You wake up in an unfamiliar place. It is a warm and cheerful place. It is a place filled with friends. Something feels empty. Something feels wrong. You seclude and distract yourself. You master new skills. Perform great works. Earn the fear and adoration of those around you. Something still feels empty. Something still feels wrong. Maybe it's the new world. Maybe it's the loss of your old one. Maybe it's something inside you. Maybe it's something you can unlearn. Maybe it's something so fundamental you can never get rid of it. Maybe it's just a feeling, passing along on a breeze, that stuck to you as you walked by.
I have had this thing inside me for two years now just sorta fermenting and now I'm evacuating it onto paper with my two human arms that I own. It tells the tale of a man named Johnathan Siegsmith who finds himself in an unfamiliar world, uses his knowledge to further himself, and comes to know despair.
The biggest and most recent inspirations for this story, respectively, are Steel Sanctuary by writefag_is_kill and Isolation by Rimmy.
Start fishing fishes
10491741
Fishing:
- Old
- Done Before
- I don't know how to do it
Crime:
- Bold
- Exciting
- No Comment
Color me very interested in this. I look forward to further chapters. Also, that squiggly thing on the Swiss Army knife is a corkscrew.
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Not the corkscrew. Mine has the phillips screwdriver where the corkscrew would normally go. It's sort of a little metal bar with one wavy edge and two short, rounded prongs.
10492456
Can you find a picture of it? I don't think I have seen this before.
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cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/398212648858157069/768498991766700042/20201021_114014.jpg
10492846
Looks like a leather/cloth working tool. I have never seen something like that before.
Did she really say that?
Wait, I thought he couldn’t understand her.
I don’t know what that mean.
Who?
Is he talking about the towns?
MLH: TIM?
Where is he even planning on going?
10494502
Yes. One of my favorite scifi tropes is when there's a human and an alien and one says something in reaction and the other assumes it's a greeting. This is that.
He can't. I even mentioned in that quote that he hadn't crossed the language barrier.
Panspermia, specifically hard panspermia, is the idea that life on lots of different planets was all started from the same basic place or lifeform. The idea is that, since he assumes her to be an alien but she displays extremely earthling-like emotional cues, there's likely a reason for that such as a common biological origin.
Most humans have loved ones. I'll talk about them when they become relevant.
10494518
That's a legitimate typo on my part. It should say tree, specifically the Golden Oaks Library which is clearly in the town but also just has empty rolling hills behind it sometimes so I put it sorta on the edge of town. It should be fixed now.
My Little Human: Technology Isn't Magic. It's like HFY but in horse world.
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That big city he saw on a mountain. Specifically Canterlot.
10494699
Wait, if he didn’t cross the language barrier how did he get Twilight’s name?
Also, I don’t know what HYF is.
10494733
I'll have to find a better way to show it but he doesn't know what her name means. He just knows the sounds it is.
HFY is a subgenre of scifi stories about humans being cool, created as a backlash to a lot of science fiction where humans are presented as the generic baseline species. It stands for "Humanity Fuck Yeah!". MLH:TIM is more specifically about humans being in Equestria and using their superior technical knowledge to either revolutionize equestria, overcome their lack of magic, or accomplish their various personal goals. My original note was because that's the first explicit sign that later parts of this story will focus more on creative (and sometimes stupid or overengineered) solutions to problems.
10494911
What do you mean by “he knows what it sounds like”?
Ohh
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He knows how to say her name because she said it but he doesn't know that her name translates as "twilight sparkle".
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So he’s just repeating what she says?
Where’d he get the wagon from?
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It's not a wagon. He spent several days making a walled board that he was going to turn into a wagon, got to the wheels part, and realized the folly of his ways. He then decided to reuse his failed work by nailing a couple pieces of wood on the bottom as rails.
Maybe he can make a sling rock weapon
10495346
Ohh
It must suck to be in a place that doesn’t speak your language.
With the might of stick throwing nearly mastered all Equestria shall soon kneel before their new Alien Overlord.
Is the rabbit the one fluttershy keeps
Well, at least he might make it.
10505430
Unfortunately, I doubt it.
10505430
That could be interesting but he's a bit too far out of town for that.
So, he has to learn to be more friendly?
I honestly would have tried to sneak out while they were arguing.
Also, what the difference between a spear and a spear thrower?
Eh, HFY is a total turn-off for me, but I'll give this a read.
HFY always feels like some jackasses showing up thinking about how these primitives need some updating, and then the story just seems to make it so that's the case. Bit too 'manifest destiny' for my tastes, as if they haven't been doing fine and 'advancing' at a safe pace on their own for longer than the new arrivals' family trees have existed.
10517974
A spearthrower is a tool used to throw a spear farther and faster than can be done with a human arm.
What does he mean by that?
Wait, when does this take place? Also, what does he mean by familiar?
10525783
The dock area isn't that bad but looks a lot worse because it's next to the most opulent settlement ever devised.
The library is still intact so some time before it got destroyed. I haven't seen the show in, oh, 5 or 6 years so the order of events might be a bit off but I think they always had a few weird minority species.
It feels like a relatively modern earth city and so is a lot more familiar as a setting than a fairy tale village or the comically fancy areas closer to the castle.
Human Accent?
I don’t see how.
How long did it take him to think about it?
Also, where is celesta? You’d think a human living in canterlot would grab her attention.
10528035
Most people have an accent when they learn a new language.
It's the principle of the thing.
Not very long.
She probably would want to know about a new species but I don't think Johnny's made a big enough fuss yet for her to hear about it beyond "oh, they saw another monster in Ponyville for the fifth time this month".
10528515
The principal?
10528523
Principal would refer to a person in charge of a school.
10528700
My bad, I meant What do you mean by principle?
10528707
When something is described as cruel, or any other adjective for that matter, "on the principle of the thing" it means as an inherent quality, unrelated to it's actual consequences. Conceptually selling someone myths and legends for too much money feels less cruel than selling cartoon characters as cartoon characters for too much money.
10529377
Still don’t get it. Maybe because I have different morals?
10529802
Seems as fine an explanation as any.
10530893
Yea
Almost all food is better in equestria.
Immersion?
Don’t worry I do that all the time.
Also, has twilight not notice he is gone?
10533081
But Donut Joe's far exceeds even that standard.
"Total immersion" refers to learning a language by either recieving instruction only in that language or, as in this case, living somewhere that speaks that language. It's not the easiest way to learn a language but it is one of the fastest.
Of course. Currently she's operating under the assumption that he was just one of the countless strange and unique monsters that just sorta show up in ponyville all the time but it'll come up later.
10534037
Ohh
So he makea cash by making little wooden statues?
Your best bet at learning the language was staying in the freaking tree-house where they actually tried to teach it to you. Ditto for access to a library, lol.
Enjoying this fic's subtle irony of the dumbass MC constantly shooting himself in the foot.
I just realized why the the name of the story is “The Little Wooden God”.
For some reason I’m not surprised.
Coincidences?
Space magic?
What does that mean?
What’s a pocket torch?
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Pocket torch is a basically a lighter right but the tip is longer just Google it.
10558003
I did, but it talked about a flashlight.