I've noticed that Alchemystudent has started doing Lunaverse readings again. This time he's doing Exam Jitters by GrassAndClouds2.

I know I'm late to the party, but anyone else here watched Star Trek: Lower Decks? Season finale spoiler warning, but I have a new favorite Starfleet officer!

Maybe I'm just an odd ball, but I've always had an affinity for tiny non-humanoid robots, going all the way back to obvious ones like R2-D2 from Star Wars to more obscure ones like V.I.N.C.E.N.T. from Disney's Black Hole. One of my actual reasons for never getting into The Old Republic MMO is the lack of T3 droids as playable class. So I've pretty much wanted an exocomp crewmember for the past 28 years and I used to day dream of a future show that would feature one.

Seriously, from the moment she first appeared on screen, I was literally bouncing up and down cheering... had to actually make my father pause the episode just so I could explain to him what she was and why it meant so much to me. I also loved her cheerful upbeat quirkiness that defies typical AI stereotypes and I likewise loved how she equally defied the obvious sacrificial guest character setup. I really hope we see more of her next season, preferably not court-martialed, even if she technically deserted.

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Yes, I loved Lower Decks, and the character you posted was great.

So, uh, don't know if anyone here reads the Season 10 comics or not, but apparently there was a storyline they did focusing on Zecora, and apart from some very interesting worldbuilding (such as naming the Zebra homeland - Farasi) there's a funny bit 'bout Zecora.

Seems she's the Zebra Element of Magic.

Hmm...
An extremely powerful magic user, devoted to Celestia, a connection with a certain adorable dragon that isn't always the best, gave up on things like friendship to study her talents, bent on following her way of doing things even when there might be less insane methods of going about it and everyone else is going "stop, maybe?" ...

Anyone else seeing parallels with Twilight Sparkle (both regular and Lunaverse)?

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That's almost certainly intentional. Not sure how I feel about this bunch of elements of harmony thing, though.

Sorry for being o quiet recently, even more than normal, I've been working on a project I thought I'd share in case anyone was interested:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/shakytailstudios/aftershock-animated-short

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That's cool. How did you get involved in it?

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Thank you!

Its covered in the Kickstarter trailer, but I'm basically the 3D modeler and writer :D

Well after a whole year and some change, finally got the next chapter of Contest of Champions posted up. I'm specifically setting aside some extra time now so I can properly focus and get the last chapter and epilogue written, hopefully within the next two to three months. Heh, it's been entirely too long coming, but I'm so very close to the end of this one.

Well done! Although I must confess to not having read the previous chapter yet, it's just this 30K block sitting there in my to read folder, I've maybe read the first scene a few times but never gotten further. I guess having another chapter will give me more motivation to read the previous one.

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I know the feeling. I absolutely love Vex's writing, I love the density of the narrative that makes ever word of every scene feel absolutely essential to the story being told... but the sheer length can be more than a little intimidating.

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Heh, makes me wish I could figure out how to maintain the same level of plot relevant dialogue and events while actually trimming things down and mastering the art of brevity.

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Like I said, despite their intimidating length, you always make every word feel like it matters and I wouldn't really want your stories to be any shorter.

That said, maybe they could use more chapter breaks. Which could maybe have the dual benefit of making each chapter less imposing to read, while also allowing you to release those shorter chapter more frequently while still writing just as much by the end.

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I'd agree that maybe splitting your current chapters into 2-3 sections and submitting them separately would make them easier to get into reading.
My general rule of thumb is that something with less than 5K words I will generally read straight away, things with between 5K and 10K I'll generally read at the end of the day or maybe the next day. Things over about 10K I normally need to find the extra time to read then maybe over the weekend, things above about 20K tend to keep being moved to the end of the queue when it comes to reading things.

Well, finished up Resident Evil Village, and that was a fun bit of kooky horror action. Not really a scary game so much as chalk full of enjoyable horror-themed camp, which is honestly right on point for the Resident Evil series. While older RE games tended to be homages to classic zombie films, this one was a huge send up to the Universal horror monsters, just with an RE twist.

I got my Covid-19 jab Monday. it took me out a bit, but have finally recovered overall.

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Got my first of two shots this week. Not looking forward to number two as it's a work day for me, but I'll power through it.

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Mine was Johnson and Johnson. I hope your second one isn't too bad.

I have started writing a new story. It isn't anything serious. It's something I'm writing for fun. It's an idea that's been floating around in my head for some time, and I got the sudden urge to write it.

It's called Starlight Dream. It's a parody of grimdark magical girl shows. I'm looking for some prereaders. Is there anyone who might be interested? Thanks.

Chapter 1

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I got both shots of pfizer a mouth ago. It surprised me how quickly I got it too. I expected to get in June or something. The first shot wasn't bad, but the second gave me terrible pain and chills for about 2 days. Still, I'm glad i'm protected now. It puts a serious worry out of my mind.

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I got my first AstraZenica dose on Monday, I felt rather achy for most of Tuesday and my arm still feels a bit bruised today.

I commissoned some art for the story that I mentioned eariler.It was done by an artist named Simjhang Rin. What do you think?

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That is adorable. :D

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Nice design on the outfit.

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Thanks. I'm not the best at descriptions, but I think the artist did a fantastic interpretation of my ideas.

I have published the first chapter of the story, and I have uploaded it to Wattpad if anyone is interested in reading it. I usually write a chapter every 2-3 weeks, so expect it to be updated often.

Link

It's real... after over a decade, it's finally REAL!

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Never played a Metroid game...may change that.

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I shall forgive you for that blasphemy... this time.

I've never played a Metroid game either. :p

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As I recall, don't you just not really play any video games much at all?

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Yeah, but I just wanted to chime in. ;)

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I too am among the blasphemers who has never really played a Metroid game, but I can appreciate the excitement.

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Gee... I know Metroid is a criminally under appreciated franchise, but expect everyone on this forum to have been sleeping on it. You people need to get off your butts, go out there, and repent your sinful ways.

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It was a welcome annoucement. Especially after Prime 4 got delayed. They're having some kind of developmental problems. The whole game had to be scrapped and started over because Nintendo wasn't happy with it. I can sympathize as a creative person.

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Oh, yeah, the Prime 4 delay really hurt, even if I'm over all glad they were willing to do so rather than compromise on quality. Seriously though, I was so hyped when Prime 4 got announced that I went out and bought a Switch that same week in eager anticipation. It's not the first time Metroid was a console seller for me either. I likewise bought my Wii to play Other M...

...really hoping things turn out better than that game did, but now with both Dread and Prime 4 look forward to at least one of them should be a good game, with any luck.

Okay, so been checking out various shows, looking to fill in that space MLP left behind.

On the cartoon front I've thoroughly enjoyed Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts in Netflix. Excellent series, 3 seasons long, and well worth the watch. I especially think it did a lot of things right that I didn't like about G4's season nine.

Another good one is The Owlhouse, although it's only on its second season on Disney Plus, but if you have it available then the show is definitely worth a look. Think Gravity Falls meets Harry Potter with a dash of Adventure Time.

In the live action department I've watched The Expanse, which may be my third favorite sci fi show now, just behind Firefly and Babylon 5. Nice worldbuilding and characters. Also checked out Supernatural, on season 3 currently, and its entertaining. Kind of like a slightly darker, more serious version of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Anyone else watched any good shows lately?

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Mostly I've been watching the Marvel shows on Disney+. They've all been great in their own way, great character pieces for the most part. I'm particularly enjoying Loki, as I'm always a fan of time travel. On the cartoon front I've been watching the latest season of Infinity Train, which is always a trip and a half.

The MLP void was mostly filled with DuckTales, but that ended a few months back. That show is fantastic, though, a solid 10/10.

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Recently finished watching Ducktales myself, and you're right that it's a pretty damn delightful show. Really kind of a shame some of these shows I'm liking recently are only running a few seasons, but then again maybe it's best a show does just get it's story told and ends on a good note rather than go on long enough for it to lose it's way.

If you haven't seen either yet, I do highly reccomend checking out Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts and The Owlhouse. Kipo is complete with three "seasons" of ten episodes each, so 30 episodes total and is a pretty breezy watch. Loved every second of it, myself. Owlhouse's first season is done and is only four episodes in on it's second season, but I've been seriously enjoying it's world and characters. It'd be curious to hear your thoughts on either show, if you checked them out.

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I'll see about finding the time to check them out.

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Mostly the MCU shows, like RDD. Loki's been fantastic and can't wait for the finale. Falcon and Winter Soldier's been great, too. WandaVision... started out trippy and great but IMHO didn't really stick the landing.

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The new Duck Tales is a show that I slept on for way too long, but I did finally watch the first two seasons this last spring. Della was a surprise breakout for me as I didn't really much care for the mystery plot about what happened to her in season 1. When she finally became a character in season 2, however, she quickly become one of my favorite things about the new series.

Kipo was absolutely delightful, Like seriously the amount of creativity and nuance was really impressive, staying surprisingly fresh yet also consistent from start to finish.

I really probably should get around to Owl House. Form the few clips I've seen floating around it looks like fun.

As for the MLP "void", it maybe also goes without saying, but the new She-Ra was an amazing, although the final season is a bit of a tonal departure that rushes it's ending, but still enjoyable enough. While a very different show, I also checked out the new He-Man yesterday and while it's not really what I wanted and definitely not what I expected, it looks like it might have potential.

While it might be my own personal quirks, but on the more slice of life style, I've quite enjoyed Aggretsuko. Having been on a bit of anthro kick, I've also quite liked BNA and Beastars, though the latter of those two gets really heavy.

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If you haven't checked out The Owl House yet, it's definitely got a high recommendation from me. Thus far I'm liking season two even more than season one, and really the only unfortunate thing is that the show got cut down to a very short third season that may force them to rush the story a bit at the end.

I've watched BNA and Beastars both, and found them pretty enjoyable. Yeah, Beastars does get heavy, kind of a darker themed Zootopia in anime format. I was fairly satisfied with season two of that show, as it wraps up pretty much most of the main threads, although I know the story continues via the manga.

In other news, I found myself trying out Final Fantasy 14 after ignoring it for a very long time, and have sunk an embarrassing amount of time into it this past month. Gameplay-wise it's not really anything unique from any other MMO, but the story gets pretty damn good and the music is top tier stuff. Swear I got this song stuck in my head for days after this boss fight:

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Be careful. You might get... Mad because Small, Jealous of Tall!

This is ALL I know of Final Fantasy 14, btw. :D

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Hah, these are hilarious, although I'm avoiding watching the ones that are ahead of where I'm at. One of the benefits of getting into something for the first time that's already been around for awhile is that there's a whole ocean of fan created entertainment to enjoy.

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Ah, all right. I hope I didn't spoil anything for you.

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Nah, I'd watched the first one already, and then held off on the others until I got past those parts. At this point I've finished Heavensward and am doing the Alexander raids.

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That song is amazing X3

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Smol

In terms of shows:

I recently watched the first two seasons of Young Justice, it was pretty catchy.

Amphbia is fantastic.

I'm still watching RWBY and V7/8 have been wild rides to be sure.

Castlevania has been very solid barring Alucards section in the third season.

Close Enough, Carmen Sandiego, and Troll Hunters all have excellent pedigree.

As does Twelve Forever and the first two seasons of Transformer War for Cybertron.

Hilda is adorable and surprisingly deep. Dark Crystal comes highly recommended.

I loved the first season of Love Death and Robots.

Super Hero Girls is pretty fun, and I like the look of Carol and Tuesday.

Centaur World looks pretty neat and I liked Onyx Equinox on Crunchyroll

It seems Alchemystudent is back to doing Lunaverse Readings again. This time he's doing A Concert for Ponyville by GrassAndClouds2. Be sure to give him some support.

Welp, work is slowly but surely progressing on the next chapter of Nightmares. It's rough right now, but it's getting there.
... really wish I could say the dumpster fire that has been the last year and a bit has slowed writing down, but by and large, it hasn't.
(not that there hasn't been stuff, just not specifically related to All The Awfulness.)

Netflix has removed the Equestria Girls movies. That's upsetting. Really liked Rainbow Rocks...

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Not sure about all the others, but I think Rainbow Rocks at least is available in full and for free through the My Little Pony Official channel over on YouTube.

A little frustrated right now. I worked hard to create a another Halloween story for the Lunaverse this year, but I wasn't able to complete it on time. I intended for the story to be three parts, but it extended into four. Still three chapters in one month is pretty good. While the final chapter still isn't finished, I was at least able to upload the first chapter of the story for Halloween.

The story is called Rainbow Rescue!

And its a crossover between G3 of MLP and the Lunaverse. G3 is a difficult beast to deal with. It... wasn't very good. It is the most stereotypical girls show I've ever seen, and not in a good way. It is bereft of any real characterization and conflict whatsoever. G1 wasn't always the greatest, but it at least had villains and was darker than you might suspect. While Rainbow Rescue takes cues from G3 and has some unsettling moments, its also going to be respectful to the source material. I might not like G3, but I don't want to dump on its fans. They deserve better than that.

Still, what were they thinking when they created Newborn Cuties? That thing is more horrifying than anything I could ever write. Anyway, hopefully new year I will be more prepared for my Halloween story. I like writing Lunaverse horror stories.