you didn't, and now you're paying the price, you goddamn idiot. I will shit fury all over you and you will drown in it. You're fucking dead, kiddo.
AP: What a classic, what a fucking classic. Can we hear it for Priest reading out this classic?
FP: Yay.
FW: YEAH.
FP: Thank you for the subs.
EO: Could you repeat all that? You cut out halfway, I don't think the stream heard you.
FP: Shut the fuck up.
laughter
FP: We're gonna– we're gonna go to something that's actually really great. We're going to go to Scampy. Scampy has great questions and Scampy is a great individual. Uh, Flam, Enigma, I have been selfish and kept all the questions for myself, would either of you like to take them?
EO: You know, I can do it. I'll do it - for Scampy.
FP: Alright.
FW: For Scampy.
FP: For- for Scampy. Fists in the air for Scampy.
EO: For– ra– ra– yeah, I was gonna say something else, but, uh, for ra-
FP: For Raid: Shadow Legends.
EO: Yeah, our sponsor, who Scampy works for. Uh. Number one. By Scampy. Can you say hi to the Barcast people for me? I think they're all pretty swell.31
TC: Hey Barcast people, Scampy says hello.
AP: Hiiiii Scampy!
FP: Hi Scampy, we miss you.
FW: 'Sup Scampy.
EO: Number two. By Scampy. Please provide some secret lore facts about Dexter and Martin.
TC: So those are our two cats and I'm– hold on…
AP: Uh oh.
FW: Oh got to–
TC: And I've just dropped a photo of them in the general, so.
AP: Oh nice.
FP: Sweeeeet.
FW: Let us see. Let us see cat. Yo, those are– those are some swell cats. Look at the whiskers on the one on the right, that looks just– that's sophisticated.
AP: Reminiscent of Bacon with the, uh, crazy whiskers.
FP: Absolutely.
FW: I am a sophisticated cat and I have lovely whiskers like this.
TC: Okay I'm gonna tell you right now, absolut– he is absolutely not.
FW: Damn.
TC: So the one on the left - the- the big tank of a black black cat is Martin. The older one of the two. Um, secret lore for him is that it is impossible to keep a collar on that little asshole. We keep trying. We- we try and we try, but every time we put it on there it's off again within three days. We think we know how he does it, but we have yet to catch him to stop him. But every time we put a bell on him, that collar's off three days max. Uh, the smaller– the smaller tuxie is Dexter. Um. He is a complete idiot. He's an adorable idiot, but he is an absolute– there is no brain cells in his head.
AP: As tuxedo cats are often tend to be.
TC: No he- he is- he is sweet as hell but he's also so dumb. So for secret lore is that he is obsessed with leather. When my, uh, when my in-laws came over and visited just before Christmas, uh, Dexter– while the rest of us went, we had dinner, Dexter actually went into the living room, found her leather purse and ate the handles off of it.
FP: Oh no.
TC: Yeah, every morning when I get dressed for work, I'll, you know, put my– I'll you know, put the pants on, get the- get the leather belt out, he will run across the house, jump on the bed and attack the belt so he can gnaw on it as I put it on.
FP: Oh my gosh.
AP: Obsessed is the right word then.
TC: Oh yeah no. He- he again– he's dumb as hell but he's sweet as hell and yeah, no, he just- he loves- he loves leather. Absolutely loves it.
FP: So what is what is Dexter's worst brain empty moment?
TC: Well I've seen him multiple times, he- he'll, you know, get up on the surface and he'll kind of roll around and try to get you to come over and pet him and he will roll- roll right off of them. He's done– he- he'll roll- he'll roll off– he's rolled off the bed, he's rolled off of window sills, he's recently taken to actually crawling into the bathroom sink and laying in that because he can't roll out of it so it'll just kind of rotate in the middle of it.
EO: It sounds to me– it sounds to me like he's big of heart but dumb of ass.
AP: A proper himbo, yes.
TC: Extremely. Extreme– oh no ,very extremely himbo.
FP: Wonderful. Are they best friends, do they cuddle?
TC: Oh yeah, no absolutely. There's- they absolutely do. They they fight like crazy too, but no, they're very much a big brother little brother kind of dynamic.
FP: Awww. Adorable.
TC: They are, they are. We love them.
EO: Number three. By Scampy. You've been doing reviews regularly for a heck of a long time now, which obviously means you're reading a bunch. Do you have any favorite stories that stick out to you as special even amongst all the good and great stuff you've read?32
TC: So this is another one that was really hard because, I mean, the the blog I do has already gone through 318 stories and I've got a waiting list of more than a thousand I can pull from, Like, I could do this daily for a for three years and still not run out. Um. I could talk for so many hours on just naming stories that are great and gushing about them, which again is half the point behind me doing the blog because I want to talk about the awesome stuff I've read. If I absolutely had to pick one and just one, I would actually probably pick, uh, Phoenix-born Rising by- by The Voice In The Water. It's got some amazing world building in it, is beautifully written, it's– it's something I just keep going back to and rereading despite the fact that it's more than 300,000 words long. But, I mean, I could easily just easily praise something like Unchanging Love, Unseen Unheard, The Price of Salt, Time, The Choices We Make, Luna's Daughters, the Twin Canterlots series… So there- there- there are so– as I kind of said before, there are so many amazing pieces of work in this fandom that I just– I love talking- talking about. I love reading them.33
EO: Nice. Number four. By Scampy. What's your favorite–
FW: garbled
EO: –euphemism for boobs? Yeah I had– I had a brain seizure for a second there.
FP: laughter
TC: Well at least you got tied up on 'euphemism' instead of 'boobs'. That's…
AP: He just saw 'boobs' was like GUH! Hold on!
FW: I mean, to be fair.
FP: Got to regain composure.
FW: Every day for me, too.
TC: I mean, I can understand that, yeah.
FW: I've seen them and I still get brain freeze.
EO: No my brain was gonna pronounce euphemism as Ethiopia because the E.
laughter
AP: What the actual–
FP: What the actual fuck.
FW: In what actual world.
EO: I was like hold on that doesn't seem right.
FP: …Read the question!
EO: Returning to number four. By Scampy. Mine is sweater puppies so you're not allowed to pick that, I call dibs.34
FW: I mean that's a good one.
AP: Sweater puppies is pretty good.
TC: Honestly if I- I'm just partial to just the simple classic 'tits'. It's- it's snappy, it's fast, it's- it's easy, it goes well with anything. Gotta go with the classics thing.
FW: I agree. There's sort of a– there sort of a hierarchy. If it's, like, actual writing I'm being serious about it, depends on the tone, it's either breast, boobs, or tits depending on how, like, you know, crass I'm trying to be. But if I'm trying to actually be funny about something or evoke another particular, uh, image, I- I have a bit of fun with it. I'm partial to Devil's dumplings.
AP: Tiddies is one of my favorites. You got to put the Ds in there. Tiddies.
FW: Tiddies, yes. Tiddies is a great one too. With the Ds.
FP: I'm be real, I'm not big on the recent trend of booba.
AP: Booba's for funny. Bobba is only for funny, there is no seriousness with booba.
FW: Yeah, it's only like meme tier stuff, really.
AP: Yeah.
FP: Mmhm.
AP: At least I hope it is, shit, God.
FP: I've- I've heard some people unironically say booba.
FW: Damn that's sucks.
garbled
FW: Own up to it and just call them chesticles then.
AP: I love chesticles. It– great, chesticles–
EO: Chesticles.
FP: Chesticles. laughter Yeah the famous– the famous philosopher on breasts, Chesticles.
EO: Number five. By Scampy. I can't think of any more questions right now, so what's a question you want someone to ask? Please pretend I asked you this question.
FW: Beautiful.
TC: I would probably– ask myself a question about all the kind of weird little references I slip into the stories because I– I do a lot of them and almost none of them get noticed, because they're either extremely deep cuts or just blink-and-you'll-miss-it references.
AP: Know the feeling, yeah, know the feeling.
TC: The latest one I did for the Jinglemas breezie story I did, uh, for Rainbow Dash, Spirit of Hearth's Warming Versus The Grand Council of Holidays, um, there's a secondary character who's a windigo named Maria and I've been wanting to name a windigo that for years because it's a reference to the 1951 Broadway musical and 1969 film Paint Your Wagon, which features a song song called They Call The Wind Maria. Nobody gets the reference, but it made me smile the whole time I was writing because I knew a little stupid joke.
EO: It's also reference to the fact that Mariah Carey is currently frosting and a windigo is always cold.
FW: Yeah.
TC: Interestingly! Interestingly, she was actually named for that song.35
FP: laughter
AP: Ooooo.
TC: So again, the deep cuts.
FP: I love it. I- I love the little, like, when you put in little things that you think are just for you and then occasionally you get someone put in a comment like "I know this reference!" It's just the greatest feeling.
TC: Oh yeah, no there- there was a one of the songs– one of the stories I did was basically a direct lift from an old, old uh story, uh, by Leslie Fish.
EO: Nice.
TC: Again, it was one of those ones where it's like, I was sitting there going "I'm just gonna do this one, put it up there and no one's gonna get it" and the sto– and the comments were - it was Some Kind Of Hero - and no I was like "no one will get this" and the comments are absolutely pack– people going "oh oh oh I know that song!" and I'm like "really? This is an obscure– this obscure- uh, this is obscure filk from back in the 70s, how do people know this?"
EO: Nice.
FP: Just go to the next question, Jesus.
EO: Scampy. By number six. I know I said I was out of questions but I totally lied. Who or what do I have to sacrifice to the old gods for, uh…
TS: Mnemosyne.36
EO: –Yosemite Sam to see the light of day? I am willing to burn cities to the ground to make this happen.
TC: So the story she's referring to is a piece that I've been working on for, like, two and a half years. It's my return to doing a big uh, a big uh, Sunset/Wallflower ship epic she has been begging me to finish it up for a long time, and I just keep not making progress on it. And unfortunately, I would– I would love to tell her what she would need to sacrifice but I- I don't even know myself. It's… Calliope does what Calliope wants. So.
FP: I- I'm beginning to get the impression that Scampy is a fan of Wallflower/Sunset things.
EO: I- I- I get the impression that she dresses up as Wallflower in conventions.
FP: HMMMMM.
TC: Naaaaah.
FP: Naaaah.
TC: We'd remember that.
EO: Who- who is that mysterious superhero known as Wallflower?
FP: Speaking of superheroes, AltruistArtist is up next. Uh, Flam, do you want these?
WF: Sure, I'll take that.
FP: Go for it.
FW: So starts off with uh congrats TCC and number one: any topics, themes, concepts you'd like to see explored in more pony fic? Unless of course you're wanting to keep those ideas to yourself for your own work.
TC: Well, first of all I have more ideas than I could ever possibly use - again 30 pages worth of just small two sentence prompts, so - but honestly, I can't really think of any. I mean, there's so much stuff out there– there's so many- so many fics between - what we up to, more than 150,000? - there's– it touches pretty much everything I could think of and there's- I mean, there's stories if you push me to it, I would say I would love to see– there's a list of, you know, incomplete stuff I would love to see finished and finally fleshed out, but not a lot, like, individual topics that I would like to see that haven't already been hit.
FW: Gotcha, Gotcha. No, that makes sense, I think. I mean, other than going extremely obscure, pretty much every major thing I'd say has probably been at least touched upon tangentially, so… They could always use personal refinement though. But, uh, yeah, number two: relatedly, did you– did your recent endeavor into collecting data on the frequency of character tag use inspire any story ideas for some of these underutilized characters?
TC: Uh, so what Altruist is talking about is that I occasionally - like maybe twice a year, I'll just do a quick blog where I go into some deep dives about weird little things about trends for characters and all that. Um, the most recent one was going– was taking the information from the Time Action Glory Challenge - which is a group that I'm part of which, uh, basically tracks character– the numbers of stories for character tracks historically - and I took all of the data that we've collected over the course of the last, like, five years and put it all into a single spreadsheet with graphs and all that, so we can see, you know, see you know, which characters are more popular, which ones are growing faster, which ones are kind of plateaued, that sort of thing
FW: As a data analyst by trade, this is this is my fuckin'-- this is my fuckin' definition of a good night.
TC: You would honestly probably be horrified by how bad my methodologies is- are, but that I- I'm just compiling the data that a couple of– that a couple of us have just been compiling over time, so… But yeah, so, to to answer the actual question, um, I was already trying to come up with ideas for those underutilized characters because of this– of this part that I'm– group that I'm part of, uh, so the data didn't really prompt me to do anything directly. That said, I've already jotted down two new pitches for Cranky Doodle Donkey and Argyle Starshine this month, and I'm actively working on a story with Tiberius in it. So yes and no?37
FW: Okay, uh, well, uh, I'm sure– I'm sure beyond story ideas, you probably gleaned some other interesting insights out of that and hopefully– five, yeah, five years for nothing to just say "Yeah I don't know, this is exactly what I expected. Sweet."
TC: No there's a ton of ideas, there's a ton of information that was in there, so. But again, long time. Actually also, I was wrong, it was almost 7 years worth of data. My bad.
FW: Jesus. At a very high level then I'm curious. What is one interesting thing you gleaned from the data that you were actually genuinely surprised in?
TC: Well, so one of the interesting aspects is that foal– that foal characters, you know the- the Cutie Mark Crusaders and the etc etc? They are actually all were very very popular in the beginning and you can see that because when we started tracking in July of 2017, a lot of them had some very high numbers but they've had almost zero growth since then, they're very very flat as a result. So for some reason, they were super popular at the beginning of the fandom and then plateaued, and basically have very relatively little popularity now. Um. You can see that in characters like Dinky Hooves and Rumble38, who have huge numbers but they're only pulling in maybe, like, 10 or 20 stories a year now? So there's basically only two foal characters who have significant growth past 2017. That's Flurry Heart and Button Mash.
FW: That.. that honestly, I would say lines up a bit at least. The– I'm- I'm surprised with the, uh, Crusaders because they're sort of a main character, but the others that kind of came in or were, like, community named for the most part were, like Button Mash– did Button Mash actually get a full, were they like actually, like canonically named that?
EO: He appeared in the show but he was not named.
FW: Right, he was one of those. I just want to confirm that they didn't do that–
TC: I believe so, yeah.
FW: –It was which that would make sense.
TC: For perspective, so the Crusaders– if you look back and we started tracking things in 2017s, the Crusaders were actually– had more stories– mic cuts off The Crusaders actually had more stories than most of the Main Six.
FW: Gotcha. That's interesting.
TC:Yeah, but so, but since that - damn it, uh - but since then they've actually fallen behind because they– at– when they started out they had more stories than Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Applejack, and Rarity. But nowadays the rest of the Main Six have passed them since then, because while the Crusaders had a lot to begin with? They've been completely flat since.39
FW: So they act like fad– they're like fad characters in a way. That's kind of interesting.
TC: Yeah, like said: interesting stuff. Yeah, it's unique and not something I would have predicted.
FW: Exactly. Hence why I asked so, uh, no, sweet, thanks for that. Uh, moving on to number three, then. Uh, favorite story you've written so far and conversely do you have a least favorite or at least one you'd significantly alter or rewrite given the opportunity?
TC: Uh, well I kind of answered the favorite one already so I'm going go with the second half of that one, and that's there is one specific story that I have as a least favorite, and that's actually my Jinglemas breezie story from last year which was Mirror Me, My Mirror. I loved the idea, it was a good– a good one to start out with, but the problem is that when I did the outline, it was like 10 to 12K and I just ran out of time. So I just kind of threw what I had together into something and a lot of the actual good parts happened off screen. Honestly it ended up being kind of garbage and I'm kind of ashamed afterwards that I actually gifted this to somebody. Um. So at least once a month I sit down there, go "I should go back and rewrite this and actually do the full story properly" but you know thinking I want to do something, actually doing it, Etc.40
FW: I feel. I know I said I would– I prob– I said some pe- to some people I'd rewrite some of my older works and I probably never did so, uh.
FP: It's a ton of work.
FW: Yeah.
FP: Especially if it's something that at one point you felt like you just generally had closure on and be like yeah you know I I did the best I could at the time for it um and it doesn't feel like you need to readdress that storyline it it can be difficult to find the motivation to go back and be like oh I need to do this better.
FW: It's actually what I did in a way. It's just like, well, I wouldn't be here if it weren't for these shittier stories anyway, so… But uh, in the– in a way I did kind of rewrite one it was more like a I said I wanted to rewrite Metroid Equis because I don't know how people stayed for that shit, but then I just decided why would I– but then as I was starting on the first chapter I'm like "wait why am I doing this when I can just just make a better story?" And so I did. And so I did, and I think the current one being written right now is in– despite it not being complete and having like you know a third of the of the ratio that the original had just simply by, you know, population alone, I- I personally think it's the better story. Other people may disagree but they can fight me on that so… But uh, anyway.
AP: Also– also we're- we're writers. Broken promises and missed deadlines is part of who we are, let's be honest.
FP: Yeeeeeeaaaaah.
FW: Indeed. And one thing I'll say to the readers and anyone listening to this stuff and– and, if you have some promise that are broken by a writer close to your heart, uh, one thing you need to know is that, as the authors no one hates– no one hates us more than we do, so there's nothing you could possibly do to us, uh, to make us feel worse than we already- we already do about our own work, anyway.
TC: So very true.
FW: Come at us bro.
FP: They can unsub on Patreon.
FW: There you go. or just unsubscribe–
laughter
FP: Next question!
FW: Shut the fuck up.
EO: garbled have money then then be miserable and no money.
FW: There you go. Number four, do you enjoy listening to music while writing and if so what are your favorite genres and artists?
TC: So I actually write in almost complete silence to cut down on distractions. And I say almost mostly because when I'm writing, I'm also constantly talking to myself.41
FW: Yes.
TC: I like verb– I like verbalizing the passages that I'm working on, both to bring them out of my mind into reality and it helps me make speech cadences sound more natural and flow a bit better, because what looks good on a page isn't always how people actually talk. So I kind of verbalize a lot of what I'm doing. Uh, though to answer the second half? My genres are all over the place. Um, my two biggest bands historically actually are probably Weird Al Yankovic and Rush–
FW: Nice.
FP: Yessss.
TC: –But I also listened to a variety of EDM, folk and, uh, a lot of heavy metal too, depending on what my mood is.
FP: yoooooo
FW: That's fair. Uh, at least when I write, it's either complete silence or it's strictly like, uh, almost ambient and like, non-lyrical music. So things like, you know, that that could easily be considered background music. Like my favorite artist for that would be, uh, Adrian von Ziegler. So, uh, he's excellent for Celtic and like, runic type of type of background music and that's just been with me for seven plus years, so. Highly recommend if you need any of that, but otherwise, yeah, complete silence is, uh, honestly just soothing. I like it too, so I agree.
EO: I listen to– I listen to ASMRs of dates going in awkward directions.
TC: That is certainly a choice.
FW: Alrighty.
FP: Let's move along.
FW: Indeed and, uh, finally from him, we– from them, we've got number five: In your own words, why is Sunset Shimmer so amazing?
TC: So I- I have a very big soft spot for reformed antagonists. I mean, my favorite characters to write are basically Sunset, Trixie, Wallflower, Tempest, and Discord. So ex-villains make up most of my– most of the stuff that I enjoy going for. I also like because Sunset's– she's got a great personality combination of being both hyper-competent and having massive, massive flaws, and it's always fun to have somebody who is right at the top of their game and really intelligent and great at everything and having them- them completely get dumpstered by something, and that's always a great story beat play with, which I just love. Also I will go back to the very first question and remind you of my love of Samus Aran, and I just have a thing for tough women with a red gold color scheme.42
FW: As great- as great as any, honestly. Great as- great of a reason as any. and you know what? Yeah, I'll take that too.
EO: How does she have an apartment, though? How does she have a job? How does she roll in school?43
FW: It's magic, bro.
AP: She was a whooooooore. Anyway.
FW: That's also one speculation.
EO: That's viable.
FW: It is very viable. And that- that ends those lines of questions. Uh, pass it back to you, Priest.
FP: Alright we're going to BBunny, who got that cute Twilight going on. Let's go. Number one: what are future goals you want to accomplish?
TC: Well, I've talked about that in some of– the some of the quarterly blogs I've done, um, my current goal was actually a fairly long-term one where I wanted to get I wanted to reach 100 stories and I wanted to get at least half that have been hitting the feature box. I've already hit the feature box one, because I've already had over 50 - I hit that back in July so that part's guaranteed. So it's largely just getting to the hundred stories, uh, produced. If I've got my timing right on the current publishing schedule I've got, I should hit– story number 100 should be published on exactly my six year anniversary of being on the site.44
FP: Yay!
TC: Beyond– beyond that, my only other big goal is actually to finish my long- my current, uh, ongoing, First Hoof Account because that'll be my first 100,000 word story and I can say finally that I've done a proper longfic.
FP: That's some great goals. Number two: what's your motivation for writing?
TC: So the folks who know me know that I've talked in the past about how I am tortured by the muse Calliope, the- the classical Greek Muse of stories and epic poetry. And that's honestly true! I- I've always been a creative sort, I need to have an outlet to create into. I- I can't not create things. Um. So for me it's– I will regularly get up at weird hours of the night or stop in the middle of doing chores because I've had a flash of inspiration and need to write something– what I've got down before it disappears out of my mind. So I- I have to create. If I wasn't creating here, I would be somewhere else doing much the same thing because I- I need to write things. I need to make stuff.45
FP: Alright. Number three: do you believe that you'll still be part of this fandom in the next few years?
TC: Honestly, probably. I don't have– I've got plenty of ideas to still write, I've still got people who are wanting to read it, I've got plenty of friends that keep me tied down into the area, so I really have no reason to. I mean eventually, I will float on - everything– everything has– every story has an end, but honestly, yeah I don't see like I'm going anywhere anytime soon.46
FP: Good, that's very exciting to hear. Number four: how often do you spend time on an idea, chapter or a story?
TC: Wildly variable. Um, sometimes it just flows and I can demolish a 5,000 word story in an under hour because just the idea is there and it just spills out, and sometimes there are some stories where I will come in, write a single sentence of dialogue down, and then not pick it up for the rest of the day or even a couple days. So it just depends on what my inspiration says. Uh, I try– I have a– I enforce a publishing schedule on myself to try and get some structure to things, but honestly it's all just inspiration based so sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't.47
FP: No, that's totally fair, it definitely depends on the story. Who are your some of your biggest supporters?
TC: Well, I do know a– I do know a lot of people48, they– basically everyone I talk to at least tries to be a supporter– is at least marginally out there to help, uh, I would say that actually there's a couple of specific folks like uh like EileenSaysHi or daOtterGuy or The Sleepless Beholder, Scampy, folks like that who do- do their best to encourage me, and keep me going, and you know. They'll occasionally do things like proofread and– or shoot, help me bounce ideas off of them. Um, honestly there's a– I could name– uh, Dewdrops on the Grass is another one for just– there's- there's just a whole bunch of people who I communicate with and say "hey what does this look like? Great, let's go" but, um, there's also things like when Jinglemas comes around, there's a whole crew of people there that are more than happy to help- help things along and are always always encouraging. It's really– there– I- I would have a hard time picking out specific people, though actually I will- I will correct, I actually do owe a little bit specifically to iAmSiNnEr, because when I was- I was hovering for the longest time with one of my- my- my story with the most likes, I was hovering at 996. Like 996, 997, I kept getting one vote and then losing one. I hovered there for like three months and I finally just said in anger one day, saying "God damn it I wish it would finally get there" and Sinner actually turned around and posted a blog asking for help to get me over the thousand–
FP: Awwww! That's so nice!
TC: –They did so so I owe– I owe Sinner a little bit of a thanks just for that. If- if- even if I mention no one else, Sinner gets my special thanks for that.49
AP: So hey. As- as- as somebody who's married, you- you should- you should mention your significant other as your biggest supporter. Just- just saying.
TC: She tolerates me doing this, so…
FP: Oooooooh.
AP: That makes her a great supporter. Just saying.
FP: laughter
TC: She's a great supporter because she hasn't talked to all of my friends yet and said "hey guess what he's writing?"50
AP: Yep, best supporter. That is your best supporter right there.
FP: That's fair. We do know some people whose significant others did not approach this in a healthy way, so that's– it's it's awesome, it's awesome to- to have that.
TC: She- she- she basically sat down with me and said you know, she's fine with it, the only rule she had is that– is no, "don't write start writing porn" and I said that's fine, I wasn't doing that anyway.51
FP: Yeah, no, absolutely. Uh, number six, uh. BBunny finishes with saying don't stop what you're doing and continue to grind. Heart.
TC: That's an easy one I was going to do that anyway.
FP: chuckles Uh, Dreams of Ponies is up next. The most important question: What is the most superior of toppings on pizza?
TC: Oh, I'm– I default to a good heavy meat-za. Pepperoni and sausage, throw any other form of dead animal on there and I'm pretty happy.
FP:Yay dead animals!
AP: Okay but- but it– but cheese. You need- you need to have some cheese on pizza, right?
TC: Yes, of course.
AP: Right? Okay.
TC: Yeah, please, come on, no cheese is great.
FP: I– Cheese is one of those taken for granted toppings, where it's like, if it's pizza, it probably already has cheese–
TC: Oh yeah, no.
FP: But that said, extra cheese is probably a favorite topping.
FW: Absolutely. Look, extra cheese, that's it is, so.
TC: You know there's got to be cheese on there otherwise that's not a goddamn pizza.
AP: Yeh.
FP: Um now before I hand it off to Pencil, we did have one question from the chat that I'm not sure if we got to, Uh, 0rineko asked: is Anonfilly cute?
TC: So I will- I will be up front, I am not a fan of Anon. At all. It does not– he does not do anything to me. But if I have to pick one, Anonfilly is a better choice for me.
FP: That's fair.
TC: So I will say… yes?
FP: No, that's fair.
AP: A questioning yes is fair.
FP: Alright. Anonpencil? It's all you.
AP: Okay, I'm ready. What would you whisper into a vagina?
TC: Honestly? I don't think I would be able to resist just going 'echo!'
AP: And what would it whisper back?
TC: Well obviously it would go 'echo!' in return because that's how that works.
AP: Bees?
TC: Bees!
AP: How many bees?
TC: Yes.
FP: Oh no.
AP: These are the correct answers. Um, genuine question: what is harder to write, a slow planning multi-chapter story or one carefully crafted one shot on a time limit?
TC: Oh definitely the multi-chapter story, because - and I'm confronting this problem right now with the long one that I'm doing - is the fact that I know exactly what all the big story beats are and I'm so enthusiastic about going out and doing them and I'm looking at– going– I have six chapters to go before I get to the part I want to write and that just growling noises 52
AP: Are- are- are you surviving or is it slowly destroying your sense of self?
TC: Oh no, I'm just writing the chapters a year in advance of what's going to be there and then going back and rewriting them five times along the way because I go "wait no I've got a better idea with this!"
AP: Oh yeah, you torture yourself. That's not just like 'oh I've planned this out and I'm gonna to fix it and tweak it', no no, you you are participating in masochism, my friend.
TC: Oh, I'm a writer, so.
AP: I mean, yeah, you- you sit down at your keyboard and open a vein, it's what we do. And now for the first time in a long long time, you guys. singing It's time for questions with Vylon.
FP:Yes.
AP: Priest, this is where you read Vylon's question.
FP: Oh, I thought you were gonna take it. But okay. Uh, how are you today?
TC: Eh, I'm not too bad. It's- I'm cold but I've also- it's Saturday, so I got to mostly stay in and not deal with the cold, so I'm- I'm good with that.
FP: Yaaaaay. Stay inside from the cold.
TC: Yeah. Yeah, no. I- I got to blow- snow blow everything out yesterday, I'm good for today. I ain't messing with that.
FP: You know I- I- I ran into people now that don't know what snow blowing is and they thought it was a very, um, sexual act…
AP: I mean it can be that as a term, Priest.
TC: Yeah, I was gonna say– I was going to say, I'm sure that there I'm sure that it's been used at some point, I mean.
FP: Absolutely.
TC: Fuckin' Zoomers.
FP: laughter
AP: I mean it's– I- I know what- I know what the term is you guys, do you want me to know?
FP: Well, you know, I– yes, I do actually–
EO: I thought the word–
FP: I know the real thing and the sex thing.
EO: Yeah, I thought the other word was snowballing?
AP: No, snowballing is where you spit someone's own cum at them after they come in your mouth. Everyone is silent, it's like it's weird that I knew this.
FP: No.
FW: No. No, I–
EO: No, it was expected that you know this.
FW: No, for me its just– they ask– that is objectively correct, I have nothing to add to this.
FP: Yes.
AP: No like, that's so- so that that's snowballing.
FP: Yes.
FW: Correct.
AP: You do it directly into– if you do it directly into their open mouth, then that- it's snowblowing.
FP: Ooooh. Okay, so I thought snowballing was directly into the open mou– okay, alright, I get it.
AP: Well snow- snowballing you can- you can spit it anywhere from what I understand. But it's– there's a lot of overlap.
FP: Gotcha.
FW: Every- every snowblow is a snowball but not every snowball is a snowblow.
EO: And- and what is a snow– what is a snowjob?
EO: Stop. That- that- that's called having to wake up at 4 in the morning to go plow streets.
AP: I– big difference here is like if you- if you have someone else's come in your mouth and you make out with them, I think that's- that's still um, snowballing. If you're like spitting it into their open mouth, that- then it- then it's snowblowing.
FW: Thank you. Thank you, Socrates.
EP: Empty– uh, Emptyplotfiller is up next who's with five questions, so let's go to number one. I was going to try and make you a gift art for one of your stories but I totally forgot to- to do it, so if my stroke brain started working again what would be a good story pick to do?
TC: And now we're getting to the ones I didn't see before we started so I don't have prepared answers for them. Uh honestly, I- I don't know. Um, as I've mentioned before, I love almost all of my stories and I enjoy them. I also kind of have a personal rule where I don't ask for things for like, I, uh, with one exception that I did, I don't go out asking for reviews, I don't promote myself in various groups. I want people to be enthused about my stuff because they enjoy that thing. I don't think I would ask for gift art for one of my stories, I want to say "y'know just pick one you think is cool" and I'll be more than happy whatever it is, so I'm just happy to see people enjoying things.53
FP: Plus when a– when an artist or a writer gets to say, 'oh pick your favorite' then we get to analyze which one you actually do pick.
TC: Yeah, that ain't happening. I- I cannot pick a favorite. I might be able to– I might be able to cut it down to like a top five if I really try.54
FP: Number two. Are the rumors true?
TC: Every single one of them, even the ones that are contradictory.
FP: Whoa. That's fair. Number three. For a more serious question, what was an important element to one of your stories you've written in the past that you think none of your readers, or not enough of them, recognized or gave enough importance to but was important to you?
TC: Hmm. That's a tough one. If I was going to say something– an element that I think was important that got missed, I would actually have to note that a lot of the chapter titles I use are very carefully chosen for a reason. Like, uh, one of the ones I– substantial pause Like if I– like one– uh, recently the– my– in First Hoof Account I just had somebody pick out and say "Wait a second, hold on, all of the chapter titles are supposed to have the word 'first' in front of the word" and suddenly they have meaning. Or there's, uh, the old the story that I did that was actually my RCL story - Glow In The Dark, Shine In The Sun - where every one of the chapter titles actually tells you who the main character for that story is– for that chapter is, because it's actually a line that that character sang during a song they had during this– at some point during the show. It– it's little quirks like that where I- if I've got chapter titles, I've chosen them very specifically and they usually give very specific clues about what happens during that chapter, and not a lot of folks notice that.
FP: No I think that's really fair, and there's– I mean there's definitely authors out there that are trying to do like the Fallout Boy song name approach to naming chapter titles or go to the old chapter one, chapter two, chapter three, but when–
TC: Well, I've absolutely done that, yeah.
FP: Yeah. Um. But when you've actually put a lot of thought into it and, like, the name of your chapter is basically like the name of a poem, where the poem is the chapter… Yeah I think that metaphor works. pause No it doesn't work. Anyway.
TC: chuckling
FP: Uh I- I think it- it's, uh, it's more meaningful and it does bring- add a certain a bit to the piece. Um. Next question is if you had to pick a canon, non-villain character from any of the MLP series and write them from any part of the series deviating with a new plot into becoming a villain– I feel like my my head just exploded there. I'm sorry, let me re-redo that. If you had to pick a canon non-villain character - thumbs up - from any MLP series - thumbs up - and write them from any part of the series, deviating with a new plot into becoming a villain - okay - who would it be and what would the reason for turning be?
TC: Okay so this is one I- I- if I had known about this one in advance, I probably would have– be able to give a much better answer because I know full well I've got, like, at least 10 of those sitting in my ideas archive for that.55 But off the top of my head, I would actually probably go with Applejack because one, you don't see her go evil very often. You see a lot of Dash going evil, you see a lot of Rarity going evil, you see a ton of Twilight going evil. Nobody expects the background pony to start killing folks, so I would probably go with that just for the unexpected nature of it. Also, you know, reversing standards, etc etc. Um. And honestly, to be pretty easy. I mean, dedication to the family can easily be corrupted into going way off the rails, so.
FP: Dedication to the family, but also like I'm not going to be like- like, Rarity works hard, don't- don't get me wrong as a- as a- as a dress worker and it's very clear that sometimes, like, when her hair is completely messed up that like she pulled several all nighters in a row in order to complete something, but like Applejack puts in a ton of physical labor and just works her butt off all the time.
TC: Yo yo yeah, dem apple-bucking thighs.
FP: Yo. Yessssss. So I could I could see, like, the exhaustion of being like, "no one wants to work anymore". Um, bonus modifier: unwillful corruption evil or mind control isn't an option. Oh hey, did, that nailed it.
TC: Yep, did that. No, nope, cool.
FP: Number five. What question wasn't asked that you're still ready and most excited to answer go!
TC: Uuuuuuuh. Wait, I think actually– I think Scampy already asked that one so, um, yeah. Not sure.
FP: So- so let me– you know what, I'm going to- I'm going to ask you a question that could or may or may not be, um, hard to answer. What is your ultimate goal? What, when you think of "I have nailed it, I have succeeded and everything I want to do with fanfiction", what is your ultimate goal? Your ultimate success you're aiming for with writing?
TC: Oh I- I don't have one. I- I- very bluntly, I don't have an end point in things. Which, again, it's my endpoint is eventually I'll get bored and move on. That's how it is. But until then nah. I've- I keep setting goals for myself and yeah keep pushing for it. There's always something new to try or a new idea I want to put forward so I don't have an end point. Nothing planned at least.
FP: I love it. Genuinely love it. Do it- do it while it's fun. Muggonny up next what do you do when you're no longer confident in your writing but you still want to keep going?
TC: I'm confident of my writing?
FP: Oooooh.
TC: No, seriously though. I mean, if you go back– again if you go back and you look at my- the- my blog stories, if you go back to the very beginning, there's me just sitting there going "okay, wait, no, I'm– people– people like this? I'm popular? I'm good? What the hell is this shit?" I mean–
AP: One important word– oh I'm sorry.
TC: No no, go, finish up.
AP: Just one important word: bravado.
TC: Yeah. I just– I as far as I'm concerned, yeah, sure, even looking at things, I'm going "yeah, no, I'm reasonably popular now but I can't- I know full well I can't hold a candle to some of the real titans in this– titans in this fandom. I'm solid. I can say that with confidence, that I've reached the point where I can admit that I'm solid. But I'm not good. I'm not on the level a lot of folks are. So I'm- I'm always not confident with my writing. I'm always looking at things going "this could be better" Is- am I happy with it? Yeah, happy enough to post it, yeah. But again that's why I have a publishing schedule that I hold myself to because at a certain point I have to say "okay I got to publish this now" even if I'm not fully happy with it because eeeeeeeeh. I'm never going to be 100% happy. I'm gonna be looking at going "this could be better; I could improve this; I don't like this section; I want to improve this," so… Yeah. I'm never really confident. I just keep going because I have– I got to do it some point.56
FP: Yeh. And then going to the last post in the thread, we've got Shakespearicles who says, what is the best chapter title you've ever made? I'll go first: Breakfast Epiphanies.57 pause Oh my gosh the pun is so good.
AP: Yeah also be sure to refresh, Priest.
FP: I have refreshed.
AP: Yes.
TC: Let me– hold on, I have to go look at my stories for a second really quickly to see what– I see– what it is.
FP: I believe in you. I will scroll up and see if there's any that I missed by chance for today but I think we're on the last post, yes.
AP: Mmhm. Mmhmm.
FP: This is– this is your chance, everyone. If you had any other questions you wanted to get in, be sure to get them in- in the chat or to post them in the thread, because we will begin wrapping up after these questions.
AP: Last chance guys. Come on.
EO: After these messages…
TC: I think if I was going to pick one, it would actually– if I'm going to pick one- I'm going to go with one of my Jinglemas stories from 2020, uh, Mistletoe Guidance For Dummies, in which I was, yeah, in which the the chapter is 'The mistletoe knows where it is at all times. This is because it knows where it isn't."58
FP: laughter
FW: Beautiful.
TC: Again, I dumb references.
FP: I love it. Uh, number two. A curse has swapped the minds of your wife and mother into each other's bodies. The only way to– oh my God, of course it's incest!59
FW: Oh no.
garbled
TC: Of course it's Shakes.
AP: It's Shakes.
FW: Who else but Shakes.
AP: Ba-da-ba-bap-bap-ba!
FP: The only way to reverse the curse is to have sex with one of them. Who do you choose and why. Show your math.
TC: Uh, I think at that situation, neither of they're not getting reversed because they would kick my ass.
FP: That's fair. There I- I have a scuzzy answer, but I'm not going to give it because we're on the internet so...
AP: Also this would involve, you know, me, Priest, if you gave a scuzzy answer. Keep that in mind.
TC: I didn't know you were his mother.
FW: choking
FP: Number three–
AP: I'm–I'm– so mad, I don't even have anything witty. I'm just so mad.60
TC: cackling
AP: I know– I know Shakes is in the chat going "OH YEAH" like the moment he heard you say that, so you know.
FW: That was a that was a fucking knee slapper, God damn.
AP: Yep! Yep, he loved it. He loved it, I was right.
FP: Number three. Wiping: sitting or standing?
TC: Standing. I ain't sticking my hand down in there.
FW: Okay, okay. We need to- we need to have a talk, son.
AP: What, you guys wipe?
FP: Okay– laughter Fucking Jesus Christ–
laughter
FW: You guys believe in wiping? Amateurs.
AP: You better fucking know I'm kidding. But there you go.
FP: Yeah!
TC: I mean in context–
more laughter, garbled, something about a bidet
FP: Oh my god. Um.
FW: That was great.
FP: So the biggest thing that I've noticed recently in the- in the standing to wipe argument is to get the very top of the butt crack.
FW: Just lean forward more, forehead. It's that simple.
EO: You just stick out your butt more and then just work from there.
FW: Yeah. It's– grant there are- there have been occasional times I've had to stand, but those are very few and far in between.
FP: There– there is a risk depending on the toilet to wiping when sitting that you may accidentally get your hand in the icky juice.
FW: Those are very rare toilets but yes.
EO: That's why you use the sea- the seashells.
FW: Shut the fuck up.
TC: The three seashells, of course.
FW: Yeah three, obviously.
TC: Oh yeah. It'll never work with two.
FP: No. No. You need the third, it's for balance.
TC: Mmhm.
FP: Well, that is the last question we got in the thread. I'm hitting reload make sure–
AP: No it's not.
FP: Ooooh, yep, no,
FW: New challenger approaching. Oh, beautiful.
EO: You know I thinkI also have a question after the- the one in the- in the chat.
FP: Okay we got–
AP: And we have a question in the chat as well.
FP: – thread. Uh, so then, you know what, I will I will do this one because I can tell that's what Alex_ wants and–
AP: Break it out.
FP: –I'll hand it to you, Enigma, to take care of the chat question and your question. Sound fair?
EO: Okay, so the one in behind the counter, right?
FP: Skeletor voice Yes! Alex_'s question is: have you accepted Skeletor the master of the universe into your heart?
TC: No. But if you punch hard enough, you can get there.
FP: Skeletor voice Yaaaaay.
AP: That's– it's been a while since we've heard the Skeletor question so, you know, good times, good times.
EO: Well here's a question from 0rineko. Wake up as your OC in Equestria; what do?
TC: Be very, very confused because I actually do not have an OC. Which caused problems when setting up this– setting up this interview because I was asked "so what does your OC look like for the cover art?" and my response was "I don't have one." 61
EO: Well I'm sure in that scenario, you wake up to a create- create a character page.
TC: Oh yeah, then I'm- then I'm doomed, I'm never getting past that thing. I am exactly one of those people who sit there for an hour playing with every single slider.
FP: I feel that.
EO: Just hit randomize and- and go. But my question is - now you said earlier that your wife does not want you drawing clop, but if you had to, what would you draw- what would you write one about?
TC: Oh no, I've agreed with her I'm not going to, but I will fully admit that my ideas archive does have a bunch of stuff in there that I could do that way if I if I felt like it. Because ideas don't care. Ummm. Honestly, Sombra's hot? I'd probably do something with that?62
FP: laughter Yep! That's– that's a clip.
TC: Tall, dark– tall, dark, buff, I mean dude, I- I'm not into that but at the same time if I was gonna? I'd be good with that.
FP: No that's- that's a whole thing. That is definitely a whole thing, and that that's why some people are like, you know, sometimes Ganon looks–
TC: Exactly!
FP: Yes. Yes, absolutely. Um, so the typical wrap-up questions that we're moving into, uh, so let's say we reach five years down the line and someone catches this video because you're big, hip, and popular, and they go "oh no I wasn't here for this momentous occasion. What is the best way that I could reach out to TCC and ask my awesome question?"
TC: I honestly don't know because odds are I will probably still be around in some form at the very least because I have a reading list that is a million million words long, uh, but honestly I- I'm going to be floating around out there somewhere. I don't know where I- where I'm going to go to next after all of this or when, but I guarantee you I will be in some fandom out there somewhere. Um, worst case honestly? I'm also an old City of Heroes player, so I will probably be sitting around the now totally legal server there somewhere.63
FP: Oh wow. I- I didn't even realize that MMO was still up.
TC: It wasn't! That's a very long story that involves the phrase "so someone stole the source code from the- from the company when they shut it down."
FP: Oh good.
EO: And- and then the company just decided 'fuck it' anyone can do it so they- it sort of came back.
FP: Um also, uh the– do they have the ability to send you messages on, uh, FIMFic?
TC: Oh yeah, no, I- I always love hearing from folks.64
FP: Yaaay. There you go.
TC: The- the one- the one asterisk I'll put on there is and this does come up sometimes is I do not take- I do not do commissions. I- my grandfather gave me a wonderful piece- piece of advice of "Never turn your hobby into a job", so I do not. I- I will happily take suggestions, I will take ideas, but I do not take commissions, so.
FP: Fair enough. So–
EO: Do you accept trades? I give you money, you give me story.
TC: See that doesn't quite work for me.
FP: Got him, no commissions. Which is a very respectful decision because goodness knows I can't do them well. So. Well, with that said I want to deeply thank, uh, Emptyplotfiller for donating 2,000 bits today as well as… reviews notes. Sergeant Tinman for donating five subs as well as an anonymous donor for donating five subs. Uh, your guys' support does so much to help us for charity and make us look like a legitimate business. Um. And next week be sure to join in as we are going to do a big modded session of Lethal Company. Um. Still more details to on that to come uh as well as the mod list if you guys would like to join us.
AP: Uh huh, uh huh.
FP: We're going to probably limit it to Patreons, um, and and try. Ff it's only a six player lobby, we're going to try and get the full six of us in. It's going to be a lot of fun. Uh, um…
AP: Yeh.
FP: Some of us haven't even played Lethal Company before, so it should be good.
AP: Yeh.
FP: Um. That said, thank you all for listening, uh, your bartenders for this evening have been anonpencil…
AP: Bwagh!
FP: Enigmatic Otaku…
EO: No one explained to me what peeing feels like.
FP: Flammenwerfer…
FW: Metroid Fusion was still better than Dread.
FP: TCC56…
TC: I want to object to that but I can't because he's right.
FW: Not by a lot but it is.
TC: Oh yeah, definitely no, I agree Dread was pretty good but– okay, no, hold on, let's not debate this now.
AP: Lawf.
FP: I've never finished a Samus game. Bye everybody.
FW: I will- I will kill you.
AP: That's so upsetting. Oh my God that's so upsetting.
FP: Be mad.
30 - I'm still not sure if anonpencil meant this as a pun on the horse's name or not, and it's been bothering me FOR WEEKS.
31 - Scampy had her own interview with the Barcast folks two years ago, for context.
32 - While I continue to insist that Recommendsday is not a review blog but a recommendations blog, I have also long since given up trying to correct people on this.
33 - Seriously. I could easily name another two dozen stories that are in competition for The Best. There's even plenty that haven't ended up in the blog yet so it isn't even limited to the ones I've already recommended! God, there's so much quality stuff out there.
34 - I feel morally obligated to link this.
35 - That song is also the root reason why we name hurricanes, typhoons, and other storms. God I love trivia.
36 - Sure, I can pronounce THIS correctly but not Nailah.
37 - After checking, I have 28 items either in my current working pile or in the ideas folder that fit this bill.
38 - Dinky started the tracking period (3rd quarter 2017) with 949 stories and had 1044 when I mapped things out - 95 stories in six and a half years or roughly 14 a year, as opposed to averaging 158 a year before. Rumble is similar: 28 stories a year now versus 75 previously.
39 - This is mostly true! And fascinating! The CMCs dropped from 1446 stories per year for the site's first six years to 153 during the most recent six. (I was misremembering slightly - not all of the Mane 6 have passed them yet, but at current rates they probably will within the year.)
40 - I also have a bit of a compulsion about this. It feels wrong to me to rewrite something. I put the story out into the world and it's no longer under my control. Fixing a typo or two, sure, but a proper rewrite? To me it feels dishonest. Like I'm hiding what I did. I dunno, I still feel terrible about that story.
41 - This drives my wife absolutely up the wall. She HATES that I do it. Meanwhile I'm over in the corner, having entire conversations with myself as three different people in preparation of longer dialogue segments.
42 - It was the color scheme. Seriously, I first latched on to her because I liked the look. The rest came later.
43 - I am sitting on a story (that will probably never be written) where Sunset finds out that everybody in the sushi shop she works at is an illegal immigrant, and that she was hired to be the local 'cover' to make them look legit. She breaks down in hysterical laughter at the irony.
44 - Should note here that getting on the Barcast was actually one of my handful of remaining future goals, and that I appreciate the irony of being asked this question while fulfilling part of the answer.
45 - HAVE TO. Seriously, if I go into my own personal text archive there's two incomplete books, four half made tabletop RPG systems, seventeen campaign outlines, a hundred MB of raw text of roleplaying logs, easily two hundred character pitches, and the raw database dump of a MU* that I used to run. And that isn't counting all the stuff that isn't in my text storage folder.
46 - Traditionally in the past, I've departed from fandoms by simply ghosting and vanishing. That isn't gonna be possible here, and if I try it I'm 95% sure I will have at least two writers hunting my ass down. So good odds I'm here until the site shuts down because there is no escape.
47 - This is not helped by the raw number of projects I have on the go. I bounce between them unpredictably, and so getting one to actually be done is a nightmare.
48 - Right here is the one answer that drove me to do this, because there are SO MANY people I feel like I need to thank. My brain forgot so many names, and even for the ones I could think of, I had to restrain myself so as not to ramble on forever. Seriously. From people who have helped me with writing (like Sledge115,Gay For Gadot, and the entire Jinglemas crew), who have inspired me with their own work (like FanOfMostEverything, SockPuppet, and Dave Bryant), who I've compared notes with on blogs (PaulAsaran, Loganberry, PresentPerfect, and Ghost Mike), or who simply have been supportive (TamiyaGuy, Ice Star, and pretty much every name that shows up in my comments sections) - I am beyond fortunate to have accumulated Pinkie-levels of connections with everybody. I couldn't do it without the whole of everyone, and I could never name every name that needs to be properly thanked.
49 - I feel a bit embarrassed still that Sinner did that for me. I'm thankful, but embarrassed.
50 - Jokes aside, my wife really is an amazing supporter. She doesn't get it and rolls her eyes a little, but she puts up with my bullshit. And yes, helps to conceal my power level from the rest of the world. I talk loud but I'm a delicate social flower.
51 - I can appreciate the quality of work and the art behind things, but that's about the extent of it. Also, I'm of the mind that sexuality is something private. Let your freak flag fly if you want to, folks, but I keep mine close to the chest. (Occasional dirty joke aside.)
52 - I cannot begin to express how frustrating this is. I've rewritten the final chapter to First Hoof Account six times, and it was the second part of the story I wrote. I want to get to the good stuff, not all this build-up and pacing!
53 - This goes back to #49 a bit. I've got a deep seated voice that tells me that if I ask for something, I don't deserve it. So I basically never go looking because I feel that if I promote myself, ask for aid, or anything like that? It makes my work and its reception less legitimate. It's stupid, I know it's stupid, I still feel it.
54 - I tried. I managed to get it to a top seven.
55 - After checking, weirdly I have far fewer of these than I thought. After you eliminate the ones of a character just being a lil' shid, the changeling replacements, and the ones where Trixie Trixies all over the place, I only have two. That surprises me.
56 - I know empirically that I'm a quality writer, but I'm unsatisfied with everything I do. Even the ones I like, I've got points that I can't stand to reread because I think they're ass and they make me cringe. Like, way back at the beginning when Priest commented about seeking out my stuff? My automatic reaction was to roll my eyes and disbelieve him. Imposter Syndrome is a bitch.
57 - Not linking this one since it's an M-rated story. Sorry Shakes! The title is Twilight's Night Light, for those who want to track it down.
58 - My second choice would be from Please, Not Her, where I chose: "The world tells me that God is in Heaven and that my son is in Hell. I tell the world the one true thing I know: If my son is in Hell, then there is no Heaven--because if my son sits in Hell, there is no God.", which is a quotation from The Last Days of Judas Iscariot.
59 - God damn it Shakes. I assumed there was going to be a question like this, but let my guard down after there wasn't in the first posted question. You got me.
60 - And this is why I'm not getting invited back.
61 - This question has come up a number of times. I really should do something about that.
62 - Actually, after reviewing my ideas archive, the one I would pick has nothing to do with Sombra. In the comics, at one point Luna disguises herself as Cadance by painting herself pink. So Cadance comes to her one day and asks for that again because she needs a break. Luna questions about how Shining Armor would react. "Don't worry," says Cadance, "He's a complete himbo. He'll never notice." The problem: He doesn't notice. Cue a Pepe le Pew-esque chase around the Crystal Palace as Luna-painted-pink attempts to escape an amorous Shining Armor without blowing her cover. (However, Sombra is still kinda hot.)
63 - Speaking of my driving need to create, you do not want to know how many alt characters I have/had on that game. (The number is over 100.)
64 - Yes, please! I love hearing from people. Always always always.
Well then. I did listen to the whole thing, occasionally checking this for any links or annotations (and the annotations in another tab). Really good stuff! I’d like to say I have specific points to bounce off of, but na, it was all kind of a blur. In a good way. Your answers made sense for you while also giving further insight into how you tick, which is the best of both worlds, after a fashion.
And so modest too! Imposter syndrome never lets up, eh?
Honestly, the biggest surprise is that I didn’t expect your voice to be so… ordinary. Probably just speaks to how much a person’s written cadence (and profile pic for some, though not here, of course
) CN’s really conjure up a distinctive written voice, and you expect the vocal voice to be a direct mirror of that.
It was no matter in the end: like any passionate person, what you were saying did the talking.
I listened to this right after reading a very tense and anxiety-inducing scene in a fic, so it was timely in tone too. 
Thanks bud, to you and the Barcast crew, for a good listen/read!
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There is a reason I keep neils.txt close on hand. Humility is important, but it's easy to go too far.
Unfortunately I can't do multiple editing passes over my voice. That, and my brain very much goes faster than my mouth can move.
And I absolutely do that with profile pics, too.
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YES pun intended and that IS in fact the horse's name. Little Bit is a miniature horse at Red Wings Horse Sanctuary in south central CA. :)