JAC's Underground Fanfics - Solarpunk: A Natural Light Story

 Psst, bub, sit down in that speakeasy why don't you? We're going back. We're going to be reading fanfics. Oh, right, I haven't done an episode of this yet, this is basically a series where I am going to review fanfics.

This is completely secret, so don't tell anybody, okay?

https://www.fimfiction.net/story/533466/natural-light-a-solarpunk-story

Review: 

This story is honestly, one of my favorite things I've read in the past few weeks, perhaps even couple of months. This is a story about a bunch of ponies trying to install solar energy into various homes and houses, and trying to get past a tyrannical government who outlaws solar energy as sun theft. This is such a unique premise. 

I rarely see stories about scientific revolutions. This feels very cause-and-effect. The rebels give out solar heaters for free, but one unicorn lord who owns coal mines orders the pegasi to hold off on ending winter, basically just so peasants have to get coal.

(They all nodded. More and more earth ponies in town were making use of solaether to secretly heat their homes. The Shiners had taken to building heaters and donating them for free, even giving them enough solaether to last through the remainder of winter and through the early spring. It was among the biggest boosts to their reputation, of course, but it had led to an unexpected backlash:

The local coal merchant, a unicorn who owned the mines, had noticed that the number of earthers purchasing coal for their stoves was down by a third since last year. And so, with some generous spending on the local weather teams, the pegasi had delayed the spring rains to mark the end of winter and even diverted more cold winds and snowstorms to the city… but only over earth pony neighborhoods.) What I love is that this story doesn't say stuff too explicitly, but we can understand the unicorn lord bribed them to keep winter up so that way people will buy his coal somehow so he can maintain profits, and I'm totally down with this sort of story. This explains how actual evil works. Solarpunk is also the enemy of heavy industry, so this is exactly the kind of schemes I'd imagine. Another line has a lord say, "Why, rather than resort to violence and give in to revolutionary persuasion, did the labourers not simply take their labour elsewhere? For though earth ponies be of the Third Stable, they are peasants, not slaves. And even a peasant may travel, once he has given notice to his lord, of course.) So you have freedom as long as we give you freedom. 

The author doesn't treat the reader like an idiot and handhold but doesn't make the clues completely obfuscated where you wonder if you're reading a mystery novel. I thought this was just a really competently handled story. 

The only flaw is that a couple of chapters have "flat endings" where there's no reason for the chapter to end that way. 

Some people may think I just hate Dark fanfics, but that's not really true, so much as I like fanfics that adhere to source material. Now does this? No, but yes. This has the lore and feels at home with what we knew about the past in MLP where unicorns really did lord over earth ponies. So I hesitate to say I can really call this fic a true and total violation of the canon that I love, so much as a reasonable way to make a dark anti-authority anti-industry fic in this universe. 

The "imps" have strong characterizations from the get-go, and they bounce off of one another and have clear goals. There's also strong dialogue where everyone can be understood by the signatures of their speech, and while this is sometimes overbearing, the accents never go to the verge of unintelligible, and instead the slang and jargon adds a whole lot to this world. 

Overall: 5/5 

Recommendations: 

This actually has more of a steampunk feel, with the way the buildings are described, or maybe even a whimsical dieselpunk feel to me than solarpunk. That was what initially put me off. However, this is pretty much fit for anyone who can deal with feeling like they're in another era. 

Total thoughts:

This is exactly what I think a fanfic should be, and I find this very interesting as well. This is one of those fanfics, that, when finished, I feel like I'll have been glad to read, and I have high hopes for the future. At the very least, I'll have these six chapters. 

Random Fanfic Reviews

 So I thought I'd read some fanfics, at least the first chapters, and we'll see if any get read, and if any go on to be added to Owlis' royal library.

https://www.fimfiction.net/story/533552/the-joke-no-one-got

The Joke No One Got 

First Impressions: This wouldn't make me read, but the words are not many so I was like "hey you know what." 

Review Without Spoilers: To be honest I thought this was kinda boring. I just sorta blitzed through the entire thing, and nothing was interesting until the bottom part. I think that's a waste of time. A comedy story should be funny all the way through. I didn't notice anything too weird about the characters, except I dunno if Twilight bird watches, but that doesn't sound OOC.

Review With Spoilers:  I thought the end was funny. I'm not really a fan of the prank wars between Luna and Celestia, but the joke being that Discord moved everything a few inches is amusing. And Celestia, realizing the prank war is on with Luna, goes "oh me" and I laughed at that. So, uh, yeah. 

Overall ranking: 2/5 - I'd say just read the first few paragraphs, the last few paragraphs, and you might have fun. Or look at the spoilers. You're not missing much either way there. 

https://www.fimfiction.net/story/533466/natural-light-a-solarpunk-story

Summary:

In an Equestria where race determines status, earth ponies sit at the bottom of society. But then a new technology is born: Solaether, a form of energy that runs on solar power and promises to even the score.

But when the Crown outlaws the new tech as "sun theft," calling it a crime against Celestia, outlaws called "Shiners" take up the fight.

This is their story.

First Impressions: I thought the title was interesting until I read the summary, but here I go. 

 Review: 

This was pretty awesome. 

The plot focuses on a couple of ponies who are in a basement and the one named Jackanapes flees pegasi and unicorn guards with these blade wings. The action is actually pretty well-done, and I have no major complaints. 

Well, actually, I do, just not about the fights. One thing is the written dialect, but I think that's okay in this case because we have no basis for how they actually sound, and this didn't look offensive. However, this isn't solarpunk, this is building to solarpunk. 

Points: 5/5 

Honestly, I really like this one so far and plan to keep on reading.

Summary:

Equestria's history is full of wonders, both magical and mechanical. But only twice has it succeeded in implementing AI.

The latest iteration is an apple farmer, well-liked by everypony but herself. Because really, once every part has been replaced, what is left that can measure a mare?

https://www.fimfiction.net/story/533074/call-of-the-wire

 

First impressions: This is the one Kieral and I think is most interesting. I figure this will talk about AI and is probably after Applejack's death. However, the premise isn't necessarily going to lead to a good story, but I think this isn't just "Ai run loose" but, how to teach a robot self-love story. 

Review: 

I was honestly kinda mixed up while reading this a few times. That's partially my own fault, I didn't pay enough attention to realize that the protoplow doesn't mean that Big Mac is also a robot, he's just using a device. I wasn't sure if Applejack was supposed to be dead and replaced or always bionic. Cozy Glowpinions magazine implies Cozy Glow does something different in this world. 

So, um, I guess this is the set-up for the real story, but nothing actually happens here. I figured Big Mac was gonna die from the protoplow, but no. Also after the Super Speed Cider Squeezy I'm not sure why they're fiddling with new tech, but to be fair, Big Mac is said to have an achy back from age. 

Thoughts: 3/5 - shows lots of promise and can't be judged yet, but not actually as inspiring. 

***

Overall, my general thoughts were correct. After reading Solarpunk, I knew that the next story would likely be a weird turnover. That's usually how this stuff works overall. 

But yeah, not a terrible night. 

By the way, 5 star just means really good for a random fanfic. This doesn't mean a story is the topest most tier ever, that's why I'm gonna be much looser with them.

No N:Era In a While, What's Up?

I feel like, with the rate I've been on, having a new N:Era should be possible by now, but uh, that hasn't happened yet. I've only now gotten to a halfway point with Glory to the Strong/Call of the Wolves/A Glacialane Story. 

A lot of times, the reason this happens is, I write lots of subplots and miniplots. Those are basically the same thing for those of you who are wondering, but my personal definition of either is: 

A subplot is sorta more a story that goes on with the main story, at least for a while. In some cases, even beyond the main plot, as the character transformed by the main plot may end up solving a subplot. Like, literally every character story in Yu-Gi-Oh! GX. 

A miniplot to me is more continuous and is several stretches of scenes only somewhat broken up. Like the polymorph potion in Harry Potter.. 

And a sideplot is just a story B as in sitcoms. 

Anyway, uh, so does this mean I need four more months to finish this? No. I'll probably be finished shortly, I just tend to not focus then write in bursts. 

So yeah. 

Anyway, I tend to put in lots of subplots to the point where the actual main plot can get somewhat lost. There's usually an event I like to anchor onto, like Cyras' birthday party, or a train trip to Rosaberg, but everything beyond that is a whole bunch of events mingled with one another. 

In a way, I don't really have miniplots or subplots. I just have stories with several plots. The real unification is about the theme, and the theme for this story is essentially Misery. What causes that. Cyras deals with Misery for having lost a family member, meanwhile Queen Raynfall inflicts misery to her own kingdom. 

There's still a couple of short stories that bridge the gaps between N:Era and N:Era World, and all I have to do is revise "Liberty of Fangs." So I feel like that's gonna be in April. But I have something very special for the start of the month.

 

 

Panic and Anxiety Attacks - N:Era

 Fun fact, I didn't really know I had panic or anxiety attacks growing up. In fact, I wasn't even really aware until the past couple of years, but when I learned about them, I knew I had them. 

The thing is is that as a child, I was taught that I was mentally fine. To some extent, I knew this wasn't true. But I knew I at least wasn't as bad as my mom, or Noah. So a lot of time, any time I was having a "bad day", wasn't really the same as other people in my family having a bad day, though to be honest, sometimes I think I was just not a swamp creature about everything.

So, basically, when I had anxiety attacks, I was essentially told "I was going through something" or "we like you to be you - happy". 

So anyway, I guess that's not what this really is about, but about time I tell you what these are from what I've experienced. Unfortunately, webMD is great at telling you signs and symptoms, they can't tell you, however, how that feels. So here's how that feels. 

Anxiety Attack - An anxiety attack is kinda like, imagine you're listening to music, talking to friends, doing art a little bit. Then suddenly, the music gets louder for no apparent reason, your friends' questions are almost infuriating, and art is ten times harder. That's an anxiety attack, a system overload, you get taken out. 

Anxiety attacks can happen nearly any time. You can even theoretically be in a "calm situation". I had one a few hours ago. I wasn't doing much but talking with Kie, I think listening to a song, when suddenly I couldn't bear the song anymore and I couldn't even focus on what Kie was saying. I wasn't feeling very well, not quite a headache, but more like a general upset like I wanted to cry or shout. 

Within five minutes, I logged off, went outside in the cold chilling wind for half an hour, then went to sleep. 

These . . . aren't rare. I've rarely gotten to the stage of actually crying or shouting (I suppose that's been "trained" out of me), but there's definitely the impulse.

Anyway, I actually put down an anxiety attack in N:Era, where Cyras clearly has one. Let's go over: 

(Then, Cyras saw Rosod poking at bushes, inspecting grates. She couldn't filter her family out, nor Owlis and the Ender of Happiness. The talks fused together.

"You see, I calmly told Lilu that I was wondering if she ever thought about her weight."

"Owlis is always snippy, like what's her major problem, I think she gets off on treating others poorly."

"But that girl, I swear, that girl acted like nothing you've ever seen. She yelled at me and freaked out on me. That is MY child,"

"She wouldn't let us act like that when we were kids, Bhrook."

"-and she's the one who ran away from home. She doesn't think I ever wished I could run away from her."

"Uh-huh, yes Jazmyn."

Why can't anybody here shut up, Cyras thought.)

So yeah, that's basically an actual thing. I've been watching television, and like, there's two talks going on at once between people and suddenly I'm like, "I just wanna hear the damn television" in my head. 

(Pupils narrowed, she ran down the tree. Pause. Should she stay up and watch Rosod, no Rosod's a big girl, she can handle herself. She'll find her, not the other way around. But maybe Cyras should stay on the tree and scout.) 

Yup. So basically, sometimes, there's this level of franticity. That need to be doing something but be like, gotta do something else.

(Screaming internally, Cyras burst towards the pond, some people nearly jumping back.

As she hit the pond she took one cookie and took a chunk out the middle instead of the sides)

In retrospect, I could have phrased that as "from the top instead of the sides", but yes, I've done that with a chicken patty before. People were walking down the hallway in front of my room several times, I dunno what was going on, and that just really bothered me. I'm always on edge when someone walks down the hallway. Anyway, so I go out, and pick up the chicken patty, and I can't feel like eating like normal, so I bit the top of the chicken patty and tore in like that in rage. 

The shouting internally is important. A lot of people think this is very visible. A lot of times, you can be talking with someone suffering one and not even know. 

(No chewing. Swallow and then she took a few angry pants and took a proper bite out of the sides. And also, she simply dropped some cookies, knowing she would eat them later.

The pond was secluded with no one near except for some fish. Lilies and poppies that filtered water quality and added some privacy. Good, Cyras was hungry. She lapped up some water before she jumped and immersed herself.) 

If you notice, the text gets a bit choppier. That's sorta the thoughts you have. Pretty quick and you need to do some "self-soothing" to get back to normal. Some people don't have "self-soothing" traits, they don't have that ability to talk themselves down from anxiety.

I can't really say how to end one, I don't think you can. I think the best you can do is lock yourself up and away and not talk to anybody for the time being. 

So what's a panic attack? 

A panic attack is basically like this: One time I was on the opposite side of the block of my home street, when I felt something in my chest. I was having a harder time breathing, my legs were shaking and trembling, and I wasn't sure I could even move. I thought I was going to die before I even got to my house. 

That was my goal, was getting to my house. I was clearly going through something. 

Now this wasn't the first time that had happened but I think I was in a better place at that point, and just assumed I was having breathing troubles. But I managed to get home. 

"Well that sounds like a panic attack?" 

"What seriously, I'm not dying?" 

"No." 

So then I shrugged that off and went back to life since panic attacks ran in the family. 

One point, I was in bed, and suddenly, had a hard time breathing. I realized this must have been a panic attack and tried calming breathing. Fun fact, your heart will still beat 180 times a minute anyway. But I basically made up a Yugioh duel between Yugi and Kaiba in my head, a theoretical one (like we havent' seen them play 1000 times) and fell asleep. 

Other Notes: 

What I said was how I personally experience these. I am not a doctor or a licensed physician. DOn't ask me if you have them.

 

I don't care. 

 

I mean.

Uh, I can't safely help you. Most people don't get every single symptom or everything. What I told you is only what I go through. If you wanna write one, your character can experience nausea. Headaches. Anxiety and panic attacks can even differ within the same individual at points.

"Is there any way to help someone going through one." 

Best thing I can say is either be patient or be calm, but basically, use common wisdom. The best thing to do differs on the person and situation. In some cases, you should bring water, and in some cases, you should just leave the room.

Random N:Era Trivia: Author's Edition

 Some things to note, some cool tidbits about my writing process. 

-When writing Where We Lie, before I posted chapter one, I had finished the rough draft. I thought some of the idea was pretty solid, until I realized something. So, in the story proper, Ahmond doesn't want to be with her annoying cousin Baynana, so she offers to trade places with her, so Ahmond will sit in the front of the train and Baynana in first class. I realized: "Wait, they're already sitting in different spots. Ahmond just swapped tickets so she could sit in a worse seat." 

-Where We Lie got a few plot alterations along the way. I even altered the final boss battle. 

-I was high when I wrote the scene with Owlis about to whack Ahmond. I'm not kidding. I've even done minimal edits to that scene so I could just keep that raw, Mary Jane writer's energy. 

-I'm gonna write something while high again. 

-I actually can't re-read Call of the Wild. Several lines of dialogue from N:Era were ripped from my real life. Ironically, I was worried because I felt like, people who hadn't gone through something similar would think the dialogue was cliche. But now, those sections actually hurt me to read. 

-When writing Cyras, I tend to just write her actions and dialogue on the spot, and don't need to think them through. I'd argue Rosod is likely the hardest for me to write, but Owlis is right there. Though usually I got an instinctive grasp on the characters. 

-I think if other people had to write my characters, I'd argue either Cyras or Owlis would be the hardest. A lot of people tend to misinterpret them. Cyras isn't the most likely to be a "bully": She literally stands up for Ahmond several times and protects her from Lilu and Owlis. Also Cyras isn't a "tomboy". Nor is she dirty, filthy, or mucky just because she's a Wild Child - think about this here. Do you like being covered in grime? No? Then why would someone else? Just because they're not afraid of germs? Being clean inherently feels nice and there are grooming instincts. 

-Speaking of, Wilders are just those who lives on the outskirts of any society. Tribal peoples would be a society and are not Wilders. Of course, eventually the line gets blurry. To what point is a pack not a society? These are the debates that rage through Wysdom. 

-Kieral does all the Russian translations, all the accurate ones at least. 

-Ahmond gave me an Eastern European vibe when I drew her. I didn't take up that Chesniy was based on Russia (or at least spoke Russian) until I realized I have like, at least eighty friends who spoke Russian. 

-Cyras' design is based on the primaries, red, blue, and yellow. I actually think her ears are supposed to be the same blue as her paws, not purple, and I just saved the info wrong when I made her character sheet proper... 

-Owlis' design is based on purple, green, and orange, though really a brownish orange. 

-Excitingly, this means we have a blue-purple, red-purple, yellow-green, blue-green, yellow-orange, red-orange, character on the horizon! 

-I don't really wanna say Cyras and Lilu are in love, as much as this is just mutually understood between the two that there's budding romance. Cyras also is gentle with Ahmond and protective, but that's more like she has to protect the sweet little bulochka. 

-Of Vidya Game roles, Cyras is a Rogue/assassin-type of character. Lilu would be a brawler or tank, specifically anti-meta. Ahmond would be cleric/support. Rosod would be a mage/support.

-Lilu is the oldest of the N:Era girls. 

-In most rough drafts, Rosod went with Lilu and Ahmond to find Cyras. However, in the end, she got scrapped from that moment because she wasn't adding anything to the scene, plus I wasn't sure if Cyras could whoop all three of them at once. 

-A lot of inspiration for Wysdom was taken from Germany, England, and the US, for Germangland States. 

-Towers is, in fact, both a Yugioh and Magic parody (and partly of Pokemon too as well!). 

-The general timezone is 1920's in terms of technology. That's why there's references of stuff like Owlis finding out they're inventing refrigerators. Usually magical cold rooms is where people kept stuff or iceboxes. 

-That timezone IS fluid. Some stuff that should be out by 1920's isn't really out yet (such as Chesniy having cars but Wysdom does not), meanwhile technologies up to 1980's have been referenced. We've seen they do have TVs. Video games will be referenced later. 

Question: How does the naming works for the characters?

 Alright, so N:Era has some... unique names. 

Cyras, Ahmond, Rosod, and Lilu. 

How are those names found? 

Every name is a corruption of "nature", so there's no, or at least, very little, straight up human names. 

Rosod = Rose. 

Lilu = Lily. 

Cyras = ? 

Ahmond = Almond. 

Vanos = Vanilla. 

Kyofi = Coffee. 

Mosor = Moose (like moose track's ice cream). 

With the Ice Cream Pack, a lot of the names are just toppings or types of ice creams. Vanilla, moose tracks, coffee (yes I've had coffee ice cream before, lol). 

For Crimsons, the name relates to the color red in some way. 

For Violets, the name relates to purple in some way. 

For Oranges, the name will probably relate to something orange or yellow in some way. 

Dires have the most varied of names by far, so I usually try not to name them after their color. 

"What about more obscure names like Wasting?" 

Ah yes. Wasting and Swillow's names were actually Swyllow and Wayping originally. Then I edited the names, and that became Swullow. Until eventually, Swillow and Wasting. Swillow and Wasting were named after a Weeping Willow tree. 

Cyras and Owlis, the Ascended's, actually got human names. Owlis is pronounced as "alice", but I put Owl in front to make the nature name. Cyras is Kyra's (like, someone named Kyra possesses something). Ryvoh is from River. Kryyk is from creek. 

Cyras' name origin is actually a slight mystery to me. I think I may have used Cryo. However, the issue is that Cryo was Greecian, not English. I think her name was actually Cryas for a few days. Until, just swapped a letter and got Cyras, or "Cure us" as Jazmyn says. 

Jazmyn is named after "jasmine". 

Karv is a weird name, "carve". This is actually a holdover from the original Dire naming patterns. Originally Jackals were named after other animals like Scoril being squirrel. Wolves had names like Valkiral and Valtys (don't even ask I cannot remember ever. I think Valkiral was based on the name Akira, as I see that associated with wolves a lot). Hyenas meanwhile were gonna be split after a war, from much more kinder names with warrior's names. The Warrior's names were more "Thrashost". The Kinder names were "Rilic" (relic). 

The hyenas are the only ones left with names like Slasher however. 

Skyless have their own naming system. 

Finally, Dragons have names after intangible thoughts. Knowledge, Despair, Silence. 

Some other naming patterns I might experiment with: Compound names, such as Goldfish. 

Some names are from different languages depending on the region, like Chesniy names will be based on Russian words. Like Ahmond's full name is Ahmond Freezer—Shoklod to represent the Russian part of her name and heritage. 

(Kie's Note: Shoklod is a corruption of Shokolad. Russian for Chocolate.)

 

 

 

Meditation: My View on "OCs"

 A lot of people have, what they call, OC's, or original characters. 

An OC is basically the character you see throughout their art. Their fursona. This person who represents them. They'll have a toyhouse with twenty characters. They write their OCs backstories, but never get to writing a full length novel they've been planning. 

These OCs to them, are precious. These are like old friends. Kinda like, having an imaginary friend, but as an adult, someone who is loyal. Someone who you wish to be, someone who you wish to be with, or someone who you wish you will be with. 

The story is told via the art, via the commissions, via the interactions and the roleplay. 

A soul bond has formed with this character.

As a writer, I feel like my creation of characters ranges to be much more scientific than artistic. Whereas others model theirs from clay, taking careful time to touch up, mine is almost industrial. Mined for who I need for scenes. 

In a way, I really struggle with some emotions. 

People tell me how they can't pick a favorite OC, as that's like pick a favorite child, and I realize that I very rarely have that same level of love for my characters. Do I merely see them as tools? 

No. 

There are characters who I find very precious to me. Cyras and Owlis, and Lilu and Ahmond, and Rosod, and Swillow, and Wasting. 

Erstwhile, a lot of characters are just roles. Daybreak, for example. 

This however is fine. I see a lot of my characters as more expendable. In some cases, accepting that not everybody is important to you is just as noble as loving all.