[GRIMDARK] Fallout Equestria: Project Horizons Discussion

Somber wrote:Hi folks. Wanted to give you a bit of an update... though there's not much to tell at this point. We're doing finals next week and work is crushing me. My hope, though, is once we're actually in to finals on weds that I'll be able to make some progress and hopefully have something out the week of Christmas. Sorry that RL has become such a problem.

Due to length and pacing problems, 53 is being written in a slightly odd fashion. Hope it works.

So let me get this straight. You need to take time off from your full time job of writing awesome stories on the internet that you do for free. To do your other job where you are helping to train the next generation and one that provides you money to keep you off the street and fed?

Nope. Unforgivable. (Sarcasm Overload.)

blackjack art:

http://inlucidreverie.deviantart.com/#/d5k4edd

RoboRed wrote:

blackjack art:

http://inlucidreverie.deviantart.com/#/d5k4edd

Hrm, neat style. I've never seen the colors like that, either.

The details are pretty cool, especially the trapdoor for the pip-buck on the left leg.

It is a rather interesting style, yes.

Though if I want to be really critical, I could say the legs lack "texture" , as it doesn't really give off a sense of the third-dimension on them - the picture manage it for the face, the mane and tail and the body, but not for the limbs.

Agreed about the "texture," also the eye is way too big, but i can see the need to add the aperture detail forcing the artist to make it look a little larger without knowing.

tylertoon2 wrote:Nope. Unforgivable. (Sarcasm Overload.)

Cue the Earl of Lemongrab shrieking, "ONE MILLION YEARS DUNGEON!"

Hi folks. Sorry to butt in like this but it's been a bad day and I just needed to vent. Being sick doesn't help much either.

Chapter 53 opens up on a scene with Glory and doctors working to save the lives of injured children, shot up in a battle...

You probably know by now that this morning some guy in Connecticut got it in his head to load up, strap on a bullet proof vest, and go kill a bunch of little kids, teachers, principle, aides, and possibly his own mother before blowing his own brains out. I don't know what laws, if any, could have prevented him from getting these weapons. I don't know what psychological help, if any, could have prevented him from doing what he did.

All I know is that could have been my school. Or my mom's school. Or the school my nephews go to.

Today, a little bit of the Wasteland became real life. Today, a little bit of the world became a lot darker. And we have to stand strong against it. We have to do better. We can't let the Wasteland win. I wish I were Blackjack, able to stop it, or Glory, able to help save lives from death. But I'm not.

Anyway. I just wanted to share that and one other thing with you...

"Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.


Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.


Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.


Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.


Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.


And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light." -Dylan Thomas, 1937

Somber wrote:Snip

I have been thinking somewhat similar thoughts. What if it had been my school?
There are always thoughts of what you could do in a situation like that, but those could be completely forgotten in shock.

I think a psychological evaluation should be involved in the purchase of firearms, myself. I can't imagine what could cause someone to murder anyone who had done nothing to them.

I read today about a math teacher who heard a wounded child outside of his classroom during a shooting, so he donned a bullet-resistant vest and pulled him in to administer first aid, probably saving his life. The school's football coach got the gun from the shooter despite being aimed at.

So, there are what you can call "heroes" in these situations. Just... not everyone can be one.

Unfortunately, I don't understand the poem... I'm not good at poems.

@Somber
Hear, hear. Followed the live coverage on the BBC. Can't really think about it yet - finals - but today has not been a good day. My mom's a teacher in MA, does high school chemistry. It's not the kind of place someone brings a gun to, but by all accounts neither was this one. Good poem. Thanks for talking about it, helps me process. Good words, too. And just keep on shaping minds as best you can; you're doing a damn important job. English class is often the only place kids learn an ounce of ethics, morality, sociability... whatever... outside of early grade school. Good luck, everyone.

There was this girl who sat in front of me in Junior level English class. I didn't really know her all that well, but she had one of those bar piercings on her ear and she wore a lot of old music shirts. Johnny Cash, Nirvana, The Clash, so I got the sense that she was pretty cool.

And then one day she wasn't in class. And nobody knew where she was.

We found out the next day that she had gone out mudding with two other students and they had shot her in the head, buried her in a shallow grave, and then gone out for Denny's before running for the Canadian border.

The cops caught the fuckers. They'll be in jail for the rest of their lives. But they never said why they did it.

And that's the hell of it. I wish I knew what was going through the heads of those guys. I wish I knew what went through the heads of all these killers we hear about on the six o'clock news. Why? Why do something like this? What possible reason could you have for killing kids. Fucking kids. Kindergartners. Children.

Maybe if I understood, I could do something about it, but I don't, and I can't. All I can do is offer my sorrow and my condolences for the victims and their families.

Somber wrote:*snip*

I know what you mean about feeling powerless to help.

There's something I've been mulling over for a while. I've been thinking a lot about meaning. About what good life is when there's no ultimate point to it. I'm an atheist. I don't believe in an afterlife, and it really bothers me that nothing I'll do will ever matter, in the long run. And I'm a writer. Someone who spins tales. Not a doctor or a scientist or a teacher. I basically feel useless.

But then I get to thinking about what stories have meant to me.

I've been borderline suicidal for a couple of years now, and on days like today, it just feels utterly pointless to keep going. But I haven't stopped yet, for a few reasons. Project Horizons has become one of those reasons. Not the biggest one, but it's there. One more length of rope on the lifeline that's keeping my head above water. Writers might not be doctors, or soldiers, or scientists, but they're something important. Somber, you're someone important. You've made something. A flickering candle to push back the dark. Or a brick in a wall that holds back an ocean. Every time you think you're not helping, or you're not doing enough, remember that for a lot of people, you've helped make the world a little bit brighter. And that's all anyone can ever do.

So thank you.

Usually I have something to say, something I can say, something I will or would say.
However, nothing I could say would make any of what has happened any better or easier to handle.

Keep strong Somber, keep strong everyone.
I wish I could do something, but I do not feel I can.
Just know we're here for you if you need us, Somber.

Thanks, Somber. You should include something like that in your chapter notes so more people can see and think about it.

"The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it."
-Albert Einstein.

...I actually cried a bit when I finally found out what happened during the events of the school shooting. Why? First, let me explain my line of thought. If this were high school students I could understand, teenagers do things that provoke violence a lot. It aint right, but it happens. However these are children who barely know the concept of right or wrong. As an uncle four times over (admittedly one of my nephews is 8 years older than me) this hit hard when I finally learned that these were just children. I'm closest with my niece Ella, a real tomboy and incredibly smart. The image of her being shot went through my mind, and that tore my iron heart from its cavity. I'm a man who knows death pretty well, had a few brushes with it, been to more funerals as a kid than I can count on my hands, and seen burn victims in person, so I'm okay with death, I usually don't care. Things usually happen for a good reason. But these are children, and nothing can justify that crime.

Yes.

Somber wrote:Snip

I was actually in school when I found out about it. I have a sister in elementary school and we live in Massachusetts. All that was going through my head was, what if it was here and her school. Hit me really hard.

Somber wrote:

*hugs Somber gently*

It was a senseless tragedy...
I really do hope you'll feel better soon, sir, and that you can make it through your finals alright.


Well... I doubt anyone actually cares about her, but she's a PH character still
http://wavemasterryx.tumblr.com/post/38053437623

I like Caprice. :v

WavemasterRyx wrote:Well... I doubt anyone actually cares about her, but she's a PH character still
http://wavemasterryx.tumblr.com/post/38053437623

Well I do. I've never been able to hate her, and for a simple reason : For everything she has done, she has had to pay the price.

I see her more as a tragic figure, deep down wanting to do good but lacking direction and letting her greed having the better of her, rather than as a real antagonist.

Just giving a slight mention, might be off for a few days, I got the norovirus. And quite busy currently trying to avoid to keep my stomach content where it is...this is a lovely gift after that ~250 $ shipping fee... *yay* So yeah, don't expect much replies from me in a couple of days... Can't even pet my gecko now... :<

/me hugs Kat. Good luck with that.

In other news, I finally decided to put in the personal days and go to Unicon in Las Pega...er... Vegas in Febuary. If other folks can go, I'd love to meet you. Just be prepared to be underwhelmed... >.>

Somber wrote:/me hugs Kat. Good luck with that.

In other news, I finally decided to put in the personal days and go to Unicon in Las Pega...er... Vegas in Febuary. If other folks can go, I'd love to meet you. Just be prepared to be underwhelmed... >.>

I really, really wish I lived in the U.S or lived with parents to be able to afford such a trip.
Damn living in the UK sucks a lot of the time. -sigh-

Seriously, that to me would make my entire year because how much you've inspired me and how much Project Horizons means to me.


/totally isn't creepy.. not at all.

@Somber
That's good to hear. How are the classes going? Anything driving you up the wall?

Also, if anyone goes - take a picture. For the love of Celestia, I want to see if he fits my mental image.

(In my headcanon, somber looks a lot like Fred Rogers in the way he dresses, is somewhat skinny and tall-ish and very, very shy with how he acts.)

I can't go, for sure. Opposite end of the continent, with nobody who'd be interested in going with me. But I hope you will meet someone there.

Kippershy wrote:Also, if anyone goes - take a picture. For the love of Celestia, I want to see if he fits my mental image.

(In my headcanon, somber looks a lot like Fred Rogers in the way he dresses, is somewhat skinny and tall-ish and very, very shy with how he acts.)

Seconding this.

Sweater vests! Sweet Celestia, so many sweater vests!

swicked wrote:

Kippershy wrote:Also, if anyone goes - take a picture. For the love of Celestia, I want to see if he fits my mental image.

...why not just ask if Somber could post a picture of himself?
It seems like you're making this more difficult than it needs to be.

Yes it would be easier, but then none of us would get to go and meet Somber in person, and someone clearly has to so we can experience the meeting secondhand.