Gordon's Alive! And Ghost is too, after a fashion—Includes: gelirhil being brilliant, Nyronus being clever & llya Leonov being awesome · 4:39pm Jul 3rd, 2017
So, I tried to kill myself with overwork. I mean, I didn't set out to die, but y'know, at some point you look at your schedule, realize you've booked a week of 20 hour days, solid, and realize you have what the mental health community refers to as a Problem-with-a-capital-P. Unfortunately, in this as in so many other things, Aragon has beaten me.
Annoying.
I've completed the projects that have forced me to take an extended leave of absence from life, the universe, and everything, and I've gone through most (though not all) of the traditional post-work-suicide-attempt bout of illness as my body goes all Fallen London on me and goes A RECKONING NOT TO BE POSTPONED INDEFINITELY, NOT IN THE END, NOT FOR LONG[1] and I collapse into a puddle of pain.
[1] Fallen London is a web-based game that's full of really nice words. I am a fan. So much a fan that I wrote a fanfic for it. No joke. If you like my writing, Fallen London is probably right up your alley. Recommended. Hell if enough of my readers go and start playing I may write that Fallen London/MLP crossover that came to me in a fever dream (still not joking) that one time. Oh, and JediMasterEd? This goes like, double or triple for you. It's precisely the sort of dense metatextualness that I suspect you'd enjoy. The game part is lackluster but by the Gods (of Pegana, I shouldn't wonder) are the words nice.
Seeing as I was very much out of circulation for a long while I let my personal correspondence slide quite terribly (Hi people e-mailing and PMing me... um... sorry. Expect a response within the, uh... decade?) and by doing so I've kinda let the side down rather terribly. Sorry everyone. Let me sort this out in chronological order:
1. Gelirhil has very kindly (and according to the comments under the story, quite competently) translated A Canterlot Carol into Russian. He did so, even, under hostile circumstances of the author being really really bad at answering his mail. Um sorry. Anyway, as a Slav myself I always find it extra heartwarming when my stuff gets translated into Russian. Молодец, Гелири, и спасибо. Очень хороший перевод. (Be the first to point out how wretched my Russian is and win a year's supply of organic, artisanal Ghostshame)
2. Nyronus! I don't have to link to the man, he's Nyronus. Anyway he wrote a really cool blogpost on how to give writing advice. It's been a while since he posted it granted (Sorry man, I was trying to kill myself with work), but it's lost not of its luster with time. Give it a read!
3. And last but by no means least the inestimable Illya Leonov the man with vocal cords gilded by at least two separate deities, has been so kind as to record a rather obscure piece of Ghostwords. See, Bad Horse (he's Bad™!) wrote a great story called the Gathering which featured my very own Dotted Line, and I, as one does, wrote a sequel/coda to the story in the comments which then, horizon archived as part of his Never a Final Word collection of just this sort of coda here.
[INSERT YOUR OWN HOW MANY LAYERS OF X ARE YOU ON MEME HERE]
So, Illya Leonov took a linking to this (he compared me to TS Eliot! I'll need, like, a week to get off the high of that compliment) unlikely bit of writing and recorded a version of it that's... well there's no other word for it. Sublime.
It's quite short and entirely mesmerizing. I recommend it completely.
Anyway, that's me minimally caught up. If I've not answered your messages, e-mails, comments, or letters pinned to my door with a jeweled damascene dagger (you know who you are) it's not because I don't care to. Promise.
Good to hear from you! Also, I'm going to need the dagger back when you get the chance. Preferably before you cut yourself with it. That would be bad.
Grinding away to get my norman tatoo this year...
So... would it be Fallen Everfree, then?
Overall, very glad to hear from you again!
You really know what to say to flatter a girl, Ghost.
Either that or my infamy has reached such a peak knowledge of my grim operation is assumed. Ah, the ambiguities of atonal text based discussion.
Also, holy shit, you need to take a break. Ironic choice of words aside, I cannot stress that enough. I was putting in 20-30 hour days in college and am doing so arguably hefty days now and neither have been a good time for me.
God speed, man.
Yeah, I mean. Like. I'd advise you to take it easy and not overwork yourself? But I think the sheer hypocrisy of such a statement would probably burn me alive. Gotta get the actual lawyer license to do that.
All said: glad to see you're back, or at least glad to see that -- UNLIKE ME, I MIGHT ADD -- overwork didn't quite end you yet. And congratulations on the reading! Illya's voice is incredible. I'd comment on the Russian translation, but sadly, my Russian is even worse than yours.
So hey, overall, good way to catch up. Now go answer those million emails, I suppose. That oughta be fun!
Yeah, but that work is all gonna pay off in a few months when your startup goes public and your stock options make you a millionaire!
Right?
Will you be peddling more horse words soon? I'd love to read more Dotted Line shenanigans.
There is only one way for you to atone! Answer all your built up correspondences as Dotted Line in a series of short story chapters as if everyone who emailed you is members of pony parliament. It's the only way to regain your pony honor.
Yay, you are alive! Also, be afraid of mayonnaise in the future. I don't know why, but I feel like something big is coming and it will have to do with mayonnaise.
It's really lovely to hear back from you!
And yes, Illya Leonov is excellent. I'm not a one for audiobooks but his readings of Apotheosis and A Riverdream at Sunset were magnificent.
Oh goodness, another Fallen London player?
Also, if everyone I know could kindly stop killing themselves with work and/or life that would be lovely.
In all seriousness, it is good to see you are still kicking and not in a padded room for your own protection.
(Though, if you ever get the time, I have been on Fallen London for a couple years now. Blame Kobalstromo. Same handle as usual.
)
Stop trying to kill yourself!
And welcome back.
Ah, been there, done that, got the shirt (now my arms and hands are not cold anymore).
Just kidding ;)
Both physical health and (especially) mental health really need to taken seriously, and I'm glad you seem to that now. You are one of my favorite writers here on fimfiction, ya know. Take it slow mate, your health needs to come first.
In any case, just remember that all shall be well and all shall be well and all manner of thing shall be well.
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I have no such shame (despite not knowing a word of Russian).
Jeez, Ghost, your Russian is really wretched.
You should invest in trying to kill other people instead. It's much more satisfying.
I like Sunless Sea more than I do Fallen London, if only because you don't have to wait Real Life days to get to the content because of Action Points. I've had an idea for a Friendship is Magic - Sunless Sea AU fic for a while but I'm not really sure how to pull it all together right.
I'm really hyped for Sunless Skies.
Sadly I'm still in the middle of trying to kill myself with work. They wouldn't let me come in today, something about a holiday. Guess I'll just use it to rest and get back to it tomorrow.
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I too think Sea was better by and large, although it does get tedious after a while once you realize you need 1 rare random event at 1 port to trigger an event chain you want to do.
Fortunately in that scenario you can just mod the game so that a 'day' takes a real life second and thus you can just trigger events constantly. After the initial coolness wears off I kind of view it as one of those games that's great but relies a little too heavily on Running between A & B for artificial content length.
4592059
See I like the sort of "trade game" where you need to buy Item Y from Place A and take it to Place B for profit, and hopfully you can buy Item X there to take to Place C which has Item Z which sells nicely at Place A... .
Sadly though Sunless Sea isn't that sort of game and trades, while an alright source of income if done right, are not a good main source of income, which are storyletes.
I've heard some scuttlebutt that trading will be a bit better in Sunless Skies so I'm looking forward to seeing how they've retooled that.
But I do quite agree that trying to get the right event can be rather bothersome at times. That was really my main problem with fallen London in that if I wanted to see the various stories not only would I have to wait for my Action Points to refill but I'd also have to grind stats to open up new stories which, oh, cost Action Points! I gave it an honest try but I just couldn't get past the game play to get to the story.
4591232
Indeed. Especially since you're most likely getting less done in that 20-hour day than you would in two more sensible 10-hour days. Exhaustion and lack of sleep ruin your productivity and make you far more error-prone, and they murder your creativity.
4592077
Yea, if the game had had a little less RNG related to Storylets - so that sailing and exploring the Zee was the best way to do things - that would have helped. They did improve it over time a lot, but it still could be aggravating.