Shyriath

Er, if I could request it, please delay any final approval on this for the moment. I've asked a question about available lighting types that I'd like to see answered first.

Recently, I had the idea that a character who was a lamplighter might be an interesting app. In human history, these were the people who went around lighting the gas and oil lamps that served as street lights prior to kerosene and electric lights. I asked around in chat what kind of lighting was available in Equestria, because if there weren't appropriate kinds around there wouldn't be much of a point in having a lamplighter; and one of the board staff who was there (I don't remember exactly who, might have been Dio) indicated that there was a mixture of kinds, including gas or oil, electric, and magical, and I proceeded with the app with that in mind.

However, in the canon thread in News & Updates, I saw the following:

Wood stoves VS gas stoves--first could be acceptable, but not the second. Wood stoves preceded gas stoves. Also, we've seen trees in Equestria, so obviously there's wood, but we've seen nothing to suggest that things like natural gas and oil even exists. Here's a tip: If you would like to try to use something modern in your RP Application, try seeing where it originated and use something more basic.

...which suggests that oil and gas lamps would not be appropriate (much less electric, but I'm not worried about that). For streetlighting, that suggests a heavy reliance on magical lamps and/or lots and lots of candles.

So, I suppose I'm asking for a firmer guideline here about what kinds of lighting technology are permitted and present. In defense of oil lamps, at least, I would point out that ponies would almost certainly have access to some kind of lighting oil, if for no other reason that the vegetable-based oils used in cooking can be, and in human history indeed have been, also used in oil lamps; olive oil, for example, was the main lamp fuel around the Mediterranean. (See also Wikipedia.)

While magic/candles only would probably not kill the app, it would require a rewriting. Flickerlight's relationship with, and talent with, fire is an important part of her personality, and whether or not she gets to make use of that talent in her job is going to have an impact.

Changed some of the wording to something more pleasing, but I think it's done.

*Finalizes, and sits back to wait*

Expanded the character summary, slightly altered the description and occupation.

Unless I think of something else, I'll make this final in a day or two.

Added a picture and updated the description of the mane and tail to match it a bit better.

Elaborated on the occupation. I think I'm gonna stick with lamplighter if I can.

Edited to include more precise colors.

Well, that job would fit better with certain ideas I've had about her, so I'd kinda prefer it. But to an extent I'm hedging my bets, because being a lamplighter depends on there being the kind of streetlamps you have to light manually. Oil lamps would work, as would probably gas lamps (though some of them had regulators to turn them off automatically), and possibly she could do lights of a magical nature as well, depending on how they worked. But if they were electric lights? They wouldn't necessarily have an automatic control system, but if not, then you get the amusing image of someone going around and flipping all the switches.

The italics represent things I haven't really nailed down yet; the rest of it I have a pretty good idea of, I think, but I'm still expanding on it.

Feel free to comment.

Roleplay Type: World of Equestria Mane RP

Name: Flickerlight

Sex: Female

Age: Mare (27, or equivalent)

Species: Unicorn

Eye Color: Bright orange (FF7B00).

Coat Color: Very pale light green (E6FFBF).

Mane/Tail/Markings Color & Style: A very pale blue (D4E9FF), with a central streak of white (FFFFFF); both mane and tail are long, and given a rounded cut at the ends that emphasizes the colors. Her mane is frequently bound up in a silver ring.

Physique: Tall, willowy.

Cutie Mark: A lit candle in a brass chamberstick.

Origin/Residence: Flickerlight grew up in an isolated village in a mountain valley in The Foothills; her family subsequently moved to Solstice Heights, after a particularly unpleasant winter hit the village. As an adult, she now resides in Canterlot.

Occupation: Lamplighter. Streetlighting in Canterlot is delivered through a variety of methods, many of which do not lend themselves to automatic control. Flickerlight makes her rounds at dusk, lighting the streetlamps in preparation for nightfall and replenishing their fuel; and again at dawn, snuffing out the lights for the day. At night, in between her rounds, she has no official duties, but she can perform some minor sorts of repairs on damaged or broken streetlamps and will try to do so. Otherwise, she frequently uses her time to make simple decorative lanterns and candles for extra income.

Motivation: A particular dislike, even fear, of unrelieved darkness. She finds both psychological comfort and meaning in using light, particularly fire, to ward off darkness.

Likes: (optional) Fire, light, hot tea, oatmeal

Dislikes: (optional) Darkness, cold, winter, loud noise

Character Summary: Flickerlight's special talent revolves around fire and light. Although she is capable of sparking fire through magic, doing so seems to be physically and emotionally draining, and she is more likely to do so when agitated or excited than on purpose; for everyday firelighting she carries an igniter. She finds it far easier to control a fire that has already been lit, to affect its shape, spread, burn, and color; the amount of control she can exercise is inversely proportional to the size of the fire. (She has similar, but much weaker and less fine-tuned, control over other lights.) She has also, during the course of her job, learned about the making and repair of candles and lamps.

As a filly, Flickerlight and her family lived in one of the remoter and higher valleys of The Foothills, above the headwaters of the Quickrun River. At that altitude the winters were very cold, and one year the village was hit by a sudden snowstorm, with local pegasi unable to stop it until the snow had already reached hazardous depths. Flickerlight and her father were trapped away from their home for several days; when her father became disoriented from the effects of hypothermia, Flickerlight was left to her own devices. That night, panicking from fear of the dark and the cold, she generated a spark from her horn; though small by itself, it set a nearby tree alight. The warmth kept them alive until a rescue team, spotting the flame, got through to them and returned them home. The experience left her with a deep dislike of pure darkness and the unlit places it fills, but also with her cutie mark: a lit candle.

After that winter, her family left the village for Solstice Heights; Flickerlight herself moved to Canterlot when she reached adulthood, feeling more comfortable among the lights of the city. Her ability to control fire first led her to become a firefighter, but after an evaluation of her performance, her superiors, with unusual haste, decided that she might be better suited in another role, and advised her of an opening for city lamplighter. She has held the post for the past four or five years, and greatly enjoys her occupation.

Flickerlight has a good sense of humor, but is something of a private individual. She has a habit of being deliberately and playfully enigmatic about her own background and thoughts, and enjoys seeing how others react to this behavior. She enjoys it most of all if they are patient and interested enough to try to understand her anyway. Partly for this reason, those around her consider her tend to consider her eccentric, though if asked they may present other reasons as well, such as her enthusiasm for conversations about fire, and a rather worrying tendency to gaze at candles and fireplaces.

Oh, yes, they'd be all in the same world. They'd have to interact with each other to stay sane, I think. One of the background ideas I have about this whole thing is that pony science has not been able to mimic intelligence and personality well enough to pass for real. In that case, having nothing but unusually bright and real-looking dolls to talk to wouldn't really work anyway.

Besides, if they're all in the same world it means some of them will know each other after they get kicked out into reality.

So, recently I got in my head, as I often do, a detailed image that I want to try to draw. The drawing itself is coming along slowly, as usual, but I thought about the general idea and I thought it might be possible to build a good futuristic Crossover RP around it. Some folks in chat seemed to like the idea and had some further suggestions, so here we go.

The general idea is this: the RPers are on a pony-built colony starship, traveling to a new world at slower-than-light speeds. The exact nature of the voyage is undecided: my original idea was that it should be a generation ship, with the current passengers being descendants of the originals living in a self-contained environment, but someone else suggested that it be sort of a Matrix-like arrangement, with the passengers living out their lives in a virtual world. I like that one too, honestly.

Either way, the ship has a controlling intelligence, which the passengers will likely be aware of in some fashion, and may even have occasional communication with, but they have little idea of what it actually is or what its motivations are (though I has Plans ). For the last two generations or so, said intelligence has been getting increasingly erratic and ineffective: the self-contained environment has been breaking down piece by piece, or the virtual world has been accumulating glitches that make things... strange.

The RP would start with or shortly before something rather more catastrophic happening; could be a lot of things with the self-contained environment, but in the virtual-world scenario the entire group of passengers could be decanted back into reality at the same time or something. The RPers would then go in search of the ship's intelligence to find out what's happened to it and whether it can be fixed. Possibly, if the ship were not too far from its destination, they might have to accomplish this before the ship actually arrives.

...

That's all I've got for ideas, I think. Good? Bad? Needs improvement?

Hoofington approached the beginning of another autumn day, but despite the brightening horizon the city remained dark. The streets were tunnels of thick fog, bounded by the dark shapes of the buildings on either side. Sparse light was provided by the street lamps and their misty halos, and by the more distant shine of the lighthouse, but no sign could be seen of the approaching sunrise. The air was chilly and damp, and the sounds made by those ponies who bothered to be out and about echoed weirdly in the dark. Condensation sparkled on every surface.

A loaded wagon trundled east across one of the bridges over the river. The pony pulling it was wrapped up heavily against the chill, but this was evidently small comfort. His mouth, poking out from under the hood, moved in the manner of one muttering under his breath and fighting chattering teeth to do it. It was difficult to hear any of it, but a few words could be made out at distant intervals.

"...cursed fog... too early for autumn... 'sta nebbia, oje..."

The wagon turned off of the wide road leading from the bridge and onto a smaller street, lined with small but well-made buildings. After a number of blocks its driver paused in front of a small, two-story building, then took it around the back.

-----

The inside of the building was nearly as dark, but much warmer. The first floor was mostly taken up by a kitchen; at some point in the very recent past a brick oven had been built on one side. The warmth and noise of a crackling fire emanated from it, but the light struggled to peek through the doorway, reflecting only faintly on the surfaces beyond.

From a door on the opposite side of the room, there came the muffled sounds of objects being dragged and pushed, sorted and placed on shelves, and occasionally the thump of something being dropped, followed by brief cursing. After an hour or so of this, the door opened; a yellow pony with green eyes and unkempt red hair entered the kitchen, carrying a flat rectangular package in his mouth. He set it down on the counter that separated the kitchen from the small seating area, turned on the lights, and trotted across to the oven, peering inside. Nodding, he picked up the package again, went around the end of the counter, and exited the front door.

The fog, though still dense, was thinning, as the light of day burned it away; the occasional breeze and sensation of movement above suggested that local pegasi were helping clear the air as well. The yellow pony grinned at the thought of a sunny day, and unwrapped the package, revealing a carefully carved and painted wooden sign, which said, in curly letters:

Prancing Street Pizzeria & Bakery

PIzza Peel stood up on his hind legs, and carefully hung the sign from a pair of hooks near the door. He stood back briefly to admire the look of it.

"Ah, lovely."

He hurried back indoors. There were a few hours yet before opening, but there was so much left to do: get the oven warmed up fully, set up the tables outside, bake some things for the breakfast crowd... assuming there would be a crowd. He'd informally opened up the place to the other shopkeepers on Prancing Street, and he'd put up flyers about the official opening, but he wasn't sure most Hoofingtonians even knew what a pizzeria was, or ever had pizza at all. He hadn't seen any, but then again he was still fairly new in the city.

But if they were there at opening time, he'd show them. He would be ready.

To be fair, though, Jedi ponies are best ponies.

My condolences and best wishes, Artax, for you and your family.

My first app; it is now in Final state. For those of you viewing, I beg forgiveness in advance if it's cringeworthy.

Also, wasn't sure how to handle the issue of his birthplace; Italily shows up in brianblackberry's map and I intend to do some development of the concept if no one minds, but I know it's not really done and approved yet. I can remove references to the name and details of his homeland if requested.

I just put in an app for a pizza-maker character, so I'm watching this with interest.

Whether toppings would go on before or after depends on the topping, I think - my understanding is that some do well when cooked, but others not so much. Like Tales said, the carrots would probably be okay; but hay? I dunno what happens when you cook hay, but it's already pretty dry.

But yes, no end of possible toppings. Peppers, onions, garlic,mushrooms, olives, eggplant, artichokes, capers, spinach, arugula, asparagus, and others. The starchier things are rarer, but they can be used; there are pizzas with potato, there are pizzas with pasta. I saw a recipe recently for a white sauce pizza with roasted pumpkin and pesto. I personally find pineapple and other fruits on pizza to be, by and large, a heresy, but there's those. That's not even counting the various plants that humans wouldn't go for but ponies might. Finding toppings shouldn't be a problem.

As for me, I prefer ground beef, ground sausage, or pepperoni (or some combination of the three).

Name: Pizza Peel

Sex: Male

Age: Stallion

Species: Earth pony

Pelt Color: Pale yellow (FFED8A).

Mane/Tail/Markings Color & Style: His bright red (E6503C) mane and tail are on the short side of medium-length, and – despite Peel's best efforts – naturally unkempt.

Eye Color: Bright green (6BED54).

Cutie Mark: A wooden pizza peel (a kind of paddle used for moving pizzas in and out of ovens).

Physique: Pizza Peel is slightly shorter than average, and not very heavily built; although wiry, he is not muscular. Being an active pony and quite busy keeping his pizzeria running, he carries very little extra weight.

Origin: Pizza Peel was born in distant Italily, but impatient with the sleepy life of his homeland and seeking a useful niche, he departed Italily for Equestria, eventually settling in Hoofington after visiting several coastal cities.

Roleplay Type: Mane RP

Occupation: He is, as he puts it, a 'pizzaiolo': a pizza-maker. After arriving in Hoofington, he used his savings to acquire a small two-story building, the lower floor of which he turned into a kitchen and pizzeria (although space is limited enough that most of the actual seating is outdoors). Although pizza is his specialty, he also produces and sells other baked goods as time allows.

Motivation: Pizza Peel believes that life is worth living because of its simple pleasures. He particularly believes in the value of good food, not only because of the satisfaction of eating it, but because of its ability to bring ponies together around a table. As such, both in private life and in work he takes food, and particularly pizza, quite seriously. It need not be fancy, but it must be made from good ingredients, and must be made well and correctly, and he takes enormous satisfaction in doing so. He runs his pizzeria with these principles in mind, and looks forward to one day being able to afford better premises so that he can achieve them more easily.

Likes: (optional) Pizza and pizza-making, food, keeping busy, company, warm clear weather

Dislikes: (optional) Badly-made food, boredom, isolation, rain, cold

Character Summary: Pizza Peel was born in the hilltop village of Trottinara in Italily. He comes from an agricultural background; his father Zest tended orange, lemon and olive trees on the hillsides, while his mother Semolina, a baker, came from a family of wheat farmers in the valley below. Semolina taught her son to bake, and he quickly discovered a talent for making pizza; but he found little opportunity to make a living from it in a land where pizza was already plentiful. Peel chafed at the limitations of a crowded trade and sleepy village life, and upon reaching stallionhood sought his fortune in Equestria. Originally arriving in Manehattan, where several of his cousins already lived, he recently relocated to the friendlier atmosphere of Hoofington.

Peel is devoted to his craft, both as his passion and the source of his livelihood; being the only pony keeping up his pizzeria takes up most of his day. This is possibly a good thing, since he is very energetic and, if unoccupied, he becomes restless and irritable. As things stand, he is generally cheerful during working hours, singing while he works and chatting with customers in his spare moments. He enjoys seeing ponies gathered around a table and eating together nearly as much as he enjoys making the food. After hours, he's generally too tired to be bored, but he is more somber.

Despite the care and forethought he applies to food and to his business, he is not otherwise a deep thinker, and can be very emotional. Although not stupid, there are many things he does not find to be important, and treats these subjects lightheartedly. Those which he does find important he tends to judge by strength of feeling rather than by thinking about it. When passionate about something, he can come across as an impulsive romantic; when at ease, as unduly unconcerned, even clownish. He strives to be friendly and can be quite entertaining, but ponies of a more serious or deliberate frame of mind may find dealing with him to be a trying experience.

Pizza Peel has as yet little social life. He has not been in Hoofington long enough to get to know many ponies, and most of them are customers; he runs his pizzeria by himself and has little free time. On top of this, he still feels very much a stranger in Equestria, and the process of adjusting to his surroundings has sometimes been a painful one; this can be a barrier in his dealings with others.

"...And all that is now

And all that is gone

And all that's to come,

And everything under the sun is in tune,

But the sun is eclipsed by the mooooooon..."

I'm an adherent of the Solar Empire because I'm a monarchist; but I'm for Luna because Luna. Heehee.

It was suggested in chat that a haiku thread might be a good idea, so here we go. For those who aren't familiar, haiku generally takes the form of a poem of three lines totaling 17 syllables, usually 5, 7, and 5, and often invokes natural themes. (The rules, such as they are, aren't hard and fast, though: if you want more detail, see Wikipedia's article.)

Pony-related content isn't obligatory, but let's face it: if you can work it in, it's a valuable extra.

Starting off:

In the gentle wind,

the clouds drifting around them,

laughing pegasi.

A solitary brown unicorn makes his way up the beach. He looks somewhat out of place; he is wearing heavy plate armor and a colorful caparison, and although his head is uncovered there is a helmet secured onto his back. He walks slowly, hooves thudding heavily in the sand.

Lord Coltimore had seen the other ponies up ahead, but not being close enough for conversation, he pays them little mind - until he hears the cry of "Frisbee!" and an errant gust of wind sends the green disc bouncing off his head. Grumbling annoyance, he lifts it up with his magic and looks at it critically. Despite his anachronistic appearance, he knows what it is; he just hasn't held one in years.

"Haven't thrown a frisbee since Mother was alive," he muttered. He looked around. It was hardly dignified, but-

Taking the frisbee in his mouth, he rears up carefully on his hind legs and flicks it away in the direction of the other ponies. "Erm. Frisbee?" adding, "And, dear madam, do exercise caution in these winds!"

And the frisbee sailed on to its next target...

...That's a good point, come to think of it. I forgot that was based in Baltimore.

I'm writing up stuff for the city now; there'll already be quite a few injokes there, but I think an epic cake shop shouldn't be too hard to work in...

First video game, first video game... hmmm.

Welp, I'm not entirely clear on that. May have been the arcade version of Pac-Man, because when I was very very young I remember that we didn't have a washer or dryer, and so I would go along with Mom to the laundromat and she would let me play the Pac-Man machine stationed there (presumably to keep me quiet). On the other hand, at some point in that general phase of life, we acquired an Atari, and so I played Tetris, Space Invaders, and Pitfall at an early date.

*Plays "Amazing Grace" through his iPad, bows head*

Pro: Access to nearly all the world's information.

Con: Rule 34, in all its horrifying manifestations.

Teleportation.