Oh hey, it's 2016. When did that happen? · 6:50am Jan 7th, 2016
A week ago. That's when. And I've not yet posted anything. Why do any of you follow me, again?
Hello everyone,
So it's perhaps a little late to be saying this, but you know by now that I'm mister late, so I'm going to say it anyway: happy new year. And I'll start off this first post of 2016 of mine off with some positive news, since everyone likes positive stuff. Especially electrons, am I right?
...
Anyone? No? Okay, off to the corner of shame I go!
No, but seriously, I've got some progress to report on TA:SR, which is always welcome news. I finished about 650 words with my latest writing session. It's sitting at a little more than 4k words now, and has a good chunk left to go. I'm estimating something around 7k for the finished chapter, which means more along the likes of 8k considering my habit of gross underestimation. It's possible that this chapter too will get split, but if I choose to do that, I'm going to make sure each part is done or almost done before either is published, so that the wait between releases is minimal.
I am sad to report that I haven't been writing super often, even on my break. the past couple of weeks were hectic at work thanks to the holidays, plus I'd been trying to catch up on the hanging out with friends I couldn't do at all during the last semester, plus I've been dumping a large chunk of my free time into playing Mass Effect. It's a game series I've really wanted to play, but never owned or had friends to borrow it from or time to play it until break. So yeah...that's where my time has been going.
Speaking of the semester, my next one starts next Monday, so I suppose I should inform you on my potential writing habits. I'm scheduled to have classes only on Monday and Wednesday. I'll probably work the weekends, including Friday. Thursday nights may become a new regular work time, but all in all, that gives me all of Tuesday and most of Thursday and Friday to myself. I can't say I know how much my workload will be, but if it's not too much, I should be managing to find time and energy for more writing sessions this semester than in previous ones. So yay, more potentially good news!
And...that's about it from me. I suppose I'll end this post with another one of those story ideas I've had recently but won't ever legitimately pursue but anyone else is free to steal if they can find a way to develop it further. In this case, though, the idea is really more of just a premise than anything else.
The idea is this: in some obscure part of Equestria, there is a town that sees itself taken over by a malicious gang, the Decepticolts, who plan to eventually overthrow Celestia and rule Equestria. Yeah, it's basically ponified Decepticons in Equestria. The cast of the Decepticolts wouldn't be one-for-one replications of the legitimate Decepticons, though they'd be close and have more pony-like names.
The Megatron analog would be called Troy Mega and behave mostly the same as G1 Megatron except with a less grating voice. He'd be an above-average power unicorn, but nowhere near as potent as Twilight, Sunset, or Starlight. He'd carry on him a prototype miniature arm-mounted cannon, but it's primary purpose would be to look intimidating. In it's current state, the cannon would be prone to malfunction, plus it'd be gunpowder based since laser weapons aren't yet a thing in Equestria, making actually using the cannon really dangerous.
Pony Starscream would be the pegasus Starscreech (though keeping the name is acceptable, I approached it from the angle of a writer making these character for an actual episode, only meaning to homage the original characters instead of outright copy them). Starscreech here is cocky and of course wants to overthrow Megatron...er, Troy...as leader. He's the head of the Seekers, a three-pony group tasked with making sure no one leaves the occupied town, seeking out any potential escapees, hence the name Seeker. His best trait in the field is his speed, which is surpassed only by Rainbow Dash. He once wished to be a WonderBolt, but with no respect for authority and little capacity for teamwork, he clearly never made the cut. For the most part, he rides on the success of others. The last interesting thing about him is that he's been forced into a relationship with the Decepticolt's secret weapon. More on her shortly.
The other Seekers are Thunderclap and Warp, rehashes of Thunder Cracker and Sky Warp respectively. Thunderclap's just your average pegasus while Warp is a unicorn with a specialty in teleportation spells, but not much else.
The analogs for Soundwave and Shockwave are the brothers Wavelength and Waveform, respectively. I know, them being brothers doesn't coincide with the actual Decepticons, but hey, I've got creative liberties, and I'm going to use them. Wavelength is an audio engineer and Waveform is a super sciencey inventor guy. They happen to live in the town the Decepticolts occupied, working together on a revolutionary technology before being effectively drafted by Troy to work for him. While not exactly supporters of the cause, they're too devoted to their craft to really care that whoever's using it isn't intending good from it, and just want to finish it. Eventually, they created a primitive but functional radio communication system, which was quickly employed by Troy to much more effectively communicate with and organize his gang. It's because of this technology that the gang managed to gain any kind of foothold and that the Seekers are so capable of finding and capturing escapees before they actually escape. Wavelength takes the full silent approach from Soundwave in Prime and has a pet bird, but neither of the characters are particularly interesting outside of all that; Wavelength monitors the radio network and makes sure it stays functioning while Waveform continues to craft smaller inventions for the D'Colts, the latest being Troy's cannon.
The final notable member of the Decepticolts is their secret weapon, a changeling named Mirage. While Mirage was never a Decepticon in G1, there are cases of Mirage having been a Decepticon, so she's sort of an analog to those Mirages. Mirage was found by the Decepticolts before they were ever really much of a threat, and some time after the Canterlot Invasion. She was found in poor condition, and Troy initially wanted to dispose of her or hand her over to the Guard for some sort of cash reward (an evil organization needs funding, after all!), but Starscreech convinced him that it might be wiser to offer her 'food' and the promise of reuniting her with Chryssy once Equestia's been conquered in exchange for her services as an espionage unit. Of course, 'feeding' a changeling means that someone's got to let themselves be a source of love for the changeling to feed on, so when Troy asks for volunteers to be the one to feed her, there are obviously none. And so, Troy commands Starscreech to be her source of nourishment. She accepts the terms, and even though the relationship Starscreech has with her is forced, he manages to provide enough love to sustain her...somehow. Might Starscreech actually be not as despicable and selfish as Starscream?
So those are the main players there. What little idea I had for a story involving these guys begins with them managing to capture Rairty and Fluttershy. Why those two and only those two happen to be in the vicinity of that obscure town in beyond me. The map made them go there or something, I don't know. Whatever the reason, they're captured and Troy decides to ransom them off to Twilight. Wavelength's bird flies to Twilight's castle with the first ransom note, saying that they'll give Fluttershy back in exchange for the Alicorn Amulet, threatening to hurt Rarity and Fluttershy if non-action is taken or if the rest of the mane 6 act otherwise. So of course, the still new at this princess gives in, going to a faraway location disclosed in the letter to make the exchange with Starscreech. Little does she realize that it's not actually Fluttershy being handed over, but Mirage disguised as Fluttershy. Mirage is equipped with a small, in-ear radio so that she can recall Twilight's actions to HQ. Twilight is warned to take no action to find or free Rarity until a ransom offer has been made for her, lest she'll be punished.
Unfortunately, that's as far as I thought through a potential plot until my brain decided to make a different approach, one that's gone nowhere so far. But hopefully you've found all that at least marginally interesting.
Well, that's it for now. Happy 2016.
Keep being awesome,
-Lego
Uh, I'm pretty sure that electrons have a negative charge.... In fact I know they do. Chemistry student here
Transformers? Can't say I've read one of those yet. It looks pretty good though! Good luck with your classes and happy new year to yourself!
A drunken new year to you too Legofriend! Uhh wait, you don't drink right? Don't worry I probably drank for you, your family and half the refugees in the next village, wich seemed oddly thankfull when I made them some bread. (no we gave them plenty normal food, yes they live in real houses, most of them are even way beter than my appartement is.)
Good to see you got stuff done. But you didn't mention anime and music.... still no progress huh? Well Mass Effect is pretty important and great. Save for the DLC politics of EA.... got all of em for ME2 but with 3 I just didn't want to spend more money for the DLCs than for the entire fking game.... It still was good, save for the crappy ending.
Nice story idea there. knowing Twilight she won't disobey those orders, if she follows some books.
()but RD and AJ most likely'll try something eh?) Uhh no I'm not thinking about the story progress or something..... Oh look, cake!
3670233
Yes, electrons have a negative charge. Which is why they are attracted to positively-charged particles. Hence, "they like positive stuff"
Awesome chemistry joke, by the way.
3670329 I misread the sentence before it lol. My bad :P
3670251 That's a lot of people to drink for, my friend. Make sure you pace yourself with that.
As for anime and music, the music has taken a back seat to everything else right now. I've started and finished Elfin Leid (is that how it's spelled? I don't remember), which was an alright series. I've also started The Heroic Legend of Prince Arslan, or Arslan Senki as it's being identified by the site I'm watching it on. It's pretty good, but not yet super fantastic like Code Geass was. And finally, though it's not technically anime, I have begun watching RWBY, finishing through the end of the second season. I'm not entire sure where I stand regarding its quality. But that's some of the other stuff I've been up to lately.
Rainbow Dash would probably fight Starscreech at some point. Not sure how things'd get to there, though.
3670329 It was...it was actually a pretty terrible joke
. Remember, I don't make good humor.
Well...observing my complete idiocy could be pretty amusing, I feel.
3670233 I see that Legion has already pointed out the set-up of the 'joke', so I guess there's no need to comment on that...except that I just did. Huh.
Good luck with your schooling as well, friend.
3670722
I do, just finished my err.. sorry can't count right now but something between 4 and 8 bottles of Stroh 80.. Don't worry I didn't drink everything alone! I shared at least one bottle.
Hmmm Arslan Senki.. didn't watch it. Elfen Lied was pretty nice to watch. Uh and when you liked Code Geas, the maker of that thing has something new out: Active Raid. I'll check it out for you.
Hmm fight between Starcreech and RD.... would be interesting.