One thing after another... · 7:01pm May 24th, 2019
Bleh!
Sorry for the lack of activity on I Thought You'd Never Ask and Displaced into Nothing lately. April was so hectic, I ended up forgetting to reorder my meds, so I was dragging myself through the 2 weeks I was off them. Then, when they finally got here, I got really sick, so I've spent the past week in and out of bed. Hopefully this goes away soon...
In the meantime, I have managed to get 90% of the way to a rough draft of the next couple chapters of I Thought You'd Never Ask, which has been sitting in an outline since April. I hope to have the draft up on Patreon by the end of the month. Also, between the fever dreams and hopeless floor-rolling, I've managed to do a good bit of pre-writing on the Dark Fantasy novellas I've been working on, so expect to hear something about that soon.
Anyway, thanks to everypony for being patient. Special thanks to the people giving me money through places like Patreon: that extra bit of money is really helpful when I'm trying to create the time and energy to work on writing.
And since you've all been patient, here's a bit that I'm not sure will make it into the final draft (because awkwardness and world-building), but it made me giggle...
At a table in the back of the dining car, Ocellus and her five closest friends were being served various food.
“Ah yeah!” Gallus grinned, licking his beak as the waiter set the plate between him and Smolder, “I’ve never even seen pork ribs this fancy before.”
Smolder grinned, “I bet even the bones taste fancy!”
Silverstream smelled the air, nodding enthusiastically as plate of fish-and-chips were sat in front of her. “Thank you!” she chirped at the waiter, picking up her fork and knife and quickly cutting into it.
Yona also sniffed the air, getting a good whiff of said fish and the pork that they were already stuffing their sharp-toothed maws with. She stuck her tongue out in a gag, “Ugh, Yona never understand carnivorous friends sense of taste.”
“Oh, Yona, you have no idea what you’re missing!” he insisted through a mouth muffled with meat, “The meat comes right off the bone! It’s melt in your mouth gooood...”
“Yona will take Gallus word for it.” She glanced back up at the waiter as he sat a 2-pony salad with extra vegetables in front of her, “Yona thank waiter pony.”
Sandbar, being the low-key kind of pony, had just ordered a simple hayburger, and gave a simple “thank you” to the waiter.
Ocellus smiled up at the waiter as he set her fruit salad down, “Thank you!”
They glanced over at Smolder and Gallus, who stopped in the middle of putting more animal flesh in their mouths. They glanced at the waiter.
“Oh! Uh... Thank you.” Smolder added, shoving another rib in her mouth.
“Y-yeah, thanks.” Gallus said with an awkward grin, through which they could see things best not thought about stuck in his teeth.
“You’re all welcome!” the burly pegasus pony said, “Just call if you need anything else!”
They all nodded and dug in without a second thought: it was amazing how much sitting on a train could take out of you.
“Hey Ocellus,” Sandbar said after a few bites, “You said the Changelings are using this line to go back and forth with Equestria now. You think they’ll add Changeling food to the menu soon?”
“I dunno, maybe some of the salad dishes, but we prefer to eat insects that still have some life in them. A good cricket nugget is still trying to jump off the table.”
Sandbar cringed, putting his burger back down for a moment, “Uh... You know what? I’m not gonna ask about it while I’m trying to eat...”
Smolder guffawed, “I will! Ocellus, what’s the biggest bug you’ve ever eaten alive?”
“Well... this one time, before the revolution, I ate a stick bug whole on a dare. It tried to choke me on the way down, but I managed to swallow it.”
Gallus and Smolder chuckled, while Silverstream and Yona became contemplative on the nature of such a competition.
Yona raised a forehoof, “Yona swallow sticks before! Yona bet that Yona could swallow stick bug!”
“Okay!” Sandbar cut it off, “New topic! Tell us about Changeling... architecture!”
Ocellus raised a brow, “I thought Twilight covered this? We mostly get pieces of debris and stick them together with propolis, which is a sticky substance we can excrete.”
Sandbar pushed his plate away so his head wouldn’t hit it as it fell to the table. “Ahh... Why do I even bother...”
“I don’t see the big deal.” Smolder said, swallowing another bite of animal flesh, “I cough up stuff all the time!” She held a hand to her chest, “Speakin’ of which...” she hacked for a moment until an unchewed half of a bone came out into her hand. She grinned at it, “...Oh, I must’ve missed this one!” She put it between her teeth and began to crunch it down like a gemstone.
What is hydroxyapatite but another mineral?
5063728
Is it bad that I had to look that up, despite being the person who wrote this?
Making me even more excited for the next chapter!
Hope you feel fully better soon!
PS is your name a Beatles reference or a Marvel reference?
5063829
Neither. I was in a punk band with the stage name "Raccoon". I was only made aware of both similarities after I began using this screenname.
5063849
What kind of music did you guys do?
5063851
Hardcore Punk. I keep saying I'm gonna sit down and make some recordings to put up, but so far, I have bad luck with that.
5063991 You can have my luck soon as I figure out how to pass it along.