State of the Lemur - 05/26/2017 · 4:40am May 26th, 2017
The curvaceously adorasexy drawing featured above was provided by the talented Aozee on Deviantart. Eeyup. It's a commission. A very warm-fuzzy one at that.
I've long had Aozee's endorphin-inducing art on my watch list, but only recently did I see them popping up with an emergency commissions announcement. Rather spontaneously, I jumped on that shiet, and the result (after barely a week's time) was well worth the wait. The artist was incredibly delightful to work with, even willing to deal with my relatively prudish requests. Sh00r, I've requested Disney stuff in the past--including stuff on the saucier side--but this time I wanted something cute and... y'know... sane. They delivered in spades, and now I've got a new cell phone wallpaper. F'naaa.
Anywho...
I've been gone for a while.
The nature of my disappearance was probably no big surprise. I had stuff to get done. Yes, I wish I had gotten it done sooner, but I floundered and floundered quite pathetically... and depressingly. I wanted to get back on track with Austraeoh and other stuff, but there was one major hump in the way. A Utaan-shaped hump.
Well...
At 919,000 words, it's my second largest single horse fic after Appledashery Vol 1, and that waste of a fic got there only because it hit the level cap of 1,000 chapters after three long years.
Utaan nearly got there in half that time. And it would have gotten there faster if I hadn't slacked off two... three... four times?
Naturally, you can't measure a story's success by its length. Lots of marsupials like to do that. Hell, I like to do it. It's about the only thing I can truly boast about... seeing that the "quality" of my work is about as significant as Guy Fieri giving a eulogy at a Japanese funeral. There's no donkey sauce to be had there, my friends.
Where was I? Oh right. Utaan. Yes, the length is a major element in this story--but only because there's so friggin' much that happens in it. There's a huge opening act that involves subterfuge, sea battles, and Don Bluth levels of melancholic saturation. Then there's an epic journey by land, by train, through the mountains, under the mountains, and--at last--to the very ends of the earth. Eeyup. The series finally got there, Fimfic Discord. You can totally not read it now and not enjoy.
Utaan, I suppose, is a fic that had to be as large as it was. It was a combination of both plot mistakes and plot necessities. The emotion, the suspense, the stakes--it has all gotten so dayum high in this series that there was no way that things could get wrapped up in under two hundred chapters. I suppose I found that out the hard way--through a great deal of denial, doubt, and multitudinous bouts of laziness in between.
Do I wish I had gotten this done in under six months? Absolutely. But--right now--I'm just friggin' glad that it's done. It was the hump that was blocking me up for so dayum long. I know Ofolrodi hasn't started yet, but things--I suspect--will be a great deal easier now that I am no longer binding myself to a rigid chapter structure. Where Austraeoh is concerned, the sky's the limit... which is ironic because now Rainbow Dash has no sky. Lulz.
Long story short, if it weren't for my eight months of flailing, I'd be immensely proud of this fic. In a lot of ways, I still am, but I think I'm going to need time and the warmth of hindsight before I can determine whether or not it's one of the best things I've ever written. Still, in my gut--at least--I feel that Utaan belongs up there with the likes of Background Pony, Things Tavi Says, and There Are Places I Remember.
Hmmm? Oh right. I haven't written the last one yet. Meh. In another life, I suppose.
In case I haven't emphasized it enough already, I don't owe the resurrection of Austraeoh to myself. I owe it to Props, Fourths, Swan Song, Alamais, and the rest of the Lemur Cave... which has more or less become the unofficial Noble Jury 3.0 (4.0? F'naaaaa). Without their support and the encouraging presence of the various marsupials and J00rists participating in the Discord Group, I'd never have made the come back I did... er... am still doing. Zoop.
It all started one night at the start of April when I was looking at the only good thing to come out of Reddit ever:
I was chatting with Props--who was an active participant in such a pixelated mess--and up until that one moment of online socializing I had been feeling like utter shit. Then, after just a words of creativity shared with the mustached furby extraordinaire, I suddenly felt... not like shit.
So I got to thinking to myself: "Y'know that Discord group I've been wanting to plagiarize from Swan Song make for my stories and stuff? Why not just do it now instead of waiting until Austraeoh is rezz'd!"
"But, dude, that's totally narcissistic and arrogant and crud!"
"Yeah, but it'll get me motivated to work on stuff and get my act together. In return, I'll let the mofos read my stuff earlier."
"Pffft. Fine, then. It's not like we have any sperm left to lose down the drain anyways."
And so Lemur Cave was born.
No, I'm not sharing the link to the Skirtsian chat yet. I've been lazy busy as of late, and I still need to figure out Sweetie Bot before I open the pearly gates all the way. F'naaa. But I intend to do so within the next week or two. The more the merrier and all that jazz.
That way the marsupial cancer can grow and partake in snazzy conversations, projects, pic spammage...
...and silly things like this:
While this is the brainchild of none other than Props, it's actually the product of over twenty writers coming together over the course of less than two weeks to make a lovely tribute to Austraeoh and its many sequels. We're talking mofos like fourths, Robored, Silvadel, Jake the Army Guy, Cold in Gardez. Cold in FUCKING Gardez...
Ahem. True, it's a tad bit disjointed in places, a result of multiple vignettes being slapped sexily together in a New York minute. But the randomosity of it all actually works, in a crazy cool way. What's more, Props caps it all off with a warm-fuzzy-inducing final chapter that screams meta and lemuriffic nuance. That's my favorite kind of nuance. And--if nothing else--awkward and lovingly disjointed is the most appropriate way you could ever "pay tribute" to Austraeoh. F'naaaaa.
It's a really cool thing done by really cool people. Give it a read, if you're feeling daring. I owe these organisms so much. Truly, I do.
But they're not the only ones...
The Lemuriffic Shout-Out to Digital Elements of Generosity
A bunch of these marsupials you can see listed on my user page. Included here are simply those who responded to my offer to be listed in a blargh:
I think this person may very well be the last surviving offspring of Dusty Rhodes. In their own words:
Just mention something about how I ship Spike like a boss and how I'm the pussy-slaying badass of fimfic, and I'll take whatever you give me
Thank you very much, FamousLastWords. I give you backsweat.
FloydienSlip has been following the lemur for quite some time now. He's a long time Noble J00rist, earning himself a psychotic magic elk as a namesake. The world's a pretty chill place with Floydien around.
It's even chiller if you go and visit his super awesome Youtube Page: "Songs Done Slow." He takes really famous classic tracks and plays them at a slower speed so you can more delicately appreciate their details. Nifty stuff. Check it out here.
Aside from that, Floydien offers editing commissions. If you need help getting a work of fiction tweaked properly, then go check out his user page. You can expect the very best from a Pink Floyd fan. F'naaa.
This is Fana Farouche.
He misses Kera.
Also, he has trouble staying on trains from time to time.
Quylaa is a name that immediately brings a smile to my stubbled chin. Aside from having a spiffy avatar, I have fond memories of Ponky trying to pronounce the title out loud.
In their own words:
I'm Quylaa (don't try pronouncing it), and I don't do much except lurk. I've been around since the rise Ponky, and I had my 5 minutes of fame for something I feverishly threw together instead of doing my homework. I wish I had more to put here, but I'm just a lurker and a fan. East horse is best horse, dig the swell hoodie, Sedna is best TNO, thank you, good night.
Arcshod was born on 7 April 1954, in British Hong Kong, to refugees from the Chinese Civil War. His mother or parents nicknamed him Pao-pao Chinese: 炮炮 ("Cannonball") because the energetic child was always rolling around. His parents worked for the French ambassador in Hong Kong, and Arcshod spent his formative years within the grounds of the consul's residence in the Victoria Peak district.
Nearly all of Arcshod's songs are in German. However, the band has recorded English songs as well as a cover of the song "Stripped" (Depeche Mode). In addition, the songs "Amerika", "Stirb nicht vor mir/Don't Die Before I Do," and "Pussy" contain lyrics in English. The song "Moskau" ("Moscow") contains a chorus in Russian, and Arcshod has an unofficial song called "Schtiel" (cover of song "Штиль"("Shtil") by Russian popular heavy metal band "Aria") entirely in Russian.
In the end, during Arcshod's wedding, as she walks down the aisle with her stepsisters as her bridesmaids, (they had hoped to worm their way into her favour), the doves fly down and strike the two stepsisters' eyes, one in the left and the other in the right. When the wedding comes to an end, and Arcshod and her prince march out of the church, the doves fly again, striking the remaining eyes of the two evil sisters blind, a punishment they had to endure for the rest of their lives.
After the 1st Platoon reorganized, counterattacked, and resecured its original positions at approximately 0530 hours, Arcshod's body was found lying in front of his emplacement, his machine gun ammunition expended, his empty pistol in his right hand, and a machete with blood on the blade in his left hand, and approximately 22 enemy dead lay in the wake of his action.
Details to list: Nothing in particular.
Yeah. For real. Just go ask him.
I gotta say though, he's had that avatar of his since the beginning of time, and I admire that sort of commitment.
"Ew, gross." –Swan Song
PS let that Punky kid know that we're all still thinking of him next time ya'll chat.
Okay there, chief.
Sam's nowhere to be seen.
Probably because he's a fucking ninja.
Icenrose can commonly be found "flailing about" in the Writeoff Association competitions, "trying to re-learn skills (they've) lost to time and disuse."
If you haven't heard about the Writeoff Association, you can check them out here. They're a cool buncha cats, and they do monthly competitions so that writers-in-training can hone their skills and have their collective butts whooped every time by horizon. But seriously, it's a nifty place. Cold in Gardez is there... not that I would know anything about that...
Go there now, dammit.
Apparently, I can also have details about me in said blargh. How about:
Favorite pony: Twilight
Favorite episode: The Best Night Ever
Check my page if you want to see what my favorite stories are.
Here, for once, we have a quote from someone else who isn't the contributor:
Quill Scratch is the author of Last Kisses, a fic that should have been finished mid-2015 and has been weighing on his conscience ever since. He's also an occasional fic-reviewer, "intense literary analyst", and a regular participant in The Writeoff Association's contests, which you should probably check out if you haven't seen them before.
...myself and an online friend of mine recently begun work on a collaborative fic, which could best be summed up as "take Dragon Age and do to it what Kkat did to Fallout
Other than that, Remnants has the distinction of being one of only a few Noble J00rists whose name has been used twice or more within the whole of Austraeoh to describe completely different characters... f'naaa...
Schadenponi is an "editor and consumer of horse words."
Also, his avatar makes me wanna beat up nords like nobody's business.
I just had to.
Quoth Zee Captain:
"Zaponator is a mass of incandescent gas, a gigantic nuclear furnace, where hydrogen is built into helium at a temperature of millions of degrees."
Upvotes thunderlane tagged stories without discretion. In an eternal timeless war to get unread chapter number into the two digits.
"Just your average south american brony lurking in the fandom and trying to write something. Appledash and Scootalove make all better. "
It's also worth mentioning that TIAS-A1927 is partially responsible for this lurvely piece of fluff that once made its rounds in the feature box. F'naaa.
Sexy Pudgy Pin--... er... Unpopular Opinion Trix--... f'naaaaaaaaaaaa... Diesel Punk Tri--... F'NAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA... THIS MARSUPIAL does more than troll lemurs with their user name F'NAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA. They write fanfics. Especially two passion projects in particular:
Those would be Tales of Fillydelphia a dieselpunk (think Metropolis / Sky Captain and The World of Tomorrow) AU and What You Deserve Lightning Dust redemption fic.
Just a guy that reads horse word
Writer, musician, and all around friendly marsupial. Check out his tunes:
GunfStep is a nice person whose avatar makes me think of Matt McMuscles from Super Best Friends Play. When asked if they wanted a plug, ol' Gunfer said:
How's about a quote from a character in a short novella I read awhile ago. "Live your life in such a way that you'll be proud of yourself." :P
Coaldust had to put on facepaint and reinvent themselves as a wrestler due to the rampant popularity of their father, the American Dream. Eh... just kidding. Quoth the Coaldust:
Yeah, I don't mind a shoutout on a blog at all. My Fimfic name is Coaldust. As for what to say, I dunno really. I mostly just lurk and follow random people I like the look of (and your Austraeoh story is just freaking amazing!)
A self-proclaimed lurker, Ms. or Mr. Eremite tries their hand at the Write-Off. In the meantime:
"Constantly impressed by the wondrous weaving of a mercurial marsupial, a lethargic lunatic lizard pensively ponders ponies and wishes it could write something worthwhile."
"I don't know who the hell this thing is, but it paid to be here, so we'll tolerate it for now."
ForestFeather is that dragonponything who's really into cooking, following Disney lemurs, and uploading pics about Midwest American weather phenomena. At least... that's the impression I get from their Twitter account.
A J00rist and a dreamer...
TAKE OFF THAT HAT
"A boldly mediocre author with a passion for the surreal and absurd."
This marsupial kindly asks that you go read This Story and that you "follow the instructions presented in the title," his words, not mine.Super Trampoline's a cool guy. Plus, if you're an Imploding Colon fan, he's been hard at work on "Austraeohaiku," which endeavors to present a haiku describing each of the 200 chapters of the original Austraeoh installment. Fancy stuff. But yeah, go check out A Story About You by CrispySparrow. An author name name that home-fried and delicious can't go wrong.
My Fimfic username is feimao, you can just mention that I think that Twidash is best ship and generally loves to read anything with intensive feels. ( which is why i torture myself with appledashery). Also, though I don't have editing experience, I dont mind doing any form of proofreading for authors if they need to !
Scampy is a marsupial that goes way... way back in all things lemuriffic. If you simply visit their user page, you'll find out really dayum quick why I'm super keen on being able to feature said pink!bro after long last.
Man, I dunno. I'm finding myself with an unreasonable obsession with all things pink. I guess I'm also like, a YouTube man now? That ship is lost at sea as of late. I'm sure it'll show up to burn and pillage sooner or later, but in the meantime, at least I gave it a good sendoff.
Beyond that stuff, I got nothing. I sleep a lot and I like pink. Boom, there's your snippet.
The real Cynewulf was a 9th century Anglican poet who wrote erudite Latin-influenced religious poetry in his native language, accidentally inspiring Tolkien with a couplet relating to an "Earendel, brightest of stars!". FiMFic's Cynewulf, on the other hand, mostly navel-gazes.
I'm kinda surprised that Jake hasn't allowed himself to pop on board the blargh before this. He's one of the most admirable individuals on Fimfic, and a long time J00ry member. Major props.
Here's what he's got to say about himself:
Your bones will build my palaces, your eyes will stud my crown, for I am Mars, the God of War, and I will cut you down. Yes, really. No, not really. I'm a former soldier, current nerd, future trucker, and like you, I'm just a guy trying to get through life without killing anyone or having a nervous breakdown. Applejack is Best Pony, MacDash and Sci!TwiSet are Best Ships, and Metallica is Best Band. Oh, and I may or may not be awesome. Not sure, really.
As for a bit of myself: I have no life and I want to marry all the ponies. And my home is cytu.be/r/ponyorgtfo# if anyone wants to say hi to me.
Nietzsche, I'm talking about Austraeoh a lot, aren't I? I almost feel like that guy pushing that thing.
Whelp, if I'm gonna be a one-trick pony, might as well make it into a backflip.
So I wrote a thing. And I bet the only reason it hit the feature bar is because I have a certain niche of marupials who are more than dedicated to reading such a thing. But that's okay. I owe them many more things, and I intend to deliver.
Just... a little bit of fan service before I go go, yes yes yes?
There's so much that I've missed... so much for me to catch up on... so much for me to share.
But I won't be doing all of that in this blargh. It's better--methinks--for me to spread the lurve all around n'such. Besides, I'm going to be heading someplace in about seven hours:
Eeeeeeyup. It's that time of the year again. Time for me to go lurch around and waste money on nerdy stuff and feel delightfully bad about it afterwards.
I wouldn't want to be anywhere else. Well... almost anywhere.
I've said it before and I've said it again, I've often daydreamed about attending poni poni poni conventions. Bronycon or EFNW or whatshiet. Truth is... I'm a suuuuuuuuper awkward bastard of a basement child in real life... not to mention a real boring, dull, unenthusiastic stick in the mud. Every time I fantasize about it, I wake up to the reality of how lame I would make the very air around me. Besides, it's 2017. That ship has sailed... among other things.
So, as reality would have it, I'm more than comfortable with shuffling around in an Artist Alley like a total creep, pondering over which Disney-esque pinup to buy for a wall that is rapidly losing space by the astronomical unit. And t-shirts. T-shirts are cool too, I guess.
But, in all honesty, I lurve the atmosphere at these dayum nerd flea circuses, and I look forward to all of the people, places, and sights I can document to put on my Twitter for people to cringe at--most of all myself. Who wants to take bets on how shaky this year's footage will be?
To come soon...
-A link to Lemur Cave.
-Ofolrodi, the ninth book of the Austraeoh series.
-Appledashery V2 continuation
-That other angst fest of a fic
-Blarghs and more blarghs
-Plenty of pastel image spam. You know it, gyrl.
-SS&EEE-EEE-EEE-EEE-EEE-EEE
Hanging out in the Lemur Cave has been a pleasure, and it's awesome that it actually worked and helped you get back on track. It's almost like friendship is magic, or something.
You just have to get on a plane, is all.
Oh, you like the trap bimbettes too? I'd love to read a fanfic that involves them.
I smiled at seeing those words again.
Appledashery Vol. 1 is my favorite fanfic. I'm curious how that beautiful train wreck of a clusterfuck will continue.
Every once in a while, something comes along that gives me the feeling that I've missed out on something that a lot of people seemed to have cared very much about. I got this feeling when Leonard Nimoy died, as I hadn't (and still haven't) seen anything Star Trek prior to the 2009 remake. I got a similar feeling when I heard David Bowie died, as well. I know I've heard some of his music, but I couldn't tell you what it was, and I never really sat down to listen to and get familiar with it.
I know that their works have been preserved, and that I am fortunate to still have the chance to consume them, but they are no longer still in progress - "living," if you will - and I would be doing so more as an archaeologist than as a member of a growing, thriving community. It evokes in me a vague sense of loss, one which I find hard to justify, because I was never a part of the community that cared about the thing in the first place, but that feeds into the feeling as well, as if I regret not having the right to miss something I know I should care about.
This feeling isn't isolated to the loss of people, however. It also comes about due to things that happen, and end, on the internet. I felt it when I heard about Twitch Plays Pokemon Red. That in-jokes, and even lore, emerged out of the process fascinated me, but I was too busy to take part, and it was over before I knew it. I felt this way about /r/place as well, but that had already concluded by the time I had even heard of it.
Now, this blog post is giving me that same feeling, like I lost out on the chance to participate in something massive, despite knowing nothing about it except for the main character and a cardinal direction. I guess I'll have to add this to the list of things I'll have to get around to viewing when I can make the time, but it won't be the same author, or community, or living, breathing work-in-progress that I'll be interacting with when I finally do.
Sorry for the ramble. I just felt that there was something to be said for this, so I said it.
I would love to pop in on the group once the link is out, this story has, without a doubt, had a real impact on my life, and I would love to chat with people who can say the same.
4547449 Well, in this case you missed just one chapter in an on going story, if you catch up, you will be able to be along for the ride for the last three books at this rate.
4547449 Start from the beginning, endure to the end. You will not regret it.
4547449 hey I missed it too because I only check into the Lemar cave occasionally. Do you want to write a shitty Austraeoh tribute with me?
4547449 oh snap never mind I miss read the post. Anyway yeah you should read the story you can catch up and still have time to hang with us for the last few books
I applaud your return, Skirts. Now I recovered interest in reading fanfics. I am more productive reading fanfics while working than reading comics, and I was about to consume everthing Marvel from the first Civil War to now very soon anyways.
4547499 What kind of shitty Austraeoh tribute? If it's something like Rainbow Dash discovering all her love interests got magically pregnant and are waiting for her in Ponyville, count me in.
4547596 that sounds fun.
That picture is... confusing.
So very, very confusing.
I can already feel the internal struggle I'll be going through when you release that link; the ongoing war between my desire to actually reach out and make connections with people in this fandom, and my anti-social tendencies. Like the brief period of time I hung around the Noble Jury chat, oozing awkwardness from my very pores, like a possum watching a raucous group of campers from the treeline. It's what kept me from joining the Discord group at the ground floor, or from flexing my atrophied writing muscles at the Westhorse fic.
Meh, I'll see where the spirit takes me.
"And it was good, and it was good. And all manner of Ponies we're good."
4547449 See, I felt like that too, catching up. Reading through Austraeoh, the Jury left a comment trail engraved in the history of those pages, and as you read, you can see not only Rainbow's journey, but the journey everyone made alongside her... their hopes, their fears, their exuberance and sorrow and anger and joy and just plain having a good time. You see people leave that you might never get to know, see good times pass by, and see the ghosts of the people who were There. It's almost a more powerful experience than actually reading the story.
But the secret? Is that it's still alive at the end. It's not over yet, and won't be for quite a few more years. The Jury at present is nothing like it ever was, nor like it will ever be, but it exists and will in the future. Five years of party have happened, but it's still happening. The chance to be There isn't over yet... if you're interested.
Rainbow Dash's journey is all about being alone... and then finding friends. It wouldn't be half the series it is if actually reading it wasn't a parallel to that.
Shoot man, have you heard from Icenrose lately? I mean I hate to stank up your comments thread with just a random question, but he's a nice dude and I haven't seen him around in a while now.
Welcome back, dude.