2012: The Lemuracolypse - Part Seven: Eastward · 10:18pm Jan 19th, 2018
2012: The Lemuracolypse
Part Seven of Twelve - Eastward
Once upon a time, much later in 2013, I sat down with a certain Zebra at Downtown Disney. And in the ensuing conversation, I told him that I began a particular story because "I was too lazy to walk across the room and boot up Skyrim on my XBox."
Roll back to Spring of '12. I'm driving home from work. I'm taking a shower. I'm going for a walk. I'm lying down in bed. And in all of those instances, my mind is flickering to an idea... a story... where Rainbow Dash picks a cardinal direction to take off flying and doesn't look back.
It's hard to put my finger on the exact moment when this... "adventure fantasy" began. Just like it's hard to state exactly when or where I began envisioning the Appledash epic that would eventually morph into a fanfic that nobody reads. But at some point, perhaps drawn to the simplicity of the narrative, I imagined how awesome it would be if I just wrote a pure adventure yarn... full of action scenes and imaginative scenarios and dumb fantasy.
You see, while End of Ponies and Background Pony were fun and enriching experiences in their own way... they just involved so much Nietzsche-damned work. Back in the day, I wrote shiet like there was no effort whatsoever. Yeah, sure, most of the content ended up being garbage... but it was fun garbage. Flammable garbage. You light a match near that shiet and fireworks pop out. It was a quantity-over-quality thing, and I enjoyed it for the sake of enjoying it... constantly laying tracks before a nonstop freight train of a story idea.
In the Bronze Age of Skirtsian fanfiction--aka the Horsesramillion that is 2011 to Present--I found myself going about things differently. I was aiming for quality fics with thick editing. It's something I learned from the crucible Vimbert introduced me to back in Ponychan's /fic/ thread. And while I had no intention (at the time) of ditching that style of writing, part of me wondered what it would be like if I just said "fuq it" and went full ham into the old Skirstian style of writing.
Keep in mind, this if the Brony fandom that we're talking about... and 2012 no less. I was so jazzed... so manic... so insanely wrapped-up in glorious poni poni poni that I had every reason to believe that I could carve a horse monument out of Mt. Everest with a toothpick. And I probably could too, given the energy and resolve.
And the one vessel for this unbridled literary horseboner was none other than Rainbow Dash... who--while being my favorite pony--was ironically left to the wayside so I could work on the Scootaloo-centric End of Ponies and the Lyra-obsessed Background Pony. Since the collapse of I Remember Rainbow Dash, it was almost as if I had given up writing her. As if I was ashamed of her kaizo spirit... afraid of how deeply it would drag down my "quality horsewordsmith" or such nonsense.
But... you just can't hold back the kaizo. It blossomed in the back of my mind. Rainbow Dash was begging to burst out... to fill the sky with rainbows and fight scenes and explosions and one liners. And the more I dwelt on it, the more I realized that the only existing narrative that could possibly house the scampy pegasus was potentially the largest story archetype I still had lingering in the back of my subsconsious
Y'all remember that story? If so, Nietzsche help you. Anyone who's gotten to this point of the blargh fully-reading deserves some golden panties.
It seems that every time I struck a new fandom, my head would go back to the epic RP I had with my online friend back in 2000. I had imagined it for Majora's Mask. I think--once upon a time--I had imagined it for Star Trek. I was always looking for excuses to urge myself into setting upon this hazy, vague-but-awesome longform travel story that had been harbored in the back of my mind for years. I had more or less given up on doing original shiet anytime soon, so The Netherchild wasn't about to become a reality.
If only there was something else near-and-dear to my heart that involved a vague fantasy world that I could easily build upon.
Whoops.
What lies beyond the edges of Equestria?
Does anyone know?
Does anyone want to know?
Rainbow Dash does. Enough to fly out there and find out... perhaps even without stopping.
But why? Seems kind of selfish to ditch all of her friends. Just what would cause Rainbow Dash to skip out on Equestria and go on such a quest? Why is she making this trip alone?
And you're probably expecting me to answer all of those questions in some follow-up expository paragraph. But... why should i? What's the fun in being given all of the answers? Why not let the mystery linger for a bit? Maybe even for a long while. Why not suspend the explanations and just let... the moment dictate the narrative... if you can even call it a "narrative." What if world-building and action-sequences were used in the same flippant style as slice-of-life? And just as smoothly? And with constant ease and exposure?
What if the only thing that mattered was Rainbow Dash, the direction, and the momentum of the fic? Both in theme as well as in literal delivery. Imagine a story that continues nonstop, at a rapid pace, for both the author and the reader. Both halves--that which creates and that which consumes--must equally experience the journey in real time. Now that would be a degree of intimacy unknown in most other forms of creative expressionism.
Would it be professional? Not at all. But fuck professionalism. It's all about having fun, dammit.
In truth--even in this story's inception--I did have answers to some of those questions in my head. Not all, but some. And what I secretly knew was that Rainbow Dash's trip was pretty self-centered... precisely as it was. Planting her in this old story archetype necessitated an epic trip to the opposite end of a flat plane. And, y'know, an excuse for Rainbow Dash to go on a series of random adventures along an airborne travelscape is cool. But why? Why would any sane pegasus--even Rainbow Dash--throw herself into such a chaotic odyssey... unless it was for some sort of secretly grim, even borderline suicidal reason?
Well, okay. But that's not very cathartic. Or too terribly noble. How do I bring her back? She must make a round-trip, right? But if she's gone so far, why would she ever bother with returning? Unless...
...a new twist... a new quest... a new paradigm so unbelievably huge and game-changinly important shakes her entire world over halfway through the narrative... so that her original plans and motivations are literally and utterly turned inside out.
So...
Let's get this straight...
...Rainbow Dash sets out on some inexplicably lengthy journey to cross a huge flat fantasy plane. Despite a glaring bucket of plot holes, no explanation is initially given... and no answers are legitimately promised. The story features several seemingly disassociated vignettes and adventure yarns, connected only by the thread that is Rainbow Dash and her self-important flight. Then--several installments into the meat of the story, the purpose of the entire narrative makes a complete one-eighty. Rainbow's still headed towards her destination, only now there's a "return trip" planned that completely doubles her quest... like flipping Dracula's castle upside down and telling the reader "WE AIN'T DONE YET, ALUCARD! ONWARDS, YA MELON FUCK!"
Naturally, this breaks so... so many rules of proper-story writing. Hell, it isn't even a proper-story. It's a collection of brainfarts in a rainbow-tinted jar and all of the glass around the lid is cracking. I feel that I oftentimes stumble upon these ideas that are just that--ideas. They have no business being novelized, because I'm always conflicted between separate themes and narrative choices and insanely contrasting plot twists that I tell myself that the "only solution" is to make it long-form as fuq and hope that'll somehow contain and excuse all of the gerrymandering contrivances.
No. No. You don't friggin' do that, dammit. What's wrong with you? Is your brain on straight? How could you possibly be so dumb to--I'mgonnatellVimbert.
"Well... I guess it could work," Candlestick Head says over the interqueefs, more or less paraphrased. "I dunno. I mean, given enough length and material, you could probably pull it off. But... only if you think you can do all that while also juggling End of Ponies and Background Pony."
Ah yes. I was committed, wasn't I?
Let us not forget that--back in 2012--I actually suffered from the poor misguided notion that I would someday be returning back to End of Ponies. The original Skirtsian vision was that I would put all my bits into finishing the apocalyptic time traveling chicken epic. Then--once that was done--I would work on the next "epic grimdark fic" idea of mine called Ponymonium.
But then the Petra Arc crashed and burned. I attempted a re-write, only to fail again. Reaching out for inspiration, I stumbled upon Silent Ponyville and attempted a side fic... only for that to collapse as well. Then--after a wonderful interception of inspiring ideas--I settled on Background Pony. And there I was... treading a path that I did not originally intend to be pursuing.
Just what good would I be doing myself if I was to start another epic? Much less one that--perceivably--had no discernible middle or ending to it? In fact, is there ever an "appropriate" time to start a "never-ending" fic?
No. It shouldn't be done. It couldn't be done. I had so much stuff to do--between Background Pony and the future of End of Ponies hanging in the wings. If I started anything like that... it was going to fail. Absolutely, guaranteed. And what's more...
...I had a reputation to maintain. Remember, I was stupidly and insanely self-conscious about Background Pony and the horsefame it had gotten me and whether or not I was deserving of all the attention and acclaim. If I suddenly attempted a new epic longform fic--especially one that I had no realistic potential of finishing--then not only would it get marsupials' hopes up (only to dash them completely), but it would unnecessarily spam hundreds of in-boxes with a heartless barrage of redundant notifications.
But... the devilish daring was still there. I think Rainbow Dash was the one who wanted to go on the journey... more than I did. And even as Background Pony picked up and I was tackling writing sessions and editing sessions and newer and more colorful blarghs funneled at the marsupial alumni...
...I couldn't stop thinking of this fic idea. After all, I was riding the greatest fanfictional high I had ever experienced in my life... completely dwarfing the awesomeness I experienced back in 2005 with the culmination of TBE Act Two. If I did not ride this endorphin-thick wave... then this longform archetype that had been plaguing my mind for over a decade might never ever get done.
What I needed was a push... something that could match my enthusiasm with equal confidence. As fate would have it, inspiration came from the silliest and most unlikely of sources...
The year 2012 brought with it more than ponifiction obsession. I was discovering newer, deeper layers of Youtube time-wasters. Granted, I had been hooked on Youtube as early as 2007. But somehow, it wasn't until 2011 and 2012 that I tuned in regularly to LP channels.
The pioneers of this were Best Friends Play, which made me lulz like nothing on Youtube had before. I discovered Matt and Pat through bronyism, of all things. Y'all can thank 2snacks for that.
But for some reason I found myself watching Minecraft videos... y'know... back before it became uncool.
This was how I discovered the Yogscast. Now, I won't pretend that the lads at Yogstowers are the absolute best at their craft, or that I watch them nearly as religiously as I used to (although Sips is still the best guy). Nowadays they occasionally barf out GTA and Gmod videos to appease the masses. However, once upon a time, they had their eyes set on far more ambitious forms of machinimatic storytelling.
Without forcing you to watch literal hundreds of videos to catch up, lemme break it down. Once upon a time, two British Youtubers decided to make a Minecraft video series... because entropy. It was done legit in real time with moments of improvisational dialogue to allow for "entertainment." At some point, evidently, they got bored... and suddenly inexplicable "NPCs" started appearing in the virtual world, leading to impossible townships and cities all created "naturally" within the program. Anyone with a layman's knowledge of Minecraft knew that this sudden twist was utter bullshiet, but the duo took in the events with casual dry British swagger, and what was once a straight-forward LP gradually morphed into an adventure yarn filmed in first person with copious amounts of goofiness and improv.
It didn't happen overnight either. The first moment the Minecraft LP starts turning kaizo is around Part 15 or so... and most "parts" are twenty minutes or longer. And this is a series that's over 120 parts long.
From what I understand, what happened behind the scenes is that the two dudes began doing an LP... got bored... decided to "liven things up" with a storyline... then employed an entire gaggle of like-minded buddies to craft a world in the background. Their friends would be connected to the in-game world and would act like dungeon masters, throwing shiet at Lewis and Simon that they weren't entirely prepared for. The two would then improvise dialogue and actions around a bare bones outline and proceed with a naturally flowing, nuanced plot.
What surprised me about this series was... just how easily captivated I was by it. This was in consideration of the fact that--no offense, guys--the videos were pretty dayum boring. Especially at the beginning, before the actual "narrative" starts. So what was it that made me keep watching it? The ease of access? The simplicity of Youtube?
Or, perhaps, it was the charm and likeability of Lewis and Simon... how they made light of everything... how they kept the entire experience silly, casual, and fun.
Whatever the case, it must have worked. Because I was already committed to watching it even before the eventual revelation of the story-centric content. That means I had a reason to keep coming back for over a dozen episodes before there was anything even remotely resembling a payoff... or an incentive. Granted, I was a binge-watcher, so I was rolling through the episodes at least a year and a half after they had initially been posted. But the fact of the matter was that the videos were there. They were easy-eating, so to speak, where entertainment goes. Instead of being daunting, the sheer volume of episodes was actually alluring... and I felt really laid-back the moment I realized that the story wasn't in any rush to get somewhere quick. It's like the exact opposite of television shows or movies, both of which are constrained to give you swift, intense, melodramatic, eye-catching content right away.
A relatively new saying is "Netflix and Chill." Well, before that, we had "Youtube and Chill". The Yogscast minecraft series accomplished that for me, and it was smile-inducing. More importantly, however, it taught me that you can SUCCESSFULLY have long strings of watered-down content, but so long as it had character, charm, and--most importantly--regularity... then it could capture an audience. I was far from the only one watching this series. The lads have hits in the realm of millions.
Also, because the series was so dayum long, watching all the way through gave someone like me a really satisfying feeling. Namely, if I was to look back towards the very beginning of the series--or any part of it, for that matter--I would feel shocked at how much ground had been covered... at how dramatically the "story" eventually changed... at how many wonderful adventures and tales had been fastened under the belt.
This is something I feel that you can only get with severely longform narratives. Stuff like Star Trek, the LOTR Movies, Wrestling Sagas, Comic Books, Web Series, and--now--Youtube LPs. Even if the entire product is somewhat "watered down" or "average," it's the journey itself that yields a certain degree of satisfaction. There's nothing else quite like looking back and smiling to oneself, thinking "Yeah, we've been there... and a bunch of other places... and they were all cool and awesome... and so is this moment right now." And what's even better is that sort of feeling can very easily be shared, leading to a very intimate connection among the individuals who have come along for the ride. It's an experience more than a construct, and it relives itself through whoever decides to join in and travel the road next.
I felt that while watching Lewis' and Simon's videos... and I felt it when I read the other comments. Something was special and intimate about this experience. Long story short, if you created something with dedication and consistence and confidence...
...then an audience would come.
For better or for worse, I had summoned the courage I needed to push Rainbow Dash off the landing pad. But I still had one reservation: the SS&E marsupial alumni didn't deserve to be spammed relentlessly with sub-par quality.
This was--at best--going to be an experimental project. Even if I was actually legitimately interested in going through with it, I still didn't feel right putting it on SS&E's user page.
So that meant one thing...
Oh look. It's the meme of 2018. Only this time it's actually real.
I was used to making alts in World of Warcraft. Even Second Life.
But on Fimfic? Weren't there... like... rules against that?
Pffft. They probably wouldn't care. Nietzsche knows I didn't.
So, with a little bit of finger-snapping, I logged out and logged back in with a brand new pseudonym... along with an accompanying profile pic: because the marsupial alumni weren't 100% wise to the extent of my Disney Princess fetish by then.
Best Princess is right to look so digusted. That's because the alt's name is Imploding Colon.
What the fuq for? Well, contrary to popular belief, it wasn't meant to be some "opposite of 'short skirts and explosions.'" The name has its origin in a super late night session of writing End of Ponies. It must have been four o'clock in the morning, and this lemur was running on fumes. I was limping through a scene in early Dredgemane where Scootaloo's having to fly her way out of a collapsing chamber deep inside a fallen chunk of moonrock. At one point, she threads through needle of an ancient doorway just as everything falls apart behind her, nearly pulverizing the mare. I was still in vocabulary show-off mode, but my brain wasn't exactly working right. As in... I was thinking stupider than usual. So, for whatever reason, I thought I had every reason to describe the collapsing doorway with the metaphoric phrase: "Scootaloo flew rapidly through the imploding colon."
I turned this little bit in to Vimbert along with the rest of the Dredgemane rough draft, and--reportedly--he laughed out loud for a full five minutes and had to take more than one sip of courage to regain his sanity.
Soooooo needless to say, I went back and edited that segment, thank you very much.
But the name stuck. I re-used it in the feeble hope that Vimbert would take notice and realize by in-joke who I was.
Because the alt was secret for a long time. Like... half a year. I took pride in the fact that I couldn't take pride in it. If nothing else, this was my opportunity to prove if I actually had the talent and intestinal fortitude (lulz) to impress marsupials and gain a new audience through sheer willpower of writing alone. After all, I was still feeling doubtful of SS&E's talents in the wake of Background Pony's explosive popularity, and I could use confidence from any wellspring I could find.
And so it was in May of 2012 that Rainbow Dash's eastward flight began.
Why east? Well, Rainbow Dash has stated her reasons multiple times in the fic. But, confidentially, it's vaguely based on real life experiences. I remember in early autumn of 2011, while struggling with the initial troll chapter of early-early End of Ponies, I lost the nerve to write for that evening. So, as the hours lurched into the wee early morning, I just rode out and... drove east. I followed a route that I've taken before... and I didn't stop until I hit the Atlantic.
While on-the-go, I experienced the same sensation I usually do when going out for early morning drives. It was right at the crest of dawn, and the sun was rising over the beachside upon my arrival. Restlessness gives way to recklessness, and my mind goes a million places at once. On that particular morning, I was meditating on the brony scene as a whole... daydreaming how awesome it would be to get my stories broadcasted across the interwebs... to become horsefamouse... to meet other like minded horse nerds and just commune.
I get the same feeling on early morning drives to Walt Disney World. Or when I'm just going out for a drive, period. I find that the mind goes into overdrive in the early-early dawn, and the rising sun only goads me on further.
Render by argodaemon
I felt like capturing that enthusiasm with Rainbow Dash, and there's no better direction to go at the dawn than east. As the first few chapters rolled through, I got really into it... and Austraeoh established its scenic landscape pr0n. In fact, I purposefully avoided any and all dialogue for over a dozen chapters. I had decided to go full Kubrick, and it became a consistent return-theme of the series as a whole.
"But Skirts? Why the funky name?"
But in all seriousness, this deals with the entire mystique of the series. I had decided that--since I was putting this on an alt that was completely detached from SS&E--I would (initially) remove all ego from the story altogether. In other words, I would put absolutely zero effort into feature-baiting or explaining the fic. I left the synopsis and title and picture bleak and uninformative on purpose.
This was an experiment--not just in execution--but, hopefully, in gravity as well. I wanted to see if a story with seemingly no description and no advertisement could actually generate a following. It was more or less the way I wrote These Black Eyes back in 2004, and sure enough I had gathered quite a few marsupials then... even a message board. All that worked for the fic was the fic itself. There was little-to-no outside advertisement, and eventually the reader-base itself would be the ones burdened with egging others into joining Rainbow on her journey.
I wanted a weird, difficult-to-explain title. In my head, I drew upon the Myst Franchise as an archetype. As a kid, the titles of that series always weirded me out. Instead of "Myst II," the sequel was called "Riven." Later on they had an "Uru." Obviously, the titles meant something significant within the lore of the series, but you wouldn't know anything about that unless you took the time to invest yourself in them. Plus, on the whole, Myst is a very good example of what I was trying to accomplish with something like Austraeoh. Myst is a game where nothing is explained to the gamer. Instead, the player must actively search for clues to gather understanding about the plot and its goals. If one had patience and attentiveness, then veritable secrets would blossom from the midst of the detritus, and the game would take on a brand new life of its own... with infinite rewards.
Austraeoh was meant to be the same thing. Here was a fic that promised nothing... and you'd go into it expecting nothing... but eventually--with enough patience and commitment--you would come out of it receiving everything. That's why to this day, countless Noble Jurists tell newcomers "just to start reading and have faith" whenever a newcomer begs for information concerning the anthology.
Still, I wanted to be somewhat of a smart lemur. For the title, I thought back to when I watched one of my favorite DVD Collections of all time: the Appendices to the Lord of the Rings Extended Edition. I recall learning that Tolkien had relied on old norse when naming several characters from Rohan. Take Eowyn, for example. Her name means "Horse Joy" in Old English. At first, I didn't think I was going to come up with something quite so on-the-nose, but when I did some research and found that the old root for "East" was roughly translated to "Austri," I just went "lulzthat'scool" and added "eoh" at the end of that. Thus we get "Austraeoh."
That opened the door to some structural bullshiet. I knew that the story would be long (I just didn't know how long). If--say--I was going to go for five chapters, then I could run the whole gamut of vowel-names. First was "Austraeoh," and then the others would be "E" and "I" and "O" and "U." Five fanfics. Sh00r, Rainbow Dash could get to the Dark Side by then, right?
The rest of the story was... all about carrying its own weight. I knew that I wasn't going to have any major exposition until the "second" installment, whenever that was going to be. I simply had two other goals: the BIG TWIST and THE END. Everything between the beginning and those parts would be complete bullshiet. Fun bullshiet, mind you, but most of Austraeoh was invented on the fly.
And... it didn't attract a whole lot of attention at first. I mean, yes, there were some regular readers, but for the most part I was writing random crap with Rainbow Dash--mostly unnoticed--for the first few months. It was pretty glorious, actually... and a wonderful stress reducer when compared to Background Pony.
Which meant that, for the first time since April rolled around, I was finally learning to relax and take pride in what I was accomplishing. And, like that, I grooved my way into the humid thick of summer.
To be Continued in Part Eight: The Summer Shuffle
I am a dwarf and I'm digging a hole. Diggy diggy hole, digging a hole!
i.imgur.com/l2rFGYm.jpg
The question is not "Why?" it's "why not?"
Stay Noble my friends.
Here I am still trying to read Appledashery.
Goddammit.
4777682
It's next up on my reading list... only another 30 chapters on what I'm working on now on top of whatever else gets updated
👍
I wanted to keep reading the blarghs, but I'm still in Ynanhluutr, and damn, probably gonna be spoilers. So I'll check this blog back in a few months.
derpicdn.net/img/view/2017/5/21/1442054__safe_screencap_scootaloo_parental+glideance_spoiler-colon-s07e07_animated_cropped_cute_cutealoo_dhx+is+trying+to+murder+us_eeee_gif_happy_helm.gif
derpicdn.net/img/view/2017/7/4/1478488__safe_screencap_rainbow+dash_scootaloo_newbie+dash_animated_derp_female_gif_laughing_pony_scootaderp.gif
derpicdn.net/img/view/2017/5/21/1442056__safe_screencap_scootaloo_parental+glideance_spoiler-colon-s07e07_adorkable_animated_behaving+like+a+dog_booty+booty+booty+booty+rockin%27+ever.gif
It's wild to look back and think of how the littlest things can change the future.
Some time ago I was lying awake in bed bored and restless. My mind eventually drifted to trying to rank my top 10 fimfic fics and I realized I had a problem: I had no idea where to put Austraeoh. Sure, its a great story and would rank high up there on it's own merits but it's hard to stack up against well polished, highly edited stuff from you and others like Background Pony.
On the other hand, this fic has literally changed my life. I know that sounds more than a little melodramatic but being on this crazy journey has inspired me to travel the world and led me to discover some of the coolest friends a guy could ask for, and in turn, becoming friends with their friends, and so on and so on. For the past few years my life has been heavily influenced by this piece of writing and the awesome people who also read it.
It was with this realization that I came to the conclusion that I couldn't rank Austraeoh. At this point it has gone beyond just a piece of writing and become something more to me, something priceless that can't be compared to anything else.
You have my gratitude for not turning on that Xbox.
As I recall, my comment on the Google Doc was "I love this. Never change it."
Skirts responded with, "You want me to leave it in??"
Occasionally amusement won out over good editing sense for me.
Now let me stop you for a minute.
I've kept silence while reading the earlier blogs, though I've been reading you since EoP threads on ponychan (may it rest in peace), now I have to chime in.
It's pretty easy to downplay what you do when you know what you did and why and what exact bowel movements troubled you that day.
Because, well, if you managed to do it, it was easy enough and anyone can do the same given enough time and dedication, right?
Of course, it's wrong.
I remember reading Austraeoh sitting on a train heading to another country to get a job.
I remember reading Austraeoh sitting on a train going to my then-home with a broken leg having gotten the job.
I have drastically changed the course of my life and sought solace in your "promised nothing" fic.
It promised much more than everything and much less than nothing simultaneously.
It promised to go on an adventure towards an unreachable goal by all means necessary.
Dark side or die trying. Stand up and go. Die with your boots on. Dark side or die trying.
The endless adventure romp. Familiar reused patterns from earlier works. Feels. Fights. Whooshing. Blamming. Metal cylinders. East. Strange words. Strange worlds. Useless and later beloved deuteragonists. East. Yet another fight scene Rainbow Dash got herself into because of her hardheadedness. More whooshing. More bucking. Intrigues. Intrigues with a monkey wrench thrown in. Collapsing societies. Rebuilt societies. East. Die. Rinse. Repeat. Leave friends behind. Again. East. East.
I've done a lot of projects since sometimes losing the track of the story and catching up again.
I've been successful at making everyone else believe I know what we're doing, that we have a plan for every contingency.
And I often stood alone looking at the hodgepodge of deadlines, technological debt, professionalism, enthusiasm, lead times, mismanaged expectations, faith and pure luck and I saw only darkness.
And then I always took a deep breath and plunged down towards it all, to gain enough momentum, to fly east.
It's hard to even notice sometimes how much an off-hand comment or a metaphor can influent someone.
But here the main influence were the dynamics of the fic itself.
It was not and it is not "a show about nothing".
It was always about moving. Forward. East. East. East, east, east.
Despite all obstacles.
Breaking any barriers.
Dying trying.
East.
"When I grow up, I want to be a potato!
4777725
No worries, no spoilers from what I can see.
4777783
Hey, Vimbert!
Now, I have something to say.
Simply put, this story that "promised nothing", has turned my life around in a big way.
I remember back during that year I was more or less a social outcast. I barely talked to anyone, even my own mother. It wasn't the worst time of my life, but rather the point right afterwards. The time after the hardships where you just give up and the whole world becomes nothing more than a grey blur as time passes you bye. Poni poni poni had helped me come out of my shell a little bit, especially with the fics on this site. They granted me an escapism I desperately desired. Then there was that fateful day that I saw this story in the feature box.
Austraeoh? The hell does that mean? I remember thinking to myself. The description gave me nothing to go on either, but the length of the story had caught my attention. At that point it was a little more than a hundred chapters, enough to keep me occupied for a short time, which is all I really wanted. However, from the first chapter all the way up until I caught up, I was hooked. Completely and utterly. The way you wrote those first few chapters, lacking in dialogue and filled with atmosphere struck a chord with me. I got invested, I started to wonder what the hell was happening in the story. What were you hinting at? What was the history that you needed to read in between the lines to find out?
Austraeoh had entered my head and never left. I couldn't stop thinking about it, I couldn't stop theorizing. I waited for the next installment with baited breath every time. I remember reading through the comments even, trying to gather what others had found out themselves. Sadly, I was still too reclusive to actually comment myself. However, as the story expanded and pursued, so did my interest. It gave me something to lose myself in when I needed it. It made me realize just how bright and creative the world was. It got me out of my shell, it made me give the world a second chance. Now it's years later, and the story is still going (Albeit on hiatus, right now)!
I guess there's just no getting off this ride we're on.
My best friend is a huge Sips fan.
That Minecraft LP actually sounds fascinating.
So, I like Austraeoh. Objectively, as a story it's not really anything special. Mindless, action-heavy, overbloated at times *coughUTAAN* while still playing fast and loose with the plot. But the thing that's so very special about it to me is how much of an experience it is, and how much it stands alone in this kind of interactive storytelling mode that it's settled into. Almost like it's a strange game of D&D where you are the GM just playing all of us. The words on the page are only half of the full picture; the other half is the readers themselves becoming involved in the story and reacting to it as it unfolds and develops.
It's fascinating to go back and read the comments on the first book as those first few "regulars" tried to tackle it as some kind of mystery novel, putting clues together, giving hypotheses about "what happened to Ponyville", "where is Celestia", "why is she wearing the Element", etc., etc. Because of the nature of Fimfic, the story itself has become this strange kind of.....forum where the readers can mingle, express themselves as in-universe characters (because of the naming system you started to establish), and continually keep up with the latest daily updates. I don't think any other medium in the world could have accomplished this and it is amazing. It's the reason I did so much work to make the Austraeoh Readers' Editions, because I wanted to bottle up some of the "magic" on the other side of the 4th wall, the cheers and speculations and in-jokes that blur the lines between reader and author. You know, these magic moments:
durandal.dnsalias.net/imgur/myship.png
I am absolutely in love with the little community we have formed around these stories. I love how the group still refers to itself as "The Noble Jury", as though we're all just in another airship trailing the action, following Rainbow as some kind of trans-dimensional camera crew to support and cheer her on. I am in love with the expectation that I can (usually) find a short new update every night, and incorporate it as part of my day-to-day "ritual". It's more than a story, it's a small part of my life which, while not necessarily changing it drastically, has nevertheless been a continual and reliable source of joy.
Thank you.
The eastward hype continues!
4777830
Awesome, thanks!
I remember the end of Austraeoh. People lost their heads. Then came the other story and people were not sure if it was a sequel or what it was.
How is this the first time I've heard of Caravan Palace?
Thank for bringing one more awesome thing into my life, Mr.Skirts. Can't wait to hear about the "story I don't read".
4778156
Actually, this is my first exposure to "electro-swing" as a genre of EDM.......
I'm slightly upset that no one made me aware of this sooner.
If there's anything I'm going to miss about the death of EoP, it'll be this. I think Saros was the first fic of yours that I ever read, and only after finishing it did I see that it was meant as a side story to the larger narrative. I was fascinated with the technologies and cultures of the ponies, and went into the bulk of EoP hoping to find out more about them. All I can do now is wait for the mega-stream of spoilers and hope for more.
This is exactly what I love about it so much. The Myst-like exposition-less unexplained mystery. The scenic descriptions that go on for like a dozen chapters before Rainbow even speaks, let alone we find out why she's here and what she is doing. That gradual growth of awareness punctuated by vertigo-inducing "holy shit" moments as we find out more about the world and its history and its totally insane cosmology.
As a latecomer (found it in late 2015 and only started reading in early 2017) this is one of the few stories where I've religiously avoided spoilers, and oh BOY did it pay off.
(In the beginning I've often wished this series could be adapted to animation, but these days I think the only thing that could possibly do it justice is some kind of epic stealth/adventure/roleplaying game series.)
I liked the early chapters of Austraeoh, back when it really "promised nothing," when you know nothing about what's happening but it was just felt so addictively lonely and the scenery descriptions were so pretty. Part of me didn't like it when dialogue started to occur, characters started to be introduced, and then the Jury came along. It wasn't so lonely anymore. But the series has turned out pretty great, even if it isn't the same now as it was when it initially hooked me.
Hated what you put me through with Yaerf. That was like the Pandaria of Austreoh. But it finally led to the next epic which would be seeing T—*shot*
...
Haven’t been rrading much for health reasons but will be pickingit up again soon. But seriously, buck goblins. Too much Gadgetzan for my tastes, whom I’m still at max hated rep on my Druid with... yes, yes the title bloodsails and the hat that summons the parrot was damn worth it... I never asked to become a Booty Bay Raid Boss, fyi! Those silly pvers brought doom upon themselves! (srly, what druid shoots upon a fellow druid after a purr emote? those savage cows have no respect for bear love!)
Ah, we finally get to the juicy part of this little blog adventure. Like many others, I was a latecomer to Easthorse and SS&E in general (early 2016, I think?), but holy heck once I got rolling I got caught up within a month or two. It's so satisfying to witness others race through the chapters as I did and comment on my own excited reactions from over a year ago. You've truly put together something special, my friend.
4777752
Very much so.
"Life-changing" is absolutely no exaggeration.